Middle Border Artist

Cat sketches

2012-01-16T13:21:00.007-06:00

The new cats hang out with me in the studio, when they aren't playing with each other they curl up in their special places nearby and nap.
This has inspired me to get out my old sketchbook and pencil case and keep them handy. Here are some of my better efforts done on Blick 80# sulphite drawing paper, 9" x 12" with soft sketching pencils or a soft charcoal pencil with some blending done with a tortillion.

The New Year!

2012-01-12T15:46:00.006-06:00

First snow of 2012 today! It has been a warm and dry spell for December and January. Then today it snowed about 2 inches. This meant going out and shoveling sidewalks. Luckily the restaurant next door had the front sidewalk cleared this morning so this afternoon I only had to shovel off the extra inch or so that had accumulated. The wind had drifted the snow some and was deeper in some parts.
I finally finished the Red Oak Leaf & Others colored pencil drawing. This took a long time. There were times when I had to stopped and do another drawing instead, or else I would end up rushing and doing a less than satisfactory job.

Red Oak Lead & Others, colored pencil on white colorfix paper, 12" x 18"

These are some of the other drawings I did as relief from the Red Oak Leaf drawing:

Winter Evening, Oil pastel, 18" x 24"

Old Dairy Barn, 18" x 12", Derwent tinted charcoal on homemade grit paper

Tree Line, 18" x 24", Oil pastel on Stonehenge ice blue paper covered with clear Golden pastel ground.

A drawing did as soon as I finished that Leaf drawing. Wanted to change pace, so this drawing of a horse was done in Conte crayons on blue Strathmore charcoal paper.

New kitties! and update on drawings done

2011-12-09T11:22:00.012-06:00

Previously I wrote about the death of our Thunder cat. It was sad but it created an opportunity for a new home for other cats. The day after we got back, Don check the classified ads online and found two cats needing a home just down the street. A young couple just had a baby and realized they couldn't afford a baby and two cats. She wanted them adopted together, the male cat was very shy and adjusted very poorly to change; having his companion would help him. The problem was that potential adopters wanted the personable young female and rejected the shy male. We wanted two cats that got along together and understand the need for patience in having a cat adjust to a new home.

Along with the cats we got two large ceramic food bowls, cat food, cat litter, a carrier and a cat toy. The cats had been neutered, the male was declawed, and current on their shots. As soon as they were released from their carriers, they went and hid in separate areas of the house. After only a few hours the young gray & white female, Lily, came out and made friends with me. It was days when the yellow & white male, Louie, was seen. We knew he moved about the house while we where sleeping. After 3 days of not seeing him, we had to take action in getting Louie to accept us. I bought a kennel, set it up in the studio with a litter pan, food and water. I also set in a sleeping shelf. Then we cornered Louie in the bedroom and nabbed him. He hated that and struggled. I still bear the marks. Into the kennel he went. I spend most of my day in the studio. He became accustomed to me and let me pet him through the cage. Eventually I would let him out in just the studio and put him back in when I left the room. After about three days of this he was comfortable with me, though not with Don.

The kennel saw further use when the female cat was declawed and she was kept in there to restrict movement while convalescing.

We decided the names Louie and Lily sounded too much alike so Lily became Millie and Louie was shortened to Lou. Though sometimes I call him Louper (Lou + leaper) since in playing chase the string he would take great leaps into the air or Lanky Lou since he had proportionaly longer legs and tail than Millie. Lou, once he trusted, is an affectionate, cuddly cat.

I could on further about these cats, maybe in another post!

I did two more oil pastels after coming home. Then it was time to put them away and do leaf drawings in colored pencil.

Marsh in Flood, 18" x 24", oil pastel

Floating Leaf, 16" x 20", oil pastel

Maple Leaves on Pebbled Concrete, 7" x 10.5", colored pencil on gray paper

This drawing is an entry in the Prismacolor colored pencil contest, please go to

http://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/172075/voteable_entries/37924549?ref=nf

and vote!

Backlit Oak Leaf, 7" x 10.5", colored pencil on gray paper

In progress, Red Oak Leaf, 12" x 18", colored pencil on grit primed paper.

This drawing was a tryout for a set of 12 Creatacolor Soho Urban Artist colored pencils. I bought them on sale some time ago, put them away and just rediscovered them. I took a printout of a Tang pottery horse from my "do it someday" file and did a drawing on my homemade grit paper. The colors came out more brilliant than the dull colors in the source photo.
Unglazed Tang Pottery Horse, 10" x 12", colored pencils on homemade grit primer applied to coldpressed watercolor paper.

A change in our household

2011-11-27T21:28:00.003-06:00

It has been three months since my last post! We spent three weeks in September on a 7,000 mile trip out West. We went to Ogden, UT (the Great Salt Lake) Crater Lake, Lava Beds National Monument, Lassen Volcanic National Park, drove through San Francisco, drove on the Pacific Coast Highway, toured Hearst Castle, stopped to visit my aunt in Fresno, Yosetime National Park, drove the pass over the Sierra Nevada, saw Mono Lake, went to Death Valley, Las Vegas, Pipe Springs National Historic site, went shopping in Gallup, NM and Taos. It was quite a trip.

We started this trip on a sad note: just before leaving we put down our old black cat Thunder. She had been taking medicine for hyperthyroidism for about two years. She had little interest in eating. We would tempt her with different varieties of canned food and put the medicine in. She would like something then didn't want it anymore and we would try a different variety. She has been deaf for several years and her primary interest was lying on our laps and napping. She got very skinny and stopped grooming herself and sometimes her hind legs would give out.

For our trip last year we had someone come in to feed and give her the medicine everyday. This year she was worse and there was a fear that she would die while we were gone. So the morning we left we went to the vet, said our goodbyes and watched her as she died.

Thunder came to us at our previous house. The summer of 1992 was a wet one. One day Don discovered a black stray kitten sheltering in the van engine compartment. She knew soft touches. We fed her and after a short while agreed to adopt her. But before taking her inside to meet our other cat at the time (Blitzen), took her to the vet for a check up. This little kitty had worms, an eye infection and was pregnant. All of that was eventually taken care of. She came to us with a kinked tail and a fang bent out of place. So she had quite a time in her short life before coming to us!

Thunder tore up the old house pretty good with her claws and had an independent attitude. Unlike Blitzen who didn't seem to get enough human contact (she was a stray too). When we moved to our current home, Thunder got declawed and she also had less of an independent attitude and Don's lap was her place. She outlived three other cats: Blitzen, Brillion and Gracie.

All of our cats were special in their own ways and all had their stories. Thunder's finally came to an end.

Thunder, 1992-2011

More Oil Pastel Mania!

2011-08-29T12:32:00.010-05:00

The weather has certainly turned very pleasant. Temperatures are in the 60s to low 80s degree fahrenheit. I got my Auto PAP machine but getting the benefit from it has been not easy; I still wake up in the night and feel tired in the morning. I went to a help forum and found out that is a common situation; it can take awhile to get used to the mask and everything else.

Here are more of the Oil pastels I have done this summer. They are all 18" x 24".
Rocky Hill

Squash Blossom

Calm Evening Sky

Root River Bottom Land

Tree On Cliff

Foggy Pasture

Pickwick Mill, in progress

Working on a new Me!

2011-08-18T11:08:00.002-05:00

Two months again have passed before an update. This summer has been different for me. In May my left knee got very bad and painful, cortisone shots weren't helping. Finally I got X-rays done of that knee. It was become worse with bone spurs all around and being uneven. This was enough to recommend an off-loading brace. Despite being a bit larger than the largest ready-made brace, the PT opened up the top frame enough to fit my thigh. With better mobility I can move around more and combined with calorie counting I am losing weight.
This past week I also had a sleep study to check for sleep Apnea. Sunday night I was wired up with lots of sensors and was in bed by 10:40 PM and woken up at 6:30 AM. I had to get up in the night to use the restroom, which required the technician coming in to unhook me so I could get out of bed! That day at home I was very tired and went to bed in the middle of the day for three hours.
The doctor's consultation recommended a second test using the CPAP since the test showed two incidents of mild apnea. Fortunately, I could get in the next night. I used the nose mask, was in bed just after 10 PM and got up at 5:30 PM because I was awake and bored. Using the CPAP was a success! I got the very important prescription, went home and was active all day, doing extra activities, like cleaning, which I don't normally do.
Don had researched online for a travel sized Auto CPAP and we ordered it along with the mask, heated reservoir and some other accessories last night. I am looking forward to being more alert and active all day.
Because of the severe knee pain this summer, I did only the bare minimum of gardening and yard work. After the knee brace I was catching up with yard work and then the major hot and humid spell hit! It was really too dangerous for someone in my physical condition to do much work in that weather and the brace was uncomfortable in the excess humidity. After what seemed to be weeks of this the hot spell broke. Finally I partially drained the watergarden and fixed the leaks were the old and new liners joined. The water does drop slightly but that could be from evaporation or leakage from the water features.
Next post I will show more of the oil pastels I have been doing this summer.

Oil Pastel Mania!

2011-06-20T13:15:00.010-05:00

I have been neglecting my blog this past 2 months, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy!
I started a series of oil pastel drawings, most of them 18" x 24" to make it easier to frame them. So far most of them have cooperated and were willing to be that format. The business next door has finished its remodeling and is now an upscale restaurant (Pogreba Restaurant). Don and I went over to have our complimentary meal for being good neighbors. The construction crew have been well fed since they were given the opportunity to try out the chef's creations.

There was a tornado in the southside of La Crosse last month. It tore up a few blocks pretty good.

Wisconsin Landscape II, 13" x 26", oil pastel

Yellow Asian Lily, 18"x 24", oil pastel

Marsh Footpath, 18" x 24", oil pastel

Marsh Foot bridge, 18" x 24", oil pastel

Two Wild Roses, 18" x 24", oil pastel

Goldfish & Waterlily, 18" x 24", oil pastel, in progress.

Large Tree by River, 18" x 24", oil pastel

Spring! Maybe

2011-04-26T12:46:00.014-05:00

This month just can't make up its mind. Nice weather, then snow. On April 19 there were at least two inches of snow here at the house, other places in the region got more! Maybe it will settle down and leave like a lamb. Currently there is one of those April showers that bring May flowers.
I did get some yard work done: cleaned up the flower bed near were the large tree was taken out last fall, picked up and sift the white rocks that where on the path through that flower bed (the new tree will be put where path was), cleaned out more flower beds and remulched. Still more, always more! I wish the window installers at the catering business would finish. Their scaffolding is over my rose bushes.
I needed change from all the tree drawings that I have been doing, they were starting to look alike. In my "will do someday" files is a photograph of a yellow rose "Topaz Jewel". We have two bushes of this variety and they have spines like cat claws. Though not quite seasonal, it is a nice change of pace.
Topaz Jewel, 18" x 24", oil pastel
Stage 1, I gridded the white primed colorfix paper and did the basic drawing with yellow and green pastel pencils. and blocked in the background with blue-violet.

