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Posts Tagged ‘New Paintings’

A Strange & Special Air

Posted in Painting, Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged , on January 18, 2012| 4 Comments »

“Any great art work … revives and readapts time and space, and the measure of its success is the extent to which it makes you an inhabitant of that world – the extent to which it invites you in and lets you breathe its strange, special air.”

—Leonard Bernstein

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I came across this quote from Leonard Bernstein that I really thought captured what I hope occurs in my work.  I think that my work is most successful when people allow themselves to feel themselves as part of the landscape before them, to enter and breathe in that strange and special air, as Bernstein describes it.  I know that this is the case for myself.  I have written about this here before, about how these landscapes, with their blue and orange fields and bright red trees, feel as real to me as looking out my studio window.  The fact of the blue in the field is overruled by its harmony within the composition which creates that sense of rightness to which I often refer.

Maybe this sense of rightness is what makes up that strange and special air.  I don’t know.  I only know that I still seek words or explanations to describe why a painting works, by which I mean has an emotional impact on the viewer.  The new painting above is such a piece for me.  It’s a 15″ by 25″ image on paper that I am calling, thanks to Mr. Bernstein, A Strange & Special Air.

I could sit here and try to break down the painting, talking about color and contrast, texture and depth.  Line quality and composition.   All of the things that I might momentarily consider while I’m at work on such a painting.  But when all is said and done, I still have no idea why it has its own life, its own strange and special air.  Except that I feel that I am there when I look at it. 

And glad of it.

Perhaps that is enough and all that needs to be considered.  For now, I accept that and will be satisfied to dwell in this landscape with its strange and special air.

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Tangled Up In Blue

Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, Video, tagged , on January 14, 2012| 2 Comments »

I’ve been pretty busy in the studio lately.  That’s not unusual at this point of the year because it is when I’m gearing up for upcoming exhibitions but  in past years  this is when I have often  felt a bit blocked and far removed from the point where I wanted my work to be .   But thus far this year, things have been flowing easily and I feel as though I am near that sometimes elusive groove where the act of painting becomes more  instinctual than cerebral.  When I feel myself in this groove, I start to trust these instincts, this pushing back of conscious decision making.  As a result, there’s no dwelling over decisions at the table or the easel.  I just make the mark and move on from there.

And each piece brings an inspiration and desire for the next painting with ideas gushing forward.  I often find myself making quick little sketches on scraps of paper, little rough stick drawings really.  Just enough of the thought to be able to rekindle the idea later.  Often, I don’t make the sketch and the idea floats away and is sometimes fortuitously recalled at a much later date or is gone forever.  I sometimes think my best thoughts have taken this fleeting route.

The piece shown here is from this recent burst, a smallish canvas, only 6″ by 18″ that I call Tangled Up In Blue.  The title is, of course, taken from the old Bob Dylan song.  This is a simple composition, very typical of much of my work, but it’s carried strongly forward by it’s colors and contrasts.  It has a dramatic edge to it.  I think the red of the mound really highlights this feeling of high emotion.  I try to envision it in other, more natural colors and the result is less potent, more understated.  This feels to me like the tangled trees are two lovers springing from the same red bleeding heart.  The intensity of the red mound and the trees is a sharp contrast to the cooler blues of the water and sky, even though they still have their own intensity.

But the piece is probably brought to completion by the break of pale yellow in the sky, the light that comes through creating chasms in the blue night wall.  This break sets off all the other color and creates a sense of moment in this small, simple piece.  The result is that the result is greater than the sum of its parts.

Or at least I think so.

Here’s a little music.  I bet you thought it would be Tangled Up In Blue.  It was going to be but I came across this version of  a different Dylan song, Love Sick.  I really like this film and performance of a song that has been a favorite since it first came out in 1997 and decided to share it instead.  Enjoy.

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Discovery’s Door

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on January 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

In the past year or so,  I have done a series of paintings where I took out much of the color in my work, leaving behind sometimes monochromatic renderings of my compositions.  But recently I have swung back to the deeper, richer colors that has long marked my work.  I think this new painting is a good example of this return to color.

I call this piece Discovery’s Door and it’s a 15″ by 25″ painting on paper.  The Red Tree here is again the central figure and holds a position that feels like it is in a spotlight as its image emerges into sight from behind the darker trees that frame it.  It’s this emergence that gives me the discovery in the title as well as the bright light that seems to be illuminating the tree.  A light of epiphany, self-discovery.

The colors here are very strong but there is a harmony between them that makes their impact seem softer and natural.  I don’t think this will come through in this image on a computer screen but the blues and greens of the sky and the water have an opalescence that brings to mind a favorite color of mine from the windows of Louis Comfort Tiffany.  It gives this piece  a bit of the feel of a stained glass panel, something I often hear from people who see my work for the first time.  I definitely see that here.

