Thursday, June 2, 2016

Three Things I've Learned About Painting


I've been painting for what seems like forever. Like many other activities, one usually gets better with years of practice.

Making art has been like that. Some of it is just about learning how to get the paint on the canvas and to make the finished item look the way you want it to.

But I've learned three distinct principles that the Old Masters apparently knew that add so much to the power of a painting.

  • The Golden Mean. Briefly, the Golden Mean is a proportional tool that, in two-dimensional art, is a focal point of intersecting lines at given distances from the edges of the work. The eye is drawn to these point locations and automatically makes you look at them (or it). Four of them potentially exist at once, but the artist chooses one that works the best for the image s/he wants to use. It's a similar concept that photographers use known as the Rule of Thirds; only, the Golden Mean places the point of interest closer to the center: 0.382 distance from the length and width, unlike the Rule of Third's 0.333.
Golden Mean,pleasing, focal point,eye-catching,composition,art
Each of the four points near the center represents the rectangle's Golden Mean. Any of these are the best places to locate the most important feature or subject of a painting.
  • Selective Focus. Friend and amazing artist Virgil Elliot pointed out this principle --  the area of interest (probably located at the Golden Mean) should have sharp edges, and the other edges should be softened. Again, this tends to make you look at the important area and more closely resembles how we actually see things -- what we stare at is sharp, and the rest of the world appears more blurry to us. (To see Virgil's website, click here).
  • Contrast. The eye likes contrast -- very light against very dark. Painters can use this to their advantage -- make the important area contrasty -- even white next to black -- and soften the contrast on the rest of the painting.

That's my three-point message. Using one of my own paintings to illustrate all this, let's examine the piece in light of these principles:

sand,dunes,verbena,flowers,Mount,Mt,San Jacinto,Palm Springs, CA,California,desert
On Waves of Sand   20" x 24"
The Golden Mean point I used is to the lower left of center. The sharpest spot (hard to see in this small reproduction) is the creosote bush with a blowing sand cloud behind it. And the area of highest contrast is the bush and the sand cloud. (The white on the mountain peak is brighter than the blowing sand, but I kept the contrast up there low, so it doesn't grab your attention as the bush does.

After I learned these things -- one years ago, some quite recently -- I then noticed how painters of previous centuries did this stuff. The nice thing about being taught traditional approaches to art is -- one doesn't have to reinvent the wheel.

There is a lot more involved to making great art than just the above three fundamentals. But, in my opinion, learning about them helped me enormously as an artist. Next time you go to an art museum or even a gallery that carries some really good work -- look for these qualities in the paintings. The great paintings of the past and present have them. These are some of the characteristics one looks for in evaluating and judging art -- and separating the wheat from the chaff!

 

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

I Gave You All the Best Years of My Life


I've had the old Mac Davis song, Roll and Roll (I Gave You All the Best Years of My Life) on my mind a lot lately. With a few word changes, the song could be about me as I pursued a career making fine art. So much of the art world has changed over the years, even since I started making and selling art.

To make matters "worse," my pictorial interests are in the art of the past, especially the 19th century. I know traditional art still supposedly sells in this country, but the obsession with impressionism, digital art, fantasy, animé et al leave me feeling like I don't belong in this century. In southern California, the avant garde seems to be what people are looking at for their homes and offices. Stuff that I don't do. Art world --  "I was always just one step behind you."

We'll see what happens during the rest of 2016. After that, if I haven't moved forward, painting may become a hobby, possibly with occasional sales only. Maybe.


