San Diego Museum of Art

 

I had the amazing opportunity to visit my niece in San Diego this past week.  She lives just several blocks from Pacific Beach.  It has been a incredible time.  Today I had the opportunity to go to Balboa Park and visit the San Diego Museum of Art.  I was on a tight schedule due to the fact that we had a 16 month old along and I had one hour to view as much of the museum as possible in that time alone.  

Art museums are a spiritual experience for me.  It is like meeting old friends when I visit my favorite artists and view works I have never seen before.  Today there was an incredible quilt exhibit on loan from Boston.  Tomorrow I return to Iowa and hopefully get a few new paintings completed over the next few weeks.

Update of Work in Progress. Cairns

When I was in Iowa City a few weeks ago I had the privilege of hearing Terry Tempest Williams speak about her new book The Hour of Land at the Prairie Light Bookstore, an independent bookstore in town.  Terry describes the book as a personal topography of America's National Parks.  I have not finished the book yet but it definitely help lead me into this current painting which I believe I have completed.  I plan to do a book review and a more complete connection of the book and my painting at a later time.

Content

Willow  6"x6" acrylic on Masonite

It has been a few days since I have posted a painting. I have been working on a larger work for an art exhibit in October which had taken most of my studio time. I have also had garden produce to deal with. Tomatoes, cucumbers and green beans have occupied much of my free time. 

The kitty above is a 6"x6" acrylic painting.  She is relaxing on a pillow as kitty's do. Her name is Willow and she lives in St. Paul, MN.  

Work in Progress

I included a work in progress today.  The subject matter is from a photograph I took in Grand Marais, MN last June.  I am considering entering this work in an art competition in October.  So I have plenty of time to complete this work and decide if this is something I will enter or not.  It is acrylic on canvas.18"x 24". I am not sure if I am going to stay with local color of the original photograph or start a sequence of layers of colors  So, I am at a point that I need to step back to think about this a little while.  Meanwhile I think I will work on a figure painting.  

Making the Intangible Concrete

 

Charlie acrylic on Masonite  10"x10"

I started a painting I will be entering in a local art exhibition in a month or so.  It took me some time to really think about what it is I wanted to spend time painting.  The canvas is 18"x24" and I have gessoed it with black.  Last night I started sketching on the basic shapes and will complete that this evening.  I have some vague ideas about how I will approach this work but it is like I always told my students, a leap of faith.  You simply start and see where it leads.  It is a journey, as the metaphor goes.  

I included a painting I did of a dog named Charlie.  He is a rescue dog from a friend of mine that works in an animal rescue center in Ankeny, Iowa.  

Drawing the Wild

 While camping over a long weekend I had the opportunity to take several hikes and therefore took many great photos of early August foliage in central Iowa woodlands. I didn't take my paints on this venture but did take my sketchbook and drawing supplies. This includes a small watercolor kit, Prismacolor permanent markers, and pencils. I don't want to make it so complicated that I don't get my supplies out and actually do something.

I found these flowers blooming a brilliant yellow everywhere. In the drawing I was thinking about negative space and developing receding space. I use my phone to take quick pictures as reference for later work. 

I am probably not done with this particular drawing. I need another pencil for darker contrast that I didn't bring. I might add color but that is a decision unmade at this point. 

Book Review Basic Design: the dynamics of visual form by Maurice de Sausmarez

 

Basic design: the Dynamics of Visual Form was originally published in 1964.  I received it as a textbook for art education classes in 1974.  Now I reread it in the year 2016 and here is what I gleaned from it all these years later:

The author was a professor in Leeds, England.  This book was very popular with his philosophy of modern art and the concept of design driving art with subject matter being secondary to the physical nature of the materials used and formal design concepts.  Personal expression, interesting use of materials, using your personal experiences for expressive resources was the main focus of artistic development.  It was a heady concept when I was a student in the 1970s.  

It was worth rereading.  It is a short book of 100 pages with many illustrations.

How will I apply this to my current work?  I think I will be more conscious of my brushstrokes and paint colors.  I am usually thinking about the shape/space composition of the picture plane.  I may be less concerned with the fact if colors "go together" or not.  Trust the gut feeling on that one.

Invasion

 

Stella  8"x8" acrylic on Masonite

I spent last week in Iowa City, IA taking care of my daughter's two cats, Stella and Toki.  I invited my sister from St. Paul, MN along for the ride.  We kept ourselves busy in this fun college town by trying out fun restaurants, shopping on the pedmall, going to a book reading at Prairie Light Bookstore, and sitting in the backyard eating salsa and chips made with fresh picked produce.  We even spent one day on RAGBRAI, a bike ride across Iowa, that was happening south of Iowa City a little ways.

Stella kept to herself during the week due to the fact that I brought Rondo, my dog, along and he would always want Stella to play.  Stella would have none of it.  The painting shows her in one of her more brissley moods.

Carrying On

 

Zoe   acrylic on Masonite,  10"x10"

This is a painting of Zoe.  She is a six month year old puppy, the daughter of Payton who passed away earlier this summer.  I enjoyed painting her with her two colored eyes and frisky temperament.  She is also growing up free on an Iowa farm.  I can envision her sitting on the front porch waiting for someone to come home.  How quickly they grow from a small puppy to a large dog.