Carrasco Studio

Days of Wine and Hedges

Meet "Pensive Bacchus".......my newest mural for a wine cellar. 

My clients love France...and they asked me to design a "sculpture" of a young Bacchus along the lines of Michelangelo's adolescent Bacchus....(not the riotous infant Bacchus or dipsomaniac paunchy Bacchus, although they would have been fun)....against a stylized " Versaille" parterre or tall trimmed hedge. 

All this against a base color of deep cobalt blue, which I pointed up with a  ceiling comet of gold leaf stars and a sprinkling of stars on the ceiling, the sky and some of the parterre. 

The wine cellar is to the left, and this mural is in a small tasting room.  The "hedge" or parterre will extend all the way around the room.  The effect I aimed for is a moonlit night, and it's surprising how the deep color and the repetitive patterns have enlarged the space visually.

I literally overlapped on two big projects.....had to place plastic over my big triptych pieces and whale away on the wine cellar mural.  It can be done.

And here are some of my steps....

I painted some of my Roclon canvas a deep cobalt blue.  I don't have to stretch this type of canvas (see [email protected] for sources) ; otherwise I couldn't have overlapped my underlying canvas as I did. 

 
I drew and cut my stencils for the leaf patterns and drew my Bacchus on tissue and pricked the lines with a pouncing tool. Then I started applying layers of stencilled leaf patterns onto the cobalt canvas.....lighter yellows and greens at the top, darker greens and black greens at the bottom.

Then I started glazing with blue, purple, and black glazes in the appropriate areas....darker at the bottom.

 I then pounced the pattern with white chalk, and then followed the pouncing points with a fine white line of paint and started filling him in with naples yellow, leaving some bluish areas for shadows or adding  and changing shadows with a mixture of paynes grey and naples yellow.

After I got the Bacchus to not look so snarky,  I applied  a glaze of cobalt blue and/or red violet to Bacchus and all of the hedge at once.  I wiped  off a few areas about the shoulders, his head, his wine glass, his fingers and left arm to create a feeling of moonlight falling on his form.

My client and I worked together on the application of the canvas to the wall, rolling claybased adhesive (Roman brand at Rodda Paint) on both the wall and the canvas...waiting for about 20 minutes to let the adhesive set up, applying the mural to the wall, smoothing it out from the center....and then, cleaning up!

I finished the mural the day before Xmas Eve, when my talented clients included Phil and me in a sit down, Oh La La,  fourteen dish, (Julia Child recipes,) 7 wine FEAST for Revillion de Noel. A work of art in itself.

Uh.  Sorry to say, after that,  we didn't end up the evening with the traditional Midnight Mass.

Today we have felt blissfully weak and wandered around all day in our pajamas.

Salut. 

Spring Fling

Sometimes I just need to let 'er rip.
This is part of a poster for a painting/drawing jam at the Coffee House we are having on May 1st.   A bacchanal of paint and pencil.  Everyone is to bring some flowers and their art equipment.  A free Free for All on the evening of May 1.

Apollo, Beer Belly and a Remote, Drawing at CandP Coffee House #2

Most of what I could call my drawings are rolled up and filed away.  I don't have a lot digitized. However, this could qualify as a drawing, I guess.  Susan Allemand gave me some of her fresco material from her business, Out of this World Finishes, and I did a  drawing  on her plaster material which I applied to canvas...a 6' by 4 'painting on a standard stretcher, of Apollo sitting on a couch with flip flops on,  and a beer belly. and a remote in his hand.

I don't think it was what she expected.  However, being Susan, she laughed and put it up for her opening.  I think it is still floating around in Kirkland somewhere.

So, I need to buckle down and draw along with you people. As I can state, ad nauseum, one doesn't acquire new visions and skills without PRACTICE.

Here's the second Drawing Lesson....but as you can tell, if you miss the class, you miss the handouts.  I suggest, if you missed the second class to do the exercises in Chapter 4....there are similar assignments there.

2. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain 4/7/09

Hand out Watteau drawing and show interior contour on face drawing. Tape up  Watteau on your fridge or somewhere you will see it every day.  Think of bracelets on IPod ads.

1 Look at drawings....ask about process...have students explain to those who missed 1st lesson.
Ask about reading...remember that it’s not that cut and dried...there are a lot of functions that either side  of the brain can handle.  What side controls the right hand?  The left?    Look a bit at the chart.

2. Faces and vases (Handout.)  1.   R handed people---copy left profile, Left handed people--copy right profile . 2.  Draw horizontal line at top and bottom  3.  Now, redraw, naming parts...ie, forehead, nose, etc.  4 Go to other side and start to draw other profile, naming the parts.   
Do you notice the confusion? (too much verbal left brain info)  If you were able to do it, you brought up your right brain.. spacial, relational, comparative. (In many tasks, both R and L mode are needed)

3. Try drawing this upside down. (L brain rejects reading it.)   Do you find it easier to draw?

4.  Draw scarey lady by Saul Steinberg ( fold paper first in quarters.)  Don’t name and go from line to line to line....just shapes. Note how the lines and shapes fit into each quarter.  Don’t turn it over!
L mode gives up!  It should be easier

5.  Try profiles of Ricky and Lucy upside down.

Assignment. Skim through chapter 4 ( We did most of it today) and read chapter 5.

1. Draw my chicken drawing and Koch drawing upside down. (Don’t cheat!)2. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain 4/7/09