When I go to a museum, of course my first intention is to enjoy the art that is displayed, but I also take great pleasure in just sitting in a gallery and observing others as they view the artworks.  When I see people linger longer in front of certain art, I know that that piece is successful in that the artist’s skill of holding the viewer’s attention was achieved.  Oftentimes it is the story that is perceived that appeals to the viewer.  Other occasions the story is not as clear, yet intrigue was created and the viewer thinks and ponders.  Sometimes of course the art seems to have no story at all, and it’s the vibrancy or uniqueness of the work that is attractive.  But many people are drawn to the story or the curiosity as to what is the story.

This painting “On The Cusp” has its story.  It was created upon a unique underpainting and from inspiration after viewing an exhibition in Barcelona of the works of the great German artist Max Beckmann.  Beckmann had a very independent spirit and developed a very personal artistic language that was far removed for his contemporaries’ tendencies.  His “realism” is full of symbolic nuances revealing the turbulent times in which he lived, from the years before World War I when he first begins to be recognised to the rise of fascism in the 30s when he is expelled by Hitler from his teaching position at the Academy of Fine Arts of Frankfurt and prevented from showing his works and over 500 paintings confiscated.  When Hitler declared much of the modern art to be degenerate in a radio speech in 1937, Beckmann and his wife leave Germany the next day for the Netherlands. 

The exhibition also focused on the years in Amsterdam and the United States, structured around four metaphors: “Masks," relating to exile as an existential condition of modern man, his loss of identity; the modern city “Electric Babylon”; “The Long Goodbye,” about exile and death; and “The Sea,” a metaphor for infinity and nostalgia.  A large number of self-portraits evidenced his journey.  It was a very intense exploration into this enigmatic and singular artist.  I was greatly moved.

The day after viewing the exhibition, I toned the white canvas with bright red pigment.  With a palette knife I wrote Beckmann’s words which had so resonated with me:  

"Art is creative for the sake of realization, not for amusement; for transfiguration, not for the sake of play. It is the quest of our self that drives us along the eternal and never-ending journey we must all make.”  

I then painted the figure from a life drawing sketch channeling Beckmann’s boldness in his depiction of figures.  

Most of his words are now hidden; still, they add texture, interest.  I know they are there.  

On Saturday I spent the day in a figurative workshop with Master Artist Osamu Obi at the Museu Europe d'Art Modern in Barcelona.  This beautiful place is where I also take classes.  Osamu Obi gave an introduction to how he became interested in oils as opposed to the traditional Japanese historical inclination to use watercolor.  His father, a professor of European history, would expose his own children to the great art of Velasquez, Rembrandt, Rubens...once a week with slides and readings.  Osamu was so struck by one of Rembrandt's self-portraits that he felt he must learn to paint in oil.  He gave a brief slide show and when he zoomed in on the nose, eyes, mouth of the Rembrandt painting you could understand his excitement:  the brushstrokes, the colors, the energy.  

The video here shows Osamu Obi demonstrating the medium which he creates himself.  He beats the yolk of an egg with vinegar and linseed oil until it is the consistency of thick mayonnaise.  It smelled like Spanish alioli!  This is what he uses at certain stages of his process.  After first preparing his substrate with his own gesso, he applies an earth color to the entire surface (imprimatura).  This is allowed to dry completely.  In the demo he began with Van Dyke brown thinned with turpentine to scrub into the dried surface to make it more porous and absorptive for the next layer of paint.  He then sketched the figure in with paint.  At home in his studio he will do a detailed drawing in pencil, fixing it with a thin glue layer, and then apply the imprimatura.  The imprimatura not only allows for the artist to place down more accurate tonal values, it provides a luminosity to the final painting as the first color reflects through the succeeding paint layers.  He stressed while sketching the model that one should not just focus on the figure itself but the space around the figure.  There were 20 people in the workshop and we had two models.  We all used his medium to paint and I enjoyed its consistency and flow quality it gave to my paint.  I spent most of my time watching him paint instead of actually painting myself.  He uses lead white and joked that he does not eat it and in 30 years has never experienced any effects from the toxicity.  He used Silver White pigment made in Japan.  He mixes his medium into the white pigment and then began to paint.  Watching his strokes was mesmerizing, meditative, inspiring.

"Accomplished artists are those who have proved themselves to be the best at what they do. 'Master' is the title often given to such a person, and rightly so: They've established themselves as worthy of the title through many years of study, and devotion of their lives to their craft." Daniel J. Keys, artist

My primary interest in this composition was the beautiful strong lighting on the red robe.  It had a strong, graphic visual effect that I wanted to capture on canvas.  Red has a special quality in that it reads as dark even in its lighter shades.  My palette of reds in the robe consisted of cad red medium, permanent red, and alizarin crimson mixed with ultramarine blue and viridian for the darker areas.

“If one says ‘red’ – the name of color – and there are fifty people listening, it can be expected that there will be fifty reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different.” – Josef Albers, artist and educator

In life drawing class we had a marvelous model, Francisco.  As soon as I saw how the instructor positioned him seated at a table with props of a book, holding a pen, and that glorious red robe I was captivated.  The lighting was strong and created beautiful shadows. It had the potential of a dramatic composition.  I had to be efficient with my limited time.  I knew that I would have the most difficulty with the folds of the robe and tablecloth.  So after sketching and determining the figure's proportions and putting down my darkest darks I blocked in the deepest recesses of the folds.  I then endeavoured to capture the features of his face and the values in his chest.  Then I ran out of time.  Today I painted the mid and lighter areas of the robe and draping and was able to successfully capture the turning downward of his face.  It still needs some detail.  I am regretting not spending more time on the hands when I was in class.  He had his fingers within the pages of the book. It will be interesting. 

"The act of trying keeps me excited, looking, asking questions and learning."  Doug Dawson, artist

Excited to be doing the 30-day Saeta Challenge once again, a painting a day for 30 days the month of September!

This painting had a spirit of fun while creating it.  Instead of placing one tone as the underpainting of my canvas, I covered the surface with different hues of color.  I then took time to draw the figure convincingly and lay in the initial flesh tones fairly monochromatically before placing what was planned to be more realistic colors.  Then, surprise.  The resulting juxtaposition of the bright colors underneath and her almost photographic look was so interesting and I thought compelling that I decided to leave the figure as is and concentrate on the background.  I played with lines, some brushwork and... voila!

"Developing a composition is a continuous flow of ideas, where the artist combines, adds, reduces, adapts and discards the various elements in an unending discovery of new possibilities." Alessandra Bitelli, artist