Tag: diary

Not Cool

I read a lot. I mix it up though, not sticking merely to one type of thing. One genre that I like to read is biographies on artists and/or artistic eras and movements. It has become much easier to appear in print, especially if one has a hook such as “Secret Lives of …”, so I highly recommend reading up on whether a work of non fiction is accurate or not beforehand.

Having read all the better biographies on the impressionists it spurred me on to seeing their work in person. Their works retains an emotional power, sometimes more than that of a few of the modern masters who came after them. Even with this retention of power though, their work has lost its “dangerous” aspect. Unless well versed with their era, looking now at a Monet or Renoir one would never suspect how they had upset and scandalized Parisian culture.

Matisse who proceeded them had similar problems. After a small showing of some of his works, newspapers said that the colorful “blobs” were germs and that viewers risked catching something by viewing them.  This taunt would even be repeated while he was within earshot in the streets. Looking at his works now with their radiant joy and color, it’s difficult to imagine that they had at  one point been considered scandalous.

All of this underscored what I had already known, I would rather put my energy & attention towards creating as I want, rather than trying to be “cool” or cutting edge. Today’s “dangerous” (which seems to go hand in hand w/ “cool”) work is destined to not necessarily become unappreciated but most likely made safer by whatever generationally comes down the line.

A then radical innovation I cribbed from the  Impressionists which many painters I admire continued with  is the  painting objects & people from my every day life. I do not look for the drama but rather the real and let the truth supply the emotion.

I have an ongoing Series titled “A Valentine of Sorts”.  All the pieces are 5.5×8.5 and compositionally, are often a small section of a larger scene (i.e just my hand instead of my entire body, just a glass instead of an entire tablescape). Their commonality is in being things from my every day life, observed and then captured.

“Her First Docs”  Watercolor & Paper 5.5×8.5

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by Wayne Wolfson

Trufb Theninggin # 2

This is the second piece in a series.

Watercolor & French cotton paper 7×10
The size I choose for my works is intentional. I want the viewer to feel as if ease dropping on a scene.

As important to me is the new or first time collector.
Art collecting has become for the average citizen nearly unobtainable. This is because of a pervading bigger is better mentality. Not all people have gallery like wall space to work with. I keep in mind the apartment dwellers and first time art investors.

Space aside, burgeoning collectors are just starting to form their taste. A large piece runs the risk of informing the aesthetics of what to collect. I want my audience to live with my work, not under it.

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

Paint It Britain

I was very pleased that for January 26 my painting “(Self Portrait) Black Eye” was chosen by Paint It Britain as their painting of the day. It is 5.5×8.5 Watercolor & Paper.

 

paintingoftheday#paintBritian.BlackEye.W.Wolfson

by Wayne Wolfson

Si G

This is 9×12 Multi-Media Paper & Watercolor. It is spiral bound but not perforated which means every piece must carefully be cut out of the book with an exacto knife.

I sought to capture the merging of public & private emotions that played upon the face in this piece.

SiG

by Wayne Wolfson

Last Night We Were In Beta

I do not often work in large scale. I do like to try new things and keep the juices flowing with occasional experimentation.

This piece is 20×30. I did it in old school fashion, utilizing scissors & glue sticks on a cardboard box.  Some of images are photos I took myself then printed off multiple copies of to cut up.

I am very pleased w/the results.

lastnightwewereinBeta

by Wayne Wolfson

Cinema

Regardless of subject matter, I always like my work to give the sensation of the viewer as voyeur to something.

If you take footage of someone, whether they are crying, laughing even just talking, looking at the action one frame at a time the face distorts. There is a difference, sometimes drastic, from how it looked even a few frames beforehand. A neck will swell out, the nose seems of a different shape. The difference can be markedly different, each frame going towards forming a crowd of people who look similar but not exact as can occur within a family.

I decided to do a short series of 3 panels each 9×12 sequentially of a scene. I achieved the effect of what I was viewing.

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

Macaroni & Pancetta

Everyone’s face is akin to a great symphony. In constant flux, this ever changing canvas upon which we paint our feelings, secrets and ambitions never ceases to fascinate me, nor compel me to capture it. W.Wolfson

 

Watercolor & Paper 5.5×8.5

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by Wayne Wolfson

New Pencil

Ages ago I had received a 5 MM pentel mechanical pencil whose lead sleeve retracted into the barrel. On first look, i did not like it. This was back when the aesthetics of my equipment were still a major factor in my choosing of what to use. Aside from the retractable lead sleeve, the other feature often promoted were the soft rubber bumps all over  the area your fingers gripped. These were supposed to provide an anti slip aspect along with preventing your hand from getting tired as quickly. At the time I thought it further detracted aesthetically from any potential appeal the pencil might have held for me.

Once you are doing something all the time, for long stretches of time, any feature of it which can be specialized as to make the process less arduous is a must. Does the trumpeter who plays in weddings and parties on weekends as reprieve from their regular nine to five work week need a special custom mouth piece? No. Did Miles? Of course. I now spend seven days a week, hours on end with pencils in my hand. Anything I can do to lessen the negative aspects of this from  the type chair I use to what pencils, I will. While I still like the look of my equipment to  be pleasing, functionality is now the main consideration.

Now wherever in the world I am, I have one of my preferred pencils in my equipment case, but I also have one of the Pentel. This is because on the road i do not necessarily go out all the time with my trusty book bag,  I can throw it in a  pocket and not have to worry about the lead sleeve being bent, nor having it punch a hole through a pocket. An added appeal for me is that, while the pencil is by no means “hard” to use, it does not work with same intuitive ease as my preferred ones. However, getting the effects I want and doing good work with it makes using my preferred pencils feel all the more easy. I enjoy the modicum of challenge and will sometimes use this “lesser” pencil even at home in the studio just to stay limber.

For Christmas, I just received a new kind of retractable pencil made by company that makes my favorite to use. Aesthetically, it’s nicer looking than the pental. As with the Pentel, it does not operate as easily as my preferred type but I do enjoy using it. And I have already found that much like the Pentel, if I can make the magic with this pencil, then the preferred ones are even easier. The whole effect I would compare to when a runner trains with weights on their ankles, the day of the race removing the weights to run unfettered feels easier. The retraction mechanism is different from Pentel, neither better nor worse but just different. Pentel you press on the pocket clip and the sleeve retracts, with this one it is a twist and lock.

This is the second drawing I did using the new pencil. 9×12

It was worth paying for his drink if only because he tried getting a free round by telling  the bartender:

“I have crossed rivers of time to find you.”

W.Wolfson’19

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

Sabre Dahnce

The shock on their faces as she broke into her famous sabre dance, then after we ate kabobs while listening to the soft laughter of the rain hitting the streets and the murmuring of a phone left off the hook.WWolfson

9×12 Watercolor & Multi Media Paper

 

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by Wayne Wolfson

Face Witness

 “This, the face in the mirror” he waved his hands in a soft circle as if starting a magic trick or trying to grasp an intangible abstraction.

“Your pencil getting all this boy?” I eyed the  chessboard, but my hand was busy. The pencil glides. I always did.

W.Wolfson

 

9×12 Quick Sketch

 

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by Wayne Wolfson