Toward the Light

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Size: 24 x 30 x 1.5
Medium: Oils on Acrylic
Date:  5/11/2011

Ending the week with a bang.  My printer for the Giclee pieces has closed his shop in nearby North Park and is now working further away in Tierrasanta.  A casualty of the times I think.  And I received word today that a small,  framed issue  of Beach  24 I shipped a few days ago arrived shattered.  This is the second time in as many months that a Priority Mail shipment has met with disaster.   Thankfully they were insured,  but it is a great inconvenience for the buyers.   The alternative is the more expensive UPS.  

A Day in the Park 2-SOLD

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Size: 24x30x1.5
Medium: Oils over Acrylics
Dated:  4/22/2011

The second of the 2 canvases I bought at the Aaron Brothers sale.  My right arm/shoulder has enjoyed about a one week break and I am hoping it's about ready to go to work on a new piece for next week.

A friend invited me to a paste paper class Tuesday.  We mixed acrylic paint into a mixture of wheat and rice flour, gelatin and Joy detergent and then brushed it onto paper.  It was interesting and we worked in a spontaneous fashion, in which one doesn't plan nor wait for inspiration to come.  On the wall was a sign attributed to Henri Matisse that read  "Don't wait for inspiration; it comes while working." 

Loft #13-SOLD

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Medium: Acrylics
Size: 24"x30"x1.5" multi-directional.

Title: Loft #13 

Dated: 4/19/2011 

It is difficult to believe that it has been two years since I painted the last Loft painting, #12!  But Aaron Brothers had a canvas sale so...This is the first Loft in all acrylics. Usually acrylics are in the under layer, but then it's all oils.


Yesterday I went with an artist-friend to see the Patricia Patterson retrospective at the Escondido Center for the Arts.   Even though he drove, you would think I had agreed to go halfway across the country.  And to think I used to happily go all the way to Los Angeles or San Francisco to see art! 

It was well worth the trip to this museum "complex".  Patterson's landscapes of the Aaron Islands were my favorites of her works.  But I could not find an example of those to post here for you.  I noted many of  her pieces were courtesy of Quint Contemporary Art of La Jolla, our own quite fine and well-respected small, local gallery.

Artist Howard Hodgkin

Still no painting to post.  It looks promising for next week though.  Meanwhile, I thought you might like to see a couple links to an artist called Howard Hodgkin.  The San Diego Museum of Art has his first ever show on the West Coast. Tuesday I rode my bike over to the Balboa Park museum to see it.   And it was a real treat. 

His work is at once sophisticated and childlike.   Hodgkin seems to use few brush strokes, in simple compositions and yet communicates a high-impact result.  This type of art always intrigues me.  These paintings are on wood panels, mostly very large.  Many are framed in wide, rustic wood frames, onto which the paintings often spill.   He was interviewed at the museum too.  Below is a painting from the Howard Hodgkin website:
Hello
2004 - 2008
11 ⅜ x 13 ⅜", 28.9
Painting
PA476
Oil on wood

By the Sea #2

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Size: 8x6
Medium: Giclee
Date: 4/7/2011

This may be a sketch for an acrylic painting.   Or I may decide to keep it as is.  The scene is of one of my fantasies:  Tiny house.  Pocket neighborhood.  By the sea.  Of course if I were not considering what makes a good composition for a painting, and were designing an actual little community to live in, there would be more privacy between them; each house would have its own little garden and a fence and they would have more architectural detail.  That being said, I could be happy living in one these!

Primordial # 3 SOLD

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Size: in frame: 16 x 20
Dated: 3/25/2011 ( # 1 & 2)
Dated: 8/29/2011 (#3) with slight changes
Medium: Giclee 
Open edition
 

Simple, organic forms appeal to me.  This one is similar to one I posted July 1, 2010.  Have you noticed I seem to explore a theme for awhile and then move on to something else?  I have!

MId-Century Modern Millennium

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Size: 41x27
Medium: Giclee
Date: 3/23/2011

I really like the Wacom Pen Drawing Tablet.  There is a learning curve though.  And it takes getting used to the way it reacts. However,  it seems to be helping my back and neck some, with is all I wanted.

One of the aspects of abstract art I most enjoy is that most pieces are multi-directional.  That is, they can hang vertically or horizontally and there is no right-side up or upside-down.  Each way offers a different look.

MId-Century Modern Mosaic

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Size: 30x24
Medium: Giclee
Date:  3/16/2011

What do you know, it's not a Beach series painting.   Probably just a temporary detour.  

Last night I attended a lecture by Alexander Salazar, owner of 3 successful San Diego art galleries.  It was held in the San Diego Art Institute gallery space.  The lecture was about using social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to brand and promote one's art.   I am on Twitter, used to be on Linkedin and have been resisting Facebook.   After his talk I feel I need to re-think.

Alexander claims it has been particularly important to his success as an art dealer and gallery owner, an increasingly rare event it seems.   Other points were that artists should have their own websites and that prices should not be displayed and that there is no reason to produce limited edition prints.  Open editions are fine, people will buy what they like anyway.  This was a lot to digest.  He covered many other important topics.  Too many to include here.  You can find him at www.alexandersalazarfineart.com

Beach 24 #2

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Size: 27x41
Medium: Giclee
Date: 3/10/2011
open edition

As you can see, I am still exploring the Beach paintings (and how I can incorporate Mid-Century Modern elements into them).   Your guess is as good as mine how many more there will be.  How many Elegies did Robert Motherwell paint?   Since one of them is No. 110,  I think there may have been quite a few, which makes me feel better.

Today I plan to pick up, or at least try out a digital tablet.  The hope is that it will help alleviate the discomfort that using the computer mouse causes.  And I may be able to do my digital artwork without so much arm movement.

Beach 22 #1/12

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Size: 27x41
Medium: Giclee on Paper
Date: 3/2/2011

Note to self:  "when working in digital format make sure to work in full output size."     I started this painting on paper, from a small sketch, of about only a couple of inches, scanned it into the computer and started working on the picture.  It wasn't until it was finished that I realized I hadn't changed the dimensions. Therefore, I had to redo it in a larger output size.  Otherwise it would have lost its definition when printed.

A Rose by Any Other Name...If I gave this painting a different name, outside the Beach series, would it still be part of the Beach series?  I'm still thinking of the beach while painting them and yet this one and the last remind me of scenes of the heavenlies.  (And I know at least one of you is tired of the Beach.)