Music to Paint By

If you're like me, you often have music playing while you work. A novelist friend of mine told me once that she always played music while writing, even when laboring on difficult passages or struggling to write a single word. It made the creative process easier, somehow. As a writer of historical fiction, she also played music from the era in her current fiction--chamber music from the early 19th century as she wrote about the English Regency for example. She claimed it smoothed her brain's alpha waves, making the writing smoother too. Maybe so. On the other hand, there are plenty of people who demand utter silence when they paint or can't write or do sums unless the room is still. 

"Willie," digital drawing

I like music when I work, whether it's digital or actual paint. During long ago studio sessions we almost always had music, chosen by the instructor,  usually classical or smooth jazz. Nothing challenging, nothing to capture attention. Never hard rock, or for that matter country or even top 40 pop. No, mostly it was jazz, commonly piano or saxophone ballads. My taste runs to the same general direction but traditional  rock or honky-tonk country music can be a tasty alternative. 

 

Another New Landscape

Studio work continues to develop from last year's outdoor paintings. Here is another featuring Gray's Lake here in Des Moines. The figures are walking along the northern shore. The distant trees and shoreline are based on previous studies, as is the shoreline and single tree to the right. The autumn light comes streaming into the trees and touches the grasses along the water with gold.

"Along the Lake, oil on panel, 2021

New Landscape

The spring warmth is advancing but so is the rain. We've had quite a lot of rainy, grey and cloudy days lately, keeping me indoors for the most part. But the time is useful to continue on landscapes inspired by last year's plein air outings. As I've mentioned in other posts, those outdoor works provide information about the locale that I can't really get from photos. 

"Wind on the Point," oil on media board

This particular painting is another look at the point at Gray's Lake, nearby. I used studies from later summer days, considerably modified.

A Digital Habit

It's clear that most successful artists, whether visual or verbal or video, have a routine they follow almost without thinking. Most are very uncomfortable when forced out of their routine or schedule. And so it is with my work. 

 The day begins with coffee, news sites, and correspondence. A lot of the time something in the news feeds triggers a drawing or two. Happily, it's easy to make drawings using a pressure-sensitive display tablet. You draw right on the screen, and the feel of drawing with a stylus is similar to drawing with a pencil or charcoal or whatever. You turn on the tablet, open the program, and draw. The majority of my morning drawings go a-glimmering via the Delete key, but some go into long-term files. 

Over the years hundreds of these digital drawings have accumulated, many posted on my other blog Daily Digitalia. 

"Knotted"

"On the Ice"

Head of a Man

Message Art

A famous movie mogul is supposed to have pointed out that movies are about the box office, not social issues by saying, "If you want to send a message, call Western Union." (For those too young to remember, Western Union sent "telegrams" over wires strung coast to coast.) Today we'd say "If you want to send a message, pull out your phone." But truthfully, one of the prime functions of art is communication. Social and political commentary in art is in fact one of its major uses. 

Pablo Picasso, "Guernica," 1937

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) painted "Guernica," his massive (about 12'x26') protest against the genocidal bombing of civilians in the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. A Spanish ex-pat living in France, and a communist besides, he was enraged by the event and painted the work to fulfill a commission by the Spanish Republic for their World's Fair pavilion. It remains a wrenching indictment of man's inhumanity and the needless suffering of war. 

Francisco Goya (1746-1828) is another Spanish master who produced paintings in revulsion to the horror and inhumanity of war. His "May 3, 1808" was painted to memorialize the Spanish uprising against Napoleon, and produced several years later when the French had been driven out of Spain. In the painting, Spanish patriots are being executed by a French firing squad. The revolt against Bonaparte had failed and executions were widespread. The common man throws his arms wide, probably in defiance. 

Norman Rockwell, "The Problem We All Live With," 1964

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) is a painter/illustrator whose work was justifiably famous in the 20th century. Although his reputation was made from his often sentimental work, some of his paintings, especially toward the end of his career, came with messages that belied his reputation. In "The Problem We All Live With," he memorializes the first day of school endured by 6-year old Ruby Bridges in 1960 New Orleans. The image was published by Look magazine as a centerfold and continues to dismay many, especially with the prominent racial slur. 

Damien Hirst and his shark

In our contemporary era, message art is everywhere. Too often for my taste the message is in the title of the work. For example, the British artist Damien Hirst produced "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living," (1991) by pickling an enormous shark. While there is certainly a message in the title, without it one suspects, the impact would be similar. On the other hand, other artists have produced untitled works with powerful messages.

