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Tom Wolfe- my favorite writer. Wolfe and Pat Oliphant were my greatest influences when I was a budding political cartoonist. 18" x 24 acrylic on canvas (unfinished.) |
"The basic project of art is always to make the world whole and comprehensible, to restore it to us in all its glory and its occasional nastiness, not through argument but through feeling, and then to close the gap between you and everything that is not you, and in this way pass from feeling to meaning. It's not something that committees can do. It's not a task achieved by groups or by movements." Robert Hughes
Tom Wolfe
Keep Calm and Sing Along
Actor Barrie Ingham wrote and is performing a one man show featuring the words and music that cheered and encouraged the British people during the darkest days of World War Two. The show is structured like a radio broadcast; hence the radio tower in place of the cross on the crown at the top.
This is the first concept of a poster for the show which will be performed by Mr. Ingham this summer in New England. It'll need a bit of tweaking. Winston Churchill will be replacing the chap on the right. Several people asked me about the object that has the word "starring: on it. It's a barrage balloon; a common sight in England during the war. The wing-shearing cables attached to the balloons served to thwart low-level attacks from German airplanes.
I'll probably add another balloon in the distance and color the whole thing for clarity.
Open Studio
A 20 minute sketch executed in charcoal
at the Saturday morning Open Studio session
conducted at the Lighthouse School of Art in
Tequesta. We're there from 9-noon.
Join us!
Invisible Man on First
It's been warmer than usual making it nearly impossible to work in my garage studio (I have several set-ups for painting and drawing inside the Hunt Club.) As the weather cools I hope to finish a series of three large pieces done on dropcloths. This one is called "Invisible Man on First" and measures aprox. 4' x 6' and will feature trompe l'oeil brushes, tubes of paint and unfinish drawings scattered about.
I'll finish it off with a deep blue frame.
The companion pieces will be entitled "Invisible Man on Second" and "Invisible Man on Third."
The Sunday Comics- then and now
In 1925, a comic page in the Palm Beach Post was a whopping 16.5 wide by 21 inches deep and carried a single cartoon per page. Today the page is still 21 inches ldeep but just 11 inches wide and carries up to SIX comics per page! I superimposed today's Mutts (one of the best comics out there, imho) on a Little Nemo comic published 87 years ago.
In most cases there is more skill, imagination, humor and wonder in a single panel of Little Nemo than in a whole section of the Sunday Comics.
Somehow the newspaper business has overlooked the popularity of comics and cartooning (something Hollywood seems to have noticed.)
And the cartoonists themselves are for responsible for the dull, unimaginative, formulaic crap they push on the newspapers and readers.
Any single panel in a Little Nemo comic proves that size doesn't matter.
Note the sound effects of the bagpipes- "peep, pup, pip" and Imp's Irish Flute- "peelee, weelee, peep."
Check back at The Hunt Club for more "Little Nemo" comics.
Palettes
One of my favorite sites, Retronaut, recently featured a series of palettes belonging to famous painters. I once thought about collecting palettes from my artist friends but never got around to actually doing it. I have one palette that was last used ca. 1900, hanging on my studio wall. The artist cleaned it - leaving barely a trace of paint. But its graceful shape and patina makes it a work of art in its own right. It never fails to catch my eye.
Most painters probably have dried up old palettes lying around. Palettes offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the artists' lives - their work habits; how they mixed their paints, organized colors, their training and even their lifestyles. The palettes below LOOK like the painters' paintings right down to the paint strokes.
Vincent Van Gogh (top)
Eugene Delacroix (bottom)
Vincent Van Gogh (top)
Eugene Delacroix (bottom)
Below: A fragment of a palette I used while taking a class in classical painting.
Each color is broken down to ten shades. This is an example of a flesh palette based on Ingres.
The palette itself is glass mounted over a canvas board primed in a mid-tone gray.
Mixing is done at the bottom. I still prefer the old-style wooden ones.
Grande Odalisque
Ingres
Bronze Pour at the Montoya Sculpture Studio
This was the second bronze pour of the day- just five pieces of about 25 total,
at the Montoya Sculpture Studio. Leslie Ortiz is working
at the left, Pat Crowley in the center and Luis Montoya on the right.
The pour is roughly the middle step in the long process of
producing a bronze sculpture.
producing a bronze sculpture.
Above - After the pieces cool down, the ceramic shells are broken. The fragments are then welded together and seams removed using pneumatic tools.
Finally, textures are added to areas lost during the process.
Below: The finished work- "Shellboat." Leslie created the patina (colors)
using various chemicals and a blowtorch.
Below: Two views of another piece from a recent pour - "Dinner for Two,"
a stunning creation measuring 42" from end to end. Photos by Scott Wiseman.
Below: The opening...
Sculptor, Luis Montoya and Jo Mett, top and Leslie Ortiz, bottom, pose
with "Dinner for Two" at their opening at the
John H. Surovek Gallery on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Florida.
Below: The scene in the courtyard outside of the Surovek Gallery
Bottom: Leslie and friends in the courtyard.
The John H. Surovek Gallery has an excellent presentation of the Montoya/Ortiz pieces here.
Test Print
I'm awaiting delivery of a 24"x 26" test print for a new series of satirical pieces. The point of the work will become a little clearer as the series unfolds.
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