Ground Fog

Oil on Panel
5.5 x 12

I've got to tell you I like fog. No idea why but I do. Not constantly you understand, but now and then. When I first moved out here, before the building spree, this is pretty much the way it looked most mornings. It would burn off fairly quickly so it wouldn't be depressing all day. Now fog is more uncommon and to see fog rising from the fields like this I need to go out a few more miles into the farmland. I think I like the subtlety of the colors and the quiet that usually comes with it. That's what I was going for here anyway. Welcome to my world.

Black Fan

In keeping with yesterday's ramble about paying attention to all the elements in a piece I though this may be of interest. It's a little older too so maybe you can use it to gauge my progress or lack of progress. First let me say this is not the way to put a picture together. Don't try this at home.


Another little silverpoint as you may have guessed. A decent drawing, the forearm and hand seem nice and solid. Overall though, nothing to write home about. It's certainly on the blah side. So it sat around for a while until I decided maybe I could still pull it off.


That's a little better with just the addition of a vertical element and a horizontal. Now there's a little stability to the image, but still not right. Too much of that so what feeling. It needs some depth.


Now that's not so bad, not my best, but much better than the original version. There's some solidity to the composition, some depth. The lights and darks are balanced out all right. (The image is about a half step too dark here, sorry.) It's more than a figure just plopped down in the middle of the page. Not that that can't be pulled off, I just didn't originally do it here.

One other vaguely interesting thing here is that since it was done over a period of about eight months the earliest parts of the drawing had started to tarnish already. I don't think you can really see it here, you can just barely see it in person. From across the room it really isn't apparent, but up close the figure and to a lesser extent the horizontal ledge is much warmer than the distant landscape. That will even out soon enough, but it was nice to see the change. Normally the change is so slow and subtle even I don't notice it.

Flowing Lines

Silverpoint
12 x 9

Let's try this again. Personally I think this is pretty good. Keep in mind that I seem to be a bad judge of my work, and my taste in general may be suspect given today's standards. I'll keep doing what I do in spite of all the outside influences though. Isn't that a definition of insanity? Then again if I am crazy do I really care? These thoughts are way too deep for a Friday, especially on Derby weekend.

I seem to be getting a lot of similar images, women with a lot of drapery. Too many? Is that a bad thing? Is there more to say? I like drapery mainly because of the way light falls on it. In this there is the added interest in the transparency. The figures are almost incidental. My main interest is still the light.

But there's more to it though, isn't there? So many elements to work with in a drawing, and with painting there's the added element of color. To make an image really work you need to consider all the parts -- value, line, composition, color. How you group the elements can vary. For instance, I think light comes under the heading of value. But value could just as easily be thought of as part of composition. The point is everything is important to creating a meaningful whole. In this silverpoint I wanted to project a soft, delicate, intimate image. Therefore I kept the value range from being too dark while keeping the figure on the light side. The lines flow rather than being short and jumpy giving a more peaceful feel. I tried to put in enough detail to project an intimacy without being overly picky. Hopefully everything came together.

Reflection

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. What have I been doing to make time go so fast? Well, I'm back, didn't die or anything serious like that.


Silverpoint
12 x 12

Another silverpoint for today's offering. First let me thank the lovely Elandria for being such a wonderful model and providing me with some beautiful reference shots to work from. Lanny, you're the best. (Don't tell the other models I said that.) Yes, I work from photos, I'm no purist. I'm also really slow, especially with silverpoint.

I don't really have anything to say about this today. Maybe I could go into the use of photos as reference or talk about my speed or the lack thereof, but I think I'll save those for another day when my thoughts are, well, more thought out. The drawing alone will have to do for today. I'm fresh out of wisdom. Here's a little detail too. Click on it to see what it looks like in actual size.

Good Weather Coming?

Oil on Panel
8.5 x 10.5

Spring is finally here. Flowers are coming up, trees are blooming, I'm getting itchy to go and paint out in the fresh air. My pochade box is all ready to go. Did I mention it's really cold, raining and snow is expected this afternoon and tonight? Well I've got basketball to watch today anyway.

If anybody else finds themselves stuck indoors today I just finished a book that may be of interest, The Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber. It's one of those rot your brain fiction books, but it's pretty good. I saw a lot of me in it which is really rather disturbing considering the main character has a tenuous hold on reality. Basically it's about a truly talented artist (that's not the part that reminds me of me) that finds himself cranking out advertising junk when he is approached to take part in a clinical study on creativity. In the process he has a bit of a break with reality and becomes Velasquez where he forges a piece similar to the Rokeby Venus, or did he just imagine it?. It gets into questions of perceived realities and asks some pretty good questions about the art world and art itself. Anyway, I liked it.

River Access

Oil on canvas
18 x 36

This is an older piece that I have never been able to photograph adequately. Well, this is about as good as it's going to get. The problem now is that I think I've improved a bit in the interim, and I really think I could do this better. I like the spot and the overall feel so maybe I that's a good reason to do it again.

