What Art Did He Make Today

Pin a Note on Your Web Site

2009-06-25T13:16:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, on the doorstep of my website, I left a note with an address of my blog pinned on it. Prior to that I really didn't understand the importance of a blog.

You know, the number of cats and dogs in the United States is over 90 million and there is well over 150 million blogs. That means there is twice as many blogs as there is cats and dogs - and I didn't have one - a blog, I mean, not a cat or dog. My dog walker had a blog, my cat had a blog - but me, I didn't have one.

What did I have against a blog? Nothing. I just didn't have a clue. You would think that, as an artist, I'd understand the whole idea of changing my art content regularly. Art is not something you hide or store on your own or the back pages of a community art website. It has to be changed, updated and seen.

I can have an art opening at the neighborhood gallery and if I'm lucky a hundred of my closest and most intimate friends will show up - mainly to eat cheese balls and drink "Two Buck Chuck"... and maybe a few of the local homeless will wander in for some baloney slices. Heck! As a starving artist I'd live off the leftover cheese and crackers for a week. But after the art show nobody sees the work - unless an occasional lost couple drops by for directions to the nearest tattoo parlor.

You could put on a Thomas Kinkade, the "Painter of Light," art opening and a thousand screaming, treacle seeking collectors would show up. Yes - I am jealous. I want that many eyeballs. But how was I going to get the "looks?"

People used to make a case that an artist needed a web site. It was exclusive - elite and cultivated - a champagne site with all kinds of flashy stuff to distract the viewer from how the art really looked. Artists had their art zoom in and fade out - twirl like a spinning belly dancer right before your very eyes. And most of the time you were only dazzled by the technology.

For me web sites are now old school. I'd be out of step with only a web site. They are worth preserving if you like wax museums. I'm not into historic artifacts. My blog has been such a better alternative First: I can have a blog, for a year, at the cost of a good cup of coffee. Second: Building and maintaining a web site is a painful, time consuming process - like assembling and maintaining a ... - well, for me, there really isn't anything much harder than maintaining a web site. My blog is easier to build and maintain than Lincoln Logs. Third: It is interactive - I like the easy access to "post" and "comment" - but some of the those "attic living" commenter's do get on my nerves. Fourth: Google Loves Blogs! And best of all - I get more looks than a pack of "Jellied Eyeballs" candy.

sailboats

2009-06-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

8 1/4" x 16" acrylic on cardboard (sold)
Because the painting was done on cardboard the client asked if it would last
a long time. I told them it would if they don't turn it upside-down.

northern california lighthouse

2009-06-21T16:52:00.000-07:00

5" x 7" oil on copper (sold)
Painting is 10% inspiration and 90% desperation.

Nobody asked me but –

2009-06-21T08:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of answers to questions about "Art" that nobody asked me about.

1. How come there are not any really good dog paintings?
2. The only artist (male or female) that looks good with their hair pulled back is Salma Hayek as Frida.
3. Painting is always a good excuse for having a beer in the middle of the day.
4. Any artist using red in a painting should be painting bullfighters.
5. I do not like creamy gallery owners.
6. I think any artist who paints twenty paintings in the same subject in the same colors and/or size is faking it – period.
7. When I see an artist wearing painting clothes to an art opening I figure they are posing.
8. Three times is two too many times to have poisoned myself with the toxic fumes from painting.
9. I think Lucian Freud’s paintings look absolutely fabulous in photographs but not too good in person – except for the queen’s painting.
10. I never met an artist who didn’t think he deserved a show.
11. I think that artists using feces in their work should resign from the human race.
12. I was told twenty years ago that if I’d paint the same subject fifty times I am bound to paint one good one. Good advice – and -that is about my percentage.
13. Every time I need inspiration I visit the Lamp Art Project. - see: http://www.lampartproject.org/
14. If you told me twenty years ago I’d be an artist I would have thought you were speaking about my wind chimes.

