Just had this skit pointed out to me, enjoy.
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Well this week I took another crack at my old nemesis, the 15th century wooden carving of St. Luke the Evangelist from Flanders. As I’ve mentioned in the past it has a really weird forced perspective that I’ve yet to get right… but I keep trying.
This one went pretty well. I tried working from a different angle than usual that paid off. I also had the benefit of a chair this time. Seattle Art Museum’s medieval collection are in a hallway and I generally prefer not to get in the way of traffic, but since this was a week day right before closing I decided to chance it.
I got rushed in the end and I screwed up on the proportions which i managed to fix by redrawing the head, but otherwise this is one of my better attempts.
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A quick happy birthday to one of the greatest Jazz vocalists ever. Couldn’t decide on what was the best song to show her off with but I decided to go with one of her signature pieces, “Strange Fruit”.
It’s a powerful work, even if you miss the subject matter, and Billie’s voice is the perfect tool to show the bitterness and anger behind it.
So sit back , enjoy and join me in wishing Billie Holiday a happy birthday.
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
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For this week’s rhapsody we have Franz Liszt’s second Hungarian Rhapsody. Yes, yes, I know, we did Liszt last week but this time we have something special, Harpo Marx!
I frequently have extremely mixed feelings about the musical numbers in Marx Brothers films. Half the time they feel like a prime example of a “Big Lipped Alligator Moment” acting as a sort of intermission between acts. Chico’s piano numbers I can take or leave, he was good but hardly a master… but Harpo, Harpo could make that instrument do what ever he wanted it to do.
Enjoy
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Well since I had a very interesting conversation about this painting with my mother I just had to use this painting for today’s sketch. So here it is “The Supper of Erasmus” By Jan Cossier. I originally thought it dealt with Christ’s first appearance to the disciple’s postmortem where he is invited to dinner but disappears when everybody notices the tell tail scars. I confess that for this entry I looked for the scene I’m talking about in the Bible with no luck. I have a bad feeling it only occurred in a comic book version of the life of Jesus I owned as a kid. Ah well.
This is easily one of my favorite paintings in the RISD collection. The reason being that while I’m sure the artist was going for a look of piety and holiness on Christ’s face as he looks up towards heaven, what he got was the look of “I’m surrounded by idiots”. Considering the comical grotesque quality of the rest of the figures, I’m beginning to wonder if this was intentional.
Unfortunately this is not one of my better sketches. It is a demonstration of why one should not take a camera with them to a museum if they are intending to draw. You think you are creating a back up reference for yourself, but ultimately it’s a distraction and ruins your focus. Here is the original painting. 
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Okay this week it’s back to basics with Franz Liszt and his Hungarian Rhapsody # 10
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