Tag: drawing

Beauty of the Everyday

compulsively, I read biographies on artists of every medium & era. I will even delve into people who are not my usual thing which has more than once made me become a fan. There is a commonality which transcends both nation and decade, that of practicality initially dictating artistic direction/materials & methodology.

The Impressionists are mainly talked about in relation to how they used color and lighting effects. Their importance was not just their revolutionary portrayal of light as it effected perception though. Before them, some painters had started breaking away from the pervading “must” of people being heroically portrayed ala history/myth/allegory (Courbet & Millet had started towards more naturalized milieu) they were the first to fold it into their works wholesale.

People were portrayed having an eye opener in a cafe before work, dirty nails, bad skin. Objects were portrayed in natural positions, a wife’s hat left atop a shrub, detritus atop a studio table waiting to be swept with forearm into the trash.

Part of the reason for this all was practicalities sake. Models could not always be afforded and it was easier using friends and family to pose, especially as scheduling could prove to be more convenient and often all it cost was to eventually return the favor.

These things would be enfolded into the methodology of their work and then honed. After this point, it was became their lexicon.

The same thing happened with Picasso/Braque cubist still lives, it was just things they had laying around which were part of their every day lives. Money need not be spent on flowers or any other kind of specialty objects. The only downside to this was that by the time Picasso was moving on from cubism, cubist paintings by participators in the genre more often than not had “required” objects to be included which had initially made appearances in a natural manner due to pragmatism.

Practicality is often an important initial dictator of choices an artist makes, but once the path chosen is felt to be the right one, a philosophy sprouts up. Like the methodology, it is ready to be honed, its articulation, whether to the public or just in the artist’s head, fine tuned.

The Italian painter Giorgi Morandi rarely left his city of Bologna, Italy (only three times, much later in life and then only briefly). He did not portray life in his home city but was fueled by it. He mainly did still lives. Most of these were of bottle which had just been laying around. A cursory look at his work and they seem deceptively simple. There is no bursting forth virtuosic moments to be found in his work. What makes them remarkable is that they very much look like every day objects imbued with organically occurring poetry.

A generation later and half a world away, Henry Virgona worked along a similar philosophical line. He kept the same 300 square foot Union Square studio for fifty nine years (sadly, ending in 2019). He rarely traveled, preferring to stay within the confines of the city whose fabric he was very much part of. He did still lives which showed him to be the artistic son of Morandi. He was an accomplished draftsman and this urban Antaeus did amazing candid drawings of all the people that he encountered in his daily city life, their natural poses maintain the power of the pieces. Two men, one mainly using objects, the other, people encountered every day, both showing inherent natural beauty of regular life.

I had already hit upon my philosophy and modus operandi before discovering Henry’s work. We definitely have marked differences, some of which could be generational. It is inspiring though, to see that one’s idea of serving the process is not completely out of left field but rather an evolved link in a chain which goes way back.

Most of what I work in and how I work all started out from practical considerations. I mainly use people in my life in some manner as models for convenience’s sake. When no one is around, I will paint or draw whatever catches my eye which is right in front of me. I too go for the beauty which organically comes through in every day objects or scenes.

One of my greatest pleasures in life is to conjure up, even if only with a pencil nubbin and scrap paper, either something I am seeing or talking about.

I was at a concert and observed various moments where, as much as I was enjoying the music, got caught up in people watching. Doing a sort of raw-visual-reportage after the fact, I caught the moment in a bigger sized for me piece. Aside from the size of the piece, another departure for me was the fact that I did a few studies as I wanted the crowd scene to be accurate and maintain a certain degree of looseness which already having knowledge of positioning and compositional balance would help with.

“Sept. 19th” 14×19 graphite on paper 5×7 studies

by Wayne Wolfson

Going Under

When I first started seriously painting, I used a French cotton paper. I did not realize it at the time, but it is far less forgiving than the paper which I currently use (which is non-cotton).

I made the switch when the already up there price raised even more. There was much experimentation before I found the paper which became my main one.

In cleaning my tabouret draws, I came upon an unopened block of French Cotton paper. As my skill has increased from when I originally had used it, I was interested to see what I could do with it now.

My preference with cotton paper had always been cold pressed, but even with this, there is more tooth to the paper than what I currently use. This gives a sort of chunky effect when portraying flesh, watercolor impasto.

