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Designs

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Leather Colour

Black Brown

Albert Marquet, Paris Under Snow, 1905-06

From the National Gallery of Canada:

This view of Notre Dame cathedral and the bridge of Saint-Michel was probably captured from Albert Marquet’s studio. He painted similar scenes tirelessly, from various angles and during different times of day and different seasons, creating diverse moods according to the effects of light. Though Marquet’s use of broad, simplified forms is typically Fauve, his use of colour is more restrained, as is clearly evident in this painting. He has captured the gloomy atmosphere of a dull winter day with sombre colours painted in muted tones. Note how the human beings and horses are represented by simple and gestural brushstrokes to convey form and movement.

Albert Marquet, Posters at Trouville, 1906

We visited Trouville, Normandy last summer.

Amedeo Modigliani, Portrait of Maude Abrantes

Love his portraits...

Albert Marquet, St. Raphael, the Terrace, n.d.

Lovely mood....

John James Audubon, Two Cats Fighting, 1826

Mr Bingley and Henry are now the best of friends!

Cataloguing for life

Greetings! Yesterday, Dennis R. of Aspen, Colorado wrote, "I read with interest your letter on why you shouldn't put dates on paintings. What are your thoughts about catalog numbers on paintings? Assuming an artist uses some sort of sequential system, an astute observer may be able to guesstimate the date. Or is this taking things too far?" Thanks, Dennis. Several times in my life I've started cataloguing and failed. I once got as high as 75 before zoning-out. If I had to do it all over again I'd have had an early lobotomy and given #1 to my first parent-noted drawing at age four and carried through to this morning's effort at #23,865 (just guessing). Fact is, I was absent from class the day they covered sequential systems. You may have better luck. In my studio at least, an insider-accessible, comprehensive cataloguing system would be worth a boxcar of gold bricks. I can see an entry now: #1678, Whistler Mountain, Oil/C, 16"x 20", Jan 17, 1978, "It was a dark and stormy night and the ski-hill was a ribbon of ice. Sara hit a mogul and broke her leg." But alas, unpleasant associations like this will forever be difficult to pinpoint. Recently, an old painting came in for cleaning and I noted #43 in my writing on the back. I would have loved to tell the owner something about it, but I've lost the catalogue. Personally, I like the idea of an old fashioned journal--a sort of Pepys' Diary with cryptic tweetlets and insider asides. ("Particularly bad day for bears," kind of thing.) Just out of interest, I'd also like to know the time I started and the time I finished. Oh, and the amount of paint I used. I guess the main argument against keeping track is the possibility it may turn perfectly lovely chaos into bookkeeping.     I took a chance and asked Joan Morris who works with Mark Zuckerberg if they might come up with an app just for us, but they were all too busy watching the stock.    Dennis, don't do what I did, do what I say. Get yourself a big handsome book and start cataloguing and notating everything you do. It's too late for me. I'd look even more stupid starting at #23,866.    Best regards, Robert PS: "Chaos breeds life when order breeds habit." (Henry Brooks Adams) Esoterica: There are 7,650,000 Google destinations when you type in "computerized cataloguing systems." I've heard of artists using commercial and library applications like "Catalog Builder" and "E-catalog." A long-time standard is "GallerySoft," designed specifically for art galleries to keep track of inventory, but in use by a few artists. Some catalogue systems have search capabilities. Type in "broken leg" and in my case I would have been whisked to the unfortunate memories associated with #1678. We're now in the 21st Century, folks. Ya gotta love this stuff. Current Clickback: "What photography isn't" looks at digital photography and painting. Your comments will be appreciated. Read this letter online and share your thoughts on keeping a catalogue of your work. Live comments are welcome. Direct, illustratable comments can be made at rgenn@saraphina.com The Art Show Calendar: If you or your group has a show coming up, put an illustrated announcement on The Painter's Keys site. The longer it's up, the more people will see it. Your announcement will be shown until the last day of your show. The Workshop Calendar: Here is a selection of workshops and seminars laid out in chronological order that will stimulate, teach, mentor, take you to foreign lands or just down the street. Many of these workshops are recommended by Robert and friends. Incidentally, if you are planning a workshop and have photos of happy people working, feel free to send them to us and we'll include a selection in the workshops feature at no extra charge. The Painter's Post: Every day new material is going into this feature. Links to art info, ideas, inspiration and all kinds of creative fun can be found in this online arts aggregator. If a friend is trying to subscribe to the Twice-Weekly Letter via Constant Contact, please let her or him know that confirmation is required and to reply to Constant Contact's confirmation email. You can also follow Robert's valuable insights and see further feedback on Facebook and Twitter Dennis R. is at dennis@aspenweaver.com Featured Responses: Alternative to the instant Live Comments, Featured Responses are illustrated and edited for content. If you would like to submit your own for possible inclusion, please do so. Just click 'reply' on this letter or write to rgenn@saraphina.com Yes, please go ahead and forward this letter to a friend. This does not mean that they will automatically be subscribed to the Twice-Weekly Letter. They have to do it voluntarily and can find out about it by going to The Painter's Keys website. Subscribe Free! Your name and email address will be kept safe. To Unsubscribe or Change Your Email Address, please click Safe Unsubscribe or Update Profile/Email Address links found at the bottom of this email. (c) Copyright 2012 Robert Genn. If you wish to copy this material to other publications or mail lists, please ask for permission by writingrgenn@saraphina.com. Thanks for your friendship.

