Mural samples in mid progress

The Punta Gorda mural samples are progressing fine I think with eight days to go. Much of my time has been spent on getting the right color values to create a sense of depth, contrast, warmth, and drama. In every painting, at least for me, there is a point where I feel like I am floundering, with no feeling of where I am going next. Colors are added and painted over then added again, more pink, maybe more yellow. Eventually I find the combination that feels right. I'm at that point now where things are getting worked out, for the most part, and I expect the next eight days to go pretty smoothly. Except for Christmas eve and Christmas day I have been working six to eight hours a day. I will probably finish a day or two before the deadline, but it's always nice to have a little cushion.
       You might have noticed that the paintings haven't been painted all the way to the edge. That is because the Punta Gorda Historical Mural Society wants a painted frame to complete the edge.
    

Beginning Painting on Canvas

After four days of transferring the drawings to canvas the Punta Gorda murals begin to get colorful. Because I am under a deadline I decided to begin painting all the canvases at once. I chose to work in acrylic also because of time constraints,and because the actual mural will be in acrylics.
    I began the paintings by covering the whole canvas with a thin wash of an off yellow. This preserved the drawing while toneing down the brightness of the white canvas.  Moving the background to a more medium tone should help me make better color choices going forward. Also the yellow helps me keep an overall warm feeling I am striving for.
   Then I began blocking out the dark areas with a dark purple. This helps me set the value range and begins the process of working from dark to light. Up until this point the process has been pretty straight forward. Now comes the challenging, scary, unsure, creative  color choices  that often takes me in unexpected directions and is what keeps painting fun.

Punta Gorda Mural in Progress

Six weeks ago I posted four drawings which I explained was a proposal for a mural to be painted in Punta Gorda, Florida. Last week I received a phone call from the Punta Gorda Historical Mural Society. I hoped for the best, I thought my drawings were good, but I was realistic in that there are a lot of good artists here in South West Florida. So I was ready to hear bad news.Instead what I heard is they loved my drawings and they want me to paint their murals!
    The next step in the process is to make samples of the mural in color. I ordered some canvas and frames to build four stretched canvases 18 inches by 48 inches. Now I am in the process of transferring the original drawings to canvas. Rather than re-invent the wheel, I placed a grid of 1/2 inch squares on plexiglass over the drawing and drew a grid of one inch squares on the canvas. Then drawing square by square I re-draw the drawing onto the canvas. It may seem like a long drawn out process but it is much easier than just drawing it bigger.
       The mural society plans to use the drawings and scale paintings in fundraisers to raise the money for the murals. They want to begin as soon as possible, so they have asked me to complete the paintings by Jan. 5. That means I have 18 days to complete four paintings. That is way faster than I usually work but I look at it as a challenge, and I believe it's doable.
     The mural society also asked me to send them a short bio to be used in the fundraising and to be included in a local periodical. I tried to write something a little different than the standard autobiographical listing. I thought it turned out interesting, but I haven't got any feedback yet.
     This will be the first of many postings as the murals progress, though the actual paintings may not start until summer or fall depending on how fast the money is raised.

