Eucalyptus View – painting – Dan Beck 2009

This is the most recent finished painting I have done.  I am no longer particularly current on my blogging and am not sure if or when I will become so again. I’ve done a lackluster job of trying to engage people -

A blog is supposed to be a place for people to comment and interact and create something more than what is written by the author. I suppose my tendency is to write a little too much to myself – or write in a way that doesn’t invite comment – and of course – it probably would help if I tried to create an audience by actually inviting people to read my articles and then to comment… by the way – please feel free.

I chose the subject above because of the drama of looking through the giant Eucalyptus trees to the fields beyond – a scene I viewed driving as a passenger on the 101 south of Salinas before you get to King City.

I think on a deeper level it is also a metaphor for how we see ourselves – on what should we focus? – expressions that come to mind :  one can’t always see the forest through the trees … it is hard to see through the growth…

I don’t care where you are in life – it is next to impossible to see oneself the way others see us.

My biggest fan was always my mother – today would have been her 90th birthday – had she lived that long. Eucalyptus was a favorite of hers – I thought of both these things only as I finished this article.

Listen or View

• Digital Art – since this is an example of painting on the computer, get a further understanding of how non descriptive this term really is
• Has Life Turned a Corner – written a couple weeks after my mother died (almost seven years ago) and the eve of having to put my dog down – damn – Sure glad I don’t feel this way now! – but I do still like the song  and do still miss those who are gone
• Forest Through the Trees – found this silk painting by some search results – don’t know the artist but I do like the image of the silk painting – perhaps you will too

Gray Fields – Dan Beck 2008

On an overcast day in Salinas -  a few weeks ago – was a lot of planting going on – through plastic covered rows of dirt – ready to become next year’s strawberries.  Though I understood what I was seeing – this digital painting is more stylized than detailed.

The fields are gray – the day is gray – and yet it felt very peaceful.

It fits with the distance I was viewing and the pace I was driving – much faster than the pace of life today.

The plasticized fields are both ugly and beautiful all at the same time – the decision to paint it I think rests upon these clearly coexisting opposites.

See Also

• Impressionist Art Gallery – commentary on the inspiration and intent of this type of imagery and other earlier works

Harvest Depth – digital painting / art prints – Dan Beck 2006

It is most difficult to keep writing while in the throws of moving – even more difficult to keep painting. It is fogged in today and the day is kind of monotone. There are plenty of workers out this morning picking berries in a day that I assume was very similar to the scene above – painted last year.

When I created this digital painting – it was a combination of commentary on the orange flags – indicating spraying had been done – and the likeness of the workers and the fields and how in sync it all seemed – beautiful and a little painful – all at the same time.

The work is peaceful, a tad monotonous, and a little uncomfortable. This digital art is successful I think at capturing the feeling of the Salinas valley – and the labor which makes our food supply available.

See Also

• What’s in an apple? Buying organic, healthful produce becomes increasingly complicated – thoughtful Commentary on our Food Supply, labor supply, hidden facts, etc.
• Harvest Depth – availability of original prints for above digital art painting

Field Run – original digital art – Dan Beck 2007

I decided I wanted another take on the Flat Racing. I really enjoyed being a witness, but I also wasn’t sure I had said all there was to say on the subject.

The first version and digital painting captured the movement quite well, but the scene around was rather abstract and unknown. Here I have tried to give more of the perspective of looking up the rows of the strawberry fields.

This is a more detailed version of what I had seen. I am not sure if I like it more or less, but it required more time to play with it and more time to convey another aspect … that the other workers weren’t even paying attention to the race of strawberries right next to them.

I often talk of perspective and understanding – both of these takes on the same scene are original art and a unique view – they are just coming from a different perspective albeit both are mine.

See Also

• Related Artwork – some related digital paintings that are set up for purchase of original prints
• A Different Perspective – good article about looking at the positive in life
• A Different Perspective – Dada without Duchamp – for the art historian who really does want to grapple with the questions of original art

Rolling Fields – digital painting / original prints – Dan Beck 2004

I’ve been working on a few different paintings at the same time. This is not one of them. But it is appropriate to feature today for two reasons. It does not follow the rules of how to achieve perspective, but it reads with perspective anyway – and I wrote about it before in conjunction with reasons for buying art.

Having any flat surface read as 3 dimensional is an illusion – the representation is an illusion – but perhaps no more so than what we perceived in the first place.

How often do we see something which doesn’t make sense and assume we have looked incorrectly? We make corrections based upon our understanding … and so it is with an original art piece like this.

Our understanding makes corrections to the perspective even though what we are seeing doesn’t really make visual sense.

I continue to like this piece because it feels like this land and feels good – I know where I am – even though it is not literally even close.

