Mostly Art and Some Literature

Cheesecake with Rasberry Sauce

2009-07-04T15:00:00.001-05:00

I really can't come up with a Rilke poem about cheesecake, no surprise. I actually googled "cheesecake poetry," and discovered I didn't want to go there either. Really, dessert poetry is hard to find....so there is a need out there! (for all you nascent poets...)

As I said, this was a commission and I enjoyed painting it. I want that plate!

In praise of painting food, here is one by Ogden Nash:

The Clean Plater

Some singers sing of ladies' eyes,
And some of ladies lips,
Refined ones praise their ladylike ways,
And course ones hymn their hips.
The Oxford Book of English Verse
Is lush with lyrics tender;
A poet, I guess, is more or less
Preoccupied with gender.
Yet I, though custom call me crude,
Prefer to sing in praise of food.
Food,
Yes, food,
Just any old kind of food.

Pheasant is pleasant, of course,
And terrapin, too, is tasty,
Lobster I freely endorse,
In pate or patty or pasty.
But there's nothing the matter with butter,
And nothing the matter with jam,
And the warmest greetings I utter
To the ham and the yam and the clam.
For they're food,
All food,
And I think very fondly of food.
Through I'm broody at times
When bothered by rhymes,
I brood
On food.

Some painters paint the sapphire sea,
And some the gathering storm.
Others portray young lambs at play,
But most, the female form.
“Twas trite in that primeval dawn
When painting got its start.
That a lady with her garments on
Is Life, but is she Art?
By undraped nymphs
I am not wooed;
I'd rather painters painted food.
FoodJust food,
Just any old kind of food.
Go purloin a sirloin, my pet,
If you'd win a devotion incredible;
And asparagus tips vinaigrette,
Or anything else that is edible.
Bring salad or sausage or scrapple,
A berry or even a beet.
Bring an oyster, an egg, or an apple,
As long as it's something to eat.
If it's food,
It's food;
Never mind what kind of food.
When I ponder my mind
I consistently find
It is glued
On food.

Ogden Nash

Before the Descent and Cheesecake in Progress

2009-07-02T15:40:00.002-05:00

This Orpheus Paining is much larger than the other, 36x36. The Cheesecake painting is a commission. I'm allowing it to dry because I need to drizzle some strawberry sauce onto it and paint that, but I thought I'd blog the underpainting anyway.

A few blogs ago I mentioned my Circe painting and the pigs I had found to be Odysseus' unfortunate companions. Well, I've been past their paddock 4 times and never again found them outside again. Did I mention that they were an hour's drive from here? I've even tried calling "Suey!" to no avail. Perhaps they aren't even there anymore. I could of course stop by the house again and ask, but no one would be home until evening and by that time it would be too late in the day for photography because I wanted bright sunlight. So, I'm on the search for more accessable pigs and have located another. This one lives in the country around Mineral Point, so it should be easier to get to.

An exciting opportunity has come up. The State Representative for our district, Steve Hilgenberg, is going to be hanging the artwork of artists from his district in his office in Madison. My time slot is January 20 to February 24, 2010. It will be another opportunity to get my paintings out in the public eye.

I'm also trying to arrange to go to an Equine Painting Workshop with a wonderful Equine Artist, Lynn Maderich, scheduled in Minneapolis at the Atelier Lack in Minneapolis. (The thing needing to be arranged is free lodging at the homes of friends and relatives. More on that later.)

Opheus After the Descent

2009-07-02T15:24:00.002-05:00

This is the final picture, with the guitar strings and the frets etc. painted. I'm really loving this project of painting the Greek Myths. I was a Greek student in college and have had the enduring intention of incorporating that love into creative work. My central interest has always been the Trojan War and I spent years researching a novel and writing 30 chapters of novel with the Trojan War as its theme -- who knows when I will have time to get back to it! -- but in the meantime I'm able to have fun with these literary allusions in modern dress. (See my posting of May 2, for the exact reference to the Orpheus Myth portrayed in this picture.) I'm in the process of doing a larger painting of Orpheus and Euridice Before the Descent, which I will blog in progress soon.

In the meantime, here's a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke (who wrote a number of poems about the Greek Myths as well). I think it applies well to this painting.

LOVE SONG

How am I to contain my spirit lest
It touch on yours? How lift it through a space
Higher than you to things environing?
Oh, I should gladly lay it by to rest
In darkness with some long-forgotten thing
At some outlandish unresounding place
Which won't re-echo your deep echoing.
But all that touches you and me comes so,
It takes us jointly like a stroking blow
That draws one voice from two strings by its tilt.
Upon what instrument then are we strung?
And by the hands of what musician wrung!
Ah, sweet the lilt.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Orpheus After the Descent, Oil on Canvas, 18x18

Orpheus After the Descent

2009-06-18T17:58:00.000-05:00

Orpheus After the Descent in progress....

2009-06-11T15:43:00.000-05:00

It's amazing how quickly a painting can come together with just a few hours of painting. I've decided to walk away from After the Descent so that my eye can view it afresh, before I finish it.

