World's Greatest Next Door Neighbor's Puppy -- Mia Dog -- in Tree

You May be an Artist

by Pat Darnell

There is a test
that helps determine
one's propensity
to seek art

and do art
and seek hidden facets
and find great hiding places

this is the test:
first you notice
that you feel an emptiness
in your heart
while growing up, and,

you have pains in your wrists
you count things all the time
you find patterns in the strangest places
you understand comic books
you memorize all the wrong things for school
you ask questions no one else cares about

you know how to mix all the colors

using only primaries red, yellow and blue
you then graduate,

adding white and black to your palette

you think the greatest silent movie made is Eraserhead
you spend much of your youth crawling around on floors
you secretly explore vacant buildings

such as churches on Mondays
roam behind buildings, and up ramps,
stumble through junkyards,
and walk dry ditches before rain

you get nervous, irritable in bookstores

you hide under things,
you seek cover in bushes, under bridges
you think long after you had a conversation
what you said, what he said
what she said, you repeat yourself,

saying everything twice, saying everything twice
you blush when others notice you

you flush when made fun of

you like to go up in attics

you lay down on the sidewalk and watch ants
you use a Ball jar to catch bees
... and poke holes in the top
so the bees might breathe

you cut country bouquets for your mom

you cannot get enough of cedar tree's scents

you love how coconuts feel

you love wool and felt and Egyptian cotton

you have ability to feel oils of different weights

you find treasure leaps into your sensitive fingers

you have lovers before you have lovers

your eyes are always changing colors

you are scatter brained to some

you, to others their cornerstone

you love the odors of outdoor zoo's

... and barnyards

... and plastics

... and trains, and warm wood

... and rusty metal, and things fried

your taste buds must be firstly satisfied
you listen carefully to others' claims
you trust others for what they say
you love your feet bare on pavement after it rains
you stand close to the stream when it overflows

you watch and stalk animals, birds and crocs
you do not want to disturb them
... but they are too clever for that
you admire animals as they scamper

you love to hold a torch at night
Now if you say yes to twenty or so of thirty-six
questions that pertain to your artistic
evaluation -- though you may not know
how it really is you are this...

be accepting of your story
count your blessings so
in self evaluations
you do not waste time any more

Once you are sure
the hard part is past
it is hardest to deny
for your nature is pure
and your method is shaping
you passed the tests

up from deep well-spring sources
flowing as foundling art in you
and you may spend hours and days,
confidently, even months and centuries
with the new, unspoiled thought

leveling your groundwork
surveying the possibilities
developing your technique
simpering about odds and ends

so that eventually you conquer means

to find materials to embody
to find tillable pasture
and favorable schemes
for your artistic manufacture
so when it is done
when it is finished

when it reaches its best end
you will feel empty again
only this time both
in your heart and in your gut
as if you drank liquid mercury

and the pain will last a night
or a fortnight, until you find comfort
and gaze upon your artwork
on a different day in new light

Totes

Acrylic on antique canvas, Tropics Photo, jungle island harbor.

Cargo Cult, or just provisions...?

Guess Who dropped in for Dinner...

Subjects don't just Grow on Trees, You Know
by Pat Darnell

Some grow on vines. Tomatoes from the garden. Scanned and fixed in Picasa 3.

A funny thing happened while Whale Watching

This large canvas has a history. It is a failure of mine I painted in 1976. You may have seen it around. It is the tail of a whale cruising through the blood of his buddies. It is me trying to master "foreshortening" a method of posing a subject in augmented proportions... well, you get the picture.

As it became recycled it started to get a reputation, and you could not believe how many interpretations I have gotten: "It's a Goose" or It's a Fly" and "That doesn't look like underwater!!!"

"Hey, how do we know how a whale sees his underwater world?" I reply.. "maybe it is full of light for him... "

Huhnjh? Anyway, I am behind on photographing my works... so here once again is Whales at War.... 48" x 37" oil on canvas, 1976, failed attempt at foreshortening. by Pat Darnell

Today is my Birthday

by Pat Darnell

When I was just about on my last breath, and I had my last nerve rubbed the wrong way by "Northerners"... after eight years of running in place in sand;

I picked up a paint brush and an old canvas board I had lying around for ten years, and painted this scene.

Sorry to be your buzz kill on my special day, but that is the way I look at birthdays. Usually the day is fraught with too numerous memories.

This little "chicken scratch" painting has a great deal of symbolism... that probably I am the only soul who will ever really see the symbols...

I do have a birthday wish for all who are in the range of my voice: "Get enough sleep, and be happier."

Repeating Themes

by Pat Darnell

After many years I have become clinically aware that I repeat ocean going vessels scenes many times.

At one time I was doing a batik technique, that here in this study turned out sort of like a scratch board.

This is a study in how to put ink over water color, or gauche, and then rub it back. I really like doing this, and will make a mental note to get back to it.

