My wife and I recently returned from our annual trip to Maine. Sadly this year the occasion was the memorial ceremony for our dear friend and artistic genius Ashley Bryan, who passed away at the age of 98. To say he was beloved on the tiny island of Islesford (aka Little Cranberry Island), and throughout the book industry, is a huge understatement, and to us he was family. We absolutely had to be at this memorial, even though there were significant logistical hurdles.
Then we met up with a crew of amazing authors with whom we shared a house on Great Cranberry Island (just a short hop from Islesford and the closest accommodations we were able to find). Linda Sue Park, Renee Watson, and Vaunda Michaux Nelson. We were later joined by Ashley’s wonderful editor Caitlyn Dlouhy.
Sketches of the boat rides, the islands, and the ceremony (more on that below):
The ceremony was absolutely beautiful. We all wore pins we’d made from a “Beautiful Blackbird” craft station at the Farnsworth (Alison’s great idea!) After the ceremony there was a reception with two amazing cakes, plus a slideshow and a show of Ashley’s paintings in the local gallery, and then his family went out in a parade of boats to scatter his ashes.
We felt truly blessed to celebrate him with so many of his friends and family and even more so to have known him and spent so much time with him over the years (every year since 2007). Thank you Ashley, and thank you, Islesford. We love you.
If you want to see more of my Maine paintings, click here.
Last night I went to see Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Camelot. The performers were all wonderful, the costumes spectacular, the set and lighting modern in a way that worked to make it feel fresh, and the ending unexpectedly powerful. Like, really powerful and relevant today. Definitely recommended. Sketches done on iPad Pro with Apple pencil and Procreate app.
My schedule is such that I only just barely managed to catch Shakespeare Theater Company’s production of Twelfth Night before the end of its run (which is today). I’m a huge fan of Ethan McSweeney’s work (particularly The Tempest from a few years ago), and Twelfth Night did not disappoint. It features the most powerful beginning of any version I’ve seen, a powerful ending as well, and lots of laughs in between. The set is very spare for STC (there are reasons) while the costumes are spectacular and distinctive. The costume changes of Sir Andrew Aguecheek are particularly wonderful. I did a few sketches on my iPad. I was up in the balcony, so I couldn’t see facial details very well, thus I have no idea if I captured anyone’s likeness, but hopefully I got the broad strokes of their characters fairly well.
I finally, just barely, got to see the Yayoi Kusama “Infinity Mirrors” exhibit at the Hirshhorn before it closed. There was a lot of standing in lines involved, but nevertheless it was an awesome and inspiring exhibit. And I used that time standing in line to draw this little comic in honor of her art and the experience of nonduality she describes as inspiring much of it.
Earlier this week, I want to see Folger Shakespeare’s production of As You Like It, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch. I really enjoyed the performance; the first half was slow in a couple of places (mostly because Shakespeare didn’t do a very good job of giving the characters motivations) but once things start to come together in the second half it’s a delightful romp, with excellent dramatic, comedic, and musical performances by the entire cast.
Here are my sketches (done digitally with iPad Pro & Procreate app) –
Cast: Lindsay Alexandra Carter, Kimberly Chatterjee, Michael Glenn, Will Hayes, Jeff Keogh, Aaron Krohn, Allen McCullough, Brian Reisman, Daven Ralston, Lorenzo Roberts, Antoinette Robinson, Dani Stoller, Tom Story, Cody Wilson.
I just got back from a fantastic week on Little Cranberry Island, Maine, helping to teach the Islesford Painting Workshops. As always, it was a complete blast. Look how much fun we are having!
I’m up to my ears in catch-up tasks, so I won’t write too much about it, but once again it was great. I’m sad that this is (almost certainly) the last year it will be held, because the Dock Restaurant & Gallery which hosts it is being sold.
Anyway, here are my paintings/sketches/studies. Some are digital this time — I continue to play with the iPad, and I’ve also been messing about with Kyle’s brushes for Photoshop. On one level it’s silly trying to get painterly effects on a digital device, because a real painting “in the flesh” is SO much more awesome than any print or purely 2-dimensional representation of it can capture. On the other hand, using tools that make different kinds of marks can help one understand more about the problems of painting, and in that respect it’s cool to have a really large toolbox in a small device to experiment with.
My favorite take-aways this year: First, the idea of “carving into” a painting, usually to simplify or define the space better. Second, the realization that I am usually willing to get quite experimental with color but not so much with forms/drawing. I want to play with that a bit more.
Previous year’s workshops: 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 (2012 has the most theoretical/philosophical musing in it, if you like that sort of thing.)
So long, Islesford. The workshops may be over, but I’ll be back.
Last night I saw Shakespeare Theatre Company’s new production, The Taming of the Shrew. It features an all-male cast, a craft market in the lobby, a lot of music, and a bunch of other cool immersive touches. As with every Shrew production I’ve seen, it struggles to rise above the misogynist speech in the final scene, but in other respects I thought it was quite marvelous. The actors were all superb, and extremely consistent. The musicality was impressive. You could almost say they turned the play into a musical — which is a kind of an odd choice, and it didn’t work 100% of the time, but there were points later in the story where it really elevated what was going on. It did, however, make for a long show. It ran almost 3 and a half hours. During the intermission they had drinks and snacks in the theater, and allowed the audience onto the stage while the actors continued to do… well, a lot of things that aren’t in the actual play. That might sound odd or gimmicky, but actually I found the result was unique and powerful. In fact I’d say the treatment of the intermission, and some of the threads that emerged from that, might have been the coolest part of the show.
Of course I drew. Some of these I drew on paper, and others on a new iPad Pro I’m testing out. I turned the brightness all the way down and worked on a grey background so I wouldn’t distract my neighbors. You can probably tell which drawings are digital and which are traditional (especially since there are some glaring clues besides the line quality) but I’m pretty impressed with some of the tools, especially ProCreate’s pencil simulation, which uses the Apple Pencil’s tilt sensor quite effectively.
The show runs through June. Definitely recommended.