I was so relieved to have found some pigs for my Circe painting a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, I drove the 45 minutes to their location, hoping to take my photographs. The sun was high; the light was good. The pigs weren't out though. I didn't know what to do beyond wait a few minutes outside the pen. No one was home up at the house, so I didn't know what I could do beyond that. Getting pictures of these pigs may be harder than I thought. Now that weather's grown warm, they may spend all their time sleeping in their barn. It's a little out of my way to run up there very often, so I may have to start working on something else next.

Here is an extract from a poem, The Heart, by Francis Thompson. I've known the last two lines in particular for years and used them as a chapter heading for the novel I've been working on.

Correlated Greatness

O nothing, in this corporal earth of man,
That to the imminent heaven of his high soul
Responds with colour and with shadow, can
Lack correlated greatness. If the scroll
Where thoughts lie fast in spell of hieroglyph
Be might through its mighty habitants;
If God be in His Name; grave potence if
The sounds unbind of hieratic chants;
All's vast that vastness means. Nay, I affirm
Nature is whole in her least things exprest,
Nor know we with what scope God builds the worm.
Our towns are copied fragments from our breast;
And all man's Babylons strive but to impart
The grandeurs of his Babylonian heart.

To a Dead Poet

2009-06-06T01:04:00.002-05:00

My mom had surgery to replace her pacemaker this week, so I was with her rather than in my studio this week. Therefore, instead of a painting, I wrote a poem about my belief in resurrection.

To a Dead Poet

When I recall those ‘biding in the dust,
inheritors of their swaddled parents’ trust
in falsehood’s anodyne, when earth was old
but life was young, to them the Lie was told,
retold, passed-on, established as a creed,
“They would not die complete;” they would not bleed
their thoughts into the ground along with skull
and entrails, so it went, no mortal end annul
their disembodied Self’s escape. Did you
believe it so? Despite or perhaps in lieu,
you scrawled your heart’s estate in verse, your nous
in ink, inhered in this your life’s excuse,
and I have read your words, dear pilgrim fool.
You spoke to me through them. Lest ridicule
befall me for my expectation of
your reappearance in the flesh, my love,
I pledge that from within my grave I’ll wait
the waking of us both, to each, Heart’s Mate.

NBH

Apres la Descente

2009-05-28T17:46:00.002-05:00

This is my preliminary drawing in paint of "Orpheus After the Descent." The canvas is 18x18. I've sketched in figures of my Orpheus and the tigers in Cadmium Red, because it is easily absorbed into other pigments. It also contributes to an underpainting in warm tones for the shadows of the tunnel entrance. I've begun a larger painting of Orpheus "Before the Descent," but set it aside while I took care of several commissions. I'd always intended to use this picture of my model, Larry, from the same photoshoot, in a second, smaller painting. The addition of the tigers became a possibility when Larry told me a friend of his had both a tiger and a lion as pets. Voila! It just fit the myth. So heartbroken is Orpheus, after losing Euridice again -- just after he'd nearly regained her -- that he plays his harp at the Entrance of the Underworld in hopes that he will be given a second chance. Here is an excerpt from Bullfinch's Mythology:

Seven days he lingered about the brink, without food or sleep; then bitterly accusing of cruelty the powers of Erebus, he sang his complaints to the rocks and mountains, melting the hearts of tigers and moving the oaks from their stations. He held himself aloof from womankind, dwelling constantly on the recollection of his sad mischance.

So! I'm heading back to the studio to start adding some color! Au Revoir for now.

Coconut Macaroon Pie II

2009-05-21T16:41:00.001-05:00

This subject is a commission and because my first version had a funky composition, I painted the pie again....classically centered.

My exciting news vis a vis a new painting project is that I've located some PIGS to paint at last. I've need pigs for my rendition of the Circe myth and it's been proving an obstacle, but this week on my way to my friend Josephine's house, I passed a pen with a very likely-looking pink fellow in it. I determined to stop on my way back. The "fellow" turned out to be a sow, complete with family, but there did seem to be a husband in the background, a boar with a black middle. I drove into the driveway without hesitation and introduced myself (with business card) at the back door. The Lady of the Manor gave me permission to return with a camera, so I'm thrilled!

For today, another poem by John Donne:

The Triple Fool

I am two fools, I know,

for loving, and for saying so

In whining poetry;

But where's that wiseman, that would not be I,

If she would not deny!

Then as the earth's inward narrow crooked lanes

Do purge sea water's fretful salt away,

I thought, if I could draw my pains

Through rhyme's vexation, I should them allay,

Grief brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,

For he tames it, that fetters it in verse.

But when I have done so,

Some man, his art and voice to show,

Doth set and sing my pain,

And, by delighting many, frees again

Grief, which verse did restrain.

To love and grief tribute of verse belongs,

But not of such as pleases when 'tis read,

Both are increased by such songs:

For both their triumphs so are published,

And I, which was two fools, do so grow three;

Who are a little wise, the best fools be.