                                                                 My Life as an Artist
When I was six years old in 1954, I went to a white clapboard two room schoolhouse in a rural are on the outskirts of Flint Michigan. Every day at 11:00 all the children were loaded onto an olive green school bus left over from WWII, and taken to the local high school for hot lunch . Even then the two story brick building was old. The polished granite stair steps dipped along each side forming pathways in the stone from the thousands of children before me.
    I remember the cafeteria as dark. The plaster walls were divided green over dark green except for the wall opposite the food counter. Here was painted a mural of a farm scene signed by the artist. For the first time I recognized that art was something that a real person made, not just pictures in a book. I was fascinated by the painting and every day I looked forward to finding something new in it.
    The building has long since been torn down and the mural, probably from a depression era government works program, was destroyed with it. But the memory and the effect it had on me still lived on. I majored in art in college and graduated from Central Michigan University with a bachelor's degree in 1970. Though many of my paintings in college were large, I had yet to paint a mural.
    My first mural was painted in a cafeteria. Three months after graduation I was drafted into the army and sent to basic training in Fort Knox Kentucky. The head cook there discovered I was an artist and offered me the opportunity to paint a mural rather than the typical mess hall duty. The mural, about 5'tall and 12'wide, was a landscape of mallards reflecting on a marshy lakeside. I didn't have a lot of time to work on it, but I was able to finish and sign it to the cook's satisfaction before I was flown to Vietnam. It was gratifying during my tour there to from time to time meet someone who would ask me, "Are you the David Lackey who painted the mural at the Fort Knox mess hall?"
    After the army, I taught drawing and painting at a small art center in Clio Michigan. Eventually I became president of The Clio Art Society, where I organized classes, and curated the gallery. As a leader in the arts I saw as part of my mission to help people become aware of the arts in our community. In the late 1980's large murals on the west coast were getting a lot of attention. I looked around town for a possible mural project and saw a two story brick building with peeling paint, boarded up windows, and a wide expanse of wall right in the center of town.
     I wrote a letter to the city commissioners proposing to paint a mural on the side of the building. I offered to paint the mural for free, if they could arrange for the wall to be sand blasted and a 28'x28' section primed for a mural. I felt it was a long shot, I didn't expect they would come up with the financing, but you never know. To my surprise, they took me up on the offer. A local state representative found a grant to create summer jobs for teens and put them to work on the wall. By June of that year I was painting a mural that became a landmark in the city of Clio.
    
     I have shown in many galleries and won many awards throughout the mid-Michigan area. Though I have not painted a lot of murals they have been an important part of my life as an artist. My love for murals got a revival last spring when I painted a mural for Fathoms restaurant while visiting in Carrabelle Florida. Then that same month while visiting my brother in Englewood, a friend told me about the murals in Punta Gorda. I took a driving tour the next day and was impressed by the number and quality of the murals. I knew then I wanted to paint a mural in Punta Gorda.
     It is an honor to be selected for the next set of four murals by the Punta Gorda Historical Mural Society. I look forward to begin working on them and becoming a part of the history of Punta Gorda.

Behind the pastels in Apalachicola Florida

I have spent the last two weeks in Apalachicola, one of the oldest, most picturesque port cities in Florida. I came back here after first visiting here nearly a year ago while staying on a friend's boat and painting a mural in Carrabelle, which is a small town a half hour east of Apalachicola. Apalach, as the locals refer to it, has gone through several re-inventions of itself as a port city for lumber, cotton, and now as a fishing village and tourist destination. There are several art galleries in town and my return to Apalach was to capture some of the beauty of the town and make a connection with a gallery.
The following are some of the photographs and corresponding pastels from in and around Apalachicola,

The early morning light striking the spanish moss, in an already beautiful scene , made it an interesting challenge to capture in pastels.

The afternoon light on the sea grass offers endless opportunities to play with color.

This is such a beautiful tree. The challenge  to untangle the branches was solved by concentrating on the negative spaces, meaning the shapes of the spaces between the branches.

This is the early morning light just out of Apalach as seen from the Apalachicola bridge. For me the best views of sea grass is from up high in early morning or late afternoon. The highest point in Apalach is the arching bridge leading into town. I stopped twice on the bridge to take photographs. Each time I expected I might be chased away by the police for safety reasons. But I didn't stay long, and was able to get my pictures without interruption.

Punta Gorda Mural Proposal

Last January I visited my brother in Englewood Florida. While there, a friend told me about the murals of   the port city of Punta Gorda.  I took a drive there and discovered around twelve murals depicting Punta Gorda's history.  I was impressed by the number and quality of the murals. A large mural was in progress. The artist wasn't there at the time, but the scaffolding was in place. The mural was depicting the old Hotel Charlotte Harbor, and some of its more famous guests.(The original hotel no longer exists.) I thought then, that I would like to paint a mural in Punta Gorda.

