"Respite" - 6

Added another layer of yellow ochre to the wall, along with tuscan red and light sepia [Polychromos], and is seen, of course, as well within the vase bowl... then shading with indigo blue on the florals, vase bowl, bowl, cup, and shelf... then beginning using the blender, as seen in a partial on the vase bowl, showing the difference...

"Respite" - 5

Turning to the vase bowl, used blue slate and true blue... and yellow ochre for the background wall... and added jade green and light aqua to the cup...there needs be another layering of the wall to match the layers within the bowl, then other colors will be added... and the chopsticks need now be defined crisply... oh yes, and white was added for the reflections on the bowl...

"Respite" - 4

Turning to the shelf, first used Verithin dark brown to lay in the grain, then layered light umber, sand, tuscan red, dark brown, indigo blue, and another layering of dark brown, using the sharp edge to go over the lemon yellow lining the top of the shelf...

"Respite" - 3

And the rest of the lilies is done...

"Respite" - 2

Did work on the top calla lily, and leaf... lined the vase bowl with periwinkle as it, tho clear, will be blue tinted....

"Respite" - WIP

Using colored pencil, on 9"x12" Stonehenge paper, am imagining a bowl w/chopsticks, cup, and water ikebani of calla lilies... the bowl is mostly done, but much remains on the rest - and, of course, the shelf and background have yet to commence...

The Moral View and Sense of Life

One of the things am coming to see, for the time being, is a need within me to doing more still-life renderings - not the usual flushed with loads of objects kind, but as have been at times doing, simple yet discrete objects all pertaining to specific themes, and all the themes of course being as aid to life enhancement, to the increase in grasping metaphoric relationships which broaden the awareness of how affirming to life many of the objects are taken to be without given conscious consideration... for the time being, this will mean smaller works, yet each a soothing and uplifting moment in the sense of life of being rewarded for the inherent goodness of being human and striving to utilize as much as possible that most human attribute - the reasoning mind... this is not to say am abandoning "Rite of Spring" - it'll continue, tho perhaps at a slower pace, partially because it is almost done, and it is a private rendering not likely for now to be able to be shown in exhibits... nor is it to say "Vaulting", the next landscape being readied to render, will be put off... merely that there will be moments of shifting in thought, relaxing moments, in which will do these small [9"x12"] renderings, then be back at the larger rendering...

Rite - 20

Closing in on the trees, having now only 9 left to render out of over 60 some - which is why this has taken a wee longer to do, not in terms of hours on it so much as the on/off given to the stippling and the pain in my hand in so doing this... but - is is at last really beginning to look like a pen/ink painting, and there is again an increase in excitement at its progression...

Moral Statements and rendering - Reviewed

From August '04...

It is my impression that those who claim that one cannot show much if anything of morals in a rendering, say such because they do not have a clear understanding of just what constitutes moral statements, other than thru literature... it is very instructive, therefore, to remember that ethics or morals is the science of VALUES... i know i've said this more than once, but it bears repeating - because most persons have a confused understanding of just morals or ethics consists of... VALUES are what a person seeks to gain and/or keep... they are acquired thru choices... but the only values really worth seeking are VIABLE values... when i gave that list of alternative things to look for in assessing a rendering, those were value expressions, and the answering of which of the alternatives expresses the morals involved - and these are indeed applicable to ANY rendering, including still-lifes... in fact, historically, still-lifes were the most profoundly expressed renderings involving morals, wherein the symbolisms were often very blatent, even if the morals expressed were factually anti-human - that is, not in the best interest or well-being of the person... there's more to this of course [there's ALWAYS more], but the point which should be kept in mind is to consider everything in terms of VALUES - what is chosen to be put in or left out, where, how big or little, how clear or obstuse, and so on... once there is the understanding that the moral or ethical is the viable values chosen, then it becomes clear where and how to see the expressings in the renderings...

Figurelessness in Rendering - from earlier times of '04...

A second major aspect to rendering is when figures are NOT used, at least directly, but rather the effects of humanity are portrayed - either as still life, or as part of scapes [landscapes, seascapes, spacescapes, and so forth]... it is only when no figures or human effects are used that there can become a problem... this is because this absence of humanity is making a value-judgment, an expression of a fundamental view of humanity that says that humanity is not considered important enough to be in a landscape, etc., or that his/her presence is not considered to be a natural part of the world... this is, of course, a profoundly anti-human notion - even if it is not given thought to as being as such, or not intended as such... once again, however, knowing the nature and proper purpose of Art, and the rational ethics behind the purpose, allows that there can be a defense against it... yet - even as landscape, a case can be made on the 'benevolent universe' premise, thru the use of metaphoric personification... this has to do with the fact that 'man is the measure of all things' - in the nature of acquiring knowledge, and this is because measurement is an anthropocentric [man centered] process... the concretes, the specific images which a person directly grasps, are the basis and the standard to which everything else is related... if you add to that, that 'Art is not the means to literal transcription', and recognise that there is little need, if any, for rendering in a recorder mode, then thru personification there can be a pro-human stance given utilizing the non-human in the rendering...

Rite - 19

For now, the figure and trees shadows are done, and am back to finishing the trees... then will go and finish the snowy grounds...