"The Sea"

Tuesday, February 07, 2012 – Nan Fuhrman

I have added a few bits of color (since Jordan wanted this panel to be in color) just to get color going.   Feel absolutely free to undue what I have done!!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 – Ellen Pechman        

I’m doing my usual pacing around in search for an idea, feeling a great deal of trepidation anticipating drawing on huge canvas that already have on it other peoples’ work.  I especially enjoy Joan’s insertion 




"The Sky"

Tuesday, February 07, 2012 

I wanted to add mood to Debbie’s “bones”.   Using powdered graphite and erasers, I darkened the sky in the West, added another cloud and then provided some dimension to another cloud.  The panel is so large that I felt the need to cover ground quickly. Then, I decided it might be better to leave the Eastern sky alone so that someone else could bring his or her perspective to the time of day and the weather.  I find using powdered graphite for drawing to be exciting and expressive.  It has really loosened me up as I approach my work these days.  Thank you, Jordan, for giving me this tool!!

 – Nan Fuhrman

Tuesday, February 07, 2012 

I picked up where Nan left off this afternoon.  Inspired by work I found in this fall in Berlin from French art nouveaux/cubist painter, Jean Lambert-Rucki  (1888-1967), I felt the urge to add a touch of humanity and humor (hopefully it is seen as humor) into the sky space.  I then built off the angles of what felt to me to be buildings, added further lines and angles and a stairway to the sky (off to the right).  In the sky, I got a kick out of playing with the waves of graphite as I explored the darks and lights of the space and of the medium.  I found of interest that the different tools and media that I used – graphite, charcoal, pencil, and compressed charcoal—all responded in entirely unpredictable ways to the wood canvas we are using.  In the end, I am not sure where the work is moving, but I certainly became absorbed in the forms, darks/lights, and flow of the working process.  Not a bad start.  I look forward to seeing where the next artist takes this.

– Ellen Pechman