A quick trip to Cape Cod in the autumn does wonders for one's spirit! Glorious weather, walks on the beaches, good food, good wine, good reading and to spend time with a true friend -- what more can one ask? Just thought I'd share some of the photographs from our time away -- enjoy!

Art Explorations: Rodin and Schiele

Truth and Beauty: Variations on a Theme

In this interim period between now and the year's end, I hope to spend some time with varying aspects of art, such as drawing on paper with a pencil or a piece of charcoal, to explore the human body and faces and hands -- those very basic elements of humanity. In preparing for this period of exploration, I spent some time at my favorite art store buying papers, graphite pencils and a few books. These were not expensive art books; rather those little Dover editions that we see scattered around libraries and bookshops from time to time, most costing under $10. However, they do capture some wonderful works in a simple format, many of which are reprinted editions that have fallen by the wayside.


Auguste Rodin:

One book I bought was on Auguste Rodin and is a reprint of an extended interview he gave back around 1911. The discussions between the two men are enlightening on how Rodin's mind worked, how he physically worked, such as in the following description, which I am loosely paraphrasing:

. . . throughout his studio nudes walk, stroll, recline, chat, moving around the room in a natural manner, bending to pick up a book, to eat an apple or some grapes. All the time Rodin watches, reaching for a piece of clay and quickly beginning to shape a small figurine. These are his studies for larger works. There is constant movement of the human body here, no posing on pedestals, no artificial posturing -- just movement . . .

Rodin's intense belief in respecting the natural movement of the human body -- how it bends, sways, tilts, stretches, aches -- enabled him to render powerful depictions through his hands and fingers, through his arms and shoulders that leaned into the creating process, pushing and shoving pieces of earth and stone. To throw oneself into the creative process so wholly, to "see" and to honor so thoroughly was and is an amazing feat!

* * *

Egon Schiele:

Written in 1819, Ode on a Grecian Urn contains probably the two most discussed lines in all of John Keats's poetry -

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,
that is all Ye know on earth,
and all ye need to know.

Very comforting. And yet what is Beauty? Who defines it? Does it change from culture to culture, from epoch to epoch? Yes, there is no denying that it does and, left to the marketing forces of today, the concept is exchangeable with each new fashion season -- easy come, easy go.

The second book I purchased was Egon Schiele: 44 Drawings. I have seen Schiele's paintings throughout the years, but these black & white drawings are stark in their depictions of women and men in early 1900s Vienna. They are disturbing in their grim, realistic portrayal of human bodies on the brink of starvation, deprivation, often degradation.


How different from a Rubens nude, where the plump bodies nearly fall off the page in their sumptuousness, where muscular torsos command the space they inhabit! Here we see pain, anger, hunger, despair -- and yet -- a strange kind of beauty in Schiele's dark sinuous lines of ink and charcoal. These bodies appear to be fighting the contained space they are in, trapped and contorted as in life.

You cannot take your eyes away from the drawings. They haunt you. There is nothing between you and these figures, nothing to shield you from the reality, the truth of what one is seeing. In this moment of truth we discover, or uncover, a strange beauty because of Schiele's vision of truth.

So, is Truth beautiful? Is Beauty truthful? Both artists created varying manifestations of Beauty and Truth. Who is to say which is the better, the more truthful.

Artistic expression is not only in the eye of the beholder, but also in the eye of the artist.

Food for thought . . .

Art for under $100, under $200 . . .

Walk in the Dunes under Moonlight

($95)

Ah, we've all seen it -- the daily painting blogs, the Under $100 blogs, the Painting-a-Day blogs. So I've come up with my Winter Solstice Sale.

Yes, this is totally crass and commercialism at its' worst.

Yes, I am a starving artist. Well, not exactly starving but on my salary, it's close. Truth be said, I am just desperate to clear space in my studio for a new onslaught of creative energies, for works I am planning but have no elbow room in which to work.

I think that if other artists can do the daily painting / painting-a-day thing on their blogs, I can certainly latch on to that concept in my own way. Afterall, I do NOT want to be my own best collector. I want my artworks to be out there in the wide, wide world to be enjoyed by others. I also believe firmly that Art should be enjoyed by all, not just the wealthy and the wannabes.

