The Gathering

I just completed this painting for Sarah (my niece) and Paul's wedding.  

Sarah and Paul Bennett, married June 25, 2011 

The Gathering, 2011, oil on panel, 22" x 22"

 

The birds symbolize the friends that come into our lives to teach and encourage.  There are two Chinese characters in the painting.  Along the right side near the top is the word for double happiness, which is traditional for weddings.  Below it is the character for love.  The painting is a blend of a few different classifications: part Chinese scroll, part folk painting, and part symbolic realism. 

Details:

Hunter's Still Life

Today's art lesson in Hunter's words:
This still life has lots of details that I put in and got help from Aunt Jane.  We used blue and orange, red and green.  That makes a tetrad.  We worked on this for over an hour.  We put in a limoncello bottle, a candle and candle holder and an old feed sack stencil that belonged to G. L. Locke.  He is Aunt Jane's great grandpa.

This is me in front of my still life.

 

A young emerging artist

Hunter is ten years old and has been painting since last summer.  He comes to my house and we explore the basement, talk about BB guns, rummage through the drawers in my studio, and then we paint for awhile.  

He likes Jackson Pollack, so he did his own version of a "Jack the Dripper" painting.  One afternoon we went through a Richard Diebenkorn book.  Another day he brought a huge coffee table tome on Van Gogh, and he wanted to show me Starry Night on the Rhone.  He thought he'd like to paint that.  And we did.  It's hanging in his bedroom now.  He and I had made a cradled panel a few months ago.  He gessoed it himself.  It sat for awhile waiting for an idea.  I've rekindled an interest in birds recently and am trying to get him hooked as well, so I did an under drawing of a Rainbow Bird and sealed it.  He put a red ochre imprimatura on it and during the week I developed the under painting in whites and umbers.  During the last ten days this ten-year-old has done a remarkable job patiently laying in color.  I tighten up the detail between sessions, but the color glazing is Hunter's work.    

Hunter, Rainbow Bird, 2011, oil on panel, 6" x 6"

Next we want to do a master study of a painting attributed to Granacci, Portrait of a Man in Armour, c. 1505 (National Gallery, London).  Our version will feature Hunter as the man in armour.

A new still life

I began a new still life series in February.  This is the first to reach the finish line.

This is the underpainting

Technique mixte on linen panel, 7" x 7"

 And this one, which has been on the easel far too long, is finally complete!

Technique mixte on panel, 10" x 10"

On earth...peace

College of Lake County selected my design for this year's holiday greeting card.  The photograph in the background is of clouds in my back yard.  

On earth...peace
Luke 2:14

Marla Misunas, Collections Information Manager at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, came to visit me at the College of Lake County gallery in November.  

 

Contemporary Realism Biennial

I'm looking forward to the opening reception for the Contemporary Realism Biennial in Fort Wayne, Indiana this Friday.  Two of my paintings were juried in!  There was a nice review in Fort Wayne's Journal Gazette.
Journal Gazette article







Installation shots on flickr:

2010 Contemporary Realism Biennial Installation

California

The California coast is magnificent and it is no wonder that the Bay Area has inspired so many artists.  The most inspiring day of my recent trip was my visit to SFMOMA - San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  My pre-trip email inquiry regarding Diebenkorn paintings in their collection introduced me to Marla Misunas...and her reply set off a volley of emails.  Serendipitously, I know her parents!  We arranged to meet in the atrium and after a great lunch and conversation in the museum cafe, she asked if I would like to see some behind the scenes areas.  Since I work for the College of Lake County Gallery, I jumped at the chance to see the same kinds of things I do on a much grander scale.  Marla was so gracious to introduce me to many of her colleagues and took me through staging and storage areas.  Why the bungee cords across the storage bins?  Earthquakes!  Something we don't think about here in the Midwest, but is foremost in the minds of San Franciscans.  And then we came to an area where many of the paintings not currently on exhibition are kept...there were two wonderful works from Diebenkorn's Ocean Park series in the racks and I got to see them up close.  In the exhibition galleries I might have made the guards nervous, but in that less formal environment I got to study every detail unhindered.  I was so impressed with every staff member I spoke with.  All were so enthusiastic about their work and so willing to share snippets of what they do with me.  I can't wait for the next opportunity to visit!

Up close with Diebenkorn

Thanks Marla!

Next best thing to being there...

I couldn't manage a trip to Denver to see the exhibition, but Sandra Ceas, curator for Collective Singular, granted permission to post the YouTube video on my blog. 

Building Altars

The concept of building altars as an act of worship intrigues me.  The first Biblical mention (that I have found) of building an altar in order to make a sacrifice to the Lord in worship is recorded in Genesis 8:20 regarding the account of Noah.  After Noah came out of the ark, "Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it."

As my own act of worship and meditation, I have in mind to make a drawing for each occasion an altar is mentioned...those that were built to honor and worship God for all He had done.  Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, Saul, David and Elijah all built altars.  Some were built to remember certain occasions of God's provision: Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shem and named it Ebenezer saying "thus far has the Lord helped us."  (1 Samuel 7:12)  Moses set up twelve pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel (Exodus 24:4).  Gideon destroyed his father's altar to a false god (Baal) and built a proper altar to the Lord (Judges 6:25).  In Joshua it is recorded that the Israelites should take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan and Joshua recorded on them the law of Moses.  He instructed them that the stones were to help Israel remember that they had crossed the Jordan on dry ground.  On Mount Carmel Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord which was in ruins.  He took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, "your name shall be Israel."  With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord.  (1 Kings 18:32)  His prayer beginning in 1 Kings 18:36 is beautiful.  (The source of my paraphrasing of these verses is the New International Version 1982, B.B. Kirkbride Bible Company, Inc. Indianapolis, Frank Charles Thompson, ed.)

Altar 1, 2010, graphite, 2.25" x 3.25"

 

If I were in Denver tonight...

If I were in Denver tonight, I'd be sipping a glass of champagne at Core Annex Gallery! 

http://www.corenewartspace.com/collective.html