Saturday, August 26, 2006

Heat...go away!

Well crossing fingers not to have 100 degree weather DID NOT work Thursday and Friday...today, either. I was going up Oaklawn toward the Dallas design district where my art photographer has his studio and I looked up at the temperature and it said 112...... YIKES. I know it wasn't quite that hot but you could have fooled me. And they said it wasn't going to be 100 that day. No pretense the next day, we all knew.

So I dropped those panels off so they wouldn't melt in the heat of my SUV over night and returned to some gorgeous looking 4 x5's the next afternoon on the way home. I can certainly recommend Steve Beasley Fine Art Photography to anyone needing large transparencies.

I got a little shopping in but it was so hot, I didn't do a lot of roaming around. I was going to go by one of my favorite galleries on the way back to the studio but they called a little early and the traffic due to the continuing road work did me in and end the end........I just went on by.

I can hope and cross fingers again for on into September when I have to go toward New Orleans to deliver the painting that the temperatures will be a little better. Right now I feel like I must live in West Texas as everything is getting a gold and brown dead look to it and the trees are even starting to be stressed to the point of some dying around here.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Varnished and done


Wow............finally got all the approvals for the Estuary painting, got the hangers on the back, side painted and the varnish applied and drying.

I've made an appointment in Dallas to have transparencies made on Friday so I'll get a day off to run around and look at some art while I'm waiting....hum or a little shopping, although I really am not much in the mood for shopping for years now. I'll have to check out GuideLive to see if there is something interesting to go see........and crossing fingers it isn't over 100 degrees again.

Time to clean up that studio that I can hardly move around in, too. Maybe get out some paper and those new waterbased intaglio inks I bought and have never had time to play around with. I just wish it was a little cooler in the studio ....warmest room in the house in the summer.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Finally a photo!

Continuing the saga of the twelve foot painting.

Yes........I've been working some more and dragging the three panels out to the fence where I just had to photograph them standing side by side on the ground...even took the infrequently used tripod out to hold it steady down that low to take a picture to send in to the designer. Tomorrow I may change my mind but it could be considered finished. You know, finish is in the eye of the beholder as they say about beauty. Some people would say add more, some say take out some. It's even harder to determine if all you can see is a little image on a computer monitor. Either the first installment of the painting could be considered finished or this one.........but that is determined by the space where it will be displayed.

Just now uploading this and hoping blogger will let me load a picture this time. Not a word yet yes or no..........maybe off for a long week-end. Just answered that question...NO. So what is the deal? Is there a limit on how many images I can upload. Maybe I'll put it on my website and link to it.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Studio time

Finally, I got notice after eight days that things ARE progressing on my large commission. (mail took eight days to go 400 miles) BUT......"please darken the bottom areas. We have to remember this will be hung 11 - 12 feet off the floor and over a huge corridor entrance so it has to really carry from a distance." I had already figured that might be the case so I'd been mulling it over in my mind. I'd also been doing some painting on the sides (12) of all the panels as I've gotten to really hate painting sides of gallery wrap lately. At least now all but the tops have some paint on them. Then this morning I turned them all upside down and placed them on the floor so I could get to the "bottom" a little easier to lay in a lot of darks, green dominating. (Lord, please remind me never to paint another dark valued canvas without putting down a mid-tone on it ever again!) I hate it when little white specks peek out of the darks.

Well........mulling and doing are two different birds. I do now have a lot of greens and all that in the two left side panels but now I don't like the relationship with the right side panel.......and I liked that whole panel the best earlier on and so did the design people. BUT, if I had to darken the other sides, I need to add a touch to the right side as well and maybe work a few of the colors from the right back into the left. Now you see where I'm going.......these relationships never end. That's what painting is......relationships between the dark/light, intense/dull, busy/quiet...........change one place and you may have to change the whole thing. And, to top it off, acrylics don't like you to work on small places, they want working all over to get it to blend back into the old work.

I figured this would happen. When everything goes so well in the beginning, you always end up with something to change and then "the uglies" begin. Of course, I should be happy with uglies since most of the time a painting has to go through that stage on the way to something worthwhile. Just no way around it....gotta work for my money.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Book Signing Day Finally Here

The day for the book signing event at the Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Shreveport finally came yesterday afternoon. There was a tremendous response due to the wonderful news release in the Shreveport Times the previous Tuesday............In fact, so tremendous that we ran out of books 45 minutes to an hour into the signing.

So if you missed buying a copy of The New Creative Artist, by Nita Leland, Sunday, go to Nita Leland's website to order one directly from her. My friend Pat got there a little late and missed buying one for another friend.....But she did take a few pictures for me. This is one of all the artists she took.

More pictures taken by Bob Horne are on Bob and Judy's blog site.

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Book Signing

One of my friends told me about this really nice news article coming out in the Shreveport Times today. If anyone reading this is in the Shreveport area on Sunday, please come by and say hello. Barnes and Noble Bookseller's, 6646 Youree Dr. from 2-4pm. Nine or 10 of the artists showing artwork in Nita Leland's new book, The New Creative Artist,will be there.

I am so proud and excited to the the artist who painted the cover work.

Friday, August 4, 2006

Working ...did I say working?


Yes...I have been working,... a LOT for the past couple of days now that I know the color range for my commission. I have no idea if this work will be what the design people have in mind, but I like it so far. There may be some tweaks to be made...simplifications or emphasis made, etc. Since this is an open design, I've thought about adding more of the darks in the upper section and running off the top.....but it's not really necessary. I didn't want a painting with a horizon and didn't want to get too much of what I think of as impressionism. This is an abstract painting with a theme of marshland or intercoastal waterways on the gulf of Mexico.

Stay tuned to see if I have to do anything else to it or change it.

After I wrote the above, I tried for a LONG time to upload the picture of the painting and it refused to load. I'll just try again today..........BUT now things have changed. The designer says, "I thought it would have more dominance of darks"...."I don't know about those lavender grays"......so I'm printing out a hard copy and having trouble getting it to look fairly right to send. It won't be received until next week so I think I'll do a little adjusting in a few places and paint side of canvas (that is a chore) and wait. Printing it out also brought to the fore an idea that it might work better turned upside down as well. Something to think about anyway.

Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Working, mulling it over, thinking

Of course I should never have put all that color on the canvases. It's for sure always going to not be one of the colors in the list the design people gave me. I finally got the list.....pasted it up on a piece of paper near the easel wall and stared. Then I took a nap hoping that I would know the answer when I woke up.

I don't know that I know the answer yet but I have the whole thing covered with paint. Of course I should have toned the darn canvas as I usually do but didn't. Little tiny holes of white peeked through.........so what the heck, I reverted to my usual mode of operation ...GO FOR IT........put something down, I can always cover it up again later. I find that it adds to the mystery in the layering.....but takes a long time and a lot of paint. So instead of mixing in my usual way, it was get out the big gallon of white....add color to it, keep adding color until I got enough of it to just start layering it on ....knife in one hand, brush in the other. Then I made up two more huge piles of paint and did it again.......and on and on. ...subdued lavender and not on the list of colors, but I'm sure I know what I'm doing :>)...Whew......finally stopped for the day but those three big panels all have a good amount of paint on them....with only a hint of that beautiful amber showing. This painting will have lots of cooler mid and dark greens,blues with a hint of violet, a few neutrals, dark and light........that is, if I follow the color scheme and don't get off track. Also accents of a vibrant yellow, red and white...........SO MANY COLORS........will have to be careful. 8640 square inches is a lot of canvas to cover with very many layers.

Hopefully it won't die on me overnight and I can go back and just keep on and on until I like what I see.