Blackbird Studio

Still Alive and Kickin'

2011-11-03T11:39:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to let you know I'm still alive and out here.

Cavepainter 2, Photoshop painting

Detail Cavepainter2, Photoshop painting

A painting executed in Photoshop, musing about where would we cave painters place our art today, ha, ha! Oh, yes, the figures on the sun are fashioned after the figures from the Cave of the Swimmers, Gilf Kebir, Egypt.

Brad

Another Photoshop Painting

2011-04-05T19:50:00.001-04:00

Campus Cash - Photoshop Painting

Here is another painting executed in Photoshop. I did the piece for a marketing poster for the Card Office at North Georgia College. I do like to paint in Photoshop. It's getting where more and more I use it to set up a painting.
It has been a so-so day today. It seems as if I'm stuck in quicksand and whatever I do makes no difference whatever. Oh, la la la.

Brad

Photoshop Sketch

2011-04-03T22:08:00.000-04:00

I'm posting a quick sketch I did for a packaging proposal that I painted in Photoshop. I just wanted to point out that the model for the figure is myself. Also, the four figures that are in the last post are all me. It's good to have a good cheap and hard working model. Have a good start to the week. Jacqueline, if you stop by, check the comments I left for you on the last post, I kind of messed up the link and you might not have realized they were there.

Packaging Proposal - Photoshop Painting

Brad

A New Work

2011-04-03T21:16:00.000-04:00

Funeral of a Friend - charcoal and gouache sketch - 8"x10"

It's been a while since I have posted anything so, I thought I would post a sketch that I have made for a new piece today just to keep my hand in. It is a one of a series that I am working on of this theme. I've been inspired by Martha Miller's work and am planning to produce this in charcoal and um-m-m acrylic on paper. In it I'm portraying some of my fascination with rootlessness, the 'On the Road' lifestyle, and the Hobo life. Prosaically, it's the burial of one of these wanderers in a junkyard (junkyards, something else I love). The graffiti graphic is a design that I am working on that I call Compass Rose. Have a good weekend.

Brad

Illustrator Work

2010-12-12T19:09:00.000-05:00

Moon and Crows, Illustrator EPS, 8" x 10"

I have been working on my skills with Illustrator and Photoshop. Here is a rendition of a composition I produced in oil and charcoal.

Crows, Oil and Charcoal, 8" x 10"

Have an interesting week.

Brad

Thanksgiving Evening

2010-11-26T10:47:00.000-05:00

The National Christmas Tree spent the Thanksgiving Holiday in downtown Dahlonega this Year, on the town square where local residents could go by and sign the banners and see a glimpse of the top of the tree. It was being shipped by a local trucking company was the main reason for this stop-over.

The National Tree on the Square

Signatures on the Banners

The Dahlonega Square, Thanksgiving Evening 2010

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving.

Brad

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T12:20:00.000-05:00

I hope for a happy Thanksgiving for all, whatever your situation, may you have a day of respite and reflection.

Jess and Mom, Charcoal on Paper, 8" x10"

Brad

New Tempera Painting

2010-11-23T19:26:00.001-05:00

Here is a recent painting that I completed for an exhibition submission. It is tempera (poster paint) on a paper panel; paper on chipboard mounted on a luan panel. The painting turned out well but it really doesn't do anything for me, I just can't get excited about it. It's part of my attempt at a type of romanticism. This one with a more Southern flavor. The subject is a cotton mill, one of many that dot the South. From a photo, circa 1943, maybe a little earlier, maybe a little later. The one on the right is my mom. Check the purse and shoes.

Black and white photo, c. 1943

Cotton Mill Girls, Tempera on Panel, 18" x 24"

I always like the architecture of the old mills, the rows of windows. There were always plenty of railroad tracks around and I remember when I was a young child, not the old child I am now, the steam locomotives switching cars around the mill.

Thanks for stopping by.

Brad

Sprayed Work

2010-11-17T18:35:00.001-05:00

I have here a small sprayed work that I did last year (I think I posted it) but, I have enhanced it for submission for an exhibition. My thanks to Martha Miller for a link to the work of Tim Clorius, his graffiti work and murals are beautiful.

David Smith with sculpture

Sprayed painting by David Smith.

Copper Hill to Nepal, Spray and brushwork, 11" x 14"

I like graffiti type work but it has gotten a bit long in the tooth to me. I became interested in sprayed work because of the work of sculptor David Smith. I fell in love with the negative spaces of the sprayed stencil work. I also like the airbrush work of Audrey Flack and Chuck Close.

Thanks for stopping by.

Brad

Recent Work

2010-11-14T19:38:00.000-05:00

This is a recent piece of work that I created for an exhibition opportunity. I haven't posted for a while so I'm not going to write at length but, I will add more later.

Night Game in Waycross, Krylon on mounted paper, 22" x30"

Brad

Yank Far East

2010-06-18T19:39:00.068-04:00

While cleaning out the basement of my Mother-in-law's house I came across a cache of copies of Yank Far East the news magazine published by the Army for the troops during World War II. From the George Mason University History Dept. web site, "Beginning on June 17, 1942, Yank, the weekly magazine published by the U.S. Army, began its unprecedented worldwide publishing effort. Most of its 127-member staff of editors, reporters, photographers, artists, and cartoonists rotated from desk jobs in Yank's main New York office to cover the war overseas and produce twenty-one separate weekly editions. The New York office published the American edition distributed to army camps in the United States and prepared basic material for Yank's overseas operations in London, Sydney, Honolulu, Rome, Paris, Cairo, Tehran, Calcutta, Puerto Rico, and Panama. Sold for five cents, Yank reached a combined circulation of two million soldiers." "It presented Yank's typical miscellany of news, stories, poetry, cartoons, illustrations, photographs, notices, advice, and gripes about enlisted life in the wartime army."

Cover of the 'GI Global Sketchbook' Issue

Sketch by Cpl. Anne T. Cleveland

Sketch by Sgt. John Scott

Sketches by Sgt. Arthur Weithas

Sketches by Sgt. Ed Vebell

These seem to be rare but, I'm still researching this. Enjoy, please let me know if you like this and I will share much more. I did these quickly. I can take a little more time and produce better copies. Have an interesting weekend.

Brad

Arts Tour Weekend

2010-06-11T18:40:00.000-04:00

I apologize for my not posting regularly here lately but, I'm still working on Laura's Mom's house. I have taken off this afternoon to do a demonstration at North Georgia College for the local Arts Tour Weekend. I was one of four local artists that took part today demonstrating their work at the entrance to the Bob Owens Gallery. I was there from one to five and produced the two small paintings below.

Arts Tour Brochure

I demonstrated my quick and dirty methods for production painting. I painted the two compositions using poster tempera on canvas that I mounted on chipboard.

Figs and Lemons, Poster tempera on canvas, 5" x7"

Thanks for stopping by and have an interesting weekend.

Brad

Stage III

2010-05-13T20:20:00.000-04:00

An update on my tempera portrait. This is the result after the first glazing. I will add more glaze, thickening the sweater and adding a very light bit of color. Also the hair will receive the same treatment. I will also adjust any areas that need shapes modified, highlights, and odd bits of color for interest.

Laura, Egg tempera with oil glazing, 8"x10"

I went to the reception for the Faculty Art Show at North Georgia College this evening. It was good to see all my friends. The show was very good and photographs, raku pottery, fiber-art, sculpture, drawings, paintings, prints and sculpture were included. I'll try to get over and take some photographs for my blog. Have a lovely evening.

Brad

Painting Update

2010-05-09T12:10:00.000-04:00

Hey kids! Sorry about the short hiatus. I have been helping my wife and her brother do some long needed repairs to their Mom's home. Two weeks of exhausting work and the requisite recovery from a strained back. But, thanks for stopping back by. I have posted updates to two pieces I've been working on.

Crows, Charcoal on Paper, 8"x10"

The charcoal painting is coming along nicely. The charcoal makes wonderful blacks. The edges can bleed into nice blurs of transition. The paint, at this point, is being applied with a healthy dose of solvent making it quite translucent. I am going to have to add some alkyd medium for the drying time is way too long.

Laura, Egg tempera on canvas, 8"x10"

The tempera is going on layer over layer. I wish I were a watercolorist, I can see the potential for having facility with applying the paint in competent washes rather than fidgeting the paint as I do. Anyway, have an interesting weekend and all you Moms have a happy Mother's day.

Brad

The Oughts

2010-04-15T21:14:00.000-04:00

As I said in a previous post, I will turn sixty this month and it is with mixed feelings on my part. I'm not sure what the cause of this is but, the decade of the oughts was somewhat turbulent for me. The decade started with my Pop having health problems which started a general decline for he and my Mom and both of them passing just after mid decade. I have no siblings so looking out for them fell to me in its entirety. I would have liked to have eased into it but that was not the case and I always felt I was two steps behind.

