Where the Masses Meet is Where the Color Sleeps!

This week has been pretty crazy weather wise, we have had short sleeve shirt (in the sun) weather and yesterday I had snow landing on my palette.... For the most part spring has sprung in Maine and the grass is getting greener (finally!) .

I have decided that just one last gray scale comparison will do it this week and thought it was a good one to do this with, here's why. The colors are what some would call "crazy" or "Imaginative" I see these colors as fine comparisons of warm/cool and lighter/darker but you can judge for yourself. Either way it works in the gray scale and proves a point that a value is only a light or a dark in comparison to the value next to it.. If you took the unlit side of the building in this piece and made a sample chip to hold up to other paintings you would see that it could be a "Light", in this one it works as "in shadow. This piece was painted at Cozy Harbor in Boothbay, its 8x10.

The top piece is from a day up on Mount Battie here in Camden Maine. It was a day of on and off rain, this one is when the rain clouds left for the day. I am not sure why the top left of the image looks dirty??? In real life it is clean color. This piece is a 20x16.

Quote" "I have observed a number of works which actually lead one to assume that certain people's eyes show them things differently from the way they really are ... who perceive - or as they would doubtless say 'experience' - the meadows as blue, the sky as green, the clouds as sulphurous yellow, and so on ... I wish to prohibit such unfortunates, who clearly suffer from defective vision, from trying to foist the products of their faulty observation on to their fellow men as though they were realities, or indeed from dishing them up as 'art'."Adolf Hitler, 1937.

there.. do you really wanna have to the same opinions on color as that guy????

"The craving for colour is a natural necessity just as for water and fire. Colour is a raw material indispensable to life. At every era of his existence and his history, the human being has associated colour with his joys, his actions and his pleasures."-- Frenand Leger, "On Monumentality and Color", 1943.

I'm guessing these two didn't share a six pack.. LOL.. thanks for stopping by, Dan

Values..... what have you done to me?...

OK the title is a little dramatic... Here are some more images in both Color and black and white. Please let me know what you think of these in comparison of the B+W versus the Color. Also let me know if these comparisons are affecting any your work and helping you keep values on the front of your mind, I would love to hear the feedback.

Images from top to bottom, 12x16, 8x10, 6x8.

Quote: "…As I understand it, we of course agree perfectly about black in nature. Absolute black does not really exist. But like white, it is present in almost every color, and forms the endless variety of grays -- different in tone and strength. So that in nature one really sees nothing else but those tones or shades. " Van Gogh..

A Month and A Day

Wheeew it has been a month and a day since my last post... First off I would like to dispel any rumors that my blog is closing down and that I joined the peace corps or taken an apprenticeship with Ravi Shankar... In all honesty I have been working real hard on accessing where I am with my painting and what I need to work on to move forward.
What I have come up with is Values... I have always been pushing colors as far as I can and as a result my work has always stayed towards the middle of the road value wise. The side effect of this mid value bias is less impact visually and can sometimes (OK alot of the time) lull you to mental sleep.. Don't get me wrong I feel that a near white mid tone and almost black value scheme is the absolute worst. The lack of mid tone finesse can push away even the greenest of viewers on to the next image. So here is a collection of a few pieces in Color and Black + White. Let me know which ones you think worked out better or worse and if the value patterns seem too busy.... I think that's my next focus



I also would love to hear how the photos are looking compared to before, the bottom one is one I have had a few "re photo" requests for, so here it is.



Two Quote Tuesday. Both Paul Cezanne.



Quote: "Painting is damned difficult ... you always think you've got it, but you haven't."



Quote2: "I want to die painting."

Yesterday

HI all! here is a 20x24" I did recently from one of my new favorite locations. I would love to ramble here but the suns out and its above (slightly) freezing here in Bristol ME, my palette is loaded (and filling the house with the great smell of linseed oil) so I'm heading out to paint. thanks for stopping by.

Quote:”An artist is not paid for his labour but for his vision.” --. James McNeil Whistler.

Creative Convergence Opening Feb 12th & 13th

This Friday and Saturday (Feb 12th and 13th) are the two Receptions for the Creative Convergence painting trip I was part of this past fall. Friday will be at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, and Saturday will be at the Addison Art Gallery, both in Orleans MA. So plan on being there... I heard there may be Margaritas........?...

Also check out this months Issue of American Art Collector (issue #52) , there is coverage of the trip and a bunch of photos of the guys and their paintings. (If you look real close on page 123 on the bottom right of the bottom right photo you cans see my tripod and a glimpse of my left hand.) I still don't believe I was able to be part of such an experience.... I've said it a couple times but THANK YOU! to all the 14 other guys on this trip for making me feel welcome and especially Frank Gardner his wife Juli for making Mexico feel like home. See you at the Opening!

Quote: “I never decided at all to be an artist; being an artist seems to have happened to me.”Anne Truitt

Quote #2 (bonus!) "The painter makes real to others his innermost feelings about all that he cares for. A secret becomes known to everyone who views the picture through the intensity with which it is felt."Lucien Freud.

sizes of these pieces are in order top to bottom, 11x14, 6x8,8x10, 8x10.

TideMark Gallery Two Man Show

This Saturday is the reception for the two man show at Tidemark Gallery in Waldoboro ME, titled "Ralph Bush and Daniel Corey Paint Monhegan". Ralph's work is great example of what a loaded brush and knowing how to use can do for a strong composition. (Ralph, Great work!)

Our paths crossed there for about two weeks this past summer at the end of my residency. Even though we didn't exactly paint together, the Island is small enough that many ways you are always painting together. I am honored to be in a show with Ralph and back to the Tidemark, (home of my first one man show) Thank you for having me back!

This piece is a 24x36 of Fish Beach and is my first studio piece of the New Year and the paint is THICK in spots, definitely had fun painting this one. If your in the area swing into The Tidemark this Saturday the 6th, between 5-7 pm and check it out.

Quote:"Doubtless there are things in nature which have not yet been seen. If an artist discovers them, he opens the way for his successors. If I have left something unsaid, they will say it." Paul Cezanne

Better Photos?

One of the things with this blog that I have been working on (and working on) has been my photos. To be completely honest I have put off many a post due to frustration with the pics. I finally feel like I have got something that is good enough for you you to click on and see some of the brushwork and it "shouldn't" look like crayon soup. please let me know how they look and if you think its an improvement.

The top painting is of the "Galley Wagon" in Rockland ME and the bottom is another self-portrait from the end of the year. If you are interested in "Galley Wagon or any others on here, feel free to contact me.

Quote: "What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough." Eugene Delacroix