My book is ready!

My new, fully illustrated instruction book is now available. Wouldn't you like to see how such great artists as Leonardo da Vinci, and Eugène Delacroix learned how to draw? You can watch as my friend Nancy assembles the appropriate tools, and draws her own beautiful picture of the pavillion in Montebello Park.

The Method in a Nutshell

To draw like Eugène Delacroix, the student needs some particular materials: cotton gauze stretched on a frame like canvas, and vine charcoal. Look through the gauze at your subject as though through a window. Trace some landmarksonto the gauze, just enough information to get everything in the right place. Details and shading are not required at this point. Place the gauze against a piece of paper and trace your marks again, pushing the charcoal through the weave in the gauze. The image should be on the paper. The details and shading can be completed at this point. The image should look very much like the subject. Copy it on to a new piece of paper, while looking and correcting. When done, hide all the drawings and copy it from memory. Muscle memory will help. Do it quickly before the memory fades. This image will be similar to the original, but will have the flavour and style of the artist.

"This is the only method of drawing which really teaches anything."

REVUE DES DEUX MONDES, Sept. 15, 1850.
Eugène Delacroix.

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With this method as simple as it is ingenious, parents, and teachers, without knowing how to draw themselves, may teach children the art - now as indispensable as reading and writing.

Tracing a drawing or some object in nature through a thin gauze, reproducing the image traced and ascertaining by means of the proof if the reproduction is exact - this is the starting-point of this method which possesses the advantage of disciplining at once the hand and the eye of the pupil, even obliging her to discover and correct her own errors without the aid of a teacher. In Madame Cav駳 studio the proof is the instructor; that is to say, is the truth.

FELIX COITEREAU

Ordering

If you would like to purchase one, send me a cheque or Money Order for $12, and I will mail you a copy to anywhere in North America. Shipping and taxes are included. Please remember to include the correct address so I can mail your booklet to you.

Mail cheques or Money Orders to:

Laurie Damon Boese
164 1/2 Ontario Street
St. Catharines,
Ontario
L2R 5K5
Canada

Fort Erie Show

I was putting the finishing touches on an art display today in Ridgeway, at the Crystal-Ridge Public library. Amy Roebuck had asked if I'd mind putting up an art display for the month of march. She'd seen the kids' reaction to my Mad Science presentation one summer she had booked to get the kids into the library building.

Over the past few weeks I've been putting together a special painting for the occasion. I got my friend Sarah, and her daughter, to pose for me, reading a book together. It does look good, if I do do say so myself. Many people have been tossing compliments towards the picture.

Anyway, I filled the two display cases at the two branches with my art. Some paintings and stone carvings went in, and I added some mazes for the kids to solve, some colouring pages, and a small description of my art classes. Later, I will add a Mad Science t-shirt to each display so the kids can make the connection. The librarians have my permission to make copies of the mazes and colouring pages over the March Break and easter weekend.

At the 2nd location, just as I was finishing up the display, the librarian had to leave for a couple of minutes to help a young boy take out a book. He looked about 5 years old. The boy and his mom were just in time to get their book before the library closed for the night. He recognized me from a Mad Science class and said hello. Then he had to get back to the task at hand. His cheeks were filled with determination, a little chubby, but the lips firm as he held his book up to the counter. The title simply said "Chemistry". He and his mom were going to do science experiments over the weekend. I've been giddy ever since. The whole drive home I've felt waves of euphoria from some gland sending little shivers through my body. I counted at least four of them on the drive home through the snow on the QEW from Fort Erie to St. Catharines. The little guy also got one of my hockey mazes from the librarian to take home.

My art will be in Fort Erie for a whole month. I miss having it in the house. One of my peculiarities is that I like to carry a finished painting around with me. "To see what it looks like in the different lights" I tell people. That's a little true. Sarah's daughter's hand looked a little mustardy in the white sunlight, so I fixed it when I got it home.

The real reason I carry the pictures with me is the hope that I will get sick of them, that I won't miss them when they get new homes. I'm not sure that trick is going to work for me this time.

Algonquin

Kim and I just got back from Algonquin. We saw 4 otters, an osprey, a beaver, loons, and more in the wild. Kim and I also saw moose tracks, and owl pellets. I think I'd like to try back-packing in next summer. Kim has all the pictures.

My weekends start on Tuesdays

Today I rode my bike to the Mansion House to clean, then I went to the store to return a mismatched car adapter I bought for charging my new GPS unit. I bought the unit to help navigate the South Western Niagara Peninsula, with which I am less familiar. I did a 2 hour drive to get to Delhi this past Saturday, and was almost late because I mis-read my directions.

I went to the Strega to get lunch, and during tea Sophie from the Raging Grannies came in with a friend. We chatted for a while and her friend paid for everyone's lunch. Then we were off to the market and City Hall to see Rod Dowling's sculpture officially received by the Arts Committee and City Council.

September

Tuesday I went with Kim to Kleinburg to see Mary Pratt and Robert Bateman, who were both at the McMichael at the same time. I had no idea that Bateman had been to Tibet. In one of his books he also mentions using Zen in his art classes. I wonder if he is a Buddhist... He certainly exhibits (!) a lot of compassion for animals. Mary Pratt didn't have many paintings, but a Japanese artist had made numerous woodcuts of her paintings. This artist using so many blocks to make the pictures that from across the gallery, you might have mistaken the prints for real paintings.

Last night I saw some poetry at the Strega, the new home of the Grey Border series. I may need to find a new hangout, as I spend so much time at the Strega now. I got 2 CDs, including a new Fave: "Sarasvati Scapes, a Sound Opera" by Penn Kemp and Angela Hryniuk. There are a few tracks that feature Kiran Ahluwalia vocals. It's basically a travelogue told in verse form with chanting, music and sounds added. I stayed up late listening to it all the way through, and then again this morning getting ready for work.

Payment due

It's been two weeks since I finished my Art Camp at Brock, and they haven't sent me my pay yet, only money for art supplies. Tomorrow the money is due. Let's see what happens.

Another Elbows ?!?

An 8 year girl in my art class told me today (in a kid style helium voice) - "I was at a birthday party and there was a Mad Scientist who looked just like you and he had the same name as you." She was deadly serious. She didn't think we were the same person. In her world I bet there are loads of Elbowses who entertain children for a living.