New Painting on the easel.....

I have really wanted to paint this goat for a long time and now is a good time coming off of a pretty significant painting.....just the basics so far with most of the painting concentration in the eye and nose.

Finished painting: The Flowering Bull

I do indeed feel much better........

Painting conflict

Struggling a bit just now. I have a list of other artist's blogs I visit weekly. Many of them are of the painting a day phenomenon and are doing quite well with sales. Really well. Most of the time, I am so glad to see them all doing so well and selling their work consistently. Other times, like today, I am a bit down.

I have heard a lot of advice about being an artist from all sorts of people artists and non alike.
The one I am thinking about today is "you must find what people buy and paint that." I have to say I have done that and after many months found myself really bored. I admire a person who can paint an apple or an egg 25 plus times in a myriad of different lightings and setup and sell every one. And I can do that, too and probably make loads on that bandwagon. I have tried it on one day a week, too, and my heart and mind are thinking about what I really want to paint.

This is a struggle for a lot of us who feel our mark, our creativity is more valuable to us than anything else. Hear me right I do not fault these painting a day artists at all and I am glad they do so well, yet I can't seem to bring myself to do the same thing. Not that my work cannot or doesn't sell, I just think it isn't as widely accepted or accessible. So, the struggle goes on......and it IS nice to get paid for your work and twice as nice to get paid for doing the kind of work you absolutely love. Maybe there is a market out there for me.........I just have to find it, right? Now I ramble....

Anyway, I will probably feel a lot better about it as the day goes on and I finish up that amazing painting on the easel......

Updates

I got a call from the FCCA's member gallery coordinator Elizabeth Seaver last night. I was juried into the gallery for the 2009 year and have been offered a show with Anne Parks in November 2009. A ways off, but way cool.


Here is today's update on "The Flowering Bull." A few more passes and it will be complete.

Today's oil painting: Flowering Bull

So, the datura works perfectly.

Paint Wrestling.....

It has been slow going today with the oil painting. I have removed every stroke I put down today, about twenty flowers. I am really not satisfied with my choice, so back to researching flowers a bit to find just the right fit for the subject. Datura is really standing out as an option........

It is a frustrating thing to feel like the last 4 or 5 hours of painting have been lost, but I try to remember that there is a lesson to be learned in persistence and a willingness to find another way to complete a vision better. (Despite my outward maturity on the inside I am saying "aarrghhh," though...)

ONthe easel: The Flowering Bull update

Excuse the wet paint...laying in the vines and starting the flowers. I love the idea of the vines growing out of his nostrils and tear ducts.....can you tell the vines are growing out of where the horns would emerge???



I have an idea to finish out the lamb painting...so I hope to move on to that soon.

On the easel: The Flowering Bull

So, a lot of progress made today on the painting. A few touch ups tomorrow on the hide and then I can start to lay in the vines and flowers.......(what did you think "flowering bull" meant?...)

On the easel: The Flowering Bull

Last week the acceptance letter came for the Caton Merchant Gallery show at the Candy Factory in September. I have spent the last few afternoons making sure the paintings are ready (i.e. signed, edges painted, cat hairs removed...). "Ovis Nectarus" and "Miracle..." will show.

In the meantime after weeks of torturous looking at hundreds of photos of bulls, I finally found one that clicked and started "The Flowering Bull." It is moving along fast. I know exactly where the painting is going after putting aside a few composition options. I almost feel that at times I have too many ideas about a painting and that makes it difficult to choose one.

Heath Ledger's portrait......

A few weeks ago I came across the portrait of Heath Ledger by his friend Australian artist Vincent Fantauzzo. The painting was completed only weeks before Heath's death. It is a technical masterpiece, yet the greatest works of art always move the viewer past technique and into meaning.

Being an actor is in many ways about becoming someone you are not. It is a life of pretending, not only in one's work, but for celebrity status actors, often also in daily life. The appearance of perfection and a charmed life are required at all times and in all places.

I was so winded by the beautiful honesty of the work and Heath's willingness to display that transparency to the world. For a person as famous as him this sort of thing can be dangerous and ever misconstrued, even used as a weapon.

The overwhelming response to the work goes beyond mourning over the seeming untimely death of a tremendously gifted man. People see themselves in the painting. I know I do, as well.