Salt Beach

I started this painting on Memorial Day and finished it tonight in the Reuters group.

The reference is from Stranded Deep, a wonderful game I got back into lately.
9x12 pastel on (yellow ochre) Richeson.

The color in this panting was actually quite difficult and I didn't get it exactly the way I intended, although it still works.

This is the ref:

It is very, very grey and I was going for that greyed-down look.

That's what drew me to this particular image.

My painting is much higher chroma, even though there is still a surprising amount of grey in there.

I used a very large palette range for it.

I'm actually wondering if it would be easier to get the color I wanted in oils since it's so easy to knock down the chroma by adding black. Pastels by nature are very glowy. 

                         

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A few rambly words on reference....

I have a weird mental hangup.

What I mean is.....

When I don't work from life, I use photo reference like everyone else.

But I'm extremely picky about it.

It must be my original composition, and with rare exception, also has to be my photo.

This reference is from the game Stranded Deep.

Is a game screenshot the same as me taking my own photo from life?

Because it is from a more "filtered" and pre-processed/stylized environment than a photo directly from life.

However- I approach a game screenshot the same way, I look for a good composition, lighting, etc.

There is nothing random about it.  I also changed the sky for better comp. (This is where training in working from life really kicks in, and I have plein air painted on beaches.)

There is so much work that goes on behind that photo.

There is a lot of thinking comsidering and problem-solving that goes into it- for this painting I really had to be mindful of perspective and composition, it's never a matter of copying something straight. 

Even in nature we often have to fix stuff.

Maybe it is a little bit of a grey area, or maybe I just have a weird mental hangup.

Sometimes I discount it to myself. Like the painting isn't as valid or something.

Like it's of less value.  That's the right phrase.

Isn't that stupid?

I know it is and yet I still do it.

But I do think a game screenshot is definitely more originally "mine" than using someone else's photo!! However artificial the environment is, I'm still looking at it through my own unique viewpoint.

Aesthetics of Painting and Photography

These are just some thoughts that are my own opinion and perspective as a painter about painting and photography, why they are different, and why no one seems to know they are different.

They are both art forms, but they are different media and not necessarily interchangeable.

If you don't believe me, ask yourself "Why is it so hard to photograph a painting?"
Because we all know it is.
Because a camera can't get everything.

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A good photograph does not necessarily translate into a good painting.
This is something that people learning to paint from photographs often discover the hard way.

The other day on Facebook someone posted a photo as reference for a portrait commission, asking for advice.  It was a very nice professional photograph, and it would make a terrible painting.

This situation is so common.

WHY?
* Lighting.  Lighting in a painting is so important, most especially in a portrait.  You want good lights and good shadows.  A well-done professional portrait photograph is fully lit from all angles.  This is great for photography and awful for painting.

*Composition: As a painter we really have to think about what makes up a good composition. It needs a focal point, it needs shadow and light, it needs to convey something unique. A snapshot where you can see someone's face is just that- a snapshot.  A painting wants to be more than that.

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Paint can do things photography cannot do.
When working from photographs, information is lost. A camera has one eye and so we have to know about and correct lens distortion.  Additionally, a painter must choose what to focus on and a lot of that is done in edges.  Paint can capture subtle details that one generally does not see in photography.

Look at these paintings, none are mine.

Katherine Stone

She is so good it is sick.

This is representational painting at its finest.

This is painting aesthetic, this is what paint does.

Anna Rose Bain

She is also so good it is sick.

I don't think a camera could ever replicate her work.

Jeremy Lipking

IMHO Jeremy Lipking is one of the top 5 greatest living painters.

I have had the pleasure of seeing Jeremy Lipking's work in person, and I assure you, it is drop-dead amazing in a way that no photograph of his paintings can ever convey.

And his work is photographed by the best of the best.  It comes close but the real thing just blows you away.

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Your painting looks like a photograph!

Painters don't really say this to each other. People who don't really understand painting say it, and it is a nice compliment, well-intended and appreciated, but if another painter said this to me I would think something was wrong with my painting.

WHY?

Because the intention of most representational painting is not to look like a photograph.

The intention is to look like real life.

That's why we work from life. That's why we observe so closely.

That's why we study.

A photograph is the interpretation of real life through a camera lens.

A painting is the interpretation and representation of the real world through the human eye.

It is more direct.

The skill set needed to create the painting is much different.than a photographer's skill set.

Have you ever said to a musician playing live music, "Wow, you sound just like a recording!" ?

Probably not, and this is the best way I know of to sum up why "It looks like a photograph!" is....., well, I love when people like my work, and I truly appreciate when people make the effort to compliment, but if you really want to appreciate a painter's work, maybe leave photography out of it.

A photograph is NOT the highest attainable standard to represent the real world.

