Making a commitment. Going back to the yellow warehouse

I think about painting and drawing every day.  Nothing has yet inspired me enough to pick up the pad or brush.  I find myself once again trying to boost that inspiration by writing about what I'm thinking.  What goes through my head when I think about art?..I just know what I like.  I know what draws me in when I see a painting.  Immediately, without hesitation, I want to do something like what I see...but nothing and seemingly no one can put an instrument in my hand, sit me down and make me go forward beyond that thought.  Maybe I'm trying to create the demons that have inspired so many great artists.  Well, I believe that I have started to feel those demons.  For the past week, I have started to feel down.  Something is nagging at my soul.  I haven't figured it out yet.
What I know is this.  Last night I went to bed feeling uneasy.  I was trying to talk myself into feeling better so I could go to sleep.  I need to feel comfort in the quiet moments.  The comfort that comes from knowing you have done something good.  From knowing that you have made some sort of positive difference in your life lately.  For me, it's knowing that I have a gift, and giving that gift of creating something.
I woke up this morning and started looking at episodes of Oregon Art Beat, originally to find a painter who was compared to Mary Cassatt.  I remember thinking that this artist didn't merit the comparison because her art was more gestural, and Cassatt although impressionistic had more of a representational style.  She was much more refined technically.  But that's another topic...  As I was looking through the episodes, I landed on a story about Gabe Fernandez.  Okay, now I have a base to work with.  His style is impressionistic but with enough realism that it satisfies my visual taste.
  I went through my own work, and found something that I could see myself painting again.  The yellow warehouse in watercolor.  I painted this a few years ago.  It has promise as a full scale painting.  It's a start.

Its that time of Year: But now there will be More

Evidently, my desire to post on my blog has slowed to once a year.  My last post was of my daughter Grace running last years half-marathon.  This post is of my daughter running this years half marathon.  I have been creative, but not painting.   I sorted through the reasons I have not had enough determination to paint.  There are really several key reasons.  1.  Painting just for the sake of creating is not enough reason to make me want to put something on paper or canvas.  When I paint, I want it to be for a specific purpose.  I have so many paintings and drawings hanging around that I'm running out of room to keep them.  The painting a day was very useful in getting me back into painting.  Now I need to paint something that I will either hang for myself, give as a gift, or sell.
2. Creating a painting will now take more time than I am willing to set aside.  My insane work schedule has left me with no sleep schedule.  So there is no specific time available to set aside for painting like there used to be.  Ideally, if I were to have a 6AM start time, that would leave me with a perfect opportunity.  Not going to happen at my current job.
3.  I have found an outlet for my creativity that has temporarily replace painting.  I was given a Go Pro for Christmas.  Since then I have spent a portion of free time filming different things around town.  Then editing and putting music to them.  It's incredible that only a few years ago you needed tapes and clunky editing software to create movies.  Now even at a novice like myself can shoot and edit a decent movie or Time Lapse segment for nominal investment.

Rose Fesitval 1/2 Marathon....

Well at least someone is doing something constructive today.

March Sixth 2014

   

Im not sure exactly when I decided to make this, but I knew I had to finish it today.

Another Caricature and a Bad pun

I did forget one rule of drawing in pencil this morning.  Dont press too hard.  The indentations in the paper affect how it looks when you photograph it.  The camera wouldn't pick up the dark in his left eye because of the glare.

I don't want to get political here...so I won't.  However,  no one has heard from this guy about the recent events.until today.  So I figured now is a good time to do a caricature.  And here is the bad pun.....For those of you who don't know who this is, I'll give you a hint:  I was Vlad that I put in a little extra effort on this caricature.  I spent a little more time on this one than the Obama, and it came out a little better.   I can hear the collective groans and I apologize, but  once I thought of that pun, I couldn't stop myself.

Get ready for more snow...

During and after photos of the last snow storm.   Of course they say there's only a slight chance of snow.  I snapped these from my front door.  I have no intention of painting these scenes, but thought I'd throw them in here.

