December 24th -- Like Joseph and the cardinal, I'm going to live forever or die in the attempt

Here is the painting, I couldn't bring myself to sell.  It was supposed to go up right after the Mondrian piece, but instead I stayed up til 3am making the Diebenkorn poker game. This is who I am on a 4" x 4" panel.  And because it's a catch-22, there is nothing more I can write about it without ruining it.




Like Joseph and the cardinal, I'm going to live forever or die in the attempt
4" x 4"
oil on panel

NFS



December 23rd -- Soon Bells Will Be Ringing

Here is my Christmas give away! Thank you to everyone who spent time looking at the last 22 paintings, who read the blogs, who played along on FB (liking and leaving comments -- you all rock!)  and to all those who were able to purchase a painting!  It was really scary each morning to put a painting out to the world and really exhilarating to see them snatched up.

I went with an antique alarm clock for this painting -- it seemed fitting.  It can signal the end of something, but also the beginning of a new day full of brilliant unexpected moments and the comfort of things familiar.  I also loved that I could work some Christmas into the title. 

I will post one more painting tomorrow, then I hope to see everyone at the opening of my 3-artist exhibit at Studio Hart in Buffalo on January 9th!!

Again -- thank you.  The winner of this little painting is announced by two little Christmas elves  in the video below!

Here's the painting: "Soon Bells Will Be Ringing"

Soon the Bells Will Be Ringing
4" x 4" oil on hardboard
mounted to 5" x 5" white frame
 

A Christmas Giveaway!  Thank You!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

December 22nd -- Joan and I are ironing out the kinks

Today's painting is a bit experimental - fitting for the end of chapter.  Somewhere near the beginning of this project curator Scott Propeack saw the photo of one of my little paintings in perspective and mentioned that he would like a painting of a painting in that view.  For this last painting, I took a segment of Joan Miró's painting, "Catalan Landscape, 1924" and put it in perspective, a thought triggered by Scott's comment. 

Miro once said,  "Every idea has to develop in my unconscious, and sometimes it takes years... The starting point is absolutely irrational, sudden and unconscious: I start off blindly..."  I love this quote because, although I don't feel like I start out blindly, I don't start with a plan -- I start with a whole bunch of things colliding in my brain.  It is when an exciting collision happens that I start a painting -- and then more collisions happen and the painting changes, then the painting is finished and sometimes even more collisions happen, and its meaning develops further.  I chose Miró to pair with the iron because of his flattened imagery.  It's just my own quirky sense of humor -- it was initially to be called  "Oh Joan, I'm so sorry I flattened your painting!" This made me giddy. 

My chosen titled (decided last night) ended up being more ironic than you can imagine, because for the first time in this entire process, I repainted a whole painting from a blank slate (at 5 am this morning)... I needed to iron out the kinks.  People always ask when you know a painting is finished, and I always say, "when it can hang on my wall for a few weeks, and I don't touch it.  A painting a day doesn't give you quite as much time to consider the finished piece... but when something wakes up at 5am (and you don't need to be up til 8am)... you also know it isn't finished. 

It is just my luck that the painting I chose and the iron are from roughly the same time period.  This Coleman gas iron was from the 1930s and an experiment as well.  It didn't really catch on, but they look really cool.  For me this little piece... the entire endeavor... it's all about experimentation, all about pushing to do something new.  For those following this little saga, this is the last painting for sale... there will be the "give away" painting posted on the 23rd, and then on the 24th, I will post the painting that I made with every intention of selling but found that I couldn't let go.  And then... that is the end of these little guys until this time next year (I think-- I can't plan that far in advance!).  I can however let you know that I have a 3-person exhibit opening January 9th at Studio Hart in Buffalo!

Here is the painting... "Joan and I are ironing out the kinks"

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Joan Miró's painting Catalan Landscape, 1924

 
 
 



And here is my show announcement!  The opening is January 9th, 6 - 9pm.



