January 15th, 2007 by admin
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.
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Relevant Tags:appreciating ambiguity, Art Prints, big valley, Dan Beck, digital painting, prints, Salinas Valley, tissue mountains
December 27th, 2006 by admin
capturing the blues and browns - the hurdles of painting after a break
Winter Colors - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2006
This is my first painting in quite some time - a few weeks anyway. It is fascinating how the urge to create works.
On the one hand, one feels a kind of craving than is difficult to describe - but then for lack of practice - it feels enormous just to get started.
Deciding what to paint or what size - all these things seem big. Being creative like most things is about striking a balance - being relaxed enough to not care about mistakes - but still be able to create with the importance a piece deserves.
To create this digital painting, I drew from things I have been seeing over the last few weeks. Today, it is not the piece I thought it was yesterday - but it has captured the blues and browns of winter in the Salinas Valley.
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Relevant Tags:Art Prints, balance, being creative, digital painting, mistakes, prints, Salinas Valley, what to paint, winter colors
October 19th, 2006 by admin
back to comfort of mouse painting and familiar landscape
Valley Comfort - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2006
When I first started this piece and decided to save and title it (although unfinished), I called it “Mouse Play”. The last two digital paintings I did - I used a pen and tablet instead and found it incredibly awkward (to my surprise) - so this was both a relief and fun to use my normal painting tool.
This was not of any place in particular but is very much anywhere in the Salinas Valley. Although, I did notice yesterday a spot which I have been eyeing for quite some time which has a similar mountain terrain and field structure - half is even plowed up - so perhaps I was unconsciously referencing that spot.
The really dark earth in the center I have never tried to portray before. After discing a field - the soil is turned over into big dark chunks - looks like some kind of moon terrain. I think we see it more now because most of the soil will not be replanted right away - as agriculture is moved to warmer areas for the winter.
For art prints or availability of the above digital painting, please email: specialorders@outhousestudios.net. Setting up auto purchasing options for new pieces is more complicated than time will allow right now.
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Relevant Tags:Art Prints, digital painting, digital paintings, familiar landscape, moon terrain, mountain terrain, mouse painting, prints, Salinas Valley, unconscious look
October 17th, 2006 by admin
done in a caricature kind of style
Salinas Valley 4 - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2004
Most of the work I do is of the Salinas Valley - the landscape here is infectious - and I don’t mean e coli - such things, though awful - are played up by the media. According to the Center for Disease Control, there are over 36,000 flu related deaths per year and that was in 2003 - didn’t exactly get the airplay did it?
In any event, this was the last piece I painted using the Salinas Valley name. It was intended to be large and gets significantly better when viewed bigger or of course printed bigger.
It is more of a caricature than most of my current work - but it is strongly within my own type of style. Nevertheless, I think someone familiar with this area would understand - and others might hopefully appreciate the work as its own thing.
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Relevant Tags:Art Prints, caricature style, digital painting, landscape art, prints, Salinas Valley, Salinas Valley art
October 13th, 2006 by admin
enhancing feeling of seasonal sunset
Glowing Sky - digital painting -> Art prints - Dan Beck 2004
I have always loved this digital painting. It is one I really felt like I had hooked right after it was done. My impression was my impression.
The gradient colored sky with the intense pink clouds - it gets that way here - at sunset - right about this time of year. And though the translucency in the mountains is my thing, it enhances the feeling rather than altering it.
We actually just stepped into sunset season - if there is such a thing - not that that is something one hears about - but here in the Salinas Valley - not only is the weather the best in the Autumn and early winter - so are the sunsets.
Fall is a great time of year everywhere I have lived - but sunset time - I don’t recall.
I have shown this digital painting in a couple of shows - 24 x30" matted frame - it makes truly beautiful art prints - with or without my bias.
See Also
- Glowing Sky
gallery page - enlargement/details and availability of art prints and purchasing options for Glowing Sky
- Photos of Sunset
Though this strikes me as someone’s journal - there are some striking sunsets photographed - and I think not that far from here
- VectorPoint Photography
sunrise/sunset photos from area photographer
Relevant Tags:Art Prints, digital painting, gradient colored sky, impression, prints, Salinas Valley, seasonal sunset, sunset, sunset season, sunsets
September 26th, 2006 by admin
ambiguity and breaking from convention don’t shake essence
Big Valley 1 - Digital Painting / Art Prints - Dan Beck 2005
I featured this piece once before but didn’t really write about it. I don’t really remember creating this digital painting, but looking at it today - I can flash to where I must have been viewing - looking west out over the Salinas Valley with the Gabilan mountains behind.
