Cherries and Scribbles

Cherries and Scribbles   oil   8 x 24 x .5

Visual people seem to pay attention to what they like...or not.  For me, I feel that there is a perceptual "lift" in my spirits when shapes, colors and rhythms arise to the surface, a bit like a runner's high.  I definitely zone out when there is too much clutter, too many things.  So, rather than a complex still life, I prefer honing in on one particular.  Usually, I would be tempted to paint this small crock of cherries on a square canvas.  In this instance, I used a format that would stretch my imagination...a split screen with a bit of texture.  Simple, yet complex.  The darker layer of red violet was painted over a light ground and scratched into, almost immediately.  The color palette of light blue and burgundy (or oxblood or cordovan) recalls the oxford shirts, penny loafers and madras fabric of my early teenage years, the time of "coming of age", when colors, songs and experiences seem stronger than anything else experience up to that point in time.  It is a palette I have always loved.

So, I guess it would seem that this work satisfies me on so many levels....aesthetically, of course.

Come. Sit.

Come. Sit.    Mixed media on toned paper   20.5 x 15

I love chairs.  Especially those that beckon.  Each has a personality.  And each bears the weight of those who have sat before.  This large drawing was accomplished by means of several mediums.  The white conte accomplished most of the wicker, with the toned paper standing in for shadow areas and with the added benefit of giving the impression of wicker without the over-abundance of stroke-making which, in my opinion, lessens the power of the work.  A template made of tracing paper was used to isolate the pillow area where relief ink was used.  It was nice.

Too nice.  Why am I so attracted to chairs?  I guess it is because I rarely sit down.  On the day that I was working on this drawing, I kept notes of my own stream of consciousness....of all of the things on my "to do" list, all of them keeping me from sitting, from relaxing.  A soft graphite stick was used for the calligraphy....done quickly, unevenly, as if I had no time for the task.  T'is true. 

"Come. Sit." was made more personal by this addition, more meaningful.  More me. 

West meets East...calligraphy...

Last evening at our local art club we were treated to a wonderful presentation on Chinese painting presented by Mina Huang and Manna Huang.  Mina provided a power point presentation on the evolution of the characters showing different styles and varieties common during particular dynasties.  The characters we see today have been around for 1700 years!  Then Manna, who is classically trained, demonstrated the actual painting process.  For me, two amazing things stood out:  first of all, the economy of stroke-making (every stroke counts...and none will be covered over) and secondly, the ease and care taken to mix the ink/water solution properly and load the brush.  It was simply superb!  And each of these artists has carried over their talents to accommodate our Western way of painting.

Many years ago, I practiced using the brush this way to form our western alphabet.  I can remember putting my young boys into the tub to play, while I sat nearby practicing the push and pull of the brush to and from the paper surface.

Let's hear it for stroke-making!

Secrets...from a garden statue

Secrets   Watercolor/Mixed   17.5 x 12.5

The subject of our last watercolor class of the year was architectural detail.  There were stained glass window, archway and garden post paintings.  As this has been a particularly busy time for me, I elected to search my photo archives....and chose a photo taken of this cement garden sculpture that I found on the grounds of an antique shop in Ravenna.  This lovely maiden was found lying down on a dolly.  I began by painting what I saw...the curves of the torso, the hand-carved clumps of hair and the motionless eyes.  A woman in stone.  Silent.  Wow.  My mind wandered to where this maiden had been, where she had been perched over time, and to the her future.  My only directive to myself was "pocked"...a surface characteristic that was, I deemed, essential to the story.  I was in luck.  This scrap of watercolor paper had been soaked and re-soaked...scrubbed and re-scrubbed.  In fact, as I soon discovered, the sizing was gone and pocking occurred each time the brush hit the surface.  Oh, the thrill!  It needed more.  Gouache and slight pastel strokes were added.  The calligraphy was added with watercolor pencil and with line direction in mind.  The small heart above the breast is applied gold leaf.  Silent as she was, she revealed her secrets.  I am pleased.