control alt delete

2009-06-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

12" x 22" wood, children blocks and baby shoes Outsider Art
If you like this piece you are in a select group of
mixed-up people.

grazing cow

2009-06-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

13" x15" overall size with painted frame - acrylic on foamboard

The older I get the more I paint like the way a cow grazes

Sunsets at my Studio

2009-06-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

This is a 30 second video of twenty-six sunsets from my art studio windows. These were taken over the last six weeks. I missid some days as I am not always at my place at sunset. The view is facing northwest looking over Will Rodgers State Beach which is just across the highway from my place. I always wonder how often people have the opportunity to see a good sunset. They are such a part of my life and I do not take them for granted. Hence photographing them most evenings.

“I Spy Jesus” Assemblage

2009-05-29T15:29:00.000-07:00

The Jesus assemblage by John Robertson is 12" x 24" x 2 ¾"

wood, plastic, paper, paint

My grandchildren love these assemblages that I do with the children’s toys.

They like to find the different characters that are imbedded in the

black paint. In this case there is a Jesus (along with Cat Woman and others)

somewhere in the piece.

Unfinished Work

2009-05-23T19:52:00.000-07:00

This is what the black finished pieces look

like before I put the actual finish on the piece.

The animals have been embedded in a foam

like substance. ( I use a variety of material

to embed the figures and have experimented with

Tar, Paper, glue, cement - all kinds of things)

Duck! duck.

2009-05-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

7" high x 12" long x 5" deep wood duck, plastic revolver
Outsider Art, Political Art
Art is about doing something. Anything. You make
your own things.

crows in the field

2009-05-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

6" x 12" oil on wood
To paint exactly like you want to without trying
to please someone else is actually hard to do -
unless you become a schizoid or have a drug problem.

school daze

2009-05-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

13 1/2" high x 18" wide x 4 1/4" deep
School desktop, wood pencil, dollar bill
Outsider Art, Political Art
But what does it mean? That's your job.
I only make the stuff.

dalmatian dog

2009-05-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

5" x 7" oil on canvas dog painting
Dogs love my paintings - with gravy

German Shepherd Dog Painting on a Map of Germany

2009-04-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

The German Shepherd originated in Germany so it seemed appropriate to paint the dog on a map of Germany. The dog is covering part of Germany on the map. In the upper right corner is the words "Germany" And also the words Germany is below the portrait and running across the front of the map.

This hand painted (not a print) original art painting by John Robertson of the German Shepherd is 11" x 14 ½" acrylic on a map page of Germany. The paper is torn from an old Oxford Atlas of the World. The paper is high quality with a slight sheen. One side has rough edges from where it was torn from the atlas

Tar Assemblage Art - Beach Junk

2009-04-15T07:11:00.000-07:00

My studio is right across the street from the beach.

Most days I take a run in the late morning and

sometimes stop to collect stuff from the beach for

assemblages. I try and take the stuff from the same

small section of the beach (about 50 yards). It is

interesting to see what floats or gets washed up

each day. I don’t collect every day but I do observe

the same stretch of sand. So this Tar Assemblage

art is a small sampling of junk washed up a couple

of days ago. After awhile one sees the same sort

of stuff reoccurring – lighters, bottle caps, plastic

cups – bottles – broken foam cups, etc. A real

mess on any given day and a real testimony to the

care so many give to the beach environment

Tar Pits Crab

2009-04-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

As some of you know my studio is just across

the street from the beach. I pick up stuff in the

mornings and sometimes turn it into a piece.

There were a lot of shells, some with tar on them.

Assemblage art by John Robertson is 7 1/2" x 9"

Oil might have been a good for us at one time but

we’ve been using too much of it for too long. For

those that don’t get the fact that global warming

is a problem – I just don’t understand what is on

their mind – which, I guess is an overstatement

Emmitt Smith of Dallas Cowboys Painting

2009-04-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

This Emmitt Smith sports football painting

by John Robertson was done for a presentation.

