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Greetings, 

 

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.  Yup, it's still winter in Jefferson.  Last week we got about 5 inches of snow, and no, this is NOT a weather report.  It's more of a commentary on winter.  An opinionated commentary.  

 

See, we have this problem around here, I'm not sure I was made to handle winter.  When I was a kid I don't think it was such an issue, but now that I know better - give me that summer sun!

 

When winter starts to show it's big cold presence, I go into full dress regalia.  I own a really great collection of turtlenecks and sweaters.  I often catch myself wondering, when I see other people out in the world during the winter months, with exposed skin.  No matter the amount of exposed, I inwardly shudder as I think, "whoa, that's got to be so uncomfortable".  Unpleasant. Chill unwanted.  

 

I am ALL OVER the layered look.  All about sweaters over turtlenecks, hoods over headwarmers, sweatpants over running pants.  I like warm, 'nuff said.

 

Surely by now, you all know this blog always takes the story line back to painting-land.  Well, surprise!  This layered line of thinking actually came from painting land.  I was at the easel, self-marveling at the number of layers of paint on the canvas du jour.  May I say they are becoming lovely?  And so, we really need to talk a moment about the layered look on a painting, a piece of canvas.

 

What is it about the build up of paint layers that is so enticing?  The brush strokes, undoubtedly, and surely the impasto touches that grow the textural feel.  Then there's that happiness where you can see dabs of the previous color layer, and maybe even the one before that, showing through, gleaming like the gems they are.  And then, don't deny it, there is a richness there in those multiple layers - how can you put down a layer of cad yellow, cover it with violet, and still feel the warmth?  Amazing, truly amazing.

 

The layered look.  It's even better on your painting, than a sweater over a turtleneck in a Jefferson, Iowa winter.  Thanks for stopping by.

 

Later, Cooper

 

 

 

and the updated image of the aforementioned canvas?  But of course:

 

  still on the easel but progress is happening - oh, and some insider info:  in my head & mental vision, she's already pushing a bike.  You'll get that visual reality soon :)

Greetings,

 

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa, where it is a beautiful day, I might add, despite being winter!  Beautiful enough, that I think we should talk about artistic vision.  Or the vision of the artist, whichever way you want to say it.

 

But let's begin at the beginning--it is my job to let you know where this is coming from, right?  I'm fairly sure I've told you about Jefferson, Iowa before.  It's one of those little midwestern towns that's just pretty comfortable in its own skin.  While the city fathers would no doubt like for Jefferson to be called a city, it's really just a town, plain and simple.  About 5,000 people, all pretty laid back in attitude, or so it seems.  No big deal when someone decides to load their pooch into the truck and drive uptown for coffee.

 

Now we're getting to the part about artistic vision.  Mine, specifically.  If someone loads their little yapper dog, or their little puff-ball dog into the front seat of the family auto, it just really doesn't do much for me, artistic-vision speaking.  On the other hand if someone drives the square of downtown Jefferson, with their hound dog riding shotgun, well, that's a different story.  You understand what I mean about hound dog, don't you?  Saggy, baggy eyes.  Big floppy ears.  Drool-slobber.  Slobber-drool.  If it's summer and the passenger side window is open, you know it's all hanging out there.

 

Can any of us help but grin at a sight like that?  I find I tend to mentally catalog images of that sort.  I remember them, but just for the enjoyment of it.  A beautiful landscape, something in the "waterfall falling off the side of a mountain in Colorado" status, goes in the same mental file.  Quite often, beautiful flowers will end up there as well.  It's a file of images I totally enjoy, but don't have to take any further than that.  Just enjoy.

 

As an artist that loves to paint beautiful things, you'd think I'd be right on top of those images with my paint brush, wouldn't you?  Surely each artist amongst us has a built-in attention meter that zings into overdrive when some vision out in the world captures our attention, the kind that makes us frantic if we don't have the sketchbook or camera handy.  The kind of vision that we automatically know will end up on a canvas in our studio someday.

