This is such a tight crop, I applied a watercolor filter to it. It seems a bit ironic to apply a watercolor filter to a photograph of acrylic paint.
Fuji X10
Copy job no. 2 ~
And this is a copy of “The Blue Fox” (1911), by Franz Marc. Here’s another fabulous work by Marc: “Stables.” It’s at the Guggenheim in New York. I can’t even imagine how one goes about painting something so complex and gorgeous.
Copy job ~
This is a copy of “Night blue fly” (1982) by Chinese-American artist Walasse Ting. I’m not sure where I acquired a postcard of this work. Upon looking for online images (there are some, under copyright), I was chagrined to see that I’d been holding the card upside-down. It works in both orientations, I think.
Palette 2/28/2016 ~
Alas, thus far I seem to have a rather lurid style. I began this painting by trying to copy a lovely, delicate watercolor by a contemporary artist named Jane Voorhees. Other than a slight similarity in the landforms, however, this painting bears no resemblance to the watercolor. The title is thanks to Nick Drake, of course, whose fame exploded a number of years ago after VW used snippets of this song in a commercial where two young couples in a convertible forgo a party to go spinning down the road in the magical moonlight. But “Pink Moon” is not about magic; it is, almost certainly, about death. Nick Drake suffered from depression; he either killed himself or overdosed on antidepressants. But even his darkest songs are beautiful. Have a listen.
Crocuses ~
Crocuses in the blowing wind.
Frogs trilling in the muddy ditch.
Three turkey vultures
On the roadside hill.
A pile of torn, outdated hopes;
Rake up a load, take ’em for fill.
Palette 2/25/16 ~
Work in progress.
Falling stars ~
I was hoping this little experiment might look better onscreen. Alas, it doesn’t. There are about four other “paintings” under the top layer. I was trying things with brushstrokes and color, then I’d paint white over most of what I’d done and start again. The only original layer is the bottom right-hand corner, where I got a nice effect with the paintbrush that I couldn’t reproduce later.
As for the palette, I had a devil of a time trying to color-correct that photo and never did get it quite right. Then I got what I call an “accidental crop,” when I’m going from one history state in Photoshop to the prior one, and the piece of the photo that shows on my screen is a much more interesting crop than anything I tried. I really like these accidental crops, despite the resulting pixellation.
This may be the last palette photo I post, unless I get something more interesting, and definitely the last painting, unless I start to do better. Where are the people who were were so insistent I post these to my Facebook page?
My darling clementine ~
My clementine’s reddish and not very fine.
It looks like a pumpkin that came off the vine
To embrace a tomato lasciviously
And make a new hybrid that just shouldn’t be.
Since I’m a beginner, though, I’m free to say
That it looked just like this on my table today.
Palette 2-15-16 ~
Not really getting into the painting tonight, I guess because I’m not trying to do anything in particular, just messing around with some fresh tubes of paint, trying a little blending and a little amateurish decoration. This may be a self-limiting experiment. However, I’ve confirmed that in fact blue and yellow still do make green, just like they did when I was in kindergarten.
A rose for Valentine’s Day ~
The Neighborhood Co-op had bundles of eight roses for sale for six dollars. What a deal! Happy Valentine’s Day.
VAPOR AND FLOW 