I also think the intensity of the color here enhances the sense of self-discovery implied in the title.  As though the realization of one’s true self suddenly makes everything near seem more vivid and alive, forcing their way into the memory of the moment, creating a sensory marker. I know that I often remember major moments of my own life either  in deep colors or in strong scents.  That is what I see here in this image of a moment of self-realization– the vividness of the moment.

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Only Now

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , on January 6, 2012| 4 Comments »

This is a very new painting, a 24″ by 30 canvas that I call Only Now.  I fee lthat  this is a piece that very much is representative of my larger body of work.  It has my easily recognizable Red Tree, fields of deep colors in the foreground and the white of the gesso underneath breaking through the paint above to create trails and the far horizon. 

 But it also carries, at least in how I view it,  the emotional tone that I think best represents my work.  A sense of being calmly in the moment, taking in the stillness of the paused now.  That sense of being in the now is from where the title emerges.  I see the tree personified as being paused and taking the richness of all that is around it at the moment, not spending too much time worrying about what is in the future, represented here by the paler distant fields and hills at the horizon, or the past, which is somewhere back along the white trail that breaks into the lower portion of the picture plane. 

No past or future in that instance, only the now.

I think the cool clarity of the color here, particularly in the graded tones of the sky, really gives this piece a sense of the ethereal that really enhances the message of the now.   Looking at this painting as it rests on the easel now, it takes me far away to a palce of great inner calm.  It’s not a feeling that I often sense in my own life.  Probably most of us don’t feel that often enough.  But this piece seems to give me a sort of roadmap to this  place of calm.  Or at least it gives me the knowledge that it can exist, if only in the mind.

And that is all I can ask.

 

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New Day, New Start

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , on January 2, 2012| 2 Comments »

The new year is in and with it comes a new start.  A clean slate of sorts.  I wrote a few days back about the final painting I completed in the last year so obviously there will be a first painting for this new year.  This painting shown here is it and very much holds to the theme of new starts.  Called New Day, New Start, this is a 10″ by 20″ canvas and was finished yesterday on the first day of 2012.

The hazy sun breaking through the strong colors of the sky sets the tone here. new light bringing in the opportunity of the new day.  The landscape has several layers here with the foreground field rows slightly separated from the deeper set fields by  trees on either side which act as a sort of stage curtain, a detail I often employ.  As usual, I see the field rows as  representing our daily labor, our day-to-day responsibilty.  The layers behind represent different aspects.  I see the orange as symbolizing the joy we find in life and the yellow as representing a placid state of being, of an understanding and acceptance of our place in this world.  The distant and dark hills are, for me, the inevitable future. The Red Tree is , of course, the individual here. 

As always, I point out that this is simply how I see this, how I translate it for myself.  Your interpretation could be very different and no less correct. 

Overall, I’m really pleased with this painting as a start for the new year.  While it is not a large painting, it has weight and depth, feeling  larger than its physical dimensions.  I am hoping this serves as omen of things to come, painting-wise.  But that is in the future, beyond those blue hills.  For now, I will bask in the light of this new day.

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Omega Rise

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , on December 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I finished this piece yesterday and it may well be the last painting I finish this year and if that’s the case, I am happy with this piece having that designation.  I always hope that paintings that end or start my years have something in them that makes them mark their time in a memorable fashion, that they will have something that will make them stand out.  That being the case, I’ve titled this 16″ by 20″ canvas Omega Rise. 

Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet and is often used to designate an end or a finish, which fits in with the idea of it being the last piece of 2011.  But there is also an ominous, serious quality in  the sky that portends that the omega may mean more than that.  Perhaps this last little uphill rise is the final part of a journey but not necessarily in an end of life sort of way.  Perhaps the dark blue of the rise signifies a past of some sort and the rise lifts the viewer  out of that darkness and into the brightness of some new enlightenment.  The tree seems to be near a cusp between the contrast of dark and light, close to the discovery of what is over this rise.  There is definitely some sort of epiphany beyond it.

Please remember, I’m just thinking off the top of my head at 7 AM and in a few days, or even a few hours, I may see this in a completely different way.  But I know there’s something in this piece that if it remains the omega painting for 2011, I will always remember it as that.

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Path to Clarity

Posted in Neat Stuff, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , on December 2, 2011| 3 Comments »

This is a new painting called Path to Clarity, that made its way to the Principle Gallery in Alexandria yesterday.  It’s a 6″ square piece on paper and has a clarity in its color and tone that evoked the title for me.  I was looking at this piece and thought of an item that I came across lately, a test of the flexibility of the mind.  I’m sure this has been around for quite some time, probably for years in circles that cover areas of  psychological/cognitive testing.  When I first saw iit I thought it was just a foul-up in the code for the page I was reading , a seemingly random series of numbers and letters.  But seeing below that I was supposed to read it, I focused a bit and it came very easily.

Here’s the message:

7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 7O PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5! 1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5! 1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG 17 WA5 H4RD BU7 N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3 Y0UR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17 4U70M471C4LLY W17H 0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17, B3 PROUD! 0NLY C3R741N P30PL3 C4N R3AD 7H15. PL3453 F0RW4RD 1F U C4N R34D 7H15.

