An Artist’s Life...

Charlie Rose’s November 24th program featured a discussion about THE ART OF LUCIAN FREUD which was insightful for me. I’ve always appreciated his work, and once traveled to London to see a retrospective at the Tate.

Standing in front of his work all the background stories, who his grandfather was, his friendship with Bacon and other non important stuff just slips away. You find yourself experiencing the intensity of a wonderful communicator. Let the paintings speak for themselves.  

How to Critique Art. For some reason I have the an...

If a Tree Falls in the Forest Does it Make a sound? Only to the trees with ears. I am not at all being funny. Everything is dependent on a tuned in listener. When it comes to art, sometimes there is no one there, meaning that those who can or want to understand what it is that you are up to, are not in the room. There will be others in the room who find your work similar to learning that there is “only” broccoli left in the refrigerator to eat. (Sorry broccoli lovers). This is not the feedback you need.

When having your worked critiqued, here are two questions that need to be in the mix

1. Ask the person who is doing the critic “What does this work (the art, what ever it is) mean to you?”
2. Then ask “What does my work say about me?”

If the answer to number 1 is nothing, then by-pass 2 and go directly to finding another critic.

Now for some Turkey.

And I Was Just Helping Out...

I recently volunteered some advise on how to solve a painting problem to one of our fellow bloggers. Before hitting that submit button I re-read what I had written and in that crazy way we have of talking to ourselves, I said why don’t you follow your own advise.

This is a study I started as a result. I am trying to let the different colors create the form in the faces, eventually losing most if not all of the drawing lines. The other issue I am looking to work out is the merging of the two heads

Good Deeds...

This is a great story about how our artist community banded together to support a fellow artist. Scott Turner a Mouth-Wand Artist was recently in a automobile accident which resulted in both personal injuries and the loss of his Van. Some 45 plus artist from around the country have donated paintings for an exhibit at the Meyers Gallery in Scottsdale AZ. that will raise money for a new Van.

New Lessons...

There is this wonderful post on the new Art & Perception by Paul Butzi titled The Four Seductions. I don’t need to say much. Read it, it makes the point.

The British Invasion...

Last night the Rolling Stones played to another packed crowd out in Glendale Arizona. It looked like some of the fans needed to be assisted in order to get to the concert and there were others that could easily have been Mick Jagger’s great great grand children. In a recent book about the Beatles, John Lennon supposedly wanted to be the Rolling Stones. I wonder what he would think about the Cirque Du Soleil-Love Las Vegas which is really a must see for me. I remember when the Brits arrived, almost everyone believed that it would last a few days maybe a couple of weeks.

Glorious-How wonderful...

I came across a mention of one of my paintings in the Phoenix Art Scene. I’ve got to admit I did not feel bad after reading that one line.

What goes on in our Brain...

I’ve hit this point where everything I do sucks. It must be the loaming holidays. It is for sure not the cool weather. Every year starting about now, I hunger for January 2nd. Great stuff happens during the holiday season but just seems to cost a lot and it interferes with my painting.  So I don’t kill anymore canvases, I am looking at a butch of old stuff I did (that I hated at the time) when I decided to return to painting.