Like A Sloth Moving Forward

 Oil on paper 2-3/4" x 8"

As my last post here indicates, I enjoy, receive energy from, open up the 'Art' side of my brain, and generally love to hear what other painters/artists have to say about the process of becoming, and of being an artist.  Some artists have said to me, "I've always been an artist, never any need to 'become' one..."... Fine, I'm jealous of that myopia.  The question that comes to my mind when I hear that is "Really?  You never, ever thought about anything else in life, or found anything else in life to be really cool to do?  Other than what you have always done?" If so, that's Wonderful, I am in awe!

I like to fish, hunt, fly airplanes, mow the yard, tear out brush, work with animals (3 years of being a vet tech in high school almost had me looking at being a veterenarian), ski (I taught skiing professionally from the time I was in the 10th grade until I was off to Art School and could have enjoyed that as a 'life')... cut, rivet and glue big things together (like boats and airplanes), do light construction work... and on and on.  At one time or another, any of those interests almost had me off on another life tangent.

I am getting to a point about art eventually... your indulgence of my sloth like movement foreword is appreciated greatly.  In this stream of consciousness piece, it seems, I am thinking out loud about why I am always questioning my art, and myself as an artist. Pretty boring stuff... you can check out now.

If not...

I'm happy that although I spent my earliest years scribbling in bird books with Crayola crayons, having 'battle drawing' events on lined notebook paper with my other pre-school warrior buddies (the result of being a military brat), copying the cartoons of my dad, and all of those photos in National Geographic, I had many, many other interests in my back pack of life.

I would be an idiot not to think that my life could have taken several different roads (like if I was just a few months older and my draft number had been drawn in 1972), if only due to all of my interests in life, if nothing else.  And I would be blind not to think that all of those other interests, hobbies, curious periods about the wide world around me, didn't have some profound effect on me and the reason that I am an artist.  They made me the artist that I may become, by the time I end up as a pile of dust.  Without those interests, I don't think I could have become an artist.  They are what formed the way I see the world Now... and Now is all I have to gauge where my art is.

To cut this way short, when I left the college biology labs (the ornithologist in me wanted to draw and paint birds) to find an art school program that would give me the best basic training that I was aware of, I chose Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and began a major program in Illustration. I actually interviewed at UCDavis with Wayne Thiebaud, but decided it wasn't structured enough for who I was then... meaning I didn't know crap and needed a lot of work!  Looking back, it would have been interesting to have tried that out...

I do not have the mind or make up of an illustrator, I knew and had that confirmed at Art Center.  Although I received great training there, I didn't have the right stuff to head off to NYC or stay in LA and work in a commercial studio.  My youth as the son of a military officer, and all of the affiliated discipline that goes along with that, created the rather rebellious attitude that I now carry with me.   Nothing serious, I am not plotting to overthrow anyone, or anything (yet), but I tend to reject being told what to do, and I reject the idea that nothing can change, or be faulted, no matter how long I might have held a point of view, or belief about it. Illustrators must do what the client or art director wants them to do.  I used to try to be that way, but it never worked for me.

The reason I am talking about this, other than as my own therapy, is because of late I have been rebelling against what I thought I knew about me, what I thought I was, as a painter.  I'm convinced that it's very important to keep looking inward to evaluate where I am as a painter, where my art is, why it is, what is it, is it of me, am I doing the most I can do to take advantage of this life as an expressive visual artist?

Cliche alert: Turns out there really is ONLY ONE LIFE, at least only one where there are art supply stores near by, so I better make it the best art life that I can.  I'm sure that many of you think about this too, in fact it's an age old conundrum... Am I making the most out of this gift of life that has been given to me?

Enough of that... the point of this is that lately I have been in the studio painting.  A place where the "plein air" painter in me feels very uncomfortable.  So I have been asking myself why that is?  And is there a way to make the studio as seemingly vital to my art, as I feel the outside is when I'm outside painting?  And... why not just paint outside?

While I feel this way about the studio, I also understand that there are things that can happen in here that won't happen outside.  My challenge is to try to find out what that is... alas... that is the point of this post.  I've spent many years in a studio, painting and illustrating.  Not to disparage that time or those paintings, because they were what they were then.  None the less, I've always felt like I was out of place in here, and that the paintings were something being forced out of me.  Not paintings that were truthful examples of who I was, or am as an artist.  Every once in awhile I would do something that gave me a glimpse of that, but then I'd revert to this other thing.  This is where the sloth like temperament comes in.  It takes me a long time to recognize these sort of things in myself.

Back to those videos I posted yesterday, and some others that I've been watching lately.  I've learned that I have more in me that I can do in the studio, than I have been doing.  I haven't been paying enough attention to the 'Art' in my art.  Not listening enough to my own visual queuing up when it makes noise.  I am not going to be able to paint with the same kind of honesty and truth in here, that I am able to pull out of myself when I am standing out in Mother Nature, face to face with her.  However, there is a different kind of honesty/truth that I know I can find in the studio.  I need to fess up (with myself), listen, and get busy with that.