Laura, Charcoal on paper, 8"x10"

During this time I had decided to finish my undergraduate degree also, my work was always in flux, feast or famine, getting paid or not. Work is work, enough said. School was a strange mix of love and loathing, of feeling out of place. Being around twenty somethings really made me feel my age.

So, here I am, through with the oughts. Throughout my life every ten years or so I have reinvented myself and that time has come around again. Its more of an evolution than a metamorphosis and I have no idea how it is going to go but I am getting a little excited. It's always interesting.

So. here to the teens. I hope you are looking forward to them as I am. Have an interesting weekend.

Brad

In the Queue

2010-04-12T19:51:00.000-04:00

Here are two projects that are in the queue for me. The first is a composition that I am doing in tempera with oil glazing. This is the first of many layers of tempera and the color will build up slowly. I go a bit against tradition so, hang on and see how it goes. It is the same composition as the charcoal drawing in my post 'Back in Black.'

Laura, Egg tempera on canvas, 8"x10"

I have posted this charcoal drawing that will become a painting I intend to do using charcoal and oil medium. I would like to take advantage of the beauty and visual vitality of the charcoal and the translucence of the medium as a glazing over the charcoal. I thought I would use white chalk with the charcoal but, in the end I will probably end up using titanium white oil for the highlights. I will start the project by laying out the drawing on a canvas on chipboard panel. The panel will be fabricated by mounting a primed canvas on chipboard with acrylic medium. I will then execute the first stage of the drawing in charcoal and as with the tempera, fix it with a coat of shellac. From that point I will add depth to the drawing with glaze and more drawing. I'm doing my favorite thing here, groping blindly. If you have done something like this, please chime in with a comment or leave me and my readers a link. I will post progress photos along the way for both pieces as well as more charcoal drawings. I'm still learning from them.

Crows, Charcoal on Paper, 8"x10"

I will leave you with a little appropriate music for a composition with crows.

Have a good evening and a lovely spring week ahead of you.

Brad

Interior Scene

2010-03-30T21:31:00.004-04:00

I do admire the figurative work of Richard Diebenkorn, He produced figurative work for but a few years after doing dedicated abstract paintings. Then, he returned to abstract work and did no more figurative work. Oh, the delightful figures he produced, beautiful blends of abstract and representational themes.

Sunroom, Charcoal and conte on paper, 8"x10"

Have a happy holiday.

Brad

Booming

2010-03-28T12:35:00.000-04:00

I was born in April 1950, on the crest of the Baby Boom. Now, I am facing one of those milestones that gives one pause. We Boomers have a significant history in that we are the bridge generation for the age of Rock and Roll, the Space Race, and the Era of Environmental Awareness among other significant historical and cultural events. This is all pretty well documented, Vietnam, Woodstock, Apollo 11, et. al., each time a journalist has a touch of nostalgia. Beyond that though lies a significance in that our parents were the World War II generation, a generation that grew up in the Great Depression and then fought a great conflict of moral imperative. The downside was that they thought they were right about everything, little wonder we were rebellious. On the upside, most of what we are is a product of them beyond the misery they gave us by being our parents.

My dad was born in 1921 and was drafted into the army in 1942. Bill Haley as in Rock Around the Clock was born in 1925. Jack Kerouac was born in 1922 and Alan Ginsberg was born in 1926, the writers credited as the nucleus of the Beats. Timothy Leary, the psychedelic guru of the sixties was born in 1920. Malcolm X was born in 1925. More of what we are is a product of our parents generation than just our physical selves. It's a pointer to the fact that our story flows more like a river than like the cars of a train.

Masquerade, Charcoal on paper, 8"x10"

Today's drawing has nothing to do with all of this but, turning sixty is a bit unsettling which in itself is a bit unsettling and touch of youth seems appropriate.

Have a lovely remainder of the weekend.

Brad

Drive Time

2010-03-25T20:16:00.001-04:00

On the Road, an American Romantic notion. Since Jack Kerouac wrote his novel in the early fifties, driving, being out on the road, is an ingrained part of the American psyche. It's reflected in our culture. Television in the nineteen-fifties brought us Route 66, about two friends roaming up and down the iconic highway that runs from Chicago to Los Angeles. Also, the song by Bobby Troup, Get Your Kicks on Route 66, celebrated this same bit of Americana. In the nineteen-sixties, television brought us Then Came Bronson with Michael Parks as a disillusioned journalist (who wasn't disillusioned?) who buys himself a bike and takes to the road. Of course the sixties were the heyday of being on the road as The Easy Rider rode off to 'look for America,' Humbert and Lolita rolled across the country staying in seedy motels, and the rest of us were Hitching a Ride. The nineteen-seventies expanded the scene in novels such as Michener's Caravans, which took on the road global. The list can go on through the eighties, nineties and the oughts.

Maybe it goes back to the frontier west, the wagon trains and the wandering cowboys. Or, maybe its the independence, the anonymity, that is the allure. An article in the New Yorker commented on On the Road and Lolita and how there was a normalness to travelers that would look odd in a normal settings such as a middle-aged Humbert could travel with an adolescent girl and not raise a question that, in any other setting, might.

Rachel, charcoal on paper, 8"x10"

So. let's celebrate the highway and revel in the romanticism of the idea. I'm working on pieces that draw on these ideas for their inspiration and want to hear your ideas of these native romanticisms. Have a good evening.

Brad

At a Girl!

2010-03-22T19:49:00.000-04:00

For Martha Miller, whose blog post today is about her forging ahead to do commissioned portraits. Rather than leave a comment, I decided to post a note of support for her. I feel the conflict, anticipation, and all the other thoughts and emotions that accompany an endeavor like this. For an artist it is even more intense because the work is so much a part of themselves, so personal. But, Martha is so talented and her work is work that I do admire, that I am sure she will do well with this endeavor.

Therefore Martha, since you are diving in say 'Geronimo' and have at it.

Brad

A Quick Sunday Post

2010-03-21T13:17:00.000-04:00

I have been producing these drawings from photographs and have learned a great deal in the process. Using photographs has the benefit of letting me work quickly because I can short cut the layout procedure by using devices such as printing inkjet images and coating the back with charcoal to make a carbon paper like transfer. Also, I cut the inkjet prints to make masks that I can use a bit of powdered charcoal in a piece of cloth to dab around the edges to give rounded forms to work from. I sometimes prepare what I call an armature in Photoshop and print it. I vary these techniques or combine them to whatever effect on which I want to work. The more of these techniques I use in tandem the more concise the layout and the quicker the rendering can proceed.

Working from a model or a photograph and laying out the landmarks and forms by surveying the model and transferring them one at a time by measurements is a laborious task and can interfere with the learning process. That makes it more desirable to shortcut these and get on to the things I am more interested in.

Jennifer, Charcoal on paper, 8"x10"

Thanks for stopping by on this rainy Sunday. Have a nice finish to the weekend.

Brad

Who me?

2010-03-17T20:54:00.000-04:00

In my life, I've noticed that I am a different person at different times. Not in a Sybil way and not in a different mask kind of way but, in that my actions and considerations in situations differ. I have a persona for any situation and not all of them are the person that I really want to be. The hero, the villain, the stalwart and the craven are all part of me. Now that I am getting older, I am a different set of personas from the personas I used to be, if that's not too confusing.

So, in consideration of this, I like to do self-portraits. Also, it's easy to find a model. It's a chance to consider all of my different selves.

Shaving, Charcoal on paper, 8"x10"

Self-portrait, Conte on paper, 8"x10"

I'd like to hear about your other selves. And if you do self portraits, I'd like to hear what you have to say about that.

Have a nice evening.

Brad

Changes

2010-03-13T10:07:00.002-05:00

In case there might be an uproar for being over the top, let me state that this piece is about conflict. Not conflict in the theatre of humanity but, the quieter conflict that that we all face each day in our hearts, in our heads and in our souls. This is a piece I did, not as a finished work, but as a musing about my own state of being and a way of expressing to myself how I am feeling. Kind of taking my own temperature. The title is of course from the Odyssey, but I decided to give it a twist as the Siren song is usually more personal to us. We all face these conflicts, and as I grow older they seem to be more numerous. I think as artists we experience these conflicts more because our works are so personal to us and it is a huge burden to give up some of this personal connection for commercial concerns.

