After a few months off, I'm painting again! (approx. 170K download)

[Rabrrrrrr]

I had a wonderful model tonight - one I really like. I seem to get fairly energetic and exciting paintings when using her, so I hope I can work with her more. She's friendly and very comfortable being naked and posing, and she stays very still. After a break, she's able to come back to the same pose in the same position and orientation she was in before, too. Very helpful.

Anyway, here they are. These are my first paintings of the year.

Painting 277, 28"x40"


Painting 278, 20"x30"


Painting 279, 20"x30"


I'm quite excited, though I felt the lack of practice in not having painted yet this year. You might have noticed I ran out of yellow after doing the first two...

[Crowdance]

1. Time off paid off

This is beautiful work. Do you display your work at a gallery?

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Thanks!

I have my own gallery (my studio) in NYC and my website on which I display some of my artwork. I'm currently photographing my entire collection, partly to finally catalog all my paintings, but also to make them available on the website as well.

[Crowdance]

8. Do add the location of your studio to your site

We'll all want to come to the opening in May

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. Aye, I will -

that's actually from last May (since my site was down so long....)

Though I will have another this May, at Union Seminary, here in NYC.

And I'll post on DU when it happens. I don't have the exact date yet, but it will be the week before Memorial Day.

[Nite Owl]

3. Your work is beautiful.

I'm trying to get back to doing some artwork after many years. It's hard to put the pencil to paper. You are an encouragement. Thanks for sharing.

[supernova]

4. Those are beautiful!

I especially like the first one. You capture the female form quite well. I don't know if you intended it, but it feels like a progression of some sort.

Got any pointers for a beginner just starting out with black and white?

[GOPisEvil]

5. Interesting...

...very interesting. I'm interested as to why certain images are not sharp, and others are. Oh, I'm speaking of the first painting...

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. It has to do with your alcohol content -

it's either too much, or perhaps more likely, not quite enough :-)

No, really, it has to do with water content on the paper and water content in the paint mix, and I intentionally made every image have different qualities of fuzziness and chaotic fractallation (if that's a word).

[GOPisEvil]

17. Oh, ok...I had assigned a deeper meaning in my brain...

...I don't know WHAT deeper meaning, I'm still working on it. :think:

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. Oops - I thought you meant the *technical* reason

some were sharp and some weren't. Didn't even dawn on me that you might have been asking about the *meaning* of it...

Sorry!

As to the meaning, it's all about what you bring to it and see in it, yes? That's why I only number my paintings and don't give them titles.

[GOPisEvil]

25. I think that's a good plan.

:-)

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. Thank you, O Intellectually Acute One

:-)

Though truth to tell, there is a story for how it ended up as it did. If you want to know, you can read below. I'll mark it in white, in case you'd rather come to your own conclusions first. Though regardless of what I say, whatever interpretation you bring is real - because that's how you experienced it, and a work of art is really about offering a vehicle through which the viewer can end up at a point they were already heading toward/seeking/hoping for. Except Thomas Kinkade, when the intent is to pretend that there was a pure, Christian-only past of pure happiness and lilac coated cottages in America's, which is to say God's Chosen Nation, perfect and ideal history before women and blacks were allowed to vote and usher in the day of gay marriages and terrorist attacks.

being the first painting after many months of not painting, I was a bit unsure of myself so I went back to a style I was comfortable with - wash of color then outline the model so she "floats" on top. That attempt is the second to the left figure in fuzzy blue. I didn't like the placement of it on the paper and was rather disappointed in the overall composition. So, I thought I'd paint another one over to the right to try to balance it. I sprayed some water on the paper in that area, since it was drying out, and drew the figure. But because I used the spray bottle and the water beaded, unlike sitting equally distributed as it does with a wash, the paint in the figure came out with that fractalized quality. That one is the second from the right. After that figure was done, I thought, "that looks really cool! Let me do five of these in different colors, overlapping, and all in different styles of dripness!" I sprayed even more water for the figure far to the right, and added no extra water for the left and middle one. For the middle one, I painted with a brush that wasn't overloaded with paint, so that it wouldn't drip. For the left one I used a brush loaded with paint so that it WOULD drip. And thus the story of creation, which for me is far more often about exploration and improvisation with the paint and process than it is about having a defined "end point" of what I want. It's like hunting or reading a book for me - I much prefer the hunt itself, the kill is almost anti-climactic; I prefer being in the story of the book, and the end of the book is just a moment of sadness because the process is over. See also my thread from two or three weeks ago about the Thurston Moore improvisation concert we had at my seminary.