Stage 2: I finished blocking in the background and leaves with my cheaper, harder oil pastels and just starting with the petals.

The finished drawing: this is when the nice, expensive Sennelier Oil pastels are used. The colors are toned down from the garish under painting. To reduce the brightness the leaves were gone over with a complementary red-violet color.

As relief from the large, demanding flower oil pastel drawing, I did a smaller, quicker drawing in a medium I rarely use: Conte crayon. The subject is my late Gracie cat. She had to be put down last fall. She was a faithfull companion in the studio. For this drawing I used a tan background to stand in for the bits of light brown fur mixed in with the gray and white tabby stripes. Gracie was what is know as a grey or dilute tortieshell cat. A regular tortie has black, dark brown and red fur with much more dramatic contrast. I did this drawing with out gridding first.

For even a further change of pace I did two drawings just in graphite pencil. The dead tree is from an old slide I took many years ago at my parents. The barn was a color photograph with little contrast. I did a lot of "pruning" on the foreground trees to the barn could be seen better.

Spring has sprung!

2011-04-11T12:45:00.003-05:00

March has been doing a lot of transitioning from winter to spring. On March 23 there was heavy snowfall here in La Crosse. Here is the view from my studio window. Then it warmed up, melted off then snow again on April 1st! The temperatures are very nice now; up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday. Last weekend a major thunderstorm system went through spawning tornados and hail, fortunately not in La Crosse itself. The weather warning siren went off, prompting us to turn on to the Weather Channel and finding this area the center of attention with at least five tornados sighted on the ground in the three state area (Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin). I finished Coulee Pine Tree and posted it on Wet Canvas for critique. It was suggested that the tree was too dark for the scene and the forground grasses where unnecessary. So I erased back the green on the tree, lightly went over it with a dull red colored pencil and erased back the yellow sky in the upper left corner and put in light pink. Redoing the foreground was a major undertaking. I removed as much color as possible with tape and poster putty, then erased with a soft white eraser and picked up the crumbs. The erased area got two light coatings of white opaque watercolor. Then I colored in with blue and white colored pencils, dissolved them with Odorless paint thinner and smoothed the layers out with a piece of wool felt. If you look very carefully at the actually drawing, some of the original grasses faintly show through. I also wasn't careful enough in layering the white watercolor and had some hard edges that showed up when colored over. This has been a learning experience and an idea what to do next time major changes are needed.

For a change I did a drawing in Derwent Tinted Charcoal. The subject is an old apple tree at my parents. The source photos where taken the previous March. Old Apple Tree, 16" x 20", tinted charcoal on gray charcoal paper.

The remodeling at the catering business next door isn't done yet! The original windows that where covered up when it was resided about 25 years ago are now opened up with new windows. I was concerned for our privacy and the window installers said there will be stained glass inside. That should be beautiful at night. I will have pictures of that later this summer.

Gardening is coming along, I had covered a bed to warm it up faster and last week planted kale, spinach, bok choi, chard, red onion sets, radishes and carrots. The radishes have sprouted. I still have all the white onions from last year and will harvest them before the rest of the seeds are planted.

The watergarden has a leak and will need to be drained and the join between the old and new sections redone. That won't happen until next month.

Winter Almost Over! Getting those winter themed drawings done.

2011-03-18T10:16:00.008-05:00

This March so far has been a typical March: Snow, then melting, maybe more snow, rain instead. Just waiting for that last gasp snow storm.
Don and I went for a drive one Sunday and surprised a bald eagle feeding on roadkill. He wasn't too shy, just flew up into a nearby tree and waited for us to move on. I took some photographs and used one as a basis for a drawing.
Eagle in Tree, Derwent Drawing pencils on gray Stonehenge paper, 15" x 12".

For a change I did a couple of oil pastels on primed paper. Over the Hill, oil pastel, 13" x 26" was also based on photographs taken during a recent drive. The format is and unusual 1 : 2. While cropping the source photo the picture just didn't seem right in a more conventional format.

Late Afternoon Glow, Oil pastel, 18" x 24", is more conventional in dimensions but just as colorful. Oil pastel is an opportunity to use subjects with little detail but lots of color. It also uses more larger arm muscles than the fine finger muscles used in controlling color pencils.

My current work in progress is done with oil-based color pencils on primed paper. I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of drawings done in oil color pencil. Coulee Pine Tree, oil color pencil, 11.75" x 18"

The melting snow has revealed the garden beds and I am wondering when the plastic sheeting should be put on to pre-warm the soil for early planting. The catering business next door has been doing remodeling all winter with reshingling, and an addition put on in back. The roofers had to come into our back yard to work on the south side. I pruned back the rose bushes radically last fall in anticipation of this and looking forward to lots of new growth. The watergarden has a leak and we will have to reseal the liner joining between the old and new watergarden sections. Hopefully that won't be too much a bother! (Knock on wood!)

Back to the drawing board

2011-02-22T14:35:00.007-06:00

3 Trees at Quarry Hill is done and on the wall for evaluation. So far I am pleased with it. I added more dead leaves on the right side tree to balance the compostion some and left the woods in the background more open than the source photo showed. Let's hope I feel the same way in six months after I take it out of storage for review!

As a break from my larger, more elaborate drawings I did a series on 12" x 9" black Canson Mi-Tients. The first two shown here are done in Derwent White charcoal. Searching is based on an orginal photo of a nineteenth century marble sculpture at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Chinese Metal Horse

White Chinese Horse is done with a silver colored pencil. It looks white in the photo, in person by moving the paper around the silver gleams.

Painted Han Horse is done in Derwent Drawing pencils. They are quite opaque and cover the black paper well.

Winter Work

2011-02-03T11:10:00.005-06:00

This past month I haven't been doing much drawing. I have a large watercolor and color pencil drawing in progress. I have also been doing matting and framing of my work, making a great effort in getting caught up with that. I have a dozen done so far, then ran out of matboard. While waiting for more matboard I worked on my drawing.

As is usual for my WC and CP drawings, the background washes simplify doing the sky and snow and the colors help set the mood: a clear, cold winter evening when the deer come out to feed. Three Trees at Quarry Hill, 17.75" x 24" Water color and Prismacolor and Faber-castell Polychromos color pencils on watercolor paper.

I forgot to post this drawing last time. This drawing spent quite some time in the planning stages. The inspiration was a herd of horses spending their winter in a bare yard and large shed for shelter. This pinto horse standing in front of the open shed door basking in the winter sunshine caught my eye. There were a lot of adjustments done around him to improve the composition. The window was moved and the foreground hay feeder was from another part of the yard. I also experimented with a tractor tire feeder that was there too, but decided I needed something in the foreground that could overlap the background. Pinto, 11" x 16" Derwent Drawing on tan Canson Mi-tientes.

I'm back, with some changes for the new year and more drawings

2011-01-21T17:51:00.008-06:00

The past month has been busy for me, with Christmas, other personal activities and drawing. I resigned from VIVA Gallery this month. Sales are very poor there for me and the monthly fee and long drive every month aren't worth it any more. Last weekend, Don and I drove to Viroqua and removed everything. To try something different I opened an Etsy shop to sell the matted reproductions, marbled paper prints and digital art cards. Later this year I will be checking out some galleries in SE Minnesota as a place to sell my original art. I am still at Gallery La Crosse and there personally every month for the First Friday receptions from 6 to 8 PM.

Another change! Today, we drove over to Kasson, MN (14 miles west of Rochester, MN) and taped a session for Brushstrokes.tv http://www.brushstrokes.tv/.

The topic was Paper for Colored Pencil. The taping when smoothly and easily. I did need help with appying makeup to reduce shine. I general avoid using makeup, it is just a complication I never wanted or needed. I don't know when my presentation will be available. We might do more. Just keep checking!

Here are some of the drawings I have finished in the past month:

Bronze Han Horse, Derwent Drawing pencils on oyster Canson Mi-Tientes, 15" x 12"

Leaves in Gutter, Prismacolor pencils on gray Canson Mi-Tientes, 11.5" x 16"

Grounded Oak Leaf, Derwent Drawing pencils on brown Canson Mi-Tientes paper. 11" x 16"

Icy Oaks, Prismacolor pencils on light gray Stonehenge paper. 11.5" x 16"

May you all have a happy and successful 2011!

Drawing and more drawing!

2010-12-06T11:59:00.009-06:00

I finished the oil pastel "Autumn Drive" and pinned it to the wall. I am not completely satisfied with it, the forground with the road just doesn't work but I can't see any alternative to it.
Winter weather has settled in: Friday, La Crosse saw its most significant snowfall to date: about 5". The new pump has arrived and is now in the watergarden keeping a hole open in the ice for the benefit of the goldfish. I also noticed that I have forgotten to remove all of the solar-powered garden lights! However the frozen ground will make them impossible to remove.

I am in the mood for more leaf drawings. This little drawing actually took much time in designing and altering from the source photograph. An evening could be spent in adjusting light/dark patterns, changing formats and moving elements around in search of the best composition. Derwent Drawing pencils on fawn gray Stonehenge paper.

Derwent tinted charcoal pencils got some use. I did this barn on laid charcoal paper and did a smaller drawing based on the same source photograph of just the silo. Old barns and charcoal seem to go together well.

This drawing of yellow leaves was my demonstration piece done at Gallery La Crosse. It is done on dark gray paper with oil-based colored pencils. I did most of it that evening but later I changed the background some.

Here is my latest work in progress: "Leaves in Gutter", Prismacolor pencils on felt gray Canson Mi Tients.

Back from latest trip! More drawings done

2010-11-22T13:52:00.006-06:00

We came back from our trip over a week ago. I am catching up with business. The pump we ordered for use in the watergarden over the winter never came so Don cancelled the credit card charge for it. It was ordered early in October and never came and the seller never responded to inquiries. So another one, from another seller, is on order. The big pump we use during the summer (3800 gph) is much than is needed for winter use.
We went east on this trip, all the way to Hilton Head Island, SC and Savannah, GA, by way of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Asheville, NC. We toured several Civil War coastal forts (Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie in Charleston, NC and Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, GA), The Battleship North Carolina in Charleston, the Hunley exhibit in North Charleston, Tybee Island Lighthouse, Trinity Cathedral and the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, SC. The aircraft carrier Yorktown is at Charleston, but since we have already toured a similar carrier, Intrepid in NYC, skipped it.
Yes, I did managed to also tour the Asheville Art Museum and spent money in their gift shop and made the rounds of art galleries in Bluffton (near HHI) and Asheville. However, my legs are not very good and negotiating the sidewalks in downtown Asheville wasn't easy for me. While in Tennessee, we also did the arts and crafts drive just outside of Gatlingburg, TN and ate in a tea room! The food was good and met Don's approval. (He even liked the Wild Plum tea).
Another highlight was touring Biltmore house in Asheville. Though I had to walk, (the wheelchairs weren't big enough, and couldn't go everywhere) it is a fascinating place and the staffing courteous and helpful.
On the return trip we stopped at Dayton, OH for more time at the Air Force Museum. Last year we spent two and a half days there but Don still haven't seen everything. I didn't mind since the scooters there are very nice and it was an opportunity to fill up the sketchbook I was keeping on this trip. The light levels were low and made some of the displays hard to read, wish I had thought to bring a headlamp like Don did. We did this on November 11, when G. W. Bush was there. We arrived just before 2 PM and the place was filled with uniforms of all kinds, civilians in formal dress and the city police bomb squad and dogs were there just in case. Until 5 PM some areas were off limits but then the museum stayed open until 8 PM. We left at 7:30. The following day was a ten hour drive back to La Crosse.
Home, I looked over the drawing I did just before leaving on this trip and made some slight changes.

