paintings from photographs

As an artist we don't always have time to record a moment or memory with paints, so sometimes we record it with a camera, and try to give the photo a little more life, painting the photograph later. Here are four of my favorite paintings from photographs I have taken.

This first is of a road south of Oshkosh, Nebraska, that we called, or I called West Canyon Road. This road led to some of my favorite places growing up, because this was the road we took when we went to cut a Christmas tree. This was also the road we would go on to find a place to go sledding, and this road also led to a famous place in the canyons we called "The Devil's Washbasin". This photo was snapped on a trip to go sledding one winter. Not too many years after this photo, my family moved away from this area of the state. But looking at this painting, brings many memories back for me. The first thing I think of, is waking up to a  cold winter room full of brothers sleeping in three or four beds . .(including a bunk bed of course)

When my family moved, we moved to the sand hills of Nebraska, and this next painting, was painted of a photograph taken at a ranch my father owned for a while. This is along the Dismal River. It is a view from a high hill on the north side of the river looking south. My family eventually had to sell the ranch, but this painting captures much of the beauty and wildness of the area. I have many many memories of ranch work and horse back rides, and wonderful wonderful outdoor experiences.

After I was married, I moved to a city in Nebraska, which had a light house in the park. This painting is from a photograph of the light house in Harmon Park in Kearney, Nebraska. This was the city where I attended college, and I always loved this park. Ironically, the woman I married, lived in this park as a young girl, and her grandfather, who was park superintendent had his office in the top of this light house. Her father also became park superintendent. Sadly both gentlemen had passed away before I met my wife. But this painting brings many many happy memories with it, about times spent in the park here in Kearney.

This final painting from a photograph is a painting of one of my boys. I call it "opening day". As a child, he loved playing baseball, and even before the snow was gone, he was wanting to play. We lived in a small town, Ansley, Ne, and had a field mapped out in our front yard and the road in front of our house, which almost never had any traffic. My son, was approximately four when this photo was taken. He is at home plate ready to hit.  I love all the memories it captures of the days of play with my boys.

Colors

Another thing I love experimenting with is colors. Painting is kinda funny, because sometimes I will start painting, and I don't know why, but none of the colors I mix, seem very vibrant or deep. Then other times, the colors just jump off the paper, they almost seem alive. Here are six examples where, for me, the colors just came alive, and helped create paintings I just love.

I haven't titled all of these, and the ones I have titled, I don't remember the titles without going and digging the paintings out of storage. So you can title them, whatever you want. This first painting, was a painting which I had started just to use up the paint I had out on my palette. I happened to mix a blue and a green I produced the color you see. I got excited and started using new colors and paints already out, but when I quit I thrilled with the painting. It isn't very large, because I was originally just trying to use up my paint. You know  . .waste not, want not . . . .

This painting, I was out at a local park in my area, (for those familiar with the Kearney, NE area . .Cottonmill Park) and decided since it was mid-October or so, I was going to capture the colors of the tree leaves.The trees are around a lake at the park. I started but once again got distracted by the colors and how vibrant the seemed in the afternoon sunlight. Quite quickly my focus changed from capturing the color of the leaves of the trees, to just capturing the colors forming on my paper. I love the colors and the movement of the painting. It almost looks like vines hanging from the trees. But it doesn't look like an autumn day in the middle of Nebraska.

This painting is one in which I love the way the colors work off of each other. This painting originally was going to be a abstract painting of the sun rising on Easter morning. But again, I got distracted by the colors, and the movement, and just let myself go. I still think of Easter when I look at this painting, but without the back story, I doubt anyone else does. . .But they are sorta Easter colors . . .

This painting was another Spring painting. After being in my backyard, I came inside, and after everyone was asleep I was still thinking of the new green growth in the backyard, and that was my mindset as I started this painting. I don't remember what made me use some much gray and white to create movement in this painting, but it seems to work for me. I look at this painting and see beauty, and it calms my soul, which is a bit surprising with all the crazy movement in gray and white.

These next two paintings posted backward, in that the bottom one should be first, but that is alright. I will explain them anyway. These two were painted the same night. I was attempting to mix a pinkish red, for the background of the bottom painting. When I felt I was successful, I was blown away by the color I had produced, and so I wanted to feature that color as main color for another painting. So I did, but again somehow got attached to the white paint, and added it into the mix. I still think the painting works. I also like some of the texture I was able to create in the painting, using the pink and white on red.