I fell in love with south west Florida. Though I had to go back to Michigan in the spring, I knew I would be back. In late September I was back. I read an article in a local  paper about the recent dedication of the Hotel Charlotte Harbor mural. At the first opportunity I hopped on my motorcycle to see the finished mural. The proportion, I thought, was very good, but the design was static, and the use of color uninspiring. That is not to say I disliked the mural. I love murals, and technically it is well done. I just thought I could do better.

While there in Punta Gorda, I contacted the organizers of the murals, the Historical Mural Society, and was told that they were just now in the process of contacting artists for their next mural project. The next day he sent me an e-mail describing the project and some historical background and photos.

The mural project is a series of four murals, each about 16' wide and  6' tall, depicting four sports in Punta Gorda; sculling from the 1880's, hunting from the late 1800's to early 1900's, women's golf from the 1930's, and men's tennis from the 1930's.

This drawing depicts a famous race among the three top scullers in 1888, sponsored by the Hotel Charlotte Harbor, in the background. Apparently sculling was very popular at the time, and many people followed their favorite scullers.
 The sailing ship in the background is the "Oriole" owned by Caldwell Colt, the only son of the inventor of the colt revolver. An interesting side story, is that Caldwell drowned by falling overboard in Charlotte Harbor, in 1893.

The golfing panel features pro golfer Patty Berg, here playing with Louise Suggs, and Betsy Rawls, in the 1930's. Her amateur career began in Punta Gorda . She was the Associated Press athlete of the year in 1938.

There are no famous hunters that I could find, except perhaps Teddy Roosevelt, who did stay at the Hotel Charlotte Harbor on a "devil fish" fishing trip. While fishing he harpooned a 16' wide stingray which nearly sunk his boat before he managed to bring it in. But since I couldn't feature a hunter, I featured the hunted and the surrounding Fauna.

The final drawing features tennis player Bill Tilden from the 1930's.  He is playing on a court built especially for him by the Hotel Charlotte Harbor. In his day he was almost unbeatable, winning every major tournament.
You might have noticed that the hotel went through some changes from the sculling days. Built by the railroad, the hotel was the center piece of Punta Gorda until 1959. Most of the original Punta Gorda is gone, mostly from hurricanes, or in the case of Hotel Charlotte Harbor by fire.
I will know by December 6 if I get the commission.

The Process behind the mural at "Fathoms Restaurant"

In early spring of this year I was working on a friend's boat in the panhandle of Florida. The boat was docked in a marina on the Carrabelle river in the small town of Carrabelle . While I was living and working on the boat, I met a man who was opening a new restaurant, just down the street from the marina. Eric is a forty something business man, boat mechanic, musician, and soon to be restauranteur. While he was doing some work on my friend's boat , he told me about his new restaurant and invited me to the opening night.

After enjoying oysters and steamed shrimp, Eric showed me around the ,still not complete renovations, and told me about his plans for "Fathoms Restaurant" including live music, and an expanded menu. From previous conversations Eric knew I was an artist, so it was no surprise when I said, "Eric, what your restaurant needs is a mural." A big smile spread across his face and he said, "Ya, David, I think you're right." We agreed to meet the next night and I would show him some pastels I had been working on as samples of my work. After seeing the drawings he agreed for me to paint  a 14 foot mural on the outside east wall, under a protective roof. He said he wanted something depicting the Florida landscape. I said I would work on some sketches and get back with him.
With the verbal agreement , I now needed supplies. I dug out my Blick art supplies and ordered the paint and brushes I would need. It would take several days to arrive, but I could use that time to plan and sketch out my ideas.

I had in mind painting a seascape that included some boats common to the area, some pelicans and gulls. I wanted an early morning scene with calm waters, pink skies, reflections, and a single shrimp boat heading out to begin a day's work.

I started out by taking photographs in and around Carrabelle. I took photos of boats, trees and the shoreline from different angles. I would get up at sunrise and watch the pelicans glide inches from the surface of the calm waters. Then suddenly slam into the water with a splash and come up with a fish for the morning meal.

