And another in progress - revisiting the pottery pitchers

When preparing these uncommon views of my common objects, I take many, sometimes a hundred, photos of them in the strong fleeting morning light.  Of course out of a hundred there may be four or five worth working with.  One which I wrote off because of the lack of strong light kept attracting my eye.  It appears misty and the darkness of the pot interiors kept recalling the black hole idea.  I did this one quickly yesterday, attempting to invert the foreground/background or positive/negative space, disrupting the perception of depth and reducing the importance of the objects .    May continue with it.  May call it done.

I found an interview with Neil Hollingsworth from a few years ago at Art in the Real World that helped to ease my trepidation about my working from photos.  Remnants of my art school education are at odds with the heavy use of photos...wasn't done back then.  I think my art education would have been a very different experience had computers and digital cameras been available.  We drew on clay tablets or polished slate and made our pigments for cave wall paintings from burned bones of mastadons.  Fundamentals, you know?

done!

Looking at work in progress

 I have been working along while cleaning and rearranging my studio.  The warm weather allowed me to move all of my overwintering plants out of the studio window and out into the garden.  They left a mess behind.  The extra room gives me the space to spread out a bit in anticipation of starting to work on larger canvases.  I have several paintings in mind for a larger format and I've been doing some studies.  Perhaps you saw the intriquing photo Elaine/Earthula posted of a shirt ...no, a chemise, a smock, not just a shirt.  I was quite taken with the colors, the textures, the lighting and the beautiful and inventive design she whipped up and exquisitely finished.  I saw it as a painting...or a series or triptych.   So I have done some studies while waiting for my larger canvases to come.
















a developing color study above, and a grisaille (love that word) on the right.
both about 6"x12".  below is the reference photo clipped and cropped and set up for a triptych.

I'm finding that this is a difficult subject.  The values are close together, so the color and fine texture will be the thing.  The painting/drawing of the fabrics require a more calligraphic  hand to express the fluidity.


What do you think?  Interesting?  No?  Maybe? 

Real Photography

I'm preparing submissions to some juried shows and knew I needed to have much better photos to best present my work.  So I hauled a bunch of my paintings down to Jon Blumb's photography studio.  Jon is a well known local photographer who has an impressive portfolio of beautiful images as well as being the go to guy for local artists needing real photographs of their work.  When I picked up the digital images today, I ran  home and downloaded them.  Shocking.  The colors are exactly right, the nuances of glazes come through beautifully...and the glitches and rough spots are there in all their glory!  This is good.  I can see a lot of things I need to be paying more attention to as I develop both images and craft.

I have updated my other blog page Collecting and Collected with the old (photos I took with available light in my studio with what I now think is a color challenged camera!) and the new photos. 

In this age of digital photography, photoshop, illustrator and all the professional seeming tools we have at our disposal, it is easy to believe we are all photogaphers, digital artists, and graphic designers.  It's important to engage the help of real professionals when we need to present a professional image.  The difference is extraordinary.

Please take a look and let me know what you think.  Here's one example.

                                                        












my photo


 





Jon's photo.  It almost looks better than the original painting...and the extraordinary detail brings out the good and bad of my technique!!



See the rest of the new photos at  Collecting and Collected

playing with watercolor

More TV time sketches. Have a lot to learn about watercolor but I think the medium is a good teacher of many color and light lessons.

From Winslow Homer



















From JS Sargent

When errors are made, I use the old 'potted palm' masking technique!

bad things in the blog world?

I am having no end of computer trouble this week.  I am getting stupid pop ups even thought they are blocked and screened in every posible way.  They lock up my computer.  And many Blogspot pages won't load.  And comments I leave never show up because they go poof when the blogsite author tries to approve them.  I've noticed a big slowdown in visits to my site and I'm wondering if others are having the same problems?

Quartet of Pitchers on a Green Note.

Unfortunately, the richness of the darks and the glazing is lost a bit in these web images.

