Another mass murder--this time in battered Colorado--has taken innocent lives. Ho hum. It's only one of daily mass murders here in the virtuous, religious, ethical, empathetic, courageous United States. We're used to these things. Another assault weapon, another group of lives.
What are we to do? What shall we do? When will America ever figure this out?
How many more are going to be murdered?
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| Hoff, "Now What? (after Leyendecker)," oil on panel, 2014 |
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| Self Portrait, ca 1940 |
Not long after establishing himself in Nebraska Mr. Dunbier began a lifelong habit of traveling to various locales to paint outdoors. A devoted plein air painter, he painted annually in Taos and often in locations like Alaska, California and Arizona but never moved from Omaha. He is said to have painted nearly all of his landscapes outdoors and taught many to work en plein air.
Over his six decades of painting he made thousands of paintings, most of which are in private collections. The few collected here were scanned from a biography Augustus W. Dunbier Paint for the Love of Color which was written by his daughter-in-law and is widely available.
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| "Sunday Afternoon Taos," 1925 |
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| "Spring Flood on the Platte River," 1958 |
Mr. Dunbier was more than a bit unconventional for Omaha, especially in his youth. He wore spats and a beret around town, was something of a rake as a bachelor, and seemed too freethinking for Omaha. Nonetheless, he was very popular both as a landscapist and portrait artist. Perhaps his most notable work is "Edith," a portrait of a vivacious black woman that he painted in the 1920s and exhibited in Philadelphia. The title is a swipe at Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, whose given name was Edith. President Wilson was a well-known anti-black and anti-semitic racist, which enraged Mr. Dunbier.
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| "Edith," 1921 |
Got word not long ago that my casein painting "By the Creek" will be included in this year's American Artist Professional League Spring Member Show. The League is a nearly century-old organization committed to traditional realism and to promotion of American art and was actually formed by a group of Salmagundi Club members in the early 1920s.
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| "By the Creek," casein on bristol, 11x14 |
It's an honor to be included in this member show, which goes live online at the AAPL site on April 1 and will remain up until the end of August.
Most artists would agree that drawing skills are fundamental. Drawing is an innate human impulse after all. Drawing is actually communication skill. Think of cave drawings and paintings tens of thousand of years old, very likely happening long before writing. We humans employ drawing to give directions (maps), to show others things we have discovered (scientific charts), to direct how things are made (building plans), and a lot more. Moreover, drawing is the basis for representational art. Abstract and other nonrepresentational art may or may not depend so much on draftsmanship, but for the realist mastery of drawing is essential.
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| Michelangelo, "Study of a Seated Male," red chalk, c1510 |
My training and experience in artwork began in drawing. Although oil painting was an early pursuit, for years drawing was more important to me. I continue to draw every day, using the practice to hone my skills, practice with new tools (digitally and otherwise), study the real world, and prepare for paintings.
My practice continues in several mediums. Most days I do at least one digital drawing or painting, most commonly using a Wacom tablet and Sketchbook. But I also draw in graphite, metalpoint, and ink, and sometimes use other materials.
Here are a few examples of drawings made using various mediums.
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| Hoff, "Big Diesel," ink on paper, 2008 |
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| Hoff, "Le Rocher and the Sea (Monaco)" graphite on paper, 2019 |
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| Hoff, "Erasmus (after Holbein)," grahite on paper 2016 |
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| Hoff, "NR (After Rockwell)," charcoal on newsprint, 2010 |
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| Hoff, "The Bard," digital, 2019 |
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| Hoff, "Seated Woman," digital, 2021 |
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| Ilya Repin, Modes Mussorgsky, 1881 |
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| Ilya Repin, "Ivan the Terrible and His Son," oil, 1885 |
Mr. Repin was born in Ukraine and studied in Russia at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts from 1863 to 1870. Like many young artists in the late 19th century, he traveled to Europe after graduation, spending time in Italy and then settling in Paris for a few years (1873 to 1876), and exhibiting his own work in the Salon. He also had the opportunity to see the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris in those years, and though he was interested in their ideas of color and light he felt that their subject matter lacked serious content. One of his earliest works, often called Volga Boatmen (below), was an unsparing view of the hard-laboring peasants who hauled boats alongshore. In his social conscience, it seems to me, he was considerably closer to van Gogh.
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| "Barge Haulers on the Volga," oil, 1870 |
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| "The Surgeon E.V. Pavlov in the Operating Theater," oil, 1888 |
Settling in Moscow, Mr. Repin produced works ranging from portraiture to social realism to history paintings and became justly famous in Russia and the rest of the world, and is probably even now the most famous Russian.
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| "Leo Tolstoy," oil, 1887 |
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While organizing files it struck me that so far this year I've managed to do at least one watercolor of Druid Hill Creek every month since the beginning of the year, despite the snow and occasional harsh conditions. We've had more than double our usual snowfall so far this year (over 50 inches) and not so long ago the temperatures were barely making it above zero here in flyover land. But today it is 70 degrees and sunny. Spring.
Now, about eight weeks after the January painting above is my first watercolor of the year
with no snow on the ground. This view came after three or four days of
bright sun and temperatures in the 50s. The whole is washed in a kind of
gold spring light, especially early in the mornings, and the creek is
flowing merrily between dark banks. Unlike other times of year, the
water isn't as dark as coffee but seems more like caramel. Before long
the undergrowth will start turning green.