Frida Kahlo in a hospital bed, drawing on her cast with the help of a mirror, 1951.

Frederic Edwin Church, Twilight in the Wilderness, 1860

Incredible colour!

Amedeo Modigliani, Portrait of Madame Kisling

What digital photography isn't

Greetings! Several artists have written to suggest that the massive growth of digital photography might be de-popularizing fine art. While reports of the decline of painting are suspect, protestors have a point. "Digital photography," said one writer, "is using up everyone's creative energy." The stats are impressive. Last year, one billion mobile phones with cameras were sold around the world. One third of the world's population now owns a digital camera. Facebook alone reports 300 million uploaded photos per day. The recent Queen's Diamond Jubilee resulted in the production of more than 1.3 billion photos. Fact is, people are snapping at unprecedented rates and not taking much time to look and see. "The medium has eclipsed the moment," says journalist Erin Anderssen. Unlike the scrapbooks of old, the tsunami of imagery remains, for the most part, ephemeral. Its commonality contrasts with the relative scarcity of paintings. Paintings are handmade. Unlike the old Kodak ad, "You press the button, we do the rest," paintings take hours or even days of contemplation and hard-won private process. The art of painting can be an "event" that is felt by the viewer.  Paintings are distinguished by texture. Texture is a mark of integrity and passion that the digital world has not yet mastered. Fine artists abandon texture at their peril. Paintings are tangible. They don't float in clouds. Paintings have pride of place in prestigious museums and noble homes. Framed for strategic walls and inner sanctums, paintings become the love-objects of our lives. Paintings, like bars of gold, are assets of investment and hoarding; a treasury that may span generations. "Artists," noted Salvador Dali, "are manufacturers of wealth." Unlike the grinning and contrived poses snapped at barbeques, or the mug-shot of an uncle whose schnoz is memorable but whose name you've forgotten, paintings are true connections with a singular and real person. That person is you. When people collect art, they also collect the maker. Best regards, Robert PS: "The irony is that having a photo doesn't mean you're going to remember. It only feels like you have a vast repository of memories. A number of photos prompt a certain kind of forgetting." (Martin Hand, sociologist, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada--author of "Ubiquitous Photography") Esoterica: Paintings can convey the slowing down, the trance and miracle of human life. Collectors love this understanding. As a perpetrator of both the reality and the illusion, it's lovely for you too. Recently, one of my staunchest collectors had me to his home as a guest, along with many others. While admiring the human scenery, controlling my desire to distantly snap digitals of some of the more rococo faces, I overheard our host confide to another guest, "I've actually got the best work he ever did. He did this one while freezing in a tent at ten thousand feet." While the guy was mildly wrong on both counts, I couldn't help being impressed with the brilliance of our profession. Current Clickback: "Your easel, your altar" looks at how we feel standing or sitting before our easels. Your comments will be appreciated.    Read this letter online and share your thoughts about digital photography and painting. Live comments are welcome. Direct, illustratable comments can be made at rgenn@saraphina.com    The Art Show Calendar: If you or your group has a show coming up, put an illustrated announcement on The Painter's Keys site. The longer it's up, the more people will see it. Your announcement will be shown until the last day of your show.    The Workshop Calendar: Here is a selection of workshops and seminars laid out in chronological order that will stimulate, teach, mentor, take you to foreign lands or just down the street. Many of these workshops are recommended by Robert and friends. Incidentally, if you are planning a workshop and have photos of happy people working, feel free to send them to us and we'll include a selection in the workshops feature at no extra charge.    The Painter's Post: Every day new material is going into this feature. Links to art info, ideas, inspiration and all kinds of creative fun can be found in this online arts aggregator.    If a friend is trying to subscribe to the Twice-Weekly Letter via Constant Contact, please let her or him know that confirmation is required and to reply to Constant Contact's confirmation email.    You can also follow Robert's valuable insights and see further feedback on Facebook and Twitter    Featured Responses: Alternative to the instant Live Comments, Featured Responses are illustrated and edited for content. If you would like to submit your own for possible inclusion, please do so. Just click 'reply' on this letter or write to rgenn@saraphina.com