I immediately did another one similar to it but done with Derwent Drawing pencils on fawn gray Stonehenge paper.

The fall scenery in the Smoky Mountains was wonderful so I did an oil pastel based on a photo I took. Done on dark blue Colorfix paper, 18" x 18".

Finished a drawing, another in progress

2010-10-16T16:45:00.006-05:00

"Grapevines on Rocks" is finished and on the wall for evaluation. So far I am very pleased with it. The past few weeks have been very dry and warm here in La Crosee and I have been doing outside work getting the yard and watergarden ready for winter. The waterlily leaves have been removed, the bridge that spans the narrow part of the watergarden has been primed and repainted, some of the water hyacinths have been removed. The vegetable garden has been mostly cleared out except for the cabbages that haven't grown much and the onions that I started from seed this spring, I separated and replanted. Next year they should yield bulbs.
My latest drawing is based on photographs I took in the marsh last month. The shadows cast by this lacy leaf on the bridge deck are very interesting. And somewhat complicated to do.
"Shadow Lace", 11.5" x 18", colored pencil on primed paper. In this drawing I brushed the blue shadows with odorless paint thinned and covered with more blue to get the shadows dark enough. On the leaf I scraped out the highlights, the primed surface made this easy to do.

Summer has ended! Fall drawings in progress, the La Crosse River Marsh in flood

2010-10-01T11:12:00.014-05:00

"Wooded Road" the last of my summer pictures is now on the wall for evaluation. All that green and yellow! Now is time for subjects with much less green in them. My next drawing is based on a photo I took during one of our driving tours in the region. There was a small dam (I can't remember where) with rocks and grapevines down stream of it. I altered the photo to make it more purple and yellow and more constrasty. For a change I did this drawing on maroon Color Fix paper, (13" x 18"). The sanded surface eats colored pencils fast but the painterly, pastel-like appearance is worth it. After all I have lots of pencils just waiting to be made into pictures. The dark shadows I brushed into the grain to make them darker. I tried using colorless blender in the highlights but it doesn't seem to work well with this surface.

I haven't been bike riding in the marsh since the heavy rains earlier in September. Yesterday I took a short ride to the north end of the marsh trails and was met by road blocks to restrict access. A bicylist came off the trail and said it was water covered in the middle of the marsh and unpassable. So I just rode my bike to the bridge over the La Crosse River. I really didn't do much riding, I was taking lots of photographs. The flooded marsh was fascinating and beautiful! And there were no mosquitos! The few photos shown here are only a fraction of what I took that day. Of interest was the three canoeists coming downstream. The lower part of the La Crosse River is popular with boaters since they can start at a convenient location up river and end up near downtown in Riverside Park.

Last of the summer drawings

2010-09-10T22:16:00.004-05:00

Blufftop View is now pinned to the wall for evaluation. I have exaggerated the effects of the sunshine spotting the tree trunks and the shaded ground. Something to help you the viewer stand there and look out over the Mississippi River.

My latest project is also on the theme of sun-dappled woods except this scene is a Monroe County backroad. The deer far off in the distance is an add on to use as a point of interest. After this drawing, I will be working on fall-themed drawings with more reds and yellows in them. Wooded Road is 18" x 24" oil pastel on white color fix paper. As an experiment I toned the paper bright yellow. However, I found that the charcoal underdrawing is impossible to erase completely without removing the underpaint. I had to carefully lift excess charcoal with a kneaded eraser.

More progress on Blufftop View

2010-08-25T12:26:00.002-05:00

After a few more days of hot, humid weather, it is back to cool, dry and pleasant. This summer has seen almost twice as much rain as usual. I am more able to do more work inside and out as well do more bike riding. Maybe I can lose a few more pounds before winter! This drawing of the blufftop view is coming along nicely and hope to finish it by this weekend. I have more summer drawings to do in oil pastel planned.

New work in progress

2010-08-19T13:59:00.003-05:00

The heat and humidity has let up and I am now feeling more active. I have been working in the backyard trimming back rose bushes, thinning strawberries, mowing the lawn and other duties. I even started another drawing.

This is a view of the Mississippi River from a Minnesota bluff top. Not a very large drawing for me, just 15" x 12". It is done with Prismacolor pencils on white bristol.

The Art Fair on the Green was a financial disappointment, I didn't sell anything! but the following week I learned that I had sold more matted marbled paper and a drawing reproduction at VIVA gallery.

I'm Back! With new drawings to show!

2010-07-18T21:54:00.009-05:00

For over a month I have been having internet connection problems and therefore not updating this blog. I won't trouble you with all the trouble we had getting this computer connected back to the internet.

The month of July is busy for me. Next week I will be at The Artfair on the Green on the UW-La Crosse campus. Five of us are sharing a double site for the Odin Arts Cooperative. Hopefully, some of my cards and prints will sell, at least enough for my share of the entry fee.

Here are some of the drawings I have been working on for the past six weeks.

This oil pastel was inspired by the Bluff Country Studio tour we took in April. Too keep the colors cool and green, I made it a point not to use any earth colors at all. The resulting blues and greens with the pink and orange gravel road kept the effect of the cool, rainy spring day that it was.

The inspiration for this scene of a great blue heron on a fallen tree was several years old. I spotted this while bike riding through the marsh one evening. The digital camera I was using at the time was small and gave a soft image, but it was enough. This drawing was also an oil pastel.

This charcoal drawing is a radical change for me. I was adjusting a recent photo of the La Crosse River and made a gray scale copy to get a good idea of the light/dark pattern. The resulting image was so much more compelling than that in color! So this 10" x 12" drawing was done in charcoal pencils.

My latest is also based on photographs taken recently in the La Crosse River marsh. Early morning is the best time for picture taking. Because of the size (18" x 24"), the background was done with watercolor washes. No way could I get the smoothness required in colored pencil without lots of time and care.

Everything is coming up roses!

2010-05-27T11:13:00.017-05:00

There has been great weather here lately, it's a marvel that I get anything done indoors. I finished the Oakleaves drawing and pinned it to the wall. I think some minor changes are needed.

The wonderful weather has encouraged me to bike ride through the La Crosse River Marsh several mornings for exercise and to take photographs.

I am not the only photographer out there! Among the joggers, dog walkers and bicyclists are men walking around with enormous telephoto lenses and tripods to get shots of the birds (great blue herons, white egrets, Canada geese, mallards, etc.). Here are my humble efforts taken with my Kodak Easy Share Z712 IS with its 12x optical zoom. The pictures have been cropped for better composition.

The backyard is coming along nicely. We have moved the tropical waterplants from the basement to the watergarden, brought out the garden statuary and set up the pipes for the box water features. Don still has to get the big pump set up with its large in-ground filter and attach it to other water features. Maybe this weekend. The pink, white and red rugosa roses are blooming, with the yellow ones just budding. Many other flowers, irises, dianthus, and chives are blooming. The peppermint is trying to take over the bed it shares with other plants so I have been thinning it out and making peppermint iced tea.

Last week we noticed a new visitor. A hummingbird moth! We didn't recognized it as a moth at first, it was so strange.

Finished drawing, new leaf drawing in progress

2010-05-14T21:32:00.004-05:00

This drawing of the railroad bridge over the La Crosse River is now pinned to the wall for further evaluation. This bridge is near were the La Crosse River joins the Mississippi River and isn't used for the railroad anymore, it is now for pedestrians. In this drawing I used a brush and odorless paint thinner to smooth out and flatten some of the areas of reflections in the water. Other areas I used the colorless blender.
I have just started another leaf drawing of a cluster of young oak leaves. It is only 8" x 10" but small doesn't mean simple. There is enough going on to keep me fascinated in putting in shapes and colors.
Today was the first day this week it hasn't rained or been cloudy, windy and cool. So I have been outside catching up on gardening and picking the first radishes. Earlier this week I was matting and framing drawings.

New work in progress

2010-05-03T20:45:00.005-05:00

We got more rain the past two weekends. Which was very much needed. The last weekend in April was the Bluff Country Studio Art Tour. We spent two days driving around Southeast Minnesota and Northeast Iowa to various artists' studios, homes and group shows. Fortunately, the rain held off most of the daylight hours since we drove around alot on gravel backroads. The scenery was great and I took lots of photos. Now we just have to drive those roads again when there is some sunshine!
This scene of the old railroad bridge over the La Crosse River is based on two photographs put together. I did further modification on the computer to make the colors brighter and more springlike. As I work the colors can be further modified. Here shown are two stages in the progress of this drawing. It is 20" x 16" on white bristol paper done with Prismacolor pencils.

Outdoor work and more drawings

2010-04-17T22:52:00.007-05:00

The fine weather has kept me outside alot. The seeds planted at the beginning of this month have sprouted and just today I planted tomato plants and more onion sets. The tomato plants have covers made from plastic bottles to protect them, despite the fine weather, April is a bit early.

This has been a dry April so far and extra watering is needed. Today I spent several hours outside. We advertised giving away extra water lilies and other pond plants and had people over to take them away. Still have lots left over. Some even promise to call back in a month and take fish also.

This drawing is done in Derwent Drawing Pencils on gray Stonehenge paper. It is a very nice combination! The source photo is from a series I did several years ago in May. This will make the fifth drawing based on this site! I go back to look over the series of photographs and get more ideas. Which is why it is a good idea to take as many different photos as possible if you can. The pictural possibilities aren't always obvious.

The squirrel drawing is based on photographs taken at a friend's cottage last spring. This curious squirrel was checking out the activity inside. This drawing is also done on gray Stonehenge paper but with Prismacolor pencils. The Prismacolors have much brighter greens and as a rule I don't much mix the varieties of colored pencils.

End of winter, spring has begun!

