White Window

8" x 9"

watercolor

regarding art:

"...transmission of one soul's innermost essence to another. Art is meant to be an unconstrained expression of the inexpressible. It's our way of telling each other things we feel but are unable to put into words. It is ultimately the only real way of sharing who we really are with the rest of the world."

- Dilbert

created by Scott Adams

Western NY Landscape #7, #8, #9 Ceramic Relief

3 1/2" x 5"

4 1/2" x 4 1/2"

3 1/2" x 4"

ceramic relief

I'm very happy with the painterly quality in the ceramics I've been doing. I use a combination of glazes and these underglaze chalk crayons/pastels. There is my secret. Not everyone is willing to share recipes. I heard of a couple getting divorced and fighting over the exclusive right to a special glaze recipe. I don't feel like the medium here is a special trick, though. I have my own sensibility, vision, and way of handling the material.

The top piece is very physical and seems like a setting for a fairy tale. Dusk is the time of day, late fall or late winter/early spring the season.

The central piece is spacious. A big sky with lots of transitions and a raised, dark green hill with a contrasting edge. I like the organic tilt of the all-over form.

The third piece has an array of greens; it has been tricky to get the right brighter ones. The trees have layered, interwoven color that I see in foliage. A bit of the feeling of a sky arching overhead is created by a curve.

The uniqueness of handmade things makes for memorable gifts and I found a great site to list some of my older work and for holiday shopping. Etsy is an enormous site where one can by directly from artists and craftspeople. Everything on it has to be handmade or vintage. You can find art, clothes, jewelry, household items, and many other things. It is nice to buy from an individual rather than a chain as well as things made in the U.S.A. I found half of my gifts there this year including cool etched monogrammed scotch glasses for my father-in-law and custom t-shirts.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Blue House

8" x 9"

watercolor

I am always taken by this cornfield and house when I go by it; it's down the street from me. I like the contrast of the texture, repetition, and color of the corn field, corn long harvested, with the blue triangle coming out of it. Both agriculture and architecture come from the human imagination, creativity born of necessity. Evidence of creativity in human history can be seen by the recent discovery of a Pre-historic bird-bone flute in Germany dating from 35,000 B.C., making it the oldest musical instrument ever found.

It seems that more students are faced with majoring in something "practical" due to the economy. It isn't an unreasonable and is most often a necessary consideration. It is difficult to ascertain if the value of art or artistic practice is now by the wayside. The internet, YouTube, and ITunes bring many artists, mainly musicians, to the forefront of our culture. Painting is more iffy, I think. This quote by John Adams condensed on a poster at Massachusetts College of Art when I was a student is relevant today:

"The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other

sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation

ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts.

I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study

mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and

philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture,

navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children

a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary,

tapestry and porcelain."

Adams basically says that once "practical" subjects are studied by our forefathers society will be stabilized enough for their descendants to be able to study art. War for the United States sometimes seems endless, and it is a sad state of affairs that this patriot's dreams for the country are out of reach for so many. America is trying to protect freedom for ourselves and others; that is the intent which may not necessarily work out in the doing. Freedom and financial security are necessary for a people's well-being, but contrary to this we can also find many examples of art made during difficult economic and political times.

I, for one, continue to partake in the luxury of art-making. It is not just a luxury, however, but imperative to the meaning in life. The bird-flute maker took time away from hunting and berry collecting to focus on carving an instrument that is art and makes art. It could not have been easy to live in his/her time. We should aspire to emulate what this evolved human valued in the face of survival.

Self-Portrait With Camera #2 & #4

digital photographs

The lower self-portrait, #4, seems a little sci-fi with the metallic eye. It is representative of the artist's vision, a special lens through which to see the world. The flash of light is like the bright idea light bulb. Hands have figured prominently in past paintings and I like the way my hand holds the camera at the top; it seems more pressed to the foreground, the hand that is the physical maker, laborer, tool for the eye. The limited palette works well, turquoise background playing off the shiny camera.

The top one, #2, is direct. Intense. Looking straight at the viewer I am confident with my identity as artist; my sense of self deepened with age. I like the light most of all and didn't want to let it go by without snagging it. The magenta and turquoise reflections float on the surface like paint, pieces of colored light. They help define the composition along with the hand, round circle of the camera lens, and the angles of the neck. I'm not quite sure where the photographs are going and if the landscape ones I take as notations for paintings are art. I enjoy making them and that is usually a good sign. It's all about searching, anyway.

Painting Trivia!

Painted by Matthias Grunewald between 1512 and 1516. It is his greatest and largest work and is on display at the Unterlinden Museum at Colmar, Alsace, France.

Check back soon for the answer under "comments".

Yellow Arch

8"x 9"

watercolor

This painting is about bright fall days, crisp blue skies, and growing things. The dots are appropriate in the sense of jubilation they convey. The focal point is the white area under the center of the trees where the green converges and the blue slips down. Different elements come together harmoniously. It is not a painting about problems - world problems, personal problems, worries. It is a release from worries.