Coconut Macaroon Pie, Oil on Canvas, 6x6

Coconut Macaroon Pie

2009-05-16T09:27:00.003-05:00

Coconut Macaroon Pie is a specialty of Brewery Creek, a very popular micro-brewery and eatery in Mineral Point. It's generally served with a decorative drizzle of chocolate sauce too, but I thought that bit was too perishable to stay perfect while I painted, so I left it off. The whipped cream melted in about five minutes, a good indicator.

Here is another poem by John Donne:

Love's Diet

To what a cumbersome unwieldiness
And burdenous corpulence my love had grown,
But that I did, to make it less,
And keep it in proportion,
Give it a diet, made it feed upon
That which love worst endures, discretion.

Above one sigh a day I allow'd him not,
Of which my fortune, and my faults had part;
And if sometimes by stealth he got
A she-sigh from my mistress' heart,
And though to feast on that, I let him see
'Twas neither very sound, nor meant to me.

If he wrung from me a tear, I brin'd it so,
With scorn or shame, that him it nourish'd not;
If he suck'd hers, I let him know
'Twas not a tear, which he had got,
His drink was counterfeit, as was his meat;
For eyes which roll towards all, weep not, but sweat.

Whatever he would dictate, I writ that,
But burnt my letters; when she writ to me,
And that that favor made him fat,
I said, if any title be
Convey'd by this, ah! what doth it avail,
To be fortieth name in an entail?

Thus I reclaim'd my buzzard love, to fly
At what, and when, and how, and where I choose;
Now negligent of sport I lie,
And now as other falconers use,
I spring a mistress, swear, write, sigh and weep:
And the game kill'd, or lost, go talk and sleep.

I'm continuing to read about Mary Queen of Scotts and Queen Elizabeth I, this interest inspired by Philippa Gregory's novel, The Other Queen. Gregory paints an alarming picture of suspicion and fear in Tudor England, where a personal avowal of faith or sympathy could bring an accusation of treason. (In Gregory's book, this malaise of distrust emanates from William Cecil, Lord Burghley, about whom I was certainly given another view. I'd formerly thought of him simply as Elizabeth's wisest advisor. From another perspective, he was a man who created enemies where there formerly were none.) I wondered how bad it really was and am reading further to find out. A succinct, fun to read, and enlightening account is Her Majesty's Spymaster by Stephen Budiansky.

German Chocolate Cupcake

2009-05-07T15:45:00.002-05:00

In about two minutes, I'm going to eat this! Today is my first Open Studio and Gallery Day for the season (May through October). I'll be back later to post a poem, but I've got a couple more hours to paint.

I've just purchased and begun reading a biography of John Donne, entitled The Reformed Soul by John Stubbs. So with reference to that I'll post a Donne poem:

XIX

Oh, to vex me, contraries meet in one:

Inconstancy unnaturally hath begot

A constant habit; that when I would not

I change in vows, and in devotion.

As humorous is my contrition

As my profane love, and as soon forgot:

As riddlingly distemper'd, cold and hot,

As praying, as mute; as infintite, as none.

I durst not view heaven yesterday; and today

In prayers, and flattering speeches I court God:

Tomorrow I quake with true fear of his rod.

So my devout fits come and go away

Like a fantastic ague: save that here

Those are my best days, when I shake with fear.

German Chocolate Cupcake, Oil on Canvas, 6x6, $150.00 USD

My Trip to Pennsylvania, Part Two

2009-04-30T11:46:00.002-05:00

As on every vacation of mine, I was intent on visiting as many art museums and galleries as possible. Before I flew out of Milwaukee, Josephine and I visited the Milwaukee Art Museum to see the Jan Lievens Exhibit. Jan Lievens was a Dutch painter,
a contemporary and friend of Rembrandt (who modeled for him). Although equally successful in his time, he was long in Rembrandt's shadow because their painting styles were so similar at one point in their careers, a number of Lievens' paintings were attributed to Rembrandt. They were both among the Utrecht Caravaggisti, Dutch painters who trained in Rome and adopted the unidealized realism and dramatic lighting of Caraveggio. Lievens was original in his compositions and painted in a variety of genres. Later in his life, he was invited to London to paint with Van Dyke. His paintings became more elegant -- he even adopted the typical Van Dyke pose -- as can be seen in this self-portrait from that period.

Julie and I visited the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, where we toured the home and studio of N.C. Wyeth. The Museum houses a collection of three generations of Wyeths: N.C., Andrew and Jamie, as well as paintings by N.C.'s mentor, Howard Pyle, and a permanent collection of 19th Century landscapes of the Brandywine area.

On another day we took the train to Phillie to see the Philadelphia Art Museum, which is noted for the monumental Thomas Eakins paintings, the Gross Clinic and the Agnew Clinic. I particularly enjoyed the Moorish Chief by Eduard Charlemont and the Annunciation by Henry Tanner. There is also the Trompe l'Oile Staircase Group by Charles Wilson Peale and the dramatic Life Line by Winslow Homer. These paintings are all magnificent and seeing them with my own eyes underscores the absolute truth that artwork must be seen in person to understand why the experience is impossible to duplicate in reproduction. It is so important to visit museums and galleries to view the actual works as often as possible.