I enjoyed using this paper and I will work my way through the block but to my surprise I now prefer my current non-cotton paper. The cotton paper does not blend as easy, so getting effects I want with cotton paper will now make it “easier” with my preferred paper.

5×7 Watercolor & cotton Paper

by Wayne Wolfson

Summer

There’s been much talk lately of the negative effect on teens body images via social media. I do not disagree with this. However, the internet has always had a tenuous grasp on reality. People of every age add filters to their face/body when posting photos, all kinds of other tweaks. Then there is the side-stand duckbill face, the de rigueur for an entire generation of women when doing selfies. Eventually. this pose and look will be viewed with same amusement as footage from bygone eras where men’s hair is overly brill creamed to the point of looking plastic.

To me, the truth has always been beautiful. The truth is unavoidable too. One can apply as many filters as are available but at some point you are going to have to go out in the real world as you really are. These things, the importance of trends et al, only have the power of the importance which we give them.

The beauty of truth is why I largely prefer to use subjects (friends et al) that I know for my work. The trust placed in me means that they can relax, eschewing any overly academic or glam poses. Even after all this time, one of my greatest pleasures is to portray flesh via paint. Sometimes, I still feel like the musician marveling at the notes that they are making.

“Summer” 11×17 inches watercolor & tan paper

by Wayne Wolfson

Art Balm

I am in the middle of working on a new CINEFIELD® and so other big works are on hold until done. There is still the nightly drawing/woodshedding. After a week or so, I find myself missing painting. I am lucky that my lyra pieces are a close approximation, it gives me the same serving the process emotional pay off.

Although the lyra pieces are also a form of woodshedding, I consider all the mediums I use of equal value, nothing is a second class citizen.. If I can get the effects i want in monochrome, especially for portraits, then when I am using my paints, it becomes “easier”.

Stateside, the news continues to be bleak. Everything has morphed into culture wars, a forced upon life or death struggles. A lot of it manages to be very serious and also absurd. It’s become too easy for one to remain amped up from a steady diet of doom scrolling, shaking their fist at the other side while veins July Fourth pop in the forehead. Even as the book banners morph more and more into (most likely) book burners, know it has to eventually pass.

In the interim, all artists have a duty to do their thing. Not to have specific political messages in their work, but to show beauty, even terrible beauty or ugly beauty. It serves as a reminder there is something bigger than oneself out there, culture. It’s a way to show that emotions besides the negative ones can be equally as strong.

If everything but the fight and thoughts of the enemy drop away, what’s the point of it all?

Two Lyra pieces 5×7

by Wayne Wolfson

Dilated

I have been taking some short trips which was impetus behind doing a smaller painting. Even with it being small, bad weather made me have to put it aside after only being quarter of the way done as I hit the road.

This smaller size had long been my preferred size until I found myself switching to 11×14. Trips longer than three day and I will paint. So, it is good to once again get back into smaller pieces as that is what I will do on the road.

Often I use myself as the subject of my work. If not my face, then my hands or some other bodily part. This is for convenience’s sake. It is nice to start a work when I want to or to stop as i mull a line over. Throwing someone else into the mix, this is not always as easy. There is a pleasure in that it also puts me in the grand tradition of painters showing themselves in their work.

I am not ashamed to portray myself as I am. There is no idealization. It’s almost a form of visual raw reportage. I take the same approach when conjuring up someone else. In one of the later Truffaut films from his The Adventures of Antoine Doinel cycle, one of the characters mentions in passing how an artist should never use their craft to settle scores. This has always been my outlook. Regardless of how a subject looks in comparison to the notion of desirability, for me, truth is always beauty.

This piece is 5×7. I am pleased with how the sort of goonyness of flesh comes across.

by Wayne Wolfson

February 3

Compulsively, I read biographies on painters/artists and movements. I never restrict myself in regards to medium nor era. I notice that starting at about the time right before the impressionists, there was a common occurrence. A lot of artists had the same life trajectory with variations according to their personal temperaments and artistic voices.

There would be the years of learning followed by chrysalises period from which they would emerge with the base of what would become their distinct individual voice. Often, this would be followed by years of trudging forward while suffering through various slings and arrows of critics and the general public.

If lucky to still be alive, then once through this phase is the first blush of fame. Often times the fame would grow but it becomes sort of a trap. An artist starts to second guess themselves trying to hold onto all their hard fought for gains. This includes the temptation and pressure to merely repeat what had brought them their initial laurels.

