The Contenders

Hello Fellow Photographers and Painters,

As I said yesterday I am going to submit a portfolio of my photos for consideration of membership at the Cape Cod Art Association. My photos will be in the May portfolio Review and I'll take stab at submitting paintings in the fall.

I must submit five recent original pieces. I am posting the first seven contenders here. Take a look and give your thoughts. Go ahead I can take it. If there are pieces that should come out to strengthen the submission or if I should go back and look for more don't be afraid to tell me. Criticism is how we get better.

An Embarrassment of Artistic Riches

As an Artist [Painter and Photographer] I thank my lucky stars everyday for where I live and was born. Growing up in the Hudson Valley and close to the Catskill Mountains, I have been surrounded by natural beauty my entire life. Whether it is the wild natural beauty of the Hudson and the Catskills that drew Thomas Cole, Frederick Church and the other Hudson River School Painters here in the 1800's or the current crop of painters and photographers working today there is so much to draw inspiration from. Every trail I Hike and park I visit reveals vistas that are new for me to explore as well as sites made famous by those before me.

Two of the outright masters of photography capturing the beauty of this region are Nick Zungoli and Hardie Truesdale. Both have books about the region that are just amazing and inspire me to get out and shoot and paint as often as possible. Thank you both for the beauty you have been able to capture. I don't know Mr Truesdale personally, but I have taken a workshop with Nick Zungoli on nature photography and the digital work flow and find him to be an excellent teacher and amazing photographer. I will take more workshops with him in the future. Both are masters of their medium and have produced images that have inspired me and taken my breath away for years. I highly reccomend you looking for their books and photos.

Keep painting [and taking photographs]

Carl

I Have Given Myself a Deadline

Hello Fellow Artists:
No more mucking about. I have given myself a deadline and am forcing myself to take a critical work at my photographs and paintings. I have decide to submit my portfolio for review and consideration for membership in the Cape Cod Art Association. I will be submitting a portfolio of five photographs for the May portfolio review and then I will submit watercolors for the fall review. This makes the most sense as I feel closer to ready and have more strong work to pick from on the photographic side. This will give me the summer to finish up my painting portfolio. Wish me luck?
I'll be putting a bunch of photos up in posts over the next couple of weeks for you my friends to help decide what to submit. This will be scary, but I hope it will stimulate some conversation as well.
What do you do to raise the bar for yourself when you need that jump start? Both in Art and in the other area of your life?

Keep Painting and Photographing,
Carl

BLAH

Hi Friends and Fellow Artists:
I am glad I painted on Sunday! Today was GRAY and BLAH. There was nothing that inspired me to paint. That and being at work for 11 hours. Who's got the energy to paint after that. I wont bore you with work details... we all have to do that and I would bore you. I am looking forward to painting this weekend. I have nothing on the schedule except art and a few projects around the house.

Keep Painting!

Another Sunday Another Lighthouse

Hello Fellow Artists:

After my winter hibernation I am starting to stretch out my art muscles again for coming months of warm weather and photography and painting! It is still chilly here in New York, but the light is clear and the earth is beginning to yield to the approaching spring. While it is still to chilly out for the plants that provide some of the nice colors in my work I am again practicing by painting my favorite lighthouses on note cards. This weeks is Nobska Light on Cape Cod. These little exercises are fast and help get my brain in place to be thinking about painting and photography the world around me. Try it you'll love the exercise and be ready when the first flowers appear in the yard you want to paint.

What do you do to prepare for the season?

Cheers:

Carl

Sunday - Painting - the Pitfalls

Hello Fellow Painters (and Photographers)

You have heard me grumble here about being uninspired or not having time to paint (Ad Nauseum). On further reflection that is not the reason... After all I have time to complain about not painting right?? So what is it then? I love to paint and it inspires me. So what gets in my way?

Well I searched the dark corners of my artistic soul... Don't worry friends I am not about to slice my ear of for art... or any reason. What I found is I put too much pressure on myself to make a masterpiece in the 60 minutes I have given myself to paint this week. I really have to get over myself. The best painters in the world fail as often as they succeed. So why should I feel driven to create a finished masterpiece every time I pick up a brush? Who knows. I do know it can be crippling. Thank goodness I don't take this approach to the rest of my life or I'd never get anything done. So what did I do you ask??

