Day 155 "Zakim Dusk" ink and pastel 5 x 9

I love the Zakim Bridge in Boston.  It is sleek, angular, graceful.  I enjoy its the views of shifting space as you drive to it and through it.  Recently, we were heading north out of Boston at dusk while approaching the Zakim bridge. The sky shouted out its last gasp of color as the headlights came one in the steady stream of traffic.  A few years ago, my husband, daughter and I rode the Duck Boat tour of Boston on my birthday.   It was a blast, and we drove under the Zakim on a sort of utility road that lead to the harbor.  I reveled in the new views of the Zakim Bridge above.  This is my hundred fifty-fifth daily drawing.  Truth is, I don't know from day to day what I'll draw until I sit down with my sketchbook in front of me.  This is an interesting endeavor.  Can't wait to see what's next.  Thank you for looking. 

"93 South" pen & ink 9 x 12

I have loved the Zakim Bridge, officially, the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, since it opened.  It is a gorgeous and open backdrop to the beautiful city. I find the contrast of the modern and traditional very pleasing.  The Zakim Bridge is lovely as you cross it, the view through the cables shifting constantly, forming a variety of vignettes.  A few years ago, my family and I took a Boston Duck Tour.  The Duck Boat meandered through a number of small roads in Cambridge, eventually entering the Charles River near the base of the Zakim.  I remember being thrilled that I could see new views of Boston framed by the Zakim's cables.  This is a view of the Zakim while driving into Boston from the North, and is my fifty-second daily drawing.  
Thank you for looking again at my take of the world around me.
 

"Stopping on HIgh Street" 9 x 12 mixed #dailydrawing

Once in a while, I pick my husband up from work on High Street in Boston.  It's  a pretty straight shot up the expressway, and a surprisingly reasonable ride in the afternoon, going against the mass exodus of homeward-bound drivers.  Just as I turn onto High Street, this is my view.  I enjoy the shadowed buildings against the sky, with some late sunlight sneaking behind the buildings.  
I drew the scene with fine point indelible marker, then added warm gray to all the shadow areas, which is the dominant shape in this scene.  I used colored pencil, black to emphasize the shadow, and a little red and orange in the stop lights.  
This is my thirty-fifth daily drawing... thank you for looking.      

"Newbury and Clarendon" in progress watercolor & ink 9 x 12

During school vacation last week, I was so glad to have the time to get into Boston for a couple of days.  The first was on Patriot's Day to watch the Marathon, which I love, especially when hanging out with my daughter, a college student nearby.  The second was a day with my painting pal, Marianne.  We took the boat in, stopped and met my husband at one of the best donut shops around, Kane's, on the corner of High and Oliver streets. Just an aside, I grew up in Canton, MA where we were blessed with Charlie's Donuts.  If you bump into anyone from Canton of a certain age and mention Charlie's they will lick their lips and you will share memories of the most memorable donuts ever.  Kane's is the closest I have ever tasted, which means they are probably as good when you factor in the romanticized memory component of the Charlies' Donut 
experience. But I digress...

Back to Boston.  We meandered across Boston, down onto Newbury Street and found a place in the sun.  I like to sketch the street, concentrating on the physical structures, and dropping down into the people on the street occassionally when someone catches my eye.  The result is often a street that looks more crowded that the day actually presented, but feels right to me because it represents the coming and going and shifts and changes and the human pageant.  I began to add watercolor later, from memory of where the sun and shade were.  
Eventually, the sun motivated us to move along.  We hung out for a while on the stone benches at the Boston Public Library and watched the human drama that Boston always provides; lots of pedestrians, business people, tourists, a drug deal happening 15 feet from us, street theater, about twenty police converging around the corner from us for reasons unknown, and the Boston Opera Guy singing beautiful arias.  My daughter came to meet us for late lunch, we wandered back into the Public Garden and did a little more drawing before heading home for the boat.   Great day!  Thanks for looking!  I'll post a final when I complete the painting soon.  See below for more photos of the work in stages.

 

"City Street - Boston" pen & ink 9 x 6

I have spent a lot more time driving around Boston this year, and am frequently in traffic, but usually don't mind for a while, as the shapes are so interesting.  Here's a street... somewhere in the financial district, with the usual hubbub of double parked cars and pedestrians and horns honking.. I try to get into town when I have no deadline, nor urgency; makes all the difference.  Turns out I have a few photographs of this same intersection from different times of year... must be a very congested traffic light.  Lots of time for observation.

Thanks for looking!

"Wednesday Evening" 16 x 16 oil - leading the eye

I have written about this painting in its early stages.  You can read about its progress here in these two earlier posts:
 "Newbury at Night" start
"Newbury at Night" in process

Years ago I asked my painting teacher how I can know when a painting is finished.  His response was that you need to know what your painting is about, know the idea behind your painting.  When you can do nothing more to support the idea, then you are finished.  At the time, I'm not sure I had enough context to understand what that meant, but over the years it has stuck with me, and is the drive behind my painting process.  

Wednesday Evening - detail

So... "Wednesday Evening" has always been about the transition occurring at dusk in this Boston intersection - the juxtaposition of commuters' speedy exodus and pedestrians meandering into evening.  I designed the painting to use the people in the foreground as your path into the painting, while leading the eye along the road and into the acceleration out the ramp to the Mass Pike. I used many, many shapes in the painting to lead your eye into the distance, into the dusk.  As an example, the detail shown here shows two   street signs and the upper tail light of a car in the middle ground.  These three shapes are intentionally angled to point to the blur of light as the cars exit the city.  I also supported that idea by softening all the edges in the high contrast areas of the painting, the lamp posts, the large dark structure, etc.. but I left the edges crisp in the taillights' glow along the Pike.  The tall building on the right side acts as a stopper so your eye doesn't leave, and I added the idea of architectural detail which  points down to the same area of light.  

My intention was to lead the eye, and to keep the viewer engaged in the painting, observing the contrast in tempos between the Pike and the street.  As always, interested in your thoughts.  Thanks for looking.

"Newbury at Night " in process 14 x 14 oil

Next stage of "Newbury at Night".  I have kept the glow, actually haven't touched the original wash in the sky.  It's been interesting working with the cool of distant neon lights, against the glowing sky.  I'm still moving around a few elements, have begun blocking in the pedestrians in the middle and foreground.  I've moved people a few times, and may again.  The light coming from an (unseen)  store window on the left is greenish so I'm wrestling with the small amount of light on the walkers, don't want them to appear green, but want to keep them less warm than the distance, and the lights. 

  I'm happy with the indication of street lights on the upper right, gives a sense of the cross street, actually, Mass Ave, without any other indication.  Stay tuned for the next iteration. Not much more to do in the painting, I'm proceeding very thoughtfully, not that I don't as a rule, but even more so, in unfamiliar territory... kind of an adventure.  I like adventures.