What a Find!

I was gallivanting around on a lazy Saturday morning right after the sun had risen. I had noticed a garage sale sign so I decided to follow the direction of a hand drawn arrow on a piece of cardboard which led me to a junk filled backyard. There was an old typewriter, some vintage metal frames, a trunk filled with old letters and black and white postcards, a few ceramic bottles, some trinkets and jewelry, and a couple of used surfboards that looked dinged up. Good stuff but nothing that I would collect, I thought. Then I peered across the way to find this painting. The guy only wanted a $1! What a steal I said to myself, so I whipped out a dollar and secured my purchase!

Painted by Clare I. Tyler

Shrimps in Oil

 

 This is the follow-up oil painting for yesterday's sketch. Below are three other views.

                                                View 1                                            View 2

View 3

This piece would hang perfectly for a small area in the kitchen. 

A Shrimpy Study

A study in watercolor

The three amigos did their last dance. They trotted and loped and squatted and hoped, bathing in butter they became smothered and so they all choked.

Sketch to be painted

The sketch above was painted with oil paint and is currently drying. Some details need to be added.

Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway

Bullfight

As a casual spectator of rugby, American football, boxing, kick boxing, and mixed martial arts, I quickly concluded that these are probably the most brutal sports and the most intense forms of competition since the risk of injury to the participant is high and sometimes accidental death is the end result.  Ernest Hemingway’s, “Death in the Afternoon,” shed new light on the subject of brutality and high risk for me. He describes, "the head, the tail, the whole damn thing," and all the details of the killing and death. 

I have never attended an event that places a willing person in an arena with a red cape and a sword to challenge a 1500 pound animal with raw power that is driven by high octane testosterone, to a game of death. The closest event to a bullfight that I have personally witnessed are rodeos, where grown men are whipped around in circles, tossed about like rag dolls, trampled to the dirt, and kicked by the iron hooves by enraged bulls. It takes bull size "cajones" for a man to muster up enough courage to step into a ring on a bull’s terms. In spite of the dangers, rodeos still fall short by several notches by the intensity of the challenge as compared to a bullfight. I've painted this subject not because I was inspired by Ernest Hemingway but instead for my own catharsis of purging the images that were burnt into my imagination by his words.

Faena

Pase' Doble' - A dance that uses the movements of the bull and the matador

The Labor of Art

Picture 1: Reclaimed wood from a futon bedrame

The unspoken truth about art is that it can be quite labor intensive from putting an idea together to the installation of the completed project. I happen to savor every sweaty moment. Take oil painting for example: one essential piece of material is the canvass or some surface to brush paint on. As a purist whose first choice is to paint on canvasses, it requires that I always have canvasses on hand. Purchasing them is one way to obtain them but it can cut deep into the pocketbook, especially if custom sizes are needed or if one does a lot of painting. 

Another alternative is to make them, which requires tools, materials, and a little bit of know-how. 

In this day and age of "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle," I gladly report that I am constantly reminded to be resourceful and use reclaimed materials. Take for example Picture 1 above: a broken futon could have been thrown out to the dump but instead I decided to saw the wood into 3/4"x1"x 8" strips and mitering the ends at 45 degree angles to make the square frame. After assembling the frame a canvass is stretched over the frame with a pair of pliers and stapled to the back of the frame (Picture 2 below).
 

Picture 2: Staple the canvass to the frame with a staple gun

The benefits of making your own frames is cost savings and being able to customize sizes and shapes. The downside is the labor for those who don't find it enjoyable, and time must also be taken into consideration. The upside, however, is a finished canvass ready for painting whenever you want or need it. 

Picture 3: Finished canvass