Black Eye

I had the pleasure semi-recently of seeing a fantastic show in Paris of Tintoretto at the Musée du Luxembourg.

His mannerist style emphasized emotion over perfect harmonious proportions which had been the de rigueur template for (early) Renaissance painters. Some of his self portraits are among my favorite paintings. He showed himself, warts and all so to speak.

In this social media-Instagram  age, everyone goes for presenting an idealized version of themselves in self portrait. Or a faux-playful imperfection such as the pretty girl with her tongue sticking out.

My mantra has always been that truth is beauty and that truth is always in service to emotion. Emotion being  my personal raison d’etre for all my work.

When I do a self portrait, i do not look to send a message via symbols or program but stick to my raw reportage. It is me, as I am which is real, which is interesting.

 

“Black Eye” 5.5 x 8.5 Watercolor & Paper

blackeye Continue reading “Black Eye”

by Wayne Wolfson

City Street Scene

I have the pleasure of providing images for the upcoming Kris Correya movie; 4 Stories & a Funeral. The images will start and close each segment and also appear in the credits.

The movie covers the little known outside of India music scene in Mumbai which is kept alive and evolving by multi generations of passionate enthusiasts.

“City Street Scene” 9×12 colored pencil & Paper

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

One Eyed Face

I read a lot of the old Romans & Greeks. History, philosophy and plays. Often there were the household Gods.

I liked this concept and wondered if in modern times homes were to have these, what would they look like?

Would we see people waiting in long ques in front of Apple store for latest release of Apple Household God (s) ? Or would each house’s look different depending upon factors such as neighborhood and yearly income?

This sculpture is in my imagining what it may look like.I think for the middle class  People would want them or feel obligated to have one but also desire it to more organically blend in with their surroundings. Upper class would go for the ostentatious, as much like jewelry cars et al it would become another status symbol.

With all my sculptures, I approach it far differently than the process involved with my painting. I prefer to have a largely improvisational method.

I have only just started showing my sculptures. They are often a physical souvenir of a moment, an idea that occurred during, and as I often improvise with my sculptures using only what’s around me, the place it all occurred in.

I had just completed a self portrait of myself with a black eye, so I decided to thematically link it by incorporating something to do with eyes, in this case the face having only one, with this work.

9×12 (4′ off the wall) Wood (maple) brushed steel

 

 

by Wayne Wolfson

Patricia

One of her grandmother’s last wishes was that she get in shape. Although she liked her body as is, she agreed.

Photos are exacting in their detail so that the mind does not retain the memory of feelings and other acute emotional detail.

I was asked to document the body that she was leaving behind. No matter how much a portrait matches the subject, there is that component of space which we all fill in ourselves.

Capturing her with brush and pencil will keep her past vivid in memory and not merely a perfect reproduction from which all emotion has been freeze dried out.

Patricia 7×10 Watercolor & Cotton Paper

 

patricia

by Wayne Wolfson

Narrative Sixteen

Lucy had that way of looking both beautiful and tough that let me know that I would not be any good for her. At least not as promised by the end of countless movies.
I was looking for a hanger for my jacket as it deserved better than merely the back of a chair.
She was in the other room. I had said water would be fine but I swore that I heard the pa-pop of a cork being pulled, echoing the cadence too of a thousand French waiters hitting three fingers against puffed out cheeks and pursed lips in acknowledgment of their approval and that they will get on it right away.
Motion creates the illusion of accomplishment. Sharks are over achievers. Something caught the corner of my eye.
I had no idea where the light switch was and so decided to stand still and wait to see if it made its way into the strip of night sky that was spilling in through the ill placed window.

She came in holding two glasses. With a laugh:
“What are you doing?”
The light. A long centipede slowly crawled along the horizon line where floor meets wall.
It was all yellows and oranges with spots of molted black. There was a wet reddish piece of meat in its mouth which is managed to continue to carry.
I shuddered and rapidly slapped both my shoulders in confirmation that nothing was on me.
Lucy too was transfixed.
“I cant believe I used to smoke those things.”

W.Wolfson ’19

 

5×4 Quick sketch

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

Sky Bed

I capture what I am seeing in my work. It always gives me great pleasure, whether a series of quick sketches in my pocket pad or more fully realized works.

In Vancouver recently, I stayed way above the streets with a breath taking view of both the neon streams of the street but also to the left of me the port of Vancouver and the mountains behind it.

This is the view from my bed, a sort of urban impressionism. Colored pencils 9×12 colored paper.

 

 

skybed

by Wayne Wolfson

‘Nita

Emotion is a truth which is always beautiful.

Collecting art has become rarefied. Where as formerly passion and an eye (personal sense of aesthetics) were the main & most important prerequisites, they have been supplanted by space and money.

The size of my works is intentional. I have in mind new collectors for whom space is at a premium. Apartment dwellers should not feel it an impossibility to start a collection.
I also have in mind burgeoning collectors who are just starting to delve into the myriad genres of art out there. A large piece starts to dictate what directions a collection will go in for people living in normal sized spaces. Smaller works do not create a visual limitation.
I want the collector to live with my works and not (feel as if) under them which may occur in apartments.

Always is the striving for emotion to come across in my work(s) and this size bolsters it by almost creating a senses that one is witnessing a scene, the viewer as a voyeur.

” ‘Nita” 9×12 Watercolor & Cotton Paper (1st painting of ’19)

neets

by Wayne Wolfson

Black & Orange Can

Lopsided grin not visible but the splashing of the water did not drown out the song that she sang to herself. The traffic, one driver in anger or celebration leans on his horn and through the closed door could almost be Fats Navarro taking a chorus. W.Wolfson

 

Last Painting of ’18 9×12 Watercolor & Multi Media Paper

 

by Wayne Wolfson

caro diario

Hustle & bustle of commissions plus holiday social commitments. In lieu of proper blog post here are some recent quick guerilla sketch things from my ever present pocket pad.

3×5

 

by Wayne Wolfson