Ok,  I'm going to get political again.  I just finished "The War", a documentary about WWII.  If you though that you knew about the war, then you should see this.  It is an exhaustive account of the war, with commentary from soldiers and survivors.  It was truly moving.  If you are easily upset by graphic accounts of war, then you may want to pass on this.  The images are from actual footage of the war, in all its beauty and horror.  Ken Burns puts his famous panned still image thing on the production, but it is so much more.  Having the actual veterans talking about their experience was emotional for me.

This is a seven part series and it is long.  Each chapter is about two hours.  It is gut wrenching and graphic.  I have never seen so many dead bodies in my life.  You really get a feeling for what the GI's went through.
Those of us who did not live through it have no idea what the country went through.  Even 911, as awful as it was, pales in comparison to the sacrifices of WWII.

It is hard to believe that we were able to take on the task of fighting a war on two fronts and win, yet can't figure out how to take care of the less fortunate or how to educate our children.  We have the people and we have the resources.  We can do it.

With that said,  I do think that the series is an incredible piece of art.  The combination of the still images, film and interview footage was brilliant.  Yes, it does go on and on, but you get the whole picture.  Ken Burns and Lynn Novick constructed the series around four american towns, which helps ground the work.  It is a great series and is worth the time.

Small Paintings

These are 6"x6" paintings on MDF panel.  I was able to paint all of these in the same painting sessions and hope to finish them together as well.
These have the maximum amount of information that I want to express.
Can I sell them for $100 each?  We will see.
Working on wood panel is different than canvas.  I don't like the hard feel of the panel, compared to the soft flex and texture of canvas.  These are MDF panels that I made many years ago.
Since I paint the panels myself, you can see the gesso brush strokes, which is ok.
Painters who do super detailed paintings use a smooth finished panel.  I see these at the art store all the time, but am reluctant to buy them.

I am finally in a gallery!

I got some good news today!
A few weeks ago, I submitted this painting and some others to the Portland Art Museum Rental Gallery with the hopes of getting on their list.
They liked my work and I am now a member artist (or something to that effect).
They will be having a show that will include my work on June 22nd (Friday) from 5 to 8 pm.
There is an amazing selection of artwork at the gallery and it is a great honor to even be considered, let alone be invited to join in.
Things are starting to look up!
I will let everyone know about the details.

Ok, so let's switch to the other part of my life. 

As an architect, I have always struggled with the idea of the competition.  Competitions are nothing new in architecture and it is very easy to get people to submit ideas for free in the hopes of gaining fame and fortune.

I have had some time lately, and some new toys, so I entered an on-line competition for a new Hotel in New York.  The contest closes in a few days.  There are many entries and many have nothing to do with the requirements of the competition except that they propose some kind of hotel.

Here is the link if you are interested:

http://www.jovoto.com/projects/rethink-hotels/ideas

This is a thing put together by a group that does an admirable job providing a platform for these kinds of things.  The sponsor is a hotel outfit and they are offering $20,000 in prizes.  What they get in return is something like $1,000,000 worth of design ideas.  Design is a commodity and we are all quick to sell out.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to win, but I did not enter with the sole purpose of winning.

I wanted to keep my design juices flowing and test some techniques.

One of the new tools is a Wacom Bamboo digital tablet.  It is a digital sketch pad that lets you create hand drawn effects right in the computer.  Very cool program and for $60, it is a steal.

I have made this an entry in my blog because it is what I have been doing instead of painting.  It is creative and the concept proposes a hotel for artists and creative business travelers.  I wanted it to have a comic book feel.  Wish me luck.  I never know what they want in these things, but they can be fun.

I can paint better than you!

Ok, I have had a few beers, but these are pretty good.  These are the continuation of the previous blog entry.
I really like the lighting in the first painting of the street scene.  I used deep violets for the shadows and gray violets for the clouds.  This use of color in the darker areas has been working well for me.
I have been keeping on my painting schedule for the past month or so since I have been relieved of my work duties.
If I could make a living as an artist, I think that I would try to do it.
You may know this already, but artists don't make much money. There are a lot of really good artists in Portland and very few make a real living.  If they are, they either have a significant other who helps pay the bills or they have a day job teaching or slinging lattes.  In my case, I will hopefully be doing some great small architecture projects with my wife.

More painting starts

I am very excited about these next two paintings.  The first is of a ship at the Willamette and I was happy to see how the composition came out in the tonal study.  This is an 18" x 18" on canvas.

River Ship

My daughter talked me into doing this painting of a row of california style homes in SE Portland.  It is a larger (36" x 36") painting and the light and darks work well.  There is a lot of sky, which will be tricky to paint around the power lines.  I did my usual 4x4 grid to lay things out and made a goof early on.  If you click on the image and see it enlarged, you will see ghost lines above the house at the right.  I started painting it in the wrong place.  It just goes to show that no matter how many times you do stuff, there is always the chance to mess up.  Bigger paintings can amplify this potential for error.  I rubbed some mineral spirits on the goof and just kept painting.

Pink Houses

Smaller Paintings

Here are a couple of new paintings that I hope to sell on Etsy.  The first one is 7" x 9" and is of the Burnside Bridge.  This has a lot more detail than I had hoped for this size of painting.  It took me a lot longer than I thought,  so I have figured out that I need to focus in on things for these.

Burnside Bridge

 This painting of my wife Jennifer works fairly well, but her face is a bit too severe and I think that I am going to try to fix it.

Jen in the Sun