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!