During the Snow

After the Snow

It was almost 60 degrees on Friday, and now I hear there might be more snow, of course not as much as we had last month but still...   This is not what I bargained for. 

Caricatures Count Too and Audre Lorde

Institutional rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which neeeds outsiders as surplus people. 
   As members of such an economy, we have all been programmmed to respond to the human differences between us with fear and loathing and to handle that difference in one of three ways: ignore it, and if that is not possible, copy it if we think iti is dominant, or destroy it if we think it is subordinate.
    But we have no patterns for relating across our human differences as equals.  As a result, those differences have been misnamed and misused in the service of separation and confusion.  

AUDRE LORDE,
Sister Outsider (1984)

Instead of trying to paint, I decided to do this sketch.  A caricature of Obama.
I was inspired by the artist Jason Seiler, who is pretty much OFF THE CHARTS with his illustrations.  I'm hoping this will kickstart my productivity.    As for the quote above,  I've been reading Race Matters by Cornell West.  The above quote was used in the book.  This stood out for me because I agree that differences in people are often misnamed and misused in the service of separation and confusion.   I have heard people refer to the president (still) as a Muslim because of his name.  (And as if being a Muslim connects one with terrorism).  Regardless of what one thinks about the presidents ideas and policies, it is fundamentally wrong to judge someone in such a simplistic and stereotypical way. 

Obama sketch

I shamefully admit that I haven't read AUDRE LORDE's book, or for that matter any of her poetry other than what I was able to google recently.  All I know is that she is a Black Lesbian Feminist, so that is enough for me to disregard everything about her.  Wow this separation and confusion stuff really works.  (BTW, that was sarcasm for anyone not hearing it through the print)
Here's another interesting quote.

“Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future.”
― Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

GO NINERS

GAME TIME

Two views in two ways

      I copied these two quotes from David Burbach's blog.  More words of wisdom and inspiration.

 "Art is an interpreter of the inexpressible, and therefore it seems a folly to try to convey its meaning afresh by means of words."--- Goethe

"Good composition is only the strongest way of seeing the subject."---Edward Weston

Just so happens we both found the same subject interesting in different ways.

Behind I've Been Framed

David Burbach

Stewart Cinks Tan Line

It has been said that if you have nothing to blog about, then don't blog.  I found myself once again feeling angst about seeing the same post every time I opened my blog.  So I had to decide whether to leave it or post something not necessarily worth the time.  I decided to post this photo of Stewart Cinks head at the Sony Open in Hawaii .  The though being that if I have to look at THIS  every time I open my blog, I will most definitely find something actually worth positng in the next few days.  We'll see if this works.

On a side note, my friend and fellow blogger Gary Everest attended the Sony Open last week and actually had some blogworthy posts about it.  Gary used to golf , and explains why he gave up the game to devote more time to painting.  I try to do both.  I have actually gotten better at golf, but haven't reached the point where I'm ready to do what Gary did.
   Oddly enough, I have not been working much the past week, yet still haven't picked up the brushes.  I crushed my foot at work and was couch ridden.  I didn't feel  enough inertia to paint anything, even though the desk was 10 feet away.  I'm feeling another flurry of creativity coming on though.  Maybe I'll start with an abstract that I can title Stewart Cinks Head as  an homage to kick starting my creativity. 
  By the way, my foot isn't broken and I'm back hobbling around on it.  Going to take some weeks to be back to near full health....and as I sat here it came to me that I could share another thing.  An artist I admire.  Rod Penner does tiny photo-realistic paintings of small towns in Texas.  His subjects are always interesting to me.  In fact just Sunday I saw a house that looked like a perfect subject for one of his paintings.

Blue Bonnet Cafe  Rod Penner

First I will show you the Painting of Blue Bonnet Cafe by Rod Penner....and I was fortunate enough to find a reference photo that he recently shared.  Yes he is technically solid, but his choice of subjects are what I most like about his work.

