Orange Field and News

Orange Field

8" x 17.5"

Soft Pastel & Charcoal

Casey Klahn

point&shoot

The Prairie Series (soon to be renamed "Edge of the Prairie") continues.  I hope that this series will be my main exhibition at my art fairs this summer.  I am working on three series' at once right now.   

Hoquiam River, Boulders and Prairie. 

Kirkland Uncorked is July 16-18, 2010.  I'll be there and hope to see you. 

Sausalito is September 4-6, 2010.  See you there! I am cooking up a new blog project, which should be ready to go live by the end of the week. Stay tuned.

Kirkland Uncorked

Now my friends in the Seattle area can see my recent work at the upcoming Kirkland Uncorked.  This beautiful event is held by the shores of Lake Washington, and is adjacent to downtown Kirkland. It will be held July 16th through 18th - see the hours listed here.


See you there!

Kirkland Uncorked
Kirkland Uncorked Facebook

Try a Framed Print

I am offering a limited selection of my drawings and small still life images as prints and framed prints through the Imagekind service.  Search "Casey Klahn" when you go there. Here is your chance, for a limited time (unless I like it a lot and extend the offer forever) to get prints of my drawings at costs starting well under $100.


Casey Klahn at Imagekind.

Prairie Understory

Tangled Color

7.4" x 12"

Pastel & Charcoal

Casey Klahn

point&shoot

Here is where I'm keeping my point of view close to the ground.

Boulders

Boulders in Gray Woods

8" x 8.9"

Pastel 

Casey Klahn

point&shoot camera

I may have a new series on boulders.  Time will tell.

Subtle Sub Text

Sub Text Red

6.25" x 8.25"

point & shoot camera

Pastel

Casey Klahn

Memorial Day

This Memorial Day has been better represented in the news than some others.  Of course, you need to look for it.  Yesterday, our Fair Access Policy (Internet Kibbles) ran low, and so my web surf was slow to nothing.  I thought my days of party lines were over, but everything seems to come back around if you give it time.

Here are the good posts and videos I gathered from my searches.  I also took the time to read some more of a book I have about the World War II Memorial in D.C.  Classic art and architecture.  Bas-reliefs and statuary. I like the architect's words: "...there was a generation of Americans...that we must forever remember." Friedrich St. Florian.

Bas-Relief, US WW2 Memorial. Battle of the Bulge.

Sippican Cottage: Traditional Now; Do Flowers Grow On Pork Chop Hill?

Echo Taps.

Here is a video that I think is better for actual veterans.  Some things only initiates and those who pay close attention can understand and appreciate.  Respectful, grand and moving.

Parades and services are one thing.  I think that hearing a veteran tell stories is irreplaceable if you really want to pay respects.  This one is a helicopter pilot relating his Vietnam war experiences on Memorial Day. Emotional.


Memorial Day has morphed somewhat from a remembrance of our war dead to include all of our departed loved ones.  Here posted are some interesting vids about passed master artists, Henri Matisse and Andrew Wyeth.






Matisse Chapel at Vence: H/T Laura K. Aiken.

On The Other Hand - Artist's Quotes

Artist's Quotes.


"I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else,"  Pablo Picasso.

"Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid, " Jules Feiffer.

"Artists are, above all, men who want to become inhuman," Guillaume Apollinaire.
 
"Once, after finishing a picture, I thought I would stop for awhile, take a trip, do things--the next time I thought of this, I found five years had gone by," Willem deKooning.

"The first mistake of art is to assume that it's serious,"  Lester Bangs.

"Its hard to find the light when you're born in the dark,"  Emile Zola.

"I don't know what to do with my arms. It just makes me feel weird and I feel like people are looking at me and that makes me nervous,"  Tyra Banks.

"Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master,"  Leonardo da Vinci.

"Very few people possess true artistic ability. It is therefore both unseemly and unproductive to irritate the situation by making an effort. If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass,"  Fran Lebowitz.



Note:

Loriann Signori is treating her readers to fresh quotes that she gleaned from attending master artist Wolf Kahn's recent talk.  One thing I like about Mr. Kahn is that he doesn't play the, "I know something you don't know" game.  He generously shares his painting wisdom, and then the challenge is on your shoulders.  Paint well, my friends!

Loriann Sees Wolf

Please read Loriann's after-action report on attending a Wolf Kahn seminar.  You will get much from his quotes.  My own Wolf Kahn studies lie here.


Also, around the blogosphere, see Katherine A. Cartwright's post of her Laws of Nature Series as it stands so far.  I am a fan.

Matisse Drawing, Speaking

Overdoing It

Studio Life

Overdoing It

Artists always want to know when a painting is finished.  A questioner once asked Wolf Kahn when he considers his painting finished.  Kahn said, "When it is no longer a royal pain in the ass to me."  Intuitive art is often a process of painting oneself into trouble, and finding the way out again.

I wrote recently about reclaiming sanded paper.  I have been taking used paper from my "failed paintings" pile and re-working the images.  The great thing I have discovered is that when I start out with a ghost image, I begin the process already in trouble!