    The blue in the bottom painting helps tone down the red abit, but it also has to do with my camera and the flash and how close I was, when I took the photograph. This painting always makes me think of my Mom. I don't know why, but she always comes to mind, and the more that can happen in my life the better, because my Mom was an amazing, amazing person.

Stripes

Stripes is one of my favorite movies. Bill Murray, John Candy, Harold Ramis, funny guys. When I paint I love lines, especially lines that catch the eye and make it move over the painting. It is quite addictive having that kind a power in a technique.  Being a weak willed person I have been battling a stripe addiction for quite some time. But I love the way stripes look in paintings, and the power they have to move the eye. Here are some of my favorite paintings, featuring stripes in the compilation of these paintings.

This first painting, entitled "the frog and the thief" was one of the first ones I used stripes. I added the stripes because I wasn't happy with the way my eyes moved over the painting. I was also experimenting with space and position within a painting, and I liked this painting enough, to keep it in the upper folders of paintings, instead of in the bottom folders. I rarely throw a painting away, because just like science or anything else, sometimes we learn more from our mistakes, than from our successes. 

This painting is quite similar, even the background coloring. It is entitled "the grump and the guppy".  I really enjoy the balance between the top half and the bottom half of this painting.

This painting is entitled "protectors". My son loves to sleep with his bed full of stuffed animals. He knows immediately if one of the twenty animals is not on his bed. I like to think when Ethan sleeps, he imagines his animals protecting and watching over him.

(When I started writing this blog, I had like 15 or 20 paintings, but decided I didn't want to bore you, so have winnowed down the group, a kin to the democratic primary election.  . . .)

This next painting, I had shown someone before a show, and they were interested in purchasing the painting, but my son Ethan was very upset about the possibility of my selling this painting. He became upset enough that I finally gave him the painting. I later found the painting in his room, and he had stapled about 50 staples into the painting. I asked him why, and he said, that way I could never sell it. The painting is entitled "the introduction". My wife wondered if Ethan was attached to the painting, because the man in the painting wore a black hat, and I tend to wear a black hat. This painting I was experimenting again with the directions of the stripes and how they move the eye.

This painting is entitled "the dog sitter" and the stripes are attempting to distract you from the dog, the same way, the people and creatures in the painting are trying to distract the dog sitter from watching the dog. I feel like this is a busy painting, with lots happening, and that is what i was after when I painted it.

This  painting entitled "the "ladies" man" was another experiment. I used stripes to weigh one side of the painting. This was done to hopefully produce a feeling of isolation . .thus . .the ladies man, is only a ladies man, inside his own head.

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This painting is entitled "hide and seek". A baby is hiding among all his striped toys. I again was experimenting with the direction of the stripes, to lengthen the painting. 

Well another change of heart during the writing of this blog. I did keep most of the paintings I had picked out, but will not comment on any more of them. Just their titles, and  a smaller view, so as not to overwhelm your eyes with all this striping brilliance . . .

the search

the escape

the witch

in flight

digging up bones

the parrot

the burden

reptiles galore

worming my way through history

self

When we look at self, or at least when I look at self, I usually see very different people, depending on the time I am looking. It might be surprising how many self portraits I have painted  (I think close to 20). I include four of my favorites below. I think why I like these so much is because of the honesty of the paintings, and the truth that I believe they show, in revealing who I truly am.

This first painting was done after I had experienced almost a month long illness. One night, looking in the mirror, I noticed my hair was extremely long. For whatever reason that made me stop and take a long look at myself. I was walking with a cane because I had fallen, and was having difficulty with my back. But this painting seemed to capture me in that moment. A man partially defeated, or at least feeling a lessening of who I believed myself to be.

This next painting was painted during an emotionally difficult time. I was feeling lots of pain, and ugliness. Fear and lack of belief were expressing themselves in this painting. I felt as if these images were who I was, but people would either just look away, or look through who I was, and what I was feeling. After cancer, I believe life sometimes, can be a struggle, but many times your family and friends don't want to see the struggle, so they don't really look at you. This painting to me, is what my struggle looks like some days.

I love this painting, because it reminded me of my college days. I and my brother had a second floor apartment. The painting started out being an insect climbing the stairs to our apartment. But as the painting was progressing, I realized the insect or creature was me, probably after a night on the town.

