A Unicorn for Elin

~13x15 in.  Coffee and ink on watercolor paper

My second, and dare I say more successful, attempt at painting with coffee.  I painted this for Elin muuuuch earlier this year, and I just got around to getting it matted and framed.  I found the frame (oak, with a nice finish) a long time ago...either on a curb, or in a dumpster.   Apparently they were all the rage in the latter half of the 20th century, according to the folks at the local frame shop.

ArtPrize 2013 Entry

"A Triptych of Icons"

Venue: Monroe Community Church (800 Monroe Ave. NW)

16" x 20"
watercolor and ink on Arches hot press paper

Artist Statement:  

“A Triptych of Icons” is a brief glimpse of a larger, as-yet unimagined, story.  The characters, settings, and the larger world they inhabit are presented here without any context, save what the viewer chooses to create for them.  I have some vague, ill-formed notions about what the larger narrative behind these pieces might be, but I present this little snapshot with the hope that viewers can wonder and create stories for themselves.

The vibrant colors and intricate patterns are meant to resonate with familiar, perhaps nostalgic ideas of beauty, while the grim, surreal elements of the iconography are meant to be a bit unsettling.  Hopefully, the overall effect compels people to linger just a moment longer as they attempt to reconcile the seemingly contradictory impressions.  

My first goal is to show people something new.  Beyond that, I would like for viewers to see something they can appreciate as being beautiful and imaginative, but that also challenges and knocks them off balance just a little.  Hopefully the experience enriches folks, and a small piece of it can persist in some dark, beautiful corner of their memory.

Art in the Park - Tecumseh, MI

 This event was brought to my attentions by a post on the Facebooks earlier in the spring.  I applied for a spot despite my reservations about having to pay a $100 booth-fee if accepted.  Happily, after the first day, I find myself comfortably in the black.  The community seems really supportive, and the attendance yesterday was great.    

 The organizers at Community Arts of Tecumseh are totally killing it with this event (their first).  The location is perfect, the event promotion was very strong, they've been really supportive, and the weather has been gorgeous.  I give them credit for all four.  I'm looking forward to spending one more day in the park and would love the opportunity to come back next year.

Can you spot 5 skydivers and one airplane?

One of the unexpected perks has been watching skydivers drift earthward all afternoon.  The park is adjacent to Skydive Tecumseh, and they must have been BUSY yesterday.  There were planes taking off constantly flying just overhead.  And then, a few minutes later, we could see little black dots against the clouds and blue sky.  Those dots grew larger, until we could clearly see parachutes with people (probably pooping their pants) dangling beneath.  

Oil pastels

I can honestly say I haven't used oil pastels since graduating from high school.  I kinda fell in love with the things in my mid-late teen years because they were easy, fast, and the colors were incredibly vibrant (wait...we're still talking about pastels, right?).  Then I stopped, for some reason, and pretty much stuck to watercolor for the past 10 years or so.

Well, yesterday I broke out a set of Holbein pastels I bought a couple years ago (but had yet to use), and did this:

Goliath and the Shepherd  (16" x 20")

It was a blast to get back into these soft, oily crayons.  Also, it was pretty cool to be able to start and finish a piece on the same day...which almost never happens with aquarelle.  The background is a watercolor wash with white pastel over.  It's so nice to not have to worry about washes bleeding into finished areas...it's almost like oil and water don't mix.

There are definitely some things about this piece that need work, but it felt great to get re-acquainted an old flame from those halcyon days of youth.

Bloodbloodbloodbloodbloodblood..

A couple more of these guys

A unicorn standing next to a tower

A unicorn partially concealed beneath a decorative rug

From OK, to bad, to meh.

You may remember this guy from awhile back:  

 

Through no fault of his own, he was forced to mutate into this:

...and this week, finally turned into this:

And that's it.  I'm done tinkering with this mouth-breathing bear and his stupid border.

Ruth Triptych

Here is my first completed commission of 2013.  The subject was Ruth, from the eponymous book of the Old Testament, and it was a birthday gift for my brother-in-law's aunt.  I'm told aunt Ruth liked her present.  Score.

16" x 20" Watercolor, ink

The polyhedron in the right panel was a new element for me and was a lot of fun to research and toy with; I'd like to explore these geometric forms further, for sure.  Also, the coils and spirals at the tops and bottoms of the three panels were a new (and time consuming!) challenge.
The large black background in the center panel owes more to the fickle gods of fluke than any sort of skill or planning on my part.  I had no idea what to with that large space and, in the end, decided to make it all green.

Weeeeeeell, it looked like crap.

Then, I decided to add some textural elements using India ink.

It looked worse.

Finally, I just doubled-down and decided to black it all in...I needed to drink a beer before I could bring myself to do it.  I think it turned-out alright, and the contrast with the Hebrew text is just what I was shooting for.

