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size obscures details, madras colors, and enveloping clouds

More Mountain & Clouds - Dan Beck - digital painting / art prints 2004

The clouds do come in and swallow the mountains. The mountains do not look so madras like. They do have color in them, but not quite so obvious.

The transparent nature of some of the clouds and the blue sky poking through, I know to be true as well.

I know this is representative of what is, but I am not sure it is as strong in the category of beautiful in its own right.

A similar scene was tackled earlier by me as a digital painting and has been tackled several times since - a more recent take. Like many of the pieces from this time, this was intended to be quite large and hard to envision even with the enlarged details.

See Also

• collage-recreation : nouveaux_collages_pr
  in searching for madras found these interesting collages - worth taking a look at
• Twin Peaks Low Clouds
  a fun time lapse watching the clouds roll in
• More Mountain & Clouds
  art print options for above digital painting

accurate feeling without being literal - appreciating ambiguity

Big Valley 1 - Digital Painting / Art Prints - Dan Beck 2005

What I see today is the geometry of lines - the exaggerated rows of crops or dirt - creating a backdrop both unmistakable and unreal.

I like the way the foreground pokes out of the next layer - making one unclear as to whether everything is at the same height or up a level of hill.

I love the lines which look like a shirt and the tissue like nature of the mountains. It is far from literal - but I know this place…

This is the valley I see so regularly - but also a place of its own.

See Also

• Big Valley 1
  art print options and availability for above digital painting
• Harvesting in Salinas
  Aerial shot of valley and other photos of celery harvest
• Take a Hike with Unlimited Limited - Chimneys West
  Had the type photo I was looking for with layers of mountains - some other nice shots here

a traditional subject with some prompting

Self Portrait - Dan Beck - digital painting 2007

I was asked to do my self portrait. An artist friend of mine was interested in seeing how I would deal with the face I think. Seeing all the color in my work made him wonder - since (I am guessing) most of his current work is about portraiture.

So there I am - with the obligatory somewhat troubled artistic look - not that I am happy all the time - but probably more than appears here.

But then again, I think this is accurate to how I view myself when I am alone - there is intensity and desire for something better - but there is also a slight smile.

See Also

• About/Contact Page - Outhouse Studios
  Brief bio and couple of photos from a couple years ago
• cezanne self portrait - Google Image Search
  Found this interesting how many images here as well as Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, etc.

surprising show from the color of grape vines

Autumn Grape Color - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2006

Fall is reserved for the East Coast - mostly New England. I say this out of complete prejudice from having witnessed the New England Fall many a time.

Now that I live in California - I do notice signs of Fall - some changing leaves from deciduous trees - but I was shocked last week to notice fields and fields of color from the dying grape vine leaves.

A spectacular show - that I hope I have put enough of my own spin on…

See Also

• Fall
  Photos of Fall in New England - a sense of what it is like
• Foot Hill Views
  a different piece this reminds me of
• Autumn Grape Color - art print options and availability for the above digital painting

successful does not mean wanting to live with

Enlarge - Cloud Cover - Digital Painting 2006- Dan Beck

I keep trying to look at the positives in having to move my website. On the blog alone, there is a year’s worth of links to my site - including images - which don’t usually link - because every image and page is case specific with my new web-host’s server.

So one of the bright sides is getting to revisit pieces when I get the link working. The above digital painting is such a piece.

Interesting when I wrote about this piece before, I commented on how non-real so much of it was even though it captured the feeling of the scene.

Today I think how real it is - how successful it was - and yet still probably not a piece that too many would want to live with … I mean who really wants to have a rainy day on their wall - unless perhaps one lives in the arid desert.

For any desert folks looking for art prints of above digital painting, please email: specialorders@outhousestudios.net.

See Also

• Impressionist Art Gallery
  Most similar work on website can be found here
• Desert Diary, 2 Dec 2002–Winter Precipitation
  Rain on the Desert
• Rain on the Navajo Desert
  thought this was pretty cool - nothing like searching by writing

composition and details translate best printed large

Beyond the Ivy Fence - digital painting / art prints - DB 2005

The fields across the road are dirt again - it is that time of year. This piece was done earlier in the year than now - but as I was looking across the road, I was thinking about this.

Small and on the surface kind of boring - but then again not - the dirt and diamond an accurate portrayal - the ivy articulation a lot of fun.

