Category: art

artist

Virtuosity has it’s limits.

“No one paints likes this today because no one can paint like this today.”

Frank Wright

A quote from The Artist Magazine in 2007 “Never the less, we can study and emulate an artist of such great technical ability and power.” Madame Moitessier. completed in 1856 by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.

This comment has hit me hard. I can’t disagree with it but I don’t agree. Some part of me as an artist has woken up.

In 1844 Ingres was approached through an intermediary with the idea of painting her portrait. Reluctant at this stage in his career to accept portrait commissions—he considered portraiture to be a lower form of art than history-painting—he initially refused Sigisbert’s request. However, when Ingres met Madame Moitessier, he was struck by her Junoesque beauty and agreed to produce a portrait.

The weather proclamation after Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow is six more weeks of winter.

Oh yeah!

In a speech in Wisconsin on Thursday, President Barack Obama insulted perhaps the most fervent members of his political base: art history majors. “But I promise you, folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree,” Obama declared. “Now, nothing wrong with an art history degree — I love art history,” he then swore.

It is Sunday we go out for donuts if we can. You know it takes time to pick out the right ones even though it’s the usual. When we were done and came around I didn’t realize there was someone waiting in line and gave a short apology. They looked on and laughed as my son who stood right behind them carried the box of donuts and on top a can of fancy feast for the cat. We can’t forget the cat.

I’m sitting here contemplating my painting from a distance. The painting looks good for a moment. Little needs to be done and completion is not so far away. I learned some stuff from what I’ve been reading lately and I am better for it. They say artists make the mistake of painting everything in sharp focus. And that our eyes can not see everything in focus all at once.

Simply said.

So now I’m trying to understand the main focal point. I’m adding detail to the foreground where I want to add light and attention but some of that other stuff can stay as paint interesting enough as is.

Painting is problem solving once I solve all the problems I stop.

He was a dandy, an eccentric, and argumentative.

I like reading about artists especially when the writer can kind of reveal their unique sort of personalities. This is an excerpts from an old paperback book I fell upon called Sargent, Whistler and Mary Cassatt by Frederick A. Sweet.

John Singer Sargent was a great raconteur and always delighted his sitters as well as his dinner hostesses with his charming manner and ingratiating conversation.

James McNeill Whistler was equally fond of dining out but drove his hostess to distraction by arriving an hour late or engaging in a near brawl with a fellow guest. He was a wit with the sharpest of tongues, a dandy, an eccentric, an argumentative, impractical, conceited and clever sort of genius.

Mary Cassatt was also a brilliant talker, in fact talked incessantly, loved to argue, was very opinionated, stubborn, quick to anger but soon forgot what she had been angry about. She liked the company of men and discussion of politics. She did not care for formal society even though she herself belong to it and maintained all the appurtenances fo gracious living. She had strong opinions about art, artists and collectors and expressed herself freely and often violently on the subject.

These sound like some people I know artists and non artists. stereotypical or is it just our human nature?
Reminds me of a saying…

Beware of artists

They mix with all classes
of society and are therefore
the most dangerous.

Making hay with words.

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Making hay with words.

Sitting here painting enormously absorbed.

Detail is my essential preoccupation.

As I investigate my progress I see I am far from finished and the further I get the less done it looks.

But importantly I have to make sure I don’t over paint it.

I think I need a break and a beverage.

We made it through the Polar Vortex. How’s the weather doing on your half?

Last week it was -40 degrees F and today it was 40 degrees.

Tomorrow we have a winter storm warning from 7:00am-12:00pm with possible blizzard conditions but not until after I get to work.

We call this winter here hey:)

The cross-country ski’s are ready.

I know I should be thinking about getting this painting done but I like to think skiing is part of my creative process.

We went skiing two weekends ago.

The timing was perfect right before the deep freeze.

While we were getting our ski’s on we saw the tail end of four deer pass before us about 25 yards away.

Nature at it’s best.

13 Things I learned in 2013

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1)I love doing something quiet that the brain can focus on.

2)Pulling a deer out of the woods is a lot of work.

3)What POTUS means.

4)#1 U.S. export to China is scrap and trash.

5)When to use a pitching wedge.

6)How proud I was to see my kids on cross-country skis.

7)50% of the world population is illiterate.

8)It is always the red wire that they cut.

9)80% of Muslim do not speak Arabic.

10)Obama care consists of 2,700 pages both sides.

11)The Bible will be translated in every language in 2016.

12)The Packers still have a chance at the Super bowl.

13)why I call work Ninevah sometimes.

What is required to paint when you have none.

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It has been dark and dreary for two days.

We have been in a tornado watch all day.

I have been working a lot of over time so my painting has been minimized and limited to none.

It is all my fault I suppose…no energy, no ambition and no desire.

It is funny what is required to paint when you have none.

It is nice when you have a little left in the end of the day.

That little bit can make a difference.

Instead I sit and stare at my paintings in process and say I can’t. I can not see it happening.

My birthday was in October.

My birthday marks another year for me more importantly than the annual New Years Eve party and celebration that takes place every year in January throughout the United States.

I like that day too but my birthday is a special day that bookmarks my unique timeline.

It is telling me I have one year before I reach another decade in my life and part of a century as well.

So instead of a party…my goal is to have another art showing or another one lined up by my next birthday.

A show usually consist of 10-15 paintings. That is a painting a month. Is it do able yes. Can I find the time that is the question of the day?

Some how I was able to miss three deer standing in the middle of the road yesterday so I feel anything is possible today.

I call it the Finnish Sisu.

Sisu is about taking action against the odds and displaying courage and resoluteness in the face of adversity. Deciding on a course of action and then sticking to that decision against repeated failures is sisu.