Class Project - Family photos

This fall I took a drawing class at the community college where I teach.  It was fun to do the project, but I don't think I learned as much as I could have.  The teacher was very laissez faire.  There was one assignment, to create a series of drawings or paintings or whatever that follow a theme.  The theme I chose was optimism emerging from rural poverty.  I used family photos for the portraits and photos I had taken or found online for the landscape and object paintings. 

"Jane & John"  22 x 30 inches.  charcoal and watercolor on paper

 

"Old and worn" 15 x 22 inches. watercolor on paper

 

"John Jr." 22 x 30 inches.  Watercolor and charcoal on paper.

 

"A Window" 11 x 30 inches.  Watercolor on paper.

 

"Karl" 15 x 22 inches.  Watercolor and charcoal on paper.

 

"Open spaces" 22 x 30 inches.  Watercolor on paper.

 

"Clifford" 15 x 22 inches.  Watercolor and charcoal on paper.

It's hard to get good pictures of the drawings and paintings, but you get the general idea.  The charcoal drawings have light washes of blue and ochre under the charcoal.  This is a little bit difficult to see in the photos.  My favorite painting of this series is the old wood and rust.  I found this reference photo online in the Wet Canvas reference image library.  I also like the skyscape.  This is from a photo I took somewhere along I-80 in northern Nevada.  Definitely wide open spaces.  I think I'll hang this in my husband's office.  The photo for the window painting I took in Idaho looking out of an old hay shed with a broken board. 

I like each of the drawings for different reasons.  Jane looks like she has had a tough life.  John looks like he is about to fade away.  John Jr reminds me of someone out of the Grapes of Wrath, or Gary Cooper, or Will Rogers.  This isn't far from the truth, except they never left the farm.  Karl is the transitional figure.  He left the hard life on the farm to go to college and have a better life.  Clifford is a cute kid in an oversized coat.  In the original photo you can see a shadow of his mom peeking out of the window.

It was a lot of fun and I especially liked using old family photos for the references.  Based on the ages of the people I'm guessing the photos were taken in the late 1920's.  John Sr. and Jane died in 1927 and 1925.  It would have been unlikely that they would have had a camera much before then.

The project was a lot of fun and a lot of work.  I was a little disappointed in the class experience, but the end result was good.