In listening to other artists talk about their work in these video interviews, like Phillip Geiger, Stuart Shils, Lennart Anderson, Vincent Dessidario, Nicolas Uribe, Bo Bartlett, Kyle Staver, Eric Fischl and others, I have come to a few ideas that should help me in my dilemma.  All of these painters paint based on life observation, but take those personal ideas into another realm... in the studio.  I am critically inspired by that notion, and am on a search to find it for myself.

The two images above (and I have no idea where this is going but am sharing it as if I were a naked baby on display),  are based from the memory of my walk to the studio this morning.  No photos, no field studies.  (I know you're saying to yourself... Wake up Marc!  That's old stuff.)  But from pointed observation and memory notes taken in the studio, and then painted.  This is very exciting to me, I know, maybe it's old hat to many.  It's what I am going to spend the studio time exploring for now.  Like I said, I am like the lowly sloth who is slow while life passes by, but confident that each next move, is the best one.

More later...

Ps... I am not suggesting that I want to make stuff up, hardly.  I think I'm saying that there is more within me, within us as artists, to bring out and work with.  I am an observational LANDSCAPE painter, no doubt about that.  That is one reason the studio is hard for me... there's nothing in here to observe!  But... there is 59 years of the observational logging of information... in me.  There must be a  way to access and use that experience when I can't be outside reacting to life.  That's all...

Two videos that have been inspiring to me.

'Mid - Afternoon August' - oil on canvas - 16x20 Horton Hayes Fine Art

When I'm in my studio painting there is usually music on.  If I am in one of those silent moods, or feel the need to be uplifted by human voice (probably a side effect of being alone in a studio so much), I love to listen to videos about being an artist.  Recently, I ran across both of these vids on Facebook (see, there is something good about FB), and they have been enormously interesting  to me.  They both touch on very personal aspects of an artists' life.  Enjoy if you feel the need...

Nicolas Uribe " was born in cozy Madison, WI, but ever since that day I have not set foot on Wisconsin again. In all honesty, I haven’t really been actively avoiding this generous land of cheese and beer. Given the very attractive winters that this icebox of a state has to offer, I was happy that my parents decided to return to Colombia before my first birthday. I spent my first 17 years in Bogotá and after finishing High School I went to New York to study Illustration in SVA. After graduating I worked at Evergreene Painting Studios, a mural painting studio, and at The Studio, an illustration studio where I did animatics, storyboards, print jobs, together with some illustration jobs (paperbacks, jackets, etc). After two years of constant and diligently supervised drawing, I decided to go back home to Colombia and be free to paint full time. What was a hard decision at first, turned into the best career move. I have been able to paint what I love, and be surrounded by friends and family."

His talk with the students at the NY Academy of Art is one that should get you thinking about what and why you paint.  It did me...
Nicolas Uribe Lecture to New York Academy of Art students.

"Lennart Anderson was born in 1928.  He studied at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago, Cranbrook Academy, and at the Art Students League under Edwin Dickinson. He is a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and is an Associate of the American Academy of Design.  His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Tiffany Foundation Grant, and the Rome Prize. He has had solo exhibitions at many galleries.  He was an art instructor for many years in the New York area, having taught at Yale, Columbia and Princeton Universities, at Pratt Institute, Skowhegan School, Art Students League, and the New York Studio School.  He is now a Distinguished Professor at Brooklyn College.

For many years his work consisted of large, ambitious neoclassical figure compositions.  Later his paintings were on a smaller, more informal scale: a few portraits, some lovely landscapes and a lot of still lifes.  He gave careful serious attention to these traditional problems, and in the process he invested each of his objects with grace and presence."

Lennart is suffering from macular degeneration.  In this short video he discusses his art and career, and how he's dealing with this physical challenge to his art.  Very inspiring...
Lennart Anderson in his studio, painting and conversing.

Thoughts on painting surfaces.

 'Snow Light' 

14x18 - Oil and wax on canvas mounted on a cradled panel

I painted this one from a small sketch that I painted last February.  I liked the subtle, almost monochromatic quality to the color that I saw that afternoon.  The colors used to paint this one were Titanium white, Naples yellow light, ultramarine blue and Indian red. To enhance the translucency of the light effect, I used Gamblin's Cold Wax Medium, and loved it.

I'm not sure if it's a fault or if it may be benefit to me some day, but I seem to have an ongoing desire to try out new surfaces to paint on.  I'm constantly challenged, never satisfied with any one linen, canvas, paper or board.  Sometimes I tell myself that if I had been alive 200 or 300 years ago, I would have been an explorer of continents, as a result of looking for new materials to paint on.  With the limited resources available to civilization at that time, I am pretty sure I would have been the anciest person in the village, and probably one of the first to say "I'm going to see if there's some ________________ on the other side of that horizon!".

