Tag: watercolor painting

Two Songs About Two Women

I went through some of the tabourets in my studio, not that they were in any sort of major disarray. It was more a tightening up of the organization and despite how much I shake things up as to remain limber in using different types of paper I knew there were some pads which lay in the drawers forgotten about.

After the brief time it took to reorganize, randomly I grabbed a pad. A 9×12 which is not a size I often use and which looked squatter than its measurements. Foer both pieces I used my usual studio set up of half pan paints.

NH 9×12 Watercolor & Paper

Mumbai. (She was also from Mumbai but did not merely play at being a DJ & good person.) Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches

Advice to artists you prob. don’t want to hear:

Any artist, especially one just starting out on their journey wants validation. To have someone who is not a friend nor family accept a work provides sort of boost. It assuages the doubt that one will be able to “make it” as an artist and also provides a safety barrier from the naysayers.

However, there are a lot of online journals and blogs out there which simply look terrible. Artists still place their works on them as it is a sort of validation. This always surprises me. An online journal/blog which looks terrible is akin to going into a restaurant which has a bad smell.

An insult to injury is the new trend of a lot of these wanting a submissions fee or asking to “buy me a koffi”. You would be better served just doing your own thing under your own power. Often the fee is explained as you are paying for the venues bandwidth or maybe the editor’s time in choosing who will appear. The reality of this is you are paying for validation, the venue’s money is made from the fees collected. You are paying for the “honor” of temporarily working for the venue.

Do your own thing. It may not feel as good or exciting for the ego but most of these online journals no one has heard of anyways and the decisions makers behind them often have no or little foundation.

There are some good journals to be found out there still, they are not all crap just dont depend upon them for validation.

Furious Pure is good, editors who are articulate and serious and diverse talent too. (disclaimer I was featured in issue 8 but I will continue to read each new issue)

by Wayne Wolfson

Three in the Game

It has always been of interest to me how the media (television & movies) portray what encapsulates the life of an artist, in any medium. Now, it has been reduced down to all tropes and often one of two types of narratives.

A musician in some prestigious venue pressing forehead against wall in a dressing room as the crowd roars their name. And then the story slingshots back to them as a child starting out and you watch how they came to that moment. The movie ends back again in the present with them opening the dressing room door.

Or, someone who is slightly different from everyone else, children on a playground playing in a scrum while one little boy is off by himself doodling or taking notes. You then see this outsider stick to his guns and in the end gets the girl, gets some acceptance from society in general and walks by shop window with their book prominently displayed or perhaps walks down vast stone steps of a museum the camera pulling back to show a banner with their name on it.

An artist’s life is always portrayed in this manner as you would loose the audience if it was largely them standing in front of an easel or sitting at a desk doing their thing hours on end in solitude, which is far closer to the reality but lacking in outward drama.

Some of my friends have children now of age where they have to start seriously thinking of what they want to do, if not when they grow up, then at least to focus on for uni.

“Maybe tell them a little bit about what the life of an artist is like?”

It sounds corny but it is a calling. There is no “making it” as is conceived in the minds of anyone who has ever watched a bio pic. You feel good and you are working, you are feeling sick or sad or stressed you are still working. The money and exposure of one’s work may increase but the “win” is in the serving of the process which you have been doing already anyways.

Phillip Guston once said that with every painting he created, at the start of it everyone he knew was there in the studio with him and as he worked on it, all these phantoms dropped away. My experience is, as I paint everything drops away except the act of painting. I finish work for the day or i complete a piece and there is that familiar joy, then slowly regular life reasserts itself, the pinch of salt to the sweetness. Then next day I chase that away by getting back to it. That’s how it is in some manner for all artists.

I got locked into a groove and was able to get three paintings done. Each was a different size and paper. For the largest, I tried something different eschewing my normal volume and mass effect for the skin. This was not an arbitrary decision, it is how I saw the piece in my head beforehand. I like the difference in the piece from my others.

The new issue of Furious Pure Magazine #8 has a nice overview of my work along with a diverse and talented group of other artists.

https://www.furious-pure-magazine.com

“Flower” 5×7 Paper

‘Hayley” 9×12 Rembrandt cold pressed fin cotton paper

“Cookie” Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches

by Wayne Wolfson

Bourbon and Eggs: MD & AD

My painting output has been going at a steady tempo which is both pleasing and a little surprising given all else I am in the middle of doing.

