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carrying out original vision

Checkerboard Day - unfinished digital painting

If I work this direction - meaning create a landscape and then add figures, I generally save the painting before moving on.

I like the piece where it is above - the checkerboard of light and dark and the clouds are strong enough to carry the painting. Plus the hills have the warmth and at least my eye is pulled in enough to want to move around in the composition.

But frequently, the case with art is about solving a problem or carrying out something one has conceived. I always think there should be some give and take with the painting itself as it is created. But I also think it is important to at least try to say what one intends (a take on Original Art - I had not thought of before).

The checkerboard mountains and the two irrigation workers hoisting their pipes in unison were witnessed on the same day - and the connection made sense to me when I saw them and created the finished original digital painting.

See Also

• Original Prints - catalog of prints starting at $95 - some of my favorites - many current paintings are on hold as far as prints being set up for easy purchase - email if determined - changes are coming
• The Art of Problem Solving - good tips here - concise and clear - even if my take is more about art honing such skills
• The Art of Complex Problem Solving - I think this may actually be about “the Art” - as it is the changing views as one rolls over with the mouse that makes me appreciate this - the puzzle about puzzle solving is more complex than I have patience for at the moment - but a nice complex diagram nevertheless

Relevant Tags:clouds, composition, digital painting, original digital, original prints, original vision, paintings, problem solving, puzzle

 

when people become pieces

Checkerboard Day 1 - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

There is a light which happens on the Gabilan Mountains sometimes - where the shadows from the clouds above leave a checkerboard pattern of light and dark visible from all over.

Unusually, the clouds were very mixed checked black and white themselves.

On the same day - later on, I noticed two field workers - hoisting pipes in unison. Though not choreographed, it seemed like it could have been.

I am not sure why I tied the two together - it could have been two different digital paintings - but I think I saw a connection between checkers pieces and the two workers in sync or maybe I am adding meaning after the fact.

There is more movement, more dance, more transparency; but I only saw a glimpse as a passing motorist.

See Also

• Original Prints - though I have not made the art prints for this new digital painting available for easy purchase yet - please familiarize yourself

• Photo Essay - searching the checkerboard landscape of images on the web - yielded this fascinating glimpse of history

Relevant Tags:art prints, checkerboard pattern, checkers, clouds, digital painting, digital paintings, gabilan mountains, glimpse, original prints, shadows

 

fresh ideas - part of original art concept - time tells

Morning Light - digital painting - original prints - Dan Beck 2005

Did my quick image roulette thing and found this work of original representation and original art.

The slabs of concrete looking things are to represent the unsightly mall in between my view and the mountains. I frequently, like a many artist, have selective vision … and here again I did as well - choosing this representation.

At the time, I liked it conceptually - thought it kind of fun - but never did more - an indicator in itself.

Love the clouds and sky - the mountains are cool - but it never made it into my real favorites - nevertheless, it is original on many levels and documents the creative process and my own progression as an artist.

Original Prints have been made available for this digital painting and all others in the Figures Art Gallery.

See Also

• Figures Art Gallery - view other works of similar time period and similar themes available for purchase
• Selective Vision: The Brain’s Spin Machine Starts Early: Sciam Observations - liked this article because it is so much about the link between perception and understanding
• Photography Composition Articles: The Magic Of Selective Vision - Photo Composition - liked this article as well for its more conventional look at selective vision - but I of course take exception to photography being more difficult than art - better not to go there if one can help it

Relevant Tags:art concept, art gallery, clouds, creative process, digital painting, mountains, original art, original prints, representation, sky

 

Forgotten Sketch Shows Its Colors

Sunset Sketch - digital painting / original prints - Dan Beck 2005

I had totally forgotten this painting - don’t remember creating it - don’t remember the evening it was inspired by - it had kind of slipped through the cracks.

This was a digital painting that had made it into the last round of pieces to go on the website end of 2005 - but didn’t get included. I went looking through all my original prints and came across this one and was quite taken with the way it looked so much like a tissue collage.

Perhaps a little too evenly balanced to be a really wonderful piece - it still has some magnificent qualities - the sun and clouds in particular and the texture in the vegetation on the horizon and the more detailed yet not exactly lettuce in the front.

I guess I do remember something - because it was romaine I was portraying but I would never have known that by just looking - it was a representation like most art - enough to evoke a feeling and a time but hopefully be its own original place to get lost inside.

See Also

• Experimental Field - notice how romaine lettuce was portrayed here - both more detailed and more abstract - it’s not easy being green
• Original Art - discussion of different meanings and understandings or what original art really is and isn’t
• Tissue Collage - a page filled with examples - no enlargements here but one can get enough of the idea of why this seems so reminiscent of the above work

Relevant Tags:clouds, collage, digital painting, horizon, original place, original prints, sketch, texture

 

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

Relevant Tags:art print, art prints, clouds, cloud cover, digital painting, mountains, nuances, perception, perceptual confusion

 

Energetic portrayal of looming clouds and hill and mountain landscape

Clouds on the Mountain - digital painting - 2003

Its fun to see this piece particularly in relation to the piece below or by clicking. The two aren’t the same scene, but they are practically the same theme.

The above piece was bold and energetic. The focus is on the clouds. I was content at the time with this looser overlapping transparency style of portraying the mountains and hills.

If my recollection is correct, this is one of the first pieces I did when I realized and figured out how to adjust my canvas to be horizontal.

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In some programs it would be obvious - but actually nothing is obvious until you know.

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The piece was created with less actual pieces and will only enlarge to a 22×28" size. But unlike some of the newer work - it looks complete printed on 13×19" watercolor paper.

My favorite aspects of this piece are how naively flat it all looks while at the same time showing depth; and then of course I love the many toned ever-looming clouds and the checkerboard shadows they cast.

See Also

• Clouds on the Mountain
  Art print options for above piece
• stating the obvious: Give me a Transparent Computer: Mar 25 1996:
  Where transparency meets obvious - appropriately with computer discussion

Relevant Tags:Art Prints, clouds, digital painting, energetic portrayal, landscape art, mountain landscape, obvious, overlapping transparency, transparent