Banksy, fire and snow graffiti

Banksy, the so-far anonymous British graffiti painter is an excellent example. Most of Banksy's works are untitled, secretly-painted graffiti that contain a pithy point within the work itself. Unlike Mr. Hirst, there is no reliance on words to make a point when the images work just fine. In the graffito at right a child, delighting by falling snow, is about to catch a flake on his/her tongue. Around the corner of the shed we see a dumpster fire spewing white ash that has begun to fall like snow. Without a title, this image speaks volumes about humans polluting the earth, unknowingly polluting ourselves. To my eyes at least, the message is utterly clear.  

Spring Cleaning Continued

One of the things people ought to do when cleaning out closets and storage spaces is a kind of triage. A friend of mine begins by throwing out everything that's obvious trash, from ticket stubs to a 1971 Neil Diamond concert to pay stubs from her first job--anything clearly useless. Next she winnows the remainder by sorting into separate piles--No, Maybe, and Keep. That way, she reasons, some items that seem doubtful have a second chance. So that's been my approach, too, during that last Spring Cleaning posted a while back. Below are a few odds and ends that made it into the Keep pile.

Life Study, 29x22, 2005

This is a figure in acrylic from a life painting group that I joined at the local art center. Unlike many she was excellent at holding her pose. She was our model for a considerable time, and a pleasure to work with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Mail Boxes," ink on paper, 2005

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This pen and ink drawing is another piece saved from the burn pile. It was done using an old-style, flexible nib in a holder. Those kinds of metal nibs respond to pressure by producing a variable line that can be very pleasing when done in an artful way. This was also done on a hand-made art paper that seemed useful for ink because it has enough surface finish to keep the ink from being absorbed.  

Study for Portrait of JM, 2009

 

And here's a charcoal study for a portrait. Sometimes a candid shot is awfully useful for character studies because it's more likely to capture an unguarded side of a personality. This sitter has a vivacious, open personality and it shows in the expression.

Thinking of Fair Time

Last year's Iowa State Fair was cancelled owing to the pandemic so all I could do is post about the 2019 fair. This year (so far anyway) it seems the Fair will return, doubtless modified significantly. The crowds will probably be different, likely smaller, and the event schedule will probably change too. But there will always be "fair food" from traditional to outright odd. We've all heard about fried pickles, even fried ice cream. The food booths and tents will always be there.  

"Breakfast at the Fair," 18x36, oil on canvas, 2019

One of the perennial favorite morning foods is a huge, gooey cinnamon roll. The booth opens as the sun slants in from the east and the long line at last begins to move. Everyone's hungry.

Spring Cleaning

During the middle part of this spring season the weather was both chilly and damp. Perfect time for spring cleaning in the studio. My project was a storage space I've used for more than twenty years, alas without cleaning up or sorting. To my surprise, quite a few things came to light, including an old test canvas that I'd forgotten, quite a few large figure studies in acrylic, a few oils and pastels I'd forgotten, and about twenty old sketchbooks. Sorting and tossing, photographing and scanning, and the work still goes on. Happily, there were quite a few pieces that could be tossed without a particle of regret. 

It has been the sketchbooks that have taken the most time. These are mostly 9x12, some larger, some smaller. Besides those, I've also been sorting through charcoal figure studies in large formats and saving a few. Some are posted below.

This drawing labelled only "Doc" was done in 1999 from a reference, and is a completely finished drawing. Doc was a jazz musician from the golden age, but details of his career are long gone from memory. His glasses, cap and cigar were probably what made me want to draw him.

The graphite sketch of a young boy crying uncontrollably dates from the time of Hurricane Katrina (2005) and was done in less than half an hour, from an still frame of a news report of the time. The devastation of that storm was and is astonishing. I drew quite a few people from published reports of the time.

Dance, particularly tango, has been an interest for a long time. Several drawings and sketches I found going through these old sketchbooks are of dramatic tango moves. The couple above are probably Argentinian and probably date from around 1999. 

The last is a formal drawing of the great French painter Jean Auguste Dominic Ingres that I did from one of his self-portraits. This dates from perhaps 1998, although I have lost the date and any accompanying notes. It was probably one of my very first efforts at chiaroscuro--the use of light to establish form--but when it came to the face my nerve seems to have failed me. The drawing does seem to be a reasonable likeness.