These new watercolors have been a wonderful addition to my studio. QoR watercolors come in tubes of standard colors.
During this pandemic year, closure of public cultural spaces like museums, theaters, galleries, and so on could have made life impoverished, but across the world cultural institutions have stepped up. For example, The Metropolitan Opera in New York has been streaming complete opera free every night for months. Vast museums worldwide offer free virtual tours of their otherwise-closed collections. Symphony orchestras stream innovative offerings from their members. Art schools now offer a wide range of workshops and courses via Zoom or other interactive media.
Although not a virtual offering, one of my favorite series has been The Great British Art Tour published by the Guardian since the beginning of 2021. These articles each deal with a piece of art in public collections in the United Kingdom. The series is in collaboration with Art UK which is a nonprofit that collaborates with more than 3000 collections. Each week the series focuses on a single work from a public collection, providing background on the artist, the work, and it's location. So the bonus for the reader is a chance to learn about wonderful museums and public art that you'd probably never see.
A good example of the treats of the series is the nearly-unknown painting "A Game of Cut Throat Eucre," a large painting by Frank Gascoigne Heath, a British painter of the early 20th century. The painting shows us a group of fishermen, playing the Cornish card game euchre in the hold of their boat. It's almost five feet across and my guess is that if you could see it in person you'd feel as if you were in the boat too. The use of tenebrism, the dramatic light and dark we associate with Caravaggio, gives this work its charm, in my opinion. In addition, Mr. Heath has used the device of a single contrasting color at the center of interest--the red cap--against the other, duller colors. The painting only entered the Penlee House Gallery and Museum in Penzance in 2017 (it was in a private collection).
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| Frank Heath, "A Game of Cut Throat Eucre," oil, 1909 |
For all of us who are still isolated and unvaccinated, and probably for always, anyone who wants to see new art can follow the links, and disappear down many online rabbit holes and links.
This week marks my first outdoor oil painting excursion in months. Here in the upper midwest the weather has been cold and blustery. We have had snow on the ground for weeks and only two week ago the high temperatures here in Des Moines were single digits or less with lows below zero. But now, as if someone flipped a switch, the weather had abruptly improved. Pleasant days in the 50s and even 60s are forecast for the next ten days or so.
On Wednesday, I managed two hours painting on the bank of Gray's Lake. The sun was bright and warm where I stood, sheltered from any wind. Despite the warmth, the lake was still frozen and white, the banks dark with withered and decayed foliage. The distant trees along the south bank are a dark tangle. Here and there you could see that spring was coming but not yet. This paintings is 8x10 on pre-toned panel. As always I laid in broad patches of colors then refined details. This is the product of ninety minutes or so. Afterward I did touch up the right side to unify the sky and trees and darkened the trees.
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| "Frozen Lake," oil on panel, 8x10 |
The sale of a painting by Winston Churchill, wartime UK Prime Minister and polymath, was in the news. The only painting Mr. Churchill did during the second world war sold for the unbelievable sum of more than $11 million. The painting depicts a mosque in Morocco, "Tower of Koutoubia Mosque," and was a gift to President Franklin Roosevelt, who had accompanied the painter to Marrakech after their summit meeting in Casablanca. Although Mr. Churchill was an accomplished amateur his work is hardly in stratospheric category the price might imply. On the other hand (price aside) I wouldn't mind putting it on my wall. It's attractive, though the palette is a bit electric for my taste.
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| Winston Churchill, "Tower of Koutoubia Mosque," oil, 1943 |
There are a lot of celebrities from all walks of life who have taken up a paint brush. Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra, Jane Seymour, Peter Falk, even Prince Charles of England easily come to mind. There are many many others whose main occupation is or was in another field but who have also become known for their art. President Eisenhower was well-known for his oil painting hobby, and George W. Bush recently began showing his post-presidential works.
Praise for works like the Churchill seem to me to arise more from surprise--''Oh, he painted?"--rather than from aesthetic enchantment. The high prices are more speculative than not and the works can be embarrassingly self-indulgent and unserious. But there are also many accomplished, even masterful painters whose main career was elsewhere. Two who deserve to be remembered for both music and art art are Tony Bennett and Joni Mitchell.
An excellent example of a talented painter who is famous in another way is Joni Mitchell. In an interview a couple of decades back she said she was a painter first and a musician second. She attended a year or so of art school before leaving and becoming a folk singer/song writer, but continued making drawings and paintings during the ensuing five decades. She has an excellent eye and a discerning vision. Her work has featured on album covers like "Clouds" (below) as well as standing on its own.
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| Joni Mitchell, "Clouds," gouache, 1969 |
Another singer whose work has garnered respect is Tony Bennett. Mr. Bennett has had a career in music spanning seven decades and even now has fans of all ages. He has also been recognized for his paintings and drawings, which he exhibits and sells under his real name, Anthony Benedetto. His work has been exhibited worldwide and is in several museum collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Mr. Bennett will be justly remembered for his music, but his art will likely also be his legacy.
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| Anthony Benedetto, "Central Park," oil, 1998 |
