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.

In the Breed

I was driving to the city yesterday, past snow-clad fields, and I noticed a farm dog running like his tail was on fire. I thought to myself, " I wonder if he's...he is! " He was facing down a coyote intruding in his domain, and then I noticed that it was two coyotes.

"...courage is essential to the artist." Henri Matisse

I regarded that as an amazing display of courage by that dog. A pair of coyotes can easily defeat even a full grown deer, and the matter was simply that the dog had his range to defend and nothing was going to keep him from doing that!

The antipathy between farm dogs and coyotes is well known, and as a matter of fact the dog's behavior was common to his breed.

What characteristics are common to your own breed? The artist is known for artistic integrity, and presenting an abundance of that is having courage.

For a review of these traits, see the following posts: Artistic Integrity and Artistic Courage - Get It!

Have you defended your artistic space lately?

Plastic Color

Four works on the easel, awaiting good photographs.

The studio was humming this weekend, and I got four works done. Three sketch/studies, and one medium sized pastel. If you want to count failed works, then many more were done!

Four New Works

At Pastel, I posted some words on plastic color, as part of my Tree School series. Find out why I don't paint my trees green.

Plasticity in art is important to understand. "Plasticity is the quality of the presentation of a sense of movement in a painting," said Mark Rothko. Another less developed theory of plastic qualities in art refers to the three-dimensionality of the visual arts.

Deadlines for juries are looming, so I want to get a series done so as to submit four to five images that agree with one another. I hope to photograph them in a day or two, and you'll get to see them, too.

On another topic, I recommend Joanne Mattera's Marketing Mondays.

First Fruits

First Fruits in the Studio
Artwork and Photo: Casey Klahn

In many ways, the products of my new studio are the first fruits of my labor. This still life was inspired by the drawing class that I taught in November. I haven't painted many, and they teach me a great deal about the picture making process. How to create balance in the picture plane. How to keep my value scale under control. The use of brown as a neutral. My own stylistic ideas of drawing an apple.

As often happens in my busy studio, I framed and gave away this picture before I got a proper picture of it. I am working on that process, and the hope is to be more stream-lined so that set-up (tungsten lights, cords, camera, where to put the images, etc.) is less stressful. But, since I gave it to my daughter, who is a budding young artist herself, it was easy to retrieve and get this photo for a record.

The frame shown is 11" x 8" and the pastels shown in the trug on the shelf below are medium sized Unisons - not the standard ones which are smaller. It occurred to me that pastellists might get a mistaken sense of perspective because of this.

Cup of Joe Update

Cup of Joe, anyone?

Best to stay warm in this winter of spotty electric power, and heavy snows. I saw my life flash before my eyes the other day when that power pole split! Then, I realized it was just an arc of electricity shooting up from the insulators. Today, the furnace repair man will come to look at our oil furnace. I hope he can get that back up to speed, especially with temperatures under 20 degrees F.

I'm almost finished with Blogging Tips for artist bloggers. I promised to "type" my own blog, which I have done but haven't finished the copy on that post. One blogger friend has The Colorist designated as an "e-zine," which is close, but I have a slightly different take.

More Coffee? What else has been keeping me busy has been my return to the studio. After being sick, I am now able to re-start my productivity. Last year's art had its ups and its downs, but mostly I wasn't that active in the studio. The three months leading up to my December operation saw no artwork created at all.

I choose to see the good in this. Cup half full. No, I mean is you cup half full? Here's more coffee.

I have been in the searching stages to define my art directions, and the break gives a time for reflection. We'll see what happens. I am happy to be getting some blue landscapes finished, as well as some still life works. Photos pending. For purchases please look to my blog, Casey Klahn dot blogspot.

And on the Internet and blogging front, my ArtSlant profile continues to grow and receive viewership. The blog Pastel is featuring a series on how to draw/paint trees. The latest installment, Tree Admiration, takes you on a chef's tour of different artist's styles and how they treat trees.

I found Pam Farrell via Joanne Mattera, and she has a series of studio visits posted as the ISBP (Interactive Studio Blog Post). Studio inspiration, anyone?

Finally, I want to make sure you know that two local pastellists are now writing blogs. I enjoy exhibiting with these two superb artists, and I know you are jealous of my getting to view their art booths at the fairs. So, to make it up to you, I provide you with these links to their new blogs. Marla Baggetta blogs here, and Sheila Evans here. Enjoy.

Wyeth Love

Passing Poles. Repairing the Damage From Ice Storm '09.
Photo: Tom Wells.

We have power back, and 28 new power poles, after the great Ice Storm of ought-nine. I turned on my computer after being out-of-touch, and learned about the passing of artist Andrew Wyeth on Friday.

The news and responses to the passing of Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) have all been posted. "His work has iconic status in the history of American art," was said today in the Philadelphia Inquirer (Wyeth lived in Pennsylvania).

The blog post that does him proudest is this one by Charley Parker. See a recent painting by Wyeth there, instead of the famous one of Christina which the reporters and critics chose to post. Artist bloggers do much better with these things, in my opinion, and Charley shows us how.


"Really, I think one's art goes only as far and as deep as your love goes," 1965, A. Wyeth.



My favorite paintings by A. Wyeth are the Helga series. Not because it was a "scandal", as so many deem it, but because Wyeth had the clarity of mind to do the series without outside interference. He kept the 250 or so works out of public view until he finished them. I feel that the spare qualities that he is known for are portrayed best in these works.

Culture Monster writes about the viral qualities of the Helga pictures.

The Telegraph (U.K.) has a fair article here. I enjoyed "Of Time and Andrew Wyeth", by Christopher Orlet.

For a fine serendipity about the important American artist's passing (and, after all of the elitist invective, I just want to hear artist's views on Wyeth now, thanks) see what Jennifer Phillips in Seattle did in her post Reflecting on Andrew Wyeth.

Ice Storm '09

Frosty Fencepost
Photo: Casey Klahn

Our power is off and on, so I'll post this with haste. It is the great Ice Storm of ought-nine!

Yesterday, the two kids and I were driving home in the van. To our front, I watched in awe, and then in fear, as great arcs of light shot sky high, and then a power pole snapped in two and came down. I was watching the slow motion, B&W, silent movie of power lines and pole crumpling and I thought, "is this going to hit us?"

Now I know that the great tension down these lines keeps them in-line with their original aspect. Mostly. So, it fell along the road side, but across our neighbors' road, and so I dialed 9-1-1. There are over two dozen poles down, by my reckoning.

I was shaken up, but we made it home fine. What next, winter?

Tree School at Pastel Blog

A new series begins today at Pastel.