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Let’s Loiter; Prints

Unknown painting at the Huntington (anyone know the title?)

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To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.

Austen’s plots are fundamentally about education; her heroines come to see themselves and their conduct more clearly, and become better, more moral people. Most critics agree that her novels highlight how some female characters take charge of their own worlds while others are confined, physically and spiritually. Almost all of her works explore the precarious economic situation in which women of the late 18th and early 19th centuries found themselves.

Jane Austen inspired blogs:

1) The No Good; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

2) Do Things, Doing Things; Collage on Paper Print. Click on image for larger view. Purchase limited-run 11×17 print for $17.00 + shipping and handling.

Go Phosphorescent; What’s On My Desk

Work in progress, hoping to show you the properties within Golden’s Iridescent and Interference Acrylics.

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Alone
on the fantail
I hear the grind of rigging, and
Darwin is beside me, leaning on the rail,
watching the wake go phosphorescent.

The Voyage Home by Philip Appleman

A team of physicists has just determined the exact mechanism behind the luminescent beauty of the feathers in a peacock’s tail. Peacocks and other structurally colored animals and things, such as rainbows, soap bubbles and the blue sky, instead get most of their color from light reflection. “If you change the view angle, color is not altered. In peacock feathers, color is produced by the reflection of light with frequencies within the partial photonic band gap. If you change the view angle, the partial photonic band gap will shift to short wavelengths for oblique incidence.” “The formation of the eye pattern must be the result of evolution,” Zi said. “The coordination of individual barbules in the formation of the eye pattern must be controlled by the instruction coded in genes.” Peacock Beauty Secrets Revealed

Peacock stained glass window at the Huntington.

Looking through the stained glass window; painting of Charles Wellford Leavitt looking at a security guard who is not looking at me.

Charles Leavitt (by Cecilia Beaux), was a successful engineer. A pioneer in the field of city planning, he developed plans for West Palm Beach, Florida, and Wilmington, Delaware. In this portrait, Beaux depicted Leavitt next to the tools of his trade, conveying a sense of the sitter’s assured confidence through his direct gaze, crossed arms, and calm demeanor. As a young woman, Beaux recognized the need to support herself and worked hard to become a successful portrait painter. Her seemingly effortless brushwork was often compared to that of John Singer Sargent. In 1899, William Merritt Chase declared Beaux “the greatest woman painter of modern times.”

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What’s On My Desk? I am continuing working with the Golden’s Iridescent and Interference Acrylics

An Interference color is laminated mica pigment that “flip-flops” from a main color to a weak complimentary one. The phenomenon is similar to naturally occurring light interferences such as gas or oil on water, or a butterfly wing. The position of the viewer and the direction of the light source create interesting visuals. In direct light, the main color, such as Interference Gold shines beautifully, but with indirect light, a translucent blue color appears.

Iridescent Acrylics are one of the most unique products available to artists today. They offer highly reflective metallic variations when mixed with colors. Iridescent colors achieve their reflective properties by synthetically reproducing several natural phenomena – the nacreous, or pearlescent, qualities found in fish scales or the dust of a butterfly’s wing, and the shiny and reflective qualities found in certain metals and minerals.

I was inspired to run across Robert Glenn’s advice to Tim concerning the long trek from his sofa to basement to paint…

You need your studio right at your home. You need to have your paints always squeezed out and ready to go. You need some paint already on your canvas so it’s not a blank one anymore. With one stroke already down, you’ll find the energy to leap over your couch and put on another. You need to stop thinking about ends and think of processes. This comes automatically when you live with your stuff, even when you’re bagged out. (Painter’s Keys)

I think I am going to begin the year with this one little change in my morning routine.

More sign of the crow. What is he (she) trying to tell me?

Madonnas; Illuminated Tiles, Two-Sided Tags

Madonna and Child attributed to Adrien Ysenbrandt (Isenbrant).

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I shall paint
God in the midst, Madonna and her babe,
Ringed by a bowery, flowery angel-brood,
Lilies and vestments and white faces, sweet
As puff on puff of grated orris-root

Fra Lippo Lippi by Robert Browning

This sixteenth-century painting titled Madonna and Child is attributed to Adrien Ysenbrandt (Isenbrant). (Oil on a panel). It was common practice for major artists, such as Isenbrandt, to paint only the major parts of his paintings, such as faces and the flesh parts of his figures. His faces and flesh areas are set apart by brown pigment. The background was then filled in by assistants. The end quality of a work depended largely on the quality of the execution and the competency of the assistants, leading to an uneven quality of his works. These assistants also painted, as this was common practice in those times, many versions of the “Madonna and Child”, that were then attributed to Isenbrandt, giving him the reputation of having had an enormous body of work.

