Santa Maria di Salute, Venice

A view across the quay and the loitering gondolas at the vast baroque church of Salute. It's the kind of view that's been done a thousand times but remains irresistible.

It's an etching, about 4" by 6," printed at the Open Studio in Toronto, Ontario. The uniform blue was applied with a technique called chine collé, in which a layer of tissue-thin tinted paper is laid down between the etching plate and the support paper.

Oaks and Wrapped Sign

Tarragon offers an English landscape of pared-down simplicity.

Let's sing another song, boys

Drawn from life at the Arts Project in London, Ontario, using a Pentel brush pen.

Nicolas...

...and various other marks on the page.

it's open to debate

Anna in a striped dress

A quick photo of a painting in progress. The dress will be in colour, and the big rectangle will too - it will be a hanging carpet of some sort. The pineapple like object will probably become a bust - but we'll see.

five heads

Five heads of Willie, each done in two minutes or less.

star man

Venice - the gondolas on the Riva degli Schiavoni

It was a cool November evening when I sat down on the embankment to make this picture.

I was in a hurry. The shapes were quickly sketched in with a black crayon, and then rounded out with watercolour. Although I started with lines - as I almost always do - the picture quickly became about mass and pattern. The final touches were added in gouache; you can see its opaque layers where the blue covers of the gondolas are visible above the dock.

In the background, San Giorgio Maggiore was a box of shadows, except for its brilliant marble facade, which here merges with the air.

meditation

Vithia

Drawn from life in a flat in Toronto.

head of a boy

the things I have seen

A portrait of Alan, drawn in five minutes with a brush pen.

Jacqueline

Megan

Some warm-up sketches.

strange encounter

Drawn from life at a Keyhole Session in Toronto, using a copic brush pen, a china marker, and several other pens. This drawing took about 45 minutes, which obviously wasn't enough.

There is nothing quite so difficult to draw as the intersection of multiple human bodies.

These Things Are Not To Be Spoken Of

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http://tarragonsmith.com/

Jesse

regret comes easy

The Professor

A drawing of a professor of plant physiology.

three times

your brother's keeper

Drawn from life with a copic marker, in about 15 minutes.

Plan B

"I've always rejected being understood. To be understood is to prostitute oneself." So said Fernando Pessoa, one of the 20th century's most awkward writers. Also one of the most easily quoted.

He used a thousand different voices to say one thing, and that thing is about human loneliness. Many would prefer to be a prostitute than to be alone.


He said it in The Book of Disquiet, chapter 128. He goes on "I've always rejected being understood. To be understood is to prostitute oneself. I prefer to be taken seriously for what I'm not, remaining humanly unknown, with naturalness and all due respect. Nothing would bother me more than if they found me strange at the office. I like to revel in the irony that they don't find me at all strange. I like the hair shirt of being regarded by them as their equal."

hey you

the professor of medieval studies

Drawn from life, during a lecture on Christian-Muslim relations in 14th century Spain.

The Chandos off Trafalgar Square

Tarragon wrote me to say:

“I took a short holiday and went to the National Gallery to see Inventing Impressionism. It was a good show, except one has to like Renoir's portraits to think so. I really like Renoir. He's an acquired taste I reckon, but presents such a lovely parallel universe I find hard to resist. So I don't try.

Except I wasn't planing to see the show at all, it was news to me. I simply stopped in on my way to the the Sargent show at the Portrait Gallery. It was not the greatest Sargent show that you could imagine. But some truly lovely pieces. It is a bit heart wrenching how good he is. So it was a pleasure. 

In between I had lunch at Chandos, off Trafalgar Square, from whence I drew the attached. Such a lovely pub in the middle of the afternoon.”

la grande odalisque

kara

handsome head

Two heads of the model, drawn from life with a colic brush pen.

Amy

The shadow over the lane

Walking back along the sandy track from the old Tudor manor, I was struck by the deep shadows and the gables of the house at the corner. Beyond the trees, the farmer's field was full of horses, but I didn't put them in the drawing.

on the side

A quick sketch of the model on a damaged sketchbook leaf.

let me sleep

vision of youth

An very old self-portrait, drawn from a mirror with a china marker on textured paper. It was a cold day, and I was bundled up. And as you can see, I took the easy way out when it came to depicting my drawing hand.

Young Beauty Combs Her Hair

I think a problem in making these colour versions is the seemingly endless number of options. Limitations of medium or time or space are useful to many artists because they help in the decision making process. It can be very tiring.

someone to watch over

An offering

Megan drawn from life.

Set of Coffee Bowls

Two thrown and constructed coffee bowls. 9 or 10 cm x 12 cm in diameter.

Made with a black clay/crank mix with porcelain.

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http://tarragonsmith.com/

Barbara again

Swift sketches from a life drawing session.

Tarragon does the dishes

Drawn from life with a china marker.

Sunday Bridge

"An absolutely new prospect is a great happiness, and I can still get this any afternoon. Two or three hours' walking will carry me to a as strange a country as I expect ever to see. A single farmhouse which I had not seen before is sometimes as good as the dominions of the king of Dahomey. There is in fact a sort of harmony discoverable between the capabilities of the landscape within a circle of ten miles' radius, or the limits of an afternoon walk, and the threescore years and ten of human life. It will never becomes quite familiar to you."

~Thoreau

The Girls Are Alright.

With a mind to the difficulty of clearing woodblocks, now and then I draw white on black.

This is a picture of a wedding day between two women in 1880s New York.

Quickly drawn.

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http://tarragonsmith.com/

Aaron

Amy

Laura's head and hands

Three two minutes drawings.

The New Relative

He was being very quiet and cute and only started to cry when I was about to leave... Or did I leave around when he started to cry. I don't remember which.

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http://tarragonsmith.com/

Bridget

Just hanging out.

Along the Arno

A view of the north bank of the Arno, the Lungardo Corsini, painted from the southern embankment. On a warm October day, I sat down and painted this.

It's a bit unusual a choice of subject for me. I like buildings, but not usually this kind of late Renaissance and Baroque architecture, where so much of the effect relies on monumentality and repetition. Who wants to draw fifty-plus windows? Apparently I did.