Secrets...we all have them.

Goal Setting and Problem Solving...

What's Up Jack?  watercolor/gouache   11.75 x 7

are things we strive for in each class.  They vary from session to session.  At the first class, I try to establish a list of problems that artists would like to work on.  One of the suggestions was learning to paint things that are wet.....things that reflect into wetness.  Who among us has not greatly admired those night time street scenes where tail lights and street lights are reflected into the wet pavement?  Replicating such a problem in our classroom with overhead lighting is a bit tricky.  We brought in small vanity mirrors and placed objects on top in order to understand the object/reflected object relationship.  Very tricky.  In our particular situation, the reflected objects seemed just as solid as the objects themselves.  I chose a vertical format and also chose to elongate the reflection that I saw for aesthetic purposes.  My subject matter - "jacks" - was so simple that I added calligraphy words related to the game.

Great fun.  Memories of many childhood hours playing jacks on the sidewalk. 

Onesies.  Cherries in a basket.  Paintsies.

Varietal...

potatoes, varietal beans and varietal line, the mix of which is ever so exciting!  Mixing it up can give us artists a totally fresh perspective.  Sometimes, in the drone of making, we use the same the same the same and approach things the same the same the same.  In our workshop, we used charcoal sticks to experiment with the many ways that simple stick can be used:  pouncing, on its side, on an angle, on its end.  This, to me, is poetry.  Why use a multitude of small strokes when a big one will do?  And pair it up with some small ones to give it more power.  Yes.  We also used our erasers to make smudgy marks and shapes.  In the sample shown, those beautiful wavering lines were created with an eraser.  As are the large half-toned circular shapes.  It is, in my opinion, through these simple lessons in playful abstraction that we are able to play, to experiment because reality doesn't get in the way.  Hopefully, we are able to cross over these lessons with a fresh eye when approaching reality drawing.

That Apple Time of Year...

Varietal   watercolor   17.5 x 13

The meaning of the word "pagan" has changed over the years. Currently, it has negative religious undertones having to do with one's beliefs, or not. Originally it had more to do with the notion of peasant, rural, of the earth, a following of the natural rhythms of the seasons. The unknowing. Perhaps the illiterate. Intuition. I enjoy painting with the seasons. What excites me personally is affected by the weather, the amount of light and dark, the temperature and the holidays. This is apple season....every year I am quite astonished at the number of new varieties available! Always some never heard of before. I can hear the crunching and smell the sweetness. Apple fritters. Apple Dumplings. Apple Pie. I guess the heart and stomach are definitely related. "Varietal" was painted in the autumn. I studied calligraphy for many years....repetitious line work with lots of rules. Very precise. These days I like to spin off of those rigid letter forms to make my own varieties. In this case, I used them as a design element, some creative line work, to list some of the varieties of apples that can be had. Not meant to be read. Just enjoyed visually.

Permanent Collection

Blink....pen and ink

tattoos

Serious artists have a portion of their resumes dedicated to permanent collections. It goes without saying that there is prestige associated with which institutions, businesses and individual collectors appear under this category. But what about tattoos? Pretty permanent. Pretty serious. I mentioned a while ago that I was doing line-work for a couple of tattoos....one for a friend Zach and one for my son Nate. Zach chose a meaningful quote for his. The calligraphy was rendered using a copperplate nib on fairly rough paper. The quote was then blown up in size in order to increase the imperfect and aged quality of the writing. That blow-up was then reduced in size as a template for the tattoo artist. Nate chose an owl named "Blink" that resides at Quail Hollow in Hartville, Ohio. I worked from a photograph and worked many editions in order to get the line-work just right....it was difficult as just a few changes seemed to alter the overall appearance in surprisingly striking ways. The owners of the tattoos seemed to be much more relaxed than me. At any rate....the art lives on.