Post no.25* Girl holding a seed

8x12 in.

pencil on paper

2013 stephen bauman

4500SEK/690USD

*I made a painting of this subject with a nightingale on her shoulder.  So the model is about to feed her companion with the sunflower seed she is holding.  I really like the idea that this bird has so many mythical connotations.  For certain romantic poets it took on the quality of a muse, and thats how I used it in this painting...  well, I guess that because the nightingale is not in this drawing I might be getting a bit off topic.  I love this quote though.   Shelley wrote in his “A Defense of Poetry":

"A poet is a nightingale who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds; his auditors (listeners) are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened, yet know not whence or why.”

Post no.24* Cornelia (revised)

8x12 in.

pencil and gouache on paper

2013 stephen bauman

4500SEK/690USD

*This is the second preparatory drawing for a painting that I have been planning.  The first one is Post no.22 on this blog, and while I am pleased by the first drawing I found that it did not express the inner beauty that I believe my wife possesses (!).  There was not enough of her eyes and her expression was more withdrawn.  The feeling was one of repose when I had actually wanted to show her optimism and just enough of her smile (which I put such a high value on).  This is one of the reasons I make preparatory drawings, it helps me realize precisely what it is I am expressing in a given work, and what I truly want to express.  In this drawing I've also added the pearl earrings that I bought her this last Valentines day, a gift with which she was supremely pleased.  So maybe now I can start the painting...

Post no.23* Christer

12x8 in.

pencil on paper

2013 stephen bauman

4000SEK/600USD

*Christer is another of our students at the Florence Academy of Art in Gothenburg.  Along with studying at the FAA he plays bass guitar in a Swedish rock band called Freak Kitchen.  

Post no.22* Cornelia

13x9 in.

pencil on paper

2013 stephen bauman

4500SEK/690USD

*A drawing of my wife Cornelia Hernes, whose work you can check out by clicking on the link.  She is my favorite subject.  This is the study for the next painting that I will do, and like a lot of my paintings it will be about perceptions.  How she is in reality and about how I see her.  Its a way to explain, or reconcile, my world and the real world.  I suppose that anyone who has been lucky enough to find love in their life will understand this.

Post no.21* Goldfish

9x9 in.

pencil on paper

2013 stephen bauman

2700SEK/400USD

*These fish, until recently, resided at the Florence Academy of Art's kitchen here in Mölndal (they were moved to our office manager's home).  They were supposed to be in a painting of mine but didn't make the final cut (crop).  I found them very hard to draw and even harder to paint.  While I didn't include them in my painting ,Wish, I am sure they will show up somewhere in the future.

Post no.20* Study for The Violinist II

10x6 in.

pencil and gouache on paper

2013 stephen bauman

3000SEK/430USD

*I did this drawing a a preparation for what will be my second violinist painting (hence the post title).   There will be the same, ascension-magic-pleasure-balance, but the painting will be composed with a more iconic vision in mind.  If you follow my artist's blog as well it will be posted there within the next couple of months (it's a big picture).

Post no.19* Study of a Portrait of Rodin by Camille Claudel

12x6 in.

charcoal and pencil on paper

2012 stephen bauman

2700SEK/400USD

*A beautiful portrait of the man himself. There are a couple of portraits by Rodin of Camille... some less flattering than others.

Post no.18* Study for Daedalus II

10x9 in.

pencil on paper

2011 stephen bauman

SOLD

* This study was done at the same time as the other that I posted of the same subject and was sold at a charity auction benefitting the Hunger Project at Gallery Nils Aberg, here in Gothenburg. It wound up in the possession of a couple of good friends of mine for which I am very glad. I was piecing together the idea of a metamorphoses using various elements (read: body parts) from old academic drawings that I've hunted down on the internet. This idea, in some form, will eventually become a painting... eventually.

Post no.17* Portrait of Anna-Lena

14x12 in.

charcoal, pencil, and chalk on paper

2012 stephen bauman

3000SEK/430USD

*Sometimes you just see someone around the studio again and again and think, "I've got to do a drawing of that person..." And then you don't do it, and this repeats over and over. Well, now I've done it, thank you Anna-Lena.

Post no.16* Portrait of Nicholas Benedict Robinson

14x14 in.

charcoal and pencil on paper

2011 stephen bauman

3000SEK/430USD

*Nick, from Ireland, has studied here at the F.A.A. in Mölndal for over a year now. A model student in many ways, constantly questioning and never satisfied... Hopefully the satisfaction will come in time.

Post no.15* Portrait of Joakim

15x11 in.

charcoal and pencil on paper

2011 stephen bauman

3000SEK/430USD SOLD

*What can I say about Joakim Ericsson... He is a human being of the absolutely highest quality. I was terrified of him when I started at the Florence Academy of Art. He was explicit during critiques... I thought he didn't like me, like really didn't like me. I will not relate any particular stories here but suffice to say I had what I considered to be very good reasons.

All of this to say, I didn't know him AT ALL. When Cornelia and I moved to Sweden to teach in the Mölndal branch of the F.A.A. I finally spent some time with him one on one. We talked, drank beers, played a game or two of Axis and Allies, and I came to find out that I had been as wrong about him as I have ever been about a person, ever. So, Joakim Ericsson, one hell of a nice guy.

