Making Art at Esalen Institute!

Here is a flyer for a class I am teaching at the famed Esalen Institute. This is going to be a great class for anyone interested in empowering their creativity in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Spots are filling up so act soon! www.esalen.org for registration information. Click on image for a larger view.

Painting Hateley

Here is a recent panting I did of my friend Michael Hateley. I was experimenting with the idea of a complimentary color underpainting and then a true color cover to see if I could get richer greys and some luminescence in the skin tones. I always admired the use of green in the skin with painters like Alma Tadema and Bougerrou.

Henri Dreamstir

A Dreamstir is a kind of painting that acts as a display for who you say you are in the world. We surround ourselves with displays all the time, the car we drive, the clothes we wear, our jewelry, or the places we live. These are all displays, conscious or unconscious, to keep in place how we create ourselves. What displays do yo have that point you or even pull you to your highest conception of yourself? THAT is what a Dreamstir is. Its a painting of the highest thought of my client, co-created by both of us. And it acts as a display to remind him of his magnificence. This client lives a huge and beautiful life and wanted a painting to reflect "the totality of the human experience." Oh Sure! Its the kind of project that at first makes you want to run for the hills. But then, if you could pull it off, if you could bring your own artistry into alignment with just such a possibility of satisfying that request, how cool would that be? In life, these challenges offer an opportunity for growth beyond our wildest imagination. I have been working on this painting on and off for three years. I was not a good enough painter to tackle this when I booked the commission. Now I am. And I am so grateful to my client for seeing in me what I could not see myself. I should finish this painting this week and I'll post the done deal when its complete and talk more about technique at that time. But as you can see, its an ultramarine blue under painting done somewhat like a rub out. However, since this painting reflects the totality of human experience, its got just about every technique known to painting folded inside of it as well. More on that next time!

Rubbing out.

Here is an example of what's called a rub out technique. After the drawing is done in black prisma on the canvas. Its fixed with workable fixative and then burnt umber is used liberally with a thinning medium like gamsol or even straight walnut oil. Its put on thickly and then rubbed out carefully to add the values to the image. This can be a very zen like experience, moving slowly and finding the rhythms in the flow of darks to lights. Only do a small portion at a time. Say a one foot by one foot section. You'll have a couple of hours of drying time to play with it. Then its a matter of adding the color.
Color is added more in glazes for the darks and more thickly in the lights. The true game with this technique is to understand the edges. Edges form and fade, ebb and flow and you control where you want to lead the eye.

Direct painting

Here is a portrait I did recently. This is an example of direct painting. I wanted to capture the spontaneity of the two boys as if they were just about to take off at any minute.

I create myself.

It seems like this is as good a place to start as any. Here is a drawing I did a few years ago in one of the thousand sketchbooks I've filled. Art is a lifelong endeavor and while most of us would like to emerge into the spotlight with a bang, life occurs in increments. Moments tick by, are you going in the right direction? Do you create yourself? I think we do daily. Today it starts again, in increments. Lines flow from thought, down your arm, out of the tip of a burnt stick or flowing like blood through a worn pen and onto the paper to describe both a body seen and soul felt. Body and soul. That's why I like drawing.
Go figure! That's more of a cheer than an invitation. I love the human figure. Its twists and turns are a map to the divine design.