Air Hoe 1 – digital painting 4 original art prints – Dan Beck 2007

This was the first of three Air Hoe images which used the same figure. I changed my template to accommodate my new printing dimensions better. I have done some upgrades to my painting computer and have improved color in print outs where I didn’t think it was possible, but must print now with larger margins – so I am rethinking how I will offer these digital paintings as art prints.

I accidentally created this figure in the old sized template – so I copied and pasted into three different paintings that were on the new sized template. This is not the way I normally work – but that is part of the fun of it.

Digital opens up lots of new possibilities – some of course good – some less. Setting limits, and creating and changing the rules as I good is also part of the fun.

This particular piece, like the second was influenced by an exhibit at SFMOMA which I saw a few days prior to this painting.

Despite that, it is my twist.

See Also

• Figures Art Gallery – for lack of a better link to website – check some other images from 2005/6 which figure in
• SFMOMA – always worth a look – wonderful museum – even the gift shop was surprisingly fun
• Digital Possibilities – I liked this phrase and googled it – the most interesting and pertinent result I found in the time I allotted myself to look – not exactly the same thinking but worth a gander at the changing landscape

Air Hoe 2 – digital painting – Dan Beck 2007

If you look at the posting from a few days ago – you will see that the air hoe figure is basically the same. This was the second of three Air Hoe pieces – all using the same figure and each coming from a different direction or place.

The weekend prior to doing these pieces, I had the opportunity to visit the SFMOMA – and saw a show of American artists and how they related with Picasso and also the de Young Museum. As with most things I take in – I do it best when not trying.

In any event, it was obvious from my first two pieces in this threesome of digital paintings that I was influenced by what I had seen. This is not my typical style of painting.

I think perhaps the power of the third piece is that I went more with what I have been working on. I like the above work a lot, but it is not a direction that I will probably be going into – it is more of an unconscious reaction.

See Also

• Figures Art Gallery – other works from Outhouse Studios which shed light on current piece
• Charles Sheeler – google results – note images – there was work of his at SFMOMA and an exhibit at the de Young – he worked from black and white photos he had taken and added his own color.

Strawberry Alley – digital painting – Dan Beck 2007

Down the road from me is a view – that has been catching my eye since I first saw it seven years ago. It changes through the seasons but always has these overlapping hills through a small window through the eucalyptus trees.

Whether it is plowed and furrowed or actually producing berries – I am drawn to it. For whatever reason – perhaps a matter of the right timing I have not chosen to paint it up until now.

Perhaps I wasn’t ready – a difficult view to give justice to – but I am happy with this rendition. I am finding that this image is translating the kind of pleasure I feel when I look at the actual scene.

I added a couple of extra hills here and the eucalyptus is kind of bamboo like – and so perhaps it is more of a “strawberry fields forever” than the alley that it is.

No matter – I find this to be a very pleasing digital painting and am looking forward to seeing a large art print for a more optimum effect.

See Also

• Checkerboard Valley – an earlier work with overlapping hills and portrait orientation – depth can be a little confusing in this piece but still quite pleasing with the quick figure in the foreground
• The Eucalyptus of California – everything most anyone could want to know about eucalyptus and more

Air Hoe 3 – digital painting – Dan Beck 2007

There will be art prints available for the above piece – but I am in the process of rethinking how I want to offer these. So be patient or not, and I will figure it out.

Almost a month ago I featured a new digital painting. At the time I commented that I would explain the posture of the last figure at a later date. It was not consciously trying to recreate what I had seen, but when I sketched in the figure, I saw I had included a figure a lot like the above.

I will say – that I actually saw a field worker playing his hoe momentarily like a guitar. Since I didn’t hear any music, I assumed it was not plugged in and he was playing the air hoe.

For reasons I will not explain here, I used the same figure in three different digital paintings – proving once again – that I have no issue with breaking my own rules.

See Also

• Field of Hoes – first of the hoe paintings – perhaps I am working on a virtual hoe series
• Virtual Air Guitar Totally Rocks, Dude: Science Fiction in the News – not the hoe sound but how silly and amazing is this? – music from the modern mime
• LOOK CLOSER » Air Guitar Championships – I think I like it better with the hoe, but what do I know

Sunset Over Artichokes – digital painting – Dan Beck 2007

Above is my most recent digital painting – on my way home that evening I happened to take the route through the artichoke fields and glimpsed this sight.

It was fleeting – the color, the depth, the folding hills – some from reality, some from memory – but the portrayal worked.

I have shied away from doing artichokes – more jagged and painstaking a subject than I really want to get into – I generally find them other worldly. But in the light of the sunset – they were warm rows – less defined and calling my name.

And I knew I must paint what I had seen -

After one sitting I stopped here – because I really liked it – I worked on it more the next day as you will see later – but I think I captured more of what I wanted in that first sitting alone.

See Also

• Fennel Field & Sky – first day’s stopping point – captures spirit better than successive versions – this is purchasing info for art prints of a different but stylistically similar work.

• Artichokes | Green Globe Artichokes | Pezzini Farms in Castroville – local grower – very close by – not the same fields – but artichoke info and good photos capturing the other worldliness of the fields
• Photography Workshops Photo Gallery by Zane Paxton at pbase.com – I really like this photo – not the same color glow as I saw – but something remarkably similar – click on photo to see index of other work

Glowing Sky – digital painting / art prints – Dan Beck 2005

I just finished a painting with a sunset – but am not ready to share it on the internet – haven’t even printed it for myself yet. But I had a quick opportunity to write and I thought of this digital painting.

