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I got caught in a downpour at Dixon last week and for a second time found myself waiting it out on the porch sketching the three fantastic butts of the Rodin Three Shades from his Gates of Hell masterpiece. After posting I was asked if I could post the series of sketches I've done of those statues, and it sent me down a small rabbit hole. Above is the same scene two years ago, but with fountain pen and a wider viewpoint. It's honestly one of my favorite all time sketches, catching that crazy spring rain. Here is last week's version, closer up and in watercolor crayon.
I tend to sketch scenes I love over and over again, and Dixon is one of my favorite places to sketch. Here are the guys from the front for a change, with the overall view of the museum entrance.
I've also sketched them from inside a tent at one of the evening events Dixon puts on.
And finally with Autumn foliage, once again from my favorite front porch bench.
Dixon and Rodin are a great combination. They had a traveling show of his work my senior year in high school, as I was headed out to become an art major and hopefully an artist afterwards. I was unprepared for figure drawing, so I spent a lot of time that year sketching the Rodin sculptures to prepare myself. One of my favorite t-shirts in my college years was a Rodin shirt from that very exhibit. (Black is also super handy for art majors since it doesn't show charcoal.) I just recently dug out old photos of me and sketched myself for my memoir project in that same shirt. I wish I still had it (and my Arlo Guthrie shirt), but they seem to have dropped away over time. But here I am in my art major prime for a book hopefully to come later. You apparently never outgrow that, can-I-really-do-this feeling as an artist, that pushing into something new. It feels like full circle, all tied together by both Dixon and Rodin.
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I'm still working away on the graphic memoir, and it's slow to tell a story in watercolor, but I'm also still excited about the project. I haven't yet made it to the summer in Greece that is going to be the central part of the book, but here's a small glimpse of the table setting -- distance in my early marriage, both physical and emotional.
