2 Fistfuls of Cheeks

I got both volumes of Sean Galloways new sketchbooks- hes one of my favorites, great shapes and colors and everything just looks cool and pop culture-y. 25 bucks each- nice printing job with hard covers- Ill scan in some selected images soon. If you like his drawing and want hard copies of the work Id say support the kid and get one or two of his books- more info can be found in the "More Goods" link section of this blog under Mr. Sean Galloway-

Freedom To Teach Impulse Buy

My Anatomical man came this week and its really cool. Actually, its really big. Was kinda weird and creepy at first, but over the past few days its really grown on me- makes studying anatomy easy- just cause its so much fun to look at it. I hope they keep making more of these.
Theres a couple versions and although I think the flat gray one is more practical cause you can see the masses easier- the colored one, even though a bit distracting is fun to look at- and I realize the benefit of being able to see the seperation from bone to fascia to muscle. Id say just treat yourself and get the colored.

4-17-07 lunch in Novato

Havent painted landscape in a while- kinda lost sight of why I was doing it- but yesterday I realized doing these little simple problem solving exercises really helps solve some of the bigger problems I have throughout the day.
The colors up here in Marin have definitely shifted with the season...goodbye luscious green fields...

Hugo Pratt Art Book Review

New favorite Art Book reviewed on "The Last Outpost Art Book Review".

Ryan Boyle

Went out to the galleries last night with the fellas and spotted these really intriguing paper sculptures hanging in the office of the Steven Wolf Fine Art gallery- Nice girl in there let us go back there and check them out. Super cool looking industrial Paper sculptures. Paper.

Legion of Honor

About a week ago we went and saw this jewelry show at the Legion. I was rather surprised at how much I enjoyed it- there were some fantastic design by the French artists Lalique and Fouqet, and a few others Im forgeting. Really nice classic Art Nouveau . The jewelry itself was amazing as well- old Cartier cigarette cases and clocks. And lots of diamonds. Good show. Recommended.

Sketchinbookinzee

Latest page from the sketchbook. Doesnt look like I will have any paintings to post this week and I wanted to get something in here. I really need to do more non work realated work....sigh....

March 22 2007

Second time at this pretty good spot. Last time I painted here it was all hot and dry (see August 03 2006 post)....and I left out the trailer park in the foreground again.

Charles Bargue Drawing Course

Finally picked up this figure drawing book- Gerome is my all time favorite, and my figure drawing sucks, so obviously Im pretty excited about this one. Its a perfect match for Donald Grahams Composing Pictures- another exceptional academic type of textbook for artists. Both are totally out of print-
The Charles Bargue I found at Bud Plant-
If you want a classic figure drawing book- this is probably one of the best.

March 15, 2007

Forgot how nice it is to get a quick landscape in with the warm setting sun on my back. Full on Spring weather up in Marin- great colors the hour before sunset, and nice to hear the birds and see all the animals emerging as it starts too cool off from the increasingly warming afternoons. Kinda like these little canvas boards- after painting on masonite I now can really appreciate the tooth of the canvas.
7x5 oil on canvas board

03_12_07

First of the afterwork Spring time series- now that day light savings is upon us, the golden hour of colors is much more accessible to me. Seems though that its still not quite enough time though- I set up and had probably 20 minutes before the sun went down behind Mt Tamalpais. Should continue to get darker later as the days go by. Thank goodness for that.

3_9_07

This is the last time I dont use a hat when painting in the sun. I always thought it was just to look cool- like youre some southwestern artist with your hat- but now I know why you need to paint in the shade. Kept wondering why my colors were so off and super dark when I brought a landscape home...Not that theyre ever that accurate- but I get it now....

03_07_07

Back out for lunch. Was using these little paper towels and made such a huge mess- had to wipe the board and started over about half way through my hour session. Been a long time since I went ahead and just started over. Sometimes you really want to- but after a few moments things start to come together. Im pretty sure this wasnt one of those days-

02_27_07

Another rainy lunch spent under the freeway overpass.

