Just back from a trip where I successfully was able to take photos to use as Cinefield® fuel (materials). As is always the case, this is going to be labor intensive.
While on the road I used my new pocket pad. As I work on new Cini this will continue be main outlet for visual work too.
The pad is 4×4 inches and we are already fast friends. Back in my American studio, I finish me coffee put on some Miles and get to it.
Always looking for people to draw. Email me for details.
Weather finally allowed me to finish the painting I had been working on. This is good, as I am back on the road Sunday.
I went for a self portrait. With a new year and what looks to be a bumpy road for us all I wanted some positivity. There is a long tradition of painters doing self portraits. I have already done many. This one was just to remind myself that i am a small link in a chain that stretches far back. All those other eras had tumultuous times but despite whatever was going on, culture lasts past it.
My other less lofty inspiration was the face I see in the mirror every morning as I shave. I had given up sweets several years ago. Between that and getting older, I noticed one morning that I was slowly becoming a character out of a Velazquez painting.
I don’t mind as it is interesting to draw and paint.
This piece is 11×17 Watercolor & Tan paper
I did one study beforehand in water soluble graphite.
Water soluble graphite Study 4×4 inch pocket pad
I had read an interview with a deep thinker who said that a major problem with many people in North America is that “happiness” now means when things go 100% their way, no effort required, no resistance to the desire (s).
Aspiring to this type of thing, It’s like aiming for perfection, which is a sure fire way to misery and missing out. While I am not necessarily akin to an 18th century German philosopher who believes life is merely struggle, I do think it has its ups and downs.
The struggles shouldn’t be avoided, pressure makes a diamond, grit a pearl. The trick is to have enough moments in-between the strife which make it all worth while.
There were definite aspects of the past year which, depending upon how one views the world, were brutal. It was some of these bad moments which made me delve further into my craft, as to keep my sanity. I also continued to explore things which resulted in discovering even more new music and authors along with peers with whom I have struck up friendships.
The stoics probably got it right, live an engaged constructive life while realizing it is akin to a giant wheel upon which we are all bound. Sometimes it lifts you up, while at others you are downward slopping. Here’s to hoping we all feel the sun on our bellies more often than not in ’25
I am in the middle of edits for my next collection (spring release) and weather has stalled the painting currently working on, so here are several of the daily drawings I have been doing in various mediums. (all are quick sketches)
Prob my last drawing of ’24 Quickie charcoal piece:
The tiny paint brush I have used all year (macro shot since it’s tiny) Nothing could be more emblematic of my life & year. Beaten upon thing which ceaselessly created beauty/terrible beauty
Between some short trips, holiday social commitments that staggered my usual rhythm and then days of rain, I am not done with my latest painting. I got new studio lights, I paint in natural light but for all my other visual mediums lights are fine. So despite having my painting disrupted, I have managed to draw every day.
I decided to mess around with charcoal which is not a medium that I often use. To further mix things up, i used a larger paper.
The piece was executed very quickly. “Song” 11×14 inches charcoal stick
Always on the look out for new people to draw. Email me for details
I have one brand of multi media paper in pocket pad form I use for my Lyra work. It has become a little harder to find and the price has gone up. With a short trip on the horizon, I decided to explore other companies.
My usual pad has the dimensions of 3×5. I found a new company which was shaped different at 4×4. This company offered features my usual one did not (hard backed, choice of bright colors for cover and matching colored attached elastic to keep it shut when not in use and a built in book mark ribbon also of matching color).
Unless I am intentionally trying to challenge myself in a chop building exercise, I never use completely crappy paper. On the other hand, with pocket pads for regular sketching, it need not be of the highest quality since sometimes an entire pad will be used just for exercise which I will either gift or throw away.
My Lyra work is another story, those are always kept and the paper has to be of a fairly decent quality. Cheap paper will bubble from liquid, shred when I go to blend or just make everything run together. With this in mind I knew I could only go so “cheap” in my search.
I enjoyed the challenge of this new pad having different orientation size wise. In general it is more of a squat square where as usual pad more rectangular.
I first tried the paper with lyra. It seemed to require a slightly different touch which I didn’t mind. I had just finished a regular watercolor painting and still had paint in the palettes. Rather than dump them out, I decided to try watercolor in new pocket pad. My usual pad had never been great with watercolors.
To my surprise, the watercolor painting came out very good. Again, it required a different touch but I enjoyed myself. The main challenge for any artist is not fame but creating and then honing an individual voice.
Once this is done, you notice nuances in the creative process. Equipment flavors a piece. All equipment has its specific voice. The artist’s is ever present but the cadence will be effected. This is why Miles used specific horns just for ballads.
My painting using this paper has a slightly different sound to it than on the usual papers I use. It’s the inherent properties of the paper and the different touch they require.
I will switch back and forth between new pad and usual, pleased to have expanded my bag of tricks.