Reference Photo shared by Rod Penner

The reason I don't like to share reference photos on my blog is because people have actually mistook the photos for my paintings.  Obviously these are people not entirely familiar with my work, because I don't paint hyper-realistic(ally?)
Rod Penner must really have that problem.  I bet if you had to pick which was the painting and which was the photo it would take some time.  Again, while his technical skill is incredible, his subjects draw me in...I aim to prove that is the appeal of his work.  Soon.

Revised slide show with corrected music credit

I made a  mistake in this slideshow.  I incorrectly identified the music as done by Moscillate.  It was actually done by Mr. Jozzy.  I apologize for the error.  This is the corrected version with the last slides improved and corrected

"Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies."-Nelson Mandela

When faced with racism and bigotry, I have come to the conclusion that "resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enenmies".  Sometimes I find myself harboring this resentment and realize that it's really only hurting me.  That's why I chose this Nelson Mandela quote to start my day. 

I wanted to do a fast sketch of him to honor him, but I just don't have time before work. The quote is particularly significant in my life right now in light of some of the things I have seen and heard in the recent past.  Ignorance is the root of hatred...and  it goes both ways. We need to start and keep a dialogue about these things...

New slideshow: Not very happy with the program I bought

Tried out a new slideshow maker for my recent work.   Wasn't happy with the limitations of the program.  Can't get music to sync with the length of the show.  Music will loop when you would rather have it fade and stop.

A Great Saturday in Eugene

I don't often post photos of events here, but then again I don't get many chances to attend events.  My daughter Grace got us tickets to the Oregon Ducks / Utah Utes game Saturday.  This was only my second college football game and I have to admit, it was most impressive.  What a top of the line program.  The entire complex looked like a Nike ad, and I guess it was.  Ducks started slow but came out in the second half and blew the game open, winning 44-21.  Utah scored a touchdown just before halftime to make it close.  Then on the ensuing kickoff, DeAnthony Thomas returned it for an 85(or so) yard touchdown.  

Adding a few touches to the Max painting before leaving for the game Saturday

At the Oregon Ducks game with my amazing daughter Grace.

 

 

 

 

 

The indoor practice Facility.  The entire building is Matte Black, though the late afternoon sun makes it appear green here.

Saturday on Max: Accepting the challenge.

Saturday on Max   14" X18" Acrylic on Canvas Panel

The story behind this painting began last Wednesday.  I sold the Downtown at Daybreak  painting last week.  This left a spot to fill at the B2 (Squared) wine Bar.  I was encouraged to do another cityscape so... 

I spent the better part of my Wednesday attempting another cityscape.  It did not go well.  However, as with most paintings I learned a few things along the way.  I was also reminded of a couple of things.  The most important being that you can never compromise on the composition.  I thought I could compose the painting without precisely measuring the angles.  I was wrong.  No matter what I tried the painting was just a little off.  I had to scrap the entire painting and choose a new subject.  So Saturday I chose this  challenging scene of a Max train going up the downtown transit mall.  I had shied away from this because I wasn't sure how the  Max train would end up looking.  But I really liked the scene.
  I thought I would start by painting some of the train to get some practice with the values and angles.  So I began to paint over the last painting.  As it progressed I realized that it was going well enough that I should continue.  By Sunday morning I had committed to this version.  So what had started as an exercise painting over the last panel  ended up being a finished painting.
On a side note, I took photos of the process.  At one point I washed the entire top of the painting with white to get rid of the painting beneath. This created a very interesting fog like effect with the buildings in the background of the old painting creating ghostly images and the train emerging into the foreground.  I liked it so much I almost left it as it was, but I was determined to try to finish the scene.  And I thought I could always go back later, wash it out and achieve the same effect.  Later as I was putting in the trees, I decided to try and go back to the wash.  This didn't work because the trees were now part of the painting and the effect was not believable enough.
Unfortunately the photos I took of this effect have been lost forever.   When I shut off my old camera, the lense refused to retract into the body.  Long story short,  the camera was in my pocket, and when I went to change clothes today, I stepped on the lense and effectively killed the thing.  The photos are in the camera's internal memory (another result of the dying camera) and it will not power up.  So new painting, and new camera today.  Both were long overdue.

