On The Table, is one of my attempts to update a series of drawings by my Great Aunt Helen (Henny of Pastiche and referenced again in Median). In the 1930’s she did a number of pastels of her family engaged in playing chess. There are at least 3 that survive. The chess players are all in profile. They are in suits. They smoke cigarettes and pipes. The lighting is subdued and throws their faces into shadow. These little pools of table top lamp light highlight their cheeks and not much else. They are quite spare in their rendering, but the simple gestures seem to capture so much.  This was one of Henny’s great skills.  And even though they are quite formally presented, some of their evident playfulness is captured too - mostly in their shoes and attentive postures.

 

Plaid, another reworking of game play over a table top took the profile pose my great aunt had preferred and accentuated it with negative space. There is also an intentional flatness to that one. I wanted it to reference her admiration for the pattern of Mary Cassatt prints as well. In Plaid I was working more in her style. But here I have made this type of scene much more my own.  

 

Henny’s dramatic lighting is still present. It is not the darkness of a library but rather the flood of bright afternoon sunlight. The slouching figure is me, on the verge of turning 15.  Across from me is Jonathan Friend, safe to say the friend I have known the longest. The postures are sloppy and there is an air of “Whaddya wanna do?” boredom.  Still we are heavily engaged, with each other, with the book Jonathan is reading (probably aloud), with the pinball like ball game in the center of the table.  Like the chess players it is a combination of attention and relaxation.  But I also chose to include the other 2 empty chairs.  Yes, there is the “W” composition that is a bit eccentric; but I also liked the way that it implied others watching. Henny was there sketching the chess players.  My Dad and/or Jonathan’s father Peter had thought to take the photo of just what those kids were up to.