"WHAT I dream is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter, an art that might be for every mental worker like an appeasing influence; something like a good armchair . . ." - Henri Matisse

If anyone checks out my blog of archives, Before Art Weekly, they will see that aligning with Matisse's philosophy isn't always my goal. I've painted my night terrors. My more recent work, including this painting, is not about the upset. I think it is important to be restored. I'm not out to be your hot tub are equivalent, but to represent the beauty I experience in hope that you see it too. I'm imagining it but I'm not imagining it. Dreams are like that.

Painting Trivia!

Name this German, turn of the 20th c. painter: (Hint: died at the age of thirty-one, close friend of Rilke):

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Painting Trivia!

The Sistine Chapel was created using this painting technique. Hint: it is the term for painting done on plaster on walls or ceilings.

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Western NY Landscape #4, #5, #6 Ceramic Relief

Western NY Landscape 4 Ceramic Relief 2 1/2x3 1/2_2009

Western NY Landscape 5 Ceramic Relief 3x5_2009

Western NY Landscape 6 Ceramic Relief 3 1/2x5_2009

If someone every finds my pottery shard or better yet, one of my reliefs intact, I want them to see color. Color is what I want to show someone in the future. I put color into my time capsule. Color is what gives me hope, colored light. This is the function of stained glass in churches. The pictures are my kaleidoscopes but the colors aren't randomly thrown down like pick-up sticks. They are attached to things; they infuse things. They are purposeful. They say, "I hope you find beauty around you, too. Here is some in case you don't."

Painting Trivia!

What is:

a fast-drying, watersoluble paint made from milk protein. It can be made at home with skim milk cottage cheese, water, and amonia.

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Painting Trivia!

What painter said this:

"A sincere artist is not one who makes a faithful attempt to put on to canvas what is in front of him, but one who tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing."

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Western NY Landscape #1, #2, #3 Ceramic Relief

Western NY Landscape 1_Ceramic Relief_3 1/2 x 5 1/2_2009

Western NY Landscape 2 Ceramic Relief 3 1/2x5 1/2_2009

Western NY Landscape 3 Ceramic Relief 3 1/2x6_2009

I'm really loving making these ceramic reliefs. The layers provide a new way for handling space that is literal as well as perceptual. The clay is physically in different points in space and the glazing and overall reading of the image work like painting. I think I'm hooked. I like the shape and edges of the clay slabs, my "canvas", to be irregular. They feel natural like a stone worn by water. I don't want a machine edge because landscape imagery is about the earth.

Ana Medieta (1948-1985) is an artist whom I greatly admire. She worked with nature in a more physical way than I. Exiled from Cuba living in America from the age of thirteen onward, she felt the loss of her homeland and had a keen sense of identity and personal connection with land. This as well as gender became the content of her art, performances and photographs in which she interacted with nature by making body prints, for example, often nude. For any of you readers who think this is silly and anyone can do it, you are missing the point. She created poignant metaphors by doing things that were physical, real, and dreamlike enough to dramatically convey her feelings. The art goes beyond a narrative to convey experiences that are powerfully wordless.

I'm involved with nature and the nonverbal and I look at her work and think that maybe I should make something like that because I intensely identify with it. The thing is that I love to paint/make things that I see around me. It doesn't matter how abstract they end up being, the impulse starts with something I see. I notice light, color, space, scale throughout the day but certain situations strike me and become the impetus for work. I might use a particular situation and go directly from that but also it is the accumulated perceptions in my visual memory that are called upon AS I work. Combine these visual memories with what is happening on the canvas/slab of clay/whatever medium, and art happens. It is kind of like cooking a favorite recipe you know by heart. The particular freshness of the ingredients on hand, the cooking utensils, and sometimes humidity like with bread, can effect the outcome. You remember the seasonings and look to create the same smell, taste, and texture you remember. There is a lot going on. This isn't Hamburger Helper I'm talking about. Then there sometimes is the frustration that the thing you are making doesn't resemble what you remember. Take the Twinkie. Stay with me here; I'm not digressing. I recently had a Twinkie for the first time since I was a kid, i.e. a LONG time ago. It was not the fluffy, fresh, amazing cream filled cake I remember. It tasted like it was from a factory, a plastic packing-peanut excuse for cake. That is like what happens on canvas when the art magic isn't happening. I can only hope I am getting a little magic into these baked paintings. I love Ana Mendieta but I also love my EASY-BAKE-Oven, my kiln. May chocolate seven-layer cakes, not Twinkies come out.

Painting Trivia!

Name the painter:

He is a landscape painter, current head of the graduate painting program at B.U., born in England, Guggenheim Fellow, represented by the Nielsen Gallery in Boston and Knoedler Gallery in NYC. He sometimes uses text in his work.

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Painting Trivia!

Name the painter:

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Painting Trivia!

Name the painter:

Check back soon under the "comments" section for the answer!