Yosemite National Park, Yosemite Valley, dawn, sunrise, Tunnel View, trees, yellow, sky, sun, CA, California, National Parks
First Light -- Yosemite Valley     24" x 36"


Roll and Roll (I Gave You All the Best Years of My Life)

Oh, I can still remember
When I bought my first guitar
Remember walking from the shop
To put it proudly in my car


And my family listened fifty times
To my two song repertoire
I told my mom her only son
Was gonna be a star


Well, I bought all the Beatles records
Sounded just like Paul
I bought all the old Chuck Berrys
78s and all


And I sat by my record player
Playing every note they played
I watched them all on tv
And copied every move they made


Aw, rock and roll, I gave you all
The best years of my life
All the dreamy sunny Sundays
All the moonlit summer nights


I was so busy in the backroom
Writing love songs to you
While you were changing your direction
And you never even knew
That I was always just one step behind you


Well, '66 seemed like the year
I was really going somewhere
I was living in San Francisco
Wearing flowers in my hair


Singing songs of kindness
So the world would understand
The guys and me thought we were more
Than just another band


Aw, rock and roll, I gave you all
The best years of my life
All the crazy, lazy, young days
All the magic moon at nights


I was so busy on the road
Singing love songs to you
While you were changing your direction
And you never even knew
That I was always just one step behind you


Well, '71, I was all alone
When I met Sarah Jan
I was trying to go it solo
With someone elses band


And she came up to me softly
And she took me by the hand
She listened to my problems
And she seemed to understand


And she followed me to London
To a hundred hotel rooms
Through a hundred record companies
Who didn't like my tunes


She followed me back to Tennessee
Where she finally made me see
I'm just a plain old country boy
That's all I'll ever be


Aw, rock and roll, I gave you
All the best years of my life
All the dreamy, sunny Sundays
All the moonlit summer nights


And though I never knew
The magic of making it with you
I'm getting along with my country songs
Doing what I was born to do
But I was always just one step behind you


Aw, rock and roll, I gave you
All the best years of my life
All the dreamy, sunny Sundays...


Wednesday, May 11, 2016

The Giver of Life


The Giver of Life is the title of my latest painting. The title refers to the rains that grace our desert area every so often -- and with the rain comes life.

desert,art,painting,Mount,Mt,San Jacinto,Palm Springs,CA,California,clouds,storm,barrel,cactus,yucca,flowers,brittlebush,Encelia,red tail,redtail,hawk,blue
Giver of Life                           30" x 40"
The view is of Mount San Jacinto (west of Palms Springs, CA) as seen from across the Banning Pass in an area called the Devil's Garden, so named for containing a forest of barrel and cholla cactus. (Many of the cacti are gone -- in the 1920s, Los Angeles people came, dug out many of the barrels and transplanted them in their yards, only to die soon thereafter; plus, wildfires have destroyed many specimens).

I have seen the mountain look just like this after a storm, except the peak was often obscured by clouds. I exposed the peak, highlighting the brilliant white snow at the top.

To the left, we see a red tail hawk on the wing, coming out after the rains and looking for tasty goodies to eat.

The desert can be a spectacular place to be if you are there at the right time. My goal is to capture those special times.

(By the way, my website URLs are SouthwestSpaces.com and MarkJunge.com).
 

Thursday, May 5, 2016

The Lady and the Horses


My latest painting, Jan with Candy and Mango, is a commission that features a long-time friend and two of her equine pals -- a pony named Candy, and Mango the half-Arabian horse.

horse,pony,horses,ponies,dreamy,background,painting,1930s,historical,green

The horse owner Jan is dressed in 1930s-era attire and is posing with one each of her ponies and horses. I saw a picture she had taken, and it already had a dreamy look to it. So I wanted to capture that look, make Jan the star of the painting, and render the horses as accurately as possible. I "zoomed-in" on the original image, giving the subjects what photographers call a "telephoto perspective." So we don't see the normal foreshortening of the lady's or horses' features.

I worked mostly from a rather pixelized digital photo, but I was able to supplement that image with additional pictures I was able to obtain. Some items I had to do a little educated guesswork -- thankfully, I had additional pictures of all three critters, and I've been around horses enough in the past so I remembered sufficient detail about horsie anatomy and tack.

Best of all, the horse owner has seen MY digital images of the finished painting, and SHE seems pretty pleased with the result! I'm in the process of varnishing the piece now, and I expect to be able to deliver it to Jan next week.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Show at Old Town Gallery & Gifts, Yucca Valley, CA


I have a show going on at Old Town Gallery & Gifts in Yucca Valley, CA. (Their website is here).

