Redtree Times

Corso Zundert

February 22, 2016 by redtreetimes

ZundertFlowerParadeVanGogh10 Since 1936, every September, the Dutch town of Zundert holds the world’s largest flower parade, the Corso Zundert. This past September the parade honored the 125th anniversary of the death of Vincent Van Gogh, the town’s most famous native. Each of the floats is primarily comprised of locally grown dahlias, although other local flowers are not prohibited from use.

While the photos from the parade are spectacular, I am sure they don’t give us the real sense of size and sheer visual impact. There are a couple of floats, one with stacks of Van Gogh’s chairs, that I saw briefly in a short film on the parade for which I could not find images. But the one’s below give a sense of the variety and creativity that are part of this parade.

“The Potato Eaters” in dahlias

ZundertFlowerParadeVanGogh5 ZundertFlowerParadeVanGogh6 ZundertFlowerParadeVanGogh7 Corso Zundert 2015

This is Gauguin confronting Van Gogh

ZundertFlowerParadeVanGogh8 Zundert-Van-Gogh-16-1020x610 ZundertFlowerParadeVanGogh3 ZundertFlowerParadeVanGogh2

This float opens into a sunflower (see the photo below)

Zundert-Van-Gogh-11-1020x610

Posted in Neat Stuff | Tagged Corso Zundert, Dahlias, Flowers, Netherland, Parades, Vincent Van Gogh | 2 Comments »

Perfect Day

February 21, 2016 by redtreetimes

Thank You Card- Susan Ferrito sm

The image above is from a Thank You card I received the other day. Looking at it reminds me of one of those perfect days like we had yesterday, one of those late winter days where there is plenty of sun and comfortable temperatures. Perfect for walking amid the remaining snow, making the troubles and worries of the rest of the world slip away for a short time. A perfect day for one of those rare moments.

The Thank You card was from my friends. Tony and Susan Ferrito, for a small favor I had done for them. Susan made the card based on my paintings and I think it came out tremendously well. I particularly like the dark ring around the sun. Thank you, Susan– I will display the card prominently here in the studio!

So, being Sunday morning, the obvious choice for my musical selection is Perfect Day from the late Lou Reed, this one with an interesting animation. I thought I had played it here not too long ago but when I looked it up I found that it had been almost exactly six years ago, during the Winter Olympics of that February in 2010. I guess there’s no sense worrying about wearing out such a great song by playing it every six years.

So, I hope you have a perfect day of your own on this fine Sunday. Enjoy…

Posted in Favorite Things, Music | Tagged Lou Reed, Music, Sunday Morning Music | 2 Comments »

I Was Lost

February 19, 2016 by redtreetimes

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

—Henry David Thoreau

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I used the painting above to illustrate a post several years back. Titled I Was Lost, this is an experimental piece I did back in early 1997. It remains one of my favorite pieces, one that I linger over when I come across it in my computer’s files or when I go through some older work stored in a bin here in the studio.

There’s nothing special about this piece. It’s a simple thought that was quickly rendered. It definitely didn’t end up anywhere in the vicinity of perfection. Some of the lines veer and quiver uncertainly while the tree trunks sometimes bulge erratically. There’s not really much to grab onto in this piece.

Yet for all it’s deficiencies there is something in this painting that simply speaks to me in a personal way. There’s a flawed elegance in it that moves me– a grace that provides me with hope on those days when the world seems bleak and it is hard to see beyond the trees that obscure the path ahead.

Thoreau’s words mesh well with this piece. To put it another way: Adversity builds character. A-B-C.

When we are lost in the woods, look past the trees that block our view. There’s a way forward. We may not like it at the time but every challenge provides us with the opportunity to discover more of who we really are.

Sorry for going off on a pep talk this morning. Hopefully, you didn’t need it. And if you did, I hope this helps a bit.

Posted in Early Paintings, Motivation, Painting, Quote | Tagged Early Painting, Henry David Thoreau, Quote | 2 Comments »

Sustenance

February 18, 2016 by redtreetimes

Painting is the pattern of one’s own nervous system being projected on canvas.

