beautiful – Paper Life Painting

Cap

I was reading an article by a modern thinker or what some would label as a philosopher. He pointed out that in modern society happiness has now become largely defined in North America as when things go 100% one’s way. Everything coming up roses with zero effort, resistance or work required is not what one should aspire to. The rare if not impossible occurrence of such a state existing aside, a little bit of tension, setbacks, challenges, these things foster evolution. Grit creates pearls and pressure diamonds and to avoid these aspects of life is to miss out.

The weather has still not been on my side for traveling and getting new photos for my Cinefield® work. I continue to use the time I would have spent creating my next Cini to paint and do various experiments with water soluble graphite.

I was initially a little annoyed at having to back-burner working on my next Cinefield® but it has allowed me to add to my painterly technique. It turned into an opportunity even though I had not initially viewed it as such.

In about two weeks I will be on the road and hopefully getting some photos to utilize.

Here is latest painting. It’s 11×17 Watercolor & tan paper.

I want an audience not customers. Social media platforms more and more force artists into being merchants or coming across as attention starved with “the numbers game” of chasing likes views et al. I have been getting emails asking what pieces I have for sale which is nice as it’s not info that i bombard people with. For anyone interested:

http://www.waynewolfson.com/works-for-sale

July 20, 2024 by Wayne Wolfson

Vibe

The short trip I had planned to take photos for my next Cinefield® had been put off. I took the time that I would have been working on that and painted. For two plus weeks now my area has been in the grip of triple digit heatwave. Getting more photos further stymied, I have continued on with painting.

I usually switch between Cinefield®, painting and other visual project, so working on so many paintings in a row is novel for me.

To keep it fresh, for each painting I change the type & size.

This one had an unique compositional balance to it. I find beauty not necessarily in what is aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but what is real.

This piece is 7×10 French Cotton paper & watercolor.

I am always looking for interesting things to paint & draw, if interested send email.

July 10, 2024 by Wayne Wolfson

Truth is Beauty

Ever present cell phones have allowed all to capture the minutia of their lives via pics and Shakey-hand movies. on occasion marvelous things have been captured. The more present negative is that people have forgotten how to look at paintings.

A “good” painting now must be in the real/hyper real style, being comparable to photos. It is not desirable to see the artist’s hand via brush strokes et al in a work.

I was in a museum which was having a Magritte show. There were the by now all overly familiar images on display. People would walk up to the best works, striding off muttering in disappointment that they liked it more when they had seen it on a computer screen or postcard, in person it looked “too homemade” i.e. brushstrokes etc.

I am not afraid of having one of my drawings look like a drawing or a painting. With Matisse for example, no one is going to study anatomy off of one of his works. However, when he portrays a woman reclining on a couch, you know what you are looking at. Had you been alive at that time and in the neighborhood you might even recognize the woman. Most importantly, even after all these decades, the captured emotion still radiates out of the works.

I prefer to not use professional models. There’s often an artificiality to their poses. My main thing is emotion, this is what I want to give the viewer even more than admiring technique.

More often than not, I use people whom i know and that trust me. This allows for a realness which is beautiful. The realness of my paintings is not the technique but the natural poses and emotions.

Truth is Beauty 11×17 Watercolor on tan paper

June 1, 2024 by Wayne Wolfson

Cinefield® – Lotus

I just finished a new Cinefield®. It was labor intensive. A few things made this one different. I was on the road off and one again over the past few months. Normally I work on a Cini until I am done. This time I worked on it, hit the road, came back to it several times.

There was a definite apprehension about working on such a complex piece in this manner but it ended up stronger for it. The mini breaks allowed me to maintain level on concentration and intensity consistently.

The entire work is comprised from one photo which I personally took, reprinted over and over. I used my trusty scissors to hand cut each tiny piece using a brush to apply adhesive. The picture is 11×17 inches and there was no digital magic utilized.

It occurred to me only while working on this piece the nature of my Cini’s. I always have in my head beforehand the design and the effects/properties i.e this part will glow, here will be darker section etc etc. However, even as I am cutting out the tiny pieces, I do not know where they will ultimately go. It is only as I am laying a piece down that I know where I will put it. I look at each Cini as akin to a piece of music, so that makes the denser ones a sort of improvised symphony. Every Cini possesses the dichotomy of being super controlled while also improvised. It’s Charlie Parker & Schoenberg.

Lotus 11×17

A word about copyright & A.I:

A lot of my peers copyright a work only after a magazine/gallery, whatnot accepts the work. This is a big mistake, as soon as you post your work or submit it, first step in this process should be to copyright it. Generation instagram feels it a victimless crime to take what they want from the web for content beyond pics of them giving heart hands in some sunny local. There’s now plenty of examples too of artists having their works monetized by others . A copyright is not a forcefield, these things are still going to happen, but to have a copyright gives recourse should someone be using what you created without permission. It also makes having things taken down from sites/webpages far quicker too.

A.I is very misunderstood right now by many. It is not creating content so much as reconstituting things already on the web created by others. Whether it is literature or visual work and even music, it’s basically a super system which creates chimera based upon instructions. Most artists regardless of medium have some works online.

November 13, 2023 by Wayne Wolfson