[Melsky]

6. I can't see them

coming up as red X's. I'd like to see them, I always like your work.

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. Strange - they should show up for you, they are for others

here are the links: they are all at:

http://www.rabrrrrrr.com/ painting_277.jpg
http://www.rabrrrrrr.com/ painting_278.jpg
http://www.rabrrrrrr.com/ painting_279.jpg

just get rid of the spaces and cut and paste, and you'll see 'em.

And thanks for the compliment!

[ewagner]

7. I really like your work

Perhaps if I ever get financially stable again (starting my own business) I will purchase one or more of these from you.

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. They are available for lease with option to buy, or to rent

(or timed payments for up to six months).

Best of luck to you with the new business! I know the last thing you want to worry about is artwork for the corporate offices - like starting a business isn't difficult enough just dealing with the bank.

Do well!

[ewagner]

13. Thank you

that was most kind....and understanding........

[GOPisEvil]

18. I can testify to the ease with which Rabrrrrrr sells his art.

I took 3 months, I think, to pay for my painting. Very easy! I still need to take a good picture of the framing job!

[Rabrrrrrr]

22. Yes, you do need to take a good picture of it!

hint hint hint

had to send insider the other one you took... still, it was helpful, and I'm not really *complaining*, you see...but, ah, well.....so, uh, how about that Texas baseball playing team? Wow, great, yeah? Gonna take it this year! Yessireee..... yep. Nice weather, isn't it?

:-)

[Ksec]

14. I like to paint also

mostly landscapes. Realism. Its very stress relieving. I go down in my basement where Im set up and I can be wired from a bad day and after a half hour of painting Im a new man. I highly recommend it. Its just a hobby with me.

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. Aye, that is much how painting works for me, too!

I do other arts - compose music, write, etc. - but art, because it's basically free improvisation, has a wonderfully freeing aspect. Writing, one has to worry abotu clarity and grammar etc. (at least to some extent) and music, unless is one is performing improv live, takes a lot of mental brainpower to get the notes down, and can be as much of a struggle as writing. But art - not to say it's easier or lesser of an art - is physical and doesn't, necessarily, require the amount of time and concentration that, say, music and writing can require. And I say that in a way that, I hope, in no way denigrates painting as "lesser" or "easier" or "of less value" or anything. I'm only offering my interpretation of it. Painting, to me, is very much like improv musical performance - relaly based on the moment, on what one has before oneself, and one's feelings.

[Ksec]

16. Your work is interesting

much like your veiw of life. Your writing is very similar to your painting style. Keep it up. I have a feeling you will.

[Robb]

19. LOL!!

"I ran out of yellow after doing the first two..." :)

This is the kind of stuff I can spout off at galleries when you're famous... "Oh, do you like it? I know the artist. Interesting fact...." :thumbsup:

[BlackVelvetElvis]

20. What about the black velvet series?

Great job, I enjoyed those!
What kind of paper do you use? I love Arches watercolor board.
It's tough to go back to creating art when you havent done it in awhile.
I paint too, mostly very detailed watercolor (I treat it like oil paint) and do it occaisionally.
I miss figure painting from life!

[Rabrrrrrr]

24. You mean, the Elvis Christ?

Someday, someday...

I use Arches and Winsor & Newton, both in rough press. Don't really like cold and hot press paper. I'm using 140 pound, but when this current paper stock is out, I'm moving into heavier paper for the 30"x40" size. The 140 pound really isn't heavy-duty enough at that size for some of the things I like to do, though it beats the hell out of that shitty little 90 pound I used a few years ago. Sheesh, talk about paper that hates getting a water bath; and I like to use a lot of water sometimes. All curled up and curvy and warped.... yuck.

[Kamika]

21. they are ok

I like the middle painting.

The lower one isn't so nice it looks too hmm sad like it's raining.

all in all they are nice.