From an artists point of view it becomes pandering where one pantomimes the familiar as to hear applause. Galleries don’t want to risk sales by the artist striking off in new direction. There is the danger that critics won’t understand or appreciate any deviation from what they like about an artist.

Even artists who mange to navigate all of this, when you read their biographies or “the letters of” type books they all comment on the same sweet spot of their careers.

It is when enough “fame” has finally happened so that they have met all of life’s basic needs (food, clothes, shelter et al) and can buy art supplies without having to think about the impact of any purchases on the rest of their lifestyle. The long gestated voice is recognized and appreciated but not to the degree that there can be no further evolution to it.

With no distractions from practical considerations towards daily living nor external pressures of audience, gallery or critics the artist is free to explore and follow their own North star.

This golden time is too often recognized only after it has passed.

In an attempt to buck the trend I try to take advantage of it as often as possible. Aside from a way of showing appreciation for my situation, it also fosters evolution.

Rarely do I do studies before doing a painting. This time I decided to, as to play around a little with compositional balance. Also, I decided to greatly increase the size of my work from the usual 11×14 inches to 25×30. when I paint it is usually flat upon my table. Because of the size, this time it was on an easel.

I have a great, heavy wood and brass easel which could be used for massive sized pieces. As I worked on lower sections of this piece, I sat on a stool with my feet on the bottom cross bar of the easel so that it looked like I was a windsurfer.

With my paints I always use half pan sets. I had been given a few tubes as a gift and decided to use those too. they required very much a different touch.

overall, I was very pleased with the results of this piece.

by Wayne Wolfson

(small) Murmured Songs

Tom Verlaine just recently died. His career had the dichotomy of he & his band Television even now constantly being cited as an influence. Yet he never broke big in the way that some of his direct CBGB’s peers like Blondie and the Talking Heads did. This isn’t a bad thing, as it allowed him to always do as he pleased with zero consideration for hits or video’s which would prove popular and remain in rotation.

One of the better remembrances I read was not by an artistic peer or current star who had been inspired by his work. It was an account given by a book seller that resonated with me and seemed one of the most appropriate send offs.

Strand’s Book Store in New York is, at least in America, one of the last of it’s kind. It is an institution. Tom haunted it’s aisles and the bargain carts out front year after year. People might have occasionally nudged one another with their elbows while nodding with their chin as he passed by but other than that he was treated as just another bibliophile on the hunt.

The book seller recounted the diversity of what he bought and cumulatively, the number of books he must now be in possession of.

I saw aspect of myself in all of this. When there is nothing that I need at an art supply store, if I happen to be passing one I will go in and wander around. This always leads to me buying a few pocket pads. I have one whole drawer in one of my tabourets that is full of small, odd sized pocket pads.

I always leave my preferred methodology to shake things up and foster evolution. Different exercises/series done besides my regular work as to learn more.

In my coat pocket or book bag there is always a pocket pad but I tend to use the same brand/size. There is no reason to be saving all the other pads and I am starting to run out of room. So I decided to just start randomly grabbing one and using it.

For my first series I added the challenge of not doing any shading and only using one specific pencil. These drawings are all intentionally executed quickly, often plein air.

125×90 MM

by Wayne Wolfson

Selfie Yellow Driving Gloves

I had gotten this great pair of gloves right before the pandemic which sat in their cool little case for so long that I had forgotten about them. Going through my clothes, I came across them, still patiently waiting to be worn out.

This is a selfie on tan paper. New gloves & coat.

11×14 inches watercolor & tan paper

Rarely do I promote my for sale things be it my books or visual works. I want an audience and not customers. Personally, I also find it a turn off to want to see what an artist you are interested in is up to and every post ends w/a sales pitch. However, we are in the gift giving season. I have some art for sale. Have a peek. (these are truly limited, not merely sales pressure verbiage)

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

by Wayne Wolfson

Lyra Pieces

I currently have a few projects going, including a unique sized CINEFIELD® from paper I cut down myself. It’s taking slightly longer than expected as I am trying several new things. Even with all going on, I still draw & woodshed every night.

Lyra graphite sticks have become a favorite medium. It allows for painterly effects and a touch not dissimilar to that of watercolor. I am into all the mediums which I use, but my favorite two are drawing and painting. The Lyra pieces combine aspects of both of these mediums.

This was a small piece of multi medium paper. It’s close up of Jimi Hendrix. I enjoyed doing an unorthodox compositional balance in 3×5 inches

by Wayne Wolfson