My friend Josh Rush made this piece. I'm not positive if it is oil or pastel, but it is quite lovely either way. I am kind of a sucker for those amazing shadows that occur on blankets of snow. I miss that about living in the wintery Iowa clime. You can look at his website here. 

Drawing Drawing more Drawing

So, this will be quite a lengthy post for today. I just returned from a week of teaching at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where I was a resident artist a few years ago. It was a fantastic week. I had a really outstanding drawing class, and met lots of interesting people over the course of the week.
My class made these amazing drawings in less than two days!! We started them on Thursday afternoon, and they just charged right through making them.

Here are some shots of us in the studio. There were eight of us in the class. These super-drawers were fearless!! They just cranked out drawings. It was really impressive and a lot of fun. They were just so full of energy, great moments of observation, and sporadic marks of invention.

Below is a piece created by one of the current resident artists, Damon Mcintyre. Check out his site. He has quite a range of work, all of which is quite charming and graceful in its creation.

On the way to Tennessee, I made this drawing of girls with earrings. I saw two women over the last couple of weeks with this enormous earrings. They just seemed like something worth drawing. Then, on the way home, I had to take the early...very early shuttle from Arrowmont to the Knoxville Airport and wait for four hours until my flight departed. My little world for several hours was framed by these very narrow airport windows. I must say though, that the Knoxville airport is the only airport I've ever been to with rocking chairs for the travelers to sit in. Lovely.

A positive-negative space drawing I made while teaching.

Mountain Magic

This week, I am at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee teaching a drawing class to a group of fantastic people.
Last night, I found a lovely spot in the middle of the crowds of tourists in downtown Gatlinburg and drew this band. Later, a couple of them came over and talked to me for a bit. Gary and Austin. Good musicians. Very kind. Liked my drawing of them.

Vanity in Shadows and Sexy Red Peppers

A few days ago, Ann roasted these beautiful peppers and made an amazingly yummy assortment of roasted pepper salad dressings. Yum!
Living in an Airstream doesn't afford me the luxury of having a full length mirror around right now. I have this habit at my apartment to always check myself in the mirror as a constant way of seeing if the extra chocolates I ate or the extra running I did the day before affected my body in some way. I am aware of the ridiculousness of my rituals. 

However, while running the other morning, I ran in the opposite direction that I usually do and was trailing my shadow as I ran. I caught myself analyzing my shadow with the same intentions.  It just felt necessary to fess up to that ridiculous moment of vanity. The same day, Carlos said        " There should be a bumper sticker that reads, 'KILL YOUR MIRROR'." 

A drawing made in the honey room studio here. I've always really liked that Diebenkorn painting of scissors.