In this Post I'm showing pictures of the lovely creek that flows next to Julie and Tim's home -- there is the constant sound of flowing water...heavenly -- and Julie and I walking on the beach at Cape May, New Jersey.

I also discovered an impressive wildlife artist named Laura Mark-Finberg in Lancaster. On my final morning in Pennsylvania, Julie modeled for me as Circe. More on that to come!

On my final

My Trip to Pennsylvania, Part One

2009-04-28T10:33:00.003-05:00

I've been in Pennsylvania this week, visiting one of my oldest friends,
Julie Good-Kruger (or Julaine Emile, as I more frequently think of her -- it was her pen name in our enthusiastic correspon- dence). We were in Oxford, England together as Juniors from Saint Olaf College, as was also my friend, Josephine (see Plein Air Painting at Perry Creek, April 21 Post). We lived together afterward in Northfield, MN, as we finished our degrees in Classics. Julie had spent an extra year in Oxford and dreamed of financing a second degree there by making porcelain artist dolls. She never did that degree, but she was a successful doll artist for years (see Good-Kruger Dolls). I lived with her and her husband, Tim, again for four months in Pennsylvania before I was married, where I learned the process for making original porcelain dolls. After I married Matt, I too became a doll artist for four years, originally with my cousin, Caryn, as business partner, under the business name, Maattala Artist Dolls. Maattala was the Finnish maiden name of both our mothers.

Julie now owns and runs Inglenook Tile, a company that makes brick tiles for interior and exterior use.

In the pictures you see Julie and her daughter, Kristina, in Lancaster's Historic Market. Below that is the 18th century mill, Julie and Tim bought and restored.

To the right is Lorna Doone, the last Maattala Artist Doll I made , after Caryn left the business to raise her children.

Plein Air Painting at Perry Creek, Day Two

2009-04-21T12:12:00.006-05:00

To the right is my first plein -air pain- ting at the end of the second day. I'm planning on returning later in the summer, when the colors of the foliage are present, to work on it further.

I finished the afternoon at the falls further upstream. I began the second painting by painting much more thinly. As you can see from the photograph, there is a large flat rock obscuring my view of the water below the falls, but I've decided to remove it in the painting. I didn't get that far on this painting, but I like my start better and look forward to returning.
Plein-air pain- ting along a pretty stream with the con- stant sound of the flowing water and no bugs, especially with a friend along to while away the time in conversation and reading aloud, has to be one of the pleasantest possible ways to spend an afternoon.

And we didn't pick up a single tick.....

Plein Air Painting at Perry Creek, Day One continued

2009-04-21T11:46:00.005-05:00

The light is, of course, con- stantly chan- ging. I knew from my previous visit that 2:00 was the optimal time for my first set-up location. By 4:30 the light had changed the scene completely, so I knocked off at that point. I've posted the canvas after two hours of painting.

After that, Josephine and I went for a walk up stream. There was another spot, shown below with me sitting on a big flat rock, that I wanted to paint on the following day. It is almost entirely in shadow until about 4:00, so I planned to go there after I'd spent the earlier part of the afternoon at my first set-up location.

The rock ledge at the bottom of my painting at the end of the first day appears disconcertingly upright in the painting. I would have to do some- thing about that. Also, the tree on the left would benefit by being narrow- er. That way, I could brush in a little more water on the left side of it.

I'm not very experienced in plein-air painting and am no doubt making all the possible mistakes one can make. I chose a detail of the landscape that I found particularly lovely: I could look through the clear water at the rocks, ledges and ripples of sand that lay at the bottom. Also the rock ledge invited me to scramble down the steep bank and get close to the water. The psychological invitation in that appealed to me. (I did in fact scramble down the bank on the following day, because my camera lens cap rolled down the embankment and fell into the stream, and I had to retrieve it.)

By focusing on this detail of the landscape, however, I've made it a challenge for the viewer to orient himself. The hillock upon which I'm standing isn't in the picture, nor is the extension of the ledge that creates the near bank of the stream. That is why the rock ledge appears to "thrust upward" rather than "lie along."

The adjustments I made to the composition will show on my Blog for Day Two.

Plein Air Painting at Perry Creek, Day One

2009-04-21T11:20:00.001-05:00

Last weekend, April 12, Matt and Geneia and I went for a walk along Perry Creek in Black River Falls, WI, on a visit to my mom's. I noticed a couple of places I'd like to come and paint. So, when the weather turned out to be so beautiful during the middle of the following week, I decided to go back with my plein-air easle. I asked my close friend, Josephine, if she'd like to go with me, so we drove up on Wednesday and got out to the Creek about 2:00.
I began, as I usually do by drawing in Cadmium Red, as Red is absorbed by other paint easily and tends not to tint the subsequent layers unduly. (Admittedly, this is not my sexiest look!) We tucked our pants into our socks to discourage the deer ticks and sprayed the pant lets with Off. Josie ensconced herself in a lawn-chair recliner with a sun-hat and a bag of books. She read me extracts from Vasari's Lives of the Artists about Titian and Botticelli.

