Neutral Area

Neutral Corner

5" x 5.5"

Pastel

Casey Klahn

This is one of endless variations done from one seed image, with a twist.  This is the formal photo - I posted a poor photo of it elsewhere a couple weeks ago.

Available. 

Inventory is a Never-Ending Task

Inventory is a Never-Ending Task

Don't get me wrong.  I am blessed to have a big studio, with several rooms and lots of organizational space.  But it isn't perfect, yet.  I very much need one of those framed artwork organizers, so I can access what I have when needed.

There is an upcoming exhibit in Spokane (more on that later) and I am having a grand time framing small works to fill out the display of pastels that will be shown.  If I can get organized really well, I may open up the sale to include my readers here at The Colorist.  No promises, but it would be nice to sell a few before they even get to the framing stage, as I probably have more than I need for this show.  

One recurring problem for me is to discover framed works that never got photographed.  It is possible to get a picture through the glass, and I may have to resort to that for two of my works that I found today.  The photo shown is of a pastel titled, "Public Works Road."  It is of an actual place, rather than the imagination.  But, no record of it exists!  

In all of my spare time ;) I may get these formally recorded and posted here soon.  I am certainly feeling the holidays coming on, with fresh snow on the ground.  Look for snow pics soon, too.

Cheers!

The Rest of the Story - The Little Dancer

X-Ray of The Little Dancer, Degas.

By National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (ArtDaily.org) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Subjective Subjects

Some of the content of this post was brought forward from a previous tips post, and updated with new material.  Also published at pastelsblog.blogspot in December, 2010.

It was interesting to see a great pastel artist list his focus on a narrow range of subjects in a book I read recently. The book is a dated one by Albert Handell: Pastel Painting Workshop. He likes the Southwestern landscape with arroyos and pueblo-style structures. He does trees, rock boulders and waterways. In his figurative work, he likes vignettes and portraits.

Why be narrow in subject matter?

It is good to be aware of what your subject matter is before you go off to the field to paint on site. Why be narrow in subject matter? My own feelings are that you may delve into a subject as deeply as you wish, and may never run out of inspiration. If your goal is to "draw things", then you may wish to pursue every possible subject one after the other. But, if you are wanting to produce paintings with depth and with good technique, then limiting yourself to a handful of subjects will provide you a greater opportunity for depth.

Limiting your subject matter will put you in good company.

Limiting your subject matter will put you in good company. Van Gogh stayed with agricultural landscapes in France that revolved around trees, waterways, fields, buildings and bridges. He did portraits and still lifes, but he stayed with common themes. Degas stayed with interior and theatrical figures, such as orchestras, singers and ballerinas. He did nudes at the bath. He also liked the horse track, and some industrial interiors. Daniel Greene stays with the portrait, but in his figurative work he focuses on painting his wife, artist Wende Caporale, in the New York subway with tile mosaic backgrounds. Of course, he does other works, but his series work is a method of staying focused. Harvey Dinnerstein does self portraits where he is painting bare chested, and Andrew Wyeth stayed on the Helga series for a number of years. His Helga series kept true to his own ouevre of rural interiors and moods.

Limiting my subject matter helps tremendously in finding compositions.

My own oeuvre features trees, forests, rivers and the prairie.  Sometimes rural buildings are featured, and rarely do I bring in the sky, horizons or light.  It's interesting to think of what I purposefully omit.  The horizon is too much landscape - too boilerplate.  Light is not much of a part of my environment, especially where I grew up on the Washington coast.  The sky is better left alone, unless to add a pushing or pulling event, or to set the color concord. 

Motivational Poster

Somebody asked me to make these motivational posters available for sale - I think it was on Facebook.  I am considering it, and they aren't all as self-promoting as this one.  There are lots of projects like this on the back-burner for wintertime, and since we now have the first snow, they will be moved forward.  Some of these (surprise) projects are very exciting, and I hope I can get even half of them done.

Autumnal van Gogh Landscaping

This post is a response to:

Art of the Landscape - van Gogh.

