Monday, February 22, 2010

ARTIST on the SPOT


Back Bay...Cape May NJ

In the mid seventies, while still fully engaged in my private medical practice, but dreaming of the life of an artist, I began spending time in the streets of Wilmington Delaware with my sketch book. For inspiration and guidance I turned to the works of Paul Hogarth and Norman MacDonald, both prominent professional illustrators. I purchased everything I could find by Hogarth, including old Magazines and out of date books he illustrated, and a new book by MacDonald, published in 1972, called Artist on the Spot. Over the next 30 years I would periodically pull them off the shelf and look at them for the umpteenth time, never failing to be inspired. In preparation for my trip to Italy I began once again looking through the well worn volumes. Sadly, Paul Hogarth died several years ago, but MacDonald? I didn't know, so like any able bodied 21st century man I googled him, and to my great delight found his website and a means of contacting him, which I did. And was rewarded with a very nice response from the artist. It is experiences like this that sustain my amazement of the small world we now live in.

I have not checked to see if the book is still in print (a Van Nostrand Reinhold Book), but if it is, I would recommend it to anyone who loves to sketch.

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