All of that is to say that lately, I've been enjoying painting on cotton (not entirely due to it's affordability, but that is a factor) versus linen.  A little secret... I spent the entire summer painting on pre-stretched cotton canvas with an acrylic emulsion primer, that I purchased at a deep discount in one of the local 'hobby' stores.  I just couldn't turn down a 2-pack of 16x20's for $7.99!  They have a good tight stretch, I LOVE the weave, and also love the way the primer on them takes the paint.  They're manufactured in Vietnam, and they do it right over there.  I burned through a truck load of these things in 11x14 and 16x20 sizes.  My method was to give them a coat of an acrylic wash of cerulean blue and burnt sienna as a tone, and then go to work painting on them.

However, I also know that to be the most archival, we are better off painting on fabric mounted to, or on a primed inflexible substrate like MDF, Gatorboard, Dibond, or other treated wood surface.  That sort of bums me out.  I like the give of the stretched canvas or linen.  I feel the sensitivity of the paint through the brush more than I do when painting on a hard surface or on linen or canvas mounted on a hard surface.  But I'm trying to adapt.

Since I enjoyed painting on those acrylic primed, pre-stretched canvases all summer, I am continuing to explore that idea and found some very nice 12 oz cotton canvas, unprimed, at my local Meininger's Art Supply store in Boulder, CO.  It has a weave that is not the normal, very uniform weave of cotton canvas.  It's a little more erratic looking, more 'linen like', a medium texture surface that looked like it would be nice to paint on.

My other favorite painting surface of late is the cradled panel, usually with a Baltic birch ply wood surface.  So here's my procedure for making a painting substrate from the raw cotton canvas and the cradled birch panel.

Materials used - Raw canvas or linen, Lamin-all adhesive, a cradled panel, a 4" medium nap roller & tray, Gamblin's PVA, an acrylic emulsion primer (aka acrylic gesso), brush to apply gesso and PVA, a hard plastic brayer (6" wide) and some sand paper.

Procedure - I cut the canvas with about 2" extra all around to help prevent it shrinking to a smaller dimension than the edge of the board when it gets wet from the PVA and primer, and to make it easier to trim to a nice, clean edge.  (seen in the photos above) Using the 4" roller, I roll on a generous coat of the Lamin-All glue, being sure to cover the edges especially well.  Lamin-All is a 'heat re-activated glue', meaning that it can be applied to the board, allowed to dry, then have the canvas laid onto it and heated in a dry mount press which will adhere the canvas to the board, because the heat activates the glue again.  Since I don't have a dry mount press, I use it as a 'wet mount' glue.  I prefer it to others ( like Lineco (an acid free book binding glue) or Miracle Muck), because it dries VERY fast.  Which means I don't have to cover and weight these panels.

While the glue is still wet (it will dry fast in open air) I lay the canvas onto the cradled panel, being sure to get the weave of the canvas square with the edge of the panel.  I use my hands to lightly work it into the glue, from the center out, then use the plastic brayer to work it down into the glue better, so that it's well adhered.  Work the edges down so that they are glued solidly.  The Lamin-All dries fast enough, and the canvas is heavy enough, so that weighting isn't even necessary.  I don't personally have the space to cover them all and weight them, so I have to do it this way.  I check on them every 10-15 minutes, run over them again with the brayer to be sure that the canvas is adhering well, and that seems to work fine.  Then let them set over night.  The Lamin-All dries fast, but I like to be sure that it's completely cured before I size and prime the canvas.

The next day I begin the priming process.  First I brush a coat of the PVA size onto the canvas, being liberal with it.  That does a couple of things.  One is that it seals the absorption of the canvas some so that when I go to apply the primer, it takes less primer.  Secondly, the PVA soaks into the threads of the cotton, offering greater protection.   Once that's dry, and it doesn't take too long, I begin to prime.  That's pretty simple, use a wide, stiff brush (the cheap hardware store hog bristle stain brushes work great), and apply a thin coat of the acrylic primer.  Once that's dry, I lightly sand it, and apply 3 more coats, sanding in-between each coat.  Easy enough...

In a few hours, when the primer is good and dry, I lay the panels with attached canvas onto a cutting board, canvas side down, and using a new blade in a mat knife or carpet knife, I trim the excess canvas off tight to the edge.  I will be framing some of these if not all, in floater frames.  That being so, I try to get a very nice, clean edge when trimming the canvas off.  I don't want tag threads or gouges into the edge of the cradled panel.  A little cautionary care here, and it works out great!

I find that this is a pretty absorbent surface, depending on the acrylic primer that I pick to use.  A little more sanding, and then a layer applied with a straight edge, like a piece of mat board, to fill in some of the dips in the canvas weave, and I'm done.

The canvas I purchased cost $8.28 a yard.  The cradled panels have to either be purchased (Cheap Joe's has some good ones for a very reasonable cost), or made.  I don't like table saws (I've known a few life long, skilled woodworkers lose appendages or be seriously injured on them), so I either have to make them with less convenient equipment (Skil saw and miter box) or purchase pre-made.  One thing that I'm about to do, is see if there's a local cabinet shop that will make them for me, or make the components for me so that I can finish them, and save some $$$.

