For Käthe

For Käthe. 2017. Charcoal & Pastel. 18.5" x 14." Casey Klahn.


This image was a response to the tonal sketch challenge that is sponsored on the Facebook page, How To Pastel. The idea is to take a leaf from the master German artist, Käthe Kollwitz. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to work in the style of one of my favorite artists.

For the set-up of this, I placed a harsh flood light clamped to my easel and pointed directly in my face. I feel that line and tone are tremendous tools, if you allow them their voice.

Charcoal SP

Self Portrait in Charcoal. 2015. 

Charcoal heightened with White Charcoal and Pastel. 

21.5" x 14.5." 

Casey Klahn.

Got Milk?

Arrangement with Milk Bottle. 2014. 

@11" x 13" 

Compressed Charcoal, Pastel & Vine Charcoal

Casey Klahn

American Falls

American Falls. 2014. 

Vine Charcoal and White Compressed Charcoal. 

@8" x 10." 

Casey Klahn

Intervening Space. American Falls. 2014. 

Vine Charcoal and White Compressed Charcoal. 

@8" x 10." 

Casey Klahn

Casey Klahn painting at Niagara Falls.

Matisse Magic and Thoughts

###

Somebody please tell The Met that their Matisse drawing,

...is a preparation for this painting:

"There are so many things in art, beginning with art itself, that one doesn't understand. A painter doesn't see everything that he has put into his painting. It is other people who find these treasures in it, one by one, and the richer a painting is in surprises of this sort, in treasures, the greater its author." Henri Matisse.

My review of The Conversation, 1938.

Image descriptions and credits:


Study for Song, 1938
Henri Matisse
Charcoal on paper
25 3/4 x 20 in. (65.4 x 50.8 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection, 2002 (2002.456.45)
© 2011 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.


The Conversation, 1938.
Henri Matisse
o/c
18 3/8 in. x 21 3/4 in. (46.67 cm x 55.25 cm)
Acquired 1993
Collection SFMOMA
Bequest of Mr. James D. Zellerbach
© Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
93.149
Source: http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/4132##ixzz2Mm3mhbl6
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Sketching Cold

Snow in the Draw

@8" by

Pastel & Charcoal

Casey Klahn

iPhone record

Cedar Shed, Sketch

Cahrcoal & Chalk

@7" x 4"

Casey Klahn

Individual Tree, Charcoal Study #2

@ 9"x 9" 

Charcoal & Chalk 

Casey Klahn

The Facebook Challenge Group for this image is found here.

Snow Deep and Notes

  Autumn Slope Drawing

12" x 13.5" 

Charcoal, Chalk & Pastel

Casey Klahn

With my world full of snow, I have taken to drawing in a serious way. I have quit a lot of pastel works in storage, and with a head full of ideas I want to make hundreds more. Anyway, I felt the urge to simplify and sharpen the charcoals a bit. This one, posted above, devolved from a finished pastel!

My children are snowed in from school, and my wife is down with an awful virus of some kind.  My time is not very plentiful, but I do get to the studio almost daily. Maybe today I'll wear snowshoes to get there since yesterday I was plunging to the knee in snow!

Another bother is that we have misplaced the battery charger for the Nikon camera and will have to order a new one.  So, no new photos of pastels for a while, even though I have probably 20 or more to show.

<><><>  

In other studio news, I am forming an idea for a large work and it may take two over-size sheets of La Carte that I have squirreled away for a special occasion.  I'm imagining them just mounted together, seam and all.  If Degas did it, I think I may try the same. I know I could unroll some Wallis, or even get a piece of Gatorboard that big, but the dream I have is for La Carte.

Another fun pastime has been virtually framing art in Photoshop.  Here is one that worked well.

Fantastic Italy in Faux Frame

More Drawings, Especially Degas

I'm feeling the urge to really get busy drawing.  The change of season always does that to me.  Here is a post from the drawing archive.

Degas Influence

At The Bar - Copy of Degas

@22" x 17"

Charcoal, Conte & Pastel 

Casey Klahn

Progress

This post was first published at Pastel Workshop in 2011.

I think this was a practical exercise from a text book.

Detail

Charcoal, Conte and White Chalk

@ 8" x 12"

Casey Klahn

Okay.  I fixed the eye placement and the lip.  It is fascinating how once good abilities can evade me after too many years out of practice.  Figures and heads require lots of practice, and then there's the art part, too.

This is done on newsprint.

Finished Practice

Practice:  Head Facing Right

14" x 13

Charcoal, Pastel & White Chalk on Drawing Paper

Casey Klahn

Charcoal and White Chalk

WIP - Facing Right

@14' x 15" 

Charcoal & White Chalk on Drawing Paper

Casey Klahn

For a hobby, I am re-learning the figure and the head from various sources, such as instructional books and You Tube videos.  Before I took up the landscape, this was all I did on an amateur basis.  It is crazy how much I have lost over time, and it makes the road back a little bumpy. But, fun.

Drawing Mary

First published November, 2009.

Mary Cassatt, After Degas - detail
@ 32" x 26"
Charcoal
Casey Klahn

At the Easel

I like studying the master works of artists like Edgar Degas. This work is a copy of his well known Portrait of Mary Cassatt.

Charcoal River

Charcoal River

@9" x 14"

Charcoal, Chalk & Pastel

Casey Klahn

Charcoal, chalk and pastel on Rives BFK Heavyweight.

These tools allow me to express more than any other media.  Maybe they are the reason for the deep, dark passages in my finished pastel paintings.