My trip was successful which means that I will once again get back to Cinefield® work. I did these two paintings, both of which are sort of road adventures.
Premium Supreme (selfie) was done on Rembrandt 9×12 inch cold press/fine grain paper.
The Look Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches
Both used my usual studio paint set up .
With the holidays upon us might I recommend perfect gift:
I am deep into working on my novella. I have been painting and drawing only as I can not split my concentration to the degree that my Cinefield® requires.
Excitingly, in a little under a week I will find myself on the road again for a short trip to collect raw materials (photos) for my next Cinefield® work.
Here are recently done drawings. They are all executed quickly. A methodology I heard about via a book on Matisse which has served me well:
Do drawings as fast but accurately as possible. If one can capture the essence of a thing or spirit of a person via quick execution, then it becomes easier when going slowly drawing/painting.
On a personal level I also have learned to work fast as I never want to be lumped in with the “writers” and “artists” one sees in Starbucks et al, where it is more a performative thing than actually doing work. Yes, yes we see you, you are writing. Ok settle down Tarantino….
Most of my drawing and Lyra pieces are done in Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches
Wishing all a Happy Holidays!
Drawing is the basis of art. A bad painter can’t draw, but one who draws well can always paint. Arshile Gorky
Drawing is the intellectual basis for painting. Matisse
As I continue to work on my novella & paint, i also draw daily. This always gives me great joy. It need not be a work others will see nor even one i will keep. A pencil nubbin on a scrap of paper, serving the process in this humble way excites me as much as one of my serious framed works.
I have a mission in what I want to do, convey emotions so that the viewer comes away feeling something. However, there are not specific parameters of what I will draw/paint to meet this goal.
I prefer the real, which to me is always beautiful, over the conventional notion of beauty. I am fortunate to have a stable of people who model for me, trusting me so that what I get is not the studied, academic poses but rather the more real.
Mostly I used Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches This is a mix of pencil pieces and water soluble graphite.
The painter Phillip Guston said that when one paints, at first everyone you know is in the studio with you and one by one they drop away until you are left only with the painting. I understand that, the pleasure of serving the process, everything else is temporarily suspended, where will the painting end up etc etc.
I am in the middle of typing up all my notes & stories from Europe. The visual work that I do, it is work but it isn’t. I have been going at a steady clip with my paintings but not because of any specifically set tempo. The visual work becomes a respite from the challenges of other things. Ideally, if nothing else my work offers people a brief cessation from the doomy bleakness of the news.
My paint palettes are now exactly as I want them, incorporating professional grade half pans from several companies.
This piece is 9×12 watercolor & Rembrandt cold press/fin grain 140 lb
“Color always occupies me, but drawing preoccupies me” Delacroix
“Drawing is the basis of art. A bad painter can’t draw but one who draws well can always paint.” Arshille Gorky
I always have a pocket pad on me, usually 3×5 inches, and then a slightly larger one in my ever present book bag. When I travel, what pads and accoutrements I have depends on length of trip, location and what else I will have going on while on the road.
It took me many years of trial and error but I have my trip equipment selection process down pat. For the past month or so I have been writing about equipment given to me by Royal Talens. My current go to pad is by them, but I had discovered it long before they had sent me anything, Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches
You can read my initial impressions:
I have never looked at drawing as a second class citizen in comparison to painting. No matter if I have spent the day painting or doing some of my other visual works, I draw an hour a night, every night. This woodshedding is akin to a musician practicing scales, but also one of my greatest pleasures in life.
I initially discovered water soluble graphite by complete happenstance. Once I had the mechanics down, I was able get painterly effects. When I work on my Cinefield® pieces, I can not draw as an under construction Cinefield® piece slowly dominates the space of my studio. But, I also do not want to let too long go without painting, which I end up missing.
Water soluble graphite work is the same as painting but in all greyish black tones. I can use my witting desk and do a piece in one session. I may not be able to paint but this was very close. Unexpectedly, I found that as I added to my graphite technique it helped my painting and vice versa.
I was just on the road and while it was a short trip, I had a lot going on. With this is mind I knew I would have no opportunities to paint. I brought my water soluble kit. Another important aspects of this medium which I like it how compact it is. 2x graphite sticks, a sharpener and one watercolor travel brush. I can literally put it in a coat pocket. If at a cafe I use a mineral water cap, in hotel one of the plastic cups to be found by the gratis bottles of dasni for water to dip brush into.