I tried photographing the gliding pelicans but they were too fast and too far away, so I took a pencil and drawing pad to do some quick sketches as they raced by.
 During one of my sunrise photo shoots I came upon this preening pelican. It was a foggy morning when he landed on a post and then methodically preened his feathers for about 15 minutes. I took about 20 photos but I fell in love with this quirky pose, and knew he would have a prominent place in the mural.
  After several days of photography, I went back to the restaurant and measured the exact length and height of the area for the mural. Using those measurements I drew a rectangle on drawing paper on a 1inch to 1 foot scale of the mural. Then combining different elements of my photographs, I drew the outline for the mural.

After getting approval from Eric on the final sketch, I divided the sketch into one inch squares . Then I primed the wall with white gesso and divided it into corresponding one foot squares. Drawing one square at a time, I transferred the drawing to the wall. By using this grid system I was able to keep everything in the right proportions.

With the drawing in place it was time to begin painting. I used acrylic paint mixed with acrylic medium. Working from dark to light I began adding color. Typically I fill in the whole space, then lighten or darken, or change colors as I progress.

Early in the process I thought about how I would frame the painting. One idea was to paint the edges as if looking out a window. But in order to maintain the illusion I would have to reduce the size of the preening pelican. I decided I liked the size he was, anchoring the right side.

Other options that came to mind was to paint a picture frame, or actually build a picture frame and mount it on the wall. I finally decided to build a bamboo frame and..... no not really, the bamboo frame is painted.
The shrimp boat was the subject of some controversy. In the process of painting, I blocked out the basic shape of the shrimp boat early on, but then left it to work on other parts of the mural. Eric related to me there was much discussion and criticism all ending with, "That doesn't look like a shrimp boat." Eric told me he assured them,"He's an 'aerteeest'. He's not done with it yet." He later told me that everyone was very happy with the finished shrimp boat.
If you look closely at the photograph picturing this row of boats, you will see that there is another boat to the left that I did not include in the painting. I just didn't feel it was interesting enough to be included. On the evening that the painting was completed, Eric's son asked me why wasn't his Dad's boat included, meaning the boat I left out.

Overall I enjoyed working on the project. Eric was very happy with the finished painting, and I had an excuse to stay a couple of extra weeks on my friend's boat.

Art, Craft, and Prayer - Creating a Labyrinth

About 10 years ago I saw an advertisement in an Episcopal news letter for a portable Labyrinth painted on a 30 foot square canvas. I wondered first, what was a labyrinth, and secondly, why would a church want one? The next day I went to the library(I was still old school then) and found two books about labyrinths. I discovered that a labyrinth is a maze-like path that one can get lost in. But unlike a maze, a labyrinth has no dead ends or wrong turns. If you continue on the path it will lead you to the center. Labyrinths, in different forms have been around for thousands of years. 
The labyrinth in the advertisement was a circular design based on a labyrinth built into a stone floor in a
14th century cathedral in France. I read that a
labyrinth is a prayer tool much like prayer beads.By
walking the labyrinth one is better able to focus their
prayers. I was fascinated with the idea and wondered how I could bring one to my church, Holy Family, in Midland Michigan.

We are a small church, and I knew there wasn't enough money to buy a labyrinth just because I found it interesting. But I studied the design and decided I could make one. I talked to Father Tom and he gave the the go ahead.With a 3 inch roller, some left over white paint, and a length of string for a compass, I painted a labyrinth on the church lawn.

                                                                                 The painted labyrinth was a success. Many people found walking the labyrinth very spiritual. People from outside the congregation sought out our labyrinth. I describe the feeling as letting the path lead me closer to God. I also found walking the path very calming and helped me focus on personal problems as well as spiritual.
  I painted the labyrinth the next two  years. After the third year it was suggested we make it permanent. I came up with an idea to replace the paint with bricks.

After some trial and error I designed a plow to dig a channel the depth of the bricks. The bricks were then set in the channel, carved in the shape of the labyrinth,  level with the ground. To a large extent Holy Family is now identified as the church of the labyrinth.  It was no surprise then, when it was decided to replace the entry floor with ceramic tile, that someone suggested there be a labyrinth in the middle.I had some experience with ceramic tile, but never something this large or complex. But as an artist I welcomed the challenge.