I love the colors of this piece – the angles – the glow of the clouds and sky – the way the mountains almost float themselves – begging the question are the clouds moving or the mountains or is everything still?

This is an incredibly fragile moment as anyone and everyone who has ever seen a sunset can attest. Deciding the moment and look I wanted to capture that evening was probably as much of a challenge as painting.

I don’t paint from photos – nothing adamant here – just don’t want to – it is about capturing the memory – capturing the impression the particular moment leaves – and giving that impression back.

As always (and forgive me here), I hope I have not given the wrong impression.

See Also

• Glowing Sky – current purchasing options for original art prints of above digital painting
• Impressionist Art Gallery – see other images from Dan Beck and Outhouse Studios and information about impressionism
• Claude Monet’s Impression Sunrise – this was the first art related site I could find on Google – looking up simply “impression” but turns out to be kind of fun adjusting the brightness of the sun on Monet’s work

Bold Glimpse – Enlarge – Digital Painting – 2006 – Dan Beck

When I first wrote about this – it was more like a short story or prose – I had fun writing but it was probably more about the writing and the evening than the art itself.

Digital Painting is a lot of fun for me. It didn’t start out that way – it was mostly frustrating – though I laughed a lot thinking – how could anyone ever learn to paint this way.

This particular painting attacks the sky with a fervor – the strokes are bold – intensity to match the evening though obviously beyond literal. The light shining through becomes that much more inviting as a result.

I have always been happy with this painting – it feels like it is something perhaps more unique to me – I left the white gap – because I liked it – swirled because it was fun and generally treated the canvas like I owned it.

I am not always able to paint this freely – particularly when there is a place or feeling I am trying to communicate.

See Also

• Bold Glimpse – art print and purchasing options for this digital painting
• All About Art: How to Hang Loose and Paint Freely – Lynne Taetzsche discusses how she tries to remain free in her work
  
• 10 Tips for Loosening Up – another discussion on how to paint more freely – though I am not an exercise type of person – it is interesting what others recommend

Break Line Hoe – digital painting / art prints – Dan Beck 2006

I am pretty sure that I took this digital painting for granted shortly after I had completed it. Perhaps it was because I had done so many worker in the field paintings at the time. Perhaps I found it too overwhelmingly one color – but today I really like it.

One thing I had overlooked or forgotten are the two high tension wire towers in the fog – they have always reminded me of robots or animated characters. Interesting – in that the people with hoes look very comic strip today – blank faces – undefined figures – but I am sure that was their distance more than my interpretation – but I am not immune to overlooking humanity sometimes either.

What is interesting is that the distant wire towers are what is giving this piece so much depth – the broccoli field in the background could just as easily be the ocean – except for those high tension wires.

I keep imagining these people whistling while they work – I think the line they made was like an animation even though it was real – and that was why I painted it. I remember it was a drive by moment – but their line as though hustling for a break was what struck me.

See Also

• Blogsite Exclusive Images – thumbnails of artwork found on blog with links to articles and enlargements – get a sense of the many worker in field paintings
• The Evolution of High Tension Power Distribution – thought this was very cool – the insulators are quite beautiful as well – the site either a study or a quick flip through is pretty informative
• treppenwitz: Photo Friday (vol. LXXXI) [touches of color edition] – photos of enhanced high tension wire towers – also pretty fun

My Series 4 – digital painting / art prints – Dan Beck 2005

This piece looks better to me than the last time I wrote about it.

I have written a number of times about how color is relative to its neighbor – just as art is relevant in relation to its context. So it should not be a surprise that the conditions of the viewer are probably just as big of a factor as the art itself.

Today it is calm out – overcast and mellow. I am sitting at a computer screen playing my own image roulette – because it is time to write even though my mind is on music.

Trying to keep things simpler – not adding more than is necessary – is a mantra right now – so the simpleness and directness of the above digital painting has more appeal than before. I love the smoothness of color on the textured background.

And for whatever reason, I find more than enough ambiguity to satisfy my imagination today.

See Also

• My Series 4 – art print options and availability for above digital painting
• Dream with Mantra – not sure if this is the artist’s real name or a persona – but always worth taking a look at other people’s art
• How to Change the World: Mantras Versus Missions – found this rather amusing – but also curious about the blog title – without reading much further – seems more about status quo than changing the world – but than again what isn’t?

Sky Over Mountains – digital painting – Dan Beck 2007

I wrote a page for my website in which I go into detail about what digital painting is and how it differs and is in many ways the same as other types of painting.

Much of my focus was in pointing out the painterly similarities. Composition, color, and form as well as a clean canvas to start with are all the same. The above is a good example, because it too is much the same as traditional painting in its gradations and intensity of color – but it differs as well in the way lines and texture are created.

To me the computer connections and origins are rather apparent. I am not out to hide the nature of these works, but I am more concerned with what they are trying to communicate than the language of digital or even the language of art.

Feeling and beauty are meant to transcend technique and for that matter transcend the art – their success is not something which can luckily or easily be measured.

See Also

• Digital Painting – discussion of how it is same and different – insight into how it is viewed at Outhouse Studios and part of why it is such an exciting new medium
• What is Art? And why does it Matter? – open house questions – Yale University Art Gallery – thought these quotes rather enlightening as far as some across the board thinking