2DAY

2day was a good day. I was unable to paint only a few absent-minded drawings. Most of my day was spent working on transferring old VHS tapes to MPEG in route to DVD. Once upon a time I shot a lot of tape of kids and family and things. After going to the Dr. for annual pulmonary check-up we visited the Halsey gallery at the College of Charleston. There was a showing of John Hull, a CofC faculty members work. To the right is representative of that show: Moonlight 03

Hull is quite a storyteller in paint. This particular show had as it's subject junkyards. Discarded cars and machinery provides a backdrop for the figures which tell the story. The artist invites the viewer to speculate on what is going on in the piece. Although Hull's work is very painterly the figures tell the story in gesture and placement. You ask yourself the questions. Why is the man carrying the gun? Who is the corpse? What is happening after dark illuminated by flashlight? Hull also included working drawings of works in progress the small studies of circus life were loosely rendered but exciting to view. It was a good show. Google the artist for more info.
Later we saw the new George Clooney movie:"Michael Claayton". it was a good movie. I'm no Clooney fan but this film showed traces of acting ability. One can only wonder what Russell Crowe would have done with the title role.

no image 2day

No image today, only words. Will we ever replace words? Or when information bypasses the usual senses and goes directly to the neurons of the brain will words be obsolete? Some people are word people and some are picture people. Is a picture really worth a thousand words. But are their places where pictures are not usable. For example you cannot give unit of measure in images. Or can you. measurements are made in visual units. Think about the height of a telephone pole. how tall is it in feet? Do you visualize a giant ruler measuring it? Perhaps like me you visualize an object of which you know the length is used to compare the telephone pole. Is not measurement a contrived or invented system? Yet it was possible to measure before the methods were invented. And so on......

Just another day

When in Chicago you gotta visit the Art Institute. According to my sketchbooks I was first there in 1966. It is such a good thing to emerse yourself in the art of the ages. Here I stand next to a Jackson Polluck and I didn't realize that I had on matching colors. Seeing a photograph of a Polluck is hardly like seeing the real thing. First there is the scale. Some big paintings lose their grandness when reproduced in a smaller size. It's like seeing the opening scene of "Patton" with George Scott in front of the flag on a small television--you miss the impact. And then there is texture. Since they were painted (?) horizontal there is a tremendous build-up of paint. Indeed it is almost sculptural.I like his paintings and liked the movie. It was tragic the way he lost control of his bicycle and broke the bottles of beer.

A-r-r-r-gh!

It has been difficult. I'm reacquainting myself with Google notebook in hopes of making it a useful tool. Things just haven't been going that technologically. First of all I have been having trouble logging on to this blog. Sometimes the log-in box appears and sometimes it doesn't Go figure. I've been having video problems as well. I have some hardware/software to convert VHS to DVD. But after considerable time in editing ,etc., I burn a disk and it won't play in my DVD player. however, a disk burned with the same software by a friend plays good. I must have the format wrong or something because I can play the disk on the computer.

New monoprint

I cannot refrain from making the monoprint made on the inkjet printer. There is something about the strong almost flat image image of the objects that I like. It does at times become difficult to introduce atmospheric perspective. In other words to have the correct value in distant objects. The titles are "#3" for the one on the left and "The Monument" for the one on the right. Each has different techniques. "The Monument" has both cut and torn paper stencils and "#3" has the addition of painted elements. You will note the use of resist on the stone monolith in "The Monument".

I'm not really sure where these techniques can lead. Except that the effects are easily reproduced in Photoshop.

New work

I've been having difficulty logging in to the blog.

I just searched for my latest art work and could not find it. I loaded an old piece that I did some time ago. The idea had been around in my sketch book for 10 or 15 years. I think that this is my first attempt at designing a poster since my sign shop days. In those days I regularly made posters for geneticists for use at seminars. This poster was done in Photo Deluxe. And I am a great procrastinatorI have been tinkering with my Logitech webcam. Time lapse photography and stop-motion has always been fun. So why not give it a go. Why not a pseudo masochistic rite performed daily?

4 2 day

While traveling along the Green River in northeastern Utah we came upon this interesting dwelling. It is a dugout house built into the side of a small hill. The timbers were scavenged from the river. The house is interesting in that it has an anteroom before the main room which consists of a bedroom and kitchen combination. There is also a chimney which vents through the roof. In winter the snow covers the entire structure. I thought it made an interesting painting with the variety of textures and earth toned colors. The painting is 8 X 10 acrylic on masonite. This is one of the images from fifty-four days on the road through twenty-three states and forty-five nights in a tent. Did I mension visiting one foreign country?

plein air painting

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a plein air workshop with a nationally know instructor. It was great fun. I had recently gone on a trip across the USA and done some plein air painting. I was taking the workshop to improve my skills. I wanted to recreate some of the scenes i had seen on the road in the plein air style. The workshop I was great in doing this. A plein air painting is nothing more than an oil painting sketch. The above paintings are from that workshop. I can't wait to work from some of the vacation photos.

when to paint?

I have overdone my volunteer activities. When painting and creating was my passion a volunteered for too much other stuff. Now I don't seem to have time to create. I am overcome by projects. I became VP of the Guild without really knowing what all it entailed. The church seems to take up more and more time. I must scale back. blah! blah! blah! blah!

red letter day

another drawing

falling man

working with Ulead

I have been working with Ulead software to make a slide show of our vacation photos to save to DVD. It has some very interesting features. I am incorporating some of my watercolor and other sketches that I did along the trip. The program comes with some animation features which are incorporated as overlays over the images. At the right is a watercolor sketch done on the "Enchanted Mile" in Montana. in order to give some sence of scale to the huge metal sculpture pheasants, I show a truck in the background. To emphasize the truck, which is mentioned in the narration , The orange arrow is animated and enters the picture plane from the right. You can see this on the timeline on the lower part of the screen. The action of the animations is prescribed on the left. In producing slideshows it is very important to introduce movement to achieve interest in the work.