Tied to the Mast, Charcoal on paper, 8"x10"

On a recent post by Martha Miller, I commented about how we are affected by our works. Her post was about a portrait she was executing of a family member and she was telling about the emotional investment she had in the piece and I gathered from her words that working on the portrait was a give and take between she and the piece itself. I really feel that each piece we make changes us in either a small or a large way. If for no other reason each piece we make teaches us something about our craft. I was thinking more though that through the intellectual investment in thinking through the composition, the learning about the subject, and the interest in the subject leading to the desire to make the work that it insists it way into our psyche and become an integral part of us changing our world view and the way we interact with the world. As with any exploration, you're a different person at the end of a trek than when you begin. As I stated earlier, this work was intended to affect changes, to think through the internal conflicts between what I have and what I desire, between what I want to accomplish and to what I am limited.

I have a friend whose work is in psychology and social work. She is a proponent of art therapy, mainly journaling for which she leads workshops. She looks at it more as being like a therapy where exploring the issues leads to insights into the journalist's motivations and issues. As we were talking one day she asked my take on it. I told her that it was my experience that when I was stressed or at odds with myself that I became hyper-creative. I attributed this to the self-defense mechanisms we all have ramping up their efforts to fend off the stresses by finding creative ways to combat them. Further, you should be able to tap into this heightened self-defense creativity much as a physician would inoculate a patient to bring to bear his patient's immune system, not only to affect change that would benefit the individual but, to glean valuable creative resources due to the condition.

Some of the conflict for myself is that I decided to put my effort into art at a late date in my life so that I feel that I don't have a great deal of time to let it take me where it will. That, and as with all artist there is the conflict between the work and the rest of life, the need to spend time working on art and the demands of the day to day function of survival. Thus, I take the theory I have about the changes that a piece of work can have and use it to set my self up to go on.

I've include this piece of music by Will Hoge for its philosophical value. Have a lovely, lovely weekend.

Brad

American Romanticism

2010-03-10T19:50:00.000-05:00

American Romanticism, that's what I'm thinking of these days. Trouble is, I'm not sure what constitutes American Romanticism. What are the romantic notions that we Americans have. Initially I think of things like cowboys and the West. Also, being on the road, Route 66 and what have you. These are general romantic ideas. Personally, I have some notions of romanticism, drifting and rootless and Southern romanticism. I'm not sure I have a crystalized idea of the concept though.

Heather2, Charcoal on paper, 8"x10"

I'd really like to hear your thoughts on the subject dear friends. Can you broaden the list for me? Do you have notions that seem to fit the concept (think Turner and Delacroix) that might not occur to me? I'm going to make this an ongoing dialog for future posts so, please join in with your opinion.

Have a lovely evening.

Brad

Scooter

2010-03-09T19:52:00.000-05:00

Sometimes a portrait is just a side item. Here is Scooter with Laura and a quick sketch I did for use on a card and for a start-up screen for Laura's computer. Scooter is in the center, Co is on the left and Obie on the right.

Laura and Scooter, Charcoal on paper, 8"x10"

Puppies, SmartSketch file

Also, the first crocus, err crocuses, errr croci, whatever, of the spring.

Have an interesting evening.

Brad

Heather

2010-03-06T18:49:00.000-05:00

One thing I am learning from the charcoal sketches that I am doing is that less is more. That seems to fly in the face of something that I learned from a book about drawing and that I truly believe which is, 'it's good to exaggerate, and it's better to exaggerate too much than not enough.' It's a paradox I haven't resolved yet. I realized this truth from doing perspective drawings and the way they naturally exaggerate the angles of the lines.

Heather, Charcoal on paper, 8"x10"

1670 (detail), Acrylic on paper with collage, 18"x24"

This lovely young lady posed for photos as a model for this painting and the charcoal is from one of the photos. I have several of the photos and will be doing some more charcoals from them. One of the purposes of these exercises is that I am about to start work on some engraving prints and want to get the hatch correct.

Have a lovely weekend.

Brad

Portraits

2010-03-03T16:01:00.000-05:00

Martha Miller has been writing lately about her angst about doing a portrait for commission. I myself have thought over all of the pros and cons of doing portraits and whether the sitter will like the work. So far, so good, all my subjects have been to kind to tell me if they loathed my work.

Part of the problem is that where do you target your attempt at a true likeness of the subject. I have been doing some practice drawing for my blog from photos using charcoal and working from photos. I find that working for a more true likeness kind of like shooting fish in a barrel. You take time doing a really good layout using a transfer methods such as a grid, projection, camera obscura, or tracing and then it is a matter of paint by numbers. The hard part is putting more of yourself into the work.

June, Charcoal on paper, 8"x10"

Little Yellow Idol, Oil on canvas, 18"x 24"(Gallery View)

I like charcoal because it does so much of the work of for me. I like the way you get areas where the mark making is so lovely. Take for instance the portrait of Laura from my post of February 12, the hands turned out very nice. My take is that for a good portrait from a photo, the photo has to be good, well composed with good lighting. I'm not a good photographer so I take many photos and hope after the model quits posing I get photos that reflect the person I want to portray.

This goes to the heart of the matter. The portrait is a collaboration between the model and the artist. Both must relax and show themselves and they both have to bring part of themselves and invest it in the work.

But, then, I'm just kind of going on without knowing what I'm talking about.

Have an exciting evening.

Brad

Snowy Tuesday

2010-03-02T07:30:00.001-05:00

It's a snowy Tuesday morning here in North Georgia, Looking toward the top of the mountain, I can't see it for the falling snow. The schools are closed today so, Laura is here and that makes Scooter, our silky terrier, very happy.

I've posted another charcoal drawing rendered from a studio study. I've included the study, which I have posted previously, also.

Seated Nude, charcoal on paper, 8"x10"

Seated Nude, charcoal and pastel on kraft paper, 18"x24"

I think I will have some breakfast and watch the snow. It started about 5:30 AM and is now beginning to accumulate. Have a most exciting Tuesday.

Brad

Are We There Yet?

2010-02-25T19:53:00.002-05:00

Spring that is. Today was sunny but cold and windy here in the North Georgia mountains. This after a Saturday and Sunday that was warm and quite spring-like with spring fever running rampant. I mean the daffodils and crocus are about a week away from blooming; our neighbor has a tree in their yard that is full of pink blooms. I'm longing for warm and it seems so far off, like looking down a long corridor.

Hallway, ink on paper, 18" x22"

Hold out for Spring dear friend and have an exciting weekend.

Brad

Revisiting an Old Drawing

2010-02-15T12:00:00.010-05:00

Dear Friend,

As I said in my previous post, I am revisiting old studio drawings, working on my use of hatching and value. I am trying to achieve depth and a greater feel of volume. Don't get me wrong, I am deeply enamored of the simple line drawings of Matisse but, I am a bit of a fussy worker liking to push and pull at the media working and working it. It gives me great pleasure to manipulate it.

Nude, Charcoal, 8x10

This is my original drawing, a fifteen minute studio drawing from life.

Nude, Conte on Newsprint, 24x36

Any comments or suggestions, either techniques or practices, would be appreciated. So, have a lovely afternoon.

Brad

Back in Black...

2010-02-12T18:22:00.002-05:00

and white. I apologize for my lack of postings for the last while but, life gets in the way, sometimes. I'm working on drawings again trying to get my sea-legs back. I am working on my hatching and changes in value leading up to doing some painting. This is a charcoal drawing of sweet wife and I am revisiting old studio drawings, redrawing them again with hatching and more value.

Laura, Charcoal, 8x10

Thanks for stopping by. Have an exciting weekend.

Brad

Friday Evening

2009-09-25T19:34:00.006-04:00

Good evening friend,

On a Friday evening I thought I would tell you that if I hadn't started my art career so late in life I would certainly think about carving marble as my primary medium. At my age though, the amount of work involved daunts me. I might use it as a diversionary medium as I do love the tactile sensation of working the marble.

The photos are of a marble sketch, my first experience with cutting stone, I executed for a 3D class. I had a small piece of marble for the sketch and a limited time to work on the piece so, I decided to base my design on references such as the Elgin Marbles, fragments of classical stone carvings that could look finished with a minimum of effort. It still required several hours of effort.

Anyway, I thought I would share my love of the medium on this lovely, rain-free, yehh-h, evening.

Brad

The Sunday Prints

2009-09-13T16:28:00.003-04:00

Dear friend,

On a lovely fallish Sunday afternoon I'm posting a couple of experimental prints. The first is a version of what I call gasoline prints. The plate is made by engraving the image with sand paper. I inked the plate with black Akua Intaglio ink and then rolled the plate with gray intaglio ink. The image is from a still from Casablanca, when Rick is at the airport at the end of the movie.

The second is a sugar lift print with aquatint. The plate was inked in green and then rolled with gray.

Well, just a quick post for A Sunday. Have an exciting start to the new week.

