Every day in August – the last sketches
So many things were happening in the last weeks that I nearly forgot I had a few more sketches from Every Day in August project! These are from around my neighborhood – Edgewater.
The little red tractor-beachcomber is busy combing our beach every morning along with two others – one blue and one green. It makes a nice summery buzz-buzz-clankedy-clunk noise to wake up to.
Our beach looks just like Miami with these ultramarine umbrellas. We call this area Michigan Riviera in summer. You don’t want to know what I call it in winter.
In Chicago we only get two seasons – Winter and Construction. It is Construction now, I had a choice of three different backhoes within 2 blocks of my building.
And then the project came to an end. Here’s the whole concertina pack – 31 sketches – just before it got into the mail to go to Cape Town. I already heard from South Africa that it arrived (whew!) and is being installed in the exhibition.
The earlier sketches can be seen under these links:
The Trumpeter
The Trumpeter
6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord
The second painting for Buck County 6 x 6 show later this fall. Two down – one more to paint. I had fun with new textures I had to play with – leather, suede and velvet.
Being curious I Googled John McCormack and The Trumpeter and to my delight found a recording – from a vinyl – of John McCormack singing The Trumpeter in 1915 – 98 years ago. It is so good – it gives me goosebumps!
John McCormack sings The Trumpeter in 1915
Every day in August – 4th installment
Here are a few more sketches for the wonderful Sketchpack Project 2013 out of Capetown, South Africa. The first three are fun classic cars from a classic cars show we stumbled upon in Stockholm – an MG, a Ford, and a Buick. And a delightful garland of kids I caught walking down my street a few months back. I let myself use my Artistic License painting their clothes, and had to nearly completely invent the leading boy because he walked out of the frame while I fumbled with my camera :).
The earlier sketches can be seen under these links:
– Every Day in August – more sketches
One of these days I will make a separate page for them.
alexandrazonis.com
Today my blog turns 4 years old! Who could have thought?! To celebrate this occasion we, the blog and I, got ourselves a present – a brand new URL.
Welcome to alexandrazonis.com!
And I also want to use this post to share 6 more sketches from Sketchpack project.
See more Everyday in August sketches here: Everyday in August part 1 and Everyday in August part 2.
Every day in August – more sketches
The next 6 sketches for the wonderful Sketchpack Project 2013 out of Capetown, South Africa. The first 6 can be seen here – Every Day in August.
We have a Facebook group for members of this project where we post our daily sketches and chat away about sketches and everything else. It is quite amazing to say this – but I seem to have a few new friends in Capetown and Johannesburg area. Some even invited me to visit – an amazing feat considering the distance – 8494 miles – and amount of jet fuel needed to get there from Chicago. But you never know… if there is a will – there is a way!
Six and a half
Six and a Half
6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord
It seems that every realist painter worth his or her salt paints eggs at some point. It is almost like a rite of passage. Can I or can I not?!… I noticed this phenomena some time ago and knew that I too would have to paint eggs sometime.
And now I have. It was damned hard, just as expected. They have to be perfect, I discovered, and curve perfectly in the light or they will not look like real eggs – and that’s the whole point!
Eggs are an excellent assessment of one’s current skill as a realist painter. I know I will paint eggs again in the future – to see my progress if nothing else.
Every day in August
I was invited to participate in The Sketchpack Project 2013. My friend Di Metcalf from Cape Town, South Africa organized it. I got sent an accordion sketchpack and am doing a drawing a day, every day for the month of August. The sheets are really small – 4″x3.3″ (10 x 8 cm), so the sketches do not take a lot of time. I do them in the evenings, after I finish painting and teaching.
I decided to use this opportunity of daily sketching to try out ideas for future paintings. I have a list of ideas, let’s see how they look as images. When the month of August is over and the sketches are finished, the sketchpack will fly back to Cape Town and will participate in a show.
Above are six sketches from the first week. I will be adding more when I have time.
Alex Zonis’ interview
Just to let my blog friends know – Daily Paintworks gallery interviewed me for their site and blog. If you have nothing better to do, you can read my wisdoms, BS and stuff here – Alex Zonis’ interview.
The photo they used is obsolete – an old self portrait. Here’s a fresh one –
Sketching, what else…
Tea for Three or The Rummage Sale
Tea for Three
6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord – SOLD
This little painting started last summer at a rummage sale at a church down the block. I always go and always get some great props there. That time I found 3 mismatched cups with their saucers. Mismatched and all, they still worked together very well, probably being from the same era. I asked the lady to keep them for me so I could pay for everything together and went to a books section.
When I returned to pay for them, there was Father John, the Rector of the church, standing there with these cups in his hands, and the lady explaining to him that the cups were put aside for someone else. Oops!! I don’t belong to this church, but I know Father John (and his schnauzer), just like you know people in the neighborhood. I almost had him sit for a portrait for me. Besides I did not want the wrath of God on my head… you never know 🙂 … So I said – please Father John, have these cups. And he said – no, no, you got them first! And we went on like that – back and forth – for a while, but in the end I got the cups.
Every time I look at them I feel a little guilty, but not too much. After all I did get them first. And nothing bad has happened to me either – Father John really is a nice guy :).
Flemish Technique – a workshop
I opened another can of worms and started teaching oil painting. I know, I am amazed myself, lol!
But it is true – a new workshop on Flemish Technique or 7 Layers Method of oil painting is now available live in my studio in Chicago or … wait for this … online via Skype for long distance students!
I am totally lucky and blessed with the greatest students in the world. Two students – Tom and Paul – attend the In-Studio class, and we are currently working on our 3rd (out of 7) layer – the Umber layer.
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- Tom painting
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- Paul painting
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One brave soul – Jana – is taking an online version of the class, and we are currently working on the 4th layer – the Dead layer. Jana takes an active part in streamlining the online class, which for various reasons cannot follow the same format as the Studio workshop. We held several sessions on Skype and tried Google Hangouts. Google comes with an added benefit of recording the session, which we have done.
Skype session with Jana and her completed Umber layer
Everybody is working very hard, and some fantastic paintings Flemish style will soon be available for viewing !
For workshop details, outline, hours and prices – comment here or communicate via email/fb/phone or homing pigeon :).