Orpheus Photoshoot

2009-04-14T18:59:00.004-05:00

This past training season at Lands' End, I serendiptiously ended up training a small group of artists. We thought it was great fun that we were all involved in one aspect or other of the Arts. We had a graphic artist, Gina, who has subsequently done work for me, creating my ads of the Mineral Point Visitors Guide and the Uplands Magazine; Marcus, who is an actor with American Players Theatre and just this past season played Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream, and Larry, who plays with a classic rock band named Reboot, and (I just learned) played trumpet with the Madison Symphony Orchestra for several years.

We've just purchased a new computer, which was preventing me from blogging until my daughter figured out why. At last the problem is resolved, so now I can post a few pictures from our photoshoot last Friday for the painting of Orpheus I'm currently working on.

I asked Larry to pose as Orpheus the Rocker. My daughter, Iphigeneia, posed as his girlfriend, Euridice.

See next blog for the painting in progress. Here's a poem about Orpheus by Sir Robert Sitwell:

ORPHEUS

WHEN Orpheus with his wind-swift fingers

Ripples the strings that gleam like rain,

The wheeling birds fly up and sing,

Hither, thither echoing;

There is a crackling of dry twigs,

A sweeping of leaves along the ground,

Fawny faces and dumb eyes

Peer through the fluttering screens

That mask ferocious teeth and claws

Now tranquil.

As the music sighs up the hill-side,

The young ones hear,

Come skipping, ambling, rolling down,

Their soft ears flapping as they run,

Their fleecy coats catching in the thickets,

Till they lie, listening, round his feet.

Unseen for centuries,

Fabulous creatures creep out of their caves,

The unicorn Prances down from his bed of leaves,

His milk-white muzzle still stained green

With the munching, crunching of mountain-herbs.

The griffin, usually so fierce,

Now tame and amiable again,

Has covered the white bones in his secret cavern

With a rustling pall of dank dead leaves,

While the salamander, true lover of art,

Flickers, and creeps out of the flame;

Gently now, and away he goes,

Kindles his proud and blazing track Across the forest,

Lies listening,

Cools his fever in the flowing waters of the lute.

But when the housewife returns,

Carrying her basket,

She will not understand.

She misses nothing,

Hears nothing.

She will only see

That the fire is dead,

The grate cold.

But the child upstairs,

Alone, in the empty cottage,

Heard a strange wind, like music,

In the forest,

Saw something creep out of the fire.

Joanne's Signature Cream Cake

2009-04-01T10:04:00.001-05:00

This is a commissioned painting of a very lush cake indeed, which you can buy for dessert at Gundry and Gray on High Street in Mineral Point. I recommend it.

I was hoping to have begun working by now on the "Tunnel" painting I mentioned in my last Blog, but the weather here in Wisconsin has turned cold, windy and wet once more. Good days for studio work. I am opening my Studio and Gallery up to the public from May to October, regularly on Thursdays and often on other days, including some weekends -- the gate will open and the Open Sign hung, so please stop in.

This year I plan to do more large pieces, so I will be blogging progress reports. I'm exploring myths and romances with a modern twist. Remember to check back.

Here's a poem by Cynthia Fuller:

Today you grasped
the stars as
they were slipping off
the edge of my horizon
and shook them back
into the sky.

You are
quicksilver
can leave me
slow-footed
wordless.

My skin is alive
with the soft imprint
of your mouth.
How many miracles
can there be?

As I burnt your letters
the pages spread and curled
bloomed
like fire roses.

Joanne's Cream Cake, 6x6, Oil on Canvas, Commissioned

Looking for the Perfect Hole in the Ground

2009-03-17T22:55:00.001-05:00

I've spent the last two days looking for the entrance to a mine shaft or a cave, a setting for a new painting I have in mind. Yesterday I hiked back into the valley behind our house to look at the entrance of an old mine -- this being Mineral Point, where the earth beneath is honey-combed with tunnels. I hadn't been there for at least ten years. In the meanwhile, the valley had changed; the ground was cultivated, where before it had been only grazed; there was a house and yard where formerly there had been only an intervening patch of woods.

Now, I haven't a memory for landmarks or a decent sense of direction at the best of times. I took the most rugged of all paths towards my goal, first slogging across a muddy field past a bull-pen, finding a place to jump the creek, scrambling over mossy and ice-covered boulders, crossing and re-crossing barbed-wire fences, climbing in and out of gullies and past the twisted vertebrae and scattered ribs of a cow or deer (I didn't linger). By the time I didn't find what I was looking for, I was exhausted. I'd lost my sweatshirt somewhere among the brambles and scratched my wrists. My boots were caked with about five pounds of mud per foot. On the way back, I hadn't the energy to find a place to leap across the creek. I just trudged through it. That's what I bought those hiking boots with a Gortex liner for afterall!