Cost- The 14x18 cradled panel for this painting is $7.19 from Cheap Joe's. I have about $1.00 in the canvas, $1.00 in primer and PVA?  Under $10.00 is a good guesstimate.  The big picture is, I have a surface that is exactly ( for now ) how I like it!  That makes the time to make it worth that money, and more.

Starting...again!

Meaning, starting to post on this blog again after almost 8 months of being absent.  There's no way I'm going to try to catch up.  There's just been too much water rushing under the bridge, but it's all been good.  Since last Spring, I've been traveling a lot, just stopping after two weeks in Mississippi teaching with Dot Courson and her Fine Art and Workshops business, and a short stop in Charleston, SC to visit Horton Hayes Fine Art... my gallery there.  In May/June I taught a workshop with the Akron Society of Artists in Ohio, I've painted in events in Grand Teton National Park (with the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters R.M.P.A.P., who've asked me to be a full member) Door County Plein Air Festival-Door County, WI, and Rocky Mountain National Park, also with the RMPAP group.  This past October I held a very succesful workshop here in Longmont with almost 20 painters... that will be repeated at some point.  It proved to be an ideal situation to teach from the property that I live on, and in the area around Longmont.  There have been a number of shows that I've been painting for, a commission or two done, and now I feel lucky to be able to settle into my studio and work on some paintings that are more complex and larger than all of the field work that I've been painting on since last Spring.  That's a brief summary of the time since last April's post here.  I'm going to start to get back into the swing of the blog by posting some of the work from the last number of months.  Hopefully, that will get my feet back walking the blog talk.

My best wishes to you all for a healthy and happy Holiday Season!

Cool Corner - oil on paper - 9x12 Hudson Fine Art & Framing Company

Ditch Road - oil on panel - 6x8 Daily Paintworks

Closeup of 'Foreshadowed'

Foreshadowed - oil on panel - 6x8 Daily Paintworks

Descending Mist - oil on canvas - 12x24 Horton Hayes Fine Art

Over The Range - oil on panel - 6x8 Sold

In The Shadows - oil on board - 4x6 Sold

Shadow's Edge - oil on canvas - 24x36 Horton Hayes Fine Art

Silver Creek Dawn - oil on paper - 8x10 - Abend Gallery

Sliding Light - oil on panel - 12x12 Abend Gallery

Storm Cloud - oil on board - 6x8 Sold

High Risers - oil on board - 6x6 Sold

Willow Pond - oil on paper - 8x10 Abend Gallery

April 24, 2014

I spent yesterday afternoon painting with my good friend, Ani Espriella, outside of Longmont.  It was a brisk one too, very snappy wind gusts with good sustained blasting going on all afternoon.  So we decided that if we were going to be able to paint, Ani was painting with pastels, we would have to set up so that we could use my van as a windbreak.  Setting out a bunch of pastels in high winds is a dicey situation.  It was a challenge, but we managed, using the comfort of the van with it's bulk blocking the gusts.

I wish I had a photo of Ani's wonderful pastel to post, maybe I'll get one to add later.

The new spring greens of the fields, the spattering of patches of low to the ground purple flowers, with a very light, warm, filtered blue sky, made it an attractive and inspiring subject to paint.

All afternoon there were birds of various sorts trying to make some headway against the strong spring winds.  Seeing this, I saw a story happening involving the very real struggle in life that all of Nature's critters face daily.  It reminded me of the struggles we all go through in life from time to time.  When you have a friend, as is the case with the life bound ravens in this painting, it makes moving forward against the tide, or the wind, a group effort.  Whether or not they are victorious in their struggle, they did it together.  Our struggles are always eased by being in the presence of our close friends.

'Against The Spring Wind Together' - oil - 9x12

(Painted on Centurion OPDlx linen panel that was toned with Ultramarine Blue and Raw Sienna ahead of time.  I've become fond of working on a neutral, close to mid value tone, that has been applied ahead of time, and allowed to dry.)

Marc R. Hanson - Painter (My new Facebook Artist page)

Happy Easter!!!

'Station 2' - oil - 9x12

'Grove' - oil - 9x12

'February Chroma' - oil - 9x12

Pardon the poor quality photos.  All shot on the grass or back of the van with iPhone. 

I've just returned from St. George, UT and participating in the opening activities for the Mission Gallery, where I show my paintings, and for Authentique Gallery.  It was an amazing event put on by owner Jane Bell Meyer and her wonderful staff.  Jane has a wonderfully sincere way of creating a very positive and enthusiastic energy surrounding the world of art and artists, which she truly does love with all of her heart.  The artists were all painting, and I do mean all, for two days, and I do mean for two days (inside joke... we couldn't leave if we wanted to... lol) in locations surrounding the two galleries.  They are only separated from each other by another building.  While we were painting, we were surrounded by interested people walking past, by numerous collectors who were there to purchase, and by many people who specifically came to the area to see this extravaganza. 

