Photo by Doug M.

nice

Thanks, Karl!

Kate, Thanks for looking. The puffy blue jacket was warming my daughter as she set about exploring the wild west of a Kansas pasture.

I would say drop-dead gorgeous. I must come back to read this image once I am back from vacation. I've been hoping you would post more of your images!

The colors in the water are breathtaking!

Hi Ann!

Thanks for looking at my painting. Where are you going on vacation?

Kate,

No way to know from looking at this photo about the sex of the figure in the blue coat. I mention it only because it is relevant to me... not necessarily to the meaning of the painting. And thank you very much for your kind words.

WOW Doug! This is fantastic! As always your detail is amazing, the reflection on the water and the water itself looks so real. I just got a shiver...it even feels cold!

I love the birds eye view. That's kind of how you see the world from your home too isn't it? The Blue Jays are great.

I wish I could see this life size.

Very pretty! I followed Moggy here, but now I'm a fan, too!

Hi Moggy!

As always, I really appreciate your visits to my images. I love it that you felt a shiver! You are absolutely correct about the view... it is almost always an elevated viewpoint in my paintings. It creates a distance that provides a "remove". It allows me to be a bit more playful as well. I don't know why this is so.


Lera,

I'm glad you followed Moggy! Thank you very much for looking.

Well, I like it no matter "why."

Last night I cleaned off my drafting table and got out a small canvas. Set the canvas on the table and stared and stared at it. Nothing happened.

I bought myself 3 small canvases months ago and swore I was going to try to paint on canvas. I never have and I am so intimidated by it that I can't even come up with anything to try! If you stuck a big hunk of concrete in front of me I would have no problem. Weird huh?

Wow, the whole is even better than the detail image I saw a few minutes ago! I love the way you've made the birds frame the painting. I can't wait to check out more of your work!

Moggy,

Do you have an idea of the imagery you are wanting to paint? When I am stuck... or just letting something "age" to see if it holds up... I often take two small canvases the same size.
I choose three(?) colors and almost randomly cover all or part of one of the canvases. I do this quickly and without thinking too much. My objective is simply to put paint on the surface.
I then take the second canvas and lay it flat on a work table. This canvas is flooded with turp... no paint. I place the one with the paint face to face with the turpy canvas... maybe shift it a little, then separate. If it is only ugly and nothing more, I add more paint or turn one upside down or whatever.

From that point one can start painting again, or wiping away with a cloth, etc. I do all this in five minutes. The worst that can happen is that you wipe it clean and start over. But often there is a shape, or a pattern, or something that is interesting enough to go on.

Just a thought, if a longish one!

Jennifer,

What a nice comment! Thank you.

I've never tried anything like that. Usually the surface kinda 'tells' me what to paint on it. Canvas just doesn't do it for me I guess, not enough texture for me. I don't know.

What if you started with acrylic gel or modeling paste and created a surface that felt better to you? There would be a bunch of ways you could alter the texture. Some people add marble dust or ground glass to the gell... or sand if you wanted something more coarse.

That might be something I could get into Doug. I'll have to go to my local art supply store, I love to wander around in there anyway! Thanks for the ideas.

Doug,

Actually, I'll be back from the midwest tomorrow!

Ann,
Welcome home!

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Hi Arleen,

Thank you! I'm sure you have been walking in similar places.

wide format,interesting and varied elements, higher vantage pt. perspective and minimal complementary palette....what's not to like,eh?

love the jays,range of blues n' reflections.....unique painting,Doug

cheers,gayle

*btw, my high res prints for sale only include CR with name/year discreetly at bottom

Doug,

This is spectacular. You seem to be in your element, so to speak. A glitteringly blue and clear winter morning.

For some reason this reminds me of your morning glory painting, with the patches of blues and the lines across the canvas. In Morning Glories, it seems as if nature was trying to assert itself by creeping over civilization. Here, there's no trace of "civilization" unless you count the small blue-cloaked human.

I also love your implicit comparison of the curious, flocking Blue Jays with humans. All of the lines (including the birds' lines of vision), point to the human, who in turn looks to the river.

It's interesting that, although the human is the center of attention here, the river is by far the more beautiful and complex image. Your rendering of the reflections on the water is so convincing that it looks as if it has come from a photograph. I feel as if you have again painted the River of Life, as in Siddhartha.