 



December 21 -- My supplies dwindling, I made a visit to Gerhard's studio to borrow paint and ideas

I knew I wanted to paint paint from the beginning of this project.  I just didn't know the theme or the context.  However, given the chance to have a conversation with an artist about painting, I wanted to choose one who paints obsessively.  There are many obviously, but Gerhard Richter came to mind as a prolific painter who is not concerned about having a "style," but rather in exploring all the qualities of paint.  I am also really interested in the idea that we are continuously "borrowing" from everything we come in contact with -- be it consciously or subconsciously. In literature, Kristeva's intertextuality is one of my favorite concepts.  It can be interpreted in many ways, but I like to think of it as the communication within a novel between all the influences the author brings to the table whether we the reader are aware of those references or not -- this adds an immense depth to the reader's experience of the novel -- and then we the reader bring a whole other set of references that may find themselves enhancing the reading experience -- it is all about creating a conversation across time and medium.  I am currently (and slowly) reading Federico Fellini: Painting in Film, Painting on Film which really talks about the intermediality of Fellini movies -- another of my favorites -- gosh I seem to have a lot of favorites!!! 

Or -- this little painting can be blobs of paint, an empty paint tube, and a textured background :-)   The empty tube of paint is viridian green -- one of my favorite colors!  There's also ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow, cerulean blue, and kings blue (all favorites).  In case it hasn't been obvious... I seriously love painting.  I recently took a workshop with David Shevlino, who said about the career of artist, "If you can do anything else at all, do it."  I found out the hard way that the only thing I want to do is paint.  I spent a lot of years trying to have a practical career (things I was good at), but painting is my obsession.  There is no relegating it to hobby or saving it for retirement.

So that was more than enough words... here's the painting, "My supplies dwindling, I made a visit to Gerhard's studio to borrow paint and ideas"

My supplies dwindling, I made a visit to Gerhard's studio to borrow paint and ideas
4" x 4" oil on board
mounted to white 5" x 5" frame

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Here's a video of Gerhard working in the manner used to create the "background" of my painting.

December 20th -- Akira and I took tea at twilight in the garden underneath strange flowers

Akira Kurosawa's "Dreams" is a visual feast!  I am in love with beautiful movies, and this is certainly a beautiful movie.  Kurosawa began as a painter, but burned all his canvases when be began directing.  He didn't return to painting until later in life.  But he painted on screen -- "Dreams" has 8 different stories (dreams) and each is visually consistent and stunning.  This little painting takes its cue from one of the darker dreams of the film -- The Weeping Demon (mostly because I liked what I could do with the still -- it is insanely hard to take a still from a movie and juxtapose it with other thoughts -- if the director, cinematographer, and editor are good, each movie still tells its' own complete and wonderful story!)   And the teapot -- I wanted one of these teapots for years.  My husband and I would go to Niagara on the Lake and I would see this little iron tea pot year after year.  I would never let him get it for me -- $100+ on a teapot seemed so ridiculous.  Eleven years after first seeing this teapot, the kids gave it to me one Mother's Day -- it makes me very happy to steep tea in this and to drink it out of our tiny no handle cups.  Please excuse the glare spots in the photo.

Akira and I took tea at twilight in the garden underneath strange flowers
4" x 4"
oil on board mounted to 5" x 5" white frame

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December 19th -- "I'm chasing a royal flush, but Richard has pocket aces of clubs and spades."

I have played card games ever since I can remember.  Actually, over a board game or cards is one of the ways I find it easiest to relate to people.  My favorite part of Christmas has always been playing the new games together as a family.  Over the last few years, my brother has inserted a family game of Texas holdem into our holiday traditions.  I never, ever win (just in case anyone is looking for an extra to play poker with), but I love it anyway.  Now on to the art part.  I was thinking there was no way I could weave cards into this little series without being incredibly cheesy (even more so than I've gotten), but then that favorite abstract artist I mentioned in the first post from this theme, Richard Diebenkorn, came to mind.  His Ocean Park series is out of this world, but that didn't fit with where I wanted to go.  I have repeatedly taken this book out of the library (and paid too many overdue fines) and remembered he did a series of paintings and etchings called "Clubs and Spades."  Oh what luck!  So I could have a conversation with Richard Diebenkorn about playing cards on canvas (or panel to be technical).  I also sing Kenny Rogers' The Gambler near the end of most paintings -- knowing when to call a painting finished is a gamble.  One more stroke just might make it sing, or it might flatten it out -- a gamble (hell this whole art career thing is a gamble -- but one I'm really, really happy to be doing!)

