Getting stuffed at lunch

Lunch at the RISD Nature Lab

Now that's it's getting a bit chilly outside (but not nearly as cold as it should be for January) I've resumed spending some lunch hours in the warm and cozy RISD Nature Lab. I had drawn this raccoon before (left) from a different angle, but this is the pose he is taking up in my latest painting (see the study below), so since I have the opportunity I thought I'd do a sketch from "life" instead of only relying on my photo.  It's a challenge though, with all that fur. So far I've spent two lunch hours on my drawing. One more should do it, I'll post it if it comes out decent.

That little fox is catching my eye too, he may have to be drawn soon.

A quick brown fox

 

I'm so lucky to be able to walk to the RISD Nature Lab at lunch for a walk on the wild side. The hard part is tearing myself away to report back to my cubicle.

Howl

 

Just a little lunchtime sketch at the RISD nature lab. 

Drawn to stone and stuffing

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

I was breezing through the RISD museum recently when this sculpture (sadly, I did not write down the label info) raised his stony hand and demanded I STOP.

So I did, and stood mesmerized by the power of that hand.

Today, I went back at lunch to photograph it and then grabbed one of the little folding stools RISD has in the museum and sat down in the peaceful medieval gallery to sketch.

The medieval gallery had been closed for a long time while they expanded the museum and just recently reopened, New and Improved. They even added subtle medieval-style music, which is nice to listen to while drawing. Though the sculptures and paintings only fill two small rooms, I am very glad to have them back on display, since each piece has the potential to suddenly reveal itself, as this one did.

I think I'll spend a more of my lunch breaks drawing in the museum. I don't know why I never thought of it before that sculpture ordered me to STOP.


I also spent an hour earlier in the week in the RISD nature lab drawing a little brown bat. He was pretty cool but a bit (a lot) worse for wear, as are many of the smaller specimens. (I was hoping for some spiders, but most were just little boxes of legs). Of the bats though, my guy was one of the handsomest, a few of the others looked more like roadkill. Who needs taxidermy when you have a speeding Jetta?

But there's lots of cool stuff in the Nature Lab, so that will be a good lunchtime sketching destination too. Maybe if I sit quietly drawing I'll spot the little newt that made a break for it and I can nab it and return it to its nice moist tank.

Hanging out with dead animals is giving me the urge to take some more classes at the Natural History Museum. The specimens there are in better shape since they haven't been checked out like library books by decades of college students.

And if I get sick of dead animals I might just head out to Woonsocket where I hear they have a fine flock of Turkey Vultures.

Denali's digital deadline

I'm still trying to pull some Great Sand Dunes art and writing together to post, but have been working all week on finishing a few small paintings for my Denali application, which is due this weekend. 

It helps that I can submit my application electronically. Now I can work up to the last minute without taking slides, rushing the film to one of the few one-day slide processing labs, re-taking the slides because they came out too-blue, too-yellow, too-dark, too light, too-skewed, or too-glarey, developing them again, masking them with silver tape, making tiny little labels, putting them in a slidesheet, carefully printing my application, putting them all in a 9x12 envelope with a return 9x12 inside, going to the post office to get it weighed, putting return postage on the inside envelope, and FINALLY, getting it in the mail, hopefully to be delivered by the deadline date.

The Denali application uses a website called CAFE. It's a bit exact about how you need to format your digital images, but once you submit one set for an application, it keeps them on file so you can reuse them to apply for other opportunities. The only downside is that they don't have too many listings yet. It's a great idea though, so I hope it catches on.

So, until I get caught up and scan in some new dune images,  I'll just post a "lunch sketch" from a few years ago.

Another lunch sketch

Looking across the Providence River towards Steeple Street, the First Baptist Church and where One Up used to be.

No room at the inn

This is a watercolor I did one lunchtime of the top of the building which used to house the St. Francis Chapel. It's now a Hampton Inn Hotel.

Lunch sketch

This is a watercolor painting I did at lunch from across the Providence River. I like this little building tucked amongst the skyscrapers.

The day job out foxed

I used to be pretty good at my day job. I was the person who could fix the website when all other attempts failed. I could build new things too. I could edit other people's things. I made it look pretty. I actually took some pleasure in it. My co-workers thanked me.

Then, for some reason that made no sense at all, management moved me to another department. I won't whine about it, after all, "I'm lucky I still have a job" but... suffice to say that this job does not play to my strengths.

OK, a little whining...can't help it.

After a frustrating morning yesterday, I went to lunch and read a bit of "The Outermost House" by Henry Beston. He writes (in 1928!),

"The world today is sick to its thin blood for lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water welling from the earth, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot."

My soul soared. Then lunch was over and I took myself and my thin blood back to my cubicle, where I found several emails waiting for me pointing out my morning's transgressions ("did not I read the documentation on the proper procedures?!").

I was sick to my thin blood alright. I finally got on my bike for my commute home and by the side of the bike-path I spied (gasp!) a magical red fox, bounding over a bush and flowing into the undergrowth. Like something out of a fairy tale.

And you know, that was the most important thing that happened to me all day.

Fragile atmosphere

One morning I heard a weather report during which the weatherman (Art Lake, for all you Rhode Islanders. For the rest of you, no, I am not making his name up...) said something unexpectedly poetic. He said "the atmosphere is very fragile today"...I'm not sure what that meant, but I liked it! I painted this on my lunch break.

NOT FOR NOTHING, BUT: I'm sorry that they rebuilt the interior stairs in the Providence Art Club. I loved the old wide wavy wooden stairs. I imagine they were the original 1880's treads, worn into smooth organic slabs by thousands of artist's footsteps.

Biking the Providence river

A while ago I went on a walk along the river and wrote this.

"I crossed the river and walked along the east bank, it was low tide so I could see the bottom of the river, soft with silt and pollution, like the paint that settles at the bottom of my solvent jars. In shallow relief was a bicycle, probably stolen years ago and tossed in the river, now thickly coated in algae, mud and rust. It looked beautiful and mysterious through the 2 feet of river water and I wished I had my camera so I could post a picture."

Well it took awhile for the confluence of low tide, camera, and lunchtime walk, but here is what the river revealed.


I'm gearing up for riding my bike into work soon, now that the Washington Bridge is open to bike traffic again. I'll pack my watercolors into my bike pack for the way home, the view across the river to the industrial waterfront is beautiful, and Queen Ann's Lace and beach roses bloom along the bike path. If I'm lucky they'll be a family of white egrets in the cove....

Lunchtime with elephants

I had a nice break from my cubicle in the building on the right when I heard of the elephants brunch being served in front of the Civic Center where the circus will perform. I'm not a big fan of circuses, but can't resist seeing the bizarre sight of these very cool animals in the middle of the city. They obviously knew the drill, and ignored all of us as they chose their favorite treats, whole apples eaten like grapes, entire loaves of bread, heads of lettuce eaten in a bite, and for dessert, watermelons which they burst open by stepping on (the kids liked that part).
I did a painting once of the annual elephant parade from the train to the Civic Center...not sure where it is now...