And may I add this... PAINTINGS WERE SOLD!!!  It was very, very encouraging to see the sales activity.  

At the event in St George, we were all set up and painting on the grounds of the galleries.  There wasn't a heck of a lot to paint, so many artists used either previous sketches or photos as reference to paint from.  I painted the first one from life, 'Station 2', looking across the road from the gallery.  The next two were painted off of the iPad, using pastel paintings from the February project as reference.  They were mostly painted from memory, since I couldn't see the screen in the bright light, and when the battery died.  We had a great time anyway, shooting the breeze about Art and Life.

Side note... I met some very interesting people.  To me, as a pilot and one with a partially constructed aircraft in storage (dreams to finish one day still alive), one of the most interesting was a gentleman named Frank Christensen who designed one of the most iconic kit aircraft ever, the Christen(Aviat) Eagle, a beautiful aerobatic sport biplane.  Frank is designing buildings now, not aircraft, and he's an avid art collector!  What a treat it was to shake his hand.  Here's the plane...

Marc R. Hanson - Painter ... This is my new Facebook 'Artist Page'.  I've found a way to use Facebook for my artistic purposes, without the need for a personal page being visible and in use. This is exactly what I needed to do, to have this page, without the personal profile, so that I can concentrate on what I think is good about Facebook, as a platform to interact with other artists, collectors and students without all of the extraneous activity. This is my "business" page where I will be posting my paintings from time to time, and posting information about painting and teaching activities. I'm looking forward to the interaction on that basis. 

Ok... It's been nearly a week since I deactivated my Facebook account.  I cannot tell you how much I've been made to feel warm and fuzzy all over by the comments posted on this blog about that subject.  Your support has been greatly appreciated.   I have not been on Facebook in any covert way, except that I was on there this morning in order to set up what I'm going to mention below.  

Being separated from that addictive, voyeuristic world, where you can be or say anything you want to (without consequence),  hasn't been easy.   However, after about a week,  I've settled into a much quieter and calmer place without it, and am 100% convinced that it was the correct move for me to make.   

This past week in Utah, I talked to a lot of artists, the gallery folks, and even some visitors who had made contact with me and the paintings on Facebook.   I got to talking with some of the artists about all of this, many of whom share my same concerns, as many of you who've commented here on the blog do too.  It seems that what we all agree on, is that there is good in what that platform does in the way of bringing us together as artists, collectors and others interested in art.  

In my first blog post about taking the step to back away, I twice mentioned that this was something I was doing to evaluate my purpose and reasons for being there.  In the very first paragraph of that post,  I twice indicated that this was ... "for the time being " and "I've made a decision to stay off of there for a while. "... possibly a temporary situation.

I've always thought, and have pretty much confirmed this, that you cannot have a business page on Facebook without having a personal profile page as well.  One friend this week insisted that it is possible, that he had done just that, created a page for his art without a personal profile.   I have tried in vane to figure that out, read a ton of information on the web, and still cannot see that it's possible.

But, I did read a great blog, BLOGGING BISTRO, that is full of links to help you understand the hoops and hurdles that the Facebook folks have stacked up in your way to making it an easy thing to navigate around.  If you have any questions about how to do something on Facebook, check out this blog, you'll probably find it there.  

I once again do have a presence on Facebook that I am going to nurture, but it will only be an Art/Artist presence, no personal page... Perfect!!!  That is something that I can live happily with and not allow Facebook to become a bigger monster in my closet than I want it to be.  Plus, my liberation all this week has shown me the ability to live without constant FB in my face. 

What I am most satisfied about, since making the commitment to get out of there this past week, is how comfortable using the blog has become again.  This is going to still be where I do my posting, and will then try to figure out how to get the blog posts over to the Artist page automatically, or manually if I have to. 

To make this long story longer, here's what I did... first I have deleted my other artist page, and left my personal page deactivated.  Both of those were under my normal email address, [email protected] (where you can reach me if you need to).  To open a new Artist Page, you  still have to have a personal profile account, can't be done without one, unless you 'buy an ad'.  In that case you can set up a 'Business' page as a stand alone entity.   I'm not interested in giving them a dime, so that was out of the question.  What I did was to get a separate email address added to my google account that is ONLY for Facebook.  I then set up an account, under a name that isn't my normal name.  I may begin to slowly add friends to that in the future, but for now I'm only going to use the Artist Page.  Once I set up the personal profile with the other name, I immediately went in and  made everything that could possibly be made private by clicking 'only me', private.  That way, it's almost as if that personal profile doesn't even exist.  Once that was done, I went to 'create page' on the drop down menu, and created the page Marc R. Hanson - Painter.  This is where you'll find me, where we can communicate in addition to what I'll be doing here on the blog.  