Here's the painting, it is called "I'm chasing a royal flush, but Richard has pocket aces of clubs and spades."

I'm chasing a royal flush, but Richard has pocket aces of clubs and spades
oil and sharpie on board
4" x 4" 
mounted to white 5" x 5" frame

$55.00 (+tax and shipping)

 

 

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Here is Diebenkorn's painting "Clubs-Blue Ground" from 1982

 

Because I can't help myself, here's one of Diebenkorn's Ocean Park Series -- oh how I love this stuff!

Ocean Park No. 67



 

 

And here is Kenny Rogers' The Gambler



 

December 18th -- Piet and I placed milk and cookies by the fireplace for Santa

Piet Mondrian, the Dutch De Stijl artist is so iconic -- recognizable by pretty much everyone, but special to me because the work jumped out at me on a high school field to the the AK . (along with the mirror room -- not Mondrian).  So here is a playful little painting called, "Piet and I placed milk and cookies by the fire place for Santa."  I love the precision, the clean rectangles of primary colors, and the sharp black lines.  For some reason, I thought crisp cold milk was the perfect pairing with this work, but not just any milk -- it had to be an old fashioned glass jar milk. My search for antique glass milk bottles brought me to a beautiful French one with the prefect diamond red label and lettering.  And what cookie? -- oreos, of course.  Not because I'm in love with oreos (although the filling is seriously good), but because they are pretty much black and white and perfect little discs. 

Piet and I placed milk and cookies by the fireplace for Santa
4" x 4" oil on board
mounted to white 5" x 5" frame



Sold

Thanks for looking.  Please note that unless you live in the WNY area, I probably won't be able to get this to you by the 25th.

Here is the Piet Mondrian I "appropriated" for my painting.

Composition #10

 

December 17th- Just a minute ago, I debated the significance of a peach with T.S. and Euan

Really long title for this little painting -- " Just a minute ago, I debated the significance of a peach with T.S. and Euan."  This painting draws it's influence from T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," still my favorite poem after so very many years.  The lines related to this particular painting are

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

and also these lines here... which influence my painting on a daily basis.

In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

The other voice in  this little painting is one of my greatest influences as a painter.  Euan Uglow -- a name I say with reverence.  I have translated much of his peach painting (see below) into my painting. 

Just a minute ago, I debated the significance of a peach with T.S. and Euan
4" x 4"
oil on board
mounted to white 5" x 5" frame

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Peach I Young 1999
Euan Uglow

 

December 16th -- When Agnes invited me for afternoon tea

So Agnes Martin wasn't much un my radar until a walk through the Albright Knox just a couple years ago.  The painting, called The Tree,  is all white acrylic with a very lightly drawn graphite grid.  She was highly meticulous and the work was time consuming.  She said she made the work in a meditative state and that one should feel like they do when looking at the ocean.  Tea is a very calming force in my life (especially chai), so I decided to have tea with Agnes Martin.  The painting I used as inspiration is below; the colors in Martin's work are definitely more subdued and subtle than mine (although I did spend a good deal of time meticulously removing pigment from each line.) 

This painting is title, "When Agnes invited me for afternoon tea."

When Agnes invited me for afternoon tea
4" x 4"
oil on board
mounted on white 5" x 5" frame
 

 

$55.00 (+tax and shipping)

 

Sold

 

 

 

 

 

Below please see Agnes Martin's painting Untitled #9 from 1999.

 



December 15th -- A New Theme!

I'm sad that the week of vintage items with blueprints has ended!  Ah, but so excited that a new theme has started.  I'm calling it "Downtime with Geniuses."  (***Project and Purchasing Note Below.) 

Ok, so not straight forward like construction cones or "vintagy, blueprinty" paintings... but a theme I'm excited about.  I have a pretty intense love of all things art that goes back to my introduction to it in high school (we won't talk about the very limited nature of my grammar school;  I am proud to say I can diagram a sentence like nobody's business through.)  These next little paintings draw their inspiration from the fact that there is a myriad of artworks, literature, movies, and music running through my head and colliding into each other nonstop, no matter what else I seem to be doing. 