Post no.14* Portrait of Alex

15x12 in.

charcoal and pencil on paper

2011 stephen bauman

3000SEK/430USD

*An early post this week for a new friend of mine, Alex. He is an actor, singer, and dancer... and a model that I will be working with again soon.

Post no.13* Portrait of Eldon

15x12 in.

charcoal on paper

2011 stephen bauman

2700SEK/400USD

*Eldon, a student here at F.A.A. Mölndal, is another bright spot in this years group. I was told a story about this drawing he has been working on for over a year now. The thing is done in layers, sheet after transparent sheet and all in brilliant detail. It has attained a status in my imagination that, should I ever see it, will be hard to live up to... but I really want to see it. Eldon is precisely the type of person who would do such a thing, like a character in a Tom Waits song ("whats he building in there...?"). Secretly building something and hiding it from the world.

Post no.12* Jean d'Aire from the Burghers of Calais

9x9 in.

charcoal on paper

2011 stephen bauman

1800SEK/260USD

*I have started back at drawing, this time with charcoal, and to a familiar subject- the Burghers. There is so much to love about these figures, these sometimes jaggedly faceted sometimes gently undulating forms. So much conviction in the making of their expressive faces. The more I look at them the less real they look and the more real they seem. Their look on the head of Jean d'Aire that would last only for a second on a living breathing human face has been frozen there for over a hundred years. The story is that they believed they were to be executed after handing over the keys to the city to King Edward III of England but were spared due to the English queen convincing Edward to exercise a bit of mercy. Their city had been held under seige, they were starved and emaciated, ordered to walk outside the city walls half naked toward their presumed execution. Every time I study the features of these sculptures my mind wanders into what the expression is, exactly.

Post no.11* Portrait of Lana

12x8 in.

charcoal on paper

2011 stephen buaman

2700SEK/400USD SOLD

*Lana just finished her first term here at the Florence Academy of Art in Mölndal. She is full of talent and has what I would call an older aesthetic, certainly as far as her hairstyle is concerned. It reminds me of one of Charles Dana Gibson's girls and their rather iconic hair shapes, though a little bit more subtle.

Post no.10* Of a Portrait Study by Rodin

6x9 in.

pencil on paper

2011 stephen bauman

1500SEK/230USD

*Was really enjoying myself at the MET this summer. The corridor filled with Rodin's work in marble, clay, and bronze... Not to mention Lepage's Joan of Arc! The sculpture I've drawn here is a small head study/sketch which is behind a bit of glass along with a small bronze Head of Balzac and several other seemingly preparatory works, and sometimes I find that I'll be pouring over these fragments as much as I will be his Age of Bronze... Drawing clay thats been pushed and pulled around but not "finished," is a pleasure.

Post no.9* From an Academic Study by Hugh Ramsay

6x9 in.

pencil on paper

2011 stephen bauman

200USD/1,300SEK SOLD

For purchase of this drawing please contact Michael Chimel of Jack Meier Gallery.

*Michael and I have partnered up to sell one drawing out of every fifteen drawings posted here for the benefit of Barrio Dogs Inc. And for more about Hugh Ramsay click here and visit his Wikipedia page.

Post no.8* Jean d'Aire from the Burghers of Calais

7x11 in.

pencil on paper

2011 stephen bauman

1,300SEK/200USD

*The most recent of what will be frequent appearances by the Burghers...

Post no.7* Portrait of Me (her name is Me)

8x11 in.

pencil on paper

2011 stephen bauman
1,500SEK/230USD

*A very nice model who I worked with during summer school this year. This was the first portrait I had done in pencil for quite a long time. I find that long breaks in between projects in a particular medium help me to shake off some bad habits in favor of new habits based on better observation.

Post no.6* Aimé Jules Dalou - A Bronze Bust Of A Sleeping Baby

10x8.5 in.
pencil on paper
2011 stephen bauman
1,300SEK/200USD

*I thought that this post was appropriate as I am visiting America at the moment, and have met a good friend's baby Gaius for the first time. I find that the most convincing aspect of the sculpture for me is that particular sleeping baby gesture.

Post no.5* Flying head of Pierre de Wissant

7x10 in.

pencil on paper

2011 stephen bauman

1,300SEK/200USD

*I deeply appreciate Rodin's work. Making drawings of figurative sculpture is one of my most cherished activities, it's like watching the sculptor work. Following the forms, replicating the expression... it's really a more focused way to appreciate a sculpture that you love. Making it "fly," is what it is...

Post no.4* Study for Daedalus

9x12 in.
pencil on paper
2011 stephen bauman
1,500SEK/230USD SOLD

*I have been working with different versions of a composition for Daedalus. This is a more symbolic version, an cunning old man conceiving of way to escape. Imagining a kind of metamorphosis...

Post no.3* Pigeons

9x12 in.
pencil on paper
2011-stephen bauman
price-1,700SEK/275USD

*My sudio mate Andreas Birath painted a picture of this same stuffed pigeon. The one with it's wings spread, and refered to it as "a pigeon trying to be an eagle." I liked that.

Post no.2* From Jules Bastien-Lepage's Saison d'Octobre

bau
9x9 in.
pencil on paper
2011-stephen bauman
price-1,300SEK/200USD

*You can find out about Lepage here on his wikipedia page.

Post no.1* From Ribera's St. Jerome and the Angel

6x7 in.
pencil on paper
2011-stephen bauman
price-1,100SEK/175USD

*You can find out more about Ribera here on his wikipedia page.