Artist Hideout

Over the last few weeks, I have been kinda sparse around here.  But it’s not because I completely forgot how to type suddenly. Rather, it’s because I am just doing a lot more artwork, mainly cartooning as evidenced by a cartoon I did (then decided against putting up on my personal site) to the left. 
I had given thought to doing custom cartoons for people for a base price of $50 (till I got a few clients going).  But ever changing as I am, I quickly rethought it and decided I don’t need another set of things to do.  …read more

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I stumbled on this video earlier this morning and impressed with the sheer magnitude of the blocks being moved.  If creating huge installation work is something that you always wanted to try to do, this guy will show you how to do it.
Oh yeah, this is actual size stonehenge.

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My new little gadget for my iGoogle homepage informed me:

“Artist Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux, France” on this day in history.

Over the last few years, Leonardo’s work has been blemished with Dan Brown’s novel, The daVinci Code, and in many ways, Leonardo has experienced a sort of second death of his works in popular culture. Unlike the 1519 death, Leonardo’s work has suffered the indignity of fictional interpretation.
This would be equivalent of looking at a Thomas Kinkade painting, and finding the letter “N” somewhere, decry it as a some symbolic reference to a ritualistic cult bent on “taking …read more

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Sometimes Google beats me to the punch. Anyway, today on www.Google.com they are celebrating Edvard Munch
Check it out. The image is also here below for tomorrow when it’s archived.

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I was reminded once again today that art takes many turns. Sometimes people create things for either protection or to harm others.
The exhibit “The Art of the Shiv” shows different Shivs created by inmates from everyday materials. This image is an unbreakable comb with razor blades inserted to make a knife akin to a butcher knife.
People create things for many reasons and not all of these reasons are good reasons that people enjoy.
I was amazed that such things could be created by everyday things and it does make you look at ordinary things in new ways.
Check …read more

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I just received my issue of Smithsonian today and was pleasantly surprised with a great article of Rembrandt. If you happen to be waiting in a doctors office in the next few days you might want to check it out. Other than that, we don’t keep the heat on down here at the church building on throughout the week to save money, so it’s really cold in the office… brrrr…
The article really brought to light something I didn’t think about before. This is that Rembrandt saw the beauty in the everyday people. Though he was commissioned …read more

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I’ve been thinking about this the last few days and have come to the conclusion that one of my favorite paintings was one that was stolen in 1990 from the Gardner Museum entitled “Storm on the Sea of Galilee” by Rembrandt.
Maybe it’s because Rembrandt and I share the same birthday, July 15, or because I love the illuminated feel of his painting that I find this painting so amazing. It might be because it’s depicting Christ in a well known passage of scripture, or it might be the fact that I’ll probably never see this painting in person because of …read more

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Being the inquisitive sort of person I am, I recently began researching how oil paints are made. Many of the “old masters” such as Rembrandt, Van Gogh, DaVinci all made their own paints. So, how hard could this process be?
According to this site (image), Apparently to make your own oil paints you need these things:

Pigments , Binders ,
a Grinding slab and Muller ,
a Palette knife , Empty tubes

Pigments
Pigments themselves can be either biological or naturally occurring. Some are even made from the mucus of a type of snail. Surprisingly, there is a great deal of scientific study behind pigments dealing …read more

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Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887-1976)
Born November 1, 1887 Lowry became famous for painting the urban settings in which he lived and much to his chagrin, worked.

Lowry retired from the Pall Mall Property Company in 1952. During his career he had risen to become chief cashier but he never stopped collecting rents. The firm had supported his development as an artist and he was allowed time off for exhibitions in addition to his normal holiday allowance. It seems, however, that he was not proud of his job; his secrecy about his employment by the Pall Mall Property Company is widely seen …read more

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