Sunday, March 21, 2010

"The Bell and The Bug"

"The Bell and The Bug"
7" x 5", Acrylic on Gessoboard
© 2010

The Challenge
Alice Thompson has begun an art challenge blog. I wasn't able to participate in her first challenge. However, I was not about to let her down for her second challenge entitled "Collectors."  For the "Collectors" challenge she wrote, "I’d like for you to take only two things that you collect and make an interesting painting that reflects your personality and or history."

I was stumped at first, but then I started thinking about significant items that had been with me during my moves from the West Coast to the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic and back to the West Coast. There, sitting on the shelf with my books on art and landscape architecture, was a Volkswagen Beetle-like wood toy, and quietly resting nearby was a cowbell.

The Bug
I never had a desire to own a VW Beetle, a.k.a. bug, and I'm not a toy collector, but the beautifully fluid lines, the subtle graining of the wood, the chubby little tires securely doweled to deftly hewn axles, and the wonderfully smooth surface elevated this "toy" to a visually-rich and tactile-friendly sculpture. All these attributes were immediately identifiable when I purchased it at a Renaissance Faire in the early '70's. Branded into the wood on the bottom of this bug is the craftsman's name, Hugh Gundry, and the name of his shop, Whimsical Woodcrafts.

Mr. Gundry told me the little toy was so well engineered that it could hold several hundred pounds if anyone wanted to sit on it and ride it; why anyone would was beyond my comprehension. I have no idea where Mr. Gundry is today, but my thanks go out to him for creating such an amazing bit of craftsmanship.

The Bell
Paul Thornburgh was a college counselor and a life-long friend. Paul embraced the "New Age" from Tai Chi to Mu Tea. In the last quarter of our senior college year a group of us met once a week to talk about life, love, annoying classes and incoherent professors, and to chant, sing, play intruments, and quietly meditate to the pulsing light of a strobbing candle.

During these meditations we drank Mu Tea. (No kidding, we did not imbibe or smoke anything else.) And, as I mentioned, we all played our favorite meditative instruments from Paul's' basket. I played the clapperless cowbell. It would make a beautiful reverberating "ding" everytime I hit the bell with a small drumstick. Somehow, I could make the candle pulse in rhythm with the ringing bell.

The only college graduation present I remember receiving and keeping was a shiny new clapperless cowbell. It came from Paul, because he said I played the bell so well.

The bell now has a forty-year old patina but still produces a wonderful sound. At a gathering of family, friends, and the old meditation group members, I last played my bell at Paul's memorial service.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

"Dirty Dishes"

"Dirty Dishes"
5" x 7", Oil on Gessoboard
© 2010

This is my intepretation of a photo posted on the Rookiepainter art challenge blog. Because of a three week deadline, I painted as fast as I could. I took the photo while the paint was still wet. Despite all the rushing to get the painting in on time, I'm proud to say I got less paint on myself than usual!

I had a heck of a time rotating and cropping the original photo to come up with a composition I could live with. Given the colors that I could see in my recomposed source image, I decided to use a limited palette. I used only Burnt Sienna (M. Graham), Ivory Black (Gamblin), and Alkyd Titanium White (M. Graham) to render the image.

Monday, March 15, 2010

"Wilderness Park Boulders"

"Wilderness Park Boulders"
8" x 10", Oil on Canvas Board
© 2010

While painting these large boulders in Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Lyndelle Stonick explained that the dried grasses and ground vegetation was warmer in color than I had painted. When I next had the opportunity, I added Burnt Sienna to my foreground palette.

"Robert Curtis Park, A Palm"

 "Robert Curtis Park, A Palm"
8" x 10", Oil on Canvas Board
© 2010
SOLD
 
I took some photos and completed an underpainting of this palm and distant view on-site during a plein air class in November of 2009. After letting it sit for a couple of months, I returned to it and completed the detail work.

"James Dilley Park, A View"

"James Dilley Park, A View"
8" X 10", Oil on Canvas Board
© 2010

I was determined to realize a long time dream, to complete a painting in a single "en plein air" session. Our class met one pleasant Thursday morning at Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. As the morning became afternoon, I was deserted by my classmates as they went slinking off to the warmth and comfort of a nearby museum. Left alone to fend for myself, staving off hunger, thirst, and little bitey insects, and with an afternoon chilling breeze blowing at my back and the bright sun sliding down to rest in the west, I took palette knife in hand and bravely slashed color onto canvas.

If it had not been for my Boy Scout training, no doubt I would have not survived the 4-hour ordeal. However, I made it through and went onto apply a few minor adjustments suggested by my wayward classmates at the following week's critique.

Yes, I faced my deepest fears and I'm a better man for it!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Lavender Fields

"Lavender Fields"
30" x 40", Oil on Canvas
© 2010

I worked on this painting, on and off, for over a year. Throughout that entire time my instructor, Victoria Templeton, provided the coaching I needed to help me realize the completion of this self-imposed challenge. It now hangs on what was a (long-time) bare dining room wall.

Thanks Victoria for offering the encouragement and imparting the knowledge as I "push paint" on my artistic journey.