Introducing The Colorist Daily

It gives me great pleasure to introduce my newest blog: The Colorist Daily. Original Pastels in the New School Color style, posted mostly every day and many at under $100.

Should I offer a drum roll? How about a theme song? I need a theme song for this. Although this one I found at You Tube is for The Blob, try to imagine it as "The Blog!" It is from my birth year, so I kind of liked that.




Need it more up tempo? Try another from my birth year; this one by Henry Mancini, who always did the best theme songs I can remember.



Man, I love that!

Too out there for you? Nothing says intro better than this one, also from that same year.



Anyway, you get the idea. New, fresh art in small and collectible sizes. The Colorist Daily. Feel free to subscribe or follow.

Loriann's Slough Through My Eyes

La Conner Slough
11" x 14"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

Remember when artist and blogger Loriann Signori introduced me to her favored slough in La Conner, WA? My impression was different from hers, and somewhat driven by my choice of rough-tooth Richeson board. Sometimes I think I want to bring my outdoor works to a finish, and other times I want something to take to the studio. Other times, I have no idea what to do at all!

My new project. Grand opening next post.

In The Draw

In The Draw, Green
9.75" x 9.75"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

We just returned from a weekend at the lake cabin, and I actually got a chance to relax. That was much needed after an art fair the previous week. Now, I have the follow-ups from the fair to attend to, which includes a post for my readers here at The Colorist. Tomorrow, I hope to get to that for you.

You may have noticed that I have been sneaking in videos on art subjects in the right hand column. Lectures, usually. I like this tool because I can manage it, and it keeps the footprint there fairly small. Also, it doesn't have the big you tube design around the player. Anyway - they are somewhat neat. In the future I will post others that I like; maybe Kassan drawing, or Pollock painting. These lectures are often very long, so make some popcorn and save up your internet kibbles.

Glitch Marketing

Casey Klahn

I can't figure out why my stats went ballistic two days ago. It seems like an explosion of interest in just one page of my blog. I think Google has a glitch, where a redirect takes surfers to the Pollock page. I can't complain. For an early effort by The Colorist, that page lays out a lot of meat.

Not my art, though. And, not much original content. For more original art content, I suggest this page.

Anyway. Thanks for tripping into The Colorist, which is a newsletter blog about my colorist works, and essays on fine art.

Pollock Links & References - Updated

The Colorist
About The Colorist blog.

Galaxy, 1947
Jackson Pollock

This post was originally published in 2007. It gets enough attention that I brought it up to date.

See also The Jackson Pollock Researcher for the comprehensive and current links on Jackson Pollock.

Originality was the hallmark of Jackson Pollock's art. He found a way to both connect with, and yet break free of whatever else had been happening with art. It's a little hard to appreciate the originality of Pollock from our high horse of retrospection. I liken it to some of my experiences with rock climbing. Sure, a particular rock climb will have a difficulty rating and a status as severe or hard, but when you go to climb it, you feel that it isn't as hard as described. Well, put yourself in the sticky shoes of the very first ascensionist. What was the experience like for him?

So, imagine the first "pure" abstraction. How does one completely eliminate the subject from a painting? The Abstract Expressionists often likened abstract painting to getting "in touch" with your inner child, because children draw and paint with freedom and innocence. I argued with that comparison until I had my own children picking up pencils and crayons. Now, I completely believe in the childlike aspects of abstract visual expression. Now, I just have to work out my objections to the "primitive man" comparisons to painting abstraction.

My own experience with abstraction took place when I took a workshop from Diane Townsend, who happens to be a great abstractionist with ties to New York and my hero Wolf Kahn.

How do you begin painting abstractly? Townsend unlocked that door for me, and before noon on the first day I was having a great time painting "nothing". I hope to continue my exploration of abstraction in the near future. It actually can be one of the hardest styles to paint in and make anything really good. My abstracts can be seen here and here.

Let's follow some link paths for Jackson Pollock.




Steven Naifeh and Greg Smith have written a Pulitzer prize winning biography titled: Jackson Pollock, An American Saga. I have some serious misgivings about it's historicity, but suffice it to say that it seems to be the "go to" book now for looking at his life. Ed Harris brings it to our attention in his comments about his movie about the keen artist.

Harris also thinks Pollock may have been manic-depressive. Of course, my first inclination would be to look up the paperwork on his 4-F status, just in case that might reveal something about a diagnosis of this or something similar. I guess he also saw therapists, and the records from that probably reveal something, too. Shades of van Gogh.

Pollock's Studio Floor

Don't miss the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton (Long Island). This small property with rustic facilities was purchased by Pollock and Krasner with help from Peggy Guggenheim, who was Pollock's "super-patron". It was here that Pollock began his drip paintings, and you may visit this museum and walk on the floor where his drips are preserved. Could these be considered accidents?