—Francis Bacon

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I am still in the midst of processing this new painting for myself, trying to determine what it is saying to me. For now, I am calling this 16″ by 20″ canvas Sustenance. There is something about the pattern of the sky filled with rays containing smaller strokes that remind me of surging atoms. Maybe it’s my own nervous system being projected as Bacon says above or maybe it is an energy that feeds everything. The ubiquitous energy that transforms into vibrant, richly colored life.

I am still not sure.

You might notice that this is not a Red Tree. Yes, this is the rare Green Tree. Coming to the end of this painting, I decided on green as a contrast to the reds and oranges I had used for the land around the tree. It just felt right from a design standpoint and I think it works here.

It has emerged better than I had originally thought it might when I was working on it. But, as I said, I am still taking this in. There are a lot of things in this simple painting that speak to me but I still can’t exactly put them into words.

And I kind of like that it doesn’t have an obvious read for me, that it leaves me without words. So, I will stop now and just try to figure out what those words are…

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings | Tagged GC Myers, New Painting, Red Tree | 8 Comments »

Byam Shaw

February 17, 2016 by redtreetimes

John Liston Byam Shaw- The Flag 1918

I’ve written here about how uncertain the future is for any artist’s legacy. I usually point out that how one’s work fares in the next few generations and beyond is out of the artist’s hands. I can cite example after example of artists who have created brilliant work in their time yet whose names and images remain relatively unknown in this time. Their work often goes for relatively little at auctions and is seldom spoken of, yet it is nonetheless beautiful and moving.

One fine example is John Liston Byam Shaw ( most often known as simply Byam Shaw) who was a British artist and illustrator who lived from 1872 until 1919, dying in the influenza epidemic after the first World War at the relatively young age of 46.

John Liston Byam Shaw- Boer War

Heavily influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, Shaw produced what I consider a large and gorgeous body of work. It is wide in the scope of its themes and imagery and when I look at the Google Images page there is one after another of just great paintings.

The image shown here on the right, Boer War, is perhaps his best known painting. It a war painting without the actual imagery of war, depicting the sense of loss and despair felt by those loved ones who survive the fallen.

A more obvious reference to the aftermath of war is shown in the painting at the top of this page in The Flag, a memorial piece done at the end of WW I. I am really drawn to the use of color and tone in this painting. Just a wonderful painting.

There are so many more that I have selected just a few that struck me. If you look for yourself I am sure you will find some others that will do the same for you. One of the paintings shown below, the first at the top of this group , a watercolor titled The Ballad of Luther, went to auction in the last few years and didn’t even draw an opening bid of less than $900.

As I said, legacy is out of the hands of the artist. All they can do is to make an effort to produce work that fills their own need for expression and emotion. I think Byam Shaw definitely did this and that is enough, especially for those fortunate enough to find his work.

John Liston Byam Shaw – The Ballad of Luther

John Liston Byam Shaw- Queen of Hearts

John_Liston_Byam_Shaw_This is a heart the queen leant on Marriage Procession Arthur Guinever

John Liston Byam Shaw-This is a heart the queen leant on / Marriage Procession Arthur and Guinevere

John Liston Byam Shaw-Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth Entering London

John Byam Liston Shaw- Now is the Pilgrim Year Fair Autumn’s Charge

John Liston Byam Shaw- Rising Spring

John Liston Byam Shaw -Illustration for Old King Coles Book of Nursery Rhymes

Posted in Favorite Things, Painting | Tagged John Listop Byam Shaw, Legacy, Pre-Raphaelites | 2 Comments »

Baseball In the Air

February 16, 2016 by redtreetimes

Vintage Baseball Photos 1800's For me, Punxsutawney Phil is not the ultimate predictor that winter is coming to an end. No, it is those first reports from Florida and Arizona that baseball’s Spring Training is beginning that does it for me. The baseball is in the air once more and I feel so much better when I am immersed in the rhythms of baseball.