This one was an interesting challenge.  I specifically chose a tight color scheme and found the further I went along just how many greens can be in a simple green pitcher!

I actually like the earliest sketch stages almost as well as the finished product.  But there is something about the hard 'objectness' of a piece of pottery that begs to be treated with strong hard edges and details that bring out the character of each pot.

The more I work, the more interested I am in the shadows...there is just so much illumination and color shifting that happens as light invades the dark areas.












I think its probably time to explain why I am so drawn these top view looking down images.  Years ago, a colleague and good friend set a large book right on my work table--on top of what I was working on.  All he said was "I think you need to see this."  It was Andy Goldsworthy's first book, Hand to Eye.  Its hard to describe the immediate and deep impact his work had on my way of seeing.  One particular image is never far from my mind...

 

I still find the black void/hole infinitely fascinating after all those years

that I used it as my desktop wall paper as an

ironic statement as to the black hole-ness of the computer!

Time well spent

Well.  Its really spring!

Seems like everyone had a week or so of the doldrums.  Funny how that happens whether by moon phase of power of suggestion.

I think a bit of the problem may be information overload.  So I spent a good chunk of last week looking through and sorting and culling the huge number of photos I have accumulated for possible painting references.  It was very informative.

I've been painting consistently nearly every day for 5 months.  Its been an academic process of going through alot of the basic painting concepts and technique.  I've done a lot of thinking as to the why's and what's I'm doing.  Contemplating the varying levels of realism, thinking a lot about the integral relationship between drawing and painting, looking at artists that set the standard for where I want to be withing the next couple of years.

So in looking at all those photographs as a group and as a timeline,  saw the changes in what I'm looking for in an image and a definite trend toward the common object veiwed in an uncommon way.  I don't think I've come close to tapping out the possibilities there.

The painting shown here is actually one I started over a month ago.  It started as a quick sketch and I like the way it was going.

But then it became a bit gooey and I was frustrated with the composition.  I set it aside to do the Globes painting and some other work.

 I started another similar painting this week and have gotten into glazing and very specific color studies.  The glazing means I have time while it dries  to work on something else, so I pulled this one out and had a good look at it.  I don't recall what I didn't like about the compsition...it looks ok now!  So I attacked it this afternoon with the benifit of working on a dry surface...Wow, those bright colors actually didn't sink away into the base of oily goo!
 
I spent about an hour on it...I think I was able to keep the fresh brushwork and drawing quality while taking the whole surface 'up a few notches'.




























In case any one was wondering...no, I'm not doing black velvet elvis paintings.  I couldn't let the fool's day pass without some silliness!

Global Rules

This painting was done with the Calypso Moon Art Movement March Challenge in mind.  This month's theme was collecting and the challenge was to take two things you collect and do a painting.  This was a little perplexing, as ALL of my paintings are about the things, especially vintage pottery, that I actively collect or other objects that have special meaning or just wonderful shapes and colors.  As I have a strong series going with my pottery pieces, I decided to focus on other collections.  The 50 or more plastic swizzle sticks that my father collected on business trips to New York and Chicago in the 50's had possibilities.  My embarrassingly large number of yard sticks and other tools that measure things also got a good looking at.  Then there are the globes, some of which I've done work with before.  After over a hundred photos in bright morning sun on my studio table, I decided on the globes and yardsticks.  May do another with the Swizzle Sticks and Yard Sticks...nice play on words and a very linear focus.

Looking at the many photos, I decided to risk violating the rule of the challenge.  There were to be only two objects...or you could, with one eye closed and the other squinting, read it as just two collections.  Since I think a lot about collections and make compositions using stuff like this, I think that to thoroughly communicate the idea of a collection rather than just illustrate items you have, there needs to be at least three of a kind in the mix.  (2 is a pair, 3 is a collection)  I also think that, though it is certainly possible to do so, a composition with only two objects does not have nearly the power and movement of three or other odd numbers of items.  Old flower arranging guideline and general rule of design that I generally accept.  I haven't tried negative numbers, could be a concept!

