Tuesday, July 31, 2012
New Masters Gallery - last week
When I was down in Carmel last week Plein Air painting, I popped into New Masters Gallery and took a couple of snaps of some of my paintings hanging there. They're a great gallery, well worth a look if your ever in the Carmel area and of course they have great artists too! ;-)
Monday, July 30, 2012
Across the bay (Monterey CA)
My original inspiration within this subject was this great spiky plant in the foreground. I painted it almost to completion while slowly working in the other colors and the rest of the painting around it. I think the end result is effective; but I'm always smitten with this aspect ratio.
I'm not sure what the plant is called, but it's certainly a very curious thing and possibly makes for an unusually subject matter.
After finishing, I realized there was a lot of sympathy in palette to an artist friend of mine Henry Isaacs. Must have been unknowingly channeling his colors. Henry is an east coast artist and we hang together in a gallery in Virginia.
I'm not sure what the plant is called, but it's certainly a very curious thing and possibly makes for an unusually subject matter.
After finishing, I realized there was a lot of sympathy in palette to an artist friend of mine Henry Isaacs. Must have been unknowingly channeling his colors. Henry is an east coast artist and we hang together in a gallery in Virginia.
Across the bay (Monterey CA)
24X36 Acrylic on cradled panel
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Adding interest with texture
I've probably posted about this before, but from time to time I like to paint on a 'textured ground'. This is a process of applying texture to the base paint. In this case I painted on wood a support, I then sand and prime the wood with 'a ground', which is the painterly term for the surface that will be painted on. I tend to prime my painting surfaces with an Acrylic gesso paint. When adding texture, I use very thick gesso paint and leave strong brush marks, I also add some light sand to this surface while it's still wet. Finally I paint an extra coat or two to make sure the sand and texture is locked in there. By the time the final layers of paint from the actual painting have gone on, nothings going anywhere for a long, long time!
As you paint the painting on this type of uneven surface, you have to work hard in places to give consistent color, and that change of process creates a different look and feel. Additionally in places it breaks up the layers of color, as the brush moves over the surface - again adding color variations along with the textural interest. The end result is very distinctive.
This painting is a house along the coast in Santa Cruz, CA. It's a lovely old house, but I tend to think it's dangerously near the edge of the cliff. The framing of the tree and the fence line in the foreground drew me to this subject. I created some unusual divisions in the work space, this gives the work a very modern feel and I had to pay careful attention to structure and tone to make those divisions work.
As you paint the painting on this type of uneven surface, you have to work hard in places to give consistent color, and that change of process creates a different look and feel. Additionally in places it breaks up the layers of color, as the brush moves over the surface - again adding color variations along with the textural interest. The end result is very distinctive.
This painting is a house along the coast in Santa Cruz, CA. It's a lovely old house, but I tend to think it's dangerously near the edge of the cliff. The framing of the tree and the fence line in the foreground drew me to this subject. I created some unusual divisions in the work space, this gives the work a very modern feel and I had to pay careful attention to structure and tone to make those divisions work.
Right on the edge (Santa Cruz, CA)
38X30 Acrylic on wood
detail (showing the texture)
Irises splitting the warm & the cool
Here's a still life from a few weeks ago. I posted it on fb, but forgot to put it here too. I loved painting this great size of panel and a fantastic subject. I particularly like painting these type of irises I just love the rich saturated hues of blue and purple and then the flecks of warm yellow and white that appear within the bloom really key of those blues - fabulous! The tablecloth is also a favorite of mine and always fun to paint.
Irises splitting the warm & the cool
48X30 Acrylic on wood
detail
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
A bigger message
I've just finished reading a book my mother bought for me called 'A Bigger Message- Conversations with David Hockney' by Martin Gayford. I don't usually find these books type of books very stimulating; in part because I don't want to fill my head with 'work' related thoughts on my 'off hours' and also, if I'm honest I prefer a good bit of fiction with a ripping yarn... Shallow I know but there it is.
So I thought I'd write a little about the book here, not a review as such, just a few of my rambling thoughts about 'the read' and it's content.
This book however enticed me and I found I got a huge amount out of it. I'd wanted to read it largely becasue Hockneys recent landscapes have really interested me from a stylistic approach, and for their ambitious size. The book I found to be very approachable, well written and as the title suggests it's presented in a conversational mode. And David Hockney does always seems to, (in mind,) have interesting things to say. For even if I don't always entirely see eye to eye with every view, I always find him intelligent and interesting to listen too, or in this case read.
