What's New

after seven years observing, I have finally seen the air hoe

Air Hoe 3 - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

There will be art prints available for the above piece - but I am in the process of rethinking how I want to offer these. So be patient or not, and I will figure it out.

Almost a month ago I featured a new digital painting. At the time I commented that I would explain the posture of the last figure at a later date. It was not consciously trying to recreate what I had seen, but when I sketched in the figure, I saw I had included a figure a lot like the above.

I will say - that I actually saw a field worker playing his hoe momentarily like a guitar. Since I didn’t hear any music, I assumed it was not plugged in and he was playing the air hoe.

For reasons I will not explain here, I used the same figure in three different digital paintings - proving once again - that I have no issue with breaking my own rules.

See Also

• Field of Hoes - first of the hoe paintings - perhaps I am working on a virtual hoe series
• Virtual Air Guitar Totally Rocks, Dude: Science Fiction in the News - not the hoe sound but how silly and amazing is this? - music from the modern mime
• LOOK CLOSER » Air Guitar Championships - I think I like it better with the hoe, but what do I know

recent experience affects creativity

Typical Mountain Color - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

Well yes - this really isn’t typical mountain color - but is more a case of saving a piece with a title before knowing exactly where it is going.

The mountains are beautiful here and they have this look and feeling which I try to communicate frequently. They change a lot, but there is always this wonderful patchwork of color.

When I started painting this piece - I was drinking out of a pseudo Van Gogh mug. I approached the painting with more abandon and colors than I might normally - it felt like the right thing to do.

The figures came in to play because 1) I wasn’t done painting, 2) I felt it would make the piece more interesting (colorful), and 3) because I caught two men resting on their hoes recently (even though these are shovels) - something I don’t normally see.

The third figure seemed necessary with the rest of the composition. His posture will be discussed at another time.

See Also

• Field of Hoes - how could I not think of this piece - a number of people have said it looks like a band of musicians out in that field - plus original art prints are set up for purchase
• Van Gogh - an interesting take on his use of color - with imbued meanings throughout - perhaps even more credit than the spontaneous style we can all see - but such a lovely image to make the discussion come together