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

Further Along Tree – Dan Beck – unsigned – unfinished? – digital art painting 2008

On April fool’s day one should hope for a joke – if I have one for the day – it is unfinished like the piece above – stopped at this point and saved because it looked balanced, finished, and pleasing – but I knew I was not done because I had not portrayed the essential aspects of the tree and background from the impression on that day.

This is also based on the same tree and the same tree – but further along in the season – as well as the pun of further down the road.

As with the other jokes – one might not get that the three trees are one and the same – but then they are not anyway – each day different – changing like us -

if we trusted our senses and not our minds – much if not all, would be unrecognizable when we view what with our minds we consider to be the same thing -

That came out so convoluted sounding – I think the joke may be on me.

See Also

• Digital Art – wide range of definitions and meanings for the term
• Digital Painting – more info on the process of creating at Outhouse Studios
• The opposite conclusion – search result and examples of the slipperiness of perception

Self Portrait – Dan Beck – digital painting 2007

Multiple meanings are to me as much fun as multiple solutions – and generally more obvious than all the different ways to get to a solution to a problem…

and yes I believe there is almost always more than one way to solve any problem.

In most cases, I find myself thinking through all the things that need to be done in a project and try to foresee the obstacles. Somewhere along the line, I got the idea that the most efficient way was the best way.

I am no longer certain that either that is true or that there even is such a thing as the best way. Sometimes the longer route is the better – and most of the time we can not see our way around all the obstacles anyway.

In art and music – I seem to know this. I start and work around the problems as they come up; but in life – I sometimes think I can no more teach myself than I can anyone else …

such is life.

Listen or View

• Don’t Get Ahead of Yourself – track 4 of the Red Eye Recordings | Dan Beck | 1danband – they say “you can’t see the forest through the trees” but if one is only focused on the forest one can’t see the trees either
• Listening – outhouse studios commentary on what this means and the recording process- although it does not touch on my recent assertion that listening is one of the most important things separating music from noise
• Where teaching oneself and listening coincide – this sounds like some young question and answer session – but a good answer and pertinent I think

Rooted Tree – digital art – finger painting – rendering from memory impression – Dan Beck 2008

There are trees like this at one of the places I frequent with my exercise craving dog – it took me a while to notice them.

But like with most things – once one finally sees something – one starts to see the same thing more frequently. Even though I am an artist and probably more observant than most, I am keenly aware of how much of life I miss, until I become finally aware.

Perception, attention, and understanding are all fascinating subjects – I paint from an impression – a memory – quite frequently – knowing that my understanding plays an even bigger role in what I project when painting.

The intention here is not fantasy, but fun and freedom to portray the essential double rooted nature of these trees on the hillside – blasting with my own color but attempting to convey

the beauty and oddness that strikes me and makes me smile when I see them.

See Also

• Composite Nature: A Conversation with Stan Brakhage – an image search result for double rooted nature – found the work rather interesting
• Celebrated Poets – another interesting search result – the top poem seems to even relate
• Digital Art – a look at the wide definitions and usage for the digital art term – and what it means at Outhouse Studios

digital art (painting) - 2 Much 2 Control – Dan Beck 2008

I have started work on a new project – which has lead to a new sized template and as a result a more fluid and playful way of creating. Not totally sure where the idea came from – but that is the nature of ideas – if one lets the mind wander and don’t rule things out before you even think about them – you find something even better as you progress.

On the path, one is always trying to take things to the next level – always striving for a new twist. My desire for a new template was one thing – but the resulting play and at least the look of this piece is a bit different and a nice side benefit.

The tree concept is just about as old as I am – one of the first things I ever committed successfully to paper – I find myself painting often when I am playing – and taking walks to give my dog the running exercise he needs has made me notice some incredible trees.

The solidness of the foreground tree – is about how we focus our attention – but also something that worked most successfully in a recently shown piece. The title is both about attitude towards world these days and the nature of trying to paint on an old computer with a template that is a bit too big for its memory. I used two different computers to create this piece because the old one – just couldn’t compute.

See Also

• Digital Art – just proving that the multiple meanings of language are also a bit too much to control
• Frozen PB&J – not particularly related – but part of that creating solutions to problems which don’t really exist – and a fun result for “just couldn’t compute”

Strawberry Alley – digital painting – Dan Beck 2007

Down the road from me is a view – that has been catching my eye since I first saw it seven years ago. It changes through the seasons but always has these overlapping hills through a small window through the eucalyptus trees.