Watercolor & water soluble graphite pieces 4×4 inches:
This is the painting I had worked on. French cotton paper 7×5 I had started it election day. The next day not finished, I walked away from it until I could shake off the bad taste in my mouth.
“The Man Who Owns the World”
When I first started seriously doing visual work I saved every little piece of sketch ephemera. As I became more serious about it all, I began to woodshed every night no matter where in the world I was or what else was going on.
From a practical point of view, I could not possible save every sketchbook. Philosophically, I have sea changed. Now it is about serving the process and the joy in doing so. I need not save every hand or body part achieved during a session. In some ways I have always seen myself as a musician. A sax player has their horn but what they play is an intangible. The power of their art is bolstered by the freedom of knowing that they (and the audience) can maintain the memory and emotion of a solo but it also is ever dissolving. I started to approach my woodshedding pieces akin to this. The memories, pleasures and process stack up and become an integral part of me.
I work hard to make it easy. few hours every day drawing so that I can peel things off when I want to or when I slow my roll to do a painting, it’s easier.
There is always a pocket pad on me or scrap paper. I also utilize more formal sketchpads of higher quality paper. These I tend to hold on to and will put in drawings that are more than woodshedding. Often, especially when on the road, I combine text (by me) with drawings. These are my jazz, my bop, spontaneous and in reaction to what is going on around me.
Here is a quick sketch I peel off using a lead holder. Immediately upon finishing came text. 5×7 Hardbound French paper. Not for use without permission.
Took a break mid-painting. Rallied myself, getting back to it, back to life.
If one doesn’t agree with something about a company, chain store, product or social media platform anything short of not interacting with it is meaningless. If you hate watch a show, the network doesn’t care about motive for watching, they just go by the count of eyeballs on it. For a platform it is the same thing. The worth of any platform is the number of people on it. If you are on a platform for whatever reason, you are contributing to its worth to advertisers et al. (this is support. whether you are in agreement with ideology or not. Same can be said for a fast food chain that contributes to a cause. Saying that you are against cause but like the food, it’s money they receive and spend as they want, not you)
There is a saying which is sadly apt for today:
If you are in a parade and there is a nazi float, then you are in a nazi parade.
I am in middle moving one my social media pages to Blue Sky
@waynehwwolfson.bsky.social
And of course, I remain here.
Here are just random quick sketches and photos as I finish painting:
Anyone who reads my various online sites knows that I largely eschew politics. I am a voracious reader of non-fiction, especially biographies. It always comes across as strange when the journals/letter or straight biography on an artist has zero commentary on major upheavals occurring around them. Especially, as one can be completely oblivious to politics and other strife but still have their lives drastically effected by it. So, on rare occasions I make commentary.
One can write off politics and such as “Not my thing”. This is fine, but it will still effect all artists regardless of medium and genre. Not necessarily in how works are created but in the zeitgeist which ultimately influences where they can be seen and by whom.
I have never felt it is the artist’s duty to have program or message transmitted via their works. The real duty of all artists is to do your thing. Culture is important as it offers a brief reprieve from the grind and struggle. It is a reminder that there are things out there bigger than ourselves and more permanent.
If you are not a creator, audience is equally as important. In refreshing yourself and the (brief) cessation of life’s negatives comes the recouping of strength/will. Being able to redirect concentration from mere struggle allows for getting closer to being the best version of oneself. This is a tool to make the world a better place.
This is actually a quick sketch, larger than I normally work.
14×17 Inches soft lead pencil.
A graphite elegiac musing. There is nothing constructive in non-pundits now doing a post mortem. There is no one thing, this person shouldn’t have done/said this, that person is to blame because… Fact of the matter is, the finger could be pointed at missteps on campaign trail or how tricks were played by the other side but more than half the country casted votes a certain way.
To rail against it is to punch at waves as they crash towards the shore, it might make you feel better in the moment but ultimately is without purpose. Better to change the landscape than fight the players and in this art can be of use.
As my next idea for a Cinefield® slowly forms, I have done another painting. It is a self portrait.
On my last trip I had a photo taken at an odd angle. So many people try to present an idealized version of themselves in photos or art to the point of almost being artificial, it’s not really the person but rather a sort of two dimensional wish fulfillment.
It was the exact opposite of this concept which made the photo appeal to me as an art source. I looked as if I could use a kip and maybe a bit of sun light. The fatigue keeps me from looking overly menacing or brooding. The bags and bruises a beautiful truth.
Despite my mien, as is usually the case, I was nicely turned out. Witness me, staggering through the hotel lobby growling “Fire bad” but in a crisp shirt and jacket.
Watercolor on tan paper 11×17 inches.
A study for painting
Just finished my latest Cinefield®. This is the most rhythmically complex piece I have done. I am very pleased with the results.
The piece is 11×17 inches. As is always the case, the images are only from photos which I personally took. I used the traditional method of my tiny, trusty scissors and adhesive applied with a brush.
(C) Wayne Wolfson. Not for use without permission
Paper Life Painting 