Coffee Break - Hospitals, WW II, Kittens, and Bears

So Embarrassing.

 There is never a dull moment around here.  I wanted to have a cup of coffee with my readers and bring you up to date.  Much of studio life takes place outside the walls of the studio.  My studio is on my property in rural eastern Washington, and my family life and other country happenings this week have kept me away from art and this screen.


1. My son, Carson, stayed overnight in the hospital last week with a skin disease.  His skin is now almost clear, and he is doing great.  It was hard for the parents of an eight year old, but for him it was like a stay in a luxury hotel.  He missed school all week except half a day, and last night, I took him to the movies.  I have been updating peeps via Facebook.



2. Yesterday, May 8th, commemorated the end of WW II in Europe.  Sixty-five years ago the unconditional surrender went into effect and was dubbed V-E Day.  The US press was absent, for the most part, in commemorating this, but I see that the UK and much of Europe, and Canada did have ample press regarding this important date.  Since my US audience needs remedial history on this, I have prepared a set of five facts you didn't know about V-E Day, which is at the bottom of this post.


3. Let's do the bear story next.  Yesterday morning I found myself in the woods alone with a bear.  This has happened to me a handful of times, but I usually don't get too charged up about it.  The American Black Bear is pretty much like a big, cuddly dog who leaves you alone if you leave him alone.  This one was different. This bruin was very large, and uncomfortably close.  I estimated about 70 yards away, and above me.  His color was an amazing cinnamon brown, but not like the brown or blond that marks the back of Black Bears sometimes.  This guy was head to claw cinnamon brown, and flawless.  Because of the size, and the unusual color, I started doing the checklist in my head that is titled: "Is This a Grizzly?"


He was looking at me.  I was looking at him and doing the field taxonomy that any sane woodsman does in his head. First, you look for the hump at the shoulders.  Since he was above me, I couldn't make one out, but I did note the distance from shoulder to chest was massive.  The head also lacked that dog shape common to Black Bears.  Instead, it was big and round - I would say massive.  He turned his head once, and then gazed back at me.  He had heard me crashing over branches and had come up to see what the noise was all about.  He was calculating his moves, too.  Is this little thing dangerous to me?  Should I saunter off, or give him the growl?  What does he taste like?


The bear's decision was to walk in my direction, which is either the common curiosity of bears, or the run-up to you-know-what.  By this time, I had finished my list, and my new task was egress. He had me tactically, because he was on a level contour, and I had to ascend diagonally to get to the field and "outta there."  As I made my way up, I could see his bright red coat coming through the trees.

So, that was fun.  The neighbor saw a large bear track on the road the other day, too.  A guy looks for this kind of commiseration when he has an out-sized story to tell.  Was this a Brown Bear?  I'll never know.  If he was a Black, then he gets the prize for beauty, and is in my top 3 for size.  I did see a Grizzly in the wild one other time, but it was a roadside event in Banff.  That was a monstrous bear, tearing at roots like a machine, and I would say twice the size of my bear from yesterday.  Except yesterday, I didn't have a car.


4. How to top that?  All the news I have left is the two litters of kittens we have.  My 7 year old daughter finds them much more engaging than my bear story.

Now, all that energy can be channeled into the studio.  See you next time.

Five facts about VE-Day: 


1.  The unconditional surrender document was signed on the 7th of May, and ratified on the 8th.  The allies wanted to avoid the troubles surrounding the WW I armistice by having the German High Command as signators this time.
2. No head of state was present at either the German surrender ceremony or the Japanese one on September 2, 1945.
3. The surrender in the Mediterranean Theater was the 2nd of May, 1945.
4. Susan Hibbert typed the document of surrender in English.
5. The surrender of Italy on September 3rd of 1943 had some wiggle room at first, and only later became "unconditional."


Bear photo: Madfelix.
Kittens photo: Lorie Klahn

Degas, French Papers and Pastel Love

Do you need to save money on paper?  Do you have a pile of unfinished works on La Carte paper?  See my report on how I have been reclaiming this paper incorrectly identified as too sensitive to re-use.


While you are thinking about your pastels, indulge in some huge Edgar Degas visuals:

Artist's Quotes

"An artist is not paid for his labor, but for his vision,"  James McNeill Whistler.

"There are more valid facts and details in works of art than there are in history books,"  Charlie Chaplin.

"My theory is that all of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare, "  Mike Myers.

"There is no must in art because art is free,"  Wassily Kandinsky. 

"The creative artist seems to be almost the only kind of man that you could never meet on neutral ground. You can only meet him as an artist. He sees nothing objectively because his own ego is always in the foreground of every picture,"  Raymond Chandler. 

"Art is either plagiarism or revolution,"  Paul Gauguin. 

"Any artist should be grateful for a naive grace which puts him beyond the need to reason elaborately,"  Saul Bellow.

"Art is the proper task of life,"  Friedrich Nietzsche.

