Composer Misha Dutka has written numerous operatic works in the past, and I have created logo images for his Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge,Liebovar and Brandon’s Song. He commissioned a new illustration for a work he’s developing now, based on the poems of Dorothy Parker, a writer of the Algonquin Round Table fame. While Ms. Parker had wit and humor in her reviews and stories, her life was not such a happy one. Her colleague Alexander Woollcott once stated of her, “That bird only sings when she’s unhappy.”
I’ll post more about the work when there are details for a premier performance, but here is the working image for “Unhappy Bird.”
In scrolling through the Conde Nast archives of his New Yorker cover art I have found another terrific painting by Arthur Getz, whose covers – over 200 of them – became the set piece for the magazine’s tone from the 1940s through the 80s. Let’s take a look at this cover from 1958.
This jazz trio may be three anonymous musicians from a long-shuttered nightclub, but Arthur Getz immortalized them beautifully in this painting. His composition, as always, leads the viewer’s eye in a clear but interesting path through the scene. You first note the ray of smoke-hazed blue light falling from the upper right to left, flashing on the double-bassist’s left hand. Those fingers point your gaze across his chest to his right sleeve, where it tumbles down the back of the pianist, to snake around the drummer’s head and jacket, and then follow the drummer’s arm into orbit among all the cymbals, hi-hats, sticks and drums!
If you allow your eyes to take that trip a few times, they might eventually land in that mysterious cloud of dark, raw ultramarine in the nightclub background in the center right. I love it when Getz buries a masterstroke in the shadows like this—in that blue vapor you can just barely make out a dark-haired woman seated, one arm on the table, one hand at her chin. In a few loose, masterful strokes he drops this woman into the story, and while she might be the guest of the necktied gent to her right, her eyes seem to be right in line with the drummer’s gaze as well – is there a connection between the two perhaps?
Getz’s command of the value and temperature of colors is on full display in this piece. It is painted primarily with blues and yellows, so the cool tones separate distinctly from the warm ones, giving clean contrast between different forms whether they are brilliant in the spotlight or dimmed in the shadows. The suits on the three men are all neutral warms and cools, so that the gleaming yellow cymbals and rich sienna brown of the double bass stand out. I like too how the magazine picked up the cymbal yellow for the magazine masthead.
I wondered what medium Getz used for covers such as this, and was kindly answered through Instagram by his daughter Sarah. She posts ‘The Art of Arthur Getz’ - @arthurkimmiggetz – on IG and she explained that his work through the early 1960s was mostly painted in casein tempera. After that he expanded into watercolor, pen and ink and acrylic paint.
Getz sometimes uses another device in his paintings, one that I see often and admire in the work of early 20th century Swedish illustrator Carl Larsson—the faces of his subjects are deeply shadowed, or slightly blocked, or turned away from the viewer. It gives a realism and spontaneity to the scene, an unrehearsed beauty to it. The bassist and drummer in this painting have unusual angles to their turned faces , and I can tell you those angles are quite hard to capture in loose strokes, but Getz’s hand had a casual precision to it that conveyed the angles easily.
I’d call this piece another triumph for Arthur Getz, brilliantly catching on paper a slice of New York City’s cool mid-century nightlife with expert composition, effective colors and that extra punch of mystery veiled in the background.
I wrote two other Getz cover reviews which you can read HERE and HERE. To see other New Yorker covers by Getz go HERE .
The Bucks County Herald is running one of my cartoons this week, on the editorial page – the scene may look familiar since it’s a twist on the famous painting by Leutze of Washington crossing the Delaware. You can check it out on their e-edition by clicking here and turning to page 10. Nice to be the local paper! If you have any trouble enlarging it, I’ll place it below too – –
There are lots of great shops in Lambertville, by the way, if you haven’t been there since the Revolution! And the actual re-enactment of Washington making the daring river cross on Christmas Eve is scheduled for this coming Christmas Day, from noon to 3 (actual crossing at 1pm) at Washington Crossing Historic Park, 1112 River Road, Washington Crossing, PA. All the details are HERE.
Once again I have happily illustrated the flyer for the Lenape Chamber Ensemble’s Children’s Concert for next spring. This concert gives youngsters a taste of lovely classical music and teaches some things about composers and themes they explored, and it’s a delightful afternoon event. The world-class musicians of the Lenape Chamber Ensemble make it fun and enjoyable for kids and their parents alike.
For this one I first sketched a scene in pencil with some springtime animal musicians – rabbits and runner ducks, plus a little hummingbird and some bumblebees. Runners ducks are great characters, they stand tall and much more erect than common ducks, resembling a bowling pin on legs. I added an audience of baby bunnies and chicks, and decided a background of tulips would be appropriate for a March concert.
I then tightened up that sketch, to put some detail in the instruments –
And finally traced that drawing through my lightbox, in ink onto paper and added hatched toning to finish the drawing.
I highly recommend the Lenape Chamber Ensemble concerts, for kids and of course for adults as well! Their whole schedule of concerts is on their website here.
I’ve written about having my cartoons published in the New Yorker magazine and on their website (quite a kick since I’ve enjoyed their cartoons for so many years) and I wanted to mention that the magazine also makes all their gags available on novelty items, which can come in handy for special gift-giving. The Conde Nast Store is filled with funny cartoons and magazine art that you can order on mugs, cards, tshirts and many other items. (And full disclosure, I get a royalty from them on any products with my artwork sold.) Unfortunately I do not have any cartoons in their 2024 desk calendar – I’ve sold a few new gags just recently to the NYer so I’m hoping they pick a few of mine for the 2025 calendar.
