Ain't No Sunshine

I painted this small oil painting of a live model who was posing for a sketch group that meets once a week in Dunedin, Florida. We joined the group a few months ago. There is no instructor and each artists brings whatever materials they want to use. I have done several drawings there using a variety of media, but decided to bring oils and a canvas for this portrait. I try to capture the mood as well as a a realistic painting of the model when I am there.  This  model, Gerrell, seemed weary both physically and emotionally. . .as if it had been a long hard life already. 

Ain't No Sunshine. Oils on canvas painting of a live model. 11 x 14 inches. 2017.

Draped Woman. Pan Pastels on Tinted Strathmore paper drawing from life. 2017.

Reclining Woman. Pan pastel drawing from life on Tinted Strathmore paper. 2017.

Reclining Female. Pan Pastel drawing from live model. 2017

Seated Nude. Pan Pastel drawing of live model. 2017

For centuries, artists learned to draw and paint the figure and portraits realistically carefully following the traditional methods developed by the artists before them. Around 1800 a man named Thomas Wedgwood tried to capture images using a camera obscura. Thus began an exciting new method of making realistic images of people and scenery. Traditional painters found the world had moved on and was no longer interested in conventional realistic paintings.  After all, if you want a representational image, just use a camera!

So artists began experimenting with different approaches and methods of portraying their subjects.  Paint was applied in little dashes and dots, colors were no longer blended as in Impressionism and Pointillism.  Focus on shapes (cubism) and wild colors became popular (fauvism and expressionism, surrealism).  Eventually abstract art, dadaism and a complete move away from any sort of representational art occurred.. Realism was all but abandoned by most artists during the 1900's.  Only a handful of artists continued to value the teachings of the old masters.

As time has gone on,however, the public has grown bored with abstract, non-representational art. At the turn of the 21st century we are finding an interest in realistic paintings, landscapes, city and seascapes, figurative paintings and drawings in a variety of media is growing. A rebirth of realism is happening. . . that is based on the skills and methods developed over the centuries but with a new twist. . .contemporary realism is beginning to take hold.

Artists are once again painting and drawing from live models, going out in the fields to paint plein air and there is a renewed interest in painting still lifes in an uber-realistic manner.  Artists are beginning to study with the Masters. 

That is what I trying to do with my art. 

Can You Break the Ties That Bind?

Pan Pastels, Charcoal and Graphite drawing of live model. 11 x 17 inches. 2017

The ties that are binding this man may be interpreted in many different ways. For me, these ties are symbolic of  bad memories that keep us imprisoned and unable to move forward with our lives. . . the pain over unfair losses, mistreatment, resentments and sorrows, bitterness and inability to forgive as well as things we ourselves did and failed to do that harmed others.  The list of things that torture us can seem endless.  

These ties blind us and make us unable to speak. They trap us and seem impossible to break. And yet, in truth, they are flimsy and easily broken and removed once we become aware of the truth of our condition and ask for help from a Power greater than ourselves.

For me, that One is God.   

In the Stillness of Remembering

". . . listen carefully to the sound
Of your loneliness
Like a heartbeat.. drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost...
And what you had...
And what you lost

 Thunder only happens when it's raining
Players only love you when they're playing . . ."

In the Stillness of Remembering. Drawing by Ruth Mabee Rouleau 
Pan pastel, Prisma and Graphite on Tinted Strathmore Drawing Paper. 18 x 24 inches. 2017.

Lyrics from Dreams by Fleetwood Mac.

No One Ever Said We'd Have It Easy

". . . Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh, take me back to the start
I was just guessing
At numbers and figures
Pulling the puzzles apart
Questions of science
Science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart . . ."

Lryics from "The Scientist: by Corinne Bailey

No One Ever Said We'd Have It  Easy. Pan Pastel and Graphite on Tinted Strathmore Paper. 16 x 16 inches. 2017.

"We have art in order to not die from the Truth." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

"When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks at you." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

It's all in how you see things