Translated:

This message serves to prove how our minds can do amazing things! Impressive things! In the beginning it was hard but now, on this line your mind is reading automatically without even thinking about it. Be proud! Only certain people can read this. Please forward if you can read this.

I don’t know if there is anything to be gained from this exercise for the general public,but  it made me think about painting and art and how it communicates in very much the same way as this exercise, giving bits of data and filling the blanks with new information that translates in the mind of the viewer.  I looked at this painting and it very much made sense in this context.  I’m sure most people can look at this piece and immediately know what it represents.  Their mind takes in the info and it makes sense and translates very easily.  Their mind probably doesn’t question the white emptiness of the path, the blues of the hills or the orange and reds of the field.  Their mind reads it as one might read the passage above.

What does this mean?  That I really can’t tell except that it only serves as a form of validation of this work’s power as form of communication  rather than something created for mere aesthetics.  Not that aesthetics don’t come into play.   Harmony of color and form play a large part in making the message more palatable.

Anyway, just thought it was interesting.  I guess that’s good enough.

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At First, Fury

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged on August 30, 2011| 1 Comment »

I am still looking for a title for this new painting,  a piece that is about 8″ by 26″on paper.  It’s done in the same tones as my recent interior pieces, mainly a coppery sepia with small bits of color.  The color ( or lack of  color) of this piece sets the tone and gives it the sense of drama that the scene suggests. 

I am, of course, focused on the tree and its motion as I try to find that part of the painting that will reveal this piece’s title.  I see a sort of defiance in the bend of the tree trunk and the way the limbs and leaves respond to and resist the wind that buffets the landscape.  I don’t know if the tree is viewing the sun that breaks through the clouds as a savior to take away the strain of this wind or if it is railing against the sun, seeing it as a vengeful power who allows such suffering.  There is a sort of fury implied here, at least in the way I see it.

I step back and try to see it in a different way, perhaps a gentler,  more placid light,  but my mind only sees it in that way now, full of fury.  Fuuny how the mind grabs onto one aspect and refuses to let loose of it.   But I’m hesitant to fully follow that interpretation without a bit more time to perhaps see this painting in a diiferent light with a different feel.  I just think there’s more to it than I’m seeing at first blush.

I’m pleased that this piece raises this ambiguity in myself, that it sparks conflicting emotions.  That suggests that there’s something beyond what I might have tried to consciously insert in it, that it has that certain something that I could never produce with intent.  All I could hope for my work.

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Altarpiece

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged on August 8, 2011| 4 Comments »

Here’s a new piece I finished this past week, a 13″ by 33″ tryptych on paper.  It will be framed in a 20″ by 40″ frame so it will have some size giving it visual impact on the wall.

From the very start, the colors that were coming out as I built the foreground were deep and saturated.  Each section had dark edges and a brightness in the center that gave it the appearance of having light streaming through it as though it were stained glass.  In fact, as it grew it looked more and more like the stained glass one might find in a cathedral.  I’m not sure the effect will come through in the photography or on the computer screen but in the studio it has that sort of color quality.

It was this feel that prompted the title Altarpiece.  I see the landscape as forming a natural altar, perhaps a marriage altar with the two trees at the center intertwined. Or perhaps the intertwined trees represent the natural world’s connection with the spiritual world.  I don’t know.

 I think there is a sense here of spiritual quiet that you might associate with the the calm silence of a large church, a stillness that prompts reflection and reverence.  I am not a religious man in any sense of the word but I am drawn to religious sanctuaries for that feeling that comes from them, one that I find much like that feeling I experience in the quiet of the forest or in a wide and open field.  It focuses one’s own stillness and clears away the chaff created by normal worry.  Which is my hope for this piece.

 

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The Encroachment

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged on August 1, 2011| 2 Comments »

This is a new painting that I just finished yesterday.  At least I think I’m finished.  I’ll probably make some touches here and there on this piece simply because there are so mnay different elements, in the form of the many red roofs, that affect the overall feel of it.  A lot going on, in other words.

It’s a 30″ by 30″ canvas  that I’m calling The Encroachment, for what seems an obvious reason.  The Red Tree here is quickly being surrounded and will soon be swallowed by the growing mass of the Red Roofs.  There are many ways you can read this: as a symbol of the way our growing global population has gobbled up available resources.  Or how, though the world seems smaller and more closelyconnected, there is still an  air of alienation by many.  Or maybe it is simply a symbol of nonconformity or  freedom.

Taking it from a different perspective, it could be representing a sort of sermon on the mount with the Red Tree taking on the central role as preacher/messiah.  I hadn’t thought of this perspective until this very moment but I can see how many people might see it this way, especially without seeing the title.

I don’t really know at this point how I ultimately will see it.  I’m still just taking it in, trying to get past that stage where I am still inside it, painting, and can look at it from outside.  We’ll see.

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