Varnish is a sore subject. I’ve nearly spoiled some of my own paintings with poor varnish, and I’ve had so-called ‘professionals’ ruin paintings (one frame shop owner in Trenton, NJ left brush hairs in the varnish coat then obliterated the painting’s surface trying to get them off—grrr). Any artist that draws with smudge-able material, such…
Cleveland, Paintings, Studio Corner, Uncategorized, Vermilion, OH
In the Studio 2/17/2013
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A productive day with a lot of good sunlight. I finished two self-portraits this morning (a gouache and another pastel-gouache), almost finished the drawing for a new still life (oil), then worked on the oils in the accompanying photo this afternoon. Why so many self-portraits lately? It’s not because I’ve developed a new found self-fascination–hell…
Aside
I visited Cleveland State U’s new gallery space on Euclid today. Neither of the two show–Animatopoeia, and Dante Rodriguez: New Works–warmed my winter-insulted bones, although Animatopoeia has some interesting sculpture I would provide a link to the gallery’s web site but the site provides minimal information.
Art Museums, Artists, Cleveland, Paintings, Uncategorized
Gaertner at the Cleveland Museum of Art
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I’m an idiot, but you already knew that. After writing about discovering Frederick Gaertner in this post, I belatedly realized I had seen–on numerous occasions, no less–one of his paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art. For some reason, I never connected that Gaertner with my Gaertner discovered at the Bonfoey Gallery. The Museum’s “The Furnace”…
Paintings, Studio Corner, Uncategorized, Vermilion, OH
On the Easel Feb. 10, 2013
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Picasso said he became an artist because he wanted to have his own collection of paintings. That sounds apocryphal but if he didn’t say it, he should have. I’ve been working on these pieces these two days. Working on a painting about being on The Betty Jane and fishing is especially apt on a cold…
Artists, Cleveland, Galleries, Reviews, Uncategorized
Julie Friedman at Busta Gallery
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In her show, Perennial Shift, at the William Busta Gallery, Julie Friedman exhibits a print maker’s love of process. Initially, the pieces (a useful generic term) reminded me of the silhouettes you can have made at Coney Island or Cedar Point. Like those silhouettes, these are cut-outs; most are black on white. On closer inspection, they are the product of a labor-intensive, and…
Studio Corner, Vermilion, OH
In the Studio 1.27.13
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Lake Erie finally froze this week. When the Lake freezes, a giant marker highlights ‘winter’ and shouts WINTER. Often, after many storms, the snow and ice are thrown into huge mountains that reach amazing height and transform the Lake into a silent, alien world. I took this shot from the studio window at first light. …
anecdotes, Artists, Bio, Books, Uncategorized, Vermilion, OH
Book Thief
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In the summer before third grade, we moved to a small town far from Dayton. The ramshackle house we rented was across the street from the public library. With its pink-marble columns, the library seemed to exist in another world. I began spending all of my free time there. My frequent visits to the library…