Well, I did two still life’s today at the Brooklyn Artists Gym - spent 7 hours painting, pretty much non stop.

One of the fellow artists I paint with, Shelton, liked this painting, and he gave me some advice about lightening up the top, so I followed it (which is why it’s great to have people to share your work with - I’m too close to my own work to see it as someone else would).

It’s nice to come in today - find plenty of plants in the studio, where there were none before, and be able to paint them.   This plant reminded me of the one I painted in After The Bath, almost 20 years ago.  I feel attached to this type of plant but I don’t know the name of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second still life I’m not so sure about.  There’s a lot of things I like about it , like what’s going on in the right upper corner.  I’m also aware of how little of the textures are translating in these 1.3 Mega pixel photos I’m taking with my TMobile Sidekick 3. 

I’m trying the best I can to balance the colors of the photo to get the picture to look as close as possible to the original - yet I can’t really capture many of the subtleties of my work with this kind of camera.  It’s good for a quick shot, an impression, but it’s jut not good enough to really satisfy me - because I saw more in my work that is coming though from the photo.

By the way, I saw the Brice Marden show one last time, last night at MOMA.  For me, the strongest part of the show was the beginning work and the latest work.  I have decided, after seeing the show 4 times and also going to the Brice Marden talk last Sunday, that the linear work Brice started in the early to mid 1980’s on tough the late 1990’s was not as successful (for me) as his earlier or latest work.   I could go into this more, and maybe I will in another post sometime soon.

I also met with my friends Ellen Silverman, Drew Knapp and Ken C (don’t remember how to spell his last name) at a part for Ellen on Thursday night on 13th Street and the far west side.  The Photographer, Brian Van, was there and taking pictures (small world) and I invited Drew to visit my studio and critique my work soon (I need that).  I don’t get to see Drew much, but I’ve known him since 1971 and I’ve known Ellen since the late 1980’s.  It’s nice to get together, even if it’s only once a year.

I also went to a weird feminist show last night, invited by another woman at the birthday party.  The event I went to was a MomaGina event for men, given twice a year, where a bunch of woman dress up in scantly clad dress and explain how men can treat woman (as Goddesses, I think) to get what they want.  Men were allowed to ask any question and there was some sex simulation scenes to show good touching, good kissing, good stimulation.  Naturally, this would have been more fun if I was single.  I did learn some things about what woman like.  Anyway….this is an Art Blog …right?

Yes, I’ve had a long week - and I haven’t even wrote about all of it yet!

I meant to write this earlier this weekend but have been so busy with painting and SEO Work, and life (I suppose) that I really did not have the time or energy - but I think I can write it down now.

Yesterday, when I worked on the painting / oil pastel sketch below - a couple of thoughts were on my mind.

One thought - how much different is what I’d doing now than what I painted 30 years ago?   For one thing, I don’t overwork nearly as much, work a lot faster and more focused - but for all that - I feel limited - that I haven’t really challenged myself enough - to go past the edges of what I know how to do visually.

And yet, the painting / sketch above seemed to have caught something I noticed several years ago about my Homage to Manet painting (see below)

There’s a “twist”, slanting that somehow works for me.  Yesterday, the same thing sorta happened, a slanting of the post is the left part of the picture that somehow made it more interesting.   In both cases i did not plan it - but I’m aware of it now.

That reminds me - Brice Marden mentioned in his talk today that he spends the majority of his time thinking about his work and deciding about it vs. actually producing it (he might have said it a little differently - but I think that’s what he meant).  When he was younger - he worked more than he does now - and he thinks about it more  - maybe, then he did earlier in his life.

Now, getting back to my paintings - when I detect things that work - even though there’s a lot I need to work on…..that still don’t work for me ….. I can use that information again - I can be more aware of choices I have before me.

I attended the Brice Marden session moderated by Barbara Solomon talk at the New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekend this afternoon; I had my son, Adam, with me, and was able to buy him a ticket, along with my own.

First, Barbara Solomon got on just about every one’s nerves with her questions.  I tried to take notes on my SideKick 3, but it was too noisy and had to stop - listen closely and now write the essence of what I heard.  I’ll write down what I remember in no particular order.

Brice Marden, whose show at MOMA I reviewed several weeks ago, had just visited his show this morning, back from vacation; he’s been there several times.  Part of doing a show  is seeing your art in one place - and creating work that you want to see.  In fact, it’s the artist’s job to create the best, most exciting work they’d want to see.

Marden was particularly sensitive to the space where art is shown - claimed that many Miro’s, particularly those in the Metropolitan Museum’s Modern Art Wing - were not well seen due to the room setting and “rugs”.   Brice Marden mentioned he like Miro’s late work but it’s not received much attension from curators.  Brice mentioned, in response to a question from Barbara Solomon (don’t recall what it was) that an artist starts to make a lot of money when they repeat themselves (I guess, later on in their career).

He mentioned he started out at Boston University (hope I got that right) and ended up with a Graduate Scholarship to Yale Art Academy where he had art feedback twice a week (one person gave “classical” feedback, the other, “romanticism” feedback and there was a graduate thesis which took the form of a show.  Brice Marden won a small prize from the show (400 dollars at the time, I think in 1963 - but I’m not sure) and ended up living in New York City where he rented an apartment from a landlord who bought his paintings, from time to time.  He had his first show in NYC around this time.

Brice Marden talked about working part time throughout his career - that he’s someone that opted to have a fixed income for his work (so he’d know how much he had to work with) over doing freelance work to get by.  Even now, he’s advanced a monthly stipend from his gallery dealer as his has a need to keep his many residences - his lifestyle up.  As well as Brice does - he still needs a steady income coming in.

Someone asked Marden a question at the end about what he’s influenced by - he said that he starts with an idea, that in the process, that idea is altered by the painting; he also mentioned he uses long brushes and that Velazquez, who he admired quite a bit, did to as well.

Getting back to Spanish painting, Barbara Solomon asked Brice how he liked the Spanish Painting show at the Guggenheim Museum..he said he was happy to see many of the paintings, particularly many of the older Spanish paintings being shown - but did not feel many of those  paintings worked in the environment of the Guggenheim.  Marden also said he admired Manet’s work a lot (which makes a lot of sense as the “gray” he uses in many of his earlier paintings seems to have been influenced by Manet.

There was probably a lot more I could write - but I don’t remember it all. Some of it will come back to me.

A funny moment - before the talk I ended up buying a ticket from a scalper for the show but it ended up being the for the wrong talk - one by an architect instead of the Marden show.    It made me think that often, when startled, it’s easy to be thrown off and make the wrong decision.  Out of 25 bucks, it may not have been the wrong decision for the man who I bought the ticket from.  It just shows me that good and bad, right and wrong, depend, somewhat, on what position you’re in.