Here are some latest pieces:
At least until Mid-July I will not be able to take photos to use as raw material for my Cinefield® work. I continue to happily paint, enjoying myself. As I am locked into a groove, this piece too was done in my Talens Art Creation Multi Media 4×4 inches pocket pad.
Watercolor & paper 4×4 inch Pad
I had a little bit of paint left in my palette. I also had few of a different style I had bought while doing residency in Paris. These have a different style of pigment and look to them. I decided to do a loose experiment. Unfortunately, I grabbed the wrong pad of paper. I have a tabouret drawer for every style I use. Some are for different mediums but look the same unless you take a beat and read cover. I meant to use multi-medium paper which can be used with watercolors and other wet mediums.
Instead I ended up with regular tan toned sketch paper. This meant that among other handicaps I could not do my proper blending. I decided to continue on anyways. Despite it being my first time with the paints and the wrong paper for the wet medium, I was pretty pleased with result, especially for a first foray.
Quick painting 5×7 Tan toned sketch paper.
Still not sure when I am going to have a chance to take photos to use as source/fuel for my Cinefield® work. In the interim I have been enjoying painting and drawing in my trusty pocket pad. A few people had commented on noticing I had changed type of pad I use a few months ago.
Always on me now is Talens Art Creation Multi Media 4×4 inches. It stands up to blending I do when watercolor painting and same with water soluble graphite. A small thing, but which makes a big difference for the times I throw it in my bag instead of pocket is that it has an elastic which holds it closed. This means that the pages are never torn nor bent.
This piece is watercolor & multi medium paper 4×4 inches. As always, if you have interesting photo of yourself that I might be interested in drawing, drop me a line
I currently have no new raw material (photos) for my next Cinefield®. I do not mind as I am enjoying painting. Portraying human flesh with paint continues to give me the same pleasure as when I initially was able to do it well.
Here are two new pieces. Both are watercolor on paper. One in my pocket pad 4×4 inches and the other a new paper I recently discovered 5×7.
There is a great quote by author Paul Auster along the lines of “Do a thing simply for the beauty of doing it.” As an artist, I came up pre-internet (this was when I also had to have a string of terrible day jobs) A buddy and I would do literal Xerox-staple ‘zines. We would run all over town bullying, pleading & annoying Bookstores, Record stores anyplace, to carry them.
If two people saw them, you felt like you were one hundred feet tall. But, this was the bonus as it was about serving the process. It was a calling, a romance, which I am still swept up in. There was not the worry of social media numbers, likes. reposts etc.
I have noticed that many Parisian artists sort of have this attitude. Of course it has become a necessity to maintain an online presence no matter where in the world one is, but you do not see heads bent in prayer to screens in the same way you do stateside.
Do a thing for the beauty of it and the rest will follow, it may not be as immediate as posting and then getting a “like” but it will be more lasting and meaningful.
I have been greatly enjoying using my newish pocket pad for painting. It is interesting how ambient light effects a piece. If a room is naturally darker then the application of paint is thicker whereas a really bright space less paint is used. This is because of how the eye perceives the colors.
My studio has a natural sort of yellowish/gold tinge to it. I am fortunate in that I can see in my mind’s eye how to compensate for it.
“M After” Watercolor & pocket pad 4×4 inches
Drawing with impulse buy pencil
One of my other favorite statues in Paris
so many buildings have plaques denoting who lived there, when and what they did. There are many for Picasso who had numerous homes in the city. Sometimes an artists had many homes because they kept skipping out on the rent! With some artists you see several plaques all within the same arrondissement.
The lighting in my new studio is different, but I feel I have a handle on it now. I am well into the swing of things. I’ve mostly been using my semi new to me pocket pad for painting. Drawings been spread out all kinds of paper. 4×4 inches
I discovered a new to me paint company. They have been around since 1830. Among many greats, Matisse and Renoir got their watercolors from them. They remain very artisan. Just looking at the paints you see the difference in pigments. They also have proprietary colors.
paints are not paints, each hue has its own distinct properties and then this varies even more from company to company.
Not knowing if I would like them, I just bought five to try. This is why on my first piece skin doesn’t have volume & mass I usually achieve. I instantly liked the paint, it handles diff than anything else I have used. Decided to go all out, new 5×7 paper, new paint.
Maestro. One my fave statues in all of Paris.
Paper Life Painting 