The reception was on Sunday, April 17th. The show ends on May13th -- just a few weeks from now! So, this would be a good time to run over there and see what you may want to add to your art collection!
 
paintings,desert,Joshua tree,ocotillo,Tuscany,Arboretum,ocotillo
This is a view of my paintings as one would face to the east. Mostly desert subjects, but not all of them.







  
paintings,desert,Joshua tree,ocotillo,Tuscany,Arboretum,ocotilloGallery Wall 02
And this is the view looking toward the west...or northwest, actually.









desert,art,paintings,ocotillo,Joshua tree,sunset,morning,dawn,distant vista,clouds, colorful,affordableThe three "Under $300" paintings. (They're 11" x 14" and are priced at $175 each).

So -- this is my first local showing in years. A lot depends on how well things go at Old Town Gallery & Gifts before I decide about future shows, although I already have something lined up for June, 2016 in the nearby town of Joshua Tree.

Let's hope!!

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Wildflowers in the Desert


April has been a busy month for me. Unfortunately, I've gotten little painting done because of all of the other things that have fallen this month -- doctors, dentists (both which remind me of how old and dilapidated I'm getting) and other stuff.

BUT -- a couple of worthwhile things happened that needed to fit into the schedule. One was my gallery reception -- I'll save that post for next time when I get more pictures.

The other was going out looking for wildflowers outside of Joshua Tree National Park (I may have to go there pretty soon, too).

Unfortunately, the rainfall was less than hoped for, and what rain there was appears to have been quite sporadic. But The Wiffee and I did locate a few places that showed some unexpected splendor.

Sawtooth Mountains,desert mallow,wildflowers,flowers,desert,Mojave,yucca
Near the Pioneertown Mountains Preserve, Sawtooth Mountains in the background


beavertail,cactus,flowers,blooms,magenta,pink,desert,Mojave,Pioneertown Mountains Preserve,CA,California
Beavertail Cactus in Bloom


desert,Mojave,mallow,flower,wildflowers,CA,California
Closeup, Desert Mallow



Yucca Valley,CA,California,Mojave,desert,flowers,wildflowers,mallow,hills,mountains,Joshua tree
Yucca Valley, CA
We were lucky to have a warm, beautiful day to see these gems. Of course, they look better in real life -- for some reason, photos don't quite capture it. I hope my paintings of these places will.

 

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Things About April 6


It's April 6, 2016 -- a day noteworthy for several reasons...

It's my birthday. Let's just say I'm old, and we'll leave it at that.

On a sadder note, country music legend Merle Haggard died to day at age 79. I can't say I'm much of a C&W music fan, but it's still a little hard when the legends of the genre go.

Sadder yet -- the "Painter of Light" Thomas Kinkade died today in 2012 at 54 years of age. Cause of death was supposedly "acute intoxication" from alcohol and Valium.

I never met TK, but it sounded like he had some major struggles with his inner demons resulting from a bad home life as a child. It's unfortunate that people, including parents, don't realize how much emotional damage they can create in someone -- damage that, like scar tissue, impedes total recovery back to normal.

I always thought that TK's paintings of cozy English-style homes glowing with warm light and colorful flower gardens were his way of trying to capture a happy life he never knew. Obviously, his art struck a nerve with many buyers who loved his romanticized imagery.

Some people, including other artists, thought his work was "overly sentimental" -- I guess that means the artwork was pretty and not ugly...not suggesting the reality of the ugliness of life, including TK's own life, but focusing only on the beauty that can be found.

I never saw the problem with TK's work, although he did seem to work by formula, and in time I became a little bored by seeing essentially the same rehashed material over and over again.

But what he did, he did well. And those other artists don't -- and probably never will -- enjoy the popularity that Thomas Kinkade had, although it bothered him tremendously that he wasn't accepted by the art elitist types out there.

I wish he could have simply blown the elitists off, but TK still had those demons eating away at him.

Valley of Peace,Thomas Kinkade,autumn,fall,mountain,house,flowers,clouds
Valley of Peace -- Thomas Kinkade
 So, Tom -- I hope you're with God right now, resting and free of life's slings and arrows. Maybe you have your own "valley of peace."