Posted by June Underwood on November 23rd, 2007
Probably because I grew up in the careless and tasteless 1950’s, before Lady Bird pointed out that the landscape was filling with garbage, but after logging and poverty had been pretty well trashed my neck of the woods — that is, because I had a visually impoverished childhood — I find living in this city a continuing visual delight.
Even the rain has its moments.
So I thought for as a bit of thanks-giving, I would meander around Portland Oregon, pointing out the sights that I like. Some of these are constant public presences, like the statue of Harvey Scott in Mt. Tabor Park. Scott was a city “father” as well as an anti-suffragist newsman. (I keep scheming of ways to bring his perfidy to the attention of the city mothers).
more… »
Posted by Angela Ferreira on October 28th, 2007
Title: Punica Malum
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 78×170 cm
Title: Profanum
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 60×45 cm
Posted by June Underwood on September 14th, 2007
Underwood, Stinking Water Area, large and small oil on masonite, and a photograph, off the Stinking Water Acess Road.
“I took my easel and canvas and brushes to the top of the bluff, and painted two views from the same spot…. From this enchanting spot there was nothing to arrest the eye from ranging over [the Missouri’s] waters for the distance of twenty or thirty miles.”
[Artist George Catlin, as quoted in William H. Truettner, The Natural Man Observed: A Study of Catlin’s Indian Gallery (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979), p. 247, found on the of the Smithsonian website.
As Karl said (here) one has to become acquainted with the landscape before one can paint it. And as George Catlin remarked about a different landscape “there was nothing to arrest the eye…for the distance of twenty or thirty miles.
Aside from artistic masochism, why do we paint landscapes?
more… »
Posted by Angela Ferreira on September 10th, 2007
Sitting and meditating lately about what is really life about that makes up get up in the morning and carry on as artists…
Is it how much money you got in the bank? The partner of our dreams? That new car you been saving up? The Exhibition you booked for?
Or is it the peace of mind, security and happiness that all this acquirements provide us?
What is really life about?
It’s very easy to confuse values with goals, but they are very different – goals are specific ways in which you might express your values…
Now, think for yourself, what you really value in your life? You might say “my job”, but then ask yourself “What is your job in the service of?” You might answer “Financial security”. Keep asking the same question “What is financial security in the service of?” Keep on asking the question until can’t find an answer and you have found your value.
Values are what life is about, and it it’s all about happiness. Know your values! Happiness is what makes my life worth for, ask yourself!
Everything else my dear collegues, it will before long turn to dust…
Posted by June Underwood on August 31st, 2007
I’m just back from a pleine aire, oil painting workshop and it seems that my topic — to paint in the middle in the muddle or to recollect in tranquility — has arisen again on A&P. Hi Sunil…..
Obviously I’m fascinated with the immediate ambiance as much as I am with the final product. The milieu from which I just returned, however, had its problems. The big one was the lack of focus within the landscapes we were asked to paint. So the topic of the day is — how do you find your viewpoints and hold them? more… »
Posted by Sunil Gangadharan on August 30th, 2007
Karl recently mentioned here that he prefers (and revels) painting in the context of his reaction to his surroundings. He averred to say that a photo of the landscape would not do justice because
“Photographs record what a place looked like at a particular moment. They don’t record what it felt like to be there”
My personal experience is a little different. more… »
Posted by Sunil Gangadharan on August 16th, 2007
I had the good fortune to go to a very good group show at the MoMA recently with the provocative title ‘What is painting?’. One among the many works that I ran into was by a lady artist of the 1970’s Lee Lozano. Not having studied at art school, I did not know much about her (well, I did later find out that she really is not a household name) until I came back home and read up a little bit about her. The more I read, the more I was fascinated by how she had managed to integrate art and life into a seamless whole. From reading, I surmised that her desire for painting went beyond the confines of the canvas and she tried through her art/life to incorporate the viewer and her life in a strange union.
more… »