Today, my daughter led me directly to the mine shaft via a much more direct and obstacle-free path, but it had been entirely stopped up with earth. I contemplated bringing a shovel to reopen the hole a bit. Would that work? Even though I'd brought my camera on both forays, I forgot to even take a picture. It deserved at least that to justify all the effort. After we walked back home, Geneia said she knew of a "shaft" that might suit my purpose and we drove straight to it in the lingering daylight. Here it is (above). It is waaaaaay easier to get to. Romantic as the inaccessible is, I think I'll opt for easy.

Santa Fe, Fifth Installment, Scroll Down for the Beginning of the Story

2009-03-11T20:46:00.002-05:00

Here are Andrea and I at the San Jose de los Jemez Mission church ruins.

We tried to reach another National Monument before the end of the day, but ran out of time. We did drive through Los Alamos and saw the US Scientific Research Center and the Valles Caldera though. Remember that volcano I mentioned with reference to the "tuff" in Frijoles Canyon? The Caldera was once the crater of that megavolcano, 600 times more violent than the eruption of Mount St. Helens. It's now a natural preserve, a grassy valley with elk herds.

On my last day in Santa Fe, Andrea and I went back to the galleries along Santa Fe's Canyon Rd. I want to particularly mention Meyer Gallery, where I saw another Dan Gerhartz painting called Renewa l, and Downey Gallery, which will shortly be hosting an exhibition of a Russian artist, Natashia Milashevich, who paints women and girls in Russian folk costumes. I love her subjects and her technique. I wish I could find images of all the paintings I saw of hers. Perhaps when the exhibition is actually mounted, the Downey Gallery Site will have them all available to view online. At Mclarry Fine Art, I enjoyed the figurative paintings of Johanna Harmon.

That's all we had time for. Thanks to Jordan at Meyer Gallery and Dennis Downey for directing us to paintings we loved.

At that point, we had to go grocery shopping and I needed to drive Andrea to meet her family in Abiqui, about an hour north of Santa Fe. We entirely filled the back of my Rogue with groceries to feed her family for a week. They certainly couldn't have found room for both their luggage and their groceries in their own vehicle. Abiqui was in the mountains. I just had a chance to see what a gorgeous place it was before I had to turn back towards Santa Fe.

Farewell to a part of the country I will be anxious to return to. The next day I drove to Albuquerque and flew back to the frigid Midwest, a bit of a shock.

Santa Fe, Fourth Installment

2009-03-11T20:04:00.002-05:00

After we'd taken a hike up the Frijoles Canyon, amidst Ponderosa Pines and along a narrow, but constant stream, we drove to our next stop, Jémez State Monument, which preserves ruins of the 700-year-old Giusewa Pueblo, an ancestral home of today's Jemez Pueblo and of the San José de los Jémez Mission church, built like a fortress in 1621 by the Spanish. Again, wow! Its octagon-shaped bell tower and eight-foot-thick walls were constructed by persons with no formal training in architecture or building. It is the second -- only the second --oldest church in New Mexico. I hadn't known that the Spanish colonized a part of the later United States permanently so early in the 17th Century. This is a whole new period of history for me to read about.

n 1540 the first organized Spanish exploration,the Coronado Expedition, reached New Mexico. Neither Coronado nor his men reached the Jemez area. Other explorers also came and went, but in 1598 a Spanish colonizing party under Don Juan de Onate came to New Mexico to stay. By 1609, a priest had been assigned to the Jemez, and a few years later work began on a mission building at Giusewa. The building was complete by 1621, as well as a convent, built to house the priests and other religious figures.

The Jemez people living at Giusewa were asked -- nicely, I wonder? -- to convert to Catholicism, but were not much interested. I read (I think) that the mission church and convent were built with the help of Catholic converts from the Chaco Canyon pueblo rather than Jemez, but don't quote me. (I had to photograph the plaque above. The missionaries found crosses, a very popular pagan symbol for millenia, everywhere amongst the native pueblo dwellers.) San Jose de los Jemez was burned and the pueblo was abandoned for some time. It was later re-occupied, but was abandoned for good by the Jemez by 1700. In 1680, all the Pueblo peoples of New Mexico united and drove the Spaniards completely out of New Mexico. In 1692, the Spaniards came back and easily reconquered the Natives because of their lack of unity. In 1706 the Jemez people rebuilt an old village of theirs further down Jemez Canyon, which became the village known today as Jemez Pueblo, or Walatowa in the native language.

New Mexico remained a Spanish colony until 1825, and then a Mexican province following Mexican independence. In 1846, the United States took possession of New Mexico from Mexico during the Mexican War, and in 1848, New Mexico became a US Territory. New Mexico became a state in 1912.

From left below, Andrea, Eramis Estee, Ellie and Jack Momchilovich.

