Inspired portrait from Troye's single 'Take Me Home' from spring 2020 - combining with his first EP 'TRXYE'. Charcoal pencils and red oil paint used to complete this.
Based on a photograph of a hibiscus flower enjoying its last day in the garden before being brought back home before the Canadian fall and winter. I imported the photo in Procreate and the rest is history.
Meet Dr. Lorna Breen. She was in the trenches of the front line inside the New York hot zone during the first wave of the pandemic. She saw the massive influx of patients she knew she could not save (29,000 deaths reported in April, 2020). She contracted the virus and after recuperating, went straight back to work. A week and a half later, the hospital sent her home. Her family intervened to bring her back home to Charlottesville, Virginia. During her visit with her family, she seemed “detached.” She passed away April 26, 2020 at the UVA University Hospital in Charlottesville from self-inflicted wounds.
"She tried to do her job, and it killed her… Make sure she’s praised as a hero. Because she was, she’s a casualty just as much as anyone else who has died."
—Dr. Philip C. Breen, Father
Sketching at the Academy (California Academy of Science) with my five year old. This was so fun. There was so much movement that he actually focused on his own sketchbook for long enough for me to get one in. Usually, he's done by the time I put the clips on my book! The Academy and all museums are closed again with SF preemptively joining the rest of the state in the extended stay at home order this past Sunday 12/6/2020. Grateful we got to go several times while it was open.
I asked my husband (who is our Covid-period grocery shopper as I am high risk) to bring home a fruit to draw. He came home with a dragon fruit. For those who don't know this interesting edible, it's from a cactus. There are two species: the Asian species is white inside, the Central American variety is shocking pink (see photo). Great in smoothies or when nicely ripe (as this one was) it's tasty eaten out of the skin with a spoon.
This oil painting was , for me, an explosion of a new freedom I found after finally getting a home nearly 40 years ago, a room with a sink and a bed and a window. I hadn't painted for years, and never without extreme self-consciousness. But years of homelessness changed me and my appreciation of "art". That freedom eludes me these days, that 'ignorant' notion that I can do whatever comes to me. I'd love to get it back. Surely it's in us all. It may be better to paint to be satisfied than to paint to satisfy...
Rendition of Michelangelo pre-sculpture sketch work two men fighting 4 ft by 3 ft. Corinthian column added original 3 ft by 2 ft. Done on wall in home with 14 number 2 School pencils over a 2-week..
A street sketch near Bourem, Mali. My new method of finding something interesting to draw - now that I'm mostly at home, like everyone else - is using StreetView. I use the app to search interesting places around the globe.
My new method of finding something interesting to draw - now that I'm mostly at home, like everyone else - is using StreetView. I use the app to search interesting places around the globe. This one is a sketch of somewhere near Lagos in Nigeria.
