What's shakin’ at Rodzart 10-24-2009

Hi Folks. I hope everyone has had a good week.

Well, happy-happy joy-joy I actually did get two paintings finished last week, with
one more still drying. The first one is Composition 958:

This painting actually started out to be the image for our Christmas cards, but it
sorta went astray.
The other is a threesome:

which should be obvious when you look at it.

I want to add a farewell to Soupy Sales, who left us this week. Most of you probably have
no idea who he was, or who “Whitefang” and “Blacktooth” are, and that's too bad.
I remember “Breakfast with Soupy” many mornings before school. The world will be lesser
for the lack of the Soupy Shuffle.

Last week I said I'd talk a little about how I compose a painting, so here we go.

Most of the time my paintings are planned in advance. A good example of that would be
“Expression 923”
which I did last summer. First I decided that this would be a horizontally oriented
(Landscape) painting on a rectangular canvas. The next choice was very easy since
the only rectangular canvas I had was 16 X 20. These days incidentally, I'm trying
to go to 18 X 24 when I can.

OK, now that I've got a canvas, what background tone do I want. In this case I chose to
go with a gray canvas, as opposed to say a black or a white canvas, since I wanted
to have some contrast with the colors I used in the painting.

The painting I had in mind was what I call a line painting, since its made by building up a
pattern of lines of paint. You can call it drip, dribble, splat to whatever.
From that point the application of the paint was simply a matter of applying the colors
I'd planned on in the correct sequence in order to get the effect I wanted.

Of course, not every painting goes as planned. That's when you have to make the choice of
going with the painting, or tossing it out and starting over. Personally I do both on a
pretty regular basis.

So, that's how it's done. It's not exactly rocket science, but it's not as easy
as it sounds either.

That's about it for this week folks, maybe next week I'll give you my chili recipe,
or maybe not.


He ’s some links to remember:

For original paintings, just email me at info@rodzart.com
For original paintings sold at auction go to:
http://www.artbyus.com/auctions.php?a=6&b=85

Original works on paper can also be purchased at:
http://rodzart.etsy.com

I’m also on Twitter [link],
Myspace [link] and
Facebook [link]


I hope everyone has a peaceful and prosperous week.

Thanks!!

Rod