Photo Session

Towpath in Winter after WK
8.5" x 11.75"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

Tomorrow is a deadline, and so I finally got the photos taken for this set of juries. I may have to make some changes after seeing a couple of the pix - nothing like taking it to the wire!

Here is the Kahn copy as a proper jpeg. Of course, it doesn't go out to any juries - I get to keep it myself.

Plein Air - Tree on a Granite Bed

Counter-Clockwise from Bottom Right: Sketch, Color Study and Finished Work

This gives a flavor for the scenery in northeast Washington, with the pine tree growing among granite slabs. I am only now getting a break-through with my plein air work, I feel. What I learned from this work was the value of returning again to the same site to nail down a piece. Plein air doesn't have to be an instant success or a "do or die" thing.

Again, I surprised myself by getting it right over a gray ground, which has been trouble in the past.

Tree On a Rock Bed
August, 2008
@ 6" x 7"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

Silver Forest Clearing

Silver Forest & Clearing
Pastel
6 3/4 in. x 5 3/5ths in.
Casey Klahn

This is the last image in a series of three. The others were Experimental Colors, and New Pink Ground. I photographed them on the easel and posted about them here.

Remember that Monday is go-to-market day for buying fine art. My originals that are framed and available are posted at caseyklahn.blogspot.com.

Mere Creativity

Author C.S. Lewis

"No man who values originality will ever be original. But try to tell the truth as you see it, try to do any bit of work as well as it can be done for the work's sake, and what men call originality will come unsought."

Clive Staples Lewis, by way of Juliette Aristides, Classical Painting Atelier.

Thin Posting Lately

Tree Study in Turquoise, #2
@ 6" x 5"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

The posts have been thin this week. The good news, though, is that I have been getting in the studio more, and I took a plein air trip to the coast. I am working out the paintings daily, and will post some soon.

Today, a grant proposal deadline (private fund) looms. Gotta get off the blog!

Charcoal Jetty

Jetty
4" x 6"
Charcoal
Casey Klahn

I made an unexpected trip to the coast this weekend. See my painting set-up and how I handled the image that this sketch begins at Pastel.

In response to requests to reveal my lessons learned from another artwork, the Kahn copy, here is what I wrote:

(In short-hand)

1. Atmospheric.
2. Plastic, with a blue-black element that pulls one in.
3. Black trunks on blue-white.
4. Divided perspectives, like in Stan Miller's Venice "gate, canal and court" image.
5. High key ultra-marine "highlight" behind center of focus.
6. Gestural willow trunks.
7. Gray paper shows through as lane or roadway.
8. Cool paper tone/warm foreground is enough to counter-act this.
9. Back-light, but no cast shadows.
10. Apply this technique to new snow scenes?
11. "Winter Towpath, After Wolf Kahn".
12. Window-pane effect.
13. On sanded ground, not cold press.

Others have written to urge me to move on from WK, and I appreciate the input more than can be told. The thing about blogging is, an artist reveals much of his back story. Does it harm one's professional appearance?

If you think about it, we all have influences and artist mentors. I make no attempt to hide mine, but the flip side of artist blogging is that a public in-depth record is being revealed of the artist's methods and growth.

Monday Holiday

Sorry - no post for Go-To-Market Monday today. I went to the coast on a sudden trip, and am recovering from the long drives each way. I'll have new photos and art to post, soon, though. As always, my sales site is caseyklahn.blogspot.com.

Copy of You Know Who

Towpath in Winter after WK

8.5" x 11.75"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

In the past I have been greatly distressed to Google images of you-know-who, only to find other people's art posted and the SE is too stupid to know the difference!

I'll keep the name mum, but you know who I copied here. The difference being that this is a pastel copy of an oil painting. I learned so much from this direct copy that light bulbs were flashing off in my head. Another great Modernist once said that a picture should create its own light.

On a personal note, I have revived my understanding of the dark gray card - a color that I had been "off" of for some time. I will post a better picture after Lorie gets a session with the Nikon.

Experimental Colors

Bright Trees Through
@ 8" x 5.5"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

These experiments are from three weeks ago. Unfortunately, that is the train of getting the picture taken, etc. I am onto some actual works now, and I did a copy of a Wolf Kahn work that I'll post soon, too. I learned so much from that copy that I'd like to share with you. I was "over the moon," as they say. And, since it can't be sold, I get another artwork for my own.

Go To Market Monday

Blue Trees in the Middle Distance
7 - 3/8ths" x 5.75"
Original Pastel
Casey Klahn
$245.00
Shipping Included + Tax (%7.7)
Buy It

I think that some outside of the box thoughts can be refreshing. I enjoyed reading this and this from Seth Godin and Kerin Rose. Seth doesn't overlook the artist in the marketplace. When art is considered a pillar of civilization (follow with me, now) it becomes a resource for all in the same vein as education, business and manufacturing. Seth is a great one for turning to creativity for 21st century life, and where better to look than the arts?

I have been following a 2 year goal setting plan since the start of 2009. For some reason, the concrete goals haven't been materializing, and I wanted to discover if the creative freedom necessary for me would thrive better before the goals are set. Kerin's "my 2 cents" struck a chord with me. I think I said somewhere recently that I wonder what new ideas might come out of my studio if I felt that I had no chance of selling anything? What do you think of all this?

New Ground

New Pink Ground
@7" x 4"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

Small study with some new color ideas.

Cast Studies

Classic Man
@ 22" x 36"
Graphite, Charcoal and Conte
Casey Klahn

Deer "Cast" Drawing
14" x 12"
Charcoal, Conte and Compressed Charcoal
Casey Klahn

This is the first time this drawing, Classic Man, has been posted. My Basic Drawing Class, taught this winter, touched on cast drawing. I made the Classic Man as an example for the class, but it is really only copied free-hand from an instruction book. However, we did execute the deer skull from "life"- as it were. We make due at the atelier Klahn the best we can.

You might be confused at seeing realist works in black and white coming from The Colorist blog! Even though I am a self taught artist, I still insist on a traditional foundation. Be afraid of no knowledge, I always say.

Art Market Monday

Turquoise Forest

13" x 9"
Original Pastel
Casey Klahn
$700
Shipping Included + Tax (%7.7)
Buy This Original Pastel

The audience at The Colorist has increased recently, and I'd like to take this chance to introduce my art. The following brief describes the abstract foundation of my work.

Gesture and intuition combine in my abstract art. Intuition, not intention. Color choices are simply not derived from nature, but from internal sources.

"Automatism" is an old term that could be applied here. Drawing for drawing's sake, without idea or content. Color has it's own intrinsic purposes and reasons - ideas of it's own.

Am I controlled by my medium? Perhaps, but no more than most.

What are my ideas? To express color as the dominant element in the formal qualities in painting. Color can be the strongest element, and I think that in this age we have yet to plumb it's complete depths. No content; no meaning. No subject, other than red and blue. Yellow, green...these are my subjects.

With a hat tip to Joanne Mattera for the title idea. She is running a great series entitled Marketing Mondays, which is of interest especially to artists who market their art in today's economy.