I recommend the Pollock bio written by the director of the P-K House, Helen Harrison.

There is a Pollock-Krasner Foundation, which I think is a very classy move by the late Lee Krasner, who was left as a widow by her drunken and cheating genius-artist husband. Trying to figure out what made Krasner's relationship with Pollock tick is an exercise in head-trips that some may enjoy. We'll look at the wonderful Krasner a little later in our Abstract Expressionist study this month.

The National Gallery of Art in DC has a good site about the old boy. A quick look at his process is seen in this GIF - Video. Here's a Quicktime featurette of a Hans Namuth film of the Camel-smoking curmudgeon at his task of working a horizontal canvas.

I have to limit the scope of JP references found at the Museum of Modern Art, since they are numerous. Man, this stuff is knee-deep. How does one have an "itinerant childhood"? Uh, never mind the MoMA for now...

Of course, my favorite site for Jackson Pollock is the fun and interactive "Create Your Own" Jackson Pollock by Milos Manetas. It's an ingenious flash page where you drip "paint" on your CRT screen. Of course, you don't control the color - those come as accidents. My only advice is cut loose, don't stay inside the frame, and don't stop too soon!

Links referenced above:
http://www.amazon.com/Jackson-Pollock-American-Steven-Naifeh/dp/0913391190
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/pkhouse.nsf
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/pkhouse.nsf/pages/pollock
http://www.pkf.org/
http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/index.htm
http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

When Bloggers Meet

My set-up at Loriann's slough locale. She loves this particular spot, and I can see why. There are scenes wherever you look - but that generally describes Skagit County, Washington.

Painter in the mist. Loriann Signori is well focused on her art. Her post of the image is here.

Our favorite plein airist, Loriann, was be-nighted the evening before, looking for her lost house key in the tall grass with a flashlight. She didn't like the sounds of something big slapping the water, and beat a hasty retreat. I found the tracks and showed her what she'd been avoiding - a small bear.

When bloggers meet - a paint out adventure. Loriann Signori and Casey Klahn in La Conner, Washington.

I will post the artwork I did soon. I still haven't unpacked my big van since my Kirkland show. After seeing Loriann, I had a great time driving east over the Cascade Mountains and home after much arting and general hob-nobbing. Unusual for me, I actually enjoyed the hot weather in Leavenworth, WA - maybe after being cold at the painting location!

Next posts: galleries and art fairs and workshops.

Teasing The Posts

Loriann Signori at the Easel

Since my days remain at about 400% over-capacity for my ability to deal with my schedule, sleep, and blogging, I will put you off, dear readers, for another day. This post will tease the exciting posts I plan to make next. Bears. Galleries. Art Fairs. When Bloggers Meet. And, best of all, painting with "The" Loriann Signori!!

For the impatient, Loriann posts her version of this adventure here.

Be back soon.

Green, Gre-en, Green.

Green Grass Landscape

7.6" x 9.5"

Pastel

Casey Klahn

Scary green. Green in your eye. Green in between. That much Green.

Mr. Green Jeans.

The Green Hornet.

The Red Green Show.

Green Acres.







Kirkland Uncorked this weekend.

Waterhole Number One

Waterhole 1

@6" x 8"

Pastel

Casey Klahn

An item of interest: this one is on Townsend paper, which has a hand-applied sanded surface on Rives BFK. I didn't want to travel far from my prairie theme, but did try different surfaces this season.

See it at Kirkland Uncorked this weekend.

I Have a New Card

My Card

Over the horizon, I am planning for a set of exhibits, in my coastal hometown of Hoquiam, Washington. Mayor Jack Durney wants me to hurry up and exhibit, and has named it "The Return of the Native." To sweeten the deal, he has offered me a Get Out of Jail Free Card. There's a first time for everything - thanks, Mr. Mayor!

Hoquiam River Bright

10" x 14.75"

Pastel & Charcoal

Casey Klahn

On the near horizon, I am exhibiting in a new show in Kirkland, Kirkland Uncorked. The hours are as follows: Kirkland Uncorked Promenade (Free Festival) WA, July 16 - 18. Hours: Friday 2pm-8pm • Saturday 11am-8pm • Sunday 11am-6pm

This coming Labor Day, I will be exhibiting in Sausalito. September 3 - 6. Last year, I received the First Place Award in Drawing at the Sausalito Art Festival. That was for my whole collection, rather than a single image. The pressure is on to be that good again, but if my wife is a fair critic, she has deemed this year's art as better. I hope that's true.

How about it, Sausalito? Will you offer me a Get Out of Jail free card, too?

White Bunkhouse

White Bunkhouse
8.75" x 9.5"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

Nikon D-80

I seem to be doing about one building a year, and here is this year's.  This out-building is part of a neighbor's farm, and used to be the bunkhouse, I think.  

The fuel  tank I used in another picture a couple of years ago, but this is the actual scene as it appears in life.