Old Habits

 I had various business to deal with up in Ocean Grove this morning, and the weather was good, so I drove up there. Coming up Main, I could see that men were working on the roof in the back, and sure enough, the dumpster was finally out of the handicapped spaces in the front (although a bunch of pick-ups parked all around the office would have made using them very difficult), but there were plenty of spaces available in the front, so I was able to grab one and unload my car.   First down to my space in the basement to pick up and drop off things, then up to the 2nd floor to draw.  One of the more active artists (organizer of the open studios, among other things) has put together a drawing group.  No lessons, so not a class, but there is a model.  Over the years I have sculpted, painted, and drawn from dozens and dozens of models, as a student and in workshops, and even taught the class at a college for several semesters, and I do credit my time doing this as what made me the artist I am today.  

However, I haven't done any lately.  I was a regular in the group that met in Belmar, but the guy who ran it had to close his business and leave the area, and no one wanted to take over. Then a lot of stuff happened (see the reasons why I've taken so long to do my current boardwalk block), and I haven't done much figure drawing lately.  Even most of the Robert Johnson prints, all of which include figures, were either things I copied from photos or just made up out of my head (those years of practice paying off), however, for larger or more significant characters, I would prefer to work from life.  In any case, some of my upcoming print projects call for figures and I think I could use a little practice. This thing today is not a class, just pay as you go, draw what you want, when you show up.  I think that would work for me.

This not quite class meets on the 2nd floor (in the old 40's room, a place I have taught before myself) and there are tables and such present, so all I had to do was bring drawing stuff, and I have that now.  As is typical we started with short gestural things (30 seconds) and moved onto 1 minute, 3 minute, 5 minute, and 10 minute poses, before finishing with a couple of 25 minute poses. Here you see a couple of the 5 minute pencil drawings, and my best long pose, done with charcoal. (that sort of skirt thing she was wearing for the charcoal was something she brought from home, but I didn't feel like drawing all the spangle things on it)

But I also had some building business to take care of, including bringing in some work to hang on the walls.  What I ended up bringing in were three of my boardwalk diptychs, prints from my Floating World  series.  All have been in many shows, including some held in this building, but not recently, so they may do for this.   All were already framed (though I did switch one from being framed behind glass to behind plexi, much lighter) so I packed them in the car yesterday, and brought them into the building when I arrived.  The three chosen can be seen below:

After the drawing group and cleaning my hands of charcoal as best I can (from inking I have some good soap) I stopped by the office.  Jeanne wasn't in (I was told she's be back soon), but Andrew was, and he said no problem if I dropped off the requested work. Took care of a few things, then put the three pieces into a plastic bag and carried the whole thing to the office.  There I found Jeanne was back, so I took out the pieces and showed her.  She was impressed (possibly because she said she really likes playing Skee-Ball) and looks forward to hanging them upstairs.  (one thing she mentioned was that there is some interest from a guy who does a PBS arts show in doing something about the building, so she really wants things to put on the empty walls, and my prints are busy and colorful, just like the actual boardwalk)  At this point there is unlikely to be a reception or postcards, but it does get things out of my home basement.  If I learn more, I'll post it here.