Whether it is plowed and furrowed or actually producing berries – I am drawn to it. For whatever reason – perhaps a matter of the right timing I have not chosen to paint it up until now.

Perhaps I wasn’t ready – a difficult view to give justice to – but I am happy with this rendition. I am finding that this image is translating the kind of pleasure I feel when I look at the actual scene.

I added a couple of extra hills here and the eucalyptus is kind of bamboo like – and so perhaps it is more of a “strawberry fields forever” than the alley that it is.

No matter – I find this to be a very pleasing digital painting and am looking forward to seeing a large art print for a more optimum effect.

See Also

• Checkerboard Valley – an earlier work with overlapping hills and portrait orientation – depth can be a little confusing in this piece but still quite pleasing with the quick figure in the foreground
• The Eucalyptus of California – everything most anyone could want to know about eucalyptus and more

Enlarge – Cloud Cover – Digital Painting 2006- Dan Beck

This seemed like a natural piece to feature directly after the below black and white digital painting. It was undoubtedly created around the same dark and dreary time – which coincidentally or not is a lot like today.

There are certain things, I love about this piece. I love the billowed nature of the clouds. I love the ridges in the mountains – I love the way there is depth even in the midst of nonsensical clues. The line of trees seems to hover in air, yet the hills still look solid.

The digital painting works without confusion even though it probably should be confusing – but our eye reads a lot like we read language – able to switch around words and letters and still get the correct meaning.

This aspect of perception is quite compelling – for it is here that we find the freedom to say things in new ways and still be understood.

See Also

• Cloud Cover – purchasing info and art print options for above digital painting
  
• Perception – nicely laid out explanation of some of nuances of perception including: Perceptual Systems, Historical Background, Innate And Learned – Classical perceptual phenomena, Broad theoretical approaches, Current research/future developments

Monterey Hiway 1 – digital painting / art prints – Dan Beck 2005

I thought I would pick a piece today that I don’t believe I’ve written about. I remember looking over my right shoulder as I drove by this scene – an impression, yes.

The live oak trees on the hillside always gets me. I love the shape of these trees and the character they have. I have never seen these trees anywhere else – at least that I recall.

I have a couple in my own yard and I really enjoy them – the canopy of one is exquisite. But here by the side of the road, they are are similar to the cows which occasionally graze.

See Also

• Monterey Hiway 1 – art print options and availability for above digital painting
• California Oaks – learn about California Oaks including live oak
• Single Tree Photos Oak Trees Stock Image Source – good exampls of live oak trees – unfortunately enlargements have copyright sybol in their navels

Valley Colors – digital painting – Dan Beck 2007

There is a spot which this is loosely based on – I drive by it fairly regularly and it has a good view of the valley extending to the Santa Lucia Mountains and Mount Toro.

Like a lot of my work, it is more of a drive by impression – I saw color, and a few barns or houses, a few trees – but mostly the colors of sky and fields.

This is not a piece which knocked me over when I was finished – I wasn’t really sure about it – but there are many things I like: the short field growth in the front, the way the cloud twists like a ribbon, and the beautiful texture in the green field.

My eyes and mind move around the landscape well – so I guess I did ok.

Like all but a couple of my pieces – I started with a blank page and painted and created the digital painting by the strokes of a mouse.

See Also

• Big Valley 1 – another digital painting taken from an impression of pretty much the same spot

• UC Vegetable Research & Information Center – several good images of Salinas Valley plus some information about agriculture

• From the ground up – an image of the Salinas Valley brought me to this site – good article about small organic growing in the area and the group ALBA

Valley Comfort – digital painting / art prints – Dan Beck 2006

This is a well named piece on many levels. But as time has gone on, I find the comfort in the painting itself.

I didn’t invent these colors, but I sure find them pleasing together. The V of field and mountain is also nothing new – it is visible in nature as well as in other landscapes.

There is a warmth to the soil, fields and trees which hopefully makes one want to linger here. I really enjoy the Salinas Valley landscape and I suspect that that is the feeling which is coming through so strongly.

See Also

• Valley Comfort
  art print options for above digital painting
• Salinas Valley
  simply an image – looks like Spreckels – but similar to rendering above
• Longfield
  earlier work and landscape with strong angular feel