Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

BFFs

Best Friends Forever… Katya and Colin.

8″ x 8″ (20 x 20 cm) oil on gessobord panel. To bid on this painting click here.

In spite her youthful appearance Katya is an old gal. She is 19, almost 20. We all remember vividly how Katya came to live with us. That summer Shelly was 3 and had to go see her doctor for a checkup. For some unfathomable or since forgotten reason the doc decided that Shelly’s ears needed to be washed inside with warm water applied from a large syringe. Shelly took exception to the proceedings. Her wailing could have drowned an ambulance siren. She was still voicing her objections and indignation when we left the torture chamber, I mean – the doctor’s office, and got in a car. Instead of going home I drove straight to Toys-R-Us. Grandma and I knew that we found a soul mate as soon as we saw Katya. The drama and tears stopped in an instant, and Shelly was smiling. Katya lived with us ever since and helped us through many illnesses and medical procedures.

Colin came much later. My memory of Shelly’s early teen years is fairly vague. I understand that the psyche does this for a reason, for our own benefit some things better remain obscured and misted over. I don’t object. But at some point during those fog clouded years Colin arrived and took a place of honor on the bed, next to Katya and Francisco.

Oh, should I tell you about Francisco? Later, perhaps… when I paint him.

Memory Blocks III

A new installment for my Memory Blocks series. This time it is with my mom’s portrait at the age of 5.

8″ x 8″ (20 x 20 cm) oil on gessobord panel. To bid on this painting click here.

I’ve found interesting articles about photorealism and hyperrealism on Wikipedia:
Photorealism
Hyperrealism.

While the articles are very informative, with lots of links, examples and images, they didn’t articulate clearly the difference between the two styles. Seeing that the terms are often used interchangeably I wanted to define the deference for myself. Here’s what I came up with:

The beginnings of Photorealism are placed at 1960 – 1970. It is a method of painting that uses a photograph as a reference and takes this reference literally. The painted image is extremely well defined and detailed. All information available about the subject is rendered in the painting. The rendering is tight and very accurate. Emotional processing and creating of a narrative are left to the viewer’s imagination.

It was clear from the articles above that Hyperrealism as a genre has originated in Photorealism at about 2000. In difference to its originating genre Hyperrealism takes the image to a surreal plain to some extent. The painter paints everything he or she sees to the maximum degree of accuracy that the skill and medium allows… and then the artist takes the image further, creating more clarity and definition than the reference had. For example, if some details were dimmed in a shadow or bleached in a strong light, the artist reinvents them and puts them in. The resulting image simulates a reality that did not exist and crosses into the territory of illusion.

Clarity

As if one empty head was not enough, I got myself another. I came across this glass mannequin head – which is supposed to be a hat holder – in Pier I and had to have it. And paint it. I hear “two heads are better than one” everywhere, so maybe there is hope.

The glass head is life size, and I paired it with a stack of old books – the ultimate clarity. I couldn’t resist the distortions and play of light the glass creates. The title – Clarity – is of course a play of words and a bit of a mockery: the resulting painting, while rendered in realistic tradition, contains surprisingly abstract shapes and patterns.

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) oil on gessobord panel. To participate in an auction and perhaps acquire an empty head for yourself – click here.

Singer - SOLD

I had this magnificent old Singer forever. So long that I don’t even remember where it came from. I think I found it in the basement of the house I bought 20 years ago, but i can’t be certain. The house is long sold and forgotten, but I kept the sewing machine – what an amazing piece of design! They literally don’t make them like this any more.

This particular Singer numbered G9848954 – Model 127 “vibrating shuttle”(long bobbin) – was built in USA between 1921 and 1923 according to the records meticulously kept by Singer Manufacturing Co. Probably closer to the end of the range judging by its number. The machine still works, but I have a new contemporary electric Singer for what little sewing I do these days. This one is to admire and paint.  A piece of history.

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) oil on gessobord panel.