Brad

Copper Pots

2009-09-12T16:47:00.006-04:00

Dear Friend,

On a late summer afternoon, a time when the long rays of the summer sun are tending more to a fall-like sensuality, I have a post with a tactile sensibility. First is a detail of one of my paintings that showcases a copper vase that pleased me more than a little when I completed it. It is purely a mental fabrication based on a copper canister from our kitchen.

1670 (detail) acrylic on paper with transfers

A drawing of the canister gives a sense of the surface quality of the spun metal. It is a quality that can be copied and transfered to a credible facsimile of an entirely different vessel.

Copper Canister graphite drawing on Arches paper

Have a lovely weekend.

Brad

Labor Day Labors

2009-09-08T21:14:00.005-04:00

For Labor Day I decided to prepare a southern treat, muscadine jelly. Muscadine grapes, Vitis rotundifolia, is a wild grape that grows throughout the southeast. It is probably the grape that prompted the Norse to call North America, 'Vineland,' my guess as the grapes are quite prolific in the South.

On the vine.

The grapes have a lovely musky flavor, and quite tough hulls. The Country Store at Callaway Gardens sells wonderful preserves made from the muscadines grown in the gardens. They serve them in season with buttered biscuits for the breakfast menu in season.

Black beauties hanging in the sun.

And in the bucket.

The juice being stirred before adding the sugar.

And the final product. I've picked enough to make six more 12 oz. jars and we have begun sharing them around the neighborhood. It's a wonderful if somewhat laborous tradition of the season.

Hoping you have an exciting week.

Brad

Self Portraits

2009-08-29T10:44:00.008-04:00

My Friend,

How have you been doing since my last post? As the summer winds down, I find myself no less busy and my posts remain infrequent. For a Saturday morning I am posting a couple of self-portrait sketches.

The first is an airbrush sketch and one of our Yorkshires, the late Obie, standing in front of a mantle. It was quickly executed to experiment with techniques of masking and portraiture.

While preping the image for posting I pushed the image toward the sepia and liked the result. I thought that the photograph in the background, in its abstraction, turned out quite well, yet, I haven't tried to replicate it in any form.

I've also included an exploratory sketch print that is engraving printed over a xylene-xerox transfer. The transfer was of a xerox copy of an architectural image placed face down against the print and then the back is brushed with xylene or a Chart-Pak blender. The area where the engraving will be is masked in this case. Then the engraving is printed. The plate is an acrylic plate cut with engraving tools. I found that the acrylic cut much too easily and the line get quite bold unless care is taken.

I'm finding not much interest or practitioners of contemporary engraving, wood or metal plate. I like the look of engraving and am making a study of it in an effort to do more. Luckily money is excellent work to study. I am using what I learn to influence my painting also. I like the power of the contours to infer volume.

I have prattled on too long and will close now. Have a lovely Saturday.

Brad

Friday Afternoon

2009-08-21T20:12:00.005-04:00

Looking Out My Front Door.

Looking Out My Back Door.

Dear Friend,

It's late summer here in Georgia. You could tell that even if you didn't know the date. The air is thick and tropical. It's hot when you get up and hot when you go to bed. I love it, even if it is wearing. It has a certain texture to it. It's Southern. It brings to mind music from summers ago. It brings back thoughts of being young, of barefoot days and front porch evenings, baseball on the radio or Rock and Roll on the clear channel AM stations, waving in and out, fading when your favorite song comes on.

Thought I would share and reminisce a bit. Have a lovely weekend.

Brad

Something Small for Wednesday

2009-08-18T21:23:00.007-04:00

Green Earrings, Airbrush and pen on Yupo

Dear Friend,

I just wanted to make a quick post to let you know I am alive and kicking. I have added a portrait I executed in comic style using airbrush, pen and liquid acrylic paint. I like comic art and am drawn to the exaggerated drama. I have tried to incorporate the style in my oil and tempera compositions.

I am wrestling with the direction that my art is taking. I don't want to go away from figurative/portrait work, trouble is I'm interested in so many things that my ADD makes it difficult to focus. I'm not keen on the storytelling facet of images but more on technique and the visual impact of the image. Thus, I am trying to focus on the techniques and tools I am using to produce a more cohesive series and then branching out from there. It sounds rather comic when I read it back, so I guess this line of thought needs some work also.

Have an adventurous Wednesday.

Brad

A Visitor

2009-08-13T20:17:00.005-04:00

Biking on Jekyll Island

Dear Friend,

It has been a while since I posted and I wanted to post to assure you that I am still alive, well and kicking. I have been buried in work here recently yet fret not for me, I need the money after the past couple of very lean years.

Of interest, I have had a visitor in the past few days. I have posted a video of him here. He came to visit three days in a row. He was a juvenile just on the verge of flying. He would come walking around the neighbors house to our front porch where he would relax and drink water from Laura's little fountain. He would stay about three hours and then mosey of on foot.

We have a mirrored sunscreen film on the front storm door. He would admire the lovely bird he saw there. My dog Scooter would bark at him and I guess he marveled at the talent of his new found friend to sound like a dog. Do you suppose he came for the company? I of course was able to sit behind the door and take pictures and video.

He came first on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he startled the FedEx driver. He visited on Thursday. On Friday, he learned to fly.

I will end my missive now. Take care and I will write soon.

Brad

Midsummers Day

2009-06-21T12:17:00.003-04:00

Wishing you all the best. Listen, it's the First Day of Summer.

Brad

Thursday Sketch

2009-05-28T13:57:00.002-04:00

This is a brainstorming sketch I put together for some illustrations I'm producing for promotional materials. I used photographs of the Spanish Steps for the model.

The image is produced in watercolor with pen and ink details. Have a lovely Thursday.

Brad

Saturday Drawings

2009-05-23T18:37:00.003-04:00

A couple of sketches for a Saturday post.

Iris Aquerelle pencils in sketchbook

Fig Leaf Pencil rubbing and spray paint sketch.

Have a nice holiday weekend.

Brad

Tuesday Sketches

2009-05-19T16:34:00.004-04:00

Thank you to all of you who come by and check my blog even though I've been sporadic with my postings. I'm still feeling a little under the weather and struggling with 300 tons of concrete embeds and lintels to draw.

There is a family of crows that live in our neighborhood and has for years, raising family after family. I like to watch them and how their lives unfold throughout the year. For the comfort they give me in having their presence in my life I let them enjoy all the figs that they want in the late summer when the figs ripen even though it distresses my wife. So, here are sketches of crows.

Have a kind and gentle Tuesday.

Brad

Fridaycetera

2009-05-15T16:15:00.005-04:00

It's been a lon-nnng week. A couple of sketches to wrap it all up.

Iris spray paint sketch.

Cockfight Oil pastel and conte sketch.

And a little music for Friday. Am I really this old.

Have an eventful Friday evening.

Brad

Doodles

2009-05-14T21:03:00.004-04:00

Today I'm posting a couple of doodles I did when I started playing with collage and mixed media. They are somewhat planned. the materials are of course newsprint on a support with pencil drawing.

I apologize, I'm not clever enough to add subtext or hidden meaning in the content of the media. If you find some there, serendipity.

Have a restful and quiet Thursday evening.

Brad

Monday Paintings

2009-05-11T14:38:00.005-04:00

Two paintings from my early work.

Caladiums, Acrylic on panel.

Cathedral, Acrylic on canvas. As a draftsman I like to work with three point perspective. This is an early experiment exaggerating the perspective and adding some of the characteristics of technical drawing that can be very attractive.

Have an interesting Monday.

Brad

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T09:18:00.004-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all. Here is a photograph of my Mom and her twin sister circa 1917. Mom is on the right.

This is a photo of Mom and me circa 1950.

Enjoy your mother on this Mother;s Day.

Brad

King Tut

2009-05-07T10:13:00.002-04:00

A quick post today in tribute to my wife Laura who, today, will bravely accompany 300 seventh graders on a field trip to the Carlos Museum's King Tut exhibit at the Atlanta Civic Center. The Carlos Museum's exhibit is an expanded version of the exhibit that has been on tour in the United States over the past couple of years.

She will come home tired. Have a lovely Thursday.

Brad

Early and Late

2009-05-02T10:35:00.005-04:00

My apologies for not posting but, I have been a little under the weather for the past week. I will make a quick post today. First a drawing from my teenage years. My first car, Das Hindenberg.

And a more recent drawing on kraft paper in charcoal and pastel.

Although I haven't been posting I have been reading and following. I loved the posts by Martha Miller from The Artist Studio. Have a lovely Saturday.

Brad

Black Velvet

2009-04-24T10:57:00.004-04:00

I'm tired so, a quick post for a Friday evening. A drawing.

Martha Miller, whose work I do admire, is involved in an exhibit that deals with painting on velvet and I thought I would post a video for her.

Have a lovely Friday evening.