Santa Fe, Third Installment

2009-03-11T19:52:00.001-05:00

In the picture above, you can see the holes where ceiling beams for pueblos built on the outside of the cliff were lodged, so that would have been ceiling level of the external pueblo. From there, one could step into a man-made cave. Notice, on the upper left of the highest cave entrance, there is a pictograph of man with a square head. There is another pictograph above the beam holes on the left side of the picture.

Looking back at the foundations of pueblos and clefts carved into the tufa to enlarge the rooms....pantries? closets?

Here I am at the edge of what is called the Alcove House. Alcove refers to the natural cleft in the cliff wall. We climbed 4 ladders to access it, as well as some steps carved into the stone. The stone feels hard to the touch, of course, but there were passages over the rock that had been depressed as much as three feet by the passage of visitors walking on the "tuff." So it is soft!

This is a reconstructed Kiva. You can see the hole in the ceiling which serves an entrance. We all climbed inside...Who could resist? I'd like to do some research on the native inhabitants of these pueblos. I'm wondering why they wanted to have their ceremonies in a hole in the ground.....Since they were perfectly capable of constructing comfortable structures above the ground, what was it that made them want to worship from a pit? I don't get it.

Santa Fe, Second Installment

2009-03-11T19:30:00.003-05:00

On the first day, Andrea and spent the day checking out galleries on the Plaza: Joe Wade Fine Art, Sage Creek, where we saw an absolutely stunning painting of Native American horseman by artist, Ed Kucera -- I wish I could show it to you, but I can't find an image online, Manitou Galleries, Wadle Galleries, Peterson-Cody Gallery, where I was most impressed with the landscapes of Peter Holbrook. We took about an hour's break to spend on an orgy of embroidered-blouse shopping in a wonderful store, Natural Fashions (hint: you can shop online, link provided). Andrea had already bought four and bought two more with my encouragement. I bought a sun dress and two off the shoulder blouses. Andrea was able to sport hers in Santa Fe, but I will have to wait for warmer weather to wear mine. From there we walked to Canyon Rd. and had delicious salads at Cafe des Artistes. A bonus was listening to the proprietor's French accent -- I'm inclined toward things like that -- after which, the Gerald Peters Gallery and Nedra Matteucci Gallery. Both of these were more like museums, as their collections were by vintage Southwestern painters, often deceased. The Nedra Mateucci had the most beautiful sculpture garden I've ever seen. (Hint: Just click through the views of the garden to see the pool and fountain.) I wish that was my backyard.

On the second day, we took a break from Gallery hopping and went exploring ruined pueblos. Our first stop was Bandelier National Monument in the Frijoles Canyon, dating from the 12th Century. The picture above is a Kiva, a subterranean chamber in which the natives held religious ceremonies and village counsels. The top would have been overlaid with wooden beams and covered with clay. A hole served for a ladder to descend and a flu for smoke to escape, the fire pit being situated on that end of the kiva floor.

The walls of the canyon are composed of basalt and "tuff" -- I'm more familiar with the term, "tufa" --rock made of accumulated ash from an ancient volcano. It must be similar to the conical "mounds" of Cappadocia, Turkey, in which a warren of ancient domiciles and churches were carved into the rock in the early centuries (5th and 6th) of the Christian era. You can see the man-made holes in the cliff in the picture above.

A closer look at the cave-rooms, accessed by ladders.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

2009-03-11T19:10:00.000-05:00

Greetings from the Bandelier National Monument! After the workshop in Scottsdale, I drove my rental Nissan Rogue to Santa Fe, another Art Mecca. The historic city has over 100 galleries. Absolute bliss! Fortunately for me, my friend Andrea, her husband Jack, and daughers, Estee, Ellie and Eramis were going to be there at the same time. Andrea found us houses -- actual houses! -- called Casitas to stay in. They were located on a quiet street just two blocks from the Historic Plaza, where the Palace of the Governors was built in 1640! (I'm a history buff, but I had no idea.)

Jack and Andrea's Casita....Very nice.

My Casita.

The Patio behind my Casita. It was in the 50s in Santa Fe. This would have a great place to have dinner and a bottle of wine if the temperature had been about 20 degrees warmer. As it was, it was about 40 degrees warmer than Wisconsin.

My figure study from the Lipking Workshop

2009-03-10T16:40:00.002-05:00

In Scottsdale, I stayed at the Homestead Suites. It was half a block away from the Scottsdale Artist School and within easy walking distance of the Main Street Galleries. I had a refridgerator and a microwave in my room, so I could eat breakfast in, then make a quick run to Starbucks before class began. After class, I would whip home, change into shorts and tee shirt and hit the galleries before they closed between 5:00 and 6:00. On the first day I visited Gallery Russia, where Marci had her show (see workshop show for link) and the Legacy Gallery, where I was very impressed by an artist from Australia -- sorry, I mean Traverse, Michigan -- named Jacquelyn Bischak. The painting "Velvet Cape" was especially stunning. I don't think the image online does it justice.

