Tag: original content

Three Ladies, Two Mediums

Been hard at work with various projects. I have continued to delve into the pastel medium. Slowly, I am making the original set i bought disappear, then I will try another brand.

There has been a big scandal recently about a well known author whose latest book was a thinly veiled character assassination of a famous actress. To her surprise, she has had very few defenders. An initial defense that she offered up was along the lines of the book not merely being a take down as to write a book requires time sacrificed from other things and effort. Why would someone put their life on hold merely to inflict pain or criticize?

With literature, there can occur slaps, bite-backs etc but if the point of the work is not entirely to harm, then these aspects are tempered by everything else going on within the book. For painting and drawing, the medium makes everything more immediate and there can be no interweaving of a negative and other things as to temper it. You can not do a painting which incorporates an insult/criticism with other things.

Unless a political cartoon type of thing, i do not know any visual artist who would use the currency of their time creating a work to serve merely as a weapon to inflict harm.

Social media has become so fantasy based, idealized versions of people smiling from staged settings, that to present someone as they are is now often not seen as a good thing.

This is why I often prefer to portray myself or members of my informal little troop, there is a trust in what I am doing. And the understanding of my philosophy, truth is beauty.

Nat 5×7 watercolor & Paper

Mar 4×4 Multi-Media Pocket pad

Helen 5×7 Pastel paper & Soft Oil Pastel

by Wayne Wolfson

Almost Blue: August 9 Selfie & Blue Pullover

The ever present phones in everyone’s hand has ruined the casual museum goer’s ability to enjoy a painting. Now, a painting must look photorealistic to be “good” because everyone is used to viewing art via their phones. No one wants to see an artist’s brushstrokes or any evidence of a thing done by human hands.

Phones allow people to capture the minutia of their lives instantly. It has almost become de rigueur, even for the most informal of photos for people to do a sort of post-production tweak. Skin is smoothed, other imperfections sanded down. Just as people do not want to see evidence of an artist’s hand in a painting or drawing, photos now may only vaguely suggest one’s age. Unless it is the point of a photo (like those amazing black and white photos of aged people whose crags make them look akin to sculptures) wrinkles, imperfections et al are verboten.

One of my greatest pleasure and something I never tire of is portraying flesh with paint. I did not feel like dealing with anyone but wanted to indulge in my raison d’etre, showing the gooniness of flesh. August 9th, I am looking in the mirror about to shave. Monk’s elliptical patterns float through the half open door.

Gazing in the mirror:

“Wow, good thing I am talented.”

Almost Blue: August 9 Selfie 9×12 Rembrandt paper (this is one of my personal favorites of all my paintings)

Blue Pullover 11×17 Tan paper

by Wayne Wolfson

Cakettes ’26

Time is an odd beast. Some feel it pursues you. This would be a drag to think as there is no way that one can ultimately win that race, time always wins out. Others think it is akin to a river that we all flow down as if corks. With luck you find yourself hitting against the right people, but also the human condition, ultimately the current is going to pull one of you further ahead into the undiscovered country.

Time manages to be both measurable and an abstract. An hour is an hour, a day a day, a week, a month, a year, all unchangeable. Our perception effects and changes how we feel moving through it or upon looking back. Good times fly by, bad times drag.

While I am a stoic and don’t have many complaints, believing in the tenet that even the bad is a necessary ingredient to make us who we are and become, it feels like it was one hundred years ago for the last birthday creation from the Cakettes.

This is one of my favorite albums.

No molds nor stencils etc used, Everything as always by hand. Here are the flavor notes & magic:

Génoise with cointreau soak

Clementines cointreau marmalade filling

Cognac Italian buttercream

Red decorations are martini fiero marshmallows

Dark decorations are chocolate 

A brief history of The Cakettes:

Cakettes ’25
Cakettes
The Caketts: a retrospective
by Wayne Wolfson

Two Paintings: Ro & Swinger

The temperature in my studio is once again safe to be in. I had finished the Ro piece before my brief exile while Swinger lay almost done the entire time of my banishment. I am very pleased with both pieces.