Detail.

Not a lot to say...

It must sound (or look) like I just cut and paste the same comment every time I post something these days, but I still feel the need to make the excuse...
I have been working so many hours lately that this small painting sat on my desk for weeks before I did a few more things to it and decided to post it.  I'm not quite finished with it.  I just got tired of feeling like it should be done.  Initially it was going to be a quick impressionistic study, and it is for the most part, but  I ended up having to do more with it than I intended. 
   Things are not all work, however.  I was able to take a long weekend trip to the coast with my wife last week and we had a fantastic time.  And of course I have squeezed in some golf...
I have found that if I don't start working on a painting in the morning, the distractions of the day seem to prevent me from doing anything at all.  

Urban Landscape Trio B Squared Wine Bar

The trio of  Cityscapes are complete.   They might need a little more positioning, but for now...at least they are up.

My wonderful wife Lecia and buddy Zach helped position the paintings

I hung the final of the three Urban Landscapes I did for the B2 Wine bar in the Pearl. 
This little gem in the Pearl District just opened this month.  My  wonderful wife Lecia and  my good friend  and golf guru Zach Welch gave me a hand in the positioning.  Now I just have to move the lighting a little more to center.  I have one more to do for the wine bar, but according to Zach, there has been interest shown in the center painting already, so with a little luck I could be doing even more. 
The coffee shop B2 Coffee Haus, which is located a few doors up in the same building features 8 of my watercolor paintings as well.  I'm not going to lie about this.  When I went in to hang this third painting, I was stilll very pleased with how the other small painting came out.  Usually there will be something that I want to change about a painting, but this one still suited my eye.
Of course you can always get better, and I will.  However it is necessary to be satisfied with a result.  That's what keeps me going.  That and being able to see my work somewhere other than in my painting space.
  I have been wanting to paint  more, but time hasn't allowed it lately.  This makes for some frustrating days.  Hopefully this will change soon. When faced with such a small amount of time and so many choices of what to do,  the brain will often choose to do nothing.  That's the battle I'm facing now.  I have so many ideas, but I know I don't have time to do even one full painting, so I end up not even getting started on one.

Cityscape: New Lessons learned

As I read through the original post about this painting I realized how my opinion had changed.  So I decided to update what I think about this painting. 
It is interesting to see how my opinion can change about my own work even though I have left it alone.  This painting grew on me more and more as the weeks went by.  I began to look at all the positive things rather than where I had struggled with it.  So when I look at it today, I am satisfied and comfortable with it.  There will always be things that you feel you could have done better, but at the end of the day, if you achieve the visual result you wanted, you have suceeded.

Busy Saturday

I'm pretty tired, but I felt the need to post this paintng.  This is the larger painting I've been working on. Seeing it online seems to help me decide where I need to make corrections.  I ran out of natural light to photograph this so it didn;t come out very clear.  I was careful to prepare the lines in this one, yet I still struggled to make it work.  Finally after piddling around with it I decided to go bold and try whatever happened to fall on the canvas.  That;s when I made the most progress.  Sometimes being too deliberate handcuffs me. I will try to get a better photo tomorrow.  

Early Saturday.

Early Saturday on 6th   12X16" Acrylic on Canvas

 I started this one Saturday morning.  I chose the smaller canvas thinking that I first needed to establish a rhythm of painting.  Initially  I couldn't picture in my head how the painting would work, but I kept going.  I added layers to the foreground, established some lines and kept adding layers.   Eventually I was able to work thru the problems and it emerged quite nicely.   I'm learning that you can't paint as freely with Acrylic as you can with watercolor, unless you don't mind wasting a bunch of paint.  I usually mix colors on the fly, but I don't expect them to dry out in 10 minutes.  I know there are ways to make them last longer, and I'll have to look into doing that.  I do like that you can layer them as well as make them opaque.  Well, its on to the next canvas.  I need to do a larger painting.  This one's 12X16"