Dean Stockwell (5 March 1936 – 7 November 2021)

Dean Stockwell started out young in the business and continued on for another seven decades.  Among his earliest roles was opposite Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in George Sidney's Anchors Aweigh (1945) as a little boy who wants to join the Navy.

He went on to play the Boy with Green Hair (Joseph Losey, 1948) and of course alongside Margret O'Brien in the Secret Garden (Fred Wilcox, 1949).  I first remember seeing him with Errol Flynn in Kim (Victor Saville, 1950).  Of his work as an adult he's most famous for Compulsion (Richard Fleischer, 1959) and as Edmund Tyrone in Long Day's Journey into Night (Sidney Lumet, 1962). 

He won the Cannes Film Festival best actor award for both of these roles.  Of course he never received an Academy Award, though he was nominated once, and then only as Supporting Actor, late in his career, for Married to the Mob (Jonathan Demme, 1988).

He should be best remembered, however for the two films he made with David Lynch, as Dr Wellington Yueh in DUNE (1984) and as Ben in Blue Velvet (1987). He's perfect and completely different from one to the next in both roles. Let's hear it for Ben, but above all: Remember the Tooth!

RIP.

Pero aunque he llorado y ayunado

lloró y oró,

Aunque he visto mi cabeza (un poco calva) traída en una bandeja
No soy un profeta, y aquí no hay gran cosa
He visto parpadear el momento de mi grandeza
Y he visto al lacayo eterno sostener mi abrigo y reírse disimuladamente,
Y en resumen, tenía miedo.

But though I have wept and fasted,

  wept and prayed,

Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter

I am no prophet — and here's no great matter

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker

And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,

And in short, I was afraid. 

Reverend Mother Ramallo calls

Sayyadina. Our Reverend Mother tells me she is too old... She has been calling through space and time for you to come and let her rest. She asks that you pass within.

Leto's Death

 He's crying.  He's crying! What does it mean, Piter?!

Recent Pencil Drawings of Derron Thweatt

 

I had the good fortune of late to draw these pencil drawings and sketches from the particular live model whom I most enjoy drawing.  I've posted many drawings of him in the past but since the Covid 19 Pandemic struck I was only able to view him via ZOOM, which is definitely not my preferred method.  In this case I actually got to sit a few feet away from him as I drew.  It makes a great deal of difference for the draughsman, and I suspect for the model as well.  I hope for the better.  Many thanks to the other artists who took part in the three sessions during which these pictures were produced, to Thomasina DeMaio for footing the bill and setting up the use of the space at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center and the Sidewalk Salon at Noe & Market, and above all to Derron Thweatt for his compelling presence.  

 

9 Silverpoint Life Drawings

The drawings are all done directly from life in 30 minute sittings by Dale Wittig. Thanks to Gregg Woolard for the prepared and toned paper and to Thomasina DeMaio for the gift of the silver stylus and for hiring the models.  Thanks as well to the three models.  

Maggie SO 29Sept21

Martin Moulton 2&3Oct21

Aaron Bogan 9Oct21