So without further ado... on with the show.  This is called, "Josef and I needed a cupcake break."  Josef Albers was my first favorite abstract painter (I hadn't yet met Diebenkorn.)  To boil it down to it's barest minimum, the work uses nested squares to attempt to understand how one color affects and interacts with another color.  And the cupcake --well, let's just say, I really wanted a cupcake after all this daily painting.  I used the idea of painting a cupcake to justify buying a cupcake, and then I certainly didn't want to waste said cupcake and proceed to gobbled it up.  Ok, so there was more ado.  Here's the painting.

Josef and I needed a cupcake break
4" x 4" oil on gessoed hardboard
mounted to white 5" x 5" frame

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*****Daily December Painting Project:  Everyday from December 1st to the 22nd, I will be presenting a new 4" x 4" oil painting on board for sale. I will update at a consistent each day. There will be a theme for each week. The cost for each painting is only $55; each work is mounted on a 5" x 5" white wooden frame. I don't make prints of my work, so this is a great opportunity to own an original for less than 1/2 of what I would normally charge.  All those who purchase a painting the day it "goes live" are entered to win a surprise 4" x 4" oil painting on December 23rd. Merry Christmas!! If you purchase a painting after December 14th, please, please put a note in the paypal box if you need it before the holidays.  These paintings are being created only 1-2 days of them going "live," they need time to dry and to be varnished.  I will make every effort to get it to you before the 25th, but will certainly let you know if I don't think it is possible.

 

Here is a silent video of Josef Albers teaching at Yale.  He has great enthusiasm!
 

Josef Albers teaching at Yale by John Cohen, c. 1955 from Josef and Anni Albers Foundation on Vimeo.

 

December 14th -- A Steady Purpose

Today's painting is an antique telescope. I titled this one "A Steady Purpose" a snippet of a quote from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  I love gothic literature, and this book with its cautionary tale of the pursuit of science has always intrigued me.  The blueprint is from a 1907 microscope by the Warner & Swasey Company.  The print has planned for "Charles F. Thwing Cleveland Ohio" to be stamped into yellow brass.  Thwing was a president of Case Western Reserve University.


A Steady Purpose
4" x4"
oil on gessoed hardboard
mounted to white 5" x 5" frame

 

Sold

 

December 13th -- Smile the Clouds Away

So I knew I wanted to do a camera for this series of antique/vintage items with "blueprints," and at first I thought it was going to be one of those great antique cameras with the accordion like lens.  Then I saw the Polaroid -- I loved taking Polaroids as a kid.  I loved the anticipation and the slow reveal!  I found a quote from Patti Smith about Polaroids that I really liked "Polaroid by its nature makes you frugal.  You walk around with maybe two packs of film in your pocket.  You have 20 shots, so each shot is a world."  With this painting project, I have scheduled 22 little worlds.  Like with the polaroid -- I could throw out a painting that isn't working, but I'm much better off if I choose my worlds carefully to begin with.  I decided to call this "Smile the Clouds Away" a slight adaptation of a quote from Lord Byron's The Bride of Abydos.

Smile the Clouds Away
4" x 4"
oil on board
mounted to white 5" x 5" white frame

 

$55.00 (+ tax and shipping)

Sold

Here's a link to some Patti Smith polaroids: https://www.lensculture.com/projects/252-land-250-polaroid-photographs

 

 and here's the Lord Byron Poem -- http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/lbyron/bl-lbyron-bride.htm

 

December 12th -- Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow

Up until my parents moved a couple of years ago, we still had my dads only stereo system -- record player and all.  The very first song I remember from being a kid is "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" by Fleetwood Mac.  Hence the title of this painting.  Of course I listen to a lot of good and bad records over the years -- Michael Jackson's Thriller was played non-stop at some point during my life (as was George Michael's Faith -- yikes).  So here is the record player -- the blue print imagery comes from a diagram of how the swing arm works.

Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow
4" x 4"
oil on board
mounted to white 5" x 5" frame

55.00 (+tax and shipping)
 

Sold

 

December 11th -- Oft in Dreams I Wander

I love things nautical and navigational.  A beautiful compass is especially wonderful.  So here is my compass painting -- the reference is from a WWI compass.  My dad was a navigator and cartographer. I remember being head over heals my first year of college when I took a geography class.  For this painting, the "blueprint" is more of a map with lines of longitude and latitude.  I titled it "Oft in Dreams I Wander" from An Irish Lullaby ( Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra).  My daughter sings it all the time, and it was one of my grandpa's favorite songs (he would have loved this compass I think!).

Oft in Dreams I Wander
4" x 4"
oil on gessoed hardboard
mounted to white 5" x 5" frame



$55.00 (+tax and shipping)

  Sold

 

 

December 10th -- Call Me, Al

Okay, silly title, but I was trying to think of songs/poems/movie lines etc. that went with the phone.  It is a mash up of You Can Call Me Al and Call Me Maybe... ah the beauty of free association.   The song You Can Call Me Al makes me pretty happy.  This little pink phone is a Pink Bell Western Electric Telephone (model 500) from 1959.  I went with a parchment type mechanical drawing to compliment the pink.  The alternate title is "Mr. Watson--come here--I want to see you" -- the first words ever spoken through a telephone (Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant).  Oh... and "Is anybody out there" was also in the running.

 Call Me, Al

4" x 4"

oil on board

mounted to white 5" x 5" frame

Sold

 

December 9th -- Wake Up Little Susie

I love the red and shape of this little sewing machine by Vulcan -- and the box had all these wonderful yellows, greens and blues on it!  When I was 11, my mom gave me sewing lessons with her for Christmas.  She was a single mom with three kids -- time alone with her on a Saturday morning was really precious.  I never got very good at it.  But the lessons are one of the only Christmas presents that I really remember from being a kid, so sewing machines have a special place in my heart.  (The other very memorable present was a Sweet Bee She-ra Doll that my mom didn't know I had found before Christmas.)  The patent for this one is from 1957.  I'm calling this painting "Wake Up Little Susie"  #19 on the Billboard Charts for 1957. 

Wake Up Little Susie
4" x 4"
oil on gessoed hardboard mounted to 5" x 5" white frame
 

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Sweet Bee



December 8th -- A Distant View

This is week 2 of my December Countdown!  Everyday from December 1st to the 22nd,  I will be presenting a new 4" x 4" oil painting on board for sale.  This week's theme -- Vintage Items with Mechanic Drawings.  The cost for each painting is only $55; each work is mounted on a 5" x 5" white wooden frame.  I don't make prints of my work, so this is a great opportunity to own an original for very little cost. I will be posting a new piece here daily.  I will ship the painting to you within 1-5 days of purchase via paypal (I have to make sure it is dry before I send it!).  If you would like to pay via cash or check, the work will be shipped or delivered as soon as payment is received.  Please e-mail me at saramzak@gmail.com if you would like to arrange to purchase a painting with a method other than paypal.

Here's the first vintage item inspired painting -- it is antique binoculars (the copper has turned green :) with a binoculars blueprint from 1907 (it is all hand painted).

A Distant View
4"x4"
oil on hardboard
mounted to 5" x 5" white frame

SOLD

 

December 7th -- Candy Cones in the Rain

So today's painting is inspired by a combination of construction barriers and candy canes... tis the season!  I noticed these because I loved the reflection in the rain soaked street.  And these barriers -- maybe I'm a little quirky, but I saw candy cane stripes!



Candy Cones in the Rain
4" x 4"
oil on gessoed hardboard
mounted to 5" x 5" white frame
 

 SOLD

December 6th -- Color Blocking

So I know it is probably wrong to have a favorite, but I think I might.  This little one is called Color Blocking (see side note below about title).  My first love in painting was color, geometric patterns of color -- this is one of the main reasons I chose to paint images of buildings.  I love beautiful, subtle greys and natural colors, but I also love intense saturated man-made color! 