Thanks again for all of your previous comments and support. 

No Facebook progress report...

Oh God... Oh the humanity!!! 

Ok, it's not that bad. But close. I'm finding it difficult to know what to do when out waiting on the tire and oil change, waiting for a food order to arrive at a restaurant, or while walking across a parking lot. Doesn't everyone walk blindly into deadly traffic situations while checking their latest comments?  I wake up, grab the iPad and I'm not sure why I have one now?  Hell... I have an old flip phone or two laying around, might as well go back to using one.  Hold on... I'm going rotary dial!!! 

(Since leaving Facebook I've built two large homes, trekked to Machu Picchu and written three novels.  It's not so bad.)

On my way to St George, Utah!

This Thursday April 17, and Friday April 18, the artists of Authentique Gallery of Art and Design, and The Mission Gallery in St. George, UT, are going to be in town demonstrating their art and helping to celebrate the season opening for both galleries.  Please join us if you're in the area. 

          

                                    

Deep breaths...

I'm taking some time this morning to cleanse my shaky, addicted fingers. Why?  Because I've deactivated my Facebook account for the time being.  Sounds silly doesn't it?  It is silly, to even consider that it's a hard thing to do. But it is!  Which is the very reason why I've made a decision to stay off of there for a while.  The only addictions I'll allow myself to succumb to, are love and art.

Facebook does not have any relationship to either.  It's a "fun" place to be hanging out, which is why so many people are there.  We could all make a long list of reasons why we are on there. My own list would be pretty long.  Including things like how amazing it's been to meet so many artists, before I've met them in real life. It's a good place to see what's going on in the art world, and to share art. It gets you lots of positive feedback, which is very nice.  And it serves as the social outlet for many of us who aren't surrounded by others in our daily work.  To be honest, it's a way to keep from being lonely, socially.

What are the negatives?  The rest of it.  Most importantly, the amount of time spent browsing and or responding to commentary, is time that could be spent in other interests I have, that I have let slip away, because of the time FB takes away from me.  That means time to read more, time to involve myself again in many of the hobbies that I've ignored since I let Facebook eat up that time.  Hey, think of the art that could be done with the time gained by not being there!

I've already had emails from well meaning Facebook 'friends' making me feel like I've done something to them, by doing this, because they can't see the paintings.  For them, and the others who's interest in my art I appreciate and am grateful for, check in here and on my website.  Both are better art viewing venues than Facebook.  And you don't have all of the political and social bullshit to have to deal with.

With that, I'm going enjoy this beautiful spring day with a painting excursion or a walk. I'll see you back here as soon as I have something to share.  My studio is waiting... Ciao!

Akron, OH Workshop... filling fast!

I'm pleased to announce that the workshop this June 2-6, in Akron, OH, is filling fast.  There are still some spaces available if you are interested in painting with us in June.  

Workshop Announced - June 2-6, 2014 - Akron, Ohio!

I'm very happy to be able to announce a new workshop to be held June 2-6, 2014, in Akron, Ohio in conjunction with the Akron Society of Artists.

This workshop will be five days of painting outside in the landscape, for intermediate and advanced painters , working in oils, pastels or acrylics. I work in all three of those mediums on location and in the studio, and am happy to see artists in my workshops with any of the three.

Since we all come to painting with a lot of information and history of our own, it’s not possible for me to know each individual students’ experience and abilities. I employ exercises in my workshops to help you strengthen your current abilities, and expose those skills that need strengthening. I work with each individual student at their own level, spend a lot of time at your easel, giving individual instruction. I demo everything that I ask you to do.

You’ll leave the workshop having spent five days studying the basic elements of painting… Drawing, Value, Color, Edges and Design… with one other element, possibly the most important one of all… Concept… being explored and discussed at length.

You will go home with a portfolio full of valuable exercises that you can refer back to as you move forward in your own painting process.

All I ask is that you come with an inquisitive and open mind, and the Art Spirit within you.

March 20, 2014... Acrylic studio paintings.

Happy Spring!  It's greening up here, the gardeners showed up today to take inventory and begin the season.  The winds are up, something that I now know is a near constant this time of year, east of the Front Range in Colorado.  A person can almost tell the time of the day by the winds.  They nearly always kick in right at 12:00 noon.  Painter and friend, Dave Santillanes, a native of the area, told me that last week.  I've been paying attention and Dave is right, noon it is!

Why am I painting winter then?  I'm taking a little break from getting all of the paintings that I sold during February ready to ship.  I have all of these very fresh studies in the studio, and the memory of painting them, that I am still in the middle of churning through from last month.  The painting urge hasn't let up, I'm giving it it's needed fix.  There is nothing better than having fresh studies and the memory of the experience to paint from in the studio... except painting them outside!  This weekend is going to be devoted entirely to packing and shipping all of the art sold.  Thanks again to everyone who purchased a painting, or two, or three.  I'm grateful for that support.  

