Tag Archives: drawing

“Splendidly Cagey”

Posted on May 4, 2019 by JMN

Work by Klee always gives me a boost. I also enjoy the critic’s sprightly accounting of it, which I excerpt here. … David Zwirner [Gallery] has nabbed a heavyweight: Paul Klee, the splendidly cagey Swiss-German modernist and Bauhaus professor. … … Continue reading →

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“Nulla dies sine linea”

Posted on April 25, 2019 by JMN

I see almost daily in the work of fellow bloggers luminous evidence of the play of eye and hand across a surface with some object — pen, crayon, brush, mouse — that leaves expressive marks. Laura Cumming, art critic for … Continue reading →

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“Ars longa, vittles brevis”

Posted on March 24, 2019 by JMN

  “My goal is to keep drawing forever, to get to all the restaurants in New York,” [John Donohue] said. It’s a silly goal, perhaps, but what goal isn’t? It’s cheap, it gets him outside (as opposed to eating in … Continue reading →

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“Keeping Busy”

Posted on March 17, 2019 by JMN

I remember … what my teacher said [about a tree study]. “Your tree is beautiful, Sarah, but I don’t know what an art director is going to do with that tree.” No matter, no mind. I was on my own … Continue reading →

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Miguel Covarrubias

Posted on February 11, 2019 by JMN

Born in Mexico City in 1904, Covarrubias was a member of Kahlo’s inner circle — a highly sociable workaholic, painter, anthropologist, teacher, writer and sometime curator — who had a chameleonic talent for drawing. He would illustrate his own books … Continue reading →

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Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

Posted on February 5, 2019 by JMN

He was especially admired by Seurat and Gauguin, and also Cézanne, and later, Matisse and Picasso as well as the perennially underestimated American Maurice Prendergast. In their works and that of many others, you’ll find different combinations of Puvis’s carefully … Continue reading →

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Draw It, Remember It

Posted on January 18, 2019 by JMN

In other words, drawing out the things we want to remember can be a powerful technique to combat our natural declines in memory, better even than repeatedly writing them down or listing characteristics and descriptors. (Tim Herrera, “A Simple Way … Continue reading →

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The Dry Heaves

Posted on December 5, 2018 by JMN

I picked up a colored marker, a sketchpad, and sat down. I looked around the room for a shape, a blade of light, a shadow, an assonance, a blur, something to trigger a spasm in my drawing hand and stain … Continue reading →

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Airport

Posted on November 25, 2018 by JMN

(c) 2018 JMN.

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Trying to figure markers out

Posted on November 25, 2018 by JMN

When you try to add color, they insist on making a line. Is that how they get their name?! This project is definitely up hill. Maybe just try black and white for a while. Can do virtually no image editing … Continue reading →

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