Brad

Bits and Pieces

2009-04-21T19:12:00.007-04:00

I was going through some of my work and sorting it when I ran across these two drawings of the same model. One is on kraft paper and the other is on newsprint. I like drawing on kraft and this is executed in charcoal and pastel.

This drawing is charcoal or conte on newsprint. I like the way tones are easily invoked on both papers. I'm also a nut for defining the space my subject occupies. I like to push the perspective even though it isn't evident in this drawing but can be seen in the drawing I posted last week of buildings on the Dahlonega square. Comes from my drafting side. I read somewhere that it is 'good to exagerate, better to exagerate too much than not enough,' I've taken that to heart.

I'm feeling a little nostalgic for the 1960's so, here are a couple of pieces of music from that decade. The first from 1962.

Then a little country music from 1967.

Have a good Wednesday, er-r-r Earth Day?

Brad

Favorite Artists

2009-04-21T16:41:00.008-04:00

Today, four artists whose work I admire and influence me. First Cheryl Goldsleger subtle work based on architectural design drawings. They are a combination of encaustic and parts formed by computer aided machining devices. Combining one of the oldest techniques and one of the newest she has executed a composition that bridges the gap between sculpture and painting and softens the technicality of the medium and the subject.

Cheryl Goldsleger Higher Secondary School II for Girls, Chandigarh, India Encaustic and CNC formed resin

Next Tamara de Limpicka, the epitome of Art Deco. Enough said.

Tamara de Limpicka Saint Moritz Oil on canvas

Tamara de Limpicka Portrait of Arlette Boucard Oil on canvas

Audrey Flack's airbrushed works on canvas are some of the finest examples of photo-realistic work from the 1970's.

Audrey Flack Golden Banana Split Sundae Acrylic on canvas

Finally a detail from a work by Marilyn Minter.

A detail of a painting by Marilyn Minter.

Have a lovely Tuesday evening.

Brad

Details

2009-04-19T19:26:00.009-04:00

As I stated in a recent post, I am trying to find some focus in my work, trying to narrow what I am doing to raise my output and not be all over the place. I consider what is best about my work is my brushwork and my color selection. To this end I am planning work that will let me explore these affects. I have assembled some details from work that I have posted for this reason.

The brushwork in the pepper executed in the tempera painting above is a style that I find quite natural. It is a more sculptural style in that I push the paint around and shape it like clay. This suites my A.D.D. more than a more considered style.

Oils I treat a bit differently in that there is an under-painting but the fat is laid on in a more sculptural manner.

The tempera painting here is another example of defining the volume by pushing the paint around, mixing it on the canvas.

And again an oil with a lean under-painting then, laying the paint over to add a sculptural sensibility to the garment. Over all else the beauty of the paint itself.

I would like to know how you focus your work, writers and artists. How do you decide what is valuable to focus on? How do you go about discovering the aspects of your work that is exceptional but maybe you don't realize yourself.

I imagine that working in a community of artists that you can consult on a continual basis helps greatly with this, but until I can surround myself with such I will have to struggle on and beg your indulgences my friends.

Have a fruitful and happy Monday.

Brad

Friday Afternoon

2009-04-17T16:15:00.009-04:00

Odds and ends for a Friday afternoon. First a drawing so there is some artwork.

Then a photograph. This is the ruin of a house on Jekyll Island. The construction is a local variety of construction called 'Tabby.' It is a type of concrete made of shells and lime made from burning shells. Oh, how I would like to be at Jekyll this weekend.

The movie State of Play opens this weekend and seems from the trailers to be a run of the mill conspiracy thriller and then they up the ante with Helen Mirren. What are you going to do? A little clip from 1980. No tittering or reading something into it.

Julita was kind enough to mention my blog in her writing so, for her I am adding a piece by sculptor David smith that inspired me to paint with spray paint.

Have a good Friday evening.

Brad

My Little Town.

2009-04-16T13:30:00.005-04:00

A quick post today of a perspective drawing of the north side of the Dahlonega Square. Dahlonega is a tourist town with a great deal of history, primarily the gold rush of the eighteen thirties. There is also minor history such as Bill Miner, the old west train robber portrayed in the movie The Grey Fox was captured here in the Dahlonega Hotel.

The following is from the Dahlonega Bluegrass Festival. The musicians are playing on the square.

Have a lovely Thursday.

Brad

Counting the Cars

2009-04-15T08:23:00.006-04:00

From the Simon and Garfunkel song, America, comes the phrase 'Counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike.' I use phrases such as this on which to base my work. I usually react to very visual phrases. The title of the piece is Looked Out Over an Open Field, I liked the paradoxical nature of the phrases.

The work is a collage of inkjet prints with acrylic brushwork. I don't have a group of artists that I can spend time with and get and give feedback about my work on an ongoing basis but, from time to time I do have access to a talented artist that I can learn from and be inspired by. My lovely model, Hannah, is a fine artist and an incredible painter and printmaker. This is an example of her printmaking talent.

Have a lovely Wednesday.

Brad

Linocut Print

2009-04-14T16:51:00.003-04:00

This is a Linocut print I produced using a photo of my Pop and three of his friends just before leaving for France during WWII. Pop would be the second from right.

I hope all had a good Holiday. We had stormy weather on Monday with many instances of power otages, especially in Atlanta.

Brad

2009-04-11T15:06:00.004-04:00

A quick post for a Saturday. This is an image that I made utilizing a piece from a magazine ad. It seem to be a bit from a photo of Van Halen's 5150 album. The piece was pasted to a support and the remainder finished with water color pencils.

Have a good holiday.

Brad

PShop Painting Update

2009-04-08T18:29:00.006-04:00

Here is an update to my Photoshop painting that I have been posting. So far I have about two and a half hours in it. The lines are perspective line in an upper layer that will be discarded.

Have a lovely (it's really storming here) Good Friday.

Brad

Dancing

2009-04-08T15:33:00.002-04:00

A drawing for a Wednesday, then out to mow the lawn. The part of living in the south that's not great, air conditioning and lawn mowing are from March to November.

Have fun and do a little dance on a Wednesday afternoon.

Brad

Snow at the Gulf

2009-04-06T09:55:00.003-04:00

A charcoal drawing for a Monday of mixed weather. A scene with snow on the Gulf Coast palmettos.

Have a lovely Monday, whatever the weather is today.

Brad

The Cavalier

2009-04-04T10:50:00.002-04:00

A shot post for a Sunday morning, Scooter is a little under the weather and has been up a good bit of the night with an upset stomach. Here is another of the small format oils I have executed. I was drawn to the lace at the wrists.

I was six years old when I heard Bill Haley and the Comets play Rock Around the Clock on AM radio and I've been hooked on Rock and Roll ever since.

Get out and Rock n' Roll Today.

Brad

A Little Quiz

2009-04-04T10:30:00.000-04:00

I picked up this little fun quiz from Marianne at Mandalas & More, but it originated with Soulbrush at http://soulbrush.blogspot.com/.

1. Do you like blue cheese? Yes, in a green salad with cabbage.

2. Have you ever been drunk? Yes

3. Do you own a gun? Yes, I grew up rabbit and quail hunting.

4. What flavor of Kool Aid was your favorite? None.

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? No.

6. What do you think of hot dogs? I love hot dogs, with mustard, ketchup and slaw.

7. Favorite Christmas movie? Miracle on 34th Street after all my name is Fred Gailey (see the list of characters.)

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee (black).

9. Can you do push ups? A few.

10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? Wedding band, I really don't like to wear even a watch.

11. Favorite hobby? Astronomy.

12. Do you have A.D.D.? Yes, in a big way.

13. What's your favorite shoe? My Birkenstocks

14. Middle Name? Bradley, first name Fred after my grandfather, Fred Watson Gailey.

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? 'I don't have three thoughts,' 'Where's my coffee,' 'Why am I doing this?'

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Ice tea (I'm southern), coffee, Coke (I'm from Georgia).

17. Current worry? After having embarked on making a new life as an artist, I don't have have enough time left to finish the job. That's depressing!

18. Current hate right now? I hate that in a time when people are stressed to the limit, marketers are trying to play on the situation by callously exhorting virtues of thrift and pulling together just to try to foist a product no one even needs off on them or even worse one of the big players in the creation of the mess trying to do the same while begging for relief yet never changing their ways.

19. pepsi or coke? COKE (See above).

20. How did you bring in the New Year? Sitting, propped up in bed, watching TV.

21. Where would you like to go? Great Britain, China, Australia, Mars.

22. Which friends will complete this? No Clue.

23. Do you own slippers? Yes, and I am desiring new slippers, I also wear Crocs as slippers.

24. What color shirt are you wearing right now? A really odd ochre yellow sweatshirt.

26. Can you whistle? Yes, I am a talented whistler and can whistle really loudly.

27. Favorite color? Greens.

28. Would you be a good pirate? Absolutely.

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever is stuck in my mind and playing over and over.