From time to time I am reminded of my journey with unhealthy thinking patterns.  It seems we have to spend a lot of time re programming ourselves and deleting the old tapes that run amok sometimes in our heads to claim some happiness in this world.  I have learned a thing or two from our cat, Mr. Bingley, a creature of 'pure being'.  He just eats, sleeps, grooms and hunts for amusement all day.  Of course he has what I presume is little self-awareness and no sense of his own mortality...and does not ask himself existential questions, so he has little need for worry or anxiety.  


I am reminded of the Scripture passage... 

Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]?


²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Matthew 6:25-34

New International Version (NIV)

It seems that Mr. Bingley can show me a thing or two about living....

Your easel, your altar

Greetings! The American architect and author Anthony Lawlor looks at rooms as containers for the elevation of the human spirit. The kitchen, for example, is a sacred place where raw foods are transformed by the alchemy of heat into sustenance and delicacy. Bedrooms are sanctuaries for the mysterious transformations of sleeping and loving. Bathrooms are closed retreats of personal cleanliness and hygiene. Apart from perhaps the nursery, nothing compares to the remarkable container known as the studio. Here is a sanctuary where mere materials are transformed into objects of beauty. Like the laboratory, the studio is a domain of imaginative possibilities--as near to "creation" as mankind is likely to go. At the center of most studios is a piece of furniture called the easel. Whether simple and humble or complex and magnificent, it is at this unit that the creator sets her forces in motion. You might pause to consider how blessed are we who daily stand or sit before the easel. Ideally, it should be a strong object, so it can be pushed hard against, or be made to hold rock-steady during our more delicate passages. The easel needs to be well lit from above so those born on it can be properly examined, pampered and reconsidered. The easel is an altar to productivity. Traditional altars have been places of worship and sacrifice, and the studio easel is no exception. He who would do well at one must respect and honour the gods of quality, truth, composition, imagination, pattern, perspective, story, drawing, colour, fantasy and flair. To stand or sit at one, even in play, you need to prepare yourself for labour. The easel is also a place of sacrifice. Substandard passages or whole works are summarily struck down at this often troubling altar--but rebirth is its usual fruit. Both honour and responsibility go with your easel, your altar. Best regards, Robert PS: "For thousands of years, much of humankind has believed that only special places are infused with the sacred and that you must get away from the everyday in order to find it. Not so, everything is infused with the holy--from chairs to clothing to kitchen stoves." (Anthony Lawlor) Esoterica: While I've built, bought, worn out, and rejected countless outdoor easels and boxes, my studio easel is home-built and has been with me for a lifetime. My dad and I built it in 1974. I've sometimes looked at more sophisticated cranking and tilting models, but I've always come back to this one. Maybe it's the spirit of Dad in its rugged design, the Luddite way it holds onto my paintings, or the patina from my cigar-smoking days that keeps it in its place. But maybe it's the tradition. I've made a lot of art on it, and rejected a lot as well. It's been a life together--this easel and me. I guess you could say I've fallen in love with it. FYI, we've put a photo of my easel at the top of the current clickback. Current Clickback: "Signing and dating" looks at the best way to sign your work. Your comments will be appreciated.    Read this letter online and share your thoughts on sitting or standing before the easel. Live comments are welcome. Direct, illustratable comments can be made at rgenn@saraphina.com    The Art Show Calendar: If you or your group has a show coming up, put an illustrated announcement on The Painter's Keys site. The longer it's up, the more people will see it. Your announcement will be shown until the last day of your show.    The Workshop Calendar: Here is a selection of workshops and seminars laid out in chronological order that will stimulate, teach, mentor, take you to foreign lands or just down the street. Many of these workshops are recommended by Robert and friends. Incidentally, if you are planning a workshop and have photos of happy people working, feel free to send them to us and we'll include a selection in the workshops feature at no extra charge.    The Painter's Post: Every day new material is going into this feature. Links to art info, ideas, inspiration and all kinds of creative fun can be found in this online arts aggregator.    If a friend is trying to subscribe to the Twice-Weekly Letter via Constant Contact, please let her or him know that confirmation is required and to reply to Constant Contact's confirmation email.    You can also follow Robert's valuable insights and see further feedback on Facebook and Twitter    Featured Responses: Alternative to the instant Live Comments, Featured Responses are illustrated and edited for content. If you would like to submit your own for possible inclusion, please do so. Just click 'reply' on this letter or write to rgenn@saraphina.com

Emilia Castañeda

Mark Chadwick

Beautiful Painting!

