Painting, Painting and Painting over the holiday!!!

Plein-Air, Paint faster the Light is changing!!!!

Plein-Air is I think one of the best ways to speed up your painting technique as well as sharpen your eye to value, color and proportions. Call me crazy but standing outside, working on your tan and slapping some paint around is a great stress relief as well. You have to make a decision and stick with it till it's through.



The OverLook at Vinings at Sunset
Painted on location, this spot offers one of the best views of the city. Once the sun begins to set the lights on the buildings begin to kick in and make a spectacular view.



The Highlands Atlanta GA,

This view is looking east from the top of the ridge. It was around 6:45 am and the sky just lite up with all this color. It was like magic to see the sky light up that way!





Botanical Garden Plein-Air event.
These small (6X9) canvases are handy for quick plein air studies. Atlanta Painters Meetup sponsored this event and it was such a good time.


Alla-Prima rocks in the Studio around 5am each morning.


My Natural Collection

This oil study took over 4 days to complete which by my standards is a long time. I did enjoy painting the bugs etc. They behaved themselves and didn't walk off anywhere!



"Coming Unraveled Around You"
This is another one of those little comments I keep making about human relationships, especially between men and women. For me, this is about that sense of excitement one gets when meeting another person whom we find irresistibly attractive. You know the one, somewhere between excitement and nausea. I'm taking an Alka-Seltzer!!!

Playing with Acrylic Paint as well!!!!


"Don't Turn that Page"
This painting was started at a figure drawing session some years ago now but never completed. Since I had the acrylics out, I decided to add those final touches that would make it feel finished to me. I really like how immediate you can be with the paint and keeping a loose brush helps from making the media seem too stiff.



"Cherokee Farm House Sunrise"
I seldom paint from photos any more but in this case I did and also worked in acrylic paint. I was very happy with this little rainy day painting. On days with poor weather or during the winter I have a file of around 200 photos of things I'd like to get around to painting. I don't know that I'll ever get around to them all, maybe I should take a year off and just paint till I complete them all? You'll see this painting on a later post. I have photos of the process in progress and will go through the step by step process, soon I promise!



Avondale Arts Festival Poster:

I painted this image plein-air a few weeks ago at the Piedmont Arts Festival specificly to submit to the Avondale Arts Alliance to use on their Autumn Arts Festival Poster. The good news is that it was selected and we will have the unveiling on September 21st. Hope you can join us!!!

I tried to keep the shapes simple and values and colors with a higher degree of contrast to help in the reproduction of the painting. My background as an ex-Art Director is paying off still. I look forward to seeing what the Designer and Printer do with the piece.


Close up shot showing how simple paint strokes pull together to make images of people walking among the tents. No real detail here! Simplify, simplify, simplify!!!


The final image achieved what I set out to create and it was both a challenge and fun to hold back from adding details that I didn't need and would actually make the painting less accessible to the viewer.



Once again, thanks for your comments, support and well wishes. Keep painting, collecting art, or just passing it along to the next generation.

Chazz

Hmmm, more paint and laughing about it!

"We might have to break a few eggs"

These are some things I've been recently working on. I still try to do a painting a day but seldom really get around to it. The weekends seem to be a better time for me so this is a little effort I made on Sunday morning.


"Vincent is dancing in my head"
This is very impressionistic and has a bit of paint on the surface. Vincent might have painted this if he were sitting in my studio.




"Late afternoon at the beaver pond"
This was painted plein air with my class of senior students from the Benson Center.
They enjoyed the day as I did and I think in spite of the painting being mainly green, we got a little color in there.


"Roses for my love"
A bit romantic, maybe! Nice paint surfaces though and rich color and contrast.

Thanks for taking a look! Keep making some art in what ever form you choose!

Chazz

Movement and Motion

Hi all,

Hope your enjoying a few of these wonderful summer days which have been rather cool and pleasant considering we are in Georgia. I wanted to talk to you a bit about some of the work I've been working on over the past year. As most of you know I've gotten my hands in the mud for the first time in many years and have been enjoying it. My early pieces were just a bit stiff in my estimation so I've been trying to get a little more motion in my clay works as well as pushing the size and engineering boundaries of the material. Take a look and see what your thoughts might be.
I'd enjoy hearing back from you if you have any comments, so ....... on with the show!





This piece was a difficult one to get to work. It's large and heavy!







Wrapping the Koi around this Vase helped to give it a fluid motion which works from all sides.
I was very happy with this one





This was an earlier success in my view. It has a lot of motion and the texture and patterns help carry this illusion. Unfortunately, she wasn't structurally very strong and was easy to break. So back to the drawing board.

In Case Your Wondering, I've been playing in the mud!