Color Blocking
4" x "4
oil on gessoed hardboard
mounted on white 5" x 5" frame

SOLD

Title Side Note: I initially wanted to title this painting, "The Group W Bench."  I've seen Arlo Guthrie in concert quite a few times, and this line from Alice's Restaurant came to mind when I saw them all lined up.  But then I made the mistake of watching the segment of the movie that is related to this bit of the song (I'd never seen it!).  This is not the group W bench :-)

 



December 5th -- After Twenty Years

Today's painting is called "After Twenty Years."  It is titled after an O'Henry story that has two old friends meeting in the rain 20 years after they last parted. 

After Twenty Years
4"x4" oil on board
mounted to 5" x 5" white frame
 

$55.00 (+tax and shipping)

SOLD

Here's a link to the story: http://www.classicreader.com/book/1745/1/

December 4th -- Construction Cone 2 ('tis almost fairy time)

Today's December Countdown construction cone painting is a little off-kilter.  Maybe just a smidge mischievous.  Between the sense of off-balance and the more twilight colors (oh and maybe a bit hint of golden fairy dust), I was reminded of Mid-Summer's Night Dream (why construction cones would ever bring up Shakespeare, I don't know, but where the mind goes, it goes.)  So I subtitled this one tis almost fairy time.  You can see from whence the quote came beneath the pictures (and the buy now button which I would love if you click before proceeding to the passage :-).

Construction Cone 2 (Tis almost fairy time)
4" x 4"
oil on board

this is a side view -- these paintings are mounted to a 5" x 5" white frame.

 

 

 

SOLD

 

 

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve:
Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
 I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn
As much as we this night have overwatch'd.
This palpable-gross play hath well beguiled
The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.
A fortnight hold we this solemnity,
In nightly revels and new jollity.

Shakespeare, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Act 5, Scene 1

December 3rd -- "Caution"

Day 3 in the December countdown brings us to "Caution."  I loved the caution tape, the close-up perspective of the front cone, and the hint of a cone off in the distance. 

Caution
oil on board
4"x 4"
mounted on white frame -- 5" x 5"

SOLD

December 2nd -- Lunch Break

Here is day 2 of my Daily December Paintings. I loved the way the bright yellow jacket played with the bright orange cones.  The painting is oil on board, 4" x 4."  It measures 5"x 5" mounted to a white frame.  See previous post for side view.




Lunch Break
oil on board mounted to white frame
4" x 4"

SOLD

December Countdown!

Everyday from December 1st to the 22nd,  I will be presenting a new 4" x 4" oil painting on board for sale.  There will be a theme for each week.  The first week is construction cones!  The cost for each painting is only $55; each work is mounted on a 5" x 5" white wooden frame.  I don't make prints of my work, so this is a great opportunity to own an original for very little cost. I will be posting a new piece here daily.  I will ship the painting to you within 1-5 days of purchase via paypal (I have to make sure it is dry before I send it!).  If you would like to pay via cash or check, the work will be shipped or delivered as soon as payment is received.  Please e-mail me at saramzak@gmail.com if you would like to arrange to purchase a painting with a method other than paypal.

As today is December 1st, here is the very first 4"x 4" construction cone painting!

SOLD!

Quick Review of Dan Thompson Video On Artist Network TV

My notes and drawing from watching Dan Thompson's video

I took advantage of a free 4 day trial of Artist Network TV and watched "Figure Drawing 1: Anatomy of the Head with Dan Thompson" last night.  After being initially thrown by all the technical anatomy terms, I found myself learning quite a bit and really thinking about how to approach a drawn (and painted) portrait.  While my notes are fairly haphazard (I was drawing he taught), I record some key points here.

Dan really focuses on anatomical landmarks -- not the ones you'd imagine.  Terms like glabella, sternocleidomastoid, hyoid bone, and infraorbital foramen were quickly identified through the head and neck using a clay model and toothpicks jabbed into areas to show key relationships.  I would not do that portion of the video any justice here (or probably anywhere), but he did recommend some light anatomy reading -- The Human Figure by John H. Vanderpoel, Human Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form by Eliot Goldfinger, Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist by Stephen Rogers Peck, and one by Robert Beverly Hale -- probably Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters, but I didn't write down which one. 