Unicorns are the new bears

It was a pretty productive first full week of 2013.  My energies have mainly been focused on starting/finishing a commission I received late last year (pics to follow).  However, during the down-times on that piece (waiting for washes to dry, planning next moves, etc.), I've been exploring a theme I began sketching while on a flight shortly after the New Year.  Here are the first three pieces of what is perhaps shaping-up to be my Unicorn Cycle (my unicycle?).

A Unicorn Wasting

A unicorn in Iceland (Einhyrningur)

A Unicorn Run-Through by an Angel of the Lord

All pieces were done on 14" x 10" Cotman watercolor block (140 lbs cold-pressed).  I grabbed a few of these blocks when my favorite local art shop was liquidating its inventory.  Excellent paper!

Product Review: Factis Tri-42 Eraser

Whilst in Vienna Elin, Tryggvi, and I took a trip to an art supply mega store called Boesner.  They had it ALL.  Knowing full-well I'd have to pack all my purchases into my already-hefty luggage, I showed some restraint in my shopping.  I snagged some sketchbooks, a pencil sharpener, and a couple erasers.  It's the erasers I'd like to talk about right now, in a first-ever product review on this blog(!).  

Factis has come out with a real game-changer, here: the Tri-42.  It's never been so easy, or such a joy, to vanish one's mistakes.  The hardness checks in at a relatively soft 42 degrees shore A, but this baby is all business when push comes to rub.  I'm usually not one for the fancy bells-and-whistles, but the rounded corners on this thing (three, by my count) allow for a degree of precision and control hitherto unknown by this humble artist.  The action on the soft rubber is silky smooth with excellent absorption and no skipping or smearing.  The grit clears easily from both drawing surface and semi-moist hands.

Seen here with rubber of lesser repute.

Pros: The most fun you can have with a scalene triangle with your clothes on.
Cons: you'll probably have to go to Europe to get them.  Or have the internet.    

A pilgrimage to Hütteldorf

Over the past decade I've had a few artists that were major sources of inspiration or admiration: Jacek Yerka, Zdzislaw Beksinski, Stephen Doitschinoff, and Ivan Bilibin.  These artists have influenced me in various ways, both consciously and subconsciously, I'm sure.  My current fascination, however, is with a Viennese master: Ernst Fuchs.

Like any proper hero, this one has a sword.

I've known of Fuchs for as long as I've known of any of the other surrealists, but never truly appreciated his works until a few years ago, during a chilly day in February at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art.  My girlfriend and I were taking a break from touring the galleries and sat down in the library for a moment.  Here, on a whim, I pulled an enormous tome off the shelf with a name I was vaguely familiar with, but had never really explored: Ernst Fuchs.  I was instantly drawn to Fuch's unique style: bold colors and forms, flashes of the Old Masters combined with a new surrealism, and rich symbolism.  

I've since bought that book (which was, at $125, the most I've ever spent on a single volume) and one other.  The latter having been signed, to me, by the man himself.  In Vienna.

While on vacation in Vienna last December, my girlfriend, her father, and I made a trip to the outskirts of Vienna to the Ernst Fuchs museum (website).  I'd never been to a more impressive museum.  The building itself is an architectural treasure designed by Otto Wagner and also serves as Fuch's personal residence.  The three of us had the place to ourselves on a cold, rainy December 22nd.

   

Fuch's artistry and meticulous attention to detail can be seen everywhere

wallpaper and furniture, all designed by the artist

"Daedalus/Perseus and the Nymph" - a current favorite, despite titular inconsistencies

He definitely seems to be an ass-man.  Respect.

The museum's floors are carpeted and many of the works are lit by table lamps which makes for a very intimate experience.  Through a door to the living space, I could hear some talk.  Ernst Fuchs is 82 years old and had just undergone surgery (heart, if I remember correctly), so obviously he was not entertaining guests.  Still, he managed to scribble out a small message in a book, in German, for an admirer who had come all the way from Michigan.

Leopold Museum!

It was a pretty cold day.

Robb goes to Austria

I was blessed with the opportunity to spend Christmas and New Year in Vienna with Elin's family.  Sixteen days immersed in such rich history and culture, under the care of two extremely generous and creative hosts, it is really no surprise that I came back from the holidays feeling invigorated and inspired.  I actually couldn't even wait until I got home to begin...I managed to fill some pages of my newly purchased sketchbook during the flights back to Michigan.

Tryggvi, my girlfriend's father and an avid artist himself, gave me some really excellent art materials for Christmas.  I did a 4-part series over the course of my stay that summarizes, to a large degree, the entirety of my stay (although they might seem a bit odd without the proper context).

I did these using watercolor pencils and a Pentel waterbrush on a watercolor block.  I'd never used the pencils or the waterbrush before, but they definitely started to grow on me.

The waterbrush and a small aquarelle travel kit

My girlfriend's parents also have an impressive collection of books on a broad range of subjects relating to art, so I drew further inspiration from them.  I've tried to be more aware of my use of color and light in these little paintings and, despite the challenges of working with a new medium, I can't help but smile when I look at them.