I changed (Not exactly lowered) my expectations. First I reminded myself that I started painting because it is fun and I enjoy it. Next I realized I am painting for me and if I need to make a messy, muddy, wreck of painting because my mind is processing stuff from other areas of my life and I cant commit 100% of my focus to painting that is my prerogative. Painting makes me feel good so I should do it just for the sake of doing it. Art as therapy is a fine thing and not to be discounted.

Having said all that I still want my painting time to be productive. After all if it is not I could be working on my blogs, cooking, brewing etc etc. So what do i do? Well.... I give myself a break and paint a subject I know well and have had success with before. How do i keep this fresh you ask? Good question. I always find a I need thank you cards for plenty of reasons so I paint thank yous. Strathmore makes a line of watercolor cards and envelopes in a 5x7 size. This gives me a chance to knock out several in an hour. It keeps my supply of thank yous stocked and gives me a chance to explore a familiar subject in different ways. This is great! I get the satisfaction of painting, my time is not "wasted"

The examples at left are of Highland Light on Cape Cod. It is one of my favorite subjects. Now I have painted. I feel good about what I did and I have an idea about how to go about painting it the next time I am ready to work on a larger version of it.

What are your little tricks to keep you painting and enjoying what you are doing?

Keep Painting,

Carl

Work me 1 - Artist me 0

Hello Fellow Artists,

Well Artist me never had a chance against work me this week. We have a big server upgrade going on at the office and I was in bouncing between preparation and panic mode this week. I'll be up tonight communicating with my team and at the office by 6:30 for phase two.... The computer upgrades. Hopefully we will be done by noon with a successful upgrade. I'll crash then for the day and hopefully paint on Sunday. Stop back here Sunday. If I painted I'll show you what i am working on.

Keep painting

DaVinci

I have nothing today. Just thought I'd share this DaVinci drawing of a young woman. I am of course struck by the beauty of the sketch... but also the genius of drawing itself. How can an image with basically three tones (and one of those being the color of the paper) jump out at you with so much power and depth.

Katterskill Falls - Thomas Cole

Hello Fellow Artists,


Well my long winter hibernation is drawing to a close. How about you? I think it was the daylight savings shift or something, but finding myself driving home through the Catskills at night and being able to see reminds me of the project I started last summer. I bought some books on waterfalls of the Hudson Valley and Catskills. I discovered that some of the waterfalls of my favorite Hudson River School paintings are not difficult to find and hike to. OK some are not easy, but others are not bad. I photographed some and have had them at one time or another on the site. I plan to paint watercolors of some. Most notably I photographed Bash Bish and Indian Brook. This spring I plan to shoot Katterskill Falls. Pictured here from the beautiful Thomas Cole painting. I hope to photograph and paint Fawn's Leap and Awosting

Falls. One is easy the other a bit tougher to get to. I will do a post in the coming days on my process for photographing waterfalls. I will break it into the capture portion and the post capture workflow portion. I'll also include tips for you die hard film based photographers. I profess a nostalgic love for shooting with film once in a while. there is something satisfying about shooting with film. There are some simple techniques you can use to get GREAT waterfall shots. This Shot of Indian Brook in Garrison, New York is pretty easy to get to and is a great waterfall to start photographing. I am very lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the country around any bend in the road on almost any day there is a wonderful scene ready to be painted or photographed.
What about the approaching spring gets your artistic juices flowing and makes you want to get out there and make great art.

Happy Painting,

Carl

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Vincent Van Gogh. Ok March 30th is the actually date, but I was thinking about some of Van Gogh's paintings today so I thought I would mention it now. If I didn't do it today I might get bogged down in work and forget to do it all together.

Van Gogh was one of the painters I found at an early age and said... Yeah I like that look at all those colors. Starry Night is my all time favorite Van Gogh painting.

How about you. What is your favorite Van Gogh painting? and why? I can't look at these bright colorful paintings without being inspired to paint, draw or take photos. So once again an early happy birthday and thanks for the inspiration to Vincent Van Gogh.

Happy Painting!