Dan starts by taking a measurement on his actual model -- one from the tear duct to the bottom of the chin.  He marks this length on the side of the paper and then doubles it.  *** The tear duct is approximately 1/2 way from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin.****  He then starts to place his portrait on the paper using long gestural straight lines.  He places the head closer to the top of the page so that he can include the neck and shoulders.  He makes the point that this is how you know the movement of the person.  From here on out it is wonderful to see him develop the piece using only long straight lines to indicate how angles relate to each other.  *** For Dan, the EAR is the most pivotal feature in getting a portrait right -- he seems to measure all the angles of the face from the ear.***  He is looking for Action, Proportion, Shape and Overall Design at this point.  He is "sneaking up on the head" as he calls it -- dancing around the entire drawing working out relationships and angles until he finds the ones that work. 

Dan's drawing in the video

After he has this straight line drawing in place, he works in one "false value" to indicate the areas in shadow.  The he goes on to tonal development -- massing in a 5 value drawing.  He first articulates his darkest dark to establish range (usually in the hair or clothes),  then the lightest dark, then middle light, then highlight, and finally the darkest light.  Dan used a 2H and a HB for darkest dark -- he uses a lot of layering and a blending stump.   The darkest dark is the tone anchor.   The false value is too light for the shadow, so next he works in the lightest dark.  At this point, he still is not committed completely to a likeness. 

Tip:  Avoid "shading the shadow:"  we should compress the range of values in the shadow so that we have more values to play with in the lights.

Dan goes on to explain alignment (making sure all features are in alignment/perspective), morphology (the spacing between features)-- the specifics of the individual's face, and finally he breaks down all the features by planes. I love planes. I have Katherine Hannigan (one of my college teachers) to thank for truly understanding planes and thus understanding how to draw the human form -- before that it was all line, and I was never quite accurate. 

I highly recommend this video!  I know I will watch it a few times - -there's a lot here -- perhaps I will even have time to update with more info.

This is Dan's website: http://danthompsonart.com/.




Dan Thompson (1972-) Self Portrait Oil on canvas 32" x 28"

Dan Thompson (1972-)
Self Portrait
Oil on canvas
32" x 28"



Dan Thompson (1972-) The Warrior Oil on canvas 40" x 30"

Dan Thompson (1972-)
The Warrior
Oil on canvas
40" x 30"

A painting kindred spirit: Phil Durgan



Phil Durgan, a very talented Buffalo artist, died so very young a couple of days ago.  I feel somehow guilty in writing about him; I'm not particularly good with death or emotion associated with it.  But as a fellow painter, I will want people to write about my work when I am gone.  Phil's work is definitely worth writing about -- it is full of nuance, observation, rhythm and the lights and darks of life. Phil and I admired each other's paint; I think we saw strengths in each others work that we wished we had.  Phil's work has a natural rhythm; he guides you through a piece to music that he knows intrinsically (he loved Jazz). Phil brought MOAB (the painting above) to an exhibit I coordinated in 2011 at Statler City.  It was the first time we talked and the first time I saw the really big painting seen above.  The prospectus indicated that all the work in the exhibit be related to Buffalo's architecture and/or communities.   This piece resembles a street map of the city; an inviting, familiar, yet possibly dangerous location.  The shimmering pavement flows throughout - letting you move through and around the sharp corners, bump over squiggles and seek out sanctuary in small nooks.  When I see the scissors I think immediately of Diebenkorn, they are open but non-threatening --I get the feeling that Phil's scissors are kid's scissors.  The eye is also the sun is also a light bulb -- this could be a wonderful metaphor for how opening our eyes to our surroundings allows us to view our world through both intelligent realism and optimism.  There is also a dark undercurrent woven into the canvas.   The skeletal figure with the large red dot covering most of his skull is very ominous, and the sun's rays could simply be dangerous spikes.   Phil mentioned in an interview with ELAB that he liked to read artists bios including those of Basquiat, Pollock, De Kooning, Picasso.   One can see the conversation his work has with these artists on canvas as well as to other artists he admired including Jean Dubuffet, Cy Twombly, Joseph Bueys.  His material usage is often identical to Basquiat -- acrylic paint and oil sticks.  Basquiat said that every line had meaning -- this is true of Phil's work.  I certainly don't know the meanings, but you can feel their purpose.  