So, this is a very transparent effort on my part to combine capitalism and marxism -- how's that for "holiday" spirit? Note, too, no reference to religious holidays, simply Winter Solstice, thus returning to our true pagan spirit -- (pillaging and plundering? -- no, no, that's not right . . . )

Many works are listed under $100, but there are other categories if you so choose to open your pocketbook a bit wider.

This will run through December 20, the eve of Winter Solstice. ArtID (see the link to your right) handles the monetary aspects (PayPal), while they alert me as to where to ship. What could be easier . . . ?

I promise I will do this only once a year.

I promise I will not moan, whine, plead or cry.

No pressure, my fellow bloggers, artists and friends! Share your comments about all this, too. Hey, I could have called this my Autumn Tag Sale -- now that would have been pretty tacky. However, we had snow showers throughout the area today (arghhhh!) -- thus the switch to Winter Solstice. It seemed more in keeping! :~)

Artwork to Celebrate Autumn!

Once again, small gouache and acrylic paintings . . . trying to work quickly so as not to beat the poor things to death with intellectual and artistic angst . . .

This work is another experiment with using acrylics as watercolor -- loose and juicy -- on Wallis sanded paper. By spraying and letting things drip and dribble, the pumiced surface catches the paints and creates these amazing swirls, almost a marbleizing effect. Again, another riverscape, no particular place or time, just trying to catch the light and those elusive reflective qualities of the water.


This little work is a quick exercise in timing -- I was packing up my paints on the deck as the sun was setting and it was becoming quite chilly. Suddenly I looked up and the sun was just hitting a stand of pines with smaller understory trees lighting up from below -- so marvelous that I grabbed the last of the gouache and a large mop brush. Because of the size of the brush, there could be no detail. In any event, I truly like this little piece and its "extreme" looseness.


This piece returns me to my first love of the Connecticut River, which I travel along in my daily commute. It was my hope to capture an impressionistic sweep, more an ambiance of how the river feels at times throughout the autumn -- sometimes quiet and dim with mists floating along the edges; at other times, parts appear on fire with the maple and birch trees alight, yet with these lovely purple shadows lurking along the shorelines, the russets and golds broken up by the spruce blue and deep green of the pines.

A few more weeks may be left before this New England autumn closes in upon itself and gently moves into early winter. Another season calls for another shift in palettes, another study of the light changes . . . an artist's work is never done!

Autumn Studies

Dusk Descends on Fallow Field
(gouache & pastel on paper; 10"x8")

Autumn Marshes
(acrylic & pastel on
Wallis sanded paper; 6"x8")

Two quick works, different mediums and surfaces, both trying to capture those illusive autumn moments when color and light seem to become one. When one works small, the work can be quick and decisive, allowing the colors and the medium to proceed without too much interference from the artist! Sometimes I can't seem to get out of my own way. But these were so fast and brief that there was no time to meddle; otherwise, the light would have been lost. And one more -- a small oil sketch on panel:

Wetlands at Sunset
(oil on panel; 5"x7")

I seem to have a penchant for marshes and wetlands. Between the coastlines and river wetlands in this area, who could not? I hope to get out more later this month, at least before the real cold settles in. I especially like the time after Halloween -- early November, after the leaves fall and one can see the skeletal shapes of the trees against the sky, when the light has pearled over into that dove gray and blended seamlessly with the reflective surface of the water. Ahhh.....! Those are the quiet landscapes that breathe solace and peace.

I have always been especially fond of Corot's use of gray; also, certain Whistler nocturnes and Turners convey those nuances of gray. Last year I was lucky enough to catch the art exhibit, Like Breath on Glass at the Clark Institute in Williamstown, MA. Another favorite, George Inness, was in that exhibit. I stood in front of his Home of the Heron several times that afternoon; one could sense the air going still as if in a chapel. If you ever have the chance to read James Elkins' Pictures & Tears, you'll see what I mean. Elkins' writes about the inexplicable reaction people have to particular works of art, such as Rothko's works in a chapel in Houston.

Well, the work week is wrapping up, and I have many plans for the weekend. I hope to be back next week. I think that's how my new "pace" is working out for now. Happy weekend -- :~)