So this is what I came up with.  I'm pretty pleased with the strength of the color and the 3 dimensional quality of the composition.  After the first stage shown below, I nearly scrapped it.  Too linear, composition not clear.  Pushing the colors to a greater intensity in the lower and central areas and decreasing them in the upper left helped to get the focus and eye movement into a better relationship.

This is only a few of my yardsticks!!!  I like ones with good color, interesting typefaces and ad info. I have a few very unusual ones, the rest are just remnants of paint stores and county fairs of yesteryear.  My globes hang out all over the house, some of them on a high shelf in the open beamed  livingroom.  The little gold one was a gift I gave my daughter.  Its from Russia as a commemoration of the Sputnik launch...the little wire and rocket describe the trajectory out of Siberia!  (Daughter had interests in astronautical engineering at one point but has settled in Geography and Russian Studies.  She can read the inscription.  I can't!!)

Copper bowls - Water Music

 
There's a little more to do on this one. Copper has an amazing range of colors.  I think that's why I'm so drawn to these little bowls over and over again.  They sit on an end table with glass votive candle holders inserted.  I find my self staring at them all the time.








A few touch ups and some brighter brights.  I'm happy with this one, the reference photo I took has been sitting on my desk for a while.  Frankly, the photo is so striking that I had a lot of thoughts about whether to paint it or not.

I am particularly fond of the upper background area.  In fact, the backgrounds of all of my paintings seem to be getting to the 'real' quality I'm leaning toward.  Most all of my work to date has been intentionally very academic as I reacquaint myself with gooey media after years of doing architectural sketches and renderings with colored pencil and markers.  I'm nearing the point of boredom with the academic approach.  Expect some new explorations soon!!

I think that if my previous still life evoked hot late night jazz riffs, this one seems more in the mode of a Handel oboe or brass interlude in the Water Music Suites

Making paintings out of sketches

My Studio class at the Lawrence Arts Center wrapped up yesterday.  I never got the hang of working on a work in progress in class, so I brought in what I was working on for comment and spent the short 2 hours doing sketches of the studio gang.  Some went better than others.  I'm going back and fixing them up as I plan out my next paintings.  Its kind of cathartic to take an older dry sketch and try smacking it into shape!

Class sketch with mud.

reworked sketch done in the studio.

Something completely different

Need a break and something to sketch so I took part in this challenge at Gary Keimig's site. You'll have to scroll down a ways, meaning you'll get to see Gary's stunning paintings of snowy valleys in Wyoming. Beautiful work!

This was fun...spent about an hour, pretending I was using a pencil and using up paint on my palette from another painting.

Reality Check and discussion.

 

I woke this morning with a high level of anxiety and a fear that I am wasting my time and energy on trying to make painting a second career. The following article was the first thing I saw in my mail box.
Sue Smith, whose website Ancient Artist provides some of the most sound and reality based information on the business of art, posted this new article about the realities of art in this crazy economy. It deserves a good read and a great deal of thought and discussion.

Is There A New Art Economy?

The cruelest thing about the economy right now is that it creates self doubt. And self doubt is an insidious thing, tempting you to see patterns and competition and fear everywhere.  As time wears us down, we're left wondering if we'll ever sell paintings at the same rate as before...if we're not as good now as we were then...if it's because others are moving into our markets and pushing us aside.  The answer to those questions is a resounding...

And that's the second most cruel thing about the economy right now.  There are no answers.

The rest of the article cant be found at ANCIENT ARTIST .  Read it.

I open up this post to discussion for all about your responses to this article.

Are you making art to sell?  Is it selling?  Do you have a plan?

If there is enough discussion, as there I think there may be, I'll start a new blog page for a continuing dialog.