30. Favorite Girl's Names? Georgia, Kate.

31. Favorite boy's names? Fred, Bradley.

32. What's in your pocket right now? Handkerchief.

33. Last thing that made you laugh? The Daily Show.

34. Best bed sheets as a child? The sheets that were just about worn out.

35. Worst injury you've ever had as a child? . I've lived an unusually injury free life, that includes thirteen years as an Ironworker. I do remember one cut when I was about ten that I could see the bits and pieces wiggling around.

36. Do you love where you live? I love where I live except the days that I hate it. I can drive, in my Jeep, an hour and be fifteen miles from human habitation. That's in mountain jungle but, we can drive ten minutes and my wife can purchase Prada bags and Jimmy Choo shoes.

37. What did you want to be when you grew up? A farmer.

38. Who is your loudest friend? I have no loud friends!

39. How many dogs do you have? Scooter.

40. Does someone have a crush on you? I don't know, it's a secret.

41. What is your favorite book? Secret Life of Bees

42. What is your favorite candy? Kisses.

43. Favorite Sports Team? The Ramblin' Wrecks from Georgia Tech.

44. What song do you want played at your funeral? Traveling Man/Beautiful Loser

Have a lovely Saturday.
Brad

Barn and Stars

2009-04-04T07:00:00.006-04:00

I'm posting a couple of sprayed works for a Saturday. I greatly admire the work of Charles Sheeler and thus when I saw this beautiful barn, I decided to do a little piece based on it.

I also admire the work of sculptor David Smith, especially the pieces wherein he uses an object as a mask to create a negative effect.

Milky Way is an airbrushed composition that includes negative masking and pen work.

Good Saturday.

Brad

Drawings

2009-04-03T09:08:00.000-04:00

A couple of drawings for a Friday. First a synthesis of cubism.

Then a drawing on ground.

Today is Laura's last day with her students before a week of respite from one hundred seventh graders during spring break.

To celebrate a little happy music for a Friday.

Have a creative and productive Friday.

Brad

Mixed Media

2009-04-01T17:40:00.008-04:00

I'm posting a mixed media painting that is transfer, acrylic, oil and collage. The background is an acrylic medium transfer of the Martian landscape courtesy the Mars rovers. The Jeep also is an acrylic medium transfer. These were made by coating a photocopy image with acrylic medium; then affixing it to the support. After the medium dries, the paper is wet and rubbed away, leaving the image in the medium. I tint the medium before coating the photocopy. Even though the painting is only months old it is already show signs that the surface is suspect.

Also, an update of one of my current Photoshop paintings. I'm starting to work on the space around the figure. I've been looking at Klimt and want to do something patterned or decorative.

Have a good, good Thursday.

Brad

Small Format Oils

2009-04-01T08:13:00.008-04:00

This is a small oil painting that I executed as a possible cash item, for sale on Etsy or Ebay. The format is 6 inches by 6 inches. The support is BFK mounted on chipboard and then gessoed. The composition is a copy of a portion of a painting by Rembrandt. The intention was not as a replication but rather a short cut for composition. The purpose is rather to display the beauty of the paint in the glazing and impasto.

I make up six supports at a time and paint them as a group after selecting subjects and doing a quick sketch of each on a support. I can paint them in about fourteen hours time. I have painted one set and have put the project aside for a time as I consider the merits of the project. Have a lovely Wednesday.

Brad

Tattoo

2009-03-31T10:09:00.006-04:00

Yet another sprayed composition.

Being a neophyte artist at middle age feels strange to me. I'm carrying the baggage of all the things I've found interesting over the years but, now there is little time to explore. I don't know if starting out at an advanced age is an advantage or a hindrance. It's a little like taking classes at my age, there's just never a good fit. Always, there's a feeling of being out-of -place. Also, I have so many techniques I like, it's hard to focus on one or two. I read in a blog in the past couple of days the author's lament about being frustrated with not having enough time to carry out all the creative impulses they were having. I find that with the growth of frustration I, myself, get more creative and find it difficult to focus or edit my creativity.

A friend of mine, a counselor and social worker, was doing creative therapy workshops using art and writing as cathartic mediums. I always argued with her my point that the mind was always working on ways to solve its problems and it was not the relating of them that helped but rather that by inducing it to become more creative it came to a solution sooner. So much for my psycho-idiocy.

Back to my sprayed work. I'm trying to pare down my laundry list of techniques and interests so that I might be more productive. I'm going to maybe used sprayed techniques in concert with my work in oils as under painting and details instead of stand alone works. I'm working on an engraving now based on the 'Masquerade' painting from a previous post. I'm hoping to combine this with other techniques, monoprint and inkjet printing as a venue to concentrate on.

There, the problem of the day spelled out. How to curb my enthusiasm and work in a more structured, focus way. Have a lovely day.

Brad

Chambered Nautilus

2009-03-28T10:06:00.015-04:00

The sun is out this morning and it will be a much warmer day than yesterday, Sunday. The first flush of blooms, the jonaquils, hyacinths, plums, and such have faded and have given way to the first leaves. It is getting quite green now, and we have jungle. It's thick woods, viney and thick with mountain laurel. Camp Frank Merrill is just a few miles outside of town where the U.S.Army Rangers are based and train. There's a reason, the terrain can be brutal.

I heard the first whiporwill this morning. We will hear them from now until June. We are starting to hear the turkeys also, gobbling in the mornings. In the spirit of natural things I'm posting shell drawings.

The first is executed with liquid acrylic, Dr. P.H. Martin Spectralite and a croquil pen on Yupo synthetic paper. Yupo is actually polypropylene sheets. I'm not sure what the advantage of Yupo is other than it is very durable. I like the Spectralite because it can be applied with airbrush, brush or pen.

This illustration was created with the same materials. The basic shapes and background were created with airbrush. the details were added with an airbrush and worked with a brush and a pen. The effect around the shells was created with an electric eraser.

Good Monday,

Brad

Painting in Oil

2009-03-28T10:04:00.009-04:00

I love to paint in oils. I use Windsor and Newton and Gamblin paints and mediums. I especially like to use Gamblin alkyd mediums. These work well with alkyd spray paints and allow me to work quickly mixing the techniques. I also find that the alkyd mediums work well with oil sticks, coating the surface lightly, then drawing with the oil sticks and working afterwards with one of the brush shaped silicon tools. This is a painting I did for a fund-raiser promoted by a friend.

The event, produced by my friend Kelly, was called 'The Masquerade,' and was held to raise money to support local arts and the local children's theatre. Kelly had been a fellow non-traditional student, a fine artist and a talented, tireless promoter. The event was held at a local restaurant which has several rooms and multiple outdoor decks. My participation was to execute the painting and take part in a vignette of painter and model in a Parisian boudoir. I started the painting a couple of weeks before the affair so that it was well along in the process and then we set up the vignette to match the painting. The background for the painting was the fireplace in the restaurant and I met with the model to make sketches and photos. The night of the affair, I donned my tuxedo and top hat, set up my french easel next to the chaise, the model took her place on the chaise and we proceeded to perpetuate one of the fiction of art.

In the spirit of the masquerade and since the Lenten season, the beginning of which is marked by Mardi Gras, is drawing to a close, I thought I would add a little New Orleans piano blues.

Enjoy.

Brad

A Pair

2009-03-27T21:50:00.007-04:00

On a rainy, foggy Georgia morning paintings of rain seem appropriate. I produced these two paintings simultaneously using Krylon on primed 140 lb. watercolor paper. I produced the two of them in little more time than one could be accomplished. I could do five in the same time because the drying and masking require about the same amount of time.

I created the spatter effect by spraying the paint into a spoon, quite messy but effective. There is enough variation to make each interesting in its own right not identical copies. I like the process method of painting. Also, I am trying to synthesize the immediacy of graffiti in a painting. Sprayed work, for me, offers the delightful effects that can be seen in the paintings of David Smith, the mask effects and over-spray.

Have a dry and comfortable Saturday.

Brad

Catching Up

2009-03-27T09:53:00.007-04:00

It's been a few days since I posted anything and I a little at a loss. I've been keeping up with the blogs I follow and appreciate your diligence in posting something for my entertainment. I've been working away at a drafting project and as is usual just before I was to send my first approval submittal to the engineers, I'm talking about my finger moving toward the email send button, I received a call from my customer sending me off on a complete reworking of what had finished and breaking it apart to realign it with a new plan of scheduling.

Here is a portion of an elevation and a wall section before "remodeling." I have tried to keep my hand in at some artistic activities. I have posted here a sprayed figurative piece, liquid acrylic paint, airbrush, brush on a panel.