"What good are computers? They can only give you answers,"  Pablo Picasso.

Memorials and Memories

Pause

Sometimes a guy needs to pause and reflect.  "...a guy."  That's a phrase my late dad used to say.  His youngest brother recently passed away, and I said words and a prayer at his memorial on Saturday.  Uncle Don was 82, and is survived by only one sister, my Aunt Anita.  Don was preceded in death by his siblings.  All eleven of them.  The story of my grandparents, their thirteen children and their pioneering life is a unique American one.  Uncle Don's is unique, too.

Grandpa Max and Grandma Anna homesteaded in the land that time forgot, the Olympic Peninsula.  Think Twilight, only without the amenities.  By no amenities, I mean no electricity.  Did I mention no road, either?  Max hiked the Olympic beach to get to work during the Great Depression, which was a hundred miles plus a little.  The Indians rafted him across the rivers he couldn't ford.  He worked in the logging and port towns of Hoquiam and Aberdeen.

Max and Anna had 13 children, and the seven brothers all went off to war.  My father, Kenneth K. Klahn, saw heavy combat in Italy.  The youngest boy, Don, wanted badly to get in the army and fight the Second World War with his six brothers, but the Sole Survivor Policy prevented that.  So, he got drafted and fought the Korean War instead.  How is that for irony?  I can't say if my seven serving uncles and father is an unprecedented thing, but it is noteworthy.  Where will we get men like that now?

Link
My Grandfather, Max Klahn, is the young boy pictured @ the top right. Next to him at his left are Henry, my Great Grandfather and Charlotte, my Great Grandmother. Location: Quillayute Prairie, WA. Date: 1895. This place is about the rainiest spot in the US.

This weekend, in my home town of Hoquiam , I wanted to continue my series of paintings about the river complex.  Of course, it rained and so I sat in the truck and drew the mist on trees.  I made further arrangements for a show of these works and checked out the venues from the curb.  It will be a special event, I am sure.  The tentative date is a year from September.

My Hoquiam High School class of 1976 have found each other on Facebook, and 25 of us and some family and friends got re-acquainted in Olympia Saturday evening.  One thing we enjoyed so much in the seventies was dancing to loud rock and roll.  How sore can a guy be after dancing and making merry like we did that night?  Ouch.  I haven't had that much fun in a long time.  Every face I saw recalled for me endless good times and fun that we had in our school days.

I was to get together with another high school and college friend on Sunday.  We made the arrangements to meet because his wife was undergoing cancer treatments and he wouldn't be able to come out.  When I called that morning he informed me that his wife had passed away Friday night in the hospital in Seattle.

Can a guy have a fuller heart than I have right now?  I doubt it.  I am back home with my family, today.  I showed Lorie some photos that my aunt gave me when I visited with her.  Aunt Geri and I sat at the dining table, in front of the big corner windows that Uncle Don looked out of for so many years in Hoquiam.  Looking out at the rain, of course.  The week he died, he "saw" my late father as clear as day, she said.  He remarked, "here comes Kenny.  He's coming for me now."

Rest in peace, Melanie, Don, Dad and the Klahn siblings.  I love you.

Top Photo: Lorie Klahn

Copy of Mary Cassatt, After Degas

 

Mary Cassatt, After Degas

@ 24" x 36"

Charcoal & Pastel

Casey Klahn

See my hommage to Mary Cassatt here.

Sketching Right

Sketch Landscape

4.5" x 7.28"

Charcoal on Sketch Paper

Casey Klahn

I don't know if you can get more power from a methodical sketch, than from a quick one.  My vote is for the quick, intuitive drawing.  An interesting thing happened with this one.  I wanted to transfer it to a larger pastel sheet, and thought that it was close to the golden rectangle proportions.  In the studio, I always go straight to this tool to find the ratio of the golden rectangle.  I entered the short side of my sketch, which was about 4.5", and the long side was about 7.28," give or take .01".  When I plugged 4.5 into the finder, it said that the golden ratio would be 4.5 to 7.28 - what a coincidence!  I was duly happy.  The ratio for my transfer would be 9:14.56.

A short article on the Golden Rectangle at Pastel: Gimme Five.

For no particular reason, I'm needing some music with the next few posts. "Can't this train outrun those kids?"

Color Prairie

Color Prairie Sketch

Small

Charcoal & Pastel

Casey Klahn

Here is a charcoal thumbnail sketch and a color study.  The finished painting will be posted in the future.

Free Blog

I'm still blogging, and while I'm at it the studio has been in full fiddle.  Above is a studio on-the-easel image, and I want to begin posting from my sketchbook, as well.  Here is the first of these.

Rock Solid Neutrals

Erratic Boulder

6.25" x 8.5"

Pastel & Charcoal

Casey Klahn 

These car sized boulders are called glacier erratics.  They remind me of the way that neutral colors can mimic, or reflect, the colors around them.  This is true of the grays, and of the browns and tans that I used for the grass - they "adopt" the violets and blues that surround them.