2010-04-06T09:53:00.004-05:00

We managed to get through March without any more snow here in La Crosse. The weather has been warm enough to encourage me to get outside and do some gardening. One of my garden beds got a plastic cover and water-filled soda bottles to encourage the soil to heat up faster. After a probe thermometer showed the soil had warmed up to 50 degrees fahrenheit, I planted radishes, carrots, chard and peas. The kale from last year is growing and I have been munching on fresh kale leaves as I work. The left over onions from last year and chives are also growing. Weather forecasts will have to be monitored for the nights when the garden needs to be covered to protect it from frost.
The warm weather has also put an end to wanting to do winter-themed drawings. I started one of a barn, trees and snow patches but lost interest. I will put it away for later. No point in doing something when I'm not inspired.
What did inspire me was a complete set of Derwent Tinted charcoal pencils! Along with ordering a print rack and clear print envelopes from Jerry's, there was a sale on a set of 24 tinted charcoal pencils. This set had some red and green colors which were not in the set of six which I have been using. To try them out I did a drawing based on a photo we took on one of our Western driving trips. This cross-bedded sandstone cliff is somewhere in Utah.

Winding up winter drawing

2010-03-22T20:41:00.004-05:00

I finally did the finishing touches on "Sheds & Pine Tree". I put away the source photo and worked the drawing over with the Derwent tinted charcoal pencils to increase the contrast. Sometimes I have to listen to the drawing and ignore the original to get the picture at its best.

Next I did another charcoal drawing of a March

snowfall. The photo was taken a

couple years ago. This March has so far been snow free. But that can change any day.

I have been busy with non-drawing activities. I am matting small marbled paper prints for the galleries and making small reproductions of selected drawings to be matted and put up for sale also. I need to get some cash flow to pay for my expenses! I have been keeping track of what I have spent on supplies and gallery space for the past two years and some income would be appreciated!

More drawings done this winter

2010-03-06T20:44:00.009-06:00

This Han clay statue is at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. This expressive horse and its unexpressive rider has impact so I decided to to it in a larger scale than I normally do. It is 16" x 21" on tan charcoal paper done in conte crayons and hard pastels. I am fond of Chinese pottery horses and like to draw them from time to time.

The Kiss of Victory (12" x 9") is also at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The winged victory is kissing the dying hero, a fine example of 19th century marble sculpture. The color choices are arbitrary: blue, brown, orange, pink and yellow Derwent drawing pencils on brown paper.

These sheds were interesting for their weathered textures and the contrast with the living pine tree. To help emphasize the textures this drawing is done on white charcoal paper with Derwent tinted charcoal. I attached the drawing to the wall and have decided to give the scene for contrast.

More works in progress this winter

2010-02-25T10:26:00.013-06:00

This winter so far has been a very creative time for me. (Have drawing supplies, must use them!) This drawing is of a Pre-Columbian Mexican clay sculpture is in the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. It is a strange cat-creature with some human features. This was an opportunity to try out another Mi-Tientes paper color-Sand and Derwent drawing pencils. The printer ran out of yellow ink while printing out the reference photo, but that doesn't matter since my color choices are arbitrary anyway.

This drawing Late Afternoon is another large (18" x 24") one done on watercolor paper. Something this large and complicated I will always do the basic drawing on another sheet of paper and trace it onto the Water color paper. Then I masked off with liquid mask and masking tape. The sky is a large area and isn't covered later with colored pencil. The buildings are done in grays and covered over with white, light grays and light pink to give the effect of weathered paint. For this drawing I went back to using my reliable Prismacolors.The source photo was taken a few years ago in southern Minnesota and there was something about that large house that intrigued me and I finally made a composition that might do it justice. Several of the outbuildings have been cropped out, the pickup truck flipped to face the house and the
time of day made later to emphasize
more saturated color and create a mood. A quick review shows some slight changes need to be made-particularly the tree on the far right.

Creating a portfolio web site!

2010-02-17T13:08:00.002-06:00

I am finally putting together a site that will show all of the pictures fit to be shown that were done in the past few years. These will be for sale, contact me if you are interested in a purchase.
I am putting in new pictures on a regular basis, I didn't realize I had so many!
http://middleborderartist.com/

More winter drawings

2010-02-15T20:02:00.006-06:00

Winter Sunshine and Shadows, 20" x 16" is a result of our drive to Rockford, IL. It is done with Derwent tinted charcoal pencils on white paper. The large American Elm tree is a rare and beautiful sight.
Another drawing, Winter Storage, 12" x 16" Derwent drawing pencils on warm gray paper, is based on a photograph taken during one of our drives. It has taken a couple of years of occasionally looking at the photo and figuring out what to do with it. Different cropping was tried, elements added and removed until I got something that worked. The detailed textures of the boards make for interesting patterns and the old car behind a gate like an animal added interest and humor.
Because of the complexity I gridded and did the underdrawing on a separate sheet of paper.

New works on winter themes

2010-02-03T10:08:00.006-06:00

This drawing is a direct result of our drive to Rockford, IL. The trees and their setting was from early afternoon and the twilight colors from photographs taken much later that day. I did the drawing on white bristol with oil color pencils. I haven't done much work with my oil color pencils and made a commitment this year to use more variety of media (not just oil pastels and wax-based colored pencils).

In keeping with this commitment I did this large charcoal drawing of a pasture oak tree. I drew this directly on the white paper without a grid (also trying to break that habit!), just making some marks on the paper for the tree placement.

The apple tree drawing was done on tan paper with carbon pencils and white "charcoal" pencil. The original photo was taken about twenty years ago with a 127 twin lens reflex camera. Back in those days we rolled, developed and printed our own black & white photos at home. I much prefer digital! A few winters back I set up a light box and copied the black & white negatives with the digital camera and stored them on the harddrive for future use. I have lots of color slides that need to be copied some day.

More Winter drawings in progress!

2010-01-14T10:05:00.006-06:00

I finished "Stable Cat". The Derwent Drawing pencils have certainly encouraged me to do more animal drawing. We will have to visit the Kentucky Horse Park sometime during the summer when more horses are available on display and take more photos.

For a change of pace I did a quick winter evening landscape (16 x 20 inches) in pastels on gray charcoal paper. Winter scenes do attract me. This particular drawing was a combination of two photos I have taken and modified. It is a rare photo that can be used just as it is! The stable cat drawing is an exception, mostly that was a matter of cropping the original photograph.

My first major winter drawing in now in progress. This scene is along the Root River in Minnesota. More than half of my photographs are taken from a moving car so they are often not of the best quality. However, that is where creative license comes in and pictures are cropped, items moved, deleted or added, colors are altered and much more.

In my younger days I did much outdoor drawing and painting, but later time constraints due to employment and then my disability have put an end to that. But none of that experience is never wasted and the sketches and paintings are still available for review.

This Root River scene is being done on watercolor paper with watercolor washes for the background. The photo shown here has the sky and background washed in and the foreground snow masked out for the yellow forground to be painted.

Just yesterday we drove back to Rockford, IL to get the Wunder Bug at the dealer. A month ago, coming back from our latest trip, we hit a loose spare tire on the interstate and damaged the radiator and transmission on the Wunder Bug. It was taken to the local VW dealer and the insurance agnecy rented a car for us to use. After delays in getting the parts, the Bug was ready and we drove back in the rental and got our car. It was an all day trip in sunny conditions. I took lots of photos from early morning to after sunset. I just reviewed them and excited about the possibilities. My eyes are always bigger than my time and energy available!

Happy New Year! and starting a new drawing

2010-01-01T18:13:00.003-06:00

Last month we took a trip to Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. In Kentucky, we toured the Kentucky Horse Park. Being the off-season not too many horses were out, but during a stable tour I took this photo of a calico cat. The backlighting highlighting her white fur was very nice. Too make sure the darkest shadows stayed black I started this drawing on black Stonehenge paper. To increase the constrasting light background, it was underpainted with white gouache (opaque watercolor) in several light layers. Drawing the rubber interlocking tiles on the stable floor was not easy. Perspective isn't a strong point with me. This drawing is being down in Derwent Drawing Pencils.

Back from another trip, a new work in progress

2009-12-16T22:18:00.005-06:00

We just came back from a late fall trip to Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana.
Before we left on the trip I did more work on my drawings. The Jolly Drummer got another dancer. I did a search on the internet for a similar Han Dynasty terracotta figure, adjusted the shadows and put it in. Doing a test run on the computer helped with deciding scale and placement of the addition.
I put The Two Roman Heads on the wall and noticed it needed more work on the background to expand it and the back head's pedestal perspective wasn't correct. That will have to be corrected this month.
On this recent trip we stopped at West La Fayette, IN to visit one of my neices. She is a physics grad student at Purdue and recently adopted a Shiba Inu dog (a Japanese breed). I took photos and just worked up a small (8 x 10 inches) drawing in Derwent Drawing pencils on steel gray Canson Mi-teintes paper.

Progress on latest drawings, trying out a new technique

2009-11-10T16:10:00.004-06:00

I did more work on the 2 Heads drawing. For the background I decided to tryout a new blending technique of dry brushing the colored pencil. The left background is brushed except for the upper left corner. Brushing fills in the paper texture with the colored pencil and makes it darker. But the coarse cross-hatching done in the background is still coarse. Brushing won't totally smooth out the pencil strokes.

For a change of pace I did a quick small drawing in Derwent drawing Pencils on tan Canson Mi-tientes paper. This terracotta figure is in the Minneapolis Institure of Art. This Jolly Drummer can make one smile. I added a small dancing figure in the foreground but I think two of them are needed to properly balance the work.

Another work in progress-Roman statuary

2009-10-25T16:44:00.002-05:00

Work on the house has been keeping me away from the drawing board. The almost constantly wet weather has kept the siders from working most of this month. The tropical watergarden plants are now moved into the basement pool for the winter. Inside, I am working in the back room: trimming the window, putting up sheetrock to cover the holes left by the contractor and repainting. I'm still not done. I have given myself a deadline of October 31 to have the shelves back up and the worktable moved in front of the new window.

I use this room for matting and framing my drawings, storing my Ebay sale books and wrapping them for shipping.

I have taken a few moments to start another colored pencil drawing. This is part of my "Museum" series. The past few years we have been traveling and have visited some important art museums (Minneapolis, Chicago, New York) also some minor ones in Kansas City, Jackson Hole, Seattle, Roswell, Santa Fe, etc. For some reason the Greco-Roman statuary is fascinating. In reviewing the photos taken, they seem to become characters that interact with each other but as statuary, not humans. Something like those mannequins in the Old Navy TV ads.

Drawings of small furry animals

2009-10-07T10:32:00.003-05:00

I did two more small drawings using Derwent Drawing pencils. I don't draw animals very much so to use the earth tones available with these pencils I found pictures I took some time ago. The rabbit lived under my parent's deck one winter and the squirrels are very common in town. Usualy they are amusing to watch but this year they learned that spagetti squash tastes good and destroyed most of my small crop. I never had much need to protect my vegetables against rabbits and squirrels before.

Almost done with a leave drawing, did a "quickie".