I used a drawing produced in a figure drawing class for the model. The drawing is a fifteen minute study and I was very interested in the shadows of the chair back falling across the model. The chair belonged to an artist friend and he had painted the chair. I tried to capture the flavor of his work in my painting.

I've been working on some of my Photoshop paintings also. This is the first stage of one and I will post the stages as I complete it. I can work quite quickly but I run Photoshop on an old G3 Mac which is slow saving and opening files. It's fifteen years old and only a 233mhz processor but still an excellent art machine.

Thanks for stopping by.

Brad

Sunday Evening

2009-03-15T21:10:00.003-04:00

I thought I would post something this evening. I haven't been posting this week; rather, I have been tied to my CAD station hammering away on a drafting job. I thought I would post a piece of music I have been enjoying and will enjoy as I work throughout the night.

Have a good Sunday evening.

Brad

Redux

2009-03-09T06:59:00.005-04:00

A re-post of the portrait executed in Photoshop. I save the photoshop file as a tiff and then converted it to jpeg format on the computer I use for posting. Seems to have cured the problem.

Good Monday.

Brad

For this Blog

2009-03-06T11:34:00.008-05:00

This is a painting created for my blog. The background is made up of several photos. the VW is painted in Photoshop and is saved as a Photoshop file for future use and I will probably revise it for another work. I thought since I posted a link for some contemporary reggae yesterday: today I will post a link for some pre-Bob Marley reggae. It has a great bass line.

Good weekend and enjoy!

Brad

Miscellaneous Items

2009-03-05T15:01:00.004-05:00

I'm busy, busy these days grinding away at my CAD work station. I thought I would take a few minutes to post a couple of items. The first is a painting I executed in photoshop. The colors reversed when I uploaded the file to Blogger even though I used a web safe palette, hummm. I had this problem before, Oh, I'll post it anyway. Any ideas why, I would like to hear. I'm going to execute some Photoshop painting especially for posting mainly for the practice and I like to do them.

I'm also posting another piece of working background music I'm enjoying these days. Enjoy!

Work song.

2009-02-27T18:57:00.007-05:00

Martha Miller was kind enough to share a bit of the music that she listens to while creating her wonderful work so, I thought I would follow suit and post something that get my creative juices flowing. Also, it's a rainy day here.

Enjoy.

Brad

Art Book

2009-02-27T08:29:00.007-05:00

As I have said before, I decided at the age of 51 on a course of pursuing a college degree. Not that I haven't been working on one over the years, I just didn't settle in for the long haul previously. I stayed with it this time, seven years. I think some of the students that came and went thought I was just part of the landscape. I will write more about my time at school in future posts. I am posting today an art book that was an assignment in a two dimensional design class. It is an accordion book. The cover is gold leaf on Canson paper. The pages are cut outs glued to Bristol. I based it on William Blakes, Tyger.

Now, to the computer for a few hours of grinding away in Cad, drawing sections and plans. Have a nice weekend everyone.

Brad

Male Nude

2009-02-26T17:05:00.007-05:00

A drawing of a figure in charcoal on newsprint.

And, an airbrush watercolor sketch based on it.

I don't draw enough. I find that drawings that I do and put away for a while become resource material for my other work and the practice should be pursued. I really liked drawing in a class setting with a model. I've thought about starting a monthly figure drawing Salon and inviting local artists to join me for drawing and some chat, charging a fee to pay the model but, it seems like a lot of work for a little bit of drawing time. I'm not much for working in a sketchbook; I like to do it but can't seem to make a habit of it. I'm working on some drafting now; in Cad and am planning some more pieces in my sprayed series. (See Windprayer and Crossroad) I'm also working on plates for engravings and hopefully with the weather improving I will be able to move along with those projects.

Brad

Temperance

2009-02-25T12:36:00.005-05:00

On a day when I am having trouble uploading files to Blogger, I will make a short post with a drawing.

Brad

Manhattan

2009-02-23T19:33:00.004-05:00

This is a portrait that I executed in tempera (poster paint). The background is a transfer of the Martian landscape (Marscape?) transfered via acrylic medium skin. The tempera is glazed with oil.

Brad

Car Sleeping

2009-02-16T09:51:00.009-05:00

A linocut print about life under duress. Sometimes life forces us to live in manners that we don't want to have happen to us. A question for artistic research, 'Do we have a concept of what a life should be? And, as we get older do we find ourselves farther and farther from that concept and surprised by how absurdly different life really is.

Just asking.

Brad

Harbingers

2009-02-13T13:49:00.005-05:00

We are nearing spring, I can tell because here is the first jonaquil.

The forsythia is also getting into the act too.

For you who are looking at snow and cold I'm sure we will have more cold weather here but, take heart, spring is on the way.

Brad

Linocut Print

2009-02-12T17:53:00.006-05:00

This is a print I did based on my Great-Great Grandpa, Santafee Gailey. I tried to capture the flavor of prints found in books when I was a kid in the nineteen fifties.

My Grandpa Santafee was a circuit riding Methodist Preacher. He would ride his mule through the Appalachian mountains of North Georgia to his various churches. He served in the Army of Tennessee, CSA, Brown's Boys, later the 43rd Georgia Volunteers. The 43rd defended Vicksburg and was decimated at Baker's Creek after which there weren't enough left for a brigage and they were combined with the 40th . After Vicksburg they returned to Tennessee to defend Chattanooga and then Atlanta. They fought a holding action to Jonesboro, Ga, the home of the fictional Tara, and then withdrew into the Carolinas.

I don't know much about his travels as a circuit preacher but would like to study the church minutes of the congregations on his circuit. By far the more interesting facet of his life.

Bradley

Some Fun

2009-02-10T17:26:00.002-05:00

Here's something fun for a Tuesday.

I haven't thought about this movie for quite a while but I added it to my favorite list and thought I'd add this clip for a diversion. Enjoy.

Brad

New Paintings

2009-02-08T10:22:00.006-05:00

Two paintings I finished this past week. They are sprayed, Krylon on Arches Cover with oil over-painting, 11x14. The first image, a reworking of this by now familiar image, is Wind Prayer.

The second painting is Crossroad, and has been selected for a gallery exhibition. The crossroads, holy of holies for us drifters and wanderers. Where you can go to find God, or Satan, or yourself. Where all decisions can be made, to go right , left, your own way or take the road back home.

I'm playing with a compositional style I have found in Impressionist paintings of an image done in a duotone style with great splashes of bold color brushed over with some gusto. Spraying in cool temperatures led to some faults in the paint but I kept them as part of the composition.

Brad

My pal Scooter

2009-02-07T09:08:00.003-05:00

This my pal Scooter, or 'Scoot' for short. He's fourteen years old, is pretty good health even though the arthritis is beginning to slow him a little and the cataracts have diminished his night vision some. This is he and his mom enjoying a moment at Dick's Creek on a bike riding trip.

I have been working at home the past few years and it seems that he is always close by, hanging out with me as I work. We take three or four walks a day though as we get older they get shorter.
Saturday is his day. Mom and dad are both home and he can really relax knowing everyone important to him is close at hand. It's nine AM, we got up at seven and went out, he ate a bite and went back to bed and is still there until he will get up a little later and survey the day to decide where he will nap.

The weather is nice here, warm and sunny and Scoot feels good, like a puppy.

Brad

Spring fever

2009-02-06T13:35:00.010-05:00

It's a beautiful day here today, gives one a bit of spring fever. I thought I would continue the mood with some warm weather photos. the first is the view across Charlotte Bay on our way to Cabbage Key a resort near Captiva Island that is accessible only by boat.

Having a drink at the resort at Cabbage Key. Yes, that's money, sign your name, a sentiment and where you are from; staple it to the wall.

Laura relaxing in the pool at my brother-in-law's house in Punta Gorda.

We drive down to Punta Gorda, spend a few days, then stop at Jekyll Island for some bicycling on the way back. We also sometimes stop over at Savannah.

The river and marsh at Jekyll Island near the landing at the Jekyll Island Club. The Jekyll Island Club is the cluster of homes built by the American elite such as the Rockerfellers, Carnegies, etc. The homes are preserved for tours and the area is developed as a park and resort with the clubhouse refurbished and functioning as a hotel.

Those of you who are snowbound, you have my sympathy. I myself am in the sunshine and warm, dreaming of Summer.

