Wolf

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

Brad

Something old.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

A day for ducks.

Yesrerday was a day for ducks and today is ...just blhh-h-h. I'll post a couple of drawings for the ducks. Er, maybe they are swans.

Another new series.

In a previous post, I talked about new series I'm starting this year. I'm also attempting to further refine my figurative work that I brush by exaggerating the contours. I've included a detail from an earlier post. Note the area around the cheek and chin. I want to have more of this contouring in my work. It's a bit of a counterpoint to my sprayed work that has a flatness. In preparation I'm doing more drawing, trying to push the contours and overlap.

I have a couple of series of new prints but they will be more prosaic and merely a continuation of work I have already started. I also have another larger project that I'm formulating now but more about that later after I've had time to work out some details.

Brad

A beautiful day.

It’s a beautiful day here in Dahlonega. The maple tree in the front yard is blooming and was alive with honey bees one of the warm days earlier in the week. The kids are back in school and the college is back in session. The daffodils have broken through and are sending up green shoots. The nice weather tends to invigorate one to move forward with new projects. The top photo is the north side of the square. The next photo is the old courthouse, now the gold museum, and stands in the center of the square. The lower photo is looking north from the Health and Natural Sciences Building of North Georgia College.

Brad

Settling into a new year.

Now that all the pulling hair and jumping about is behind us I'm looking at new art projects for the year. I have had good response to my work using spray paint and have attached an example, Model and Artist, 24 x36, Krylon on panel. I am planning to do a series painted on primed Arches 88. I am looking at the photos from the FSA in the Library of Congress for inspiration and plan to fulfill my dubious ambition to paint the blues. For other examples see No Parking and Leda from previous posts.

Brad

For a new year.

For all explorers and everyone who makes a journey; the one thing you can count on finding at the end of your travail is the road back home. I painted this small, 10 x 10 inch, oil self portrait about the travels, both real and metaphorical, that we make. The oar in the road is a reference to the Odyssey and the punishment that Odysseus had to endure for blinding Polyphemus in which after reaching his home he was forced to leave again with a ships oar on his shoulder and walk until he met someone who didn't know what it was. For all your travels, real and metaphorical, the best, and a happy new year to all.

Brad