His artist statement is brief, but true.  He wrote: "I am always amazed by the little things in life and equally impressed by the daring. My paintings seem to always encounter the ideas of: Bebop jazz. Cigarette smoke. Road maps. Women. Beat literature. Mid-century colors. Hymnals. Sumatra. The Gospels. Raconteurs. Drag queens. College radio. Women. Street musicians. Nag Champa. Fireflies…and my children."

More of Phil's words about his work at Buffalo Rising.  Phil's obituary in the Buffalo News.

 

 

Phil's poem on FB that accompanied this painting:

"I hear cars racing down my street
Neighbors yelling 27yr greetings
Cat dogs plows mufflers bottle breaks
I hear love being made
Deals broken
Taxis on flat tires
Children escaping school buses"

 

The association between jazz music and the cacophony of sound that accompany the day to day is striking and it makes complete visual and auditory sense. 
 

The colors and brushwork in this piece are sensual and confident.  It contradicts the the text... "No. 8 Pathetic."

 

This is my favorite Phil Durgan painting.  The broad bands of off-kilter color clash with the pale centered woman.  Her face is worn, seen both as in the process of being created and in being deconstructed.  the paint of her body and dress is so full of life and movement when compared with the flat, unyielding, yet unbalanced bands of color.  Phil had said he wanted to trade work with me... I always thought we'd get around to it eventually... now that Phil has passed away I regret that I never got around to the "trade." But his paintings, along with his friendly smile and energy, will live in my memory always.   Especially this painting -- for me she is a reminder that I need to keep painting and that I need to enjoy my children and husband cause it could all be over too soon -- there isn't always a tomorrow -- a lesson I first learned from my dad who passed away when he was only 28.   I can't get stuck in routine, but need to be fresh and full of life and keep things off-kilter.   I don't want to sad or stress (she looks both); I want to be like the paint that creates her -- joyful, spontaneous and layered.  I don't know what Phil intended with this painting -- but it has taken on a lot of significance for me on how to move forward with my own existence.

 

 

 

 

On Philip Guston

Voyage, 1956 by Philip Guston

I was in Baltimore a few weeks back for just a day, but I stopped into the FREE Baltimore Museum of  Art and was reminded just how influential Philip Guston has been to my thought process as I paint.  A long while ago I read a book, Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations , and I think that it should be required reading for all painters.  Before reading the book, I had enjoyed the above piece at the Albright Knox for it's palette and brush work, but I didn't realize the depth of thought behind Guston's painting process over the course of his career.  Guston's eradication of color or marks or subject matter from his canvases make his work about the journey -- the history of paint is on the canvas.  He thought in-depth about paint, what makes a painting, the purpose of paint and the place of painting in modern art.  He repeatedly went back through the history of painting to inform his work, including Piero de Francesco, Mantegna, Goya, Manet and Cezanne.  Guston's book sent me on many investigations into the same subject matter and helped me solidify paint as a medium I will utilize and defend as relevant.  As a representational artist who believes that great representational art is also abstract art, I find that erasures and letting the picture live it's own life are really important to me.  I think reading the Guston book helped me articulate, both in words and paint, my own process of working from a plan to abandoning the plan to allowing the picture to form itself -- sometimes it even returns to the plan after seeking other ways first.  Guston shares a metaphor of having the plan of climbing Mount Everest and almost reaching the top, then thinking "I forgot some supplies," turning around, but finding new paths down the hill, making new discoveries; the experience of the climb wasn't about reaching the top even though that was the plan -- it is about all the things that happen when we change direction.  I find it intriguing that two of the abstract painters I admire most, Guston and Diebenkorn, both returned to figuration and representation at some point in their careers.  While in Baltimore, I saw "The Oracle" from 1974.  It is part of a series of work that uses the KKK as characters in a story -- Guston states that he was interested in evil, but wanted to think about what evil did when it wasn't planning evil thing -- evil having dinner, looking art, etc.   As an artist whose work has been socially conscious, I find this narrative intriguing.   His distance from activism and his humor are important elements to this work. 

The Oracle (the colors in this photo do not do it justice!)

 

This video is an amazing example of Guston's thoughts on painting as he paints!!! 

 

 

Evidence 1970 (click for video)