Being away for a month without picking up a brush reminds me that my next cocktail should be Rust-o-leum on the rocks and not a Cosmo. How best to re-enter the atmosphere of painting than to sketch.
It’s been decades since I’ve had a life drawing class and was thrilled to find one here when I got back home.
Through a grant from the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts, a fellow local artist, Cindy, applied for and recieved a VICA grant to open her studio to anyone wanting to draw from live models at a ridiculously low fee for two hours.
She’s providing the space, the advertising to keep the word out, and live models in all stages of dress, period and regional costume and no stages of dress too.
Photos remove a critical dimension that flattens your perception. The flesh and muscle of a live model moves your pencil without trickery or shortcuts.
It’s hot, didn’t want to dally around details so I tried drawing from the feet up, to think of the model as a landscape of body parts and not a head on a neck on shoulders.
After 40 years of not doing life drawings, and feeling like a rust bucket, I wasn’t 
horrified.
It’s an exercise of stretching before doing a race.
And it makes you see what’s really there, not what you think you see is there.
And while mentioning buckets, how could I leave without some organic reminder of where I live.
This is another kind of bucket and although not of a rusty nature, it was a surprise from my husband who brought it home with the same pride your 4 year old would have shown in handing you roadkill.
It’s bat guano. The best darn fertilizer an urban transplant gal like myself could ever wish for after, perhaps a gift certificate to Bergdorfs’.
He really, really missed me.
Eat your hearts out ladies…………and you men, take notes.
It’s good to be home.
Now I’m going to open a tube of Ultramarine and see what a sniff of oils will do to get me motivated again.
Tags: Life Drawing, Live Models, Rusty, VICA grants, Virgin Islands Council on the Arts
Asheville: The North West of The South East 
July 9, 2009 at 1:42 pm |
I can relate
July 9, 2009 at 2:54 pm |
note to self: guano is good.
“Why would I buy you flowers for your birthday? I’ve got guano, so you can grow your own flowers splendidly.”
double note to self: buy some bats.
triple note to self: buy bat diapers too!
July 9, 2009 at 3:14 pm |
Severny- to the drawing? The rustiness or, confess- the guano?
Ross- those quotation marks hold, alarmingly, a sentiment that could have come right from my husbands’ own lips.
Now you’ll have to find yerself some urban gal of yer own to impress with cave scrapings.
July 9, 2009 at 3:49 pm |
It must be love, Bonnie!!!
You are the third person in quick succession that I know who has taken up life drawing. A good reminder for me… If I ever get my energy back that will be my goal too.
Glad you had a good trip and that you’re back in your own little piece of paradise and honey pot provider.
July 10, 2009 at 11:22 am |
Thanks Marian- I noticed Kathryn Tyrell also had a few new posts about life drawing. The truth of it is hard to ignore.
You’ll get your energy back- and will be really ready. Use this time to think, and accept delicious meals made by your husband.
July 9, 2009 at 5:22 pm |
“Bats at the Beach”, one of my favorite books to read to my grand nieces and nephews who love it. does not mention their their guano at all!! They would love to have a few words on bat poop, I can tell you. But, I can safely say I’ve never wondered…”Hmm….wonder what good their poop may be to me!”
But, I’ve missed the boat on countless other things so why not one more guano?
I love how you describe the live model moving your pencil without trickery or shortcuts.
July 10, 2009 at 11:26 am |
Pat- I never knew that guano ( a word like Guam, never used, seldom spelled ), is as potent a fertilizer as it is. It has to be harvested with a face mask due to the spore count, and can’t be used directly on plants without dilution.
I’m happy to know there are kids out there who don’t shrink away in bugaboo horror at the thought of bats. They’re amazing mammals ( yes, live young ) and eat gazillions of mosquitoes and pollinate at night what birds pollinate during the day. They coexist really well.
Humans! Are you listening????
July 9, 2009 at 6:36 pm |
Nice drawings Bonnie. I can tell you haven’t lost your touch for expressing gestures and feelings with just a few strokes (of the pencil in this case). Time away from one’s art can be refreshing — or unnerving when you finally get to face that blank canvas.
July 10, 2009 at 11:28 am |
Oh yes Don- I was more unnerved than inspired. I’m working on the thought that I’m better than a blank canvas and it can’t be the boss of ME. I’ll let you know how that goes……..
But truly, drawing was a wonderful way to get back into ” seeing “.
July 9, 2009 at 7:31 pm |
Fabulous drawings, Bonnie. It’s clear that you have retained your life drawing skills!
A great post too!! Had me laughing and understanding completely.
July 10, 2009 at 11:33 am |
Melinda- thanks so much. If I could only retain lots of the other things I haven’t done/seen/had in 40 years!
I really appreciate your visits here.
July 9, 2009 at 10:39 pm |
The rustiness. I have drawn for maybe three months i tried the other day and i just couldn’t produce something that i was satisfied with
July 10, 2009 at 11:34 am |
Severny- sometimes we are our own toughest critics. Guess we should do what we do for the exercise and not the outcome.
July 9, 2009 at 10:39 pm |
Haven’t, sorry
July 10, 2009 at 1:00 am |
All true gardeners knows that it is guano, not the Biblical mana, that is wished for when things fall from the heavens; or in this case the rafters of an old rum factory. I will follow with the flower seeds whose blossoms my love.
Since I know you will be conflicted about attending the next drawing class on Saturday (same hours as our volunteer day at the Coop vegetable market), I will encourage you to do so. If you can’t quite overcome your misgivings, then I will pose for you on Sunday.
