Roman Prostitute

There was a big exhibit that I wanted to miss,
the Corot Exhibit. When I was in Rome
I took a bus out of town. I was looking for
Corot’s views of Rome, I was looking for
Inness’ views of ruins. I saw prostitutes
with chairs, standing by fires along the
side of the road. But what could I do? I
was on the bus. I didn’t have money to
rent a car. I thought to myself, “How much
does talk cost?”

Painting: 8” x 10”
Acrylic on stretched canvas, painted sides, stapled in the back
Signature: signed on the back, Richard Britell August 14, 2001

His Hat was as big as the Colosseum

The strangest thing happened in an outdoor coffee shop in Rome about two blocks from the Colosseum. It was my first day in Rome and I was in a hurry to get to the Colosseum before it got dark but at the last instant, with the Colosseum in sight I decided to have a cup of coffee at an outdoor cafe.

I sat down and ordered some coffee and immediately noticed that there was a man sitting with his back to me at the next table, and just like at a movie, his hat completely blocked my view of the Colosseum. I was going to ask him to move but then I found that by moving my table a little I could see around him.

I became fascinated by this simple fact, from where I sat his hat was exactly the same size as the Colosseum. It seemed so strange to me that this little insignificant hat, perhaps only one year old was able to completely block my view of a two thousand year old building. I kept looking back and forth from the building to the hat, and then he leaned back in his chair.

When he leaned back in his chair his hat became almost twice as big as the building, as a matter of fact it began to be possible to make a comparison of the Colosseum to just the hat band. Leaning back, his hat band was one third the size of the Colosseum. I posed this question to myself, “at what point away from my eye will the hat band be the same size as, and line up top and bottom with the Colosseum?” To answer this question I stood up from my chair went quietly over behind him and discovered that if I put my head just behind his head, about ten inches from his shirt collar, that his hat band at that point was exactly the same height as the Colosseum.

To line up my eye perfectly with his hat band it was necessary to support myself, and as I was bending over I unconsciously put my hands onto the back of his chair, and as ill luck would have it he suddenly leaned back, trapping my hands between the chair and his back.

I stood there, or rather crouched there for the longest moment, frozen in time. The waiter came and went giving me the strangest look. Finally he leaned forward releasing my fingers, and I fled.

This drawing measures 4.5” x 6.25”. It is drawn on tinted cold press watercolor paper with a black wax pencil. It is signed and dated on the border along the bottom, Richard Britell, August 13, 2001.

On the Color Green

I like to read ancient texts about drawing and painting and often I try to use some of the information I find there in my own work. One of my favorite books in this respect is known as “The Craftsman's Handbook,” writtensix hundred years ago by Cennino Cennini. In this work he says a lot about the color green, in particular a green called Terre Verte, which is a dull earth gray green. If I paraphrase what he says it looses all its flavor so here is a passage:

HOW TO PAINT FACES, “Take a little terre verte and a little white lead and lay two coats all over the face, over the hands, the feet, and the nudes. But for faces of young people this base coat should be adjusted with the yoke of a town hen’s egg, because those are whiter yolks than the ones which farm hens produce: farm eggs because of there redness are good for tempering flesh colors for aged and swarthy persons. (he is talking about egg yoke because it is for tempera painting and tempera painting is thinned with the yolk of an egg.) He concludes this passage with this, “And bear in mind that a small painting needs to be laid in more times than a wall; but not so much that the green under painting does not show through at all times especially in the shadows.”

Now what this means is that old paintings were under painted first in an earth green for the flesh, when that was dry the flesh colors were painted over the green undercolor. This is why in very old paintings you can see very clearly a green in the shadows and further it explains the wonderful colorful vividness of flesh in old paintings because flesh is really a red, and green is its complement and the two work perfectly together so that, speaking from experience, the results are really quite astounding. The only real problem is that the terre verte under painting or drawing looks so beautiful that it is heard to bear the thought of covering it up with flesh tone. Look at this drawing above this description, and you will see what I mean.

This drawing measures 5.5” x 4.375”. It is drawn on a warm toned rag drawing paper with a green wax pencil. It is signed with an R on the front and full signature and date on the back Richard Britell August 10, 2001.

A Diner on 22, North of Harlemville

I live in Pittsfield. You probably have never heard of Pittsfield unless you are from this area. But there is a place a few miles from here that is world famous and almost like a religious shrine, and that is Tanglewood where the Boston Symphony Orchestra preforms in the summer.

This location is very popular with New Yorkers who drive up here on Friday night and stay until Sunday. The drive takes three hours. Tanglewood is a profound cultural and aesthetic experience, thousands of people buy lawn tickets and sit out on a blanket under the stars, drink wine and listen to Beethoven.

When the weekend is over they pack up their things get into cars and drive back to Manhattan. The route to New York from here that is considered the best is not an interstate but a local road called Route 22.

So it happens that many a person after a weekend of culture, stops at one of the numerous diners on Route 22 late at night for some bacon, eggs and coffee. This seems to me like the best of two worlds.

This drawing measures 3.75” x 9.75”. It is drawn on tinted cold press watercolor paper with a soft graphite pencil. It is signed with an R on the front and full signature and date on the back Richard Britell August 6, 2001.

Trip to Chicago, 3

A TRIP TO CHICAGO, PART 3

As you can see at a glance, this drawing has nothing directly to do with Chicago. The drawing is a detail of the bronze statue of a mermaid that sits in the harbor in Copenhagen. This sculpture is well known because for years it has been used as an image on those papers that people glue into books and sign there name on.

After doing the other two Chicago drawings from my memory, that I posted on Thursday, I went to the library this morning to see if I couldn't find some pictures of Chicago that would give me an idea for a third drawing. As always happens when you search for images, the books I wanted were out, or missing and so I started to look through unrelated material. In a book of famous Landmarks I came across the image of the mermaid and decided to do a drawing from it.

So the drawing has nothing to do with Chicago, except that that end paper with the mermaid on it belonged to someone who once lived in Chicago, and I’ll just leave it at that.

Often when I post drawings, in the descriptions I say that the paper was soaked and stretched. This is done by soaking the paper for about fifteen minutes in a pan of water, and then stapling it around the edges to a board. The paper then dries and stretches and it is possible to paint or draw on it without the paper bending or buckling. Usually when a drawing is finished the edge and the staples are cut off, but after I finished this drawing I decided to leave the staple marks and the deckel edge, and I am going to post a detail of the papers edge because I think that such things make us aware of the drawing as a physical, three dimensional object, which is a part of it’s beauty.

This drawing measures 11.25” x 7.25”. It is drawn on tinted and painted cold press watercolor paper with black graphite pencil. It is signed with an R on the front and full signature and date on the back Richard Britell July 28, 2001.