Brad

Counterpoint to Wolf

2009-02-02T19:16:00.007-05:00

Wolf, Canis Lupus, was executed in a class I took on Scientific Illustration. As I have stated before I decided to get a degree at fifty, and did. The class was a priviledge. The local university has an anatomy lab for the use of the nursing school and for a while the art department offered an emphasis in SI. Thus, we were able to use the cadavers for drawings, pretty cool. This wolf is executed on acetate, painted on the back and detailed with a pen on the front with liquid acrylic paint. The background is on Yupo and attached by hinges. Pardon the lettering, there was a short deadline and I had no press-on letters. The two wolves, this and the abstract wolf from my previous post were both parts of the same assignment. I am planning at a future date to work more in the style of the abstract wolf because of my interest in aboriginal and prehistoric art.

If anyone is interested I will relate from time to time some of my impressions of being a fifty plus university student; let me know in the comments.

Brad

Something fun on Monday.

2009-02-02T08:27:00.007-05:00

Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

1967

A movie's opening titles, fun for a Monday. I checked and of the five bloggers that had this movie listed in their favorites I'm the only one outside the UK. Probably, one of the few that remembers it in the US, reckon? But I did find this on YouTube. It's quintessential 'Sixties. For you who missed the Sixties, I'm sorry. I was a teenager, a true Boomer. And when I say the 'Sixties, I mean what I consider the Sixties that everyone refers to as the Sixties, beginning in 1963 with the Beatles and ending with Jimmy Carter in 1976.

The clip is great fun. The music by Steve Winwood and Traffic. The movie has a great sound track from Traffic and The Spencer Davis Group. It is also the first movie in which I remember seeing Judy Geeson.

Brad

Wolf

2009-01-30T20:05:00.003-05:00

A quick post for a Friday evening, a stylized wolf inspired by cave paintings and Aboriginal art.

Brad

Something old.

2009-01-29T13:46:00.004-05:00

I've noticed that a good deal of older work is being posted on blogs I follow. Is it just an after the new year's looking back? A bit of seeing how far the road traveled? Here's a painting that I did in the 1970's, 11x14, acrylic on canvas.

Brad

Recycle

2009-01-28T12:49:00.007-05:00

It's a rainy day, to damp to spray work so I am recycling. I have some wood block prints I did as a learning exercise with Akua inks. They weren't great so I thought I'd work on them a little.

This is the original print. It was printed in three colors on Arches Cover. The image dimension was 14" x 11".

This is the image reworked with oil pastels.

This is the image reworked with gouache. Michael Marling, an artist and friend of mine, is a firm believer in recycling images and failed pieces. I have adopted his strategy and you will recognize this figure from other images I have posted.

2009-01-21T11:35:00.011-05:00

It's a cold day here, a bright, sunny yet unusually uncomfortable day fit only for the crows. Maybe the discomfort is just inside. I find myself at another transition in a time of my life that is full of transitions. All these transitions leave me with feelings that are…symptom of a more fundamental malaise, that lassitude in middle—life of alternate doldrums and uncertain winds when one realizes that hopes deferred are no longer realizable, that ports not visited will now never be seen, that this journey and others before it may have been a mistake, that one has no longer even confidence in charts and compass. (P.D. James)

I had the second part of my yearly physical this morning. Everything was fine but as the doctor was asking me how I feel I was thinking 'I'm old enough that I feel I'm getting older.' When you're young, getting older is getting better. Then comes the age where getting older is neutral. Later getting older is getting crazy, mid-life crisis, middle aged crazy, etc. Now I'm waning in crazy and waxing in just getting older, not that that's so bad, you just have to avoid those, 'if only I had's.'

For LadyRed, a couple of things from my list of favorite places in honor of her move to her new locale and the expanding of her southern list. 1. Savannah. 'Sall good, nuf said. 2. Georgia's Golden Isles, from Hog Hammock on Sapelo to the Jekyll Island Club to the wild horses on Cumberland, all different and all great.

3. The fast shuttle (110 ft. boat) from Ft. Myers to Key West where you rent a scooter and go on what I call 'Brad's Key Lime Pie Tour,' very calorific. 4. Ft. Myers around Christmas, go to the fish market, buy a couple of pounds of boiled shrimp which they put in a brown paper bag. As you pay for the shrimp grab a jar of cocktail sauce and head for the beach, which you will have pretty much to yourself, buying some beer and crackers along the way. 5. Edison College, Ft. Myers, the home of Rauschenberg's Two Furlong Piece. 6. The Navigator Fish Camp, home of the best grouper sandwich on Charlotte Bay, Punta Gorda.

Sunday morning.

2009-01-18T08:48:00.005-05:00

Just a drawing for Sunday morning. By the way there was a light powder sugar dusting of white on the ground this morning. We might have had our snow for the winter today.

Brad

Stonepile Gap

2009-01-17T13:56:00.005-05:00

Stonepile Gap is just northwest of Dahlonega on Highway 60 to Suches. This view is looking toward Dahlonega.

The marker at the site tells the story of Trahlyta and how the stone pile came into being. Note the marker indicates that the site was established as a historical site in 1953 or at least the marker was cast in i953.

This is the view looking northwest towards Suches. Highway 60 continues up the southern slope of the mountains and crosses through the ridge at Woody Gap near Black Mountain.

I made the photographs Friday, a crisp and clear day if somewhat chilly day.

Brad

My little town.

2009-01-16T11:25:00.006-05:00

It's a cold day here in North Georgia, about twenty-two degrees. Martha Miller is laughing now. The air is clear and the sunshine hurts your eyes. Here it is, my little town. The building with the gold steeple is Price Hall, the administration building of North Georgia College and State University. It is built on the foundation of the old U.S. Mint and the gold came from the local mines just as the gold on the dome of the Georgia state capitol. Most of the visible major buildings are part of the campus and surround the drill field. The town square is behind the campus in this view and the view encompasses the downtown area. The gold rush of 1828 is the focal point of the local history and according to local the richest vein of gold in the U.S. runs through the middle of town. The unfortunate part of the history is the gold rush led directly to the shameful treatment of the Cherokee nation and the Trail of Tears.

Brad

Housekeeping

2009-01-15T11:32:00.003-05:00

Today, a little housekeeping. For Ladyred, Welcome to the South ya'll.The upper photo, the Driftwood Beach, Jekyll Island, GA. The lower photo, boating through the mangroves, Punta Gorda, FL.
Julita, I have to confess that I have a great weakness for materials and tools. Sometimes I just have to have them even if I never use them.The prayer flags were executed on a paper with long strands and was very absorbant. It was a sketchbook that a friend gave to me and is probably a japanese watercolor paper. The ink I used was Sennelier Artist' Ink, a shellac based ink, that I bought in a set of four. The set consists of two browns,black and a blue. It is a lovely ink though a bit pricy and available in several colors. I purchased it to do pen detail work over paintings executed in tempera, poster tempera or kindergarten paint, and then sprayed with shellac before oil glazing. (See my post for December 6.) I used a croquil pen for lin work and a sumi brush to wash in the mountains and the sky.
Susan, yes the movie The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is difficult at times and the ending is a little contrived and not up to the rest of the movie but it is the best production direction of any movie ever. The film is absolutly georgious. It is a seventeenth century dutch painting in movie form. If you haven't seen the film got to IMBD and look at the production stills. It is like a Vanitas painting, the stacks of bread, the fruits and vegetables. But, like the Vanitas there is always that reminder of mortality, the rotting fruits and maggot infested meat, and dead flowers. The colors though, how saturated they are and the way they change as the characters move from room to room. The movie is visual metaphor upon visual metaphor.
When it was released by Miramax the rating board gave it an X rating. The board had just come into being and the lower ratings were trademarked by the board but the X rating wasn't. Films were playing in adult theaters that were giving themselves XXX ratings, go figure. Peter Greenaway decided to release the film un-rated which was financial suicide in the U.S. as it limited the theaters that would show the film and was the first film to do so. Right behind TCTTHWAHL, Pedro Almodovar released Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down through Miramax. He sued the rating board and won forcing changes in the rating method.
Yes, the movie is difficult at times. An example is the lovers are in danger of being discovered by the brutal Spica, Michael Gambon, and escape naked in the cargo of a truck loaded with rotting meat. If our dialog about the movie (see yesterday's post's comments) piques your interest, 'caveat emptor.' The movie is visually stunning though, far and away above anything else I can think of and that is why it is one of my favorites.And I have a little thing for Helen Mirren, too.

Hand prints of the artist.

2009-01-14T14:19:00.006-05:00

I'm working on a couple of longer post so, today just a sprayed work. I am always facinated anew by the cave paintings of Lacaux, Altimira and Dordogne. The twentyfive thousand year old handprints of the artists inspired me to work hand prints of the artist into a sprayed abstract work.

Brad

A prayer to the wind.

2009-01-12T16:48:00.005-05:00

On a windy Tuesday here, it's a good day to send a prayer out on the wind. A pen and ink drawing of prayer flags from my sketchbook should do the trick.

Brad