July 10, 2009 at 11:35 am |
Kelly- that would be good, since I know you can sit perfectly still for hours- I’ll try to get you at the computer. That’d be good for a two hour pose!
July 10, 2009 at 3:06 am |
Living on an island, drawing with friends, and sniffing bat shit. Life is good!
July 10, 2009 at 11:36 am |
Bill- yup, see what I’m saying? I do miss those long car rides, though. It’s dizzying driving around in circles.
July 10, 2009 at 6:00 am |
“The flesh and muscle of a live model moves your pencil without trickery or shortcuts.” Agree with the poster above, that is a beautiful (and true) statement. So good to see you back in action!
July 10, 2009 at 11:37 am |
Thanks Kathryn- and to see you back as well. You’re where you belong, with your colors, your knife and your keen eye.
Vengo!
July 10, 2009 at 1:57 pm |
I’ve missed you! “The flesh and muscle of a live model moves your pencil without trickery or shortcuts.” Bonnie Luria, will go into my artist quote file. Can I tweet it, too?
July 10, 2009 at 7:10 pm |
Hi JoAnn- it’s good to be missed. Sounds like you can build an entire post around good quotes that we’d all like to read and share.
What’s good about quotes is that they’re truncated speeches reduced to simple prose. And easy to remember.
Tweet away!
Thanks as always for checking back here.
July 12, 2009 at 3:12 am |
You look anything but rusty to me! Also I think i forgot to tell you I love your NY photos, especially the skyline.
July 13, 2009 at 1:54 am |
Nancy- funny how the anticipation of fear is more damaging than the result of doing the very thing you find daunting.
Glad you like the photos- there were so many to edit down to.
July 13, 2009 at 1:45 am |
Welcome home, Bonnie! You have been missed – and from the entries here, not just by me! I am very happy for you that you had a wonderful time away, that you realize your husband loves you and is grateful you are back, and that your garden will now “take off like a bat”… ha ha… okay it wasn’t as funny in words as in my head! Since ultramarine blue is one of my favorite colors, I will wait with bated breath to see what inspiration you received from that special tube of oils. 🙂 Thank you for your inspirational and beautiful words on my blog – they gave me joy beyond what I can express. Here’s wishing you a productive and peace-filled week.
July 14, 2009 at 12:49 am |
Joanne- thanks for your paragraphs. They’re so much more than just comments and very much appreciated.
I picked up the brushes today and sketched out a composition. Then called it a day.
Sheeesh, I am stalling………
July 13, 2009 at 3:08 am |
I think we all missed ya!! But how do you top a nice gift like bat poop. I like these drawings. I totally envy anyone who can sit down with a pencil and do killer work like this.
Eldon
July 14, 2009 at 12:52 am |
Thanks Eldon but envy should die of loneliness in your case.
You can paint like the wind!
And like anything, the more you do it, the more familiar it becomes and the easier it gets.
I’m still waiting……
July 14, 2009 at 6:00 am |
My wife and I collect bat guano on our window sill below the bat house I installed a few years ago. What a wonderful gift! Bat guano rocks and so do bats, even though they are butt ugly little things.
July 14, 2009 at 11:39 am |
Hi David- have missed you.
We hold bats in high esteem, given the volume of mosquitoes they consume. A fitting cycle.
I always wondered what purpose those pests served.
Now I’m the beneficiary of their ingested bodies.
It’s powerful fertilizer, I know.
I think bats are terribly misunderstood and under appreciated.
And I have seen butts much uglier than bats.
July 15, 2009 at 4:13 am |
No greater love hath a man for a woman , than to bring home a pail of bat guano for her.
I say this because it is such a foul smelling substance when it is fresh.
July 15, 2009 at 3:37 pm |
Razz- and I recognized its’ value. I knew where he had to go to retrieve it: a long abandoned rum factory, now home to 500 or more bats who have wallpapered the vertical surfaces with guano. Like stalagmites.
He went with square nosed shovel, face mask ( good boy ) and determination.
Came home with a very big grin.
Was a very good thing he did.
As well as defrosting both freezers and cleaning the house before I returned from a three week trip.
I am a lucky girl.
July 16, 2009 at 9:46 pm |
I don’t know, but it seems to me like you can still draw really well. Even if it HAS been decades.
And just a note, if Matt EVER happens to ask what you think I might like as a gift, bat guano will be REALLY, REALLY, REALLY low on my list.
Just sayin’.
July 18, 2009 at 1:21 am |
Is it about time for another group drawing session? Just a feeling I get, but I think Carol is serious about not wanting bat shit for Christmas. Boy, what a dilemma that posses. Now what can you get her?
July 20, 2009 at 1:22 pm |
Awesome sketches, Bonnie! Great post as usual!
I especially love your comment exchange with Kelly….LOL
August 2, 2009 at 5:01 pm |
I am SO NO GOOD in the heat. I don’t know how you do it.
Don’t drink the Rust O Leum 😀
October 29, 2009 at 8:18 pm |
I guess I pictured the gated road to the Tiki hut much greener. Nice job Bsssss…
November 2, 2009 at 1:58 am |
Glad to see that you are continuing to experiment with other mediums. Most “Old Masters” first learned to paint by painting what their mentors/teachers had painted. I like that you improvised and didn’t shoot for a “photo match”.
There is a lot of talent in those hand of yours just itching to come out. Keep up the good work and keep making it happen.