On my second night out, I popped into Scottsdale Fine Art to see Tim Perkins work (see workshop blog for link) and again into Legacy to take another look at Jacquelyn Bischak. The Gallery had just mounted a new show of Daniel Gerhartz though, which was hanging in the same spot. I LOVED these paintings, especially "Their Journey Together." I was thrilled to learn he was from Wisconsin. I also discovered Romel de la Torre at the Willow Gallery. I thought his flesh tones were lovely. He reminded me of Richard Schmid, painting the figure more tightly, then semi-developing the rest of the painting with bravura brushstrokes. I met Marci, Elizabeth Pollie and Catherine Mamola at contemporary restaurant called AZ88 and we talked art on the patio.....It was in the 70s in Scottsdale. Sigh. The restaurant was especially memorable for the johns. They were difficult to find, first of all. The door was set into the wall without a frame. From a distance you don't even notice it except that across the foot of the door in red letters it is labeled SHE. Once inside the stall, you can view yourself on the throne from three walls of floor to ceiling mirrors. An experience.

On my third evening I retraced my steps to Main Street to check out the paintings of Michael Malm at the Trailside Gallery. His subjects were very appealing, but more loosely painted than Dan Gerhartz, whose work I like more. I discovered an absolutely stunning painting by an artist named Bryce Cameron Liston in the Rive Gauche Gallery. It was called "Gather Ye Rosebuds". Look on his website for a girl holding a backet of roses with candlelight glowing through her hair. That painting, in person, will stop you in your tracks. I liked the fact that he borrows themes from myth and literature for his paintings, as I do. All in all, I would say that "Their Journey Together" at the Legacy was the painting I would have taken away with me from Scottsdale. If only I'd had $34,000 in a bank account at home....

Jeremy Lipking Workshop in Scottsdale

2009-03-10T16:28:00.003-05:00

Jeremy is the tall one in the center. On the left side of the picture is Tim Perkins, a still-life artist whose work is for sale at Scottsdale Fine Art. Next on the left is Marci Oleszkiewicz, from Illinois, who was having a one-woman show of her work at the Russian Gallery in Scottsdale. The woman in the white tee shirt and apron is Tess Olson from Alexandria, VA.

Watching Jeremy Lipking paint was a surprise. He spent a considerable amount of time posing the model, looking for pleasing shapes, planes and shadows, not beginning his investment in paint haphazardly. Second he took careful measurements from his easle, making certain the figure fit well onto his canvas. He made some very subtle marks on the canvas Thus, he made no mistakes in draftsmanship and avoided the need to spend time scraping paint and painting over them later. Looking at the figure, he analyzed what was the most important part. Since the face was visible, it was the focal point. He began by painting her head, and developed it to a pretty high degree, painting wet into wet, before he moved on. In fact, being the most complicated portion of his figure, it was all he painted on the first day. He was careful in his color judgments. Again, painting deliberately and with due consideration, he didn't have to correct anything later. Unlike other painters, he didn't really draw the entire figure in ahead of time.

The model was lying on her side, facing him, her face slightly averted, bent at the pelvis and the knees, so the significant planes were her face, her neck, her chest, her upper waist, her lower waist, her thighs and knees and lower legs. Her upper arm lay behind her back, tilting her upper torso at an angle backward, and her lower arm was thrust forward, embracing the pillow upon which her head lay.

Jeremy kept in mind his tonal range from darkest to lightesas well as the temperature range of the skin tones and tried to nail the correct tone right from the start, making it darker, rather than lighter, if anything. One can always bring out the highlights later. Again, he finished a section before moving on because the next day it would be harder to blend the colors. He uses a palette of skin tones cooler than most other figure painters. He analyzed the light coming through the high windows behind them, identifying it as cool, even blue. I couldn't see it myself. I can tell when light is warm, as it is in late afternoon, but I couldn't really tell, and honestly, I thought her skin tones more creamy and warmer than he initially painted them. The end result of his color blending was gorgeous though. See below.

He said that at home, he paints with a mirror behind him, so that he can see the reflection of the painting backwards. It helps him to see whether there are any non-proportionalities (my word, not his). As it was, he took the canvas, turned it on it's side or upside down to check his measurements.

The palette Jeremy used was:
A lavender mixture made up of Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson and White
Lemon Yellow (Rembrandt)
Cadmium Yellow, Deep or Medium
Cadmium Orange
Cadmium Red
Pyro Ruby Red (from Studioproducts.org) or Alizarin Crimson
Transparent Oxide Brown
Burnt Sienna (Windsor Newton, because it is less opaque)
Ultramarine Blue
Cobalt Blue
Golden Green (like Sap or Terra Verte, by Old Holland or Windsor Newton)
Medium Gray, made up of Viridian, White, touch of Cad Red and Yellow

His typical medium is 1 part Stand Oil, 1 part Damar Varnish, 5 parts distilled turpentine

He painted on L600 Traditions, linen covered panel (from newtraditionsartpanels.com)