The books is based over a number of years and he talks about many aspects of his life and career, but the focus of the book is his recent preoccupation with the landscape. The book also tied into a major exhibition of his work at the RA. For those who don't know, in recent years Hockney has returned to live in the town of his birth in the North of England. Despite being in his 80's his work has taken a prolific burst of life and energy as he becomes consumed with nature and the land around his home. He has painted a number of massive multi-canvas (where each canvas is hung next to the other) paintings of the landscape. Much of his early work I was always only vaguely interested in, but these new landscapes really excite me.
A large portion of the book talks around the aspect of 'artists' being acutely aware of their surroundings, and become trained or learning to 'really' look at things. Obviously this is a sentiment all artists can agree with and relate too. Additionally he talked about the Chinese philosophy of believing it takes three things to create good art. The hand, the eye and the heart; two wont do. You can for example have a good eye and heart, but without the hand the painting will be no good. This too I felt very interesting and true philosophy to my mind.
He also spends a while discussing his love of the ipad and various digital methods of image creation. With a past in CG this is something I can relate too, however I feel Hockney is only scratching the surface here and it's not his best work - quick sketches roughly rendered on iphones or ipads. Many an artist is able to make digital mediums sing, personally I think Hockney is better with paint.
Finally the book discussed Hockneys love and interest in space, the volume of our surroundings. He talked at length about this issue and how it was spaces and volume of a landscape that captured him, the three dimensional aspect, the ability to move within a landscape and view it from differing viewpoints, always sensing it's depth. He argued that it was this aspect that interested him most in landscape painting and I realized on reading this that that's also what preoccupies me in much of my work. The perfect example is my Still life paintings. With their dissecting lines breaking and analyzing the space within the arrangement, presenting different views within the single painting. Hockney is critical of the camera for this, for it can only present one view point from one given moment.
So I thought I'd write a little about the book here, not a review as such, just a few of my rambling thoughts about 'the read' and it's content.
This book however enticed me and I found I got a huge amount out of it. I'd wanted to read it largely becasue Hockneys recent landscapes have really interested me from a stylistic approach, and for their ambitious size. The book I found to be very approachable, well written and as the title suggests it's presented in a conversational mode. And David Hockney does always seems to, (in mind,) have interesting things to say. For even if I don't always entirely see eye to eye with every view, I always find him intelligent and interesting to listen too, or in this case read.
The books is based over a number of years and he talks about many aspects of his life and career, but the focus of the book is his recent preoccupation with the landscape. The book also tied into a major exhibition of his work at the RA. For those who don't know, in recent years Hockney has returned to live in the town of his birth in the North of England. Despite being in his 80's his work has taken a prolific burst of life and energy as he becomes consumed with nature and the land around his home. He has painted a number of massive multi-canvas (where each canvas is hung next to the other) paintings of the landscape. Much of his early work I was always only vaguely interested in, but these new landscapes really excite me.
A large portion of the book talks around the aspect of 'artists' being acutely aware of their surroundings, and become trained or learning to 'really' look at things. Obviously this is a sentiment all artists can agree with and relate too. Additionally he talked about the Chinese philosophy of believing it takes three things to create good art. The hand, the eye and the heart; two wont do. You can for example have a good eye and heart, but without the hand the painting will be no good. This too I felt very interesting and true philosophy to my mind.
He also spends a while discussing his love of the ipad and various digital methods of image creation. With a past in CG this is something I can relate too, however I feel Hockney is only scratching the surface here and it's not his best work - quick sketches roughly rendered on iphones or ipads. Many an artist is able to make digital mediums sing, personally I think Hockney is better with paint.
Finally the book discussed Hockneys love and interest in space, the volume of our surroundings. He talked at length about this issue and how it was spaces and volume of a landscape that captured him, the three dimensional aspect, the ability to move within a landscape and view it from differing viewpoints, always sensing it's depth. He argued that it was this aspect that interested him most in landscape painting and I realized on reading this that that's also what preoccupies me in much of my work. The perfect example is my Still life paintings. With their dissecting lines breaking and analyzing the space within the arrangement, presenting different views within the single painting. Hockney is critical of the camera for this, for it can only present one view point from one given moment.
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