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…
Books, Reviews, Uncategorized
David Hickey’s Air Guitar
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Do you like to read? Me, I’ve always been a voracious reader. Like other autodidacts, I let my interests take me where it will–I read what I damn well please. Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of art theory (Foucault, Panofsky, Derrida, Johnson) and criticism, which brings me to Hickey. I recently finished two of…
Artists, Cleveland, Galleries, Uncategorized
Carl Gaertner
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Yesterday was a lucky day–I discovered an artist new to me: Carl Gaertner (1898-1952). Gaertner’s reputation is almost entirely local to Cleveland, as Robert Smith‘s is confined to Dayton. Gaertner was born in Cleveland and lived in and around there until his death. He taught for many years at the Cleveland Institute of Art. The Bonfoey Gallery…
Bio, Shop Talk, Tips and Studies, Uncategorized
Love Everything About It
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I love everything about art making. This has always been the case for me, but when I was young I was more impatient. I also had an elevated view about the role of artistes. As a consequence, I was sometimes careless with my equipment. Brushes could remain brush-down in turpentine for days–horror!–until I got around…
Artists, Cleveland, Galleries, Reviews
Thomas Frontini at the William Busta Gallery
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Yes, the Frontini show really is at the Busta Gallery. Frontini is not listed online among their stable, but I was there–I saw the show with my own eyes. Apparently Busta has given up on its online persona; their Flash-encrusted Web material is haphazard and their blog hasn’t been updated since 2011. Anyway, according to the…
Aside
I missed the Toledo Art Museum’s Manet exhibition. As consultation I am reading Foucault’s “Manet and the Object of Painting.”
Studio Corner
On the Easel 1/6/13
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“The Gift” (large painting on the right) and several smaller paintings. “The Gift” is 48″ x 48″. The smaller ones are from a batch of new canvases I stretched and prepared during the holidays. The ground is snow covered but the light is good for January. Over the past several days Lake Erie started its…
Shop Talk, Tips and Studies, Uncategorized
White Paint–in Praise of Lead
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The most important color–by far–is white. White oil paint comes in three flavors: Zinc white (zinc oxide, PW4, usually called Chinese White when used in watercolors). Although known from ancient times, its common usage is relatively modern, dating from the 18th century when it was developed as a replacement for lead white, which was long known to be…
Artists, Paintings, Reviews, Thumbs-Up-Down, Uncategorized
Thumbs-up: Bonnard; Thumbs-sideways:Vuillard
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Vuillard Have you dated someone whose online profile scored highly, only to be disappointed upon meeting her/him? I’ve never used an online dating service (my wife has strong opinions on this subject), but my relationship with Vuillard feels like a disappointing blind date. At different times I’ve studied him closely. He has a beguiling profile filled with attributes I admire: he’s…
Shop Talk, Uncategorized
Oil Paint Brand Ratings
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I’ve used oils paints from almost every producer known to man, or at least those known in the US. This photo shows my two paint cabinets. The one on the left has tubes of blue, green, yellow, and earth red. The top-drawer, for example, contains only yellows. The barely-visible cabinet on the right contains reds, whites,…
Studio Corner, Uncategorized, Vermilion, OH
In the Studio 12.16.12
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For a Sunday during December in NE Ohio the light is good. Here’s a photo taken in the studio today. I’ve been painting since 7:00 and now it’s time for lunch and the Brown’s game on T.V. The large painting on the right “Garth and Jane” was finished yesterday. The portrait on the left–“Garth in…
Bio, Paintings, Uncategorized
Painting: Mother Nursing Infant
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This is an older painting from the gallery. Working on a painting, I get it to a certain point then put it aside. I rarely finish a painting, even a small one, in a single sitting. The task is to remain objective without becoming over critical of oneself, which can ruin a painting. This is…
Artists, Galleries, Reviews, Uncategorized
Timothy Callaghan—Life Slow Still
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I recently paid my second visit to the William Busta Gallery. Busta is one of those cafeteria-style spaces where several shows—about 6 in this case—run concurrently. The artists shown represent, no doubt, an attempt to cast the widest possible net. Don’t get me wrong, you won’t find a Corot, a Philip Pearlstein, or even a…
Artists, Galleries, Reviews
George Mauersberger at Bonfoey
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I walked into the George Mauersberger exhibit at Bonfoey expecting to see a passel of prints. Nope. While a few prints are on display, drawings and watercolors make up the lion’s share of the show. Even so, Mauersberger has a printmaker’s personality—a love of process and fondness for drawing. Most of the pieces on display are tromp…
Art Museums, Artists, Reviews, Uncategorized
Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in 19th-Century Paris
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Claude Monet maintained (I’m paraphrasing) that caricature was the soul of art. Not a surprising statement coming from a master caricaturist. I agree with Monet wholeheartedly. The exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art—Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in 19th-Century Paris—provides a great opportunity to examine some drawing and prints by Cassatt and her…