See Also

• Original Prints – understanding the nature of art prints at Outhouse Studios and original digital paintings
• Perspective Drawing – can’t say that I got through the entire show – but this is thoughtful and fun – knew there had to be some perspective rules out there somewhere

Thankless Job 1 – digital painting – Dan Beck 2007

I am not sure why I left this piece finished where I did – but I think I on some level I wanted the art to be as thankless as the subject itself.

Weeding the mound of dirt between the fields and the road is a thankless job. It is kind of like sweeping the dirt – but it is a job I have witnessed. That it reads like the field worker is spanking his or her own butt – was accidental at first, but left intentionally.

The flying weed – which looks more like a strange anatomical growth – must be my subconscious at work here as well -

I painted the digital painting and thought the style a bit cartoonish – and it wasn’t what I wanted – so I probably won’t ever offer original prints, but it was something I had to do.

There are many thankless jobs in this world – creating original art often fits into that category too.

See Also

• Field of Hoes – similar cartoonish feel – but I think the art works a little better – well it was received better anyway
• Thankless Job – Art Journal: Directors – a different aspect of no thanks in art
• Caught In The Town’s Most Thankless Job – TIME – a bit of history shows how different such a phrase can be interpreted and how “the grass is always greener”

Field Phlat – digital painting / art prints – Dan Beck 2006

The fields seem like they go on forever. Imagine the feeling of having to pick all those fields – imagine a world which seems to intertwine with your body itself.

Imagine both the magnitude of harvesting out of necessity and both the importance and smallness felt all at the same time.

Though my world is nothing like the strawberry pickers, I identify with this figure. His world is vast, beautiful and seemingly endless. His task is not ever fulfilled by himself but he must nevertheless start the process.

He is in pause – from beauty, from vastness, from being overwhelmed, by just the humbling nature of where to begin.

It is in our nature to work the impossible…

See Also

• Original Art – the unique nature of art and the original contradiction that multiple prints can be originals
• Wooster Collective: Taking a Moment To Pause and Take Stock in Life – a fine line between inspired and overwhelmed – happy and tragic – the search was “take pause”… there are many connections though I know none of these people
• Outhouse Studios: Original Art & Music – availability of original prints for the above featured digital paintings

Color Crossings – digital painting – original prints – Dan Beck 2007

I don’t usually think about how long it takes to create a piece, but I started this digital painting this morning and am printing as I write and just finished uploading the images to website.

It took six hours to paint this – I don’t know exactly where that stands. It would be little for most oil painters – a lot for many, but certainly not all watercolorists; and probably about right for me.

As a rule, I generally complete a piece in two sittings – I like having two perspectives on a piece. But today, I felt comfortable and confident as I rolled the hills and rowed the crop fields.

This original painting has a depth and a material warmth that feels good to me and it is also a bit over the top with the mountains and sky in the background.

See Also

• Original Art – discussion of original art in most of its meanings – found at Outhouse Studios
• Steven Givler – local watercolorist tackles California Central Coast – works in sittings – unusually patient detailed work. This page needs some time to load but there are some gems
• Crossroads Dispatches: It Takes a Lifetime to Create a Masterpiece – I read through this quickly, but realized I liked quite a bit of the sentiment

Salinas Valley 1 – digital painting – original prints – Dan Beck 2003

Much of my current writing focus is about the distinctions of original art. Though this is not all that recent of a piece, I felt and still feel that I hit an original note or interpretation when I created this digital painting.

I had never treated the row crops in such a fashion and had never treated the undulating crisscrossing fields in such a fashion. It is geometric, openly computeristic, but playful, childlike and strong.

It is its own world – but it also conjures up the Salinas Valley. There is nowhere else I have been which has this feeling. It is special because it does that – but perhaps too fantastical to those who have not been here.

Nevertheless, it was original at the time – remains original as the archetype – and each of its art prints is original.

For a long time, it was also the first image one would see on the Outhouse Studios website and therefore remains in the above header banner.

See Also

• Original Prints – what makes and original print and why it is the case at Outhouse Studios
• Overview of Monterey County Agriculture – from the historical society – overview of past and area – a few photos here and there

Here 2 There – digital painting / original prints – Dan Beck 2003

When I finished this digital painting a few years ago, I thought it was the cat’s meow. Textures were fairly new to me and I was pretty ecstatic about the stone quality in the mountains, the rocky dirt quality to the plowed fields and the other worldly quality of the rolling hills or fields.

Plus, there is a wave like quality to the foreground fields which I have never done in quite such an obvious manner since. I have always loved the way nature mimics itself – evidenced in O’keefe’s flowers.

I wasn’t thinking about making the hills look like waves – but they do sometimes – I just enhanced it by allowing for it to come through in the process of creating.

See Also

• Original Art – the current connection, motivation for articles in weblog
• artst | Georgia O’keefe Gallery – not the official site – but many good images for quickly viewing the connection and perhaps some of the artist’s understanding
• Human Flower Project – an interesting show that was – plus good explanation of what might not be obvious to everyone