2_22_07

Rainy day so I set up under a freeway overpass. Once again ruined by too much texture being picked up by the scanner. Fun day though painting atmosphere- Im pretty keen to continue painting more clouds in the future- raining today and now out my office window I can see some patches of blue.... Couple hours till lunch and Im out there!
5x6 oil on masonite

Arthur Streeton

A good friend brought back a fantastic Arthur Streeton (1867-1943) book from his trip down under. Great landscape painting found in here- pick it up if you can find it- I saw it on the internets yesterday so it is indeed out there-

After Sargent

I watched the movie Elizabeth I last night- I think it was the HBO version or something- not the old one from the 90's. Not too bad of a film- great costumes-
Anyways- Copied some Sargent while I watched, which seems to always be a good thing to do. Since Im so sick of looking at that last shate painting I did, Imonna post this skecthbook page- which is pretty much the only bit of art Ive done in a week that I can show-

Memory Painting

Im not sure who it was, but I was blog surfing and this guy from socal was doing these really cool "memory paintings"- since I see lots of gorgeous scenery on the way to work I figured I should give that memory painting a try.
This is this little hill just North of Rowland for all the Marin vets-

Wendy Willrich Collection

Made it to the newly and radically remodeled DeYoung for the last day of the "California Impressionists" show. It wasnt fantastic but I always enjoy looking at some Edgar Paynes- they had a couple Bierstadts and I learnt a few new names of turn of the century plein air artists that I hadnt heard of. Favorites included- Alson Skinner Clark, Marion Kavanagh Wachtel, and Thaddeus Whelch. The one Alson S. Clark was by far my favorite. They have such great Modern Fine Art shows in there, and I cant wait for them to get some A list painting shows as well- hopefully very soon in the future.

Title Page

I've nothing to show lately that Im really that happy about... perhaps its the sudden deluge of rain.

One thing though that I never posted was the spread in the GD magazine from last month... They cropped this image down further and used it in a couple other cool ways on some additional pages. Out of all the art they could of used Im glad they used this one-

1_12_07

Gorgeous day albeit a little crisp...

Headin to Sundance this week so, bon voyage-y blog, good ole pal-o-mine- see you next week.

01_09_ Luchtime

It stopped raining, the clouds parted, and everything was green...

Finally was able to get out and paint for lunch.

West Marin 5x7 Oil on clayboard

Abandoned Market

An abandoned concept of an abandoned market place-

Tropical Shoreline

A layout test from late last fall. Been enjoying just painting values lately.

I think it was Sergent who suggested to only use 5 values; 3 darks, and 2 lights, plus a few incidental highlights and dark accents.

Old-bot

Not my favorite design, but the colors have some positive aspects.

old pictures- new place

I canned my website- moving a few old things to this new spot.

Magazine cover

So I got to do my first magazine cover, which ironically comes out on my Birthday, Jan 17, 2007.
There it is, all small on the GD website.
(just replaced it with a bigger one)

They changed the sizes of some elements, flipped the composition, painted in a trophy base, and I'm still pretty excited about it. We tried to give them just flattened art, but eventually they asked for all the layers seperated... and so that was that. Always healthy to let go of your work.

12_01_06

More lunch hour plein air.

11_30_06

Here's that green cow field just north of the Lucas valley Road exit.
5x7 Oil on masonite

11_27_06 lunch break

Deer Creek? Novato.
Better painting conditions now that its winter...atleast during lunch time...

Castle gap

really early THDJ interface with a background. mind the gap.

Hong Kong Shortcut

The nose-grab-to-cop-car-grind shortcut. ...more Tony Hawk stuff...

Leyendecker in Stockton

Here ye here ye- I havent gone yet but theres still a month left to see the JC Leyendecker show in Stockton California. This guys got some great shapes and no one does a fold like he does. Be sure to check it out!
http://www.hagginmuseum.org/

Forest Color test

Been super busy at the office- heres a color test that I was working on the other day- yah know- just tryin to figure out those forest colors...

Minions

We had a pumpkin carving at the office yesterday with the prize of a reserved parking place right in front for the year.

Tues 10 11 06

Im guilty of cropping this lunch sketch rather aggressively.
5x6 oil on masonite

Wednesday Lunch

Been a while, but finally back to it.
5x7 oil on masonite

When does a pattern become a trend?