This painting started out, I was going to do a painting of myself, from a school picture. I think either first or second grade. But once I started, I didn't want to just create a copy of a photograph, I wanted to capture the real me. As I was painting, I realized there wasn't much there to capture. I was a quiet kid, almost like a ghost. I remember on a number of occasions as a child, wondering if I was invisible, and if I was real. I remember lots of out of body moments, but was a bit reserved to talk about them with anyone. I do remember wondering one day, if I existed outside my body, and decided maybe I did. So it sorta made me wonder, what my body was for . . .this uncertainty seems to be expressing itself in this self portrait.  . . . .So there you have it, the faces of an artist . . .

Secrets

 Sometimes painting have secrets to them, that no one else can know. These four paintings have a secret, which I am happy to share. I love all four of these paintings, because the painting expresses me, and who and what I was, in that moment in time, at least expresses me to my satisfaction. The paintings' colors and lines express just what I wanted to express, even if I can't put it into words. When I spent time with the concept of giving each of these paintings a title. I tried to give the painting a title which fit the that moment in my life. . .This first painting I entitled . .First Kiss. 

This painting was one in which the colors and lines captured my essence in that moment. But later looking at the painting, I noticed a "surprise", and thus it affected how I entitled this painting. I entitled this painting. . The Dragon Lair.

This painting was a painting I was going to either entitle, In the Beginning, or Creation. I decided to go with "Creation".

This final painting is one of my all time favorites. But I didn't really know what to call it. Not long after this painting, I had a dream, and the dream was about the time my family witnessed a "Sun Dance" up in South Dakota. But during the dream, this painting flashed in the dream, and I realized, it was connected to the memory. I entitled it "The Ghost Dance".

Surprises

Surprises are fun. There are some times, when my soul says paint, and I have no idea what to paint, so I ask the canvas or paper to help express what I believe the page wants me to express. I try to concentrate on the colors and the movement, and just focus on releasing the painting buried on the page.  I know it sounds a bit crazy, but here are a few examples. I didn't know what I had painted until I left the painting for a while and came back and viewed it. The painting would then reveal itself to me. This first painting I entitled "Female Jogger". When I painted this painting, I had no idea I had painted a jogger. It seemed as the painting was progressing to be trees and sandhills, but I wanted to be led to the final result, and I was. I was shocked to see the image of a jogger, but that is what I saw when I returned to the painting. A nice surprise. This painting has been one of the favorites of the literary magazines, it has been published in at least two different magazines.

The next painting was one where I again was more concerned about movement and color, than actually painting some image. But it was my son, who saw this one, and pointed out to me what he saw. My son, who is disabled, asked me, "Why I painted Jesus shocking people". I told him I didn't paint that, but he pointed out what he saw, and I guess then I saw it too, except I don't see Jesus, I see a woman. But we entitled this one, "Touched by the Spirit", though he thought it should be entitled, "Shocked". But again a nice surprise.

The same thing with this painting,but after leaving it and coming back to it, all I saw, and still see are elephants. Elephant eyes, trunks and ears, everywhere I look in this painting. I asked one of my brothers what he saw, and he said, "colors". I said "no elephants". Looked at the painting, looked at me and said, "I always knew you were crazy." That may be, But I still see elephants, thus the title of the painting. And again a nice surprise.

Sunday, March 1st, 2020

  This Sunday one of the readings in church was about Adam and Eve, and it reminded me of this painting I did a few years ago. The painting was done at the start of the "Me Too" movement. 

Anyone else, notice when Satan tried to mess with the relationship between humanity and God, he approached the woman. We have been taught that was because the woman was the weaker sex, and more easily manipulated, but if you think about it at all, that doesn't make sense. If women are so easily manipulated and controlled, the man wouldn't listen to her anyway. He would remain true to the commands of his God. If you read the story of creation, it could be argued that woman was created because of man's weakness. So maybe woman, isn't the weak one, man is. And maybe Satan knew if he wanted a decision he needed to talk to the woman, because she was the one who made things happen. 

The reason why I painted this in regard to that moment in time (the Me Too movement), was about temptation in the moment. Here is a moment in history where women could be tempted to make men play for eons of abuse, both sexual and emotional.  But is anything ever that one sided. Haven't women used and manipulated sex and relationships to gain control of situations also. 

In this painting I purposely painted the woman's ass, to show how things could evolve with the wrong choices and lessons from history. Losing feminine and gaining masculine characteristics. I guess only the future will show us if good decisions have been made.