It is done on paper, maybe butcher paper, and dry mounted to foam board.

Do you know what is totally crazy about these old sketches and things? When I did them I thought that they would eventually go away... disintegrate. Then they appear again, in a stack of stuff that someone has kept, forgotten and rediscovered... thus is the stuff of our art -- the state of our art.

I used to draft plans for prospective projects, mostly housing and stores. I easily did 200 or more a year on average. Every one of those "interpretations" has my initials or name on it. Now that is scary.

I am alive in the Universe

I am a planet
...
life happens very fast
life multiples
making a soup of
a Planet like me
...
I am alive in the universe...

Making a Soup of a Planet such as Me; I am alive in the Universe

I am a planet
One of texias kichas zillions smillions planets
in a solar system
in a galaxy
in a universe
in a super universe
...
life multiples
making a soup of
a Planet like me

I am alive in the universe...

Life multiplies; Making a Soup of a Planet such as Me

I am a planet
One of texias kichas zillions smillions planets
...
Life lies asleep
Slepus Nimbus billion zillion years
then when conditions are just right
life happens very fast
life multiples
making a soup of
a Planet like me

Life Happens Very Fast

...
then when conditions are just right
life happens very fast
life multiples
making a soup of
a Planet like me

I am alive in the universe...

Life happens very fast; Life Multiplies

I am a planet
One of texias kichas zillions smillions planets
in a solar system
in a galaxy
in a universe
in a super universe
I have height and depth
I have width and breadth

And space... lots of space
Life lies asleep
Slepus Nimbus billion zillion years
then when conditions are just right
life happens very fast
life multiples
making a soup of
a Planet like me

I am alive in the universe...

Life Multiplies

I am a planet
...

Slepus Nimbus billion zillion years
then when conditions are just right
life happens very fast

Ship to Shore

Acrylic on stretched Cotton Canvas, 2009, by Pat Darnell, 9 x 12

I like to draw and paint ship scenes. I cannot escape the fact.

Word of the Day in Urban Dictionary: Execubabble

May 20: Execubabble

Verbal executive communication in broad, vague terms that rise above normal speak. Characterized by an excessive use of executive words such as robust, paradigm, and drill down. Those on the receiving end of execubabble are no better informed after the speech than when it began.

Execubabble
Question: "How is the company doing?
Answer: "We are entering a quarter in which we expect robust growth. Paradigms are shifting, but the team has drilled down to the heart of the challenge."

Are We Starving Yet ??

I recently made acquaintance with a portrait painter's husband. She has paintings on display at his office, and at the Brazos Center. I found out she is member of a group that meets in downtown Bryan for figure studies. I am excited to find out more of the group, and start my portrait painting career.... eh? I'll keep us posted.

This might just be the crux of the biscuit for me. It may help with my confidence factor about portraits... a constant that has been low for a long time.

I think my problem is in trying too hard to put too much into portraits. We shall see.

Roy R Luepnitz, Ph D @ Yahoo! Video

Thursday's QUIZ -- W.I.P., Work in Progress

Ponder the pictures:

Then "Guess" which one is the Work In Progress... ?

Even as I sleep though...

Mist moves about my surface,
meteors hit me and
asteroids explode just above
my ground...

As a Planet...

I lie asleep Billions smillions sleepus nimbus years...

And Space; Lot's of S-P-A-C-E

As a Planet...

I have Height and Depth;

Width and Breadth....

I am a Planet --

In a Super Universe...

In a Solar System: in a Galaxy: in a Universe...

I am a Planet, Illustrations...

One of zillions smillions planets

gauche on canvas 9 x 12, I am a Planet, illustrations

I am a Planet, by Samantha and Pat Darnell

gauche on 9 x 12 canvas, originals scanned

Studio: Artist's Winsome Dreaming

Wickedly Sublime
by Pat Darnell

Response to: Carol Marine's Painting a Day: Yellow Splash


"...Someone else asked when my studio will be done. I honestly don't know, but we hope..."

In response to studios: I often tell myself that when I finally have my "dream" studio, I will be sleight of vision and hand, and possibly have only weeks left to live.

After a lifetime of crawling on floors, hiding in attics, freezing in garages, stumbling around in backrooms, fighting dust balls, tumble weeds, bad light, and birds, insects, mice and snakes...

...I have to tell others that a studio is a dream notion I may never realize in my lifetime, and as it is to most of us... it is always in "the works."

The last real studio I ever worked in was at Trinity U, in the early 70's... Yikes!

Life has taken many turns and a studio has never been a "family priority.." for my bunch. Why do I say this? Almost every artist I have pleasure to talk with says "my studio is almost finished..."

Thanks for sharing that studio note there, CM. I sense, and appreciate, the irony of the statement.