To further complicate my life, I've been painting with Golden Open acrylics in the studio.  I'm not  sure why, except that I like the solvent free aspect of them, the ability to stop and start at any time on a painting, not having to wait for it to dry or stay wet if need be.  I  think that I'm also overdosing a little bit on solvents and driers like Liquin.  

I'm not complaining, but I've noticed that when I'm using a lot of either of those type of ingredients in my oil painting, which I do often now so that I can better control the drying time, I have some issues with congestion, slight headaches and watery eyes.  My plan is to use the acrylics for awhile to see if that clears up.  So far, I'm already able to see an improvement.  If I don't go nuts trying to get a grip on the acrylic monster, I think it might be a good move.  

Working with them is more like what I like about working with pastels... I can lay down paint/pastel, and very quickly work over it.  Immediately with pastel, almost immediately with acrylics.  Glazes, scumbling, are all great  techniques that I like to use in oil painting too.  My patience is getting shorter though, it takes too long for the oils to be ready for me to do that like I want to.  If I had an area to 'rack up' paintings while they dry for these techniques with the oil paints, I could see working on a number of paintings in stages at a time.  I don't.  If I have 4 paintings done, it's crowded in here, and there's no where to add a rack.  

With the acrylics, the drying times of these newer 'Open' acrylics, work right along with me.  I paint pretty fast normally.  The acrylics are almost begging for the painter to do that with them.  So, they and I, seem to be working pretty well together.  Taming the monster that they are, is really getting used to a process of painting with them on their terms.  Once I do that, I love what they have to offer.  Stay tuned...

What I'm posting here are two paintings painted from the two studies I'm also posting.  That's not always a great idea, but for interest, that's what I'm doing.  Don't think that I am trying to exactly copy the studies, I'm not.  The studio paintings evolve from the studies, as you can see, and are usually more complex.  That's the case with both of these.  Field studies are the soul of the experience, the journal of your time, and are why I paint outside.  The studio painting is a further exploration of that memory and experience.  I like both.  Since the grass is greening up, and the snow is long gone, the only way to explore either of these ideas is to do it in the studio from the studies.  I didn't take any photographs in February of the locations I painted, with a couple of exceptions.  So if I'm going to paint up any of the February paintings, it will have to be done only using those paintings as reference, or the photos of them once they're out of my studio.  

Both of the larger paintings are painted on acrylic primed linen.  "Freeze in the Air" is painted on a Frederix linen called 'Antwerp'.  It's one that I've used a lot of over the years, but it's really pricey.   I mounted it on a cradled birch panel, after first putting down two coats of GAC 100 (A Golden Product) to seal the wood, preventing acid migration into the surface of the acrylic paint.  It's a problem with oils and acrylics, but more of a concern with acrylics.  The moisture in can leach out the impurities from the underlying wood as it dries, pulling them towards the wet paint.  That can cause discoloration in the paint film.  GAC 100 seals the wood, providing a barrier between it an the painting.  I glued down the Antwerp using Lamin-All glue.  

The other painting, "Frozen Hollow", was painted on a stretched Utrecht linen (Type 66J) that I've had for many years.  I used to make my own lead primed panels and stretched supports, with RSG and this linen.  For this painting, I stretched it on some heavy duty bars that I first sealed the edges of with the GAC 100, then sized it with one coat of GAC 400, followed by 2 coats of GAC 100.  The GAC 400 is for stiffening fabric, which is nice because without using rabbit skin glue (RSG), it's hard to get that drum tight stretch on linen.  The GAC 400 helps to replicate that somewhat.  Following a light sanding, I applied 4 coats of acrylic dispersion primer (mistakenly called acrylic gesso, it's not gesso), with light sanding in between coats.  

This was a test of sorts... I learned that I prefer the linen mounted on board, and will continue that way when painting with the acrylics.  It's nice to be able to 'lean into' the painting with p.knives and brushes when it's on the board. Can't do that with the stretched linen.  Plus, the whole process of stretching and prepping the linen from the raw state was time consuming and it didn't give me any particular advantage.  I didn't like painting on it as much as I did the glued down linen. I may continue to use the raw linen (hell of a lot less expensive than pre-primed even though it's acrylic priming) and prime it myself. I didn't notice much difference at all, painting on pre-primed vs my priming it.  I used Golden 'Gesso'.  That 's what they call it, it's acrylic primer. 

Thanks for looking in!

"Freezing Fog #2"

Oil - 8x10

"Frozen Hollow"

Acrylic - 20x24

©Marc R. Hanson 2014

"Freezing Fog #3"

Oil - 8x10

"Freeze in the Air"

Acrylic - 18x24

©Marc R. Hanson 2014

Get Phaked!

I hope some of you have been here and understand what I'm about to confess... :)

'Ph-aked'... Ph(one) - (n)aked!  Leaving home without it.

I'm coining a new term "Phaked" (sounds like 'Naked' with the 'F' sound beginning), or I've missed it being used before.  Or it doesn't matter and is a moot point.  In any case, I'm using this to describe what has been an interesting thought process with me lately.  