Fall #9 Gray Sky

8x8

oil on canvas

In this painting I wanted to convey the dense fall treetops outside my studio window,

the muted, bluish trees on the horizon, and the particular gray of the sky that day. It

was a purplish haze, complementing the warm, mainly yellow middle ground. It is a quiet

little thing with bounce. Seurat worked with Pointillism in a very different way. First, he

didn't really paint complete circles but rather used short brush strokes. Secondly, he was

very aware of the edges between things. He defines form while also diffusing it, which

I do, but he has a much harder edge. The daylight paintings like A Sunday on the

Grande Jatte retain a softness because of the light quality and a rather tender manner

of applying the paint. His night paintings like The Side Show or the painting The Circus

tend to have harsh light and the paint application is different, more graphic, I think. My

work usually isn't so hard-edged, more concerned with paint handling than tight form.

Tenderness really comes through in his drawings, a quality perceived by art critic

Michael Kimmelman. At a lecture at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, I asked

him what art moves him the most and he said Seurat's drawings, the "why" we didn't get to.

The drawings have the feeling of a photograph, not at all in the amount of detailed

description but in the feeling of a moment in time, a concept true to the origins of

Impressionism. Their tonality and softness captures this to more of a degree than his work

in color. I think my September self-portrait depicting myself as shadow is similar in intent.

It is not always easy to discern the subtler qualities between oneself and others, not just in

art, but it is important in defining oneself. "She paints with dots" is about as informative

about what I do as "she is a basketball player" is to conveying who a person is. Trying to

convey what I do in words is so difficult that it takes weeks of circling around it

in this blog to come close. Sometimes I think I should just post the pictures.

Painting Trivia!

Name the artist:

A contemporary artist born in 1945 Germany. His often large scale paintings are rugged often vast landscapes dealing with post-war Germany, German culture and history. They sometimes have broken glass, lead, and dried flowers or plants in them and are thickly painted.

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Painting Trivia!

Name the artist:

"There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.

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Painting Trivia!

Painting Trivia!

Name the artist:

"I am a night painter, so when I come into the studio the next morning the delirium is over. I come into the studio very fearfully, I creep in to see what happened the night before. And the feeling is one of, 'My God, did I do that?' ".

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Fall #8 Clouds in the Middle

10x8

oil on canvas, PRIVATE COLLECTION

The photographer Alfred Stieglitz (husband of Georgia O'Keefe) is famous for promoting American Abstraction in his galleries 291 and An American Place and for his photographs of clouds, which he named Equivalents. Music: A Sequence of Ten Cloud Photographs (also called Clouds in Ten Movements) walks the line of representation and abstraction. Photography, often used to document, was not yet used to explore abstraction in the same way the American painters did. Clouds were a subject both tangible for the camera and amorphous.

Painters don't just look at the total image of a painting but look at paint passages. In Stieglitz's photographs this meant the textures of the clouds and sky and the actual physical substance of print and paper, its particular qualities. Passages are like phrases in music or a line or two of a poem, non-verbal and fully of the particular language of the medium. They convey a lot of information about the approach and attitude of the artist in the work. To the painter-viewer, sometimes thrilling, juicier paint feels like candy, visual caffeine. Paint surfaces are only truly observable in seeing in real life, "in the flesh". Painters actually call the surface of a painting its "skin". It is sensual and holds the content of the work. Paintings that miss the mark for me are disappointingly dry, dead, lacking in sensitivity. It is easy to do this in political work in which the message sometimes overtakes the paint handling. The message is loud and is focused on something else. The art image may still be great but it is not of the kind of painting that makes me tick. An example is Barbara Kruger's work, which would be ineffective in the medium of paint. Diego Rivera painted enormous politically fueled murals but he had a painter's heart and managed to do both. Andy Warhol's genius is in his societal commentary/observation, graphic sensibility and snap. I love his work but if the museum was burning I'd probably run away with this Bonnard (Nude in the Bath and Small Dog). It's like saving family over a book you respect and with Warhol, production is such a theme that there are so many similar pieces in other places.

Fall #8 Clouds in the Middle is a relative of Stieglitz and Bonnard but is my own. Love that paint.

Painting Trivia!

Painting trivia!

This is a blue semi-precious stone mined in Afgahnistan for over 6,000 years. It was used for blue oil paint until the early nineteenth century when it was replaced by synthetic ultramarine.

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Painting Trivia!

Painting Trivia!

This artist was a court painter to Marie Antoinette:

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Painting Trivia!

Painting Trivia! Name the painter:

"I love my old paintings as postulates, as fresh starting points, but I have to destroy them. I have to make a new manifesto.."

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Painting Trivia!

Painting Trivia! Name the painter:

"Every good painter paints what he is."

Let's add "she" to that. Check back tomorrow under "comments" for the answer.

Painting Trivia!

Painting Trivia! Name the painter:

"In our time there are many artists who do something because it is new; they see their value and their justification in this newness. They are deceiving themselves; novelty is seldom the essential. This has to do with one thing only; making a subject better from its intrinsic nature."

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Painting Trivia!

Painting Trivia! Name the painter:

"Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment."

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