"Heritage"

"Looking West" is proving harder to get right, to my satisfaction, so am turning to another idea - and yes, another still life... it is not yet in a form to be posted, tho will shortly be so - so life goes on, even if not quite in the way as first presumed [yes, I know - does it ever?]......

What is it? a stone slab on which rests, propped, a ladle..... there's more, of course, but this will set, hopefully, the interest...;-)

Interlude.......

Been sort of taking a break, reading a number of books as a change of pace - just finished the works of Charles Sheffield, now on those of Dick Francis... but in short time the itch will be beyond ignoring and will be on the next rendering, "Looking West", a now 15"x40" panoramic landscape with figure on the right...

Of course, along the way [lately via my walks in the morning], am coming up with new theme/titles to play with [terrible, isn't it, to have ideas pop into my head like plucking apples from a tree...]...

"Engagement" 11

And I have made an end of it...........

"Engagement" 10

Am doing two layerings for the back ground, and here am showing both, in progress, so as to show why the first layering [red earth] is used, and how the second [antelope brown] finishes it off...

"Engagement" 9

And layering antelope brown over the drawer beings the dresser to finish... now - on to the back ground......

"Engagement" 8

With new nibs, am back to layering colors - antelope brown, and on the top of the dresser, layering over that, raw sienna and another antelope brown...

"Engagement" 7

And the back ground grisaille is also finish, leaving just the layering of colors yet to do...

"Engagement" 6

And the grisaille of the dresser is now done, and the layering of colors can begin... the back ground grisaille will follow, along with its coloring - then the work will finally be finished...

"Engagement" 5

actually, am further along than this, having finished the horseshoe, and grisailled the dresser top, but is night and so no photo... prob will go on and finish grisailling the rest of the dresser, then get back to layering colors...

and yes, adjusting the eye to looking AT the horseshoe, not above it...

"Engagement" 4

Finished the rock grisaille - now, on to layering the colors...




which was done using FW Flesh........

"Engagement" 3

After a day of running around trying to find new daylight bulbs for my drafting table [the old one died over the weekend], with rain interrupting it in the middle, finally found some at Home Depot and am back at the rendering....

layered lemon yellow on the lit areas, and sap green on the shade areas... further refining will wait until the rest of the rendering is laid out...

"Engagement" 2

And the shading is finished and ready for the layering of colors...




and the first layering is of light green...

"Engagement" 1

Finished off getting the scales down... now to finish on the shading, and the grisaille will be ready for coloring... [am doing this section by section this time - change of pace]

"Engagement" WIP

And the inking has begun... would had shown the transferred board, but the graphite is too light to see well, so am letting the stages begin with the inking [which is where it really should be anyway]...

Variations on a Theme........

As so often has been the case with me, as seen in all the cherry renderings and marble ones, variations of some of my themeworks just seem to keep flowing from me... and so it is again - "Engagement" is the next rendering-to-be and is another lizard one, but this time intend the lizard at least to be in color, and MAYBE the rest as well... size will be different, as am still working off old blanks, and have run out of the 24"x18" primed canvas sheets [finally] - so this will be a 15"x20" on illoboard.... the sketch is now done, but the transfer not - so will have that all up to go rendering tomorrow...

what will the lizard be looking at this time? ah well, tune in to find out...
[and remember, this IS, like the preceding, a still life]

Realism and Virtue in Art.......

Every so often am accused of pandering to 'convention' because my work is realistic - indeed, sometimes very realistic... 'if one wanted to see realism, take a photograph' is oft the comment... but this merely seeks to hide the real issue at hand - WHY the realism? for one, contrary to presumptions, realism is NOT imitating reality, a mistake which is why positing photography as a 'valid' replacement... there are several reasons why the error, some of which are innocent mistakes bourne of ignorance, others being deliberately crafted attempts to 'invalidate' realism in art... to begin with, until the invention of photography, art served at least a dual purpose, ONE OF WHICH WAS THAT OF A VISUAL RECORDER, something oft overlooked in art and realism discussions... it is an importance, moreover, which aids in seeing how art was served over the centuries, and why, after photography's invention, that serving no longer was of prime or even if of importance in terms of the nature of art...

the proper understanding of art is that it is a SELECTIVE RE-PRESENTATION of reality according to the artist's FUNDAMENTAL [or metaphysical, to be more precise] VALUE-JUDGMENTS... note - selective re-presentation, NOT imitation... further, to grasp at the issue of realism is to recognize that humans do NOT begin their viewing of the world thru mere sensations, but thru PERCEPTIONS, which are as automatic as sensations are in the lower animals - and it as such that seeing the world as percepts is the beginning of how humans see the world is why realism, which is based on perceptual concretes, is the basis for grasping whatever the artist intend to show [for that is the purpose, TO SHOW ]... to show - what? well, THAT is what the 'fundamental value-judgments' are all about - as those are what the artist considers as of PRIME IMPORTANCE... this ties back to the 'selective' re-presentation, since one cannot include all within the borders of the canvas 'universe', thus must decide what to include, AND WHAT TO EXCLUDE as NOT being of prime importance... further, such considerations of, say, colors or shapes, serve, as consequence, MEANS TO ENDS, of the perceptual concretes [the objects to be included within the work]...

note, too, that in dealing with the nature of art, one is utilizing one's conceptual faculty - the reasoning aspect of one's consciousness, which takes the perceptual concretes - those objects of reality - and make abstractions of them, so as to make sense of the world around us - and of the world within the canvas borders... this is why aspects of those objects, the colors or shapes, for instance, have no meaning aside from the objects, but serve only as means to particularizing those objects...

note further, that these objects themselves serve also as means to the end - of the THEMING, of which the work itself is the means - the what and why of the importance which is considered as so fundamental... in other words, there is no copying of the world about, but visualizing abstractions of that world to serve a theming end, abstractions that, because of the primal perceptual nature of our seeing the world cannot be reduce further and make objective sense [that is, sense applicable to any and all who would see the work]... which means that works claiming to be art, but which pertain only to the senses, avoiding the perceptual, are contradictions in terms - without the perceptual to show meaning, there is nothing to give meaning, and as such there is no art there [decoration, perhaps, but nothing more]...

"Bestilled Life" 11

And I have made an end of it.............

"Bestilled Life" 10

Almost there - just another pass, maybe two, over the drawer, then be done - need make it dark enough to not distract from the interest of the two subjects above it...

"Bestilled Life" 9

The second layer on the cabinet top is now finished...






as are the sides and placing the cabinet drawer...
[and yes, seems the photo is not a head-on shot, as the lines are parallel in actuality]

"Bestilled Life" 8

The stand for the lizard/ rock is now done, and the first layering of the cabinet top is in progress... this last is a slow one to do in large part because of the coarseness of the primed canvas, and the high flexibileness of this nib...





and the first round of this part is done - now to go over again, smoothing out the woodwork... and note - this in actuality is being done with it on its side, the stroking being done vertically, so as to better make straight lines...