Postcards From California

Receiving a card from Pat is always special, and i was doubly lucky to receive two!  The top image image shows Pat's walking trail in Orange.  I think Pat is particularly brilliant at depicting trees in graphite.  All those negative spaces and array of tones.  I always feel inspired to pick up my pencils after looking at her work!

On the reverse of the card is an image of Sam, Pat's cat.  The nice thing is, Sam looks just like my own cat, so it's particularly fun to have received this. Don't you just love the wacky positions cats can get into when they are grooming!




The second card depicts the beach near to where Pat lives. She says "I can watch the water forever and not get tired of seeing the colours change, the shapes transform and of course, the people."

I love this, it captures the beach and the weather and sea breeze perfectly.

 

Thank you Pat! 

 

 

Four students from Albrecht's drawing course at the Swabian Alps.

I am a big admirer of Albrecht's drawings. Looking at his postcards, you will understand why: No fanfare and funny tricks, but good solid knowledge of technique and with a talent to add just the necessary creativity and expression to bring it to life. Not many artists have all these skills in balanced amounts.


If you look closely at his postcard, you will see that one can take away any of the elements and the artwork will still be able to stand tall. I see many sketches which rely on the addition of a second or even third medium to turn it into good art. It is an aspect I strive fro in my own art: the ability to draw a single line so that it draws on all elements of good art making to be able to stand on its own. Which brings me back to my firm belief: to do good art, one has to have a knowledge of drawing. Technique and the basic principles of drawing DO have a solid place in art. Albrecht's postcard is testament to my belief.
Have a look at the close-up to below see the lovely lost and found edges, a technique which seduces the eye of the viewer to "continue the lines and complete the drawing", a great way to get the viewer involved in a painting/drawing/sketch.

This sketch was done by Albrecht during his last drawing course of the year and it is four of his students busy working under the beech tree that he captured. the course took place at the Swabian Alps, "which was about 50 million years ago the borderline of a warm Jurassic ocean". Albrecht and his students were fortunate to find many fossils during this course...something else I love...digging for fossils!

Read more of this course and his other work here.

Thank you for my beautiful postcard Albrecht.

Winter Trees and Warm Wishes From Heidelberg

This is my card from Albrecht in Germany.  It really shouts of stark cold winter.  Albrecht is a true master draughtsman and it is such a privilege to receive something like this. On the reverse he has taken time to show step by step, how he builds up the composition to it's final stage.  I have learnt so much by looking at it, such as how the pencil should move and twist to produce the twigs.

Winter can sometimes seem a gloomy time of year for artists, but it's a great time to draw trees. The bare branches have so much character. Thank you so much Albrecht, it's a wonderful final card!

Pagoda in Katharine's local park

I have not even looked for Katherine’s signature on her postcard. The beautiful drawing of a park in her neighborhood with a pagoda could only have been drawn by her. It is her unique artistc style.

I used a magnifying glass to see what Katherine has used first. The red felt pen. Right? The red lines give the drawing a warm expression as in the postcards that we all cherish.

Even the colors of the stamps are matching those in her drawing!

Thank you Katherine so much for the beautiful card.

Stunning Autumn Glory at Sheffield Park

This card needs no words.  Enjoy!   I certainly am.  It's genuinely tremendous!!

Thank you so much Katherine.  I have been studying it carefully working out the technique.  The delicate interlace of pen and coloured pencil works brilliantly.

Lucky me!

If you'd like to know more about the wonders of Sheffield Park see Katherine's recent posts on her sketchbook blog:

• Autumn Colour at Sheffield Park
• An Indian Summer (and ice lakes) at Sheffield Park

An old tree in California

A couple of days ago I received this fine line drawing by Pat Reese showing a Californian tree. It seems that I am not the only one who is sometimes speculating what such an old tree has been looking on and has heard during it's life time.
Funny things, frightening situations, drama, silly conversations, a lot of lawn mowing and more...

I wish I knew what species that tree is and would like to request Pat from here to find out for me. Looking at the trunk I would guess it is a Metasequoia glyptostroboides (that sounds great) or similar. In that case Pat would have cheated us on the foliage, what I really do not want to suppose.

Thank you Pat for the beautiful tree and the kind words!

A willow tree at the river Neckar

Late, but not too late hopefully, I post this wonderful postcard with line drawings by Albrecht Rissler. On the front there is a stunning drawing of a willow tree at the river Neckar, on the backside you can see views of Heidelberg. I guess Albrecht did the drawings with his Tombow pen.
Once I had the pleasure to see how Albrecht's hand would move over the paper like a human high speed plotter knitting a landscape in a most varied line grid.

Thank you very much Albrecht for this generous gift!