2009-09-29T10:18:00.006-05:00

A lot has been happening around the house (painting & residing) and personal affairs that have kept me from the drawing table. But the Grape Leaves is brought to an almost finished state. I pinned it to the wall for evaluation and saw that the weathered white window frame needs to be made lighter (showing less of the tan background paper).

For a change I did a quick, small drawing of an oak leaf on black paper. This I did with the Derwent drawing pencils whose color range is perfect for this kind of subject.

The weather has turned cold and windy this past weekend, the start of Oktoberfest here in La Crosse. The cold weather has kept the festers indoors.

Some Experiments with new media, another leave drawing in progress

2009-09-11T11:03:00.004-05:00

I recently splurged and bought set of Derwent Tinted charcoal pencils and Derwent Drawing pencils. The Tinted charcoal have various earth tones blended with the charcoal for subtle color. I experimented with a drawing of a bay horse. I drew it freehand from the source photo without my usual gridding. So the figure didn't get very well placed. But it didn't matter since this was practice for the Tinted charcoal. I don't usually draw with charcoal so I ended up treating the pencils like pastel pencils. I will need to practice with straight charcoal to better use this medium.
The Derwent Drawing pencils are thick leaded colored pencils in a range of earth tones. They are very soft and pleasant to use. I drew the horse freehand again but with better placement. I just need to practice without the grid. The drawing pencils were finished with a Prismacolor colorless blender. I will be planning some drawings that will use this limited range of earth tones.

I am also in progress on another leaf drawing. These are wild grape leaves in an old window. The paper is 16 x 12 tan Canson Mi-tientes.

Adjustments made to "Passthrough" drawing

2009-09-02T13:49:00.004-05:00

I have made the adjustments needed. Compare it with the pictures in the previous post and compare them. The shadows definately have improve things.

The "Bangor Feedmill" is done but not finished. I posted it to the Critique forum at "Wet Canvas" and received valuable advice on cropping to make a better picture.

In the computer I trimmed at recommended, broke up the foreground shadow and added the tree on the right. Now I have to do it sometime.

Almost Done with drawing, starting another

2009-08-10T10:47:00.005-05:00

I finished "Pass Through" and pinned it to the wall. Immediately I noticed a problem. Despite the care taken with composition the picture looked bland.

I took a photo and opened it up in Photo Impact. Using the Burn-in Tool, I put in a foreground shadow, a shadow under the front gable siding and darkened the door. Immediately the picture just "popped". The illusion of sunshine was all that was needed to make the picture more attractive. Now I have to take it down and make the changes.

I have also started an oil pastel drawing. The subject in the old feed mill in Bangor, WI. Many photographs on this building have been taken by us over the past three decades. The building is abandoned but is magnificantly sited at the edge of a hill. Recently the town put a fence around it to keep people out (cheaper than tearing it down). But before that happened we walked around taking lots of close-ups for future drawings.

Another work in progress

2009-07-24T09:43:00.002-05:00

Here is a start to another drawing. This is based on photographs taken four years ago in Trempealeau county. This particular site with its horses and worn out barn has already been the inspiration for several drawings. Some places have so many possibilities for pictures.
Currently I am reading Diary of an Art Dealer by Rene Gimpel. It is a fascinating look at the arts scene in the early 20th century.

Finished "Bay Window"; did a pastel drawing

2009-07-15T19:42:00.005-05:00

The weather has been very nice but I did finally finish "Bay Window". It is now pinned to the wall for review. Maybe it will be matted next year. As a change of pace I did a small pastel of a red cow. I took the photo last Saturday. The glorious weather has made all of the colors, particularly the greens, brilliant and glowing.

More work done on "Bay Window"

2009-07-09T11:26:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was rainy, which meant more drawing time! Quite a bit of work was done on this drawing. It is colored pencil on white bristol paper, 16" x 21". I am striving to work with complementary colors: yellow-green and red-violet mostly. So many pictures, so little time. The backyard and watergarden call to me when the weather is good.

Finished a drawing, starting another

2009-07-01T13:43:00.003-05:00

I finally finished "Stoneshed" . It is now pinned to the wall for review. Some distance in time and space will allow me to determine what will need changing. Then it will go into storage for a few months and have another review later. This way I can spend my time and effort in matting and framing my best work. (At least that's how it is suppose to work)
My next project is based on a photograph from a couple of summers ago. We like to take drives around the Coulee Region and take pictures. This abandoned homestead with its deteriating house and barn was an invitation to stop and take lots of photos. I have always been interested in abandoned buildings, even as a kid. These days I am too heavy and disabled to go inside to explore, so I take lots of photographs through windows.

Stone shed-Work in progress and backyard

2009-06-16T13:09:00.007-05:00

I just don't seem to get much drawing done lately. Most of the time I'm outside in my backyard either working on improving the scenery or relaxing. A garden is always a work in progress, the work is never done. But the effort is worth it when the weather is nice, I'm sitting on the bench by the watergarden watching the fish swim, working on a needlework project and listening to classical music.

When it rains it is time to get some inside work done, like more drawing. For "Stone Shed" I am now doing the colored pencil rendering over the watercolor washes.

Another work in progress

2009-06-07T16:18:00.003-05:00

Here is the background washes for my current drawing. The original photo of the shed was taken three or four years ago in northern Iowa. It was alternately raining and sunshine there were a variety of pictures taken.

This is a rather large drawing for me (18" x 30"). When the weather is good I have been spending time outside in my backyard, either working or resting. This weekend is cool and rainy here in western Wisconsin.

Back from West Coast Trip and Digital painting

2009-05-21T14:16:00.010-05:00

Nearly two weeks after coming home I finally found time to write. Just catching up with yard and garden work was time comsuming but now it is raining, no need to be outside.

Normally I don't do drawings from my trips, the Midwest is inspiration enough for me at this time. However, I decided to take one of the photos taken from the car while driving through eastern Montana and do some digital work on it. Here it is after combining parts of three different photos, switching the church around and adjusting color and contrast.

First thing I did after manipulating the photo was go into Corel PhotoDraw. This is an old imaging software that is over ten years old. Since then Corel bought Painter. I wanted to keep this software for its Paint Alchemy feature. There are other features that it also has that are discontinued on newer software. However, it does not support pressure sensitive tablets. This first version is done with Small Mosaic settings. Not every picture will work well with all of the different settings. It takes some experimenting.

I also did versions in watercolor, oil paint, and pastel.

For my last version I went into Corel Painter 6, cloned (made a linked copy) and free hand did a version using oil pastels. I really don't use Painter 6 much except for doing cloned paintings, so getting a more advanced version isn't necessary.
To see larger images, click on the image. Please tell me what versions you like!

Finish one drawing, start another

2009-04-06T13:12:00.004-05:00

I finished the green leaves drawing, tentatively named "Fresh Leaves" and started another one. This new one is much smaller since we will be leaving on a trip in less than two weeks and need to prepare for it. This new drawing was taken last summer in deep shade, making the filtered light turn the leaf blue. I decided to keep it that color. It's different.

A start on Spring drawings

2009-04-02T09:48:00.004-05:00

Even though there isn't much green yet I started a green drawing. This photo was taken last May. I digitally manipulated this photo to bring out more contrast and a greater sense of depth. A "find edges" filter produced the line image that I did the basic drawing from.

What a great opportunity to use bright greens!

Two more winter drawings

2009-03-26T11:50:00.005-05:00

Like the month of March I can't just let winter go. I felt the need to do more winter themed drawings.

For a change of pace in media this drawing, tentatively called "Tree Snow Shadows" (10.5" x 16") is done in hard pastel on warm white laid charcoal paper. Laid is a ribbed texture that originated from the earliest handmade papers made on a screen of fine reeds. Most modern papers are made with wire screens but charcoal papers are still traditionally laid textured.

"The Right of Way" (colored pencil on gray paper, 9" x 12") is actually an indeterminate seasonal picture. The original photo was taken on a very cloudy, gray day. The drawing shown here actually has more color and contrast than the originating photograph. This is more of a comment about trees having to make way for power and telephone poles. As a photographer, I found the intrusion of poles and lines into a landscape annoying. Fortunately more lines are being buried all the time and clearing the skyline (just in time for giant wind generators to take over!) Seems like everytime we drive over to my parents near Austin, MN, there are more wind generators.

A review of winter drawings

2009-03-17T11:07:00.016-05:00

Spring is almost here! Here in LaCrosse most of the snow has melted and I actually hung laundry outside to dry. But being March, it can snow before the month is out. My policy is to draw pictures in season so soon I will look to spring themes for inspiration.

Here are the drawings I have done these past few months:

"Leaves in Snow", 12" x 16", colored pencil on tan paper. This is another addition to my ongoing "Leaves Series". This particular drawing was based on photos taken Thanksgiving day 2007 at my husband's cousin's back lot in Coon Rapids, MN. After eating I went out and took lots of photographs. I also did it again in 2008, but there was no snow then but I took many photos of leaves on the ground with the setting sun shining through them, many, many possibilities!

"Heavy Snow", 18" x 24", Oil pastel on purple-gray colorfix paper. This house and trees were just across the street from my house. There was a heavy March snowfall one day and I went around the neighborhood taking photos. This house and trees are now gone to make a parking lot for the catering business next door. The little tree was adopted and replanted elsewere.

"Nebraska Winter", 14" x 26", "Snow Storm", "16" x 26", Oil pastel on blue colorfix paper. This drawing and the one below it are based on photos taken in December 2007, my husband and I were returning from our trip to the Southwest on I-80 through Nebraska. The weather was horrible! There was an ice storm that kept icing up the windshield of the car. I took a few photos before it became too dark and another pair of eyes was needed to watch the road. Despite taking only a few photos, they became the inspiration for two drawings.

"Young Trees", watercolor and colored pencil. This drawing was featured earlier in this blog and was based on a photo taken the evening of Christmas Day 2008.

"Mower County Winter", watercolor and colored pencil. Last March about this time, we went to visit my parents. Mom and I drove to Albert Lea and around Freeborn and Mower Counties. I took lots of photos. Two of them became the basis for the next two drawings.
"Late Winter", watercolor and colored pencil.

The Iconography of The Times of the Day

2009-02-24T14:12:00.006-06:00

Doing artworks in a series has been common since the Renaissance. Not only just the Times of the Day, but also the Four Seasons and the Ages of Man.

We are more familiar with the expression of these concepts in music (perhaps because this music is still played and recorded for current listening). Fans of classical music are familiar with Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Respighi's The Pines of Rome, Copeland's An American in Paris and more recently the Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed.

In this series of Gericault's Times of the Day, the artist follows the current accepted moods for each picture.

In the first, Morning: Landscape with Fishermen, the colors are cool with early dawn light and four fishermen are pushing off their boat for a day of work. The craggy mountain in the middleground and the two exotic trees in the foreground are quite strange looking. The mountain certainly couldn't hold together for very long in a temperate climate and the palm tree fronds never looked like any palm I had seen in life or photographs.

