Drawn in Portsmouth; revised in Philadelphia

by Alden Cole on September 6, 2016 · 1 comment

LincolnPerry_ThePorch1985_FramedWPLincoln Perry • Pete’s Porch • oil on masonite panel, 8″ x 10″ • collection of Alden Cole

Picking up where I left off with my August 23rd posting: Drawing Heidi R. with Lincoln Perry:
To reiterate, Lincoln lived with me for a few months in Portsmouth, NH while he
12x9_BikiniSailor@72was in town working on a commissioned mural. During that time, we occasionally drew Heidi at my apartment, which provided the perfect stage-set for numerous posing ideas, usually suggested by Lincoln. I was basically there to watch and learn. The base of the Sailor Girl drawing at left, as well as the drawings below (which were done back to back on the same piece of paper) were started as figure studies during those sessions; drawings which I revamped in major style after arriving in Philadelphia, during a time when I was thinking about a return to

14x11_Evening-BathingBack2BackWPfashion illustration, which never happened; some old careers are just not worth re-pursuing. Nevertheless it was fun and interesting to take some of those early figure drawings and give them a whole different focus. This exercise
14x11_EveningDressBack2BackWPultimately took me back in time, reminding me of my first encounter with the drawings by Alberto Vargas (9 Feb 1896 – 30 Dec 1982) of pin-up girls which I first saw in my youth at Cole Farm Dairy, obviously offering pleasant diversions for the herdsmen who
11x8_ColorizedWPworked in the barn. This was a formative introduction to the art of cheese-cake which I still find delightful, as is obvious from these drawings.

Anyway, what’s a painting by Lincoln Perry doing in a blog that’s usually about my work? Well, it’s a beautiful and meaningful memento from my time living in Portsmouth, NH; part of the delight of that time was getting to know Heidi better, thanks to those drawing sessions with Lincoln. As a result of moving to Philadelphia and
12x9_SittingFigureWPsettling down here, I got caught up with my new life, and lost contact with both Lincoln and Heidi; connection with her was recently re-established via the wonders of the internet and Facebook. Is contact with Lincoln Perry next?

So how did I get so lucky as to acquire this little jewel of a painting pictured above by one of the more talented painters of my generation? When Lincoln moved out of town, he left behind in the trash-can in the small room where he had been living, a small token of his skills which he apparently didn’t think worthy of taking along with him – the oil sketch above which I recognized for what it is: facile genius worthy of Sergant or Tintoretto. Thanks Lincoln!

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

nancy wysemen September 11, 2016 at 7:14 pm

Hi Double portrait in gray is fascinating and too real…that’s about me… rest of these works in this section are delightful. “Flirting” allows for some physical agility- hump,think I could write an essay for women’s studies. ALL AMUSING.

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