More experiments

A busy week... Here are a few more experiments in paint...

Experiments in Paint

At times some painting is pure experimentation, never meant as a "finished painting", to see what a medium can do. Here are some examples from experiments in acrylic paint, detailed sections of larger panels, where paint has been brushed, poured, dripped, splattered, layered, scraped, wiped, etc. Besides being just plain fun, results found during these these tests can be useful in future paintings.

First time on radio

A different topic today - musical arts.
Songs by my good friend, Dennis Fehler and his garage band, TheBadSeeds, will be featured on KPFT's "Howlin' the Blues" show at 9:00am Pacific Time (11:00am Central in Texas). You can hear the streaming broadcast (find the link on the KPFT home page) of some of their songs being played for the first time on radio.
Read about the interesting background of this garage band from McGregor, Texas on TheBadSeeds website.

James Lavadour Painting Exhibit, Salem

During an art field trip to Salem yesterday, I thoroughly enjoyed an exhibit of paintings by Oregon artist, James Lavadour. The exhibit, "The Properties of Paint," is at the Hallie Ford Museum thru March 30. The colorful (sometimes glowing), creative paintings are mesmerizing to me. Photos of the paintings can be seen at the PDX Contemporary Art website (click on the "Show more images" link). The photos can give you an idea of how the paintings look, but the paintings definitely need to be seen in person.

New collages

Some 3.75"x5.5" painted collages...

Millard Sheets

The Millard Sheets Center for the Arts site has a very good and extensive series of podcasts covering the 2007 exhibit, A Tapestry of Life: The World of Millard Sheets.
The available exhibit catalog is excellent.

New opportunity

I'm looking forward to an incredible new opportunity that I was offered- a chance to work on an art exhibit for the Millard Sheets Center for the Arts at the Los Angeles County Fair. The project is being designed and produced by my artist friend, Tony Sheets.
See a description of the 2008 exhibit to be held in September, Hoof Prints, The Horse in Art, Legend, and Action.

Now

For the past few years, every time I go to the Tangent post office during the winter, I see a big, beautiful weeping willow tree across the road with its bare limbs that could be such a good painting subject. I never found the right time to go set up and paint on location and always forgot to take my camera along. So Wednesday, hopefully before the willow had started leafing out, I made a special trip to take a photo of the tree so I could at least paint from the photo.
When I got to the post office and looked across the road, I saw that the willow tree had been cut down. It was like a kick in the stomach.
...One of those "life lessons." If you really want to do something, you better go ahead and do it, or the opportunity may be gone tomorrow.

Challenge

The sketch

I started a new portrait today. Portraits in watercolor are always a challenge to me. That probably has something to do with my style when painting them, tending toward very representational. This means getting the features correct or the painting just does not look right. Actually this painting will (hopefully) replace another one that was never quite right. Another part of the challenge is the long amount of time since my last portrait and all of my recent abstract painting and collages. But challenges can be good.

Two new collages

I always enjoy making these small collages (5"x7", 13cm x 18cm), working with the color and texture and design.