New places, new challenges

 Every artist I know likes to travel.  Going to a new place stirs the imagination, inspires, and presents new challenges.  such was our recent cruise along Alaska's inside passage.  The weather was mostly cloudy, but the scenery was inspiring nonetheless.  i will be painting from this trip in the future.  Here are my first four pieces.








ALASKA SAILING 8 by 6 acrylic on canvas panel

The strange juxtaposition of sailboat and mountain

FLOATING ICE 9 by 12 acrylic on canvas panel 
We saw lots of ice chunks floating around near the tidewater glaciers.

PASSAGE THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS
8 by 10 acrylic on canvas panel 
Gorgeous mountains that came all the way to the sea. 

RED BARN AND EVERGREENS  8 by 10 acrylic on canvas panel.
One of many barns we saw while in Washington state.

Cast Drawing in Graphite by Sight Size Method -Bust of Michelangelo

Here is my first cast drawing using the sight size method.  The drawing is in pencil and took me three days to complete.  Most drawing casts intended for that purpose are rather pricey, but I found some inexpensive sculptures at a company called Design Toscono http://www.designtoscano.com/ They had gray accents, but a can of matte white spray paint fixed that.  I bought three casts for less than $150.  This is a bust of Michelangelo.  I also bought one of Julius Caesar and a small bust of Venus de Milo.  I will post cast drawings as I complete them.

THE WARMTH OF THE SUN - finished painting

My studio painting for the 2011 Grand Canyon Celebration of Art is finished!  This is a view from an overlook on the West Rim drive at which I painted last year.  The Kaibab Limestone Rocks are so warm and bright, lit from behind by the late afternoon sun. I first became aware of this spot a few years ago when I saw a painting Curt Walters had done from here.  I now think of the overlook as the "Curt Walters Overlook".  If you are at the Grand Canyon, it is the second overlook past Mohave Point on the West Rim.

Snapshot of a painting in progress part 3

Here is an updated photo of my painting as of this evening.  Still have some work, but it is coming along nicely.

Snapshots of a painting in progress part 2

 Here is step two of the 50 by 22 inch painting which I am calling "The Warmth of the Sun".  This is the block-in stage.  I should not have to make any major corrections from now on, only minor ones.

Below is the 19 by 8.5 inch preliminary study.  Notice that, having been very happy with the study, I have stayed very close to it in the initial block-in.

Snapshots of a painting in progress

I have just begun work on a major piece - my studio painting for the 2011 Grand Canyon Celebration of Art.  I plan to post images as I progress.  This first image is the beginning of the block-in in acrylic with the preliminary painting leaning against the canvas .  The preliminary painting is 19 by 8.25 inches.  The canvas is 50 by 22 inches.

Painting Sunsets, part 2

Here is the painting I described in my previous entry on sunsets.  Actually, this is a sunrise over Yellowstone Lake.  As I mentioned in the first post, I had been studying paintings by JMW Turner before I painted this.  It is 20 by 16 inches, acrylic on canvas.

Artistic goals

I ask myself on occasion what my goal is, as an artist.  Do I want to be wealthy (haha), famous, award-winning? Or what?  I always seem to come back to the same answer: I want to produce the best paintings I can and continue to raise the bar so that this year's body of work is better than last year's and next year's will be better still.  To some extent I am able to judge my success based on feedback from my fellow artists, friends, collectors and galleries. But in the long run, I must be my own judge.  I have to be the one who sees room for improvement.  I have to be the one to seek out new skills, new ideas, and new subject matter.  I am the one who has to practice until I get it right.  I have to be the one to take the risk of painting something new or ground-breaking.  And in the end, I have to be the one who likes the result.

A Day of Rest

I love painting and drawing.  I feel sometimes like I could do it 24/7. But when I have tried to go non-stop for long periods of time, I have found I get tired.  I need a break once in a while.  Not just to eat and sleep, but to do other things; to give my mind a break from thinking about art.

Years ago I started taking off the Sabbath (Sunday in my case) to rest from my work.  And I get more done working six days than seven.  During the French Revolution and the Enlightenment, the proponents of the decimal system tried to switch to a ten-day week.  It did not succeed because people get tired after six days and cannot seem to make it through nine.  Seven seems to be the right number of days in a human week.  Seems like God got it right and the Sabbath IS a gift of rest to us humans.  Take it and enjoy it!
John.

Am I Doing Enough Preliminary Work?

According to Dinotopia artist James Gurney, Howard Pyle used to do a minimum of 50 (FIFTY!!) preliminary sketches before every painting.  Hmmmm.  I think I need to be spending more time with the ol' pencil.

Painting Sunsets

I have spent some time lately grazing over my J.M.W. Turner books, looking at how he painted sunsets.  Actually, how he painted the sun, because in many of them the sun was WELL above the horizon.  I always wanted to paint sunsets, but was once told by an art instructor that "you cannot paint a sunset."  But Turner did.  Church did.  Even Thomas Moran and Bierstadt did.  And some were quite successful.  Recently I have noticed a number of artists successfully tackling that particular subject matter, and some doing a very good job of it.  Some even en plein air.  So I am working on one and will post it here and on my web page when I get it done.
www.johncogan.com

The Christian as artist

One of the more important things an artist does is to reflect the beauty of God's creation. We have the opportunity to remind our viewers of what is "true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good reputation, whatever is excellent and worthy of praise..." (see Paul's letter to the Philippians, chapter 4, verse 8.)

Our art can show that beauty to the world and be given another reminder who it is that provides not only the beauty, but our ability to see and appreciate it.

Of course, sometimes it is an artist's duty to use his art to remind others of where we humans fail to live up to God's holiness. Sometimes that art may be deemed "ugly" but sometimes we humans show our ugly side. The purpose in this case is to contrast our sinful side with God's perfect beauty, goodness and holiness.

May God bless your day. John