 

Possibly by looking at my portfolio, you will have guessed the integral factor required for a sight out there in the world to trip my attention-meter.  People.  They don't have to be famous, or beautiful.  Fast or slow.  Tall or short.  In fact, I would say I'm not too picky at all.  [Oh wait, don't ask me to paint your NASCAR driver :)]  Is it the challenge?  People know when they look at a painting of other humans, if it's done right.  There's grace and balance there, and what an aha! moment it is when the paint brush finds it.  And what a never ending source of inspiration there is hanging out on the sidewalks of the world!

 

But back to that hound dog riding shotgun that I saw this morning.  I would say dogs don't normally trip my artist-attention-o-meter, but did I mention that this morning's traveler riding shotgun had a "matching" driver?  Pooch and owner look-alikes!  Don't you just love when that happens?   Now that could be a good enough story for a painting....

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Later, Cooper

 

 

 

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.  The rain is gently falling in Jefferson right now. 

BUT.  Let's talk about Art Weather.  My husband called from his office in Ralston, Iowa, just west of Jefferson.  "Karen, if you love your garden, you're going to go cover it quick.  Ralston is getting pounded with hail and it's headed your way"  Lovely.  I whip out of my jammies and into my play (ha) clothes.  Running through the garage I upend both recycling bins.  Too bad about the recycling all over the garage floor, but the bins are the perfect size to cover two tomato plants.  At this moment,  I  have lawn chairs parked over the basil and an eggplant.  A step stool is parked over the next spinach salad.  Five gallon buckets are upside down over two Hungarian hot wax pepper plants.  We only have one sweet pepper plant---it's hiding under an old metal pot.  And how on earth does this relate to art???

This morning harkens me back to an earlier time....   Oh, wait, it was actually just six days ago.  Hinsdale Art Festival, Hinsdale, Illinois.  Yours truely was exhibitor #140, a lovely setting in a lovely park.  I arrived early, got set up, and it all looked beautiful. 

About this same time of the morning, here come the people in charge with the bad weather report.  (Karen, if you love your garden, er, I mean, art---)  So, up goes the adrenaline level, down go the zippers on the Ezup walls.  The brunt of the storm slides to the northwest and the show continues, until  about 4pm when a policeman walks by with the same information, second verse.  Close enough to the end of the show day, this time the paintings go into the car, along with the propanels, etc.  It would be hard to have a good second day of the show without them, right?  Have I mentioned that putting an entire exhibit onto a cart and pushing it to the car parked over in the parking lot, (multiple trips) and loading it into the car is not an easy task?  For the Sunday portion of the art show, I had to repeat all of that, minus the storm warnings.  Yay for that little detail.  If you are thinking about trying on the art fair exhibitor hat, consider yourself warned, it's not as easy as it looks.  And bad weather makes it even harder. 

So it wasn't great Art Weather last weekend, but we survived, as did the art.  Oh, and garden update---the hail all got dropped west of here, my garden is happily soggy only. Now, I need to go pick up the recycling off the garage floor, resort it and get it back in the bins, collect all the other buckets and tubs and get them put away.  What we won't do for what we love, right? 

It makes me think about the class I just started, "Painting the figure" at the DesMoines art center.  The DesMoines art center is a good hour15min drive from Jefferson, probably too far to drive for an art class, and makes getting home after a pretty late event.  But what is art, if you are not always being the student, right?---working at it, always moving it forward?  And so I go.  What we won't do for what we love, huh?

Later, Cooper

 

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa.  I have determined today's discussion will focus on body parts.  This is NOT because I skipped my morning run today.  Do I have an excuse and is it valid?  Yes.  It's cold, gray, and the wind is blowing 739 miles per hour.  Or there abouts.  If it was only gray and cold, I'd have covered it, but the wind,  that's just insulting.  And besides, the next two mornings are supposed to be fabulous, according to Jeriann on Channel 13.  Catch up time then.