Hello everyone and please excuse the long absence from me posting anything on this page. I really don't have any excuse except that I've been focused on working in a new media other than paint. Like most of we creative types, I get an itch to explore things less familiar or safe and take a chance on getting frustrated or even down right falling on my face. I've done that a few times as you'll see in the following photos with a media I've always been curious about, clay. I like the correlation between sculpting and drawing and how they both make one stretch their ability to think in 3D. I've always liked the unpredictability of clay and the way it kind of does it's own thing and one has to adapt and grow your original intent to fit what the clay wants to do. I've learned much since the beginning of the year and would like to show you what I've come up with, so on with the show!





A pair of "Love Birds" which are more sculptural in form and something I was very happy with at first. The glaze is actually a darker blue and should be more matt than glossy. Unless one looks very closely it appears to be black. I'll be doing more of these as time goes on as I feel they could be a popular theme.




This is a simple ball shaped bowl with the addition of a Mermaid. I'll be doing a few pieces along this line as I'm seeking a gallery in a coastal area. I also just like the mythology behind mermaids and being an ex-sea going sole, they hold a fascination for me.




This is a simple tower design with a mermaid wrapped around it. It came out well and it has a really good feeling to me. If I were being critical of my recent work in clay, it would be that I'm not fluid enough with it and tend to over clean and detail my pieces. This piece though has a certain immediacy to it that I feel is more what I'm hoping to incorporate in my work.



This little effort is about 12 inches tall and is a simple ball shape with a tower rising from it. I've added Koi and Lilly Pads as well as a texture reminiscent of water to the surface. This is a fairly standard classic form but with the decorative elements added it takes it to a level that reminds me of pieces created in the Art Nouveau or Arts and Crafts style of the late 1800 and early 1900's.




This enchanting little bowl ( 14" wide and 10" tall) was an idea I came up with and was pleased with the conceptual aspects of the form and the way I engineered it. Unfortunately, she has her problems and the piece came out less than perfect (Ha)! She does have her charms though and I feel the proportions of the Mermaid to the open bowl area is very pleasing. The shape is a little rough though and I wanted to try her at a larger scale. I'm trying to push my ability to work with this material into larger pieces as you will see.





This is the larger attempt, about 20" long, 16" tall and 14" wide. The engineering aspects of this piece were more successful in ways but the aesthetics are not quite as pleasing to me as the first piece. I will be trying this again as I wish to perfect the concept and form into something unique in my work. The size and scale of this piece really pushed the limits for me at this time but I'm sure I'll try an even larger piece.



Again, along the mermaid theme, I've tried a very vertical form at a large scale. The piece is about 22" tall. I was very happy with the matt glaze I applied to most of the piece over the brown clay. The flesh areas are a bit darker than I would have originally hoped for. Color with this material is a whole other exploration, so I think I'll try and keep it simple for a while till I can experiment with it a bit more.



This little spring goddess is one of the most difficult challenges I've taken on to date. I love the fluid motion she has as well as the sense of joy and abandon. I envision a larger piece incorporating 8 to 10 of these figures. It's just an idea at this stage.




This was a piece I came up with on a whim, incorporating a little nude study into a functional piece which serves as a watercolor palette. I was pleasantly surprised at how well she came together! It will inspire me to work with watercolor more often I'm sure.

Avi and Andy, Commissioned Portrait

"Avi and Andy"
Oil Painting on Canvas 24 X 36
Painted from life and photo references.

This is the most recent portrait commission I have finished. I delivered it yesterday and the client was very pleased. It's great when that happens and I'm enjoying the moment. I want to be appreciative to this client because as John Singer Sargent said "A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth". This seems to be all too common a reaction to a painting which has been commissioned and finding a client who loves the work as much as you do is a blessing.

I'd like to take you through the basics of the process on this project so you'll get an idea of how I work with clients. It will cover more of the steps on how I work with people than with the actual painting but will be brief and helpful, I hope.

First I met my client and we discussed things like what the painting was going to be of and who would be included in the piece. We also discussed pricing and I gave them a rough estimate after I did some thumb nail sketches and showed them what I was thinking. This was done in their living room and when we concluded meeting everyone seemed to be on the same page. I think this was the most important step in the process because it set the level of expectations and gave them a chance to tell me what they thought was the most important things to them and what they were hoping for. What was requested was a painting of Andy (the grandfather) and Avi (the grandson) in a basic head and shoulder length painting. This seemed to lend itself to an unusual proportioned portrait, one that sat more landscape like than portrait. They also wanted to express the close relationship between the two subjects and having them side by side seemed to graphically display this. We arranged a time to meet the subjects to begin the process and a one third deposit was made on the painting.

First Sitting:
Several days later I met the subjects in my studio. I had them take several poses together to look at the composition and did an initial sketch of each to become more familiar with each of their faces. I find this first sitting critical because it gives me a chance to begin to know my subject as an individual. The discussion might go in any direction but mainly stay about their life, goals and some of their unique experiences and views on life.


Avi and Andy the first meeting and beginning to look at the layout of the painting.




Very quick sketches were made of each of the subjects. This was to start the process of me getting familiar with each of their faces. I gave them the sketches after the session was over as they were not going to be part of the final painting and it gave each of them a sense of how I was seeing them at the time. I think this is good PR and builds some trust with the client early on with little or no risk to the artist.