Just returned from my "Luna-Miele" and I didnt paint as much as I wanted to- infact, I painted one time before I determined it was just too dang hot to do anything but sit in the shade, drink beer, read books and nap.
Ive read a bunches of William Gibson since the late 80's and would definitely consider myself a fan- but, I wasnt prepared to how good this last book he wrote would be- so if youre looking for a good one- here yah go.
It's definitely a hard science fiction story if youre familiar with the term- Takes place during our present day and addresses some fascinating issues with the world of advertising and marketing. William Gibson has coined some of todays more notorious "cyber" terms and hes one of those Arthur C Clarke types who make rather accurate and enlightened predictions on the technologies and trends of the near future. A really good read. Four stars.

The Dahesh

Was in New York City last weekend with a friend and we went and checked out the Dahesh museum on Madison and 57th. First time I had ever been there, and as of now, its a spot I certainly recommend going to...especially if you like that Orientalist/Pre-Raphaelite painting style...Alma-Tadema...Gerome...etc. These guys paint so tight and with such vivid color...it just blows me away. The show they currently had was Napoleon in Egypt. Apparently, along with his army, Napoleon brought along a group of artist (The French Army spitefully nick named them "the Savants")- they recorded all that they saw and came across on that Ill fated campaign into the desert. Probably some of the first illustrations of the sphinx and all those juicy monuments from antiquity. So quite a few etchings and a handful of exceptional paintings. Good show.
Here are a couple more Geromes, just for good measure...the first one being the title piece for the show at The Dahesh.


Heres a really good one...think this was at the Bostom Museum of Fine Arts...YOW!

Lunch Hour Speedpainting

Quick one...I need to try this spot one more time...
5x7 Oil on masonite

Buck Institute Bust

A friend of mine and I were lunch hour speed painting at a good spot near the driveway to the Buck Institute- I just had layed in the darks and this lady pulled up and kicked us out. Lady kicked us out with fury- and said shed call the police if she saw us again. If I was within the secured gate Id understand...hell- Id understand if she wasnt so mean. I was polite and apologized, packed up and was out- she waited the whole time in her AC PT Cruiser. We set back up on the road and tried to finish. Once again- the thickness of my paint makes for poor reproductions.
5x7 oil and spite on oak panel

Afterwork Landscape

So earlier I said I was going to post all my recent landscapes, no matter how bad I thought they were- and I'll admit Ive been reluctant to do so. I painted this spot that I call "the boneyard" twice and I think Ill try a third time. Usually I paint on my lunch hour- the light is flat and doesnt change much- which works great for what Im trying to achieve...flat, almost abstract colored shapes. Recently though Ive been going afterwork, and its been pretty fun. Its givin me a chance to pay attention to a few different things that I never have to think about at lunch. Patience and Budgeting time to name a few. You really have to plan ahead- as the sun goes down things change really really fast and its been fun trying to anticipate shadows and such. You have to jump around to different spots on the painting as the light changes- and for some reason- being forced to plan- has made it easier for me to keep things simple...and ultimately get those flat shapes Ive been shooting for- but with the rich colors of the setting sun. Golden hour. The evenings in Novato continue to be warm and gorgeous. Lookin forward to painting tonight.

Artbook and Artist of the Decade

Its actually an older book- I picked it up over a year ago- and I first became aware of Steve Mumford a couple years ago through his ArtNet.com diary. He went over to Iraq during the 2003 invasion seemingly with one plan. To draw, paint, and to witness. He arrived there early enough that perhaps you could still walk the streets of Baghdad alone in relative safety. Sketchbook and paints in hand, he wrote and drew who he met and what he saw. Its a fantastic glimpse into a world my American ass will never ever see (thanks alot Dubyah). Its EXTREMELY RARE to find an artist who is doing something no one else is doing, or will likely ever be able to do. Most of his journal postings can be found here; http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/baghdadjournal.asp
or under the Mr. Steve Mumford link to the left.
But I really recommend you go out and buy this book in support of his work... not to mention just to have a well drawn and well written sketchbook of an occupied Middle East that will never ever be the same.
I tried to pull out some of my favorite sketches and paintings, very difficult cause there are so many that impact me. But here are a few.
Buy this book.

Novato Quick Study Tuesdays

I just remembered how hard it is to get a good scan with thick paint. All those hot highlights arent doing me a bit of justice. How do you get a good shot of a painting with thick paint?
Any advice?
Nice evening in Novato...It's still summer time up here.
Oil on oak panel
4.5 x 7