Tag: paint

2025 Fare Thee Well

Finished my latest painting “Hat”. It is a 5×7 on French Cotton paper. I tried a few new things with this one, portraying the skin in a slightly different manner than I normally do.

There is a sort of “game” on social media where one says “I will die on this hill” and it’s something small (that is the bit) but which one feels strongly about, or that drives one crazy when done a different way.

It is supposed to be whimsical but it is one of many ingredients in the current unpleasant gumbo North America finds itself mired in. While reading of the different little things people have such strong opinions on can be funny, it has also become a sort of behavioral template, a permission to rage and scream. Not everything needs to become a culture war issue nor devolve into people you do not know swearing at you or just injecting negativity into a post.

A modest proposal: Let us make 2026 a better year, even for the jerks, since to paraphrase Marcus Aurelias they are always going to be around regardless.

It is very easy to do, suck the air out of all the negative conversations & postings on places such as Twitter. You are not going to change anyone’s mind, nor are you going to prove them wrong since it shan’t be acknowledge by them. Even a person 100% in the right, yelling at someone in the wrong is only contributing to the din.

Strongly do i believe at least half the trolls if not engaged will sort of drop away. Also there is definitely a good percentage of politicians and in general creeps who do and say horrible things and when citizens and the news discuss it while showing clips of what they said, their tweets and posts et al it only keeps the things alive while also spreading its visibility.

When the Nazis were on the verge of occupying Paris, many different people wanted to get Matisse out and to a country where he would be safe. He refused to go. His view was that if he and others like him left then what were people fighting for? What would France then be without its culture?

Culture is important, it reminds one that there are things bigger and greater than the “I”. It links us all together. Even though it is comprised of different things for each of us, we all dream, love and hope. Culture is the thing in which we put all these emotions and from which we also take inspiration.

History is littered with terrible moments and culture endures during, often it shines after. Now more than ever before it is easy for one to explore new music, art and literature via online. Do not write off an unfamiliar thing as “Not my thing” without giving it a try. This is a freedom which can lead to something that adds to you, who you are what you are about.

Don’t bother telling a fool they are acting foolish, don’t let a troll make your blood pressure rise, instead use the time to check out some new things. Like Matisse, I will stay here, brush in hand.

Happy & Healthy New years to all

Photos by me emblematic of my ’25

2025:

by Wayne Wolfson

Promise / Flowers

An amazingly busy but rewarding week. I decided to do two small paintings. My paint set up in the studio is now a mix of several companies professionally rated half pans.

Once one is at a certain point quality wise, it becomes a matter of preference which is dictated by the artist’s style but also the inherent properties of the equipment. In explaining this concept to a fellow jazz-head I gave the analogy that it is the equivalent of Miles and his horns. No matter what he played on, his distinctive voice was ever present. However, he did have certain horns he used for ballads, for cookers et al. In this way it is a collaborative effort between artist in equipment. So it is with the various papers and the set up of watercolor half pans I utilize.

Both these pieces are done on Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches

by Wayne Wolfson

The Pugilist (selfie)

I decided to break things up a little and use different paper for this piece. It is 11×17 Tan multi-media paper. I was very pleased with the results.

The Pugilist (selfie) 11×17 Tan paper & watercolors

by Wayne Wolfson

Delight

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.

by Wayne Wolfson

Paris Painter II

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.

by Wayne Wolfson

MF

Well, still have not been able to take photos to serve as raw fuel for my Cinefield® work. Ironically, I have managed to do my fine art photo work, but that’s a different animal.

I am fortunate though, I have enough other mediums to work in as to stay out of trouble. I have been doing paintings, switching styles of paper. The loose knit theme behind the pieces is the portrayal of flesh.

This piece is white * French Cotton paper 5×7 inches.

  • * I had a buddy in Paris who worked at one of my favorite art stores. I am lucky that right around my place are many, each one has different purpose for me: “my pencil place” et al. We would chat & he would give me employ discount, sometimes even more than that. I would load up on equipment.
  • I was reorganizing one of the tabouret in my studio. This block of white cotton paper he gave me had been hidden under yellow legal pad on which I had written an idea for a sculpture.
  • I realized that it had been many, many years ago he had thrown a bunch of landscape sketchpads into a backpack and pursued a boho girl to Ibiza. A few postcards and then even people he had worked with for years stopped hearing from him. I don’t know if he ever got the girl but I still haven’t used up all the stuff he gave me.
by Wayne Wolfson

Marlina

I got some new paper to try for both my lyra pieces and watercolors. While the results with the Lyra were good, I much prefer my usual paper for the medium. I then decided to try doing a watercolor piece with it. And while I am very pleased with the results, with this too I prefer my usual paper. For both mediums though, the results were good enough that I will use up the pad, switching off between it and my preferred paper.

One of my great pleasures in life is portraying flesh in paint. I never tire of making volume and mass appear on what started off as a flat white square.

This piece is 7×10 “Marlina”

addendum: Deracine Magazine has new summer issue out, It has one of my early-proto “In the Eights”. The magazine has a clean minimalist design and is worth checking out

https://deracinemagazine.com/

by Wayne Wolfson

Lipstick

After all the time spent on my last CINEFIELD®, it felt great to get back to painting. I feel all the mediums in which I create are of equal value even though some of my audience only knows me through one of them.

“Lipstick” 9×12 Watercolor on paper

by Wayne Wolfson

Birthday

I have noticed lately that there are a lot of museum shows & installations “walk through a van Gough painting” type of things using projections and other tech. I am sure this will attract revenue. For anything which is lazy, bad or dare I say plebeian, there are intelligent people out there ready to supply articulation as to justify it. The gimmick as (art) museum show; “This will attract those who don’t usually go to museums.” It is not so much bringing culture to those who normally would not bother but rather a transmutation of it into something akin to the latest block buster movie.

The problem with this is that it makes the artist/work besides the point. It is spectacle as focus and not artist work/intent. The deeper problems with this, as it is many people can not stand in line to get their coffee without keeping their head bent down in their phones as to be blasted by digi-sensations as to distract them from their five minute wait. A Picasso-laser show type thing is further contributing to a complete lack of the public’s ability to “merely” stand and look at a work of art. All art regardless of era and medium has a component of contemplation to it. We are perhaps a few years away from people going to one of the great museums of the world, standing in front of an immortal piece; a Renoir, a Velazquez et al impatiently waiting for the razzle-dazzle to begin.

When reading about art, depending upon where you live, there is a lack of the ability to go out and actually see the painting or works by a specific artist. The internet is good to look something up and get the gist of it, but it can not compete with the real thing. There is a difference. Looking at works mainly online, going to mutli media mutations of an artist’s work have changed what looks “right” or “good” to a modern art audience. They do not want to see brush strokes or other evidence of an artist’s hands which are a part of their voice. A smooth machine like perfection as encountered online, on postcards is what is now preferred.

One could imagine Soutine talking to a gallery owner or museum director and being told “Don’t worry, we will smooth down the rough edges digitally…”

You can’t fight progress nor the populist bent but merely offer an alternative for this willing to explore. The ability to portray flesh in all its beautiful imperfections is something I will never tire of.

“Birthday” watercolor on tan paper 11×14

by Wayne Wolfson

Pillow

It had been rainy/overcast for what feels like forever. I worked at my painting in stops & starts. Sol finally obliged me and I finished. I was pleased with the results.

Pillow Watercolor & Paper 9×12

by Wayne Wolfson