What's New

priceless necessity

Horizon 4 - Digital Painting 2006

Having posted the first two tracks of the “Red Eye Recordings” - a music project that is intended to be listened to in order (for the most part) because there is a story to be told; it is time to introduce the third track with some explanation.

The song - “Money is too important” is about the necessity and the change it brings about - the nature of seeking satisfaction from things or consumerism - How much is enough? - always more than one has - and my observations on how often having money changes people.

And of course, having said that - it is my need as well, to have money to live on and continue to produce my art and music.

I am offering these tracks free - and will continue to - but eventually plan on making it possible to contribute to the outhouse studio fund -

The songs are about my observations - about life - about capitalism - about equality - about sickness - about letting go -

It is both too personal and somehow improper to put a price on -

Listen or View

• Money Is Too Important - Dan Beck  2006- to quote the song “I’d like less worrying, though I am not at all bad off, I’d like less worrying, like everyone I’ve known”
  
• Credit to Johnny Mandel and Mike Altman - for MASH melody and lyrical reference - nothing is created in a vacuum and I kept hearing their lyrics and melody in the music
• Horizon 4 - current art print availability for above digital art and its original prints

View of Salinas - part of Steinbeck Exhibit

Compressed View - pigment print from Digital Painting - Dan Beck 2006

In conjunction with the National Steinbeck Center and Artistas Unidos - Artist United, I am showing this work at a pretty optimum sized art print (30 x 20 inch image).

This blog announcement comes the day of the opening; but the work will stay up until February. I chose this pigment print because of the intimate size of the gallery and for what I thought would blend well with the other artists in the exhibit - Faces and Places: Salinas.

This is also a good work for being representative of Steinbeck Country - it captures the feeling of the land but by utilizing the language of digital painting and enough of the traditions of art to have been selected by the Monterey County Arts Commission for the 2007 calendar.

People in the area have seen this piece - but many, if not most, have not seen it at its proper size - and the Steinbeck setting certainly can’t hurt.

In some ways, I would have preferred to show a work which shows more of the human condition, that Steinbeck so beautifully wrote about - but there will be another time I hope.

See Also

• Compressed View - original print options for above digital art - exhibit piece is framed slightly different - special orders are possible
• Harvest Depth - original print options for work with more of a people aspect of Steinbeck country
• Artistas Unidos - Artist United - grass roots organization partnering artists with local businesses with a goal of bringing all cultures together through the arts

pushing the limits of matting and printing

Irrigation Man - digital painting / original prints - Dan Beck 2006

In the spirit of original - I have printed a version of this which framed is going to be 4ft by 5ft. At that size, it looks even more like pointillism than this detail .

Crazy me - I found a frame that size and knew I needed something that would look even enough in such dimensions and exciting that big. Despite knowing that the largest oversized matboard I could get measures 40 x 60in - 8 inches too small - I suspended my knowledge and had the image printed anyway.

Well - truth is I was pretty annoyed with myself because the best patch job would still look like a patch job. The enormity of the original print overshadows the seemliness of the pieced together matting but the challenge has also overshadowed any blogging this week.

In any event, this giant print is not just an original art print, but probably a one of a kind - it is more than I want to wrestle with ever again - too big for my workspace and just barely fitting in my wagon.

See Also

• Original Art - discussion of varied meanings and in particular at Outhouse Studios
• looking for oversized matt board - The Picture Framers Grumble - apparently there are larger matboards out there - but I was not aware and don’t have a source for buying them at this time.
• WebMuseum: Seurat, Georges - more information about pointillism and the artist credited with its beginnings

original image - original prints

Santa Lucia Impression - digital painting / art prints - 2005

As I continue to write about different aspects of original art, I keep trying to feature digital paintings which are either brand new or archetypal or both.

When I finished this piece, I wasn’t sure about it - but a couple of artist friends were. They knew I had captured something dramatic, bold, and special.

It is definitely original in that sense - my attempts to create something with a similar flow - Feeling of Rain and Tall Side Mountains were not nearly as dramatic.

I have done plenty of other bold pieces - ones in which I worked fast used deep colors - but the above piece does both so well - plus there was this element of chance in the way the fog came out - that I am not sure I could repeat even if I wanted.

To me - good original artwork - is not easily followed - even by the same artist.

See Also

• Santa Lucia Impression - art print options and availabilty for original prints of above digital painting
  
• Visionary Art - the art might be a little more interior design oriented than fine - but I like the concept - particularly the printing surfaces. Searched for “good original artwork” figuring on finding pretentious - some links lead me here
• What’s Visionary Art? - compare definition and website of American Visionary Art Museum - another original difference

original new knot

Three Way Figure 3 - original digital painting -Dan Beck 2007

This is the last of three digital paintings. Each one was done while working on the others once they diverged into three. As I was doing them, I was certain I would end up liking this one more than one or two, but at this point I am less sure.

In any event, it was the first time I had ever seen any one using a small sickle and it struck me enough to do such a figure - how it developed into three I have discussed elsewhere.

What I think I am having the most fun with is the fact that not only is each digital painting original, but each art print is also original art. I like tweaking our understanding.

Nothing is completely original - in truth every print is slightly unique even - paper and ink don’t always mix the same. But like all the work I do in this medium - the art is intended to be printed in multiples and is the way it is intended to be viewed … as original prints.

See Also

• Half an Hour: Copyright and Creativity, Again - on the pretense the intellectual property somehow fosters creativity
• Aqua Boogy - thoughtful discussion of original moves in what on the surface might seem an unlikely place - dance on!
• Original Art - discussion at Outhouse Studios along these lines but tailored to this medium

originality, style, and first generation prints

Strawberry Alley - digital art print - Dan Beck 2007

It is kind of typical of me to be somewhat contrary. So to feature a simulated art print from a digital painting which I have already recently featured - makes total sense for a new category called “Original Art“.

I am really not that big on praising my own work. To say I like something I have done is one thing - but a claim of complete originality would be preposterous.

However, I believe my work to generally be my style - I also know I am not the only one who sees this. It is always intended to be mine and always intended to be original.

Because the work I am featuring at Outhouse Studios is created as a digital image - every print created is an original - probably not a one of a kind but the way it was intended and a first generation original print.

See Also

• Original Art - discussion of what it means
  
• Should the Legal Meaning of ‘Originality’ Be Altered? - someone else’s more detailed discussion - Rich Text Format (html/highlighted version linked above). Would we really care so much about proprietary rights if money weren’t a concern?

rendering familiar beautiful scene

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

Bold strokes: Digital painting with fervor

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

simple but ambiguous

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?

understanding lives even in abstract

Enlarge - Cloud Cover - Digital Painting 2006- Dan Beck

This seemed like a natural piece to feature directly after the below black and white digital painting. It was undoubtedly created around the same dark and dreary time - which coincidentally or not is a lot like today.

There are certain things, I love about this piece. I love the billowed nature of the clouds. I love the ridges in the mountains - I love the way there is depth even in the midst of nonsensical clues. The line of trees seems to hover in air, yet the hills still look solid.

The digital painting works without confusion even though it probably should be confusing - but our eye reads a lot like we read language - able to switch around words and letters and still get the correct meaning.

This aspect of perception is quite compelling - for it is here that we find the freedom to say things in new ways and still be understood.

See Also

• Cloud Cover - purchasing info and art print options for above digital painting
  
• Perception - nicely laid out explanation of some of nuances of perception including: Perceptual Systems, Historical Background, Innate And Learned - Classical perceptual phenomena, Broad theoretical approaches, Current research/future developments