In Noon: Landscape with a Roman Tomb, the imagery is more sinister. There are storm clouds appearing from the left, blocking out the blue sky. In the foreground a family is begging a boatman to take them across the river from the island with the tomb and gibbet before the storm breaks.

This picture is more effective than Morning since there are no odd-looking mountains and trees to distract the modern viewer. Noon pictures at this time always feature storms or other bad weather since the bright, top light is often flattening and difficult to compose with according to the ideas of that time. There are modern paintings that take advantage of the bright, top light and the resulting dark shadows for pictorial effect.

Evening: Landscape with an Acqueduct is the best of the lot in my opinion. The raking evening light illuminates the buildings, river, trees and the naked men swimming in the foreground. It has a peaceful, carefree mood.

If this series was finished Night would be a scene of a storm at sea and a drowning. Gericault had done some smaller paintings of the Deluge and several versions of the Tempest showing a drowned woman and child on the seashore. The Biblical Deluge has been a perfect opportunity for painters to have a history painting with lots of naked men, women and children in distress, the moral being the wrath of God on wicked people.

Surprisingly these examples of the Deluge and the Tempest have less emphasis on the human figures and more on the stormy seascape they are in. Despite of his love of the human figure, Gericault was trying for emotional impact through the landscape than with the people.

Despite Gericault's early death, he has made his mark on Art History, though these landscape paintings would be secondary to his paintings featuring animals and humans. I have been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art twice for two day visits, I don't remember seeing Evening: Landscape with an Acqueduct. The painting is very large (8.2 feet by 7.2 feet) but it must not have made any impact on me when compared to so many other great works of art on display. What did impress my husband and I was George Washington Crossing the Delaware. We are very familiar with reproductions in books and prints but were never aware of how huge it is!

This does give an idea of why history painting had high standing for so long.

Link to Gericault's Landscape with Acqueduct

2009-02-24T13:51:00.003-06:00

I figured a picture would be useful in this discussion so here is the link to the Metropolitan Museum's page about Evening: Landscape with Acqueduct
I couldn't find images of the other Times of Day paintings on the Web but there are several businesses offering prints of Gericault's paintings for sale.
Just do a Google Search!

The French concept of the sublime landscape

2009-02-17T14:06:00.002-06:00

The concept behind French landscape painting at this time was very different from the English and German sense of the romantic landscape. Paintings by Gericault's contemporaries Constable and Friedrich are very different in mood. Constable and Friedrich also did more sketching on site and appreciated the natural landscape as a vehicle for ideas and moods.
In keeping with the French desire for classification, in 1708 another theorist divided landscape into two categories:Paysage heroique, high-minded and moral; and paysage champetre, bucolic and more naturalistic. The concept of the sublime was introduced to elevate the status of landscape painting's ability to communicate ideas.
What is sublime? According to the critic Diderot: "all that stuns the soul, all that imprints a feeling of terror, leads to the sublime" (in that case many a horror movie could be considered sublime, and about realistic as many of these paintings!) The author of this bulletin further clarifies with "To stun the soul, to stir the mind . . ." (well that has made it clear as mud!)
The increasing interest in artists going outside, sketching and using these sketches as models for paintings instead of examples of previous artists had some some pundits outraged. After all Poussin, Claude and others had done it right and idealized nature, one couldn't do better. By the turn of the nineteenth century many submissions to the official Salons were realistic landscapes instead of idealized, "composed" landscapes. Fearing moral decline because of this, the government created the Prix de Rome for landscape painters to study in Italy for inspiration of the ideal.
The point is that Gericault went against the current trend of looking around him at nature and went to the old practice of using themes and motifs from other artists to create his Times of Day series.
Much of this article is like a treasure hunt in which experts go looking for precedents for the buildings, figures and themes used in Gericault's Times of Day in other artworks, particulary in prints which are easily accessable to the artist and some are known to have been in his possession.

The French Hierarchy of painting

2009-02-13T10:11:00.003-06:00

Last time I mentioned the French Academy ranking of paintings by subject. By coincidence I started to read another MMA bulletin (Winter 1989/90) about Jean-Baptiste Greuze by James Thompson. Greuze was a genre (typical scenes representing everyday life) painter during the eighteenth century.
The author (Thompson) has given a brief synopsis of the rankings:

"Since the formation of the French Academy in the mid-seventeenth century, there had been a codification of the relative importance of different types of paintings. Andre Felibien, friend and biographer of the premier French painter Nicolas Poussin, had in 1666 ranked them thus:
1. History, 2. Human Portraits, 3. Animals, 4. Landscapes, 5. Still Lifes. . . . Although our modern impulse is to rate works on their quality and intensity of execution, irrespective of their dimensions, subject matter, or type, the eighteenth century thought quite differently, and there were good commonsense reasons for so thinking. Such grand-size productions were
universally regarded as more important, partly because they were seen as morally elevating but also because they were known by the practitioners to be more difficult to bring off successfully. In the first place, it is much harder for a painter to maintain correct proportions and compositional coherence on a large scale. Furthermore, a history picture often must demonstrate mastery of the other painting types, such as background landscape or foreground still life, in addition to establish the credible dramatic animation and interrelationship
of figures, one of the most difficult tasks of the painter's art and one that most clearly demonstrates the prized power of imagination."

Comments on Gericault's Heroic Landscapes

2009-02-12T10:55:00.002-06:00

I was recently reading The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin Winter 1990/91 Gericault's Heroic Landscapes: The Times of the Day. I bought several of these bulletins at the latest library sale at the LaCrosse Public Library and are reading them before posting them on Ebay. (If I kept every book I have read, my house would collapse from the weight!)
In 1989, The MMA acquired Gericault's Evening: Landscape with an Acquaduct. This prompted the writing of this article about Gericault's landscape painting in general and the series The Times of the Day in particular. Gericault (1791-1824) is better known for his paintings of horses, soldiers and other human figures. His signature work is The Raft of the Medusa, (1818, 16.3 feet by 23.66 feet). FYI: The Medusa was a French frigate that foundered off of the coast of West Africa. 250 of the officers and crew went into the boats and the 150 civilian passengers were put on a makeshift raft. The raft was supposed to have been towed by the boats but the captain abandoned them. After 18 days, another ship rescued only ten survivors. Two of these survivors were educated men and published an expose accusing the captain of the Medusa of murder, leaving the civilians to death by thirst, starvation, madness and cannibalism. This was sensational and prompted Gericault a reason for a painting to show strong emotions and displays of male anatomy.
Many contemporary critics found it ugly and corrupting, not beautiful and uplifting.
Now back to the Times of the Day series, There are three known paintings by Gericault in this series; Morning: Landscape with Fishermen (Munich, Neue Pinakothek), Noon: Landscape with a Roman Tomb (Paris, Musee du Petit Palais) and Evening: Landscape with an Acquaduct (NYC, Metropolitan Museum of Art). For this series to be complete there should have been a fourth painting for Night, but the only evidence is a statement by a very old art dealer that he sold Night to a collector in Rio de Janiero in 1949, but had no photographs, only a crude drawing as evidence. Research has shown that three canvases matching the dimensions of the known paintings were delivered to the artist's studio in 1818. He may have planned a fourth but got distracted by another project, The Raft of the Medusa. (In my opinion a good thing, The Raft of the Medusa worked to Gericault's strengths and interests, as a landscape painter he is rather mediocre.)
The Times of the Day is not an original idea with Gericault, it was a common theme for paintings and prints during the previous century. Gericault's paintings were the last known series done on this theme.
One thing must be made clear: these paintings were not portraits of any particular location, mostly generalized Italian views. The artist spent two years in Italy, but did very little landscape sketching, most of his time was spent studying works in collections. Indeed, much of the official art of the time disdained working from nature (except for figure drawing) and insisted on using past painters like Poussin, Claude, and others as models. The French were very fond of hierarchy in art by putting history painting at the top with portraits, landscapes and still life at the bottom. Even though to our eyes, The Raft of the Medusa would be considered a history painting, it featured contemporary events in contemporary dress. The pundits of the time insisted that in order to be serious art, contemporary historical figures should be dressed in classical costume and related to ancient history to be legitimate. This has led to curious pieces like George Washington dressed in a toga!

Finished Mower County Winter

2009-02-06T14:02:00.000-06:00

I finished this drawing a couple of days of ago. The next step is to put it away and forget about it for awhile, then take it out, attach to the wall and determine what changes are needed to make it a better picture. I tend to be fond of my current work and time gives perspective on a picture's quality.

Further work on Mower County Winter

2009-02-01T20:44:00.001-06:00

Here is a close up of the basic drawing for this picture. The picture could easily be just this part but extending the format and showing more fields, trees and barn in a subordinate role makes for a more isolated, cold feeling. (Ah, sweet melancholy!)

The washes were done by a light layering of watercolor pencils and wetted and smoothed out. For the sky I prefer to put the paper upside down. The sky was more blotchy than I liked so later it was rewetted and smoothed out with a natural sponge.

The trees in the fence line were traced on and preliminary coloring done lightly with indigo colored pencil.

Another work in progress-Mower County in Winter

2009-01-28T10:55:00.000-06:00

After finishing one drawing it is time to do another! I have many drawings to do before I can no longer do them. Whether they were worth doing is a consideration left to other people, preferably after I am gone.

This new picture is based on a photo taken last March near the Cedar River west of my parent's home . (The same Cedar River that flooded Cedar Rapids last spring, but much further north). It was semi-overcast and a bit hazy. I moved the house in the background to center it between the trees and cropped it to a horizontal format.

Here are the base drawing and the color study for this drawing. I will be using watercolor pencils for the background and the rest in colored pencil.

Young Trees finished

2009-01-23T11:06:00.000-06:00

After tracing my drawing onto the precolored paper it was time to use the colored pencils. I used purple, violet and blue-violet with just a touch of yellow ocher. Once I got going it didn't take very long. For many drawings most of the work is preparing the composition, color decisions, the graphite pencil drawing and the background washes.

Through experience I have found out that preplanning and preparation improved my finished results and saved time in the long run.

Background color wash for Young trees drawing

2009-01-17T22:26:00.000-06:00

For the picture itself, I indicated the horizon line on a half-sheet (22" x 15") 140 lb watercolor paper and masked out the crescent moon to keep it white. The finished drawing itself will be 12" x 17". Then I wetted the paper and put in blue at the top, fading out toward the horizon and added a touch of red and yellow near the horizon. The snow in the forground got a pale layer of blue.

Pictures at Prismacolor site

2009-01-17T12:19:00.000-06:00

Last spring I entered several drawings to Prismacolor's Picture It! contest. Now they have selected the best and posted the entries to Prismacolor Gallery. Two of mine, a pastel drawing and a colored pencil drawing made the cut. You can visit, vote and comment on your favorites.