You might have noticed that title up there, "Eyes, Nope"  But, yup, everybody has a couple.  There's a phrase that mentions eyes are the window to the soul, and I guess that's pretty important  But let's put them in the context of a painting.  After all, that is what we do around here.  I haven't been able to find a way to focus a painting on a figure's eyes, without making it resemble a portrait.  And in my opinion, that makes the viewer try to figure out what the person is about, and not even notice the story being told by the figure in the setting.  We'll blame this problem on Mrs Hyland then.  She's the elementary school teacher who taught me to love a story through the adventure of a good book.  And so I continue to think about the story.

So if the eyes are the windows to the soul, then what tells the story?  Opinion?  Hands down, it's the hands.  And look, I found a whole page of hand phrases, interesting, eh?

Hand Phrases

The hands of time                           Hand me that bottle         Hands up
A bird in the hand                          Hand-le with care             Hand over your money
Second hand Rose                          Un-hand me                     The touch of a hand
First hand information                  Hands down                      Give me a hand

The hand that rocks the cradle     Hands across the water     Wash your hands
Helping hands                               All hands on board             Hands off
Helping hands                              All hands on deck                A backhanded compliment
Time on my hands                        Hands on                             Hand in hand
Dishwater hands                          Clap your hands                  Melts in your mouth, not in your hands

One hand scratches the other      Hand-some                          One hand washes the other
Hand it over                                 Hand in marraige               Handy man
Raise your hand                           A handout                           Hand me downs
Hand-el, the music                      Shake hands                        Use your hand

Hands across America                One handed                         I want to hold your haaaaaaaaaaand
Whole world in His hands           Don't let the right hand know what the left is doing
Handful                                       Underhanded                      Handmade
Hand in hand                              A handful of silver              Lend a hand

A mother's hand                         Handlebar mustache           Heart in hand
The hand of God                        Winning hand                      Clean hands & a pure heart
If thy right hand offend thee      In good hands                      Cold hand of death
Idle hands                                   Lilly white hands                 Nature's sweet cunning hand
Cash in your hand                      Deal a hand                         Bite the hand that feeds you
Hand of justice                           Hat in hand

           Contributions submitted by the members of the "Beyond Tags" E-group

I try to keep a study project going around here as well.  February was hand study month.  I must have been having a good time with that, because March became hand study month as well.  That launched me into a painting with hands, front and center.  A photo you ask?  But of course, but you'll have to make do with a little HP pic version, as the good camera seems to have gone away to college again.

 
We are still working on this one, but it's beginning to live up to it's predetermined name:  smells like summer.   Oh, and if you are the person who made that list of hand phrases up above, you forgot one---hand jive.  :)   Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day.

Later, Cooper

 

Greetings,
Welcome to the Cooper studio, where today is Saturday, and the only thing painted so far is the fence in our back yard.  But it does look much better, thank you.

I was just browsing through the entries for the FASO painting competition.  Has anyone else noticed how many paintings are appearing there that involve painting the figure in some way, shape, or form?  True, a couple of them are fairly abstract, and one is of someone's legs and feet, but we'll call them figurative anyway.  Of the 130 submitted when I checked, 41 involve the figure.  I thought that was a pretty high percentage, so just for kicks and giggles I jumped over to the canvasflyer pages.  I decided that ten pages was a nice round number, that's 60 images, so that's how many I scanned.  Four of those 60 had the figure involved.  I am an artist, not a CPA, but I think that means 32% of the paintings entered in the contest were figurative, while on the canvas flyer a mere 6% were figurative paintings.

That information could lead us to several conclusions:
1.  Do artists think figurative paintings are better accepted in competitions?
2.  Do artists paint landscapes, still lifes, etc for their everyday stuff and when they need to jump up a notch, they paint the figure?
3.  Are artists that paint the figure more competitive, and therefore more likely to enter a competition?
4.  Or one other possibility, ha, maybe landscape, still life, abtract painters are more laid back about getting their entries in and they plan on getting it done tomorrow or one of these days soon.  (remember I said "ha" so that means #4 is like a joke!)
5.  And the best possibility yet, because I paint the figure, maybe I pay way too much attention to things like this and it's really just a coincidence!



But you have to admit it's a little bit interesting.  Now we'll all have to keep a little closer track of the contest entries to see how the scenario plays out!  Have a great rest of the weekend.

Later, Cooper