A couple things came together in the last few weeks, and I thought they might be of interest. First I was asked to provide an artist's statement by two different places. Personally, I've never cared much for artist's statements simply because I've always felt that if the artist has to explain what he or she is doing it isn't being done very well. Perhaps I'm just a simple soul or just not evolved enough. So what am I trying to do with these things? The answer seems simple enough. I'm trying to take the viewer to a place in time and space where a feeling, emotion or thought will be evoked. To touch the viewer in some way; I always thought that was the object of art. I could be wrong about that. Again, I'm just a simple soul.

The second thing was a post on the Gurney Journey about filling in. link Strangely enough "filling in" refers to just what I am aiming to do, allow the viewer to enter a painting, and wander around and feel something. I had no idea there was an actual term for this. It was pointed out that this can lead to sentimentality. Yeah, I suppose so, but as long as the sentiment is real and not taken to the point of sappiness is that really such a bad thing?

So to come full circle and mention this particular painting, (it's not that bad after all, is it?) I'm hoping you'll want to get in a boat and see what's around the bend. Maybe see what's on the far shore or pick up a fishing pole and try your luck. How'd I do?

Summer's End

Watercolor
22 x 15

I know this isn't exactly what you would call timely considering it's closer to the end of winter, but maybe it's just what we need to shake off the cold. Perhaps I'm ahead of my time or lost in the past or just totally screwed up.

This is the first watercolor I've done in a while so there was potential for disaster. A lot of watercolor depends on "feel" that comes from doing. Is the paper wet enough, dry enough? It's real easy to lose that feel so I was pleasantly surprised at this outcome. It's also a composite of a landscape reference with a model reference. Around here when you see a log like that, you can be pretty sure there will be turtles laying on it catching some sun. Personally, I think this is much better.

Here's a detail of the figure for anyone interested in details. It's about actual size, maybe a touch smaller.

Moonlit Dreams

Silverpoint
7 1/2 x 12

I don't know exactly which way to go with this post, but I do want to put something up today so I think I'll just offer this drawing without comment. There's some good things about it that I like, and as always, there are some things that could be better. You decide which is which today. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

River Bank

First off I'd like to announce the opening of Show Me Handmade. I've added a link over in my other pages section that has all the information of location, store hours and what kind of things they have including some of my work. The grand opening is scheduled for March 7, but they're already open so if you're in the neighborhood drop in. There's a variety of art related stores there in the mall that are or will soon be opening. That takes care of the business for today. On to what you're here for.


Oil on Canvas
18 x 30

I may be sorry I posted this one. It's one of those that I can't quite decide if I like or not. There are some things that aren't too bad, but overall something, like a reason to be looking at it, just seems to be missing. I had thought about putting a figure on the bank either walking into the scene or looking out over the river, but neither of those worked too well. Then I thought about flashing a tree with some bright early fall color, but that stuck out too much. So I muted that tree some and that's where we are now. What do you think, yes or no?

Since I don't quite know what to say regarding this let's talk about something related to this piece. Around here there is an activity practiced by a few called sandbar archeology. Rivers rise and rivers fall. When they go down all kinds of things are revealed. Most of it is junk of course, but some is quite old dating back to Lewis and Clark and beyond. In most cases of archeology if you find something it should really be left in place and reported just in case there is some real historic significance. On the river though if you find it, it's yours simply because there's no telling where it washed down from. In this picture the river is low. That "beach" is usually under a couple feet of water. If you're wondering, I didn't find a thing. You usually don't. That just makes the occasional find that much better.

Vanity

Silverpoint on off white prepared paper
12 x 10

I haven't put up a silverpoint in a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing any. There's actually a backlog to get out, so if you like silver keep looking in, they're coming. Come to think of it there's a lot of things to be posted. I'm not really a big fan of talking about my work. In a business where promotion (primarily self promotion) is important that presents a bit of a problem. Something else to work on.

One thing about having all these silverpoints sitting around is that I've had a chance to look at them in a variety of lighting situations. I wasn't feeling too well a couple weeks ago so I got lazy and just laid around in bed. As the sun crossed the sky the difference in lighting really affected the drawings. That's not all that unusual, I've noticed the same thing in oil paintings that have a lot of glazing on them, but this difference was enough to be remarkable. I suppose it was a matter of reflection or glare because the majority of change took place in the darker range of values. As you probably know silverpoint lines aren't terribly dark. I'd say it's comparable to a 2H pencil depending on the ground used. However I find that to be dark enough for most images, and it turns out that in the right lighting conditions that can be pretty dark especially if it's just used as an accent. It's certainly dark enough to make an image pop. At any rate I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by some of the recent pieces. Considering that I usually am not all that satisfied with my work, it makes a fella think. Maybe I'm just mellowing in my old age.

On one of the forums I look in on somebody mentioned that she couldn't see any lines on the drawing I posted, just smooth tones. Well there are lines there, a bunch of them, trust me. Here's a couple details that are roughly life size to show the level of finish. Maybe someone will find them interesting.