The Second Sitting:

One critical thing that was discussed was clothing on the subjects. In a head and shoulder painting often only a minimal of clothing is indicated. In this case though I wanted to bring the clothing down a bit further to fill the canvas so it became an important element. I decided to have one wear a solid color and the other a pattern for contrast.

At this point the painting became clearer in my mind and though I had an initial rough in on the canvas I began to change and refine the placement of elements on the canvas. By the end of this session I was much happier with the layout and color scheme which was beginning to develop. I kept working on the piece till I got to the point where all the major blocks of color were in place and the piece began to take on a likeness of the subjects.

Third Sitting:
I had each of the subjects come down to my studio individually and spent time developing the likeness further, correcting information and trying to get a better tonality to the flesh colors.
This also gave me a chance to really personally connect with each of them and get a better sense of who I was painting.


I showed the client the painting before the final stages to see if we were still on track and the response was very positive. It helped build the level of anticipation of the finished piece and when the final piece was viewed there was little chance of any big surprises on anyone's part.

I let the painting dry a few days and painted the edges of the gallery wrapped canvas, added a paper dust sheet and wire so the piece could be temporarily hung until the client had time to frame it. We discussed leaving the painting unframed, but it is a rather traditional looking portrait, so my feeling is that it could use a frame, the right frame of course. That will be the next adventure in the completion of this painting.


I hope this is helpful to anyone who takes on an assignment like this. Portraits are always a challenge and having a process to follow will be a great help to you I hope. Till then, happy painting! Stay in touch and let me know how you do!

Wanted to share this! The way we see things can make a difference!

A friend sent me this and I thought I'd pass it along. It will make you think a bit about the world and the way we see it around us.

Best Wishes and a Happy New Year
Chazz


A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite. This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen forward and backward. This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled "u @ 50" by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant. Take a minute and watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

Thoughts, a few days before Christmas, 2010

Tis a few days before the Christmas holiday and I have just a few thoughts and observations to share with you, my friends and followers of this blog. Life it seems is always changing and sometimes things that seemed bad turn out to be good in the long run. I guess that's the mystery of life and has reminded me to always keep my eyes open and expect that there will always be a surprise just around the corner. Many of us travel our paths, meet frustration and come to a point of giving up. It's a common theme in my age group. What always seems to happen though is that people when pushed to that point always find a state of grace. They transform themselves and adapt beautifully and come out stronger and better for the experience.




"Well past our prime"
Oil on canvas, 12" X 12"
C. Scogins © 2010

I could go into several stories about that, but I'm sure you can come up with your own. The one I'd like to share though is very close to home. Like many of us, I've struggled with the fact that I'm running out of time. I'm 55 and look at all that I've done in my life which in many ways has been significant. In others though they seem small and not very important to me these days. I suppose I've let them go and don't define myself by them anymore. I've cast off most of the worries I carried for years and seem to be in one of the best places in my life right now. These have been a hard 10 years of my life and there have been tragic disappointments as well as some surprisingly sweet and tender triumphs. Most disappointing is that I've let myself get fat. Considering that I was an ultra-athlete, driven, competitive and very conscious of my body that has been a big blow to my ego. I suppose I found food to be an enjoyable distraction from my worries and let myself enjoy it a little too much.

What I've found though as I've watched my muscles shift ever southward toward my equator is that I've found a different view of my life. I've mellowed a lot and become somewhat more relaxed about who I am. I hate to say it but I have kind of an attitude about it. If you don't like me because of my shape, then so be it, move on! I've been in the dating world for the past two years and I have to admit it does seem to hold me back with the type of women I tend to be attracted to. I'm beginning to see though that it's more their problem than mine and in a way if they are basing my value on that basis, than it wouldn't have lasted anyway. Sure we all want to be found attractive but what have you got after all that beautiful flesh fades and wrinkles. In the end, you only have who you are, happy, sad, miserable, discontented or what ever. People tend to latch on to certain themes in their lives and they play them out to the end. So in my typical fashion I've come up with a visual response to these thoughts. I titled it "Well past our prime". It's a 12" X 12" alla-prima painting of two pieces of fruit. Each mottled and on the verge of spoiling.

I see the Pear as myself or men in general. You don't think of pears as being particularly sweet and in fact when they seem to look their best, have very little flavor. As they age and get a lot of spots and bruises on them though they sweeten and are the most flavorful just before they totally spoil.

Apples on the other hand seem to represent the women I've known in my life. Colorful and beautiful when fresh and younger but they don't get their sweetness till they come of child bearing years. Once past them they tend to loose the sweetness but in many ways become more interesting and complex. Maybe even a bit easier to have in a guys life as well.
Only time will tell!

So, here is to wishing everyone a very happy holiday and the best for this coming year! I'll be trying to keep the eggnog to a minimum this year, don't let that stop you though!

Chazz