This week on my drawing board

I lived in New York City for nearly 10 years, first working as an art director on the now-defunct Ladies Home Journal, and then as a freelance illustrator. I adored the freelance life! Especially wandering the streets while everyone else was working. Footlight Records was a wonderful place in Greenwich Village, a record shop specializing in vintage vinyl — broadway shows, classic jazz, vocals. Nearby I could buy a slice of white pizza. Around the corner, the Strand Book Store.

Footlight Records, Greenwich Village NYC c 1990s. 11x17 Gouache on wood panel.

And here is the sketchbook painting I did for this, a mini-version of the larger painting.

Abtract Saturday: Paul Klee

Burdened Children 1930 Paul Klee 1879-1940 Bequeathed by Elly Kahnweiler 1991 to form part of the gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler, accessioned 1994 via Tate.org — Burdened Children 1930 Paul Klee 1879-1940 Bequeathed by Elly Kahnweiler 1991 to form part of the gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler, accessioned 1994 via Tate.org

+wikipaintings.org

Abstract Saturday: Sir Terry Frost part 2

Terry Frost, British 1915-2003 | Blue for Lumbar 1956 Oil on board via Godson & Coles — Terry Frost, British 1915-2003 | Blue for Lumbar 1956 Oil on board via Godson & Coles

Green and Blue Movement 1952 by Terry Frost Oil on canvas board, 79.5 x 48.8 cm Collection: Lincoln College, University of Oxford — Green and Blue Movement 1952 by Terry Frost Oil on canvas board, 79.5 x 48.8 cm Collection: Lincoln College, University of Oxford

Force 8 by Terry Frost Ferens Art Gallery 1960 Oil on canvas, 221 x 173 cm — Force 8 by Terry Frost Ferens Art Gallery 1960 Oil on canvas, 221 x 173 cm

SIR TERRY FROST (1915 - 2003) BLACK AND WHITE SEA. MOVEMENT, 1951 oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches via — SIR TERRY FROST (1915 - 2003) BLACK AND WHITE SEA. MOVEMENT, 1951 oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches via

Terry Frost | Battersea flower seller 1948

Green and Maroon Movement by Terry Frost 1952 Museums Sheffield via BBC UK — Green and Maroon Movement by Terry Frost 1952 Museums Sheffield via BBC UK

Black Abstract 1960 Pencil, ink and pastel on card  1960 via Godson & Coles — Black Abstract 1960 Pencil, ink and pastel on card 1960 via Godson & Coles

Abstract Saturday: Adolph Gottlieb

Born in New York in 1903, his first home was on 10th street in New York City, opposite Tompkins Square Park, a neighborhood I used to wander daily when I was a freelance illustrator In the city. He was a contemporary and friend of Milton Avery and Mark Rothko. He changed the spelling of his first name from "Adolf" to "Adolph" in response to the election of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in Germany and painted for the WPA in the thirties. My particular favorites of his paintings are the "pictographs" from the 1940s. They're all based on symbols or motifs from random human and natural forms, separated into compartments of a grid. Gottlieb didn't sketch out his ideas but tried to be spontaneous so as to draw from his subconscious. There are so many that I love, that it was hard to choose.

Adolph Gottlieb: Night Voyage, 1946 - Oil on canvas (Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966 Art © Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation

Alkahest Of Paracelsus, * 1945 * Adolph Gottlieb, American, 1903–1974. MFA, Boston via — Alkahest Of Paracelsus, * 1945 * Adolph Gottlieb, American, 1903–1974. MFA, Boston via

Sentinel, 1951 Adolph Gottlieb (American, 1903-1974)

Pictograph, 1942, oil on canvas by Adolph Gottlieb via

Pictograph, Adolph Gottlieb, 1946, oil on canvas

Mood Indigo 1946,  Adolph Gottlieb. Gouache, watercolor and graphite on paper . 25½ x 19½ in. (64.7 x 49.5 cm.) — Mood Indigo 1946, Adolph Gottlieb. Gouache, watercolor and graphite on paper . 25½ x 19½ in. (64.7 x 49.5 cm.)

+ The Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation

What I did this week

Stocks were falling and so was the rain, though they continually report on the news that it won't help us in California with the drought. I finished the painting I'd started a year ago, and which had languished since then on my drawing board while I toiled away at the magazine factory. It's the story of a childhood spill I took from a sled on the hill where we all used to go on the rare occasions when snow covered the ground and we were joyously let off from school. My best friend Kelly Keffer, who I believed to be a careless daredevil, was steering the sled and I was on the back. When she careened toward a mailbox, off I leapt to avoid the crash, but alas, I flew face-first into the mailbox while Kelly and the sled veered safely away.