And there is such a rhythm. With its 162 games played over its six month season, it is present in some form on a daily basis for those who follow the game. Each day brings something new that adds to the game’s long history, to its poetry and legend, to its voluminous statistics, to its never-ending debates over the superiority of teams, players and eras. For someone like me who is a huge fan of the game’s folklore and history, nothing could be better.

Speaking of folklore, the photo at the top is perhaps the oldest image of the game, taken sometime before 1870. It sold a few years ago on eBay for $3800. It shows a group of schoolboys at the Bluff School in Claremont, New Hampshire. It was used in Ken Burns‘ Baseball documentary and was taken by the early photographic studio of French & Sawyer which operated in Keene, NH. Their partnership dissolved in 1870 so the photo was taken before that time. It could be as early as the late 1850’s, pre-Civil War. The interesting thing is that there is action in the photo, a rarity for any photos of the era. It also shows the players in positions that closely resemble today’s game which adds to that feeling of connection through time that is a part of the game.

The painting below is an early painting of the game. I don’t know who painted it or when and can’t find anything about it. It was listed on a folk art site and is no longer there so details on it are sketchy. I think it’s a fun piece and reminds me that baseball is coming soon and winter is coming to an end.

The Pigs Baseball Club Ca 1890 21 x 30

Posted in Favorite Things, Folk Art, Photography | Tagged baseball, Bluff School. Photography, Folk Art, Ken Burns, Punxsutawney Phil, Spring Training | Leave a Comment »

Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2016 by redtreetimes

GC Myers Time Comes Together 2006 Valentine’s Day.

It would be easy to go on and on about the day and the meaning of love but sometimes words just do not do the subject justice.

So I will keep it short today and share a poem from the Nobel Peace Prize winning Turkish poet, Nazim Hikmet, along with this Sunday’s musical selection, a cover of Bruce Springsteen‘s Drive All Night from Glenn Hansard (best known for his songs from the film and stage production Once) with backing vocals from Eddie Vedder. A very good cover of one of my favorite songs from The River album of 1980.

Have a good Valentine’s Day…

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I love you
like dipping bread into salt and eating
Like waking up at night with high fever
and drinking water, with the tap in my mouth
Like unwrapping the heavy box from the postman
with no clue what it is
fluttering, happy, doubtful
I love you
like flying over the sea in a plane for the first time
Like something moves inside me
when it gets dark softly in Istanbul
I love you
Like thanking God that we live.

—Nazim Hikmet

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Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Poetry | Tagged Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Glen Hansard, Music, Nazim Hikmet, Nobel Peace Prize, Poetry, The River, Valentine's Day | Leave a Comment »

Van Gogh’s Selfies

February 13, 2016 by redtreetimes

van-gogh-self-portrait I showed this short video here about six years back. It’s a compilation of morphing self portraits from Vincent Van Gogh put together by Phillip Scott Johnson that I found intriguing then and now.

It’s a short piece, less than a minute in length, and it’s interesting to see how the familiar views of Van Gogh relate to one another and how his appearance or, at least, his perception of it, changed through the years. His state of mind is evident in each piece, with some showing a vibrant, seemingly healthy man and others showing the more tortured Van Gogh that we tend to think of as the man.

I found it interesting now because I have been spending some time recently looking at my own older work in a different way. I am not looking at the pictures as whole images. Instead, I have been looking at the individual marks I am using in each and seeing how it has changed through the years. Or how it has stayed the same in some cases.

I’ve always said that my painting for me was a continuum that, while changing all the time, always seemed the same to me– always in the present. But looking at it in this manner I am finding that my mark-making does change periodically which fundamentally changes the way a picture is painted and how it emerges in the end.

It’s not something I often think about– I just paint in whichever way the moment strikes me. Sometimes it is dependent on the condition of the brush or the weight and quality of the paint I am using. As a brush ages and wears, especially with the rough treatment given to them by me, it makes a more and more distinct mark that I find appealing. Looking back, I can often tell when I am using fresh or old brushes.