As with a lot of the pieces in the Impressionist Art Gallery at Outhouse Studios - they were designed and intended to be printed large - they come alive when they are viewed that way - and frankly are just not done justice small.

Perhaps that is a weakness in composition or perhaps it is perfectly ok to not be all things, all sizes.

See Also

• Beyond the Ivy Fence
  Gallery page for above digital painting - click to enlarge and see details - also info about art print purchasing options
• hs1706 - plowed and disced field - Photos by Donald Kinney
  click on “small” to view some other interesting shots - Just dirt can be pretty amazing
• All Things Web: Accommodating Imperfection
  being all things - on the web as elsewhere - the perpetual and impossible challenge - but interesting discussion

creatively interpret events, views, and life

Irrigation Bend - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2005

Being creative is not just about creating things.

In many cases, it is about creating meaning - or finding meaning - not exactly the same things - but either way about creatively interpreting the world.

Today this piece came up partly by clicking the roulette button(chance?) and partly by my being in the figures gallery. It was also displayed a year ago with the piece I wrote about earlier today.

I was surprised to see I had not written about this. It is a strong piece - it also was the first time I had really observed workers wet adjusting the irrigation spray.

Another important connection to this piece is the the last digital painting I did was called “Irrigation Man” and utilizes the same theme but in a more iconic fashion.

Nevertheless, I think it is the first time since the above piece I have painted anything resembling this theme.

The hills, the bend in the road, the stripes of color and texture, and the sky all conspire to make this a really wonderful piece - also much more enhanced when viewed large.

See Also

• Irrigation Bend
  gallery page - enlargement /details - art print options for digital painting
• Two Part Prints
  Look at recent work with similar theme from last year and above
• Creativity, Creative Strategies and the Critical Counter Culture of the 90’s
  Definately more of an intellectual study than I am into these days, but some interesting things brought up - creative do’s and don’ts are a little scary though

monitor can’t take the place of framed artwork

River Run 1 - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2005

As with many pieces I like, I have already written about this digital painting. It probably comes up in my psyche because I was at the Gallery at the Blackstone Winery over the weekend - and this piece had hung there in a group show last fall - with a wall to its own - it looked really spectacular and made me proud to have done the piece.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to convey that kind of feeling over the internet. This piece does look good small - but it really comes alive large - and of course there is nothing quite like the simplicity of having a simple framed piece on a light colored neutral gallery wall.

This is much the way the Salinas River feels like in places - but the mountains are never quite so close - major liberties were taken - and I don’t even know why - but I do like the piece.

See Also

• River Run 1
  gallery page - enlarge work - art print purchasing options
• Photo Gallery - The Californian - www.thecalifornian.com
  nice patchwork photo
• Salinas River Map - Explore Monterey County California
  Map of the river and a couple of photos

a new approach to creating size

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

It is probably wrong to write about art prints without having actually printed a piece, but it is actually printing as I write… well half of the piece is printing while I write.

By design, this is a two part print - two sheets of Japanese watercolor paper 13 x 19 inches - together yielding an image 19 x 26 inches - with a subtle seam - that at least on my first attempt at this - looked pretty cool.

I am realizing that this is much larger than one can see on the screen and I should at the least create a detail so there is a better sense of size… when I get the printing under control.

What I anticipate is lush, textural - large enough to practically feel the spray and imagine oneself in this world.

See Also

• Blog Guide by Images
  scan recent pieces or longer established works and find links to articles on Blogsite
• Lucidity - Awake in Sleep
  Imagining oneself in different world - a different dimension of same
• NOVA Online | Ice Mummies of the Inca | Lost Empire
  quick read about Incas - same concept of imagining oneself in a different world

art can be about communicating in different ways

Twilight Glow - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck - 2005

Having already written about this piece and the printing challenges it held, it still struck me as one to write about today.

I printed this piece so many times, I actually burnt out on it - but today I like it - as I have for quite a while.

The balance is different - I guess because the show takes place in the upper third and gets cooler as one looks down - but it is balanced - it is fun (like the fourth of July) even on too dark of a windows monitor.

I am particularly partial to being able to portray something without being all that close in one’s representation - perhaps in the way a single line can denote so much.

Art can say so much in its own different way.

See Also

• Twilight Glow
  gallery page - enlargement/details -art print options for above digital painting
• Charles Baudelaire
  Simple drawing by Matisse - but Baudelaire an example of art and life