yellow mustard

yellow mustard, 4×6in, acrylic on panel

salt & bread

salt & bread, 8×8in, acrylic on panel

the inspiration from this was actually something on my summer reading list – Mark Kurlansky’s Salt:A World History.

alright, admittedly not for everyone – i can imagine all the “You Gotta Be Kidding Me” responses…but it’s far better reading than it sounds – and kept my mind off the wait for the last Harry Potter.

again, kept the lightsource dim to see just how little light i needed to make something glow.

blueberries

blueberries, 8×8in, acrylic on panel

the birthday cake (previous post) felt like it came together pretty much by itself.

no so here. first tried to set these up without the carton, but it just didn’t feel right.

i’ve been looking at Rembrandt lately (there’s a fantastic online reference to his work here.)

taking his cue – i wanted the berries to materialize out of the murk – i dimmed the light source in my little shadow box.

and…it was just too dark. (apparently that was the line between ‘mysterious’ and ‘menacing’)

so it’s kinda funny – the painting’s about blueberries, but the cutting board and blue-green carton made it work as a whole.

birthday cake

birthday cake, 8×8in, acrylic on panel

sometimes i’m given subject matter – in this case, my better half brought this cake home and asked me to give it a shot before we presented it. (not sure if the recipient would be troubled or tickled that it sat for a portrait first…)

giant steps

a love supreme, 20×30in(approx), oil

got a great email last week (thx james) reminding me again about the connection between jazz and visual art.

one of my faves, jazz giant John Coltrane passed away on this date 40 years ago – at the age of 40.

His arc seems very similar to that of Van Gogh’s – besides the too-early death, their work began with studying/practicing more traditional approaches before they set the controls for the heart of the sun and seemingly imploded from the intensity of their late works.

I painted the work above 10 years ago for my brother – i got a sweet Miles Davis painting in return.

andrew wyeth

Uh oh – another Wyeth post.

Andy Wyeth turns 90 today – his work continues to inspire me.

That’s me, a few years back, in front of Nightsleeper with Anna Christina -aka Christina Olson of Christina’s World fame- looking on.

I snuck the photo above to show the difference between a work of art and the reproduction of the work, seen on the book jacket below-

If you’d only seen the book, would you imagine that the original would be so massive?

It’s great to have works of art available to us in reproduction form (in books, postcards, posters and totebags) – they brighten the world and show us things we’d never see otherwise. (i make a point of taking trips to see art and still haven’t seen most of the originals in the art books on my shelves.)

The downside is, the reproduction is not the whole experience – the works are made to be experienced in the flesh. (kinda like asking someone to describe a redwood tree or the Grand Canyon if they’d only seen it on tv or in a magazine)

the magic of great works is that they can have a presence entirely independent of their size – a small masterpiece can grab you from 2 galleries away in a museum, just as easily as a large piece might- and that’s something that unfortunately gets lost when they’re all reduced to fit in a book or a postcard rack.

Sister Wendy’s done far more justice to topic than i can muster – if you haven’t checked her Story of Painting DVDs out, they’re dynamite. here’s an intro to her.

red pepper

red pepper II, 4×6, acrylic on panel

strawberries

strawberries, 4×6, acrylic on panel

still battling the reds – this time i tried to concentrate deep blue-red of almost overripe strawberries against the lighter warmth of the butcher block – with the hope that the berries glow. the last attempt’s here.

thought on painting:

In the NY Times book review this weekend, novelist Haruki Murakami wrote about the influence of jazz on his work. The passage below could just as easliy refer to painting:

One of my all-time favorite jazz pianists is Thelonious Monk. Once, when someone asked him how he managed to get a certain special sound out of the piano, Monk pointed to the keyboard and said: “It can’t be any new note. When you look at the keyboard, all the notes are there already. But if you mean a note enough, it will sound different. You got to pick the notes you really mean!”

I often recall these words when I am writing, and I think to myself, “It’s true. There aren’t any new words. Our job is to give new meanings and special overtones to absolutely ordinary words.” I find the thought reassuring. It means that vast, unknown stretches still lie before us, fertile territories just waiting for us to cultivate them.

Jamie Wyeth

Jamie Wyeth, Lighthouse, 30 x 45, oil on panel, 1993

Just days out of college, I saw Lighthouse at the Farnsworth Museum’s Jamie Wyeth:Islands show – and it hit me like a ton o bricks. The photo I snuck with my Nikon sits, framed, in my office to this day – the birthday of Jamie Wyeth.

Jamie’s exploration of a personal mythology – the elements of nature & mystery, the use of animals and the sky as main characters – all seemed to come together in that body of work.

officer’s coat study, 4×6 sketchbook pgs

I did the sketch above at the Farnsworth when an officers coat passed down from Howard Pyle (seen in Jamie’s Meteor Shower, among others) was on display.

The Wyeths (inc. dad Andy and granddad NC) are obviously a big influence on my work – and it was a thrill to be able to sit with something so connected to their family history and their collective mythology.

What is it I’m driving at – or attempting to get at?

More than an artist’s ability to paint or draw or compose, we are ultimately moved by their connection to the subject. It’s the ability to then convey that connection – reaction – emotion – to others that makes a work of art burn in your brain.

If you’d like to see Wyeths in person – or if you’re just a dog lover – Jamie’s Dog Days of Summer is currently at the brandywine river museum. need prodding? how bout Dog Menaced by Vegetable

firecracker pop

firecracker popsicle, 4×6, acrylic on panel

this painting required 2 sitters because they quickly melted under the lightbulb in the shadowbox – which just meant that i couldn’t get too too fussy with the paint. (not at all a bad thing)

really wanted to paint a big ol luminous bomb pop – on a larger panel – and tried all the local markets to no avail. i was thinking that they’d been discontinued as part our homeland security effort until i found this site for them so i know they’re out there somewhere.

suggested listening for the holiday:

anything by bruuuuuuce (just for today? Land of Hope and Dreams.) or mellencamp (ditto – Cherry Bomb)

not yer thing? how ’bout:

Happy Birthday Louis! Louis Armstong & His All-Stars Live at the Newport Jazz festival 1960

have a happy 4th-