Memorial Videos On Veteran's Day 11-11-2011

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Salvator Mundi

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Salvator Mundi,  Leonardo da Vinci

o/p, 25 13/16" X 17 7/8 "

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Salvator Mundi, c. 1500 Oil on walnut panel, 25 13/16 X 17 7/8 inches (65.6 X 45.4 cm) (C) 2011 Salvator Mundi llc. (PRNewsFoto/Robert Simon, Tim Nighswander)

This post originally published May, 2011.

Although he has been safely dead for 492 years, Leonardo da Vinci continues to make headlines.  Arguably the greatest polymath ever, Leonardo is never uninteresting.

Is it possible that da Vinci painted an image titled Salvator Mundi, and that this has only now come to light?  News reports say that experts have re-attributed this painting to the master, whereas before it was said to have been created by one of da Vinci's students.  Incredibly, this would be only the fifteenth known painting by da Vinci that exists.  Unless, of course, somebody un-crates another one somewhere. 


Dan Brown!  Paging Mr. Dan Brown!


PR Web Press
Lairweb - best report.
h/t Vanderleun

The Colorist

Demonstration in Oakland, CA

Here is a photo report on last weekend's See Differently workshop.  I, personally, had a great time and there was growth for all in one form or another. I tried to treat each artist individually, and was challenged by the high experience level of my wonderful students.

My workshops are meant to provide breakthrough growth opportunities, and that means hard work.  You will paint hard, think hard and maybe learn to understand your own art a little better as a result of this challenging two day class.  

Host Jon Larson asked me to throw a workshop in the Bay Area.  It took me three years to finally do it.

My second demo.  Re-purposing a "failed" artwork.

Kris, Robin and Linda at show and tell.  Linda Schweitzer has an art blog linked at the bottom of this post.

Robin changed one little thing at the end and was energized by the results.  Responsive painting  can be a valuable technique.

Kris graced us with this bell pepper as a result of a Notan type exercise.  Bravo, Kris!

Set up to demonstrate in Oakland - I just put that there to see what Google does with it.

Slipper was disinterested in the art, but happy nonetheless.

Back home in cold Washington State - happy to complete a  great workshop.

Workshops.

Linda Schweitzer.

Norman Rockwell, Jackson Pollock and Ideas

Yellow Trees, Blue Forest
9" x 7"
Pastel
Casey Klahn

This post was originally published in 2008.


It was a great joy to receive the following question from a second grade teacher located in Mexico:

Hi. I would like to know what do you think about the idea of Rockwell of painting Pollock’s in his.


I am teaching 2nd graders about Pollock and I have found it more complex that just dripping!

My reply:

Thank you for the question.


Maybe you saw my post about an image named The Connoisseur that Norman Rockwell did of the well heeled museum patron in front of a Jackson Pollock painting. 

I have a special affinity for NR, as I studied art via the Norman Rockwell Famous Artist's Course for Talented Young People when I was not much older than your second graders. He deserves the renewed interest that the art public is giving him, in my opinion.


On your question. What artist doesn't want to be liked for their artwork? Certainly there was a great deal of "artistic courage" that both of these famous artists exhibited.


NR was big enough in his heart to portray the wholly different painting style of the emerging super artist Jackson Pollock, and at the same time doing this with irony and humor. That was his trademark.


I don't see him passing any negative judgment in his painting, and as far as the art side of it is concerned, the man stands in the middle bottom of the painting, almost like a tree trunk whose canopy is the abstract painting. A wonderful idea, and difficult to pull off. Not at all following strict compositional rules. His talent in composing a painting is on show, here. That's irony, too!


JP had obvious "artistic courage" by not using regular oil paint or regular brushes or even regular primed canvases. He didn't use the easel, either. He was changing everything about painting, or as many things as he could think of to do.


As a contemporary artist, I have been given permission by JP to do more kinds of things to express my art than before he "broke" all those art rules. I choose to repeat my compositions over and over again, to make the point that the colors are the "meaning", not the trees. I like to get rid of "depth", so hammered into my brain by the great Norman Rockwell school. That reminds me (and maybe you, the viewer) that after all, you are looking at a painting about: color.


Kindly,

Casey Klahn

Resolve

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Make your own Automotivator.

Art Is What?

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Is It Art?

Wolf Kahn said, "Each painting has its own dignity, its own requirements."

