A taste of color

"The Taste of Color," 5 x 7 no-brush watercolor, 140 lb Fabriano Artistico extra white cold press paper

The more I read, the more I study, the more I paint, the less I know.
I finished rereading Austin Kleon's "Keep Going," (10 ways to stay creative in good times and bad) this week. Here is another book that chose me at the right time as his tips prod me to keep going in this pandemic of biologic, racists and tRump viruses sapping our spirits and mental health.
There are times when I need to be prodded into writing and especially painting, until I get under way and just play, experiment, try. 
So it was today with #WorldWatercolorMonth's daily prod of "Fruit." Other obligations consumed most of the day, and afternoons are not kind to me energy. 
But I'd had the day to stew on the subject, first thinking about trying a Cezanne technique.
Then I thought about even more impressionistic, not quiet pointillism, to get to the nature and light of delicious fruit.
So here you have another no-brush (all sponges), watercolor.

A month of watercolor painting

Here they are, 32 paintings from July, surpassing the 31 daily challenge from #worldwatercolormonth. 
Some favorites, near the bottom, and some not so favorites. There are 32 because I failed one day's challenge--mountain climbing no less. But, I did two roadrunners and two mermaids, and two unicorns. And atoned for the failure by painting the Truchas peaks on Day 30.
For the record, here are the daily challenges. Can you pick them out?

• Sunny Days--July sunrise walker
• Delicious Food--Cezanne apples
• Primary Colors--brushes
• Family Moments--fieworkds
• Shades of blue--ocean
• Simple things--red wagon
• Playing games--abstract chess
• Flying things--witch
• Climbing mountains--oops
• Light and luminous--morning light at house
• Beautiful blooms--not shown, for sale at gallery (Purple creation)
• Forest animals--Unicorn
• Fast and loose--Roadrunner
• Sweet treats--snowcone
• On the beach--Red bikini
• Casting shadows--Trump's swastika
• City life--OKC dawn runner
• In the jungle—Conrad's Heart of Darnkness
• Rainy Days--cabin
• Wet & Dry--Martini
• Glorious golds--unicorn
• Under the sea—mermaid
• Furry creatures—cats
• Mono mood--blue station
• Farm life—panhandle elevators
• Splashing around—sunset surf
• Clouds in sky--thunderhead
• Nature hike—man with cane
• Childhood memory—streetcar
• Exotic location--Truchas, cabin
• Celebration of color--creation

Watercolor Pushing, Cezanne and Color

"Delicious Food" and "Primary Colors." Push yourself, said my wife Susan of the #WorldWatercolorMonth daily challenges for July 2 and 3.

Homage to Cezanne, 5 x 7

Aware of my limitations, cornbread came to mind, but then I thought about apples. But one apple isn't enough and doesn't push. Colored balloons was my other first thought, but that wouldn't push me either.

Don't Brush Me Off, 5 x 7

Apples. Then I thought of my favorite artist, Paul Cezanne, and his revolutionary still lifes. Searching those paintings, I tried to approach his vision and technique. Not quite, but I learned.
Primarily colors--Susan suggested paint brushes. They didn't take long to paint, though I mulled composition and ideas for several disjointed hours yesterday and this morning. 
Tomorrow's prompt is "Family Moments." Gotta think about that. We'll see.

Revelations, perceptions, realities and New Mexico

Morning dreaming of the high road to Truchas, 5" by 6" journal watercolor on back porch

Quiet time revelations after a walk

 in Hafer Park this morning

"Since perception is reality, therefore all art is reality. There are no false views, wrong expressions, when artists put down what they perceive."  -Terry M. Clark

Think about it--yes, some are better at perceiving than others--Mozart, Michelangelo, Cezanne, Picasso, Whitman, Conrad, Twain, Parker, Ansel Adams, McPhee, Prince, Mish, Jake Harms, and millions more in all the arts. Perhaps a few times, Clark?

"Above all, I want to make you see,"--Joseph Conrad. "When I'm on stage, I don't think, I feel,"--Keith Richards.

As an uptight first born journalist I began painting by trying to get every detail photographically right. Some freedom eventually came with more practice, and especially watching my grandchildren paint, for who there are no rules. Looking at early work, or at work now when I'm in a dry spell, I see this morning, that every angle is different, every color is different, every shape is different, depending on how I look at things, and knowing you will see them differently. Why have I not had this insight before on my work--whether watercolor or writing? 

It helps to attend the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts and be bombarded with a multitude of perceptions and realities.

Thus home from the walk to take out my leather bound watercolor journal--art and perceptions of reality in its own right--from Mind's Eye Journals--bought last year, but renewed with a visit at the art show with owner Teresa Merriman and her husband of Colorado. 

The high road to Taos, at Truchas, New Mexico, painted from memory, because that perception, that reality,  is so deep within.

The pages of February

Watching gentle, large flake snowfall out my window this morning, sipping coffee, thinking of travels past and future, I journeyed in other worlds this month, in the pages of eight books, five of them completed, one sampled, one mostly read, and one underway.

Five of the books came from friend Jeanetta Calhoun Mish's Mongrel Empire Press in Norman, poems, short stories and a fictional novel, all with strong Oklahoma roots and subjects. 
The other included Longmire creator Craig Johnson's "Wait for Signs," a collection of short stories, purchased from friend Joe Hight's Best of Books in Edmond.
The books of poetry were "The Walmart Republic," J.L. Jacobs' Streets as Elsewhere," and Carter Revard's, "From the Extinct Volcano-A Bird of Paradise."
"The Long Rifle Season" by James Murray is a bunch of short stories, appropriately titled "Tales," most of them set in southeast Oklahoma, and including a fictional view inside Timothy McVeigh's mind. The fictionalized novel by William Cunningham is "Pretty Boy Floyd."
The seventh book is Natalie Goldberg's "Loving Color--Painting, Writing and the Bones of Seeing." Writer-teacher Goldberg lives in Taos, doing what I dream about, and I bought the book thinking it would be about writing. Instead, it is a book about a writer taking up painting, filled with her art and prompting. I found it has a chapter on Cezanne, my favorite artist, which means it's a must read to complete.
The eighth book was OKC Mayflower UCC church pastor Robin Meyer's book, "Saving Jesus from the Church," a discussion prompt in our Sunday night "Soul Detox" group. He has lots to say about the difference in institutionalized Christianity and what Jesus taught.
Reviews and comments on most of these are coming. The poetry books are the most difficult, as you can see from my previous review of "The Walmart Republic."

          

Me and Moran

Every trip to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art draws me relentlessly to the third floor because of the paintings by famous artists. While Cezanne is my favorite and they don't have one of his--closest is in the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth--I still have some favorites.

There are two Thomas Morans there. Every time I'm there, I have to just sit down on the bench in the middle of the room and drink them in, for the emotions they arouse, for the memories and stories and craft I see in them.

The first is one of his typical scenes of Venice, and the colors are entrancing.

The second is more stunning to me, because it is in black and white, named "Lava flows." Imagine such a painter deciding to paint lava in such a way. To me this is stunning.

In the next room is a portrait by Robert Henri, author of "The Art Sprit" that I always keep nearby at home and read for inspiration.

Then there's Ernest Blumenstein's "New Mexico," that so captures the spirit of my favorite place--from the landscapes to adobe, to the skies, to agriculture, to the religous processions and the Native American. This paint is raw in every way, fitting the Land of Enchantment.

These are the spirits that move me.