Swinger has special history. Over a decade ago the place I had lived part of the year every year in Paris for a long time had art supply stores all around it. I had a preference for specific things from each store i.e my pencil store, my paint store et al.

By happenstance I became pals with one of the guys at the sore closest to me. It’s proximity meant that i often walked by it and would pop in just to walk the isles, grabbing pencils or little notepads which I really didn’t need. We would chat.

He started letting me use his employee discount, plus coupons and samples. The very last time I saw him, I was so loaded up with supplies (lots free non-sample things) that when returning stateside I needed an extra bag for all the goodies.

He followed a proto-Coachella girl to Ibiza, then all around the hotspots for EDM festivals until he vanished in the ether.

Swingers is the very last piece of paper from all the paper swag he had given me. Obviously, I did not use it non-stop but I did use it steadily in-between all other papers I was exploring.

I would like to think that he got the girl or maybe he realized he didn’t need to get the girl, that it was about the adventure. And now, like Ulysses, he is heading towards a land where people do not put salt on their food.

RO 9×12 Rembrandt Cotton Paper

Swinger 7×9 Cotton Paper

by Wayne Wolfson

Painter in Exile: Heatwave Series

It has been triple digit heat here so of course my AC broke. They ordered the part I need which is syrup time in getting here. Even with windows open, ceiling fan and free standing fan, my studio has been in the 90’s (and hard to breath in). This was no mere discomfort to be countered by having a large travel mug of ice water & wearing sarong as i have encountered in the past.

Exiled from my studio

I had a painting which would have been done in two more sessions, now laying on table in anticipation of our reunion. In meanwhile I have been able do my daily drawing. I only used one pencil a large Kimberley 525. The book is a hard backed lay flat 11×14 which i found while reorganizing my tabourets pre-inferno.

Here are the drawings done for my own amusement dubbed The Heatwave Series

by Wayne Wolfson

Pastels

As I get closer to the release of my next story/essay collection I have continued to explore pastels. I have done about nine of them in-between my painting and drawing. I enjoy the medium and each one is better than the last. I am still in my naissance and so have not even begun to explore the different types of papers & pastel companies yet.

I will be systematic about it first using up what I have then furthering my explorations.

Soundtrack as I worked:

Verdi Aidia (Toscanini conducting RCA Red Seal)

Duke Ellington Ellington Uptown

Miles Davis Black Beauty Live at the Filmore

El Jazz y Chapo Echoes from Another Cosmogony

Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky

Doodlebug TV (of Digable Planets) on youtube

All Pastel 5×7

Campanelle

by Wayne Wolfson

July Fourth

I am about a week or two away from my next short story collection coming out. As usual I continued to paint and now, further delving into pastel medium.

For my paintings, I usually do them in twos and one always in my trusty pocket pad.

Chloe 5×7

Not Shy II 4×4 pocket pad

Fourth of July Prayer

Thomas Paine, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Alan Poe, Jelly Roll Morton, Lois Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Bourbon, Rye, Jazz, Stetson Hats, Skyscrapers, Hank Williams, Robert Johnson, Bill Finger, Zippo Lighters, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Kodak, Coca Cola, Baseball, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Muhamad Ali, Rap, Hip-hop, New School of Journalism, Chuck Berry, Bo Didley, Fats Domino, Blue Jeans, The Automat, Bob Dylan, Noir films, Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, Edward R Murrow, Gene kelly, Fred Astaire, Harley Davidson, Maverick Directors of the 1970’s, Patti Smith, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, New York School of Painters, Andrew Wyeth, Dashiell Hammett, Jim Thompson, Edward Hopper, Hedy Lamar, Louise Brooks, Carole Lombard, John Lewis, MLK, Rosa Parks, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Golden Age comics, Robert Williams, Blue Note Records, Pinball Machines, Judy Blume, Fred Rogers, Life Magazine,

Our differences are our strengths. Until we drop the pervading tribalism and fear from being prime motivations for our actions, we will continue to be a shadow of what we had been and what we can still be. This limitless potential is another strength.

It is up to all of us. And, this is perhaps the one remaining aspect, for now, of our former Greatness.