New drawing-Young trees

2009-01-16T18:47:00.000-06:00

I was reviewing the digital photos I took Christmas Day evening while driving home from my parents'. This photo caught my eye for further consideration.

There are two possible drawings from this photo. The large tree and grain bin on the right and the cluster of young trees on the left.

I decided to concentrated on the cluster of trees. The evening light, snow and and the appearance of the trees huddling together says cold!

After cropping and removing the unwanted stuff in the sky, I arranged the trees into a format that made a pleasing composition.

Then I printed out the picture and at the drawing board, did test colors in watercolor for the background and pencil colors for the trees. I don't try for a perfect color match with the photo since the colors don't always match with the screen and some experimentation with color can increase the effect desired anyway.

While doing this it occurred to me to try out a crescent moon. I drew one in on the photo and thought it would work. For better accuracy, I went to Flickr and found an evening crescent moon as my model.

For another picture printout I overlaid a handy grid object for scaling up when I did my pencil underdrawing on lightweight white paper.

More about "The $12 Million Shark" and concluding thoughts

2009-01-12T10:06:00.000-06:00

The next four chapters are about the auction houses, particularly Christie's and Sotheby's. There is the history of these establishments and the two other auction houses that are closest in size:Phillips de Pury and Bonhams. The curious fact is that these businesses don't compete for customers, but instead for choice consignments.
The competition for choice consignments can be intense as mentioned earlier in this blog and the publicity the winning auction house use to generate interest can be very creative. The glossary auction catalog with its excellent color photographs, monographs on the items by in-house experts and florid descriptions are collector items long afterwards. The auction houses actually break even producing these catalogs since they are sold.

The chapter on Auction Psychology is very fascinating. The author lists the kinds of bidders to be found at these auctions-agents bidding on behalf of collectors, wealthy foreign buyers and public museum agents. Many bidders are on the phone with their clients. These auctions are quite the event, there is a pecking order in the seating arrangements, and the room is often packed with only a minority actually planning to bid. The auctioneer is the ringmaster to this, pacing the auction and adding further information to drive interest and bids. Don't expect the Midwestern Chant style I grew up listening to when I attended farm auctions with my mother (or at the Barrett-Jackson car auctions shown on the Speed cable channel). But the drama is no less intense. Some superstar auctioneers are part of the consignment deal, only a particular auctioneer will sell this work.

As a case study the author covered the auction sale of Francis Bacon (199-1992) Three Studies for a Self-portrait, painted in 1982. After the owner selected an auction house (Christie's), there were negotiations for reserve price, positioning in the sales catalogue and the auction line-up. Spacing and order is very important in keeping the bidders' interest. The reserve price, despite by taking into account scarcity, other works by the artist in important collections and museums and auction prices of similar work by the artist, is still a guess.
Just before the sale, there was a retrospective of work by Bacon to generate interest in the artist, and private auction reviews. Despite of all the maneuverings and publicity the painting barely made its reserve and never reached the proposed estimate of its final price. The most important factor in its disappointing prices was not quality or publicity but it didn't come from a branded collection! The consignee wanted to remain anonymous and anyway wouldn't have been known in collecting circles.
To prove this the author described several other Bacon paintings that were of equal or lesser quality, but because of were they came from sold for very high prices compared to Three Studies for a Self-portrait.

There is intense competition between auction houses and dealers for secondary art sales. Auction houses hold the edge in getting these consignments. Dealers, despite promoting new works, get much of their income from secondary sales, not original works. There is a description for "private treaty dealing" done by auction houses which bypasses the dealers and still keep sales private. Some auction houses are now selling new work consigned by the artist. There are also sealed bid auctions that compete with dealers. And selling work at auction is dramatic and glamorous. The dealers are at a strong disadvantage.

One advantage dealers have are high-level art fairs. These fairs have little in common with the art shows and fairs that I attended to sell my works. These high-level art fairs are more like industry trade shows held in major cities mostly in Europe and North America. Dealers attend these, bringing their star artworks for sale. Major art fairs are on the rise, in 2001 there were 55, in 2008 205 major art shows scheduled around the world.
Because fairs are convenient, they are a favorite with time-strapped collectors. Comparison shopping is easy and impulse buying common. Dealers can compete for high-quality consignments because at a fair there can be a quick resell. But the disadvantage is that fairs are time-consuming and expensive to attend. And fairs are considered a terrible environment to view art, with over bright lights, crowds, and random juxtaposition of various works. Some artists don't like fair sales because they sell too much too soon and are asked to produce "more of the same" and not develop further. (wish I had that problem!)
Some of the major art fairs listed in this chapter are Art Basel, Maastricht, The Armory in NYC, Basel Miami and Frieze in London.
Two chapters are about the uneasy relationship between art and money and how contemporary art is priced. So much of art is classified in terms of the money related to it: whether auction estimates, actual auction prices, rumors of who paid so much for a work, etc.
"It is easier to appreciate art when what is required is not an understanding of art history, just your memory of a recent article about high auction prices."
Dealers and artists are bothered by this, after all they went into the art business for an initial love of the arts. But they do have to earn a living. Experiments with government patronage do not work out very well. This has been tried in The Netherlands, France, and the U.K. But the artists that are in these programs are never heard from again. The U.S. spends very little compared to France on supporting artists, but on the dealers' lists mentioned earlier in this book, none are French but many are American. There have been studies on the relationship between subsidies and motivation and there is certainly a negative effect. (I know this from personal experience, when I was on unemployment benefits I did the bare minimum for job searching. When I graduated with my printing diploma I was very aggressive in looking for a printing job and was willing to travel across several states to do so, both of us were unemployed.)
Other subsidies are for art prizes (Like the Turner Prize at the Tate in London) which generate lots of publicity and controversy for a few and subsidies to museums so they can meet their operating expenses.
Museums have many works that are never on display but not sold. To remove anything from a public collection invites controversy and the general public views it as a loss, not a gain in funds for new works or restoration. Sometimes works are rented either to private individuals or to other, smaller museums.
Pricing an artwork is an art in of itself. The actual value of the materials or the time spent making it are of little consequence. The starting point is the dealer's status, pricing to reflect his standing but low enough to generate sales for a new artist. Later in the artist's career and acquire an history and reputation, prices go up. And prices must go up, a dealer must never reduce an artist's list price (though discounts can be offered privately). There is the implicit promise the resale value rising over time. And as mentioned earlier, dealers exchange artists who prices are going down.
For secondary works, dealers do "justified" pricing, to convince the buyer the price is fair compared to another piece in the same room. And there is the fine art of discounting, which is dependent upon the dealer knowing his client well and buyer psychology; this is why the gallery attendants never talk about prices, they are not authorized to do so since the prices quoted often depend on who's buying.
"Hot" artists have waiting lists with a pecking order favoring museums, important collectors and the gallery's best customers. New collectors have to submit a resume to be put on a waiting list! Waiting lists are good for dealers, but not for artists. A would-be buyer is interested in what he saw last year and waited a year for a similar piece, but the artist is changing directions and not producing the same stuff. And of course a "waiting list" in good hype for an artist and dealer.
An important concern are buyers who immediately resell or "flip" a work at auction for much higher than they bought it in the gallery. This is an uncomfortable for the dealer since they are reluctant to increase prices much as ten-fold to match the auction price. This would discourage their regular customers. Sometimes a buyer would flip by consigning to another dealer who then takes is to an art fair. Fakes are a big problem with contemporary art. Of course there are the forgeries of Old Masters and fakes of newer artists. The problem is that much "conceptional art" uses premade objects which are available to anyone and techniques like Damien Hirst's spot and spin paintings are easy to imitate.
Jackson Pollock's drip paintings are generating new controversy because of a found collection in a storage locker and the famous "junk shop" Pollock found by Terry Horton (see Who the $#%& is Jackson Pollock?). When there is a lot of money at stake motives are always suspect.

The chapter on art critics is very short. There haven't been any influential critics since Clement Greenberg (read The Painted Word by Tom Wolf). The power to make or break an artist has gone to dealers. Though a good writer can be illuminating about art and artists for those who read them, it seems those who really buy don't read and follow the dealers' or auction houses' lead instead.

Museums are a major factor in helping to establish an artist's popularity and prices. Curators at major and branded art museums are trying to acquire works by contemporary artists before the prices rise too high, sometimes demanding and getting discounts just so the artist can claim to be in certain museums as a selling point. Many museums count of blockbuster works that put them in all the guide books as a must see: for example the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. The recent high price paid for Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt is intended as the blockbuster audience draw for a new museum called Neue Galerie in NYC. Collectors wishing to make a contribution hardly offer grants for operations, instead the publicity is in donating works or funding new wings.

Many billionaires are starting museums to show off their collections (for example Ron Lauder and Neu Galerie mentioned above). Museums can also influence an artist career by "flipping" a donated painting as auction with the resultant publicity or giving retrospective shows. Though the selection for retrospectives are made in collusion with dealers.

The branding of museums has gone global with the Guggenheim using its name for museums in Bilbao, Spain; Berlin, Germany and other places around the world. To attract visitors, museums compete in architecture (which sometimes is cheaper than buying a blockbuster artwork!). The Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain is just one example.
End Game is the chapter the author summarizes what he has covered in this book. The questions he had answered were: who determined what artists were "hot" and what were the reasoning behind pricing something that can be easily produced by technicians and making it seem a good investment? With these questions there is a third one: what is going to happen to the contemporary art market and its crazy prices?

Conditions prior the the 1990 crash and current conditions are compared. Now there are more wealthy collectors around and the prestige art supply is constant, raising prices further. Because of the increase in museums, purchases for these institutions also drive up prices.

A danger to the contemporary art market would be the realization that "The emperor has no clothes", but I really wouldn't be concerned about that. As long as "supercollectors" buy this stuff, others will value it. There is always the concern of suddenly a large and important collection needing to sell off immediately. That would drop prices for certain artists.

A prediction is that auction houses will become more important than dealers and art fairs will continue to be popular making buying art like going to a shopping mall. This could mean more buyers but fewer collectors.

The book ends with the question: Is art a good investment? The answer is: NO. Most art will not appreciate and transaction costs can cut into a selling price. Different categories can cycle up and down. Most inexpensive art won't ever increase in price on the secondary market, never. Buy it because it pleases you, not for resale.

Press coverage is skewed toward reporting the most astounding prices for certain pieces, but taken overall, the profits can be very modest.

There is a history of groups buying art as an investment, most notably Paris's La Peau de l'ours formed in the early 20th century. Some international banks have art investment departments and new art investment funds have been recently formed. There have been failures in these ventures that are never discussed.

For those who want to invest in art (perhaps as an hobby) there is advice: get educated! This can take some time, talk to gallery reps about their artists (if they won't talk, leave), read newsletters from the art advisory boards of major banks (Citibank, JP Morgan, UBS Global Asset management), learn how to identify promising artists.