I am wondering if you show and/or sell much work to clients in the West and Southwest. Your work has the tan and blue-green color scheme that is so popular there, and your work resembles Bev Doolittle's a bit (although it's better), and she is wildly popular in the West.

I probably should know this, but why does one keep the river on their right?

Gayle,
Thank you so much for looking at my image. I appreciate your comment!

Ann,

Thank you for your thoughtful comment. When I posted this painting I thought if anyone wondered aloud about the title that it would be you!

"Keep the River on Your Right" is the title of a memoir written by Tobius Schneebaum. It is most often referred to as a story about cannibalism within a primitive culture Tobius visited and participated in. Not only was this culture cannibalistic, but also practiced homosexuality which has made this book something of a cult favorite with gay men.

Tobius was a friend of mine and I borrowed his title because his book is, above all, an adventure story... a journey for both body and mind. The blue-clad figure is my daughter, who I see as setting out on her own journey as she matures and becomes more independent.

You are astute in your comment about the use of line as a unifier. And you are also correct to liken it to the vines in the morning glory painting. I think we have talked before about string theory and particle sharing. I am always trying to find was to express the connectedness of everything. Linearity, in the abstract sense can be used like a net holding the visual elements of the picture.

You are also correct about river. Although the figure and the birds command the lion's share of the subjective content, it is really the river that is the subject. In the Sidhartha sense it is a metaphor of ever-flowing change. In the painting, it is seen as a pathway.

I'm glad the water is convincing for you. I worked hard on it and despite it's realism, it is the most abstract and loosely painted part of the picture!

I looked at Bev Doolittles art online and found it interesting and beautiful. I can understand the connection you see between her work and mine. I admire her pictures for how well they hold together and the way information is embedded.

Thanks again for your terrific comment, Ann!

You're welcome, Doug. Your painting is masterful. I'd be hard-put to find anything to criticize.

Concerning Bev Doolittle-- the work of hers that I've seen is nice, but she seems to be like, say, Thomas Kincaid, in that she has found one formula that works and she repeats it over and over.

For Bev, everything seems built on the metaphor that the people and animals are embedded in the lanscape they occupy. (Kincaid also repeats his metaphor ad nauseatum-- namely that houses lighted within from within are saved Christian souls).

Do you think this is a fair assessment of these two artists? Ironically, they are both wildly successful, while artists like you, who put their heart and soul into each painting, are much less known.

Ann,

I am aware of Kincaid's success. I believe the New Yorker did a profile on him a few years ago and I was astonished at the breadth of his empire. Do you know that he has shops in malls all over America. He produces prints in very large additions and one can purchase the print as is, or pay extra and have a Thomas Kincaid representative "embellish" the print by painting on some extra highlights.

I am not as familiar with Doolittles's enterprise. Does she make prints as well? Is she, like Kincaid, using an industrial model to market her work?

I repeat themes as well... sometimes I think I really have only a few ideas that go round and round. But each time it is expressed a bit differently because life changes one's perspective. Artist's who make nearly-alike images over and over must have an immunity to boredom or a studio full of underpaid assistants.

Yes, sadly, I have encountered Thomas Kincaid's stores in malls, and was horrified. I think he's struck some universal chord, though, in order to be so popular. Perhaps his pictures convey the feeling of absolute safely that we all crave after 9/11.

Bev Doolitlle sells prints as well, and her work seems to adorn the walls of all my friends in the West and Southwest.

I think there's a huge difference between bringing original art into your home as opposed to hanging a reproduction. I feel that with original art, some of the artist's energy and spirit ends up in my house.

Yes, Ann, you are right about Kincaid connecting with a huge audience. Don't get me wrong... while I can't imagine working the way he does, I am envious that so many people respond to his work. I like your thought about post 9.11 anxiety and Kincaid's success. His "places" do have a warm and fuzzy ambience.

I also like your thoughts about unique pieces of art compared to multiples, (with reproductions being in a catagory to themselves). I think what you are talking about is the "hand" in art. When one contemplates the way brushstrokes interlock in a Monet water lily painting it is obvious that a poster of the image is a completely different experience.

It is easy for me to connect the hand to the soul, because that is exactly what I try to do everyday. (And this aside... I have always made the hands on my figures too large. My figure drawing teacher mentioned it repeatedly way back when, and it remains true to this day).

Cool! Rodin, of course, always made the feet on his sculptures too large.