There is an ambiguity in this piece in regards to how the hills are sitting - how the fields intersect - it captures without being particularly literal.
I love this aspect of art - not just in my own - when something looks very different from convention, yet is unmistakable nevertheless.
The essence of a thing is not always what we assume it to be.
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Relevant Tags:ambiguity in art, Art Prints, breaking convention, digital painting, Gabilan mountains, prints, Salinas Valley, unmistakable essence
August 31st, 2006 by admin
balancing impression and intention with work itself
Field Flat - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2006
For me art is a give and take process. I had seen a strawberry picker in a similar posture - holding an empty flat and I wanted to capture that impression.
I created a backdrop - a non-specific but nevertheless somewhat accurate view of the Salinas Valley.
When I started I was expecting a larger figure and less background - but the painting pushed me in certain directions.
I may very well approach this theme again - to create something more iconic - but I actually find this image very pleasing and enjoy looking at it. I like the way my eye travels down to the other field worker and how it feels like the man holding the flat is on the verge of, if not already, moving down to join him.
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Relevant Tags:Art Prints, creating art, digital painting, impression, intention, Salinas Valley, strawberry picker
August 2nd, 2006 by admin
working differently to keep things fresh
No Particular View - digital painting - Dan Beck 2006
When I started painting this morning I didn’t have any particular scene in mind - no scene burning inside me and no real concept. But as quickly as the first mark I found myself taking things differently. This is not an uncommon practice for me -
in fact, it is my
practice in both senses of the word.
It is important to keep things fresh - for me, it is often something simple. In this case I started with single lines to define the piece. I used a combination of freehand color gradient drawing, lines, and fill-in’s to make the fields and mountains what they are.
It is not a complete departure from how I normally work or a complete departure from my other work. What I was able to do without a specific scene in mind, was accomplish the feeling of hills, sloped fields, and mountains that is the Salinas Valley.
For art prints of the above digital painting - please email: specialorders@outhousestudios.net for quotes and options.
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Relevant Tags:Art Prints, color gradient, digital art, digital painting, digital painting practice, fresh, practice, Salinas Valley
July 17th, 2006 by admin
Vantage point and figure in this digital painting
Checkerboard Valley - digital painting / art prints - 2005
When I first completed this digital painting, I was really pleased with how I had captured what I had seen. There is a small section looking down the valley which is near my house.
From that vantage point, one can see four different layers of height until one’s eye finds the mountains on the other side of the valley.
The person carrying the irrigation pipe wasn’t in that particular scene, but it was someone I had seen earlier in the day and it seemed both fitting and helpful for creating a sense of space.
He and his pipe were created in one stroke of the mouse - not that it matters, but I think it is kind of fun to know.
See Also
- Checkerboard Valley
availability of art prints for above digital painting
- About Chamacos
found for its photos - but organization which is studying affects of pesticides on children in Salinas Valley
- Salinas Valley
This photo and next two - for good views of Salinas Valley
Relevant Tags:Art Prints, checkerboard valley, digital painting, figure, Salinas Valley, stroke of the mouse, vantage point
June 8th, 2006 by admin
Creating a landscape of color and harvesting
Pickin’ Start - digital painting - Dan Beck 2006
Painting the fields is comfortable at this point. My approach with this was to just start painting - creating hills, creating waves in the landscape, but not so much caring about conveying a particular place - more of a particular area - the Salinas Valley.
The landscape was fun to create - unfortunately I don’t think the overlap of colors comes through - so I am going to step back and offer up this detail which would otherwise only be seen in an art print.
There is a vastness to this land - and clearly I am trying to show it. There is also something remarkable about the people who work the land and how they appear when one is casually or not so casually looking.
If they appear in a line, it is because they are frequently in a line. If they appear to be acrobats, it is because that is also they way they look. If they appear to be in a swarm, it is also because it looks that way. If they appear to be lost within the landscape of the valley…
I have great respect for the strawberry harvesters that dot the land around me.
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Relevant Tags:art print, color, digital painting, field painting, landscape art, landscape painting, painting fields, Salinas Valley, valley landscape
