Black and White Photography, A Painter's Best Tool

The Glory of  the Garden: Japanese Dogwood
A digital photograph taken with my Nikon Coolpix L120

While rain has dampened summer expectations, it has produced lush growth in the garden. The Japanese Dogwood, in particular, is enjoying the humidity and cool temperatures with a profusion of blooms. It isn't a big tree. It isn't showy. It is elegant.  Eventually,  the tree will form a roof shading the attrium entrance to my home. This is not a reference photograph. It stands on its own. In this case, nature's art surpasses any rendering I could produce.

Photographically, I do prefer black and white to color. Color distracts. With black and white, the range of the  gray scale reveals the quality of the picture.  There's a nice range of grays  in this photo.
A full range of grays in a photograph is the the mark of a good photograph.

Converting a photograph of a painting in progress to black and white is an excellent tool for artists.
To see how I was doing with If a Tree Falls, I checked it out in black and white.  I was happy to see it was coming along nicely and was nearly finished.

Check the painting against the black and white reference photograph I'm working from:

Before I got side tracked by the beauty of the Japanese Dogwood after a morning rain, I ransacked the studio again looking for Burnt Sienna oil paint and FOUND IT!  The find restored my opinion of myself.

Stay Out of Town Virginia!

Detroit Institute of Art (DIA)
I've been a member of the Founder Society since before I could vote.

The DIA's Great Hall. Our Thinker used to be in here. Now the copy welcomes
visitors outside of the main entrance to the museum on Woodward .  To the right of this great hall are the American Art
Galleries . To the left is the Medieval section where my young sons loved to play guessing games as to  who could be lying in that stone sarcophagus?

Rivera Court with its famous frescoes depicting  Detroit's Industrial Heritage. Every Friday night, there are freeconcerts
put on in this hall by local musicians.  The hall is packed. 

One of my favorite DIA paintings: John Henry Fuseli's The Nightmare. I wrote my term paper for
Art History on this painting.

The Kresge Building of The Center for Creative Studies (now known as The College of Creative Arts) where I studied sculpture, anatomy and design.
The campus is East of John R, the street that runs behind the DIA. We used to go to lunch
at the museum. The museum was home then as it is now.

College of Creative Studies Center Gallery. A place that makes my heart sing.

Satisfied with my initial drawing  done in pastel on a prepped canvas, I reached for the burnt sienna and there was none. I Gotta Crow was stopped cold. I ransacked the studio not believing I didn't have a tube of the staple color on all the paint palettes in the world, but came up with nothing. That session ended with disgust.

As did reading the newspaper and online articles this weekend.

 I was enraged over the  talk in the papers and online of selling off Detroit's museum's very fine art collection to pay Detroit's debts.  Then there was  this snobby biatch from LA (who was born in nowheresvilleas far as any biography I could find),Virginia Postrel whose derogatory remarks about my city and our art churned my stomach and  me take the fight stance.  Read about it here.

My favorite contemporary painting by an
artist whose name escapes me. With me, it's never the
creator's name that sticks, it's his/her work. 

Yes, the city is in financial trouble.  Yes, our art collection is formidable and could pay off a lot of the city's debt. But I say let the past city councils who incurred those debts work them off as indentured servants to the city they plundered , (dressed in orange coveralls of course Virginia--I know how very important fashion is to you). Charge the suburbs more for their water. Charge toll fees for the use of our expressways-- a brilliant innovation and the first in the world. Tear down the decaying Joe Lewis Arena and the Manoogian Mansion and the burned out houses in neighborhoods deserted long ago and sell parcels of  land to developers to build independent townships closer in to the beautiful downtown epicenter with its best in the world accoustics opera house, museums, music halls, theaters  and restaurants, but keep your mits off our art!   'Backwater' Detroiters  earned  every piece  we have housed, bequethed, funded, maintained, looked after all of our lives.

I took my ire out on the blog. Deleted two previous posts. I hated that Olive tree even if it did give me a couple of afternoons of free association fun. I worried that publicly voicing my decision to forget about making money with my art upset those of you who actively pursue the business end, so I deleted that text too.   I still stand by my opinion, however. Money in my art equation has always been detrimental to my productivity; the idea of having to produce art that people like to live with and can afford  freezes me up--that's why I think agents and gallery representation is important for artists like myself, an admitedly selfish Expressionist who adores exploration. While I call myself a dabbler, my tongue is in my cheek. I am anything but. Art is a major part of life--both making it and preserving it--mine, yours and particularly the 650,000 world class works in Detroit's outstanding museum originally founded in 1885, 69 years before Getty opened the front doors of his home so kids like Virginia could  get their first look at  his collection!  I'm just a wee bit pissed  at this woman who traded honest journalism for notoriety--albeit fame and fortune--via controversial prattle unsubstantuated by any research. But don't do your homework now Virginia.  Don't come to town.  You're not welcome.

In progress, a strong design, and a very complicated composition  by an artist
from a 'backwater' community which happens to own an art collection other's envy.

Note the chalk markings as I am still working out the composition and the palette. This one is going to take a while.

Verticals Complicate

Woodland Series, Spring Thaw, Acrylic, 20" x 20"

PAINTING IN PROGRESS

Verticals complicate and prolong  the work process, but breathe excitement into a composition. Nothing but horizontals in Spring Thaw put me to sleep.

Woodland Series; If a Tree Falls
In Progress

I needed some life, action! I knew the composition needed livening up days ago--every time I passed the studio door.  Finally, I took the plunge.  First with pastels, then with paint,I added saplings to the landscape and  the simple, horizontal composition turned exciting BUT also complicated and demanding. Important things have to happen at every intersection, some obvious, others subtle. The real work begins.

Complex landscapes both scare and intrigue me. I drive right past pastoral scenes with clear horizons; it's the gnarly scenes that make me pull out my camera.  SpringThaw is a gnarly one--as is If a Tree Falls. Both finishes will not come quickly. A more relaxing portrait might give me something to break up the intensity.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Lake Walk, Digital Photography

The rain stopped long enough to take my first walk down to the lake.  The air smelled of fish. The Bass and Bluegills were spawning said a guy cleaning up his paddle wheel. The lake was high, back where it was two summers ago, affording swimmers an easier climb up the boat ladder. But the water wasn't quite warm enough for a dip. Just 68 degrees, it was ten degrees shy of what this arthritic lady will tolerate--of course, I could consider a plung into the cold  just as another icing session...I went home to try on bathing suits with this very paintable photograph in my camera. There's some deep  burgundy in the dark shadows of the water.  Can you see ithe flecks?