"But the Devil whoops, as he whooped of old: 'It's clever, but is it Art?'" Rudyard Kipling.

"The air one sees in the paintings of the masters is not the air one breathes." Edgar Degas.

"Why don't you bore a hole in yourself and let the sap run out?"  Groucho Marx. 

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer.

Fauvist Forest, Casey Klahn

"To sum up, I work without a theory. I am conscious above all of the forces involved, and find myself driven forward by an idea that I can really only grasp bit by bit as it grows with the picture." Henri Matisse.

"Always do whatever's next." George Carlin.

"Information is cheap, meaning is expensive."  George Dyson.

"I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way -- things I had no words for." Georgia O’Keeffe.

"A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to." Banksy.

"Each new situation requires a new architecture." Jean Nouvel.

Pierre Bonnard said, "There is also submission to the picture."

This page, and other quotes pages, are available for free download here.

The Prairie in High Country

High Country Prairie

6" x 19.5"

Pastel

Casey Klahn

This is the companion to yesterday's picture.

High Prairie

High Country

6" x 19.5"

Pastel

Casey Klahn

This image was originally published in May.

Bill Me Now - de Kooning Retrospective

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Artist Willem de Kooning's legacy is currently on display in a milestone exhibition of his works rendered over seven decades.  de Kooning, a Retrospective, is open at the Museum of Modern Art from September 18, 2011 through January 9, 2012.


Dutch-born de Kooning emigrated to America in 1926 the way he felt he had to, via stowing away on a merchant ship.  Inhabiting the kind of artist's flats in Manhattan that are part and parcel of the great romantic 20th Century American art story, the young de Kooning labored over his canvases.  The results are now part of the art history canon, and yet for me personally, WdK's art challenges me to struggle.  How can I leave well enough alone when there is more to say?

"Ambiguity prevails in an art and in an age where nothing is certain but self-consciousness." Willem DeKooning.

Shaping de Kooning's Legacy

MoMA Exhibit

New Yorker, Fresh Paint.

Shifting Picture.

Smithsonian Magazine - Willem de Kooning Still Dazzles.




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Bright Trees Ker'sploshun

Bright Trees Through

@ 8" x 5.5"

Pastel

Casey Klahn

There is a viral-like event going on at my new Tumblr page involving this image.  I am surprised and pleased that many bloggers at Tumblr want to feature this image.

MATISSE & PICASSO: The Titans of the Twentieth Century

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Charlie Rose interviews the curators of the Matisse & Picasso exhibit that was up at the MoMA in 2003.  These videos were posted this year.


Kirk Varnedoe and John Elderfield are the curators.

Bellevue Demo Image

Hotel Sol, Italy

@7" x
Pastel
Casey Klahn

This is the painting I did for the demo last week in Bellevue at Daniel Smith.


There will be two workshops next week in Bellevue, on Wednesday and Thursday, October 19th and 20th.

Upcoming Workshops

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Seattle area artists who are interested in taking up pastels will enjoy my Beginning Pastels workshop on Wednesday, Oct. 19th., from 10 till 4. Bellevue Daniel Smith, 15112 N.E. 24th Street, Bellevue -(425) 643-1781. Pre-register, $75.

Those with some experience in using pastels can take an Intermediate Pastel workshop at the Bellevue Daniel Smith store on Oct. 20th., from 10 till 4. Pre-register, $80.

Daniel Smith Workshop.

Directions.


In November, I will be in California's Bay Area to teach the See Differently workshop.  It is in El Cerrito and is almost full.


Over the calender horizon and over the border into Canada, I have a workshop arranged at the Pastel Studio.  The date is to be announced, and because of winter weather I'm thinking of mid summer.

Demo in Bellevue on Wednesday, 10 - Noon.

Free Demo at Daniel Smith, Bellevue.

Pastels are the premier way to get color down on paper with boldness and intensity. This drawing medium acts like anything you want it to – even like a painting medium if you so desire. Artist Casey Klahn will demonstrate his pastel technique, and field your questions during this two hour event.

This is a great FREE pre-view to Casey Klahn’s Pastel Workshops:Beginning Pastel on Wednesday Oct. 19th, and Intermediate Pastel on Thursday Oct. 20th, 2011.