In chaotic times it is important that artists regardless of medium do their work. It offers up a reminder that there are things which unite us all and which we can aspire to. Great works of art transcend and outlast the times in which they were made allowing each successive generation to reassert their humanity. All of those seemingly grandiose ideas aside, at the very least they can serve as a brief respite from the daily grind.

MD 5×5 watercolor & paper

AD my ever present Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches

by Wayne Wolfson

A Couple of Songs

Still in edit mode for novel. Did two paintings in-between all the rain,

Pebs 9×12 inches Rembrandt cold pressed fine grain

Gum I used my ever present Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches

Bonus: Was cleaning my brushes and did a loose scrap paper Self Portrait with built up paint.

by Wayne Wolfson

Three at the Party

As I continue to edit my novel I have been able to go back to painting. As has always been the case, I like to mix it up a little as to avoid stagnation. This is achieved by giving myself little challenges, different types and sizes of paper and in this case for the second and third painting, only using paint left in the palettes.

Myself 5×8 cold pressed watercolor paper with my normal studio paint set up

Truth or Dare I used my ever present Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches

Sandy I used my ever present Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches

Spontaneous pic

by Wayne Wolfson

Two Dances

I am still in the midst of working on my Cinefield® and editing my novel. I have managed to work on my paintings, albeit in a very different way. As I do not have space on my painting table, I use my writing table. Since I can not have this taken over by paint palettes, I did one small thing which involved mixing only one color at a time (i.e base coat for hair, background et al) This way when I was done with the session, I could set the painting aside and not be unable to use my table. Most importantly, I was not wasting paint either.

In creating my Cinefield® works, butcher paper is rolled out onto my painting table to protect it from the glue. Every few days I have to change the paper as snow drifts of dried glue accumulate. On the days that I did this, before laying down more paper I took the morning off from Cini work and did the parts for the paintings where I had to have full palettes of paint (the skin, creating volume and mass for the flesh).

It has always been important to me to have a discernable style while avoiding lapsing into mere mannerisms. To prevent this, I present myself with challenges to keep things fresh.

Neck is 5×8 White Canson Paper. It handles very different from all the papers I have been using for a while and is also a different size. I enjoyed the challenge and was pleased with the results.

Flapper I used my ever present Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches

by Wayne Wolfson

Stacy Says

I am in the middle of two bigger projects, editing my novel & my latest Cinefield®. I do not have studio space to do full sized paintings. In the interim I am doing pocket pad pieces which allow me to pint without leaving palettes of paint out.

The methodology of this is different than how I usually paint and I enjoy the challange.

 Stacy Says Watercolor & Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches

by Wayne Wolfson

Robin Trower

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

by Wayne Wolfson

The Princess

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.

by Wayne Wolfson

The Mark & Gerd

As I am in the middle of writing my next novella, sometimes I day dream which is an articulation of extraneous ideas that I will not use as to be able to concentrate better.

I day dream as I clean my studio. There’s a vague idea that I have had of an artist who has all the equipment he needs to do his thing and in variety. In his mind’s eye, this makes him “rich” as he let’s slip at a bar (This leads to trouble).

When I first started doing visual work, I used the pages of the newspaper (for the youngsters: this was like a twitter news feed but accurate and truthful, made from thin slices of a tree, which showed up on your doorstep every morning) I used black and red markers as to be able to see my drawings.

I then graduated to blocks of cheap paper filling every page on both sides.

Slowly, I worked my way towards legitimizing the need of good equipment. Initially, i was thrifty out of necessity, i.e using pencil extenders as to squeeze every drop out of a pencil.

Fast forward, I can now afford whatever I want for equipment, i can buy things merely to experiment with etc. I still use pencil extenders and observe other economical practices, not because I have to or even because I am cheap. It is a sign of deep affection for serving the process.

When working on a painting, the amount of paint which I use at most only takes up two ten slotted porcelain palettes. Not much but I often find myself when a painting is completed with a little bit paint remaining.

I started the practice of doing a smaller painting with remaining paints in my trusty Talen Art Creations Multi Media pocket Pad 4×4 inches. Nothing is wasted and it often presents some manner of stimulating challenge for me. It’s my version of what great chefs like Paul Bocuse did in their every part of the animal philosophy.

The Mark Watercolor & Rembrandt 9×12 cold pressed fin paper

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

by Wayne Wolfson