Shortly to be hitting the road again to gather photographic raw material for my Cinefield® work. Aside from doing that I will also be drawing (woodshedding) or course and adding to my body of fine art & commercial photography. Since what i need to have on me while bopping about the cities of the world has once again changed, i have a new snazzy bag, this trip being it’s maiden voyage.
This piece is done on my trusty pocket pad 4×4 inches.
Pop Shivers 4×4
I got what i would almost label as a toy camera for a gift. This is not a totally accurate though as for some people it is their main instrument and they do wonderful work with it. The low-def aspect of it intentionally is to make it look like the non-professional cameras people used to have pre-digital age. It doesn’t use filter to do this which is good as that always looks inorganic. If one knows the voice of the camera and its limitations, it is great fun and you can get some worth while shots. While i would never have this be my main thing, i do plan on using it often. These are the first shots I did with it. Like everything else, the more i do it the better i am sure i will get.
Changing of seasons and ambient light, still re-learning best time to paint as it is differing from past years. Same with actually photographing the works once complete.
I was sent wrong color for one of my trusty pocket pads. I kept it and use it for all different stuff some serious other things not so much. It felt like it had been a while since I did a painting in one of the pocket pads so decided to do that. Unbeknownst to me, some of the pages were marred. It was only after I started painting I saw this. I decided to keep going anyways. The actual place on paper where I put the paper is fine, there is slight tearing to the right but even that’s not terrible, I am still very pleased with the piece.
I paint by natural light and learn for each season when ideal painting time is. In the summer, early mornings are better and by the afternoon I switch to giving my pen a workout.
To start my day I do early morning walks right up until dawn starting too late and it is too cool to be enjoyable. The way it has always gone is that starting in the last week or august or so, every few days/weeks dawn comes five minutes later, air feels little cooler. This year was odd in that it was as if someone just flipped a switch and the conditions which signal the end of my early walks until spring just appeared over night.
I am in process now adjusting to new light situation.
Two new pieces:
Mister Paul 5×7 Watercolor and paper
Ahhh 9×12 Rembrandt Cotton paprt
I have always greatly admired Elliott Erwitt’s photography. He often managed to organically include humor/visual puns, things he saw by complete happenstance. Sunday I was taking all books off my shelves for annual dust-behind. Before i put everything back for one section I saw an unintentional Erwitt-like opportunity for a photo.
Tolstoy (I am paraphrasing) said something along the lines of how in our joy we are all alike and only in grief does the individual emerge. One of the great things about art is that it serves as a reminder that we are all linked by our needs, dreams and faults, the human experience. All cultural things contain within the enjoyment that they offer a reminder that there is something greater than the “I” . This is a connection and a thing which will outlast us and the time we live in.
In these dark times, let some art or culture makes us all joyfully alike again, even if only briefly through the pleasure of appreciation. It is the duty of every artist to do their thing and for those who don’t create to take a beat and have a look.
I hope my works at the very least offer a quick break from the viewer’s troubles.
“Brown Couch” for D.H Dowling 11×17 Tan paper & Watercolor
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
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
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
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.