Nihilism is a poison

Retrieved by PD
(event) by stripe Wed Mar 25 2009

Throw it. Watch it spin in a perfect arc until it smashes against the wall. Watch the water fan out in a crystal spray. Watch the drops fall and shatter into tiny spheres. The broken glass mingling with the wetness will reflect light in a beautiful pattern. It will sparkle like you've never seen - rather, like you've seen but never felt. So easy. So perfect. Create the breathtaking sequence of seconds that will - for a flash of delight - redefine your aesthetic. Just throw it.

...But the moment's passed. You hesitated, and lost the will. Or did you stop yourself? You aren't ready to give in to destruction. The chaotic impulse has, once again, been overridden. In your mind, the cup breaks, the water sprays, the light shines, over and over, a false memory of wishful thinking. Your desire will be stuck on repeat until you cave... but the moment's passed.

Is this the ninth time? Tenth time? Have you been counting? Next time it won't just be a glass of water. All those glasses of water add up to a project, or a relationship, or your car plus another. Oh, sure - take martial arts, paint like Pollock, go to one of those junkyard therapy places that let you smash old TVs with a sledgehammer. Compromise. Accept substitues. Imitate the real thing so many times that the shadow takes on substance. Hope that the substance weighs so heavy on your heart that those dark leaping urges are stilled.

It won't work. Just throw it.

1969 Red, Yellow, Blue and White

Never said I was a prodigy...

Talking about Painting, by Pat Darnell

If you are a good draftsman, then always work toward your strengths. Lay it out, and work with perspective and proportion. Here is a Lighthouse scene. I usually put reference page and photo credit on any 8 x 10 studies. "Eagle Bluff Light, Ephraim, Wisconsin: marks the entrance into East Channel into Green Bay. It was built on Lake Michigan in 1868, standing 75 feet above the lake, with originally a third-order Fresnel lens. It is a brick tower still aiding in navigation today" (Crompton, S W. UB of L, 2005).
It doesn't hurt to under paint a scene with complementary color scheme. Using acrylics for this; remember if you are oil painting, you have to put water based colors under the final oil base paints; lean under fat as the saying goes, or fat over lean. This roof for instance is going to be Terra cotta, so I under painted with blue slate color.
The bush is in shadow, so I started with dark coloring moving toward lighter later. This is the best way to to produce details in shadows.
And the foreground wall will be yellow limestone, so I under painted with blue shades, Payne's gray, with more dark blue in the clouds. Again it all moves from dark to light, background to foreground. The subject lighthouse

will hopefully end up detailed and sculptural, framed in rich, subdued colors.
Add color. In this case I am doing a study of the various aspects of lighthouses, and not too concerned with palette. However, as I become familiar with lighthouses as a subject then I would choose a group of harmonic colors right now, and stick with them. Here I am using primary colors, mixing pastels from those, as I add features. It turns out the painting starts to fall apart, as complementary colors are set in juxtaposition. Soon the adding of shadow starts to mess up the perspective, and details begin
to get lost, straight lines become
bowed lines... either optical illusions, or just lazy brushing.
Here is an inverted color negative showing true color complements. This could help in coloring the problem areas of the piece.

How to keep the painting together is to make decisions as the rendering continues. Decisions are based on observable data. For instance, lighthouses are generally not a romantic get-away. Rather, they are situated on crags and wind-swept reefs that were once noted as demons
on nautical maps. So, I am experimenting with colors to try to capture forebodings; a bleak place where existence is difficult; structures that must stand up to sheer brutal punishment by natural weathering winds. Thus, buttressing walls, stone and brick construction, copper storm shutters and scuppers, and heavy roofing.

The most difficult part of doing a study is in trying to balance the mess. Some of the intermediate stages have features that look really good. But as another area of the canvas is worked it somehow cancels the parts that I just finished. Highlights fade, and shadows take over, or become ambiguous...
I see as I go that the underpainted version looks real good. I like the bold red lighthouse tower, and the blue mortar in the house. But alas the total structure is made from local yellow sandstone. So for believable finish everything stone becomes yellow's cousin.

I think before I call this quits and spray it with varnish, I might try to do some "glazes" in red-blue, purple, hues to make some shadow on the house and tone down the yellow. Most of the structure is trimmed in copper, so tarnished copper and green are good for other color trials. If this were a 144 inches by 96 inches, first trial, I would at this point be pulling my eyebrows out. No lie!

Fortunately, it is only 8 x 10 inches and manageable for trial and error. Also, I want to point out after all the groundwork has been laid out as it has been now, I as artist can anticipate some fun with the project in final stages. More on that aspect later...

A study like this is without parallel for learning a subject. If I decide to do another, and larger painting of this, it will take less time, and less mess to accomplish. Most of the time I skip this study stage, leaping rather right in with large brushes, and lots of oil. I end up making brown of my colors, and grey skies... so you decide how to go about your own dabbling in rendering.