Morrison Bridge Begins

This is a long painting of the Morrison Bridge here in Portland.
I really like some of the panoramic images that I get from my digital, piece of crap, camera.
In fact, the panoramas seem to be the only good quality of the camera.
Anyway, here is an image taken by said camera of the latest start. This underpainting is around four feet long and I got a little carried away with the background base, which is all the swirling orange that you see.
Please think about buying this painting so that maybe I can invest in a good digital camera.

Musing

While I have not done any actual painting in a few weeks, I have been thinking about it.

Finding interesting subjects is actually a big job and takes a lot of time, luck and presistence.

As we get into the late summer and early fall, the sun starts to cast longer shadows. This is my favorite time to taake photos as the contrast is good and the colors warm.

I have been trying to get more scenes with people in them. It is very hard to walk around and snap photos of people and not feel a little creepy, but these are becoming much more interesting subjects to me.

In addition to this scouting around, I have the layout lines on a long canvas set up in my easle for a painting of a bridge. I was very close to starting the underpainting this past weekend, but just did not get in the mood.

Obsession and Madness and Making Art

Art is a funny thing. Artists are funny creatures and must be strange in some way to make them want to do what they do.
There seems to be a meeting point between madness and creativity which creates a calm place.
I know that for me, when I am painting, I feel very centered and calm. When I am not painting I think about things too much and am probably borderline obsessive compulsive or ADD at least.

I was reading a blog of an artist that I know. He gets a lot of shit from family and friends about his art and how much time he spends on it. He is very intelectual, or somes off as such and may be more self concious about how people see him.
He is a great photographer in a very austeir kind of way. His drawings are very simple, but are built of many layers and so many lines that you would think it would take a year to do one of his large drawings.
His work is very different from the work that I do, yet I admire the dedication to the art.
From looking at his work, I can't help but think that he is driven by some kind of obsession and that if he did not get his thoughts out in this way, he may slip into some mad state of being.
I would show you his work, but I don't know him that well and I would not want to offend.

This seems to be a common thread amongst most artists. The art is a mediator of the artists madness and emotion not just a pretty (or ugly) object.

I guess that what I am getting at is that the artist must make art or they will wither and die.
Make fun or roll your eyes, but they are doing what they do because the have to.

Marysville Paintings Done!

Yes, I finally got the last one finished this weekend.

Well, it has to sit for a bit to dry and I need to see if something is bugging me about it, but it is done.

Next I will oil out the last two and add a temporary varnish.

Then I will add the usual wood "frame" and see if I can get them up in a cafe.

I am very happy to have this series on the way out of the studio.

Sweet!

Young Artist

This is a painting that my four year old daughter Natasha made.

It really caught my eye. She did this all by herself with no direction. I think that it has nice balance and color.

I think that Natasha has a natural talent and hope to help foster her art.

She has taken to drawing and painting more so than my son and has much more patience for it, which is key.

She call it, "Flower Garden"