W.Wolfson July 4,

by Wayne Wolfson

Kubla Khan’s Dance Off

I just finished reading Jean Paul Sartre’s essay on Baudelaire. While I didn’t agree with everything he said, it was very enjoyable. Baudelaire very much lived a solipsistic life. As I am not a huge fan of his work and knowing history of France during his era, I think to some extent his attitude was to the determent of his art.

It definitely can be no fun, you go to a concert and in-between songs as you wait to hear a favorite the singer starts preaching or having the work in service of specific message for an artist’s entire oeuvre.

However, it is also weird to be living through turbulent times and make no comment upon them ever. Like most important things in life, there is a delicate balance.

Previously, I have made comments, so and my mission is humanistic not political. I will only say now that I hope my work serves as a brief respite from all daily troubles and bleak news we all must deal with.

Edie Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches

Sun Hat 5×7 Paper

by Wayne Wolfson

Two Works

I had been talking to someone about what appears in my works. More often than not it is someone from my inner circle or a thing from my life not staged but as is (a shirt hanging off the back of a chair, a demi tasse with its dregs offering up a fortune-tell). What had made the impressionists radical more than the naturalism of how they portrayed color/shadow/light was their portrayal of people and things.

In lieu of the typical historical and mythological subject matter were people from their lives and every day objects. Back then, this was more radical than it seems now.

There is a weird dichotomy with painting now though. We accept the everyday as subject matter but also because of movies & television, expect things connected with painting whether it is a work’s creation or the painter having a chop bump up to be dramatic, moviesque.

Half-pan watercolors at least for me with the exception of the few colors I use in every piece, last me. Often I would finish a piece and have paint left in my palettes. I started doing smaller pocket pad pieces with what was left. There were few motives behind this.

It is sort of pagan, my way of honoring/offering up thanks to the process I will spend my life happily serving. This (at least in my mind) is akin to when Romans would offer sacrifice before or after a journey or successful battle. I have the money and it’s not cost prohibitive to just dump what little paint is left each time out, although cumulatively it would add up. This is my version of the great chefs who have the “use every part of the animal” philosophy.

I have my methodology down, I do pencil for both paintings, the start to work on the larger first. With these two, I had only done the smaller as I had been in middle of final edits for my next story collection. I finished, very pleased, and then realized that I had given no thought to the second painting.

With the luxury of no deadline nor expectations I decided to experiment and do second piece radically different in every way. I used bigger paper which I randomly grabbed out of a tabouret, I worked on it in completely different way. These challenges created by leaving the comfort zone of the established are a way to foster growth & chops.

When I first started doing the water soluble graphite works, it added to my painting and then it ping-ponged where that medium was added to by painting. I recently took up pastels and although I am still very new to that, I see some added technique to my painting. That and this spontaneous challenge have definitely added to my painting even if not necessarily apparent to the viewer.

“Not Shy” Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches

“Magic” (selfie) 5×5 inches

by Wayne Wolfson

New Licks

David Hockney just passed away. He had works which I admired but he also had things which by general opinion didn’t hit the mark. That is fine, it doesn’t detract from the powerful works. Regardless of medium, one of components of what makes an artist great is growth/evolution and the willingness to continue to explore and take chances.

In the age of social media the personal goal of an artist has now become “fame”, to have a high number count on social media. Regardless of era and medium the true first goal of an artist is to create an individualized voice which emanates from their work.

I want a voice, a style but to never lapse into mere mannerism. One way to avoid this is to constantly challenge myself, using different paper, different pens different sizes of paper and even switching between mediums. To some extent always be one part student, one part explorer

Randomly, I decided to try my hand at soft oil pastels. Like everything I do, i am self taught. I enjoyed the medium and right out of the gate got some of the effects which I had in mind. In two days I did five pieces, all 5×5 or 5×7 inches.

For any work, an artist’s voice i s ever present but medium does to some extent dictate the cadence. Miles had certain horns which he only used for ballads. I always see a piece done in specific medium before even starting. The pastels gave me an expressionistic density different from my painting and different from my lyra works. i like all the mediums and will continue to switch between them as to continue to evolve. I was pleased with the results but am also sure as I continue to use the pastels I will get even better.

First

by Wayne Wolfson