After measuring the space I knew the tile labyrinth couldn't be as complex as the one outside. That one, like the one at the French cathedral, is made up of 12 concentric circles. The path would be too narrow to fit it in a room 20 feet wide.  So I went on line and found a design of 6 concentric circles. Then I drew a scale drawing of my idea and presented it to the church. They loved the design, bought the tiles, and it was up to me to make it work.                                                    
In April I began laying out the design. I first drilled a hole in the center of the floor to mark the center with a screw. Then with a string and a felt marker, I drew a series of concentric circles marking the alternating 3 inch and 13 inch tiles.  The most difficult part of the job was cutting the pathway tiles. Each tile was cut 4 times, and all the tiles within each circle was cut at a different angle. The top and the bottom of each tile was cut on a curve to match the circle.
The fish symbol in front of a cross was not in the original design, but from the beginning I felt it needed something more. The fish came first, then in the process of laying the tile I saw the possibility of the cross and changed the tiles from white to brown
When I started the floor I had a deadline of June 12, the Sunday of our Bishop's visit . The night before I was still finishing the last touches, but it was done on time.
I feel very honored to have had this opportunity. It was a huge task, but also a labor of love.                                                                                                     

The Story Behind the Portrait "When I Was Pretty" - Part II

The same evening she approached me about her portrait,  we went to her house and searched  through old photo albums looking for a  picture of her when she was around 19. Most of the photos were at the wrong age or were too distant to get a clear image of her face. Finally I came across this strip of two pictures she took of herself in a photo booth. They were small, only about 1inch by 1inch, but they were clear,and of the right age. As the ideas for the portrait  were  working out in my mind, the one looking forward closely matched my memory of that moment and seemed right for the portrait.
We talked about what media I would use. She wanted color but was unsure of paint or pastel. I told her about my most recent work in pastel in a 19 inch by 25 inch format. She sounded excited in the possibilities of pastels and I left that evening with the two picture photo booth  snapshot and a new commission.


The next day I started working on the drawing. The first thing I did was take photos of the snapshots so that I could enlarge them on my computer. I would then work from the computer image rather than directly from the photo.

Then I took out some drawing paper to work out ideas for the design of the drawing. I wanted to depict the setting of my cousin standing in the loft, but in my first sketches, the image of her was too small to show her clearly, and I wanted to emphasize the beauty of the woman as well as the setting.
My solution to the problem was to show her twice, once in the setting of the loft at the lake house, and an overlapping close up of  her from the same image.

Once I decided on the design, I began to gather the different elements of the drawing together. I wanted the drawing to have a feeling of warmth  so I chose to use red colored paper. Then I photographed the lake house from the view entering the front door. The cottage has changed a lot sense then, two additions have been built, the kitchen has been rearranged, and the loft is now enclosed, but  the photo still helped get
the light and perspective right.
I then photographed a model posing beside a window lifting her shirt in the same pose and the same lighting as I envisioned the drawing. Putting it all together on my computer, snapshot, photo of the cottage, pictures of the model, I worked from the computer to combine all the elements with red paper and pastels.

I presented the drawing to my cousin a week later matted and framed. Tears came to her eyes as she gave me a hug," It's beautiful David. I love the colors. I really was pretty wasn't I."

The Story Behind the Portrait "When I Was Pretty" - Part I

Sometimes the story that inspired the drawing is as important as the drawing itself.The story of this drawing began at the family lake house in the summer of 1963. I was 15 when my cousin came to visit. I knew her as  my older cousin, four years my senior, who thrilled over the music of Elvis, Pat Boon, and Sal Minieo. Who shrieked with false mortification when her younger cousins would sneak into her room  in one end of my grandmother's attic, to see her shrine of clippings from fan magazines of her favorite rock and roll stars. Then before I hardly knew her she was gone, married at 16.