Signing and dating

Greetings! Yesterday, Marjorie Moeser of Toronto, ON, Canada, wrote, "I sometimes place my signature to the left at the bottom because it suits the composition better than having it on the right. I try to make the signature inconspicuous. Mostly I sign in black, but sometimes white or a neutral tone. But I've done paintings that seem to say "no" to a signature up front. So, I omit it, opting for signing on the back. What is your advice? Also, what about dating?" Thanks, Marjorie. I'm a member of a party who thinks signatures should be clear, consistent and pretty well always in the same place--lower right. There are times when lower left is okay too. Further, if the style of signature is consistent, the colour of the signature can often be harmonized or integrated into the painting, as you suggest. My advice to most artists is "unobtrusive but clear." While the unique style and painterly quality of your painting is more important than your signature, a good reason for putting a signature on the front is in the interest of the observer. People love to be right. If someone sees a "Joe Bloggs" from across the room and says, "That looks like a Joe Bloggs," and moving closer, sees the signature "Joe Bloggs," then this observer confirms his brilliant connoisseurship by merely recognizing the Bloggsian style. Leaving the signature off the front of a painting may be okay for internationally-famous iconic artists whose style is so recognizable that anyone who didn't know who was responsible for the work might be considered a knuckle-dragging Philistine. Dating is another matter. For artists who regularly exhibit in commercial galleries and switch their work around from time to time, the date needs to be left off both the front and the back. That way the art remains "new." I've had ten-year-old paintings with more exposure than Mitt Romney's dog arrive at a new gallery and quickly find a discriminating collector. If the work had borne a stale date people might think it substandard for being so long an orphan. The exceptions to the no-dating advice are commissioned portraits and work executed at events needing to be memorialized. Similarly, do not sign "dogs." Put them on the roof of the car and take them to the dump.    Best regards, Robert PS: "In those days he was wiser than he is now--he used frequently to take my advice." (Winston Churchill) Esoterica: Signing and dating is not often covered by the "how to" art books. Perhaps that's why these questions come up so frequently. It's valuable to make a note of the date, however. I have this and other info put on a file card and filed alphabetically by title. That way it's always available when people inquire. Since the advent of the Internet, collectors seem to want more provenance. As well, you need to think of the future. What, when, where, why and how may be of interest to latter-day students and researchers. Speaking of books, we're constantly refreshing our oft-visited "Books on Artist's Shelves." Please feel free to add your own current favourites. Current Clickback: "How to give advice" looks at the best way to give advice. Your comments will be appreciated.    Read this letter online and share your thoughts on signing and dating your work. Live comments are welcome. Direct, illustratable comments can be made at rgenn@saraphina.com    The Art Show Calendar: If you or your group has a show coming up, put an illustrated announcement on The Painter's Keys site. The longer it's up, the more people will see it. Your announcement will be shown until the last day of your show.    The Workshop Calendar: Here is a selection of workshops and seminars laid out in chronological order that will stimulate, teach, mentor, take you to foreign lands or just down the street. Many of these workshops are recommended by Robert and friends. Incidentally, if you are planning a workshop and have photos of happy people working, feel free to send them to us and we'll include a selection in the workshops feature at no extra charge.    The Painter's Post: Every day new material is going into this feature. Links to art info, ideas, inspiration and all kinds of creative fun can be found in this online arts aggregator.    If a friend is trying to subscribe to the Twice-Weekly Letter via Constant Contact, please let her or him know that confirmation is required and to reply to Constant Contact's confirmation email.    You can also follow Robert's valuable insights and see further feedback on Facebook and Twitter Marjorie Moeser is at moemar98@hotmail.com     Featured Responses: Alternative to the instant Live Comments, Featured Responses are illustrated and edited for content. If you would like to submit your own for possible inclusion, please do so. Just click 'reply' on this letter or write to rgenn@saraphina.com