Jazz trio

little bit of touch up still needed.  this one has been really difficult in large part because I bought a really cheap no-name gesso board that turned out to be so slick I couldn't get the paint to stay in place.  Painted the whole thing twice. that made it tighter than I had intended.

won't make that mistake again.went out and and bought real gessobord yesterday.

dogs on parade

The Westminster Dog Show was on last week...and I was able to catch a bit of it. I always find it interesting and amusing and fortunately had a pencil and paper handy to catch some of the latest canine fur styling!

Drawing from TV can be a good exercise in very quickly seeing the lines and shapes and getting the essential information down. If you make good 'notes', you can work up a bit more detail during commercial breaks!

not sure who's showing whom!

3 copper bowls - 1

I did this one really fast.  I told myself that it was a drawing, not a painting.  I was just drawing with gooey paint instead of a pencil.

I think, if I can continue the rouse, this may be a good practice in the future.




oil on 5x7 canvas panel

Sweeping up.

Ok...I've been working on a few paintings which I'll post soon.  But its time to clean up the studio and make it presentable.  I have started a new blog page, collecting and collected, as more of a gallery with only finished images that I would consider ready for the public at large.  It's not at 100% just yet, but feel free to take a look:


This one needs to get cleaned up a bit.  You might think I don't have much to say about my work...anyone who really knows me would get a good laugh about THAT!  Look for continued progress shots, and some longer pieces of thinking 'out loud' on the new Page feature.

I may end up moving the whole thing, both blogs, to wordpress where there are so many more layout options and flexibility.  Thoughts on that, anyone?

A shot at the daily painting method

Allowed myself two hours. Quit at the 2 hour mark.

Not sure about what I believe is the 'blocking method' which seems a lot like the 'coloring book method'. I don't mean to offend dedicated daily painters, but this is really hard for me to do. On the other hand, its really fast and clean.

oops...forgot to take photos. a lot of stuff happened.

self portrait in the surround of globes....

Most of my work lately has been focused on working with my collection of art pottery. I find the forms and colors very strong elements to work into compositions and 'pot portraits'. In discussing this--and cats and words and house paints and all kinds of other topics-- with my friend Elaine I mentioned that I also collected globes. She said "Image- you held in the surround of globes." I was struck with that particular string of words and it kept rattling around in my head.

I was starting to collect together some ideas for exploring this word image when I happened across Alice Thompson's new challenge blog Calypso Moon Artist Movement. The first challenge was to do a self portrait using Black, White and one single color of choice. Van Gogh for inspiration. I thought I'd pass on this one as I was planning on starting another group of paintings and I am not at the moment taken with Van Gogh Portraits. I've been in a Vermeer frame of mind lately. But my globe lamp, my nearly global white swirly urn, my big glass marble ball started leaping around in my field of vision and I quickly changed course. No, I don't mean I had to dodge the leaping moderately valuable collectables! This was figurative or metaphorical leaping of ideas only, I'm ok! So with a quick look at Van Gogh I went ahead with a more Vermeerish layering of space and started "self portrait in the surround of globes".

The one color? Torquois-y blue like the globe? Too chilly. The shade on the lamp is a lovely rust color which lead me directly to Burnt Sienna. As you can see, I started with a clear direction and was going to make a quick sketch of it but I dawdled and got too much paint on the itty bitty canvas so I let it sit over night. First thing this morning, I sat down to look at it before donning my white painting shirt and it was clear that this needed to be a black turtleneck portrait.

Conte pencil rough-in.

I have no idea who the ghastly nearly dead looking guy in the white shirt is. Oh...its supposed to look like me. Scrubbed out the face as it was out of control.

White shirt was grabbing too much attention, and it started to look kind of shabby. Repainted the face using the Burnt Sienna. Did the Skebneski black turtle neck.

Much better layering of values, I think.







oil on 5x7 canvas board
mars black, titanium white, burnt sienna.













The next day I had a brush with some white paint on it and couldn't help fixing that face a bit. Photo is better now that the paint has dried a little and not reflecting so much canvas texture.




and then I had to add the missing color.