Art or not

I've been thinking about the notion of art a lot lately. Really, I should say the notion keeps coming up and making me think about it...there was a recent art show, "You call that art" , commemorating, I believe, the 100th anniversary if a show bearing the same name. Loved the idea of this show. Loved the effort of the Center in doing the PR for this show. Still loving the idea of someone asking "is it art?"...

From a totally different angle comes the continuing artistic development of my dude, Stuart. He and I have been getting together and painting for a few months now. Amazed at how much talent he has. How well he takes to the paints. Fish to water comes to mind... 

The carpent who worked on my house; fitting pieces of clapboard into the existing siding of my 100 year old house. What an art.

Whatever you call this:

http://www.designboom.com/architecture/rex-and-front-shade-nasher-sculpture-center-with-surya-11-13-2013/

This notion is drawing some parallels to work in progress as well. "dancin' in the sun" is basically finished, but I'm working on bow ties to place in the cracks on the base in order to "call it art"ful...just how I'm rollin'.

Then there are the quick pieces. I posted a few on my page, and I've been working on a few more for the holidays; pieces that I spend about an hour on that I can still call art...this is also one, I hope:

I definitely am thinkin' it's seasonal. Hope you enjoy.

Art alanche...

Over the last two and a half weeks, somehow, I've managed to get a sculpture almost finished, and 6 paintings complete. It's not that I planned an art avalanche, but it did start with Plein Air Saturday a couple of weeks ago. During that day, while I didn't finish that painting, I discovered that with a few hacks, I could capture the essence of a piece much faster than I had been. I'm just going to throw them out, use or discard as they may or may not apply. Also, it may be worth repeating, I'm no trained artist. These little nuggets have been painstakingly mined over 35 years of work, and are probably well known by most fine artists. The list:

    Loosen up- studying the works of renowned painter George Bellows made me realize that there is a definite place for the quick study approach, outside of the area you, as the artist,  consider to be the focus of the painting.

Consider priming the entire canvas with you base colors, thinned out with turpentine. Using white or yellow for areas I want to pop. Purple or blue for areas I want to be darker and richer, has. Given some of these pieces a much better sense of depth, and highlighted the foreground better than adding highlights at  the end.

Step away. If you're like me, you may never like certain pieces. Realizing I'm not the final judge let me ask for feedback, before I added that extra brushstroke that leads to hours of fine tuning...

Normally, at this point, I'd be posting images as examples. This time, I'm just going to point you toward my portfolio. See for yourself. The last two weeks vs. many years of work.

Www.facebook.com/kengoodsonart check out the photos in the portfolio folder. This commercial message brought to you from my couch...

Plein Air Saturday

If you were passing by Cup A Joe in the Short North, you may have seen a distinguished, silver haired gentleman painting a scene on the west side of Hight Street. That would not have been me. You may have also seen a dude in a sock hat with paint all over his jacket making a freak show on canvas. That would have been me. 

I've always claimed that everyone's an artist, it's simply a matter of finding your amuse, and following it. Yep, simple...sounds like I'm making jokes, But what else would you call it? If you've experienced art, up close and messy, when you're doing it to the best of you're ability, it sure feels simple. I've maintained that the only thing to do to let it out is to get the F out of the way. 

That's what I witnessed on this excursion, on this thing another friend calls Plein Air Painting. This thing I would have much preferred to experience in CBus when it was warmer...or on a beach in the Caribbean. But, the experience is part of the art, right? My friend and I had made a deal; he'll teach me to play guitar, and I'll do whatever I did...I'm not gonna call it teaching; let's call it getting out of the way.  

A lot of folk I talk to had an art class at one time or another. My friend, whom I'll just call DG,since he's got no idea I'm posting about him, is typical in that regard. What is atypical is that he is another engineer, besides being a musician. Two so called left brained types making art in the street, one who's been doing this as long as he can remember, the other, basically, changing instruments, and getting the F out of the way...

I am going to show you his painting so far, with out his permission, hop I don't get sued. Just keep in mind that neither piece is complete. So, DG's progress:

Nicely done, DG...shows a fine eye. A good start at perspective. Great use of color. 

Then, the freak show:

'Nuff said... Maybe I'm a better teacher than I am a painter.

To be continued...

Studies and styles

I went to see the George Bellows exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art. mr. b is not only a Columbus product, but a New York artist as well. In every sense an extremely technical, polished painter and drawer. Amazing show, but that's not what this post is about.

I've been going back to my roots over the last few paintings. I had an art teacher in College, Babette duSang Jones, who taught  introduction to Painting. She had us pick up oil sticks and we would work them on newsprint. Mostly forgettable paintings, from me, anyway, but she would pile up desks, tables, whatever she had in the studio, and we would do our still life sketches and paintings. I recently decided to do some still life studies of my own. Wild flowers from my yard, arranged in a cool vase, resting on my messy sculpting bench. 

I'm not gonna lie, I am not crazy about either one of these paintings, but they did their job, there are usually many lessons in going down memory lane, but this one was about painting curvy glass, making actual straight lines, and painting the light

The first one, I managed one out of three, maybe two:

I'm going to call the next one a success, I've finally seen the light:

Spinning wheels

I've been struggling of late with what is worth posting. Not that I'm not being productive, mind, but maybe too productive...I've been on site for the AMA Hall of Fame Museum Motorcycle days, I've been in the bronzecasting studio twice a week, painting and sculpting at home, and getting out in the local arts scene; most recently at Urban Scrawl. That is a must see event if you haven't checked it out, and 400WestRich is going to be huge.

I'm working on a million pieces, and I've shown some level of progress on this site for a lot of them. Progress on an art piece can be so incremental, at times, that I'm hard pressed to see it from one set of progress photos to another. So, I've procrastinated posting them. I've decided to break down the wall, to some extent, anyway, and show you the mess my studio is in at the moment. I hope you enjoy it as much as I making this mess:

Looser or more refined

I would typically say that my sculpting and painting has been a celebration of loose, colorful, or sketchy, even. For my latest sculpture, "Seated", I am exploring how refined I can actually make a sculpture, and then, whether I actually feel its fit to show.  

This first photo is pretty close to the beginning. I won't actually Showa sculpture sooner than this level of completion anymore...they can change too radically;

This next photo was around the 50% stage for the face. Rockin' the dreads, but still needing some finihing;

This last photo, the face is close, the figure maybe 40%, but you may see the change, already;

Next time i post this sculpture will be right before I make the moulds for the bronze. 

Now this is progress...

 I've been digging in the yard and moving rocks for ta little while now, and it's a beautiful thing. Not only am I still semi upright, but I'm making real actual progress...

I had started reworking the pavers in the yard several years ago, trying to move towards having actual outdoor studio and chillout spaces back there, so I could sculpt while I had the grill goin'. I also started an organic garden project in the yard almost two years ago, with containers. There are pavers under the grill and stuff in the back.

Seemed like a good idea at the time... Did I mention that the yard is land locked, and I've got to bring everything down the long side of house? Bags of dirt, sand, gravel...great workout. As of today, I've got the pavers done, grill together, and I'm just trying to figure out yard furniture, while waiting for a contractor to run some power for the outdoor studio. Here's what we have to deal with:

Not too long before I can weld and sculpt in that yard...by the way, anyone want some plastic furniture?