The Blessed Virgin Mary has been one of the major subjects of Christian Art, Catholic Art and Western Art for many centuries. Literally hundreds of thousands of pieces of Marian art covering a range of Marian artistic topics have been produced, from masters such as Michelangelo and Botticelli to humble peasant artists.

Half-length Madonnas are the form most frequently taken by painted icons of the Eastern Orthodox Church, where the subject matter is highly formulated so that each painting expresses one particular attribute of the “Mother of God”. Half-length paintings of the Madonna and Child are also common in Italian Renaissance painting, particularly in Venice

Pintoricchio Madonna and Child. The works of the Perugian Renaissance school are very similar; and paintings by Perugino, Pinturicchio, Lo Spagna and a young Raphael may often be mistaken one for the other. In the execution of large frescoes, pupils and assistants had a large share in the work, either in enlarging the master’s sketch to the full-sized cartoon, in transferring the cartoon to the wall, or in painting backgrounds or accessories.

The earliest surviving image in a Western illuminated manuscript of the Madonna and Child comes from the Book of Kells – magnificently decorated in the style of Insular art, the drawing of the figures can only be described as rather crude compared to Byzantine work of the period.

Madonna Art. Madonna is a medieval Italian term for a noble or otherwise important woman, and has long been used commonly in reference to images of the Virgin Mary. These names signal both the increased importance of the Cult of the Virgin and the prominence of art in service to Marian devotion during the late medieval period. During the thirteenth century, especially, with the increasing influence of chivalry and aristocratic culture on poetry, song and the visual arts. Representations of the Madonna and Child often take the form of large altarpieces. They also occur as frescoes and apsidal mosaics.

The Adoring Madonna is a type popular during the Renaissance. These images, usually small and intended for personal devotion, show Mary kneeling in adoration of the Christ Child. Many such images were produced in glazed terracotta as well as paint.

Francia Madonna and Child with Saints Anthony and Francis. In Medieval examples the Madonna is often accompanied by angels who support the throne, or by rows of saints. In Renaissance painting, particularly High Renaissance painting, the saints may be grouped informally in a type of composition known as a Sacra conversazione.

The seated Madonna and Child is a style of image that became particularly popular during the 15th century in Florence and was imitated elsewhere. These representations are usually of a small size suitable for a small altar or domestic use. They usually show Mary holding the infant Jesus in an informal and maternal manner.

More images from the Huntington on this blog.

A few Madonna Illuminated Tiles and Two-Sided Tags remain.

How Now Brown Cow; Photos

Mountain Landscape with Cattle by William Keith. Oil on canvas. 30 x 50 in. More Huntington on this blog.

The great naturalist John Muir called William Keith a “poet-painter,” referring to the lyrical quality in Keith’s art. The idea for the Sierra Club was first formed in Keith’s studio during conversations with Muir, Dr. Joseph LeConte, the first president of the University of California, and Warren Olney, a prominent San Francisco attorney.

In 1891, he shared his studio for several weeks with East Coast Tonalist George Inness, Sr. [1825-1894]. Both men painted in a similar style and were followers of the mystical teachings of Swedenborg. The Swedenborgian Church of San Francisco: Described as one of California’s earliest pure Arts and Crafts buildings, this complex represents a unique collaboration of many influential architects and craftspeople.

Among the locations where Inness and Keith painted together were Monterey and Yosemite, and it was reported they discussed art from every possible angle. Under Inness’ influence, Keith painted more than ever in a Barbizon-influenced vein with many sunset and twilight scenes. More barbizon artists on this blog.

(detail of cow stare) Mountain Landscape with Cattle

Cow I captured staring while speeding 80 mph down Highway 5; I am rather pleased with this shot – what are the odds that it would be looking at the highway.

Whether lying in a straw-filled stable or lazily grazing in a grassy meadow, the many images of cows captured the rural lifestyle and conjured up a simpler time when man was more tied to the land — a subject that was popular at the time when modernity was sometimes viewed as a threat. This “cow craze” made the market for cow paintings very profitable and the images most fashionable — even for turn-of-the-century parlors.

Cows dotting the horizon near Gilroy. It reminds me of those Happy California Cow Commercials. Vote for your favorite today.

Sagebrush lined highway near Point Reye. I like the lush golden colors, hills in the distance, ocean beyond those.

My mother, from Missouri, used to say “That’s money you’re smelling” when passing large commercial cattle lots. (aka cash cow)

In the hills near Gilroy. Agenda of cow: meander to tree in the morning, picnic and a nap, meander back home at night.

I’ve been pulled into the Farmville craze. Have you?
Milk (Regular Cow), 1 day, 6 coins
Strawberry Milk (Pink Cow) 1 day, 12 coins
Chocolate Milk (Brown Cow) 1 day, 18 coins
Milkonium (Bovine-09) 1 day, 18 coins

(Sick of Farmville Cows on Facebook)

Oh, will you be my neighbor?