Our Mother's day tradition is for my son and I to wake up early, walk to our neighborhood park and pick flowers, branches, leaves, etc...and have them on the table before my wife wakes up. She gave me the stipulation 3 years ago that she did not want me buying flowers for Mothers day...BUT as all sons know, flowers must be present on Mothers day. So the resolution to the dilemma is to "discover" flowers. So our morning quest begins and this is what we found. I really don't know what they are. Four pointed yellow petals from a thin branched bush; tiny white petaled clusters from a blooming shrub; oval leafed sprigs, and what I think are the arching collection of 5 petaled bradford pear bundels. Not sure on the last one...all I know is I recommend not picking these for your other. They smell terrible. Other then that my boy was so excited to bring these in the house and shout "SURPRISE MOM!" and no matter the olfactory offense of the flowers, she loved them anyhow and gave him a huge hug! and he beamed.
I want to thank Urban Sketchers for promotoing this Blog on their Facebook page. I am excited to be a part of their on-line forum and I look forward to contributing more. As we are wrapping up school it has been difficult to get the pen to the page, but these entries offer some interesting views into my obsession with dining, coffee and containers.
This weekend I was on a review at Carnegie Mellon University and the critics Dinner was held at E2 in the Highpark neighborhood. Amazing little space with a giant chalkboard and wonderful food. This sketch was taken at the end of the meal when the small dining room was bustling with activity.
One of the traditions my wife and I have is to have sketches on postcards of cafes and diners that we frequent (a habit we picked up while teaching in Florence). I sketch, she usually writes what happened, and then we post it from the town we ate in. This is a wonderful restaurant I took her to on Valentines day in Skaneateles NY. It was a little rushed but I did enjoy the quick textures and swift reflections that in very easy strokes provide a suitable sense of surface.
Following this theme of eating...weekend mornings are always a bit slower and relaxed. This Sunday morning the small cup of cocoa for my son and a fork and a glass of Orange Juice make the composition. small reflections of color and minimal construction lines provide a logic for the composition and a qualitative sense of the material. The rectangle, implying a table surface, unifies the composition. I really enjoy the fork which is the linear element among the bulkish forms.