Product descriptions are on the site, and you can browse tagged topics (left hand column) and cartoonists’ names (top search box) to see what other funny New Yorker drawings are available as unique gifts.
I wrote previously about Squiggles, A Very Merry Chrismouse while I was still working on the finished illustrations, but now, through the hard work of author Laurie Nowlan, it is out in print – and as a beautiful hardback book too! It’s such a sweet story to give to a young child this Christmas, I think it could easily become a family favorite that is read and enjoyed as an annual holiday tradition.
Below are some of my pencil sketches for the story, about Squiggles the mouse and his Mama getting ready for Christmas. Their house will soon be empty of people because its owners are going away for Christmas this year.
While Squiggles gets into a pickle trying to hunt down a Christmas gift for Mama, rest assured there is a happy ending to the story! Here are a few color scenes –
Author Laurie Nowlan and I worked very well together on this book – we both felt that, in keeping with the sweet, rather old-fashioned flavor of the story, I should give a Beatrix Potter-type look to the characters. Laurie also suggested an illustrated border around the pages, and young readers will have fun finding all the Christmas items tucked into those borders. The mellow, natural color of the paper we chose for the book also adds to its homey, storybook feel, and the publisher did a lovely print job – it’s a sturdy hardback book with a bright cover, and I am really pleased with it! If you know a little one who loves Christmas stories, please consider picking up Squiggles.
You can meet author Laurie Nowlan and buy a copy of Squiggles at her book signing on Saturday, November 25 from 12 to 2:00 pm at the Shoppes @ Gladwyne Pharmacy in Gladwyne at 352 Righters Mill Road.
To purchase Squiggles through BookBaby, click HERE to go to Laurie’s author page and don’t missthe offer under the “Overview” section, which says: “Receive a $5.00 discount at checkout by using the coupon code Squiggles.” So don’t forget to type Squiggles into the coupon code box when you purchase!
Squiggles is also available (currently) to pre-order through Amazon HERE. If you preorder on Amazon please note, they will email you with an estimated ship date, but I don’t know that it is guaranteed to be delivered before Christmas.
Twice a year the Lenape Chamber Ensemble offers a delightful classical music hour for young children, live, with world-class musicians, at DelVal University. I am always happy to draw a fun flyer to advertise the concert, with animals playing musical instruments. For this year’s fall concert I chose foxes as the instrumentalists, with squirrels in the audience, since our area abounds with these little creatures in the autumn.
I have a template for arranging the text so I fill that in and then create a rough pencil sketch around it. I try to show at least one of each instrument mentioned, and if I can, I make some visual reference to some of the music that will be played.–
The musicians that do this children’s concert are world-class artists, and they chat very comfortably with the children that attend. They play snippets of the music that they will perform for adults in evening concerts, and explain moods, themes and music styles to their young audience.
In my drawing process, after my rough sketch I take individual animals and draw them and the instruments more tightly –
One of my favorite parts of the Lenape Chamber Ensemble children’s concerts is at the end, when they often invite the kids to get up and dance in the aisles to show what they feel the music is saying. I caught this photo a few years ago at a concert –
It shows how even very young kids are moved by the delight of classical music.
The last step in my process is to ink in my traced sketches and draw in a background. For this one I added a picture of Bach on the tree trunk since the Brandenburg Concerto is among the pieces to be featured. Then I looked up the city of Brandenburg and made a distant representation of it as it appears on the Havel River in Germany, in the background of this fanciful woodland scene.
I highly recommend the Lenape Chamber ensemble’s children’s concert, it’s a lovely and educational experience for all ages!
I am pleased to report that a lovely feature, by Fred R. Savana, about my cartooning and illustration is in today’s Bucks County Herald newspaper, in their special magazine section Prime Time. Quite another feather in my cap! You can read it by going HERE and scrolling to pages 18 to 20.
The Herald is a wonderful newspaper that truly serves our community (and I’m not just saying that because of this article!) I have sent them numerous press releases about arts groups I work with and the Herald prints all of them, for the sole purpose of promoting local events. The Central Bucks area is very fortunate to have a great community partner in the Herald.
One of the most popular figures in Doylestown history is Henry Chapman Mercer, builder of the Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle. Aside from his better-known pursuits of tile-making, archaeology, and pre-industrial tool collecting, he also wrote a book of short stories with rather gothic, fantastical themes, November Night Tales. I was happy to illustrate one of these stories, “Castle Valley,” in the Spring issue of Neshaminy Journal. One scene in the story depicts an unusual crystal which causes glowing, supernatural apparitions to appear –
The Doylestown Historical Society will explore more about Mercer’s writings in a lecture on Wednesday July 26 at 7 PM. Slippery Rock College professor Tom Sparrow will speak at the first inaugural Abramson Art & Artist series on “No ‘Destitute Scribbler’: Henry C. Mercer’s Adventure in Publishing.” The event takes place at the Doylestown Historical Society, 56 S. Main Street, Doylestown. Tickets can be purchased in advance for $10 here or by calling the Doylestown Historical Society or $15 at the door. I’m looking forward to it!
I’ve been working on a new project for local author Laurie Nowlan this summer – it will be out before the holidays and it’s a delightful Christmas story. I can’t give too much away now, but Laurie said you can have a look at some pencil sketches. When we are further along I’ll be posting more art, and info on how to purchase this sweet book.
Just a few sneak previews of this charming story! Please subscribe to my blog if you’d like to see upcoming artwork I post from this project and others.
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