When she came to visit at the lake house she was 19. She had been living in Philadelphia with her husband and came ahead alone to Michigan with her husband to follow later. It was about 9 a.m. when I stepped inside the cottage. I noticed movement in the upstairs loft and looked up to see my cousin, with a smile, raise her top and  reveal her breasts to me.

At 15, I was still very innocent. I was surprised and laughed, and never said anything about it, but I always remembered that moment.

After she and her husband went back home, she and I had little contact. I graduated from high school, graduated from college, got married, got drafted at 21, and was in Vietnam in 1971 when she sent me a letter.
By this time she had four children and had recently left her husband after she discovered he was leading a double life as a homosexual. In her letter, she said, "All these years I was unhappy, but I didn't know why. No one ever told me I was pretty."

I wrote her back and reminded her of the time in the lake house. To me, I said, at that moment, you were the most beautiful woman in the world. Years later, she told me she cried when she read my letter.

Now I am an artist of 62 and she is 13 times a grandmother at 67. We met recently and she was telling me that her children cannot remember and her grandchildren cannot imagine her as anyone but old and 100 pounds overweight. She asked, "Could you do a drawing of me, recapturing that moment at the lake house, when I was pretty?"

 In Part II of "When I Was Pretty", I will the discuss the process involved in creating the final drawing.

Recent Pastels

These are four of eight pastels I did, in April of this year, while I was in Florida. They were all done from photographs that I took along the Gulf coast of the Florida panhandle.
I like using pastels while traveling .The paper and finished drawings both fit in a zippered portfolio. The pastels all fit into a hinged box. And my easel and drawing board sets up quickly.  There is no wet bulky canvases, and nothing to spill.
The shrimp boat drawing is a composite of three photographs taken in Apalachicola. The pelican was part of a different photo taken at the same location.
      

I like using pastels because of the freedom
they allow. Pastels  by their nature are not a precise medium, they are chunky blocks of color, so they force me to loosen up and let them take me where they will.
The three men in an oyster boat drawing was done from a photo taken at Eastpoint, a small fishing village just 30 minutes east of Apalachicola. I was driving south along Hwy 98 when I saw this boat moving in the opposite direction. It was late afternoon, the water and sunlight were perfect. I  thought I have to at least try to capture it in a photo.
I turned the van around , raced ahead of the boat,grabbed my camera, and got out just in time to get the photograph. 
Pastels is a very direct medium. There is no preparation, no mixing, or thinning with oil or water, just have color and mark. Also, pastels are very physical, at least the way I use them.
I'm not one to apply some color and smear it around. I use pastels more like crayons, filling the page with marks using my whole arm and shoulder, applying one color on top of another.
The drawing of the house among the liveoaks was done from a photo I took in Apalachicola. I was walking throughout the town taking photographs for possible pastel drawings, when I came across this small yellow house in a fairytale landscape.
Pastels are all about color. They are quick, direct

and inexpensive. They beg for bold experimentation. If it doesn't work out, try another one. I always use colored paper for pastel drawings. To me, white paper leaves pastels looking washed out. Most of these drawings were done on bright orange paper. The color of the paper often shows through adding a nice warm tone to the drawing.
This final drawing was done from a photograph taken from the Carrabelle river bridge in the town of Carrabelle Florida, just a half hour north of Eastpoint. The photo was taken just before sunset. The water in the marshes creates a beautiful almost abstract scene.

On Creativity

Often when working on a painting, at some point in the process, I get into a zone where time stops, and values, color choices, and brush strokes just seem to flow out of me. It is almost like someone else is making the choices for me. Other artists have been quoted saying the creative process brings them closer to God. Or God is in the creative process. There does seem to be an other worldly quality when in the middle of being creative.
A neurologist would say this creative feeling comes from  tapping into the right side of our brains. Brain scans have shown, when people are creative, the right side of their brains are more active. There are also case studies of people who have had  brain damage on their left side, and become more creative.
I once heard an interview of a song writer on the radio. The composer was asked about her writing process. She said that sometimes the writing is difficult and slow. But many times  it is like the music  just flows through her.She said it is as if the songs are streaming above her already written and somehow she is able to tap into it.
In one sense creativity is problem solving. The artist or scientist, or writer, or musician, or engineer is confronted with a problem. If there is no ready  acceptable answer, each person in their field tries to approach their problems from a different perspective. Finding the answer where there isn't one, is creativity.