Or as an alternative to researching artists, you can investigate mainstream dealers and see how well they manage their stable of artists. Do they promote? Do their artists' shows get reviewed? What other clients they have? Will you can get an immediate purchase or just put on a waiting list?

There is much more advice in this chapter that I won't cover except this: watch out for new young artists from Russia, India and China.

Personal conclusions

After reading this book I was thankful that the art world covered in it isn't the only one. I obviously belong to a very different world. There are the artists who make a living with reproductions of their work, have specific niches (like American Western, landscapes, animals, etc) and manage to make a living. But they most likely will never get into a major museum.

In this world the artist is responsible for his or hers own marketing and promotion. A perusal of such publications such at The Artist's Magazine, American Artist, International Artist and Art Calendar have many articles about marketing and publicity for the individual artist. The internet has been a great boon for artists with online galleries and weblogs to generate interest.

Not just realistic artists are happier out of the major art scene loop: I talked to an artist in Galena, IL who had his gallery opened weekends only and made a living selling his large acrylic abstract paintings. His friends back in NYC are still struggling with low-paying jobs while still looking for gallery representation.

There are Superstars. This past fall I had the privilege to view a retrospective of Robert Bateman's work at the National Wildlife Museum near Jackson, WY. To view Chief, a very large painting of a bull bison, was awesome. To see the other works by artists new and old was a pleasure. I enjoyed Gutzom Borglum's sculpture of wild horses. (Who was Gutzom Borglum? Think Mount Rushmore!)

Don't forget America's second largest art market after NYC: Santa Fe, NM! Santa Fe, Taos and a small town call Madrid located on the scenic route between the two others have a great variety of art (not just cowboy and Indian stuff) and is comparatively inexpensive. It will just be an investment in pleasure, not for monetary gain.

What will it be like a hundred years from now? I predict Damien Hirst's shark will be mouldering in a basement while Chief will be on display still giving pleasure to its viewers.

The Art and Artists

2009-01-08T09:26:00.000-06:00

Because the best art of previous styles are disappearing into museums and collections that will end up in museums, comtempoary art has become more important in the resale market. Also the role of aesthetics has declined in judging art. What is emphasized is the mystique of the artist, who owns his work and recent prices at auction. There is often elaborate verbiage describing the "meaning" of a work, much of it invented by the copywriter.
The author asked the question "Who are the great contemporary artists?" to dealers, auction specialists, and other experts. No two offered the same list of names. There is a list of twenty-five artists who made the consensus, none are women. The only woman that was mentioned in some of the lists was Cindy Sherman, a photographer. Supposedly she is the most popular woman artist of the 20th century-I don't recognize the name so I did a Google search and came up with two Cindy Shermans! Both are photographers-one doing standard commercial portrait photography and the other the famous artist. Looking at some of her pictures they looked vaguely familiar but to say she is more popular that Georgia O'Keefe or Frida Kahlo is ridiculous.
Despite the publicity about the high prices, the world of contemporary art isn't very large. The figures used by the author are: ten thousand museums, art institutions, & public collections; fifteen hundred auction houses; 250 annual art fairs and shows; seventeen thousand commercial galleries worldwide. The estimated value of world contemporary art sales is about $20 billion per year. WOW! But to put it into perspective: $20 billion is the worldwide sales of Nike or Apple Computer or half the worldwide sales of the Walt Disney Corporation.
The art market looks good from the standpoint of a branded artist represented by a branded dealer and OK for the artists and dealers on the next level down (mainstream). The author has estimated 80,000 artists in the Greater London and New York City areas. There are 75 superstar artists (7 figure incomes), 300 hundred successful artists (6 figure incomes), next level down are about 5,000 artists that have some gallery representation and supplement their incomes from other sources. There are at least 15,000 artists looking for representation in both London and NYC but branded galleries ignore them, the mainstream galleries don't bother with cold calling artists.
So where do these galleries find their artists? Branded galleries take artists from other galleries, the mainstream galleries visit artist's studios, attend art school graduate shows or follow up on recommondations by friends, gallery artists and collectors.
What this means is that many artists struggle for several years and most give up being professional by age thirty.
Getting to the top requires various combinations of talent, luck, marketing and branding. The next several chapters describe the careers of Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and Tracy Emin. "None provides an easy template for the aspiring artist."
There is a chapter devoted to Charles Saatchi, an advertising executive who became a branded collector and dealer. He specializes in "shock art" and "conceptual art" (for example Damien Hirst's shark). There is a list of the top twenty active collectors of comtemporary art at the end of this chapter.

Branding in the Art World and the players

2009-01-04T21:04:00.000-06:00

Branding, also known as name recognition, is a shortcut. We are used to it in consumer products of all types including entertainment. With name recognition a person has a shortcut to identifying possibly worthwhile products and ideas. Myself am trying to "brand" my artwork using the name "Middle Border Artist" to give the idea of realistic art based on Midwest scenery.
In the higher echelons of the Art World covered in this book all the major players are branded: museums, dealers, collectors, art galleries, artists, auction houses (try naming an art auction house other than Christies and Sotheby's off the top of your head) and even cities (New York, London, Paris have more cachet than Milwaukee, Minneapolis or Seattle) Museum branding convers status (for instance compare The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim or the Tate as opposed to a museum in Philadelphia or even Winona, MN (Minnesota Maritime Art Museum). An artist's work can triple in value just by being in a branded gallery.
A branded artist (for example Damien Hirst) can have just about anything with his or hers name on it accepted at a premium value. Of course to be a branded artist you have to be accepted by all the branded dealers, museums, auction houses, etc.
Because of branding many purchasers of Contemporary Art buy sight unseen, just on the recommendation of a branded dealer offering the work of a branded artist. Many newly rich Russians, Japanese and Chinese go this route. They are looking for instant world status as connoisseurs.
The next two chapters in the book cover the convoluted, ritual world of branded auction houses and dealers. The amount of money exchanged hands is often used for publicity purposes and even when there wasn't that much money involved, there are manuverings to make it seem more. The author, Mr. Thompson can do a much better job in describing pricing, bidding and paying for the art. Branded art galleries are designed to be intimidating to visitors. Unless you are a known "person of high net worth" they can't afford to spend time on casual visitors.
This is a strong contrast to the galleries on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, NM, where they were solicitous of an overweight, middle-aged woman, offering her water to drink, a place to sit and willing to talk about the artists. (Thank You!)
For both dealers and auction houses, carefully choreographed publicity campaigns are important. Auction houses also have beautifully printed catalogs to increase interest in their offerings. They are very picky about where the artwork is reproduced and reviewed in magazines, shown in special museum shows and lended to certain potential buyers to "try out".
There is strong competition among dealers and auction houses to get consignments: offering high guaranteed prices, advance money to the consignor, meeting consigner's demands for promotion and other deals. Auction houses are aggressive in finding consignors often by checking the obituaries for the deaths of any prominent collectors.
Dealers offer new works by artists and spend much time and money promoting new artists who have made their way from lesser known dealers to the branded ones. But the main profits are from the secondary market-reselling works from collections. It is a gamble to take on new artists, only one artist in two hundred that are in branded galleries will have his or hers work reach the branded auction houses.
If an artist is falling out of favor and can't get the previous prices, the dealer will drop him. They much rather do that than offer discounts since previous buyers would find out and be unhappy. But dealers are willing to exchange artists among themselves since it is OK to have lower prices at a new dealer.
The private dealer or art consultant don't actually handle any artwork personally. He or she works out of an apartment, troll the art news sources and often make cold calls offering to resell an item to another collector privately and get a small percentage. They also develop relationships with collectors and guide them to appropiate artworks for sale. Obviously networking skills are very important.

More about "The $12 Million Stuffed Shark"

2008-12-31T11:06:00.000-06:00

The Stuffed shark referred to in the title is The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living by British artist Damien Hirst. This fifteen foot shark was caught in Australian by a professional shark hunter and shipped to the U.K. It was mounted into a tank of formeldahyde by technicians under the guidance of the artist in 1992. Because of poor preservation techniques, the shark decomposed and had to be replaced with a similar one.

This piece is used as an introduction to the elevated world of "contemporary art", some of the major players and the maneuverings to gain publicity and increase the selling price.

The author's stated purpose is to ". . . explore money, lust, and the self-aggrandizement of possession, all important elements in the world of contemporary art." And a strange world it is to us ordinary folks.

The basis for this world is two: Lots of money and insecurity. It seems strange that extremely wealthy people can be insecure. Many "High Net Worth Individuals" apparently often don't have the time to education themselves aesthetically and look to shortcuts. There are some out there who have a genuine passion for "contemporary art" and know what they like, but they are the exception to the rule.

The author tries to define "contemporary art". There are also "Modern" and "impressionist" categories which also can be the same age of "contemporary art". There are many variations on the definition so the author has a working definition for the purpose of this book: ". . . art that is non-traditional and was created after 1970, or that a major auction house has offered it or a similar work by the same artist as 'contemporary'." For further simplicity he has decided to discuss two-dimensional works on canvas or paperand sculpture. This leaves out quite abit like video, film, performance and much else. After all the purpose of this book is to explore the economics of the "contemporary art" scene, not an overview of whats out there.

"Contemporary art" often overlaps with design, for example Louis Viutton handbags. Everyday objects often are included when it is part of "conceptual art", when the "idea" is more important than skills and craftsmanship or even permanence.

Another factor contributing to collector's not trusting their own judgement is the way "contemporary art" is described in vague terms like "innovation", "investment value", and being "hot". There isn't much someone can understand except "investment value". Later on in this book "investment value" is shown to be a house of cards.

So what is our poor "High Net Worth Individual" to do? Like many consumers looking for a shortcut to perceived value, they depend on branding.

2008-12-30T11:45:00.000-06:00

Here is a recently completed colored pencil drawing called "At The Barn". It is based on a series of digital photos I took May 2007 in Trempealeau County, WI. It was a cool, rainy day for a drive, but my husband, Don, and I were doing a studio tour and this place had horses and an old barn. I have already done several drawings from this location and have more planned. There are more ideas than I have time!
The drawing is 20" x 16" and done in colored pencil on green paper. I showed it to my friends in the Odin Arts Coop and it was suggested to lighten the red lines on the face of the barn. I took this photo before I lightened them.

Let's Welcome in the New Year!

2008-12-28T12:13:00.000-06:00

Hi! My name is Carol, and live here in the great Middle West (aka: The Middle Border). I am starting this blog to meet people who would be interested in my artwork and books about art.
I read as much about art as I make art and want to share with the world my works-in-progress and my thoughts about my readings on Art History and Art Philosophy. (And sometimes housework gets done!)
Currently I am reading The $12 Million Stuffed Shark; the curious economics of contemporary art by Don Thompson, an instructor in economics and marketing. It is a good read and very informative about a world of art and money that I can't possibly reach or even want too!