So, I watched this film in the same way and it is fascinating to just look at Van Gogh’s mark-making throughout without focusing on the faces. It is varied and each differing style serves the image in different ways. Some marks are wildly expressive and others small and quietly acting in service to the greater whole.

As I said, it’s less than minute and interesting even if you don’t give a damn about the mark-making part of it.

Posted in Favorite Things, Painting, Technique/History, Video | Tagged Mark Making, Painting, Phillip Scott Johnson, Self Portraits, Video, Vincent Van Gogh | 2 Comments »

Hoodoo Voodoo

February 12, 2016 by redtreetimes

GC Myers-The Incantation 1994 I was going through some old images the other day and for some reason I always settle on this image shown here, an old piece from my earliest painting efforts over twenty years back. I call it The Incantation. At that moment a news station was on the TV, with its incessant and seemingly never-ending coverage of the presidential primaries.

So much is said yet there seems to be so little substance in it that it turns into just words uttered.

Nonsense or an incantation, of sorts.

In my mind, the connection was made between this image and the song below, Hoodoo Voodoo from Billy Bragg and Wilco, based on unpublished lyrics from Woody Guthrie. Guthrie had several songs with nonsensical lyrics, often written for his children. I like this version– it spans that gap nicely between nonsense and incantation.

Actually, I think Sarah Palin quoted many parts of this song verbatim during some of her speeches, most notably her recent ones while stumping for Donald Trump. As I said: nonsense and incantation.

Give a listen and read along. Hopefully the next time you’re held under a spell cast by the talking heads on one of the news networks, this song will start playing in your mind. Nonsense is the only defense against their incantations.

Hoodoo voodoo, seven twenty one two
Haystacka hostacka, ABC
High poker, low joker, ninety-nine-a-zero
Sidewalk, streetcar, dance a goofy dance

Blackbirdy, bluejay, one, two, three, four
Trash sack, jump back, EFG
Biggy hat, little hat, fatty man, skinny man
Grasshopper greensnake, hold my hand

Hoodoo voodoo, chooka-chooky-choo-choo
True blue, how true, kissle me now

Momma cat, Tommy cat, diapers on my clothes line
Two, four, six, eight, I run and hide
Pretty girl, pretty boy, pony on a tin can
I’ll be yours, you’ll be mine

Hoodoo voodoo, chooka-chooky-choo-choo
True blue, how true, kissle me now

Jinga jangler, tinga lingle, picture on a bricky wall
Hot and scamper, foamy lather, huggle me close
Hot breeze, old cheese, slicky slacky fishy tails
Brush my hair, kissle me some more

Hoodoo voodoo, chooka chooky choo choo
True blue, how true, kissle me now

Hoodoo voodoo, chooka chooky choo choo
True blue, how true, kissle me now
Kissle me now

Brush my hair
And kissle me some more

Kissle me some more
Kissle me some more

Posted in Current Events, Early Paintings, Favorite Things, Music | Tagged Billy Bragg, Donald Trump, Early Paintings, Sarah Palin, Wilco, Woody Guthrie | Leave a Comment »

Automata

February 10, 2016 by redtreetimes

I came across this film early this morning and was immediately intrigued. It’s a film of an automata, a hand-crafted machine made by Swedish artist/craftsman Per Helldorff (his site can be seen here) that has a figure playing the old shell game, the classic con game using three shells or cups and a ball or pea. The operator puts a ball under one of the cups and shifts them around while the sucker–oops, I mean bettor– tries to follow the motion and pick the final location of the ball. It’s a ruse that has literally been around since the times of ancient Greece.

We love to be tricked, don’t we?

I sat and watched this several times, trying to figure out the mechanics behind the trick and can’t quite get it. I think there must be two balls and a magnet or a catch of some sort. Take a look at see what you think. I’ve also included a few more of Mr. Helldorff’s other automata. Just lots of fun.