 I remember judging a children's art show and being delighted by a little boy's creative problem solving. He drew the side of a truck on a road indicated by two parallel lines running parallel to the bottom of the page. Then he was confronted by a problem. He wanted to show the road making a left turn with another truck going the new direction. He only knew one way to make a truck and he didn't understand linear perspective. He solved his problem by drawing the lines of the road up the middle of the paper and turning his truck on end. By turning the paper you now see the truck going in a new direction. That is creativity!

My ideas about art and creativity were brought into question during an art history class at Eastern Michigan University. An abstract artist showed slides of his paintings done in the sixties. The paintings were all the same size and appeared to be large. "Each painting was divided into a square grid pattern," the artist explained,     "and each square of the grid was randomly assigned a number." "Then like a 'paint by number' with each number representing a different color, I painted in the squares." Because The numbers were randomly assigned, no two paintings were alike. Was that creative? Was the second one? I asked him if he ever considered  changing the color assignments if he thought it might make  a more interesting painting. He said no because it wouldn't be true to his original intent.

As a painter, without  the problem solving, the challenge to do something that has never been done before,without the creativity,  then why bother. Art to me is all about the creative process. To finish a painting is a reason to start another one.

Artist Statement: Drawing

I like drawings that leave something of the artist behind. Drawings that represent what the artist feels as well as what he  sees.  The marks on the paper in the end will look like the model, but at the same time the marks will still look like charcoal scratched on paper, identifiable marks, like a signature, that only that individual artist can make.

I like the spontaneity and lifelike quality that you can only get by drawing from a live model.  I have done many drawings from photographs,   but drawings from photographs look like drawings from photographs. The static lens of a camera sees something very different from our constantly moving, adjusting and focusing eyes.

My media of choice is soft compressed charcoal on large white paper. I used to tell my students, "Be bold, work large, make your blacks black." I try to take my own advice. Often my work is characterized by  dark bold lines, that I  then  smear and scuff and scratch with an eraser and make them my own.

Artist Statement : Painting

     Painting for me is all about color. Yes I like a good design, and I am careful to have a good underlying drawing, but the part that I work at and am continually challenged by, is color. I like rich, warm color. I often use color directly from the tube to get the most intense color possible and then juxtapose it's opposite. I often use reds in shadows to warm them up. The worst mistake is to overuse white to lighten up colors and end up with a washed out look. I would say the overall look of my paintings are realistic with more intense or exaggerated color.
   I have a painterly style. You can see most of my brush strokes. I blend colors but not to the point of hiding the process. To me the process is just as important as the subject in viewing a painting. If all the brush strokes are blended away it is like the artist left nothing of himself behind. Brush strokes are the signature of a painter and along with color choice, a measure of his passion.

When Do I Get Serious About Art

When do I get serious about my art? It has always been important, but I feel like I never made the full commitment. I was always doing something else as well as doing art. Of course life gets in the way but doesn't a serious artist not let it? Am I afraid of failure? Or does success matter?

This is my first blog where I will be discussing my feelings about being a visual artist. I will talk about my fears, my challenges, my success and my failures. I think part of the answer to my first question, is in doing this blog. By making this commitment to share my feelings about art is making a commitment to be serious about making art a greater part of my life.

When I asked the question, "Does success matter?" I first have to decide what is success. Few artists get rich or famous, but that is two measures of success. The thing is, they didn't start out rich and famous, they started out with a passion to do the thing they loved, and when they arranged their lives to do that, that is the point they became successful artists. Art is in the doing. A rich artist or a poor artist fills their days the same way, doing art. Did Picasso stop doing art? Did Monet? They painted until they died because that is what they loved.