Diez retratos ovalados.

Ten Oval Portraits.

Pinté un gran retrato de Alex Yerena y nueve miniaturas de AM. 

I painted a large portrait of Alex Yerena and nine miniatures of AM.

Avril 2021

 

Claire Denis' No Fear No Die

  

For her 75th birthday a few frames from Claire Denis' 2nd feature, S'en fout la mort (1990) featuring the man she has spent much of her life with, Alex Descas, and their friend Isaac de Bankolé. I first saw it at the Roxie on 16th St with my friend Mpoy Ngondo.  The Roxie was packed that evening.  Kathy Acker came on her motorcycle.

Derron Thweatt sits for a portrait

Eight drawings done this week end during the Life Drawing on Zoom session with Derron Thweatt modeling for the artsaveslives Group. Derron is always a compelling model and today we had the honor to do portraits of him for the last hour of the session. As always, thanks to Thomasina DeMaio for arranging it all, to Tom Schmidt for keeping time today and to Alan Beckstead & Margaret Stroud for keeping it yesterday, and above all to Derron for allowing us the pleasure of seeing him.

Derron Thweatt at the End of February

 

At the end of last month I made these watercolor & pencil drawings of Derron Thweatt during the two sessions he posed for the artsaveslives Group organized by Thomasina DeMaio. I believe I'm beginning to achieve the quality of likeness I have hoped for when drawing him. Thanks.

 

These four drawings immediately above are from 4 minute poses that we did to warm up at the start of the sessions, two sheets from each day, three poses per page.

 

Oliver & Rita in the Trap

Oliver Reed would have turned 83 today if he had lived to see it. The Trap (Sidney Hayers, 1966) is not a great film, but Oliver Reed & Rita Tushingham worked beautifully together in it. It's well worth seeing for them, both oddly featured and altogether lovely.

The Interruption of Dreams, volume 2, Chapter 2,

Sunday in New York

Solveig is seated in the small circular cafe with a view of the skating rink at Rockefeller Center.  Seated on each side of her are her pal, Eszter, and Jane Fonda.  I am also seated on the other side of Jane, but noone is aware of my being there.  Solveig  and Eszter are nearly thirty years younger than Jane.  The three women are discussing motherhood and how they were initiated into sex too early, comparing their experiences growing up in famous theatrical families.

Solveig tells Jane that her older son, Orlando, dismisses her as a superliberal Leftist, a contemporary Hanoi Jane.  Eszter tells how these creepy old actors in her father’s company would hit on her when she was an adolescent.  Jane says it explains a lot.  It was all very much of its time.

Solveig explains that her mind is on her first lover who just died the other day.  He was twenty years her senior.  Their affair didn’t last beyond the summer.  He had to return to Paris.  Jane understands.  Her first husband was a French filmmaker; not very talented, though.  Fortunately, they only had one child together.  As the women discuss their various early relationships, I am literally reduced to a fly on the edge of the fine linen table cloth.  Jane  notes that she started out a few years later than Solveig and Eszter.  James Franciscus  was her first and only three years older than her.  The three women wonder why it was that Harvey Weinstein so often went after the daughters of his old friends in the business.  Uncle Harvey nearly got his nose busted by Brad Pitt.  Eszter tries to shoo me away with a swipe of her hand. Jane recalls all the fun she and Rod Taylor had filming in this cafe almost sixty years ago.  She left him with some fond memories, but for her it was just another fling.

 

 

Martirio de San Felipe, José de Ribera

1639. Óleo sobre lienzo, 234 x 234 cm.

Le pedí a mi amigo que replicara la pose del santo mártir Felipe, pero no lo hizo. Tal vez lo haría parecer demasiado vulnerable.