Duke Ellington famously said that there are only two types of music, good and bad. Now more than any other time it is easy to explore. This is a freedom more should take advantage of as there could be something out there waiting for you that is currently lazily being written off as “Nah not my thing” .
Although seemingly far removed from what people know as my musical taste, i do enjoy Robin Trower. He mixes virtuosity with an emotional cadence. While this is not the first thing I reach for nor remotely indictive of my taste, when in the mood it hits the spot.
I used my at home watercolor set up & Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches
Always looking for subjects to draw paint, email me for details
My first painting of 2026. It is 9×12 Rembrandt Cotton Paper, cold pressed. For paints, I used my studio set up which is a mix of companies, all professional grade.
I am always looking for people to draw/paint. I get my share of unsolicited submissions. More important to me than “beauty” or the typical idea/portrayal of it is an emotional honesty. That allows me to convey emotions that will keep the finished work interesting in the audience’s mind, long after the viewing of it is done. It is odd when I receive photos of people in traditional academic poses or overly glammed out ones. For the academic poses, it is how one is “supposed to” learn to draw bodies & anatomy. It is a sort of trap since it is establishing a foundation within the artist which will lend an air of be stilted or overly academic in future works.
The impressionists were revolutionary not merely because of their use of colors and effects of ambient shadow and light. An equal important aspect was that they were among the first to eschew having the subject matter be historic/biblical/mythic. Instead they painted one another or friends and denizens of their neighborhood going about their daily lives. (Courbet and Millet were proto impressionists )
The lives which they conveyed when viewed now sometimes seems of another world but the canvas still radiates emotions, the beauty is not trapped under museum glass. It is because it all comes from real experiences and emotions.
For both artist and model, do what is real and the truth for you. I am fortunate to have an inner circle that trusts me and whom I have painted for years. They trust me enough to not merely give me their idealized version of themselves. I have always said that truth is beauty. This is part of an overall technique which is how I work and that many painters have utilized:
Everything for an artist is impressions which is then transmuted into expression via the work.
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
Working on novella still. I have been maintaining my allotted time for my visual work too as it is of equal importance to me (on top of nightly drawing i.e woodshedding).
These two pieces I mostly used Rembrandt paints.
The paper is:
Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches
Rembrandt Watercolor Paper 9×12 140 lb cold press
Here are two posts about the paper and the paints:
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.
Fall is unarguably here. I am once again in process of becoming familiar with when the ambient sunlight is where I need it to be for painting.
As I continue writing my novella I paint, changing up the size and style of paper for each piece. This one is done on Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches .
I am currently working on a novella and so will devote my allotted time for visual works towards painting. At the end of the day of working in full sized painting currently underway I had a little bit of paint left in my palettes.
I used it to do a smaller work. I did this for same reason I use pencil extenders when down to nubbins, not out of cheapness but as further sign of deep affection for serving the process. (I will say though, for someone who is constantly drawing etc, it does add up)
“Reflexive” This piece was done in my trusty Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches
Also few spontaneous photos I took as I worked, the poetics of the everyday.
Addendum: “How not to Look Like an Ass While Living History”
Yesterday, regardless of what side one might feel they are on or even what country residing in, was historic. While I do not begrudge someone not wanting to make a statement or gesture via their social media sites, in such cases the best thing to do is silence.
It looks tonally weird (and deaf) for some huge thing to be occurring and in the midst of it trying to rack up likes or views for what one does as if just another day.
No one’s career has ever been made via one blog post nor tweet. It can wait a day, I assure you. To think it doesn’t matter if one does not live in the country in which a thing is occurring is to get it wrong too. We, all of humanity are connected. Ironically, this notion seems to be forgotten more and more even as it becomes easier to interact with those afar from us.
It is not our duty necessarily to provide commentary or messaging on an event as it occurs, but it definitely is weird to ignore an event by acting as if it’s not happening. Years down the corridor of time:
“What were you doing when the regime fell grandpa” or “What were you doing when this huge thing happened Grandpa?”
“Me? Well Billy I was trying to get at least fifty likes for my latest blog post/I was trying to get people to listen to my band’s cover of a cure song on youtube.”
Still deep into working on my latest Cinefield®. Locked into a groove, my studio has been overrun by sheets of paper upon which rests tiny confetti like pieces of paper.
In the interim, I continue to draw every night. I have mainly been using my trusty Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches while also finishing the other pads in varying states of completion I have on my desk.
Here are some of what I have been doing, the joy for me serving the process even if only with a pencil nubbin on a scrap piece of paper:
In case you missed it I got a nice showcase which goes into my modus operandi:
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
Paper Life Painting 