Painting is a fine balance between thought and instinct.  The thinking part comes from our training, knowing that a blue here will have this effect and that a muted burnt sienna there will read as intense red…

Thinking is essential to art.  Planning, reworking, designing, plotting figuring and measuring.  Essential.  If this is all then we will have a finely crafted piece.  However, that is not enough.

one day, young days
are new days born.

someday, one day
old days
are one day gone

To make art, to make creative marks on canvas or paper, you don’t necessarily have to be completely on, fired up, entwined with your muse, every single moment of every single day. But what you do need to be is ready.

It is refreshing to see the launch of a grand new museum focused on narrative art.

From the museum website:

The Lucas Museum explores how narrative art shapes our world—expressing beliefs, communicating values, expanding imagination, and inviting conversation.

When complete the canvas was applied to a wooden structure that was sheathed with 4 x 8 foot alumilite panels, (honeycomb plastic core with an enameled aluminum surface….sturdy but lightweight)  The seams are stress points, a tiny bit of motion of expanding and contracting in daily temperature rise and fall.  The panels flex a microscopic amount and the canvas and paint cracked a tiny bit.  This is to be expected and is considered normal maintenance.

Picasso is worth looking at, again and again, though the world seems divided on that thought.   Oh, his brush work is simplistic compared to Rembrandt.  His use of color can’t compare with the mastery of a Cezanne still life, a  Klimt or Matisse. Though precocious early with art skills he can’t compare with Bouguereau for beautiful rendering.  And as for gritty anguish, Scheille or Van Gogh give him a serious run for his money.

As artists we look, we find, and then we paint what we have seen felt, and understood.  However, there are many ways of doing that and many results of that process.

When a child draws she draws what she knows.  She has seen things and dredges up a cat from the stored catness in her head. 

truth is a many faceted beast that can rear its heads in many places at once.

In art, truth needs to be piece by piece.  A manner that works for one piece of art, one painting, and rings as tearfully true might be but a false veneer if applied to another piece.  

• Painting is an interpretation of tone. Colour drawn with a brush.
• Keep the planes free and simple, drawing a full brush down the whole contour of a cheek.
• Always paint one thing into another and not side by side until they touch.
• The thicker your paint—the more your color flows.

Art is a gamble, a risk, because if you don’t risk you never move.

So you risk the painting by pushing it, trying things.  You risk other things too though you gamble on ideas…putting parts of you out there..

And you need to risk to see well.  You need to sit and wait and risk being somewhere to see something beyond the surface.

First and foremost I am a realistic painter. However…

I have to put that qualifier because the term ‘realism’ implies rendering real scenes using all the tools of illusionistic perspective, lighting, and  form.

Colored dirt and other things is a place for musing about how I spend my day–messing up fabric smudging colored dirt with sticks with hairs.  Profound stuff, except when it isn’t.

What better way to spend my day?  Well, maybe messing around in boats or dancing come in close.

I needed to repaint the mermaid in the Hallowell Mural. So here is a video of the redo.

The mermaid is in the mural to reference our very own Slate’s restaurant which burned a number of years ago. And the Slates mermaid rose from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix.

Painting interesting things has an inherent problem.  Those interesting things are already, well, interesting.  A tattooed woman is fascinating by herself and maybe a photo of her would be interesting as a beautiful record.  But I feel a painting needs to be more.  

Picasso is worth looking at, again and again, though the world seems divided on that thought.   Oh, his brush work is simplistic compared to Rembrandt.  His use of color can’t compare with the mastery of a Cezanne still life, a  Klimt or Matisse. Though precocious early with art skills he can’t compare with Bouguereau for beautiful rendering.  And as for gritty anguish, Scheille or Van Gogh give him a serious run for his money.

Art needs a strange alchemy of several factors.   Imagination, skill, content, vision and perhaps, as some today are saying, empathy.  None of these elements by itself is enough to become Art in CAPS.

Imagination won’t suffice alone.  Without skill riding shotgun, even the most imaginative idea runs the risk of poor execution, and perhaps wasting that good idea. A loud imagination with no skill is often a naive tantrum.

Some artists perfect a signature style.  Their work fits into one general theme or look or visual language. As their work matures their style is honed into a perfection—not the perfection, but a perfection.

I have tried to do this but I can’t pin my head down.  It wants to try different things.  It doesn’t mean I don’t create true feelings, but for me one piece needs to be painted one way, while another screams to be brought to life in another form.

Dear Mr. President,

Don’t call me a fascist on this 4th of July. I am an American.

People are crying, “Something is wrong. All is not right.” I have listened. You have not.