Recently, on several trips into town to pick up groceries or art supplies, why else would I go into town (?), I've left my phone at home, not intending to.  Reason is that my studio is about 100 yds away from my apartment, and I often head to the studio without the phone on purpose.  More about that in a second... 

A side thought... Remember when you had a phone wired into a wall?  I don't have one anymore.  I used to talk to my other artist friends, who were full time artists painting in their studios, about the use of the phone during painting hours.  Many of  us had one of those ancient contraptions called an 'answering machine', a little box into with which you could *deflect interruptions (phone calls) in order to keep the concentration on an even keel while plying away the hours at the easel.  We turned those answering machines on, put the 'ringer' on silent, and had beautiful quiet time while painting!  I made it perfectly clear to everyone I could, that if you called me during my painting hours, you wouldn't get me, you would get  my answering machine, so please leave a message.  I had an exemption from the rule for family members of course, or a call meeting set up ahead of time.  

*I had a hard time sticking to the rule, but any little bit helped.

This was a necessary workplace rule if we wanted to get any painting time in with any resemblance to a fluid train of thought for the hours we had, to spend in our studios.  

Back to the leaving home without the iPhone... Because I occasionally depart the studio on my way into town without stopping at the apartment to grab the iPhone, I was noticing that when this happened, I felt this sudden sense of anxiety, an urgency, a feeling like I just did something that is going to cause me to feel completely exposed and helpless. I felt NAKED!  It was terrible, how could I function without it?  When at a red light, when in the grocery store, at the lunch establishment, in the art supply store???!!!  OMG... I wasn't sure I didn't need treatment... maybe I do? 

I was Phone Naked... PHAKED!!!

Feeling like that freaked me out.  I thought about it and decided that what was really freaky, was feeling freaky over feeling freaky about leaving the freaking iPhone at home!!!   I made a decision at that point...

Think about it, it wasn't more 10 years ago when almost no one had a small portable phone with them at all times, maybe less.  We survived.  I understand the benefit to parents with kids for whom the phones are valuable, and for people who work from the phone while away from home, and others.  

Personally, I hate being a slave to anything, like this computer, or my iPhone.  

I've decided that I am going to leave home without it more often.  And that it will not come into my studio, unless I have a pre-arranged phone meeting to keep. (Yes, my fingers are tingly... palpitating breaths at the thought of it.)

Since doing this a few times, I am breathing easier, taking deep, fully cleansing breaths more often.  I have seen that life does go on without a phone in my pocket or hand at all times.  I sit in restaurants without it and notice what's going on around me, see tables of friends who don't even look up at each other, they're all on their phones.  This is not a good thing. 

 I am a phone addict... I now choose not to be.  GET PHAKED!!!

That's all I'm saying about it. ;-)

Small studio pastel studies.

I've posted these before, but have just added them to the Daily Paintworks gallery where my art is featured for sale.   I am working on larger studio paintings from two of these now, using the cold wax medium with oil paints.  Will post the results as they're finished.  Cold wax is an extremely interesting medium that I am fully loving investigating.  I'm painting on Baltic Birch cradled panels that have been sealed with PVA and two coats of acrylic polymer primer (mistakenly labeled and called 'gesso').   These pastels are on sanded pastel paper mounted to Pacific Mount self adhesive 3x mount board.  They were done with a lot of exploration in mind to express an emotional concept, more than a specific location or subject.

"Complimentary Tree" - pastel - 6x6 - $250.00

SOLD

"Southern Colorado" - pastel - 6x8 - $275.00

SOLD

"The Last of Winter" - pastel - 6x8 - $275.00

SOLD

"The Softer Side" - pastel - 6x8 - $275.00

SOLD

Workshop... Field to Studio... Scottsdale Artists' School... April 7th-11th, 2014.

INSTRUCTOR

Marc Hanson

COURSE MEETS

04/07/2014 - 04/11/2014 9:00AM - 4:00PM on Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri

TUITION

$650.00

STUDIO SUPPORT DONATION

Optional Donation
About Studio Support Donation

This workshop is open to oil and pastel painters who are already comfortable with their media and have experience working outdoors. We will start with field work; gathering possible candidates to be used for larger paintings, followed by a few days of studio work enlarging the studies selected. There will be a demonstration to students the process from start to finish. Students should expect to get a good start on the final painting but may not finish it entirely. The goal is to get the student to see the value in creating accurate field work that can be used as a reference in the studio, to work up a concept from the field into a strong studio painting that has similarities to, but is not a copy of, the field work. We will use photography where necessary and discuss the benefits and disadvantages of using them together. Field and studio work. Critique, materials discussion and group conversation will be part of the week.

•Portable easel and transportation required.

Scottsdale Artists' School Link.

SKILL LEVEL

Intermediate Advanced

MEDIUM

Oil

SUPPLY LIST

Hanson Supply List