The artwork is approximately 50" x 70"

acrylic/latex on unstretched canvas.

March 2009 news-wire service story about ARTIST STIMULUS PACKAGE from NEA (The National Endowment for the Arts)

2009-03-28T06:13:00.000-07:00

Art investments are dropping, as patrons hold out hope that Washington will restore confidence in the art market by relieving artists of their poor quality artwork. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) acting chairman Patrice Powell said she wanted to make it "compelling" for artists to cleanse their studios of 'toxic' art and would quickly make arrangements for purchasing and destroying their inferior work.

Powell, who has faced criticism for not spelling out details of a proposed public-private fund for buying rotten art from artists, promised action within weeks and said she was moving deliberately to maximize the destruction of art.

Well known artist Thomas Kinkade comments, in a television interview, "were a huge help," said Carrie Holbo, Development Officer for the NEA in Washington. Kinkade said, " I would be the first to destroy my "toxic "art" -which would lead to the destruction of over nine thousand pieces of his (or his crew’s) original work. "There is still so much uncertainty," he said, "as to what I will do to with the fifty-eight thousand embellished pieces."

Patrice Powell added art galleries to the "conviction destroy" list emphasizing the need to get rid of those "noxious" holdings. She said that people should continue to look to Washington for guidance as to what the rules are going to be; "but about ninety-five percent of the galleries and about eighty percent of artist’s artwork should be destroyed. There's still so much uncertainty but adding clarity to the market and taking these actions, we can find some sort of bottom."

Opening Jose Drudis-Biada Gallery

2009-03-02T10:34:00.000-08:00

Me standing on my painting at the opening

Jose Drudis-Biada Gallery

Mount St. Mary's College

Insight/Inside LA

(Quote from the catalog)

"The present exhibition is a visual history of Los Angeles art over the last thirty-five years seen through the prisim of the artists who have shown in this gallery since its inception. The immense undertaking of creating this living archive aims, on the one hand, to celebrate artist' creativity and on the other, to acknowledge the expra ordinary contributions of this universuty gallery to the arts in Los Angeles and Southern California. This show and related events were coordinated in partnership with the newly opened gallery at CSUCI to take place during the annual College Art Association Confrence, held this year in Los Angeles."

Portrait of Man - Painting by John Robertson

2009-02-25T16:41:00.000-08:00

Portrait of Man
approximately 45" x 60" acrylic/latex
on unstretched canvas
Yes I do commissions. See pricing
Policy in the right column

dude the dog

2009-02-15T14:01:00.000-08:00

6" x 8" acrylic on wood dog painting
Drab dwelling for whom? -
Home or roam –
Drool or foam –
The porch is better than a dog’s catacomb.
- My apologies to Emily Dickinson

Roberto Clemente Portrait by John Robertson

2009-02-07T11:04:00.000-08:00

50" x 70" acrylic/latex
on unstretched canvas

The great baseball player Roberto Clemente won 12 Gold Glove Awards for his outstanding defense (a record among outfielders, which he shares with fellow legend Willie Mays) To see the paintings of Willie Mays that I did for Fox Sports and the All Star Game Interview in the 2007 season, click on link (Here is the link to this page on my blog) It was used in an interview with Derik Jeter and Ken Griffey, Jr. during the pre-game show for the 2007 All-star game. A link to the interview with Willie Mays is on that blog page.

pug bulldog mix

2009-02-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

6" x 8" oil on canvas dog painting
Although I have painted hundreds of portraits of humans,
I prefer to paint dogs. They don't tell me there is
something wrong with the nose.

soil of faith

2009-01-25T16:46:00.000-08:00

acrylic on canvas

Woman’s face portrait

2009-01-09T21:11:00.000-08:00

I saw the woman. I liked her face. I painted it.
The woman’s portrait by John Robertson is approximately
50” x 70” acrylic/latex on unstretched canvas.