June 5th, 2006 by admin
representation and sharing an impression
Nestling Grape Rows - digital painting - Dan Beck - 2005
How we create new art and how we view existing work is an interesting thing. When I first finished this, I was proud of how dramatic it felt. There is incredible strength in both the curving of the grape rows and the stalwartness of the mountains.
The deep forest colors are how this area makes me feel. The way the grape rows nestle up into the mountain foothills is truly spectacular when one sees it.
The jagged dinosaur-like nature of the mountains is exaggerated, but it is all about representation not about portraying the exact.
I had seen the grapes essentially hugging the mountain range and I couldn’t let it go - this digital painting like much of my impressionist artwork is paying tribute to something I can hint at, reference, and try to share the feeling of - but in my own way and language.
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Relevant Tags:create art, digital painting, grape rows, impression, impressionist artwork, mountain foothills, representation
December 7th, 2005 by admin
Different Perspectives Add to Completing Work of Art
Desert 1- Route 66 - digital painting in Progress
This is a three part series showing the development of a piece. This is where I stopped after the first sitting. How long a piece takes varies, but in this case it was two clear sessions and one small session to finish - I am guessing 5 or 6 hours to the completed piece.
Although I like sometimes creating a piece in one sitting, I also find it particularly valuable to come at a piece from different perspectives - i.e. different times, different days, different attitude, different ways of looking.
I think the test of time and perspective can make something that much stronger. I believe it is akin to having different people appreciate the same piece. In a sense, we are different at different times and places and the piece must satisfy those different selves.
As far as the piece itself, it is about capturing a mood, a vastness, and a specific time. Standby to see how it develops.
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Relevant Tags:create art, creative session, desert art, desert painting, impressionist art, painting sessions
November 20th, 2005 by admin
Views of art development and digital art painting
Stage 1 of Digital Painting
It was suggested to me that I give a demonstration of how a piece is created. This particular piece was painted with that intent. At various stages of its process, I saved the piece so the development and change could be seen readily.
This scene comes from a section of a descending road coming to the base of Toro Mountain. It is not particularly literal though it takes aspects of that scene and puts them together. The end result is intended to have a similar feeling.
Stage 1 is simply a sketch, I have used mostly overlapping gradient colors to gain the initital layout.
In the second stage, I have started to lay in more color and the mountains in back with the ascending hills are starting to take shape.
The third stage, which is all I will share for today, has the trees added in layered colors and the mountains have more texture and color - again giving them more shape.
More alterations, color, and additions will follow - but like myself creating it - you will have to wait to see how it unfolds.
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Relevant Tags:artistic development, create art, Developing Artwork, Painting Development, painting stages, Painting Steps, Painting technique
November 5th, 2005 by admin
New Approaches, Relaxed State, Recognition
Field Play - Digital Painting - April 2005
I am going back in time a bit to a piece I created last Spring. It has just come down from being on display and I am reminded of the feeling when it was finished.
It is said that an artist never knows what work of his is good. I think sometimes artists do get too caught up with circumstances and sentimentalism to recognize their strongest work. Part of the creative process therefore, is to show one’s work to other people and other artists in particular.
The piece above was created because the previous piece (see below) did not work as I had hoped. Although I like the piece and it has been particularly well received, it did not achieve exactly what I was hoping for - one of the techniques I used, creating the figures in a different painting and pasting them in, I have not wanted to repeat. Actually, the piece below is a wonderful example of how an artist does not always know his own work. I was disappointed enough with a certain aspect of the piece to be ready to dismiss it.
Click Field of Hoes for large version - Digital Painting 2005
The top work, Field Play was created in a more playful manner. I was having fun with the medium creating this swirling multi-colored manipulated space - the field backdrop. I was relaxed, unconcerned about mistakes, and after I quickly put the figure in - I knew I had created something strong and unique. Sometimes we just know we have hit it right.
What I was struck with today, and what made me write on this subject - was that I noticed a similar relaxed state today while playing guitar - though something I do regularly experience - today it was incredibly clear - and for some reason the same old licks sounded fresh and wonderful - and that attitude allowed me to create new improvisations in places not before seen.
This relaxed non-judgemental attitude is in my opinion where the best works come from.
These works like the others on the blog - will be available for purchase at Outhouse Studios in the not too distant future. I am still considering options for updating the site and how to add new art more easily.
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Relevant Tags:art, Art Appreciation, Art Prints, create art, digital art, poster art
November 1st, 2005 by admin
Explanation, Behind the Work, Beyond the Veil
The above piece is entitled Beyond the Mirrored Veil and can be seen enlarged by following the link.
The piece was created for a specific event and art show which happens mostly today. "Bailando Con La Muerte", dancing with death, is a celebration and a remembrance of loved ones who have died.
The piece is intended to be multi-leveled. The reflection in the mirror is in some ways more real than reality. In the mirror, the eye on the left is the left eye, the hand on the right is the right hand. Furthermore, everyone’s self image is based upon this reflection in the mirror - this reversed and not reversed flat image if you will - this most basic form of reflection.
So what lies behind that mirror? Jimi Hendrix wrote in a song years ago - "I used to live in a room full of mirrors, all I could see was me; so I took my spirit and I smashed my mirrors now the whole world is here for me to see." Sometimes, I think all of us feel touched by spirit, by communication from another place and dimension.
I don’t think any of us can truly understand it, but what I do believe is that what I have painted is my way of communicating some of what I feel - no male or female, no white or black, no old or young.
I have experienced enough loss to know that I feel the deceased presence to some extent even after he or she is gone. I suppose it could just be my memory, but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels more like life continues and as others have said, we just can’t see beyond the veil.
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October 24th, 2005 by admin
Art from Concept
Above is an image of a very recent work entitled "Experimental Fields". It came about in a slightly different way. I was creating a piece which I was in the middle of and felt the urge to put plastic over a section of the fields.
Plastic has been all around me these days. It is used to cover strawberry fields in the making and then methyl bromide is pumped into the soil as a fumigant. Methyl Bromide has been banned for its ozone depleting qualities but the timeline keeps getting extended. Unfortunately, it also has health depleting qualities as well.
There is lots of documentation, but safe levels aren’t clear; and I personally suffered a great deal of dizziness (enough that I thought I needed a hospital) that I have become convinced was caused by exposure from having ruled everything else out.
It is never my intention to directly copy any other artist; that is just the way I work. However, I do see other artists in my own work. I find the same thing to be the case in music and certainly others might see influences which I was unaware.
In looking at the first piece, I was reminded oddly of Henri Rousseau, not because of style, but the way he would have animals hidden in the fields.
From the aspect of creating from a concept, I am naturally drawn to Christo and his huge installations - particularly given the plastic theme.
There are countless others who create from a concept. In fact, I think one would be hard pressed to find art that doen’t draw on a concept to some degree. Representation by its nature is conceptual - but then again, I arrived at the piece above in a way that was different from the normal way I work.
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Relevant Tags:art, conceptual art, create art, methyl bromide, new art
