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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

Momentarily Captured

Sunset Over Artichokes - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

Above is my most recent digital painting - on my way home that evening I happened to take the route through the artichoke fields and glimpsed this sight.

It was fleeting - the color, the depth, the folding hills - some from reality, some from memory - but the portrayal worked.

I have shied away from doing artichokes - more jagged and painstaking a subject than I really want to get into - I generally find them other worldly. But in the light of the sunset - they were warm rows - less defined and calling my name.

And I knew I must paint what I had seen -

After one sitting I stopped here - because I really liked it - I worked on it more the next day as you will see later - but I think I captured more of what I wanted in that first sitting alone.

See Also

• Fennel Field & Sky - first day’s stopping point - captures spirit better than successive versions - this is purchasing info for art prints of a different but stylistically similar work.

• Artichokes | Green Globe Artichokes | Pezzini Farms in Castroville - local grower - very close by - not the same fields - but artichoke info and good photos capturing the other worldliness of the fields
• Photography Workshops Photo Gallery by Zane Paxton at pbase.com - I really like this photo - not the same color glow as I saw - but something remarkably similar - click on photo to see index of other work

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

depth of field, workers, limited exposure, and time constraints

Break Line Hoe - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2006

There is a lot of activity in the fields these days - too much to really capture. What I like about this piece is how the line of workers are being swallowed by the field.

For the record is was a field of immature romaine lettuce. What was also interesting about what I viewed was that despite the short visibility due to fog, you could still get a good sense of the depth of this field.

Those were the things I concentrated on conveying when I created this digital painting. The figures are simple, but then I only got a glimpse of them driving by - and time constraints made me need and want to create this more like a sketch.

For art prints of this digital painting, please email: specialorders@outhousestudios.net.

See Also

• Experimental Field
  a different image - figure harvesting mature romaine
• Lettuce: Romaine or Cos Produce Facts
  a romaine overview for those growing or interested

glimpse and earlier artwork yield another take at beauty and toil

Experimental Field - digital painting - Dan Beck - 2005

I haven’t written about this piece before, but only its counterpart. I broke my own rules with these pieces and ended up creating two works and accompanying art prints from one start - and thus find myself liking one more than the other.

I know the piece was some what of an outgrowth of the success I had with the digital painting Field Play.

In this case the figure’s clothing has color and detail - while the face remains rather simple. The main detail of the glimpse I saw - was the stretched out posture and movement of a particular individual harvesting romaine.

The abstractness of the fields is tied up in the nature of viewing while passing and in an attempt to create the kind of world of the previously mentioned piece.

This was designed to fill the 13 x 19″ watercolor sheet with minimal margins and will enlarge up to a 20 x 30″ image.

See Also

• Experimental Field
  options for art prints
• Large Image
  Another artist’s watercolor of Romaine Harvest

Colorful, Brilliant Glow, Quick, Powerful Look

Bold Glimpse - Enlarge - Digital Painting - 2006 - Dan Beck

It wasn’t so much sun as color that protruded under the clouds. I couldn’t stay out long - the wind was ferocious.

Even bundled up and being a transplanted Midwest/East Coaster who has picnicked in worse weather did not make me want to persevere.

But that was quite a while ago and I have grown accustomed to mild unassuming weather.

The painting above is a record of the boldness of the evening - the intense billowing dark clouds with brilliant glow beneath. It is a record of the nondescript fields which one barely noticed because the show was on the horizon.

It is a record of the nature of a glimpse - a quick look that only allows you to grasp the essence - and perhaps all that really matters.

It was an incredible sky last night - I only allowed myself moments with it without windows. I didn’t even set out to paint it when I started on the computer - but I couldn’t help myself - it had been that powerful.

See Also

• Impressionist Art Gallery
  Plenty of incredible skies and art from a glimpse
• A Glimpse of True Nature
  Pep talk about being who you are - tangentially related from glimpsing and grasping essence

Impression, Communicating without being too Literal

Enlarge Houses on the Hillside - Digital Painting - 2005

This is the last piece of last year.  Upon returning from the San Jose airport, I looked over to the left and saw all these white houses nestled in the hills.

To me they looked almost like stones - yet clearly man made. I didn’t look long - a glance really. I was driving on the hi-way - not a time to sight-see really.

But more and more, I think that rendering an impression is less about what I physically see and more about what I want to communicate about what I saw. And then of course, it is every bit as important that the piece itself is interesting, enjoyable, beautiful in its own right.

One of the things I have come to realize - though might seem hard to believe with my style - is that I have actually made the mistake of being too literal and missing the aesthetic opportunity.

Curiously even photographers can feel this way - note quote from book review at amazon.com:

Adams maintained that color photography had no legitimate place in the art of photography because it was too literal to be an art form and that it was not possible to practice it interpretively.

See Also

• From Snapshot to Fine Art
  Notice comments about “too literal” in cropping section - also interesting
• Photograpy Quotes, Sayings for Photographers
  Pertinant quotes to the “too literal” concept - plus fun