The real world itself is.

A good representational painting does strive to be lifelike- as compared to the real world, not a photograph.  Even if we do use a photo reference....believe me, all that working from life practice and training gets used.  I can tell, for the most part, when someone has faithfully rendered a photograph and they have never worked from life. It .... looks like a photograph....and in this context that's not really a good thing because they have copied all the errors the photograph may have had, and the lighting is flat.

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So this is a bit long and congrats if you made it to the end.

Truly, nothing makes me happier than making someone else happy with my work.  And it is always good to be gracious and accept a well-intended compliment for what it is.  But now you have some insight into the mind of a painter who would never say that to another painter, and why.

Hudson Wetlands

Yesterday Dru and I went to the nature conservancy. The weather could not have been more perfect. 

There are natural protected wetlands there and i made a little painting of them. 

8x10 pastel on richeson sanded paper. I used some Diane Townsends i just got at Sketch and my new Sennelier plein air set. 

There were hay bales in the fields and I could not help thinking about our friend Claude Monet. 

A Thursday in NYC

My co-worker and I took a long lunch and went to the Museum of Ice Cream downtown by the High Line. We booked our tickets almost a month in advance...it is completely sold out and closes on Sept 11.  I hope they open next year because I would like to take Daya.  The ice cream museum was $20 but sooo worth it.  Really.

There were edible balloons filled with helium.

The very handsome Door Keeper to the Chocolate Chamber.

If you ever get the opportunity to go into a Sprinkle Pool, DO IT.

Sprinkle Pool sponsored

by Dylan's 

Which is a fun place but always too crowded

I didn't understand the 3 persons occupancy since there were about 15 of us in there.

Nicole and Me

In the next room we got to try that berry from Africa which turns your bitter taste buds into sweet taste buds. We then got purple and white ice cream cones with a lemon.

The straight lemon tasted EXACTLY like the most perfect lemonade you could ever dream of.

In fact, lemonade might be ruined for me now.

We walked a little bit on the High Line and got off at 14th St because it started raining.

Storm Clouds over New Jersey

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Later in the evening I went out for a bit with Rob.
We went over to the Brooklyn Bridge Park which is fairly new.
I hadn't been there since the pre-park days.

It is just lovely, and nature treated us to a glorious sunset.

Manhattan Skyline from the Kosciuszko Bridge 

(pronounced Koz-ee-ah-sko)

Lower Manhattan

Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan

Statue of Liberty

There is a little supercute beach! I know they must have tested the water but I'm still not sure about touching the East River...though the ocean life is coming back and apparently we have whales close by again.

Supercute Beach

Panorama from Statue of Liberty to Brooklyn Bridge

How is it Monday? (PRT)

I'm so bad... I still haven't finished Mad Tornado.  I'm sorry Carey. :(

Yesterday I had a lovely day up at Oyster Bay on Long Island.
Beautiful clouds, beautiful water, and lovely company.

This is probably the *fingers crossed* nicest PRT I have had in....maybe forever.
I'm in a transition, so is Daya. I am transitioning out of the last 10 1/2 years.

The Little Kid Days are over. I am SO relieved, and that's probably not a "normal" perspective...but it has been so brutal on so many levels and I NEED to transition out. My experience and circumstance has not been a "normal" one so maybe it makes sense. I have been so alone and running on way-beyond-empty for so long. I'm numbed out. That is not good.

There are things about myself I'm not sure about that I need to find out.
I don't know if I have been too sanded-down from years and years of abrasive days and so much personal loss to the point where I don't know what is just normal growth and good evolution, or if I have gone through too much erosion.

It's kind of like I don't know what condition I am in, and I need to look at myself in a different light- in the light of change- in order to assess and evaluate. What is polished and what is worn away, and whether that is a good thing or not.

I need to find out.
It will take time.

Anyhow, Oyster Bay was lovely and there were swans.  I would love to go there and paint.
I deeply love the water and I never again want to live somewhere inland with no water, especially the ocean, close by. And the Hudson River.

My Cat Lucky

This is Lucky and he is my cat.
He lives with Branwen, but he is still my cat.
He has a thyroid problem, and no teeth.

Apparently he is a finicky eater but he sure eats everything *I* give him.  I even shared my matcha cream puff with him.

Anyhow he is my cat and I don't care what anyone else has to say about it.

A Small Old Cemetery

People think I'm a bit odd because I absolutely love cemeteries. The older the better. There is so much history, beauty, and serenity.

We went with Branwen to a small old cemetery in Clinton NJ. The oldest dates were from the mid 1700s, and the latest date we found was 2004.

There were Revolutionary War veterans, Civil War veterans, WW1 veterans, and WW2 veterans.

I love the history.  I like to think about these people and their lives.