The Paintings of One Old Hobbyist: 2012-07-08

Saturday, July 14, 2012

AN INTRODUCTION TO MY PAINTINGS

As my brief biography to the right says, I'm Jim Throne. I'm an amateur acrylic painter. I began painting air brush acrylics more than 35 years ago, when there were no commercially available airbrush acrylics. I watered down the tube acrylics and sprayed the masonite panels for a few minutes, until the paint clogged the brush. I then cleaned the airbrush and started all over again.

I gave up painting when I started my engineering consultancy in 1985. I tried to restart acrylics, this time brush acrylics, in the late 1990s, but it wasn't until most of my clients went offshore that I have had time to really delve into painting again. Occasionally, I've taken workshops and short courses, but for the most part, I'm largely self-taught, as you will quickly see.

I work very quickly. After all, acrylics dry like crazy, particularly here in Florida. For my 'studio' work, I work in my garage, with my easel propped on a workbench. Not bad in the fall and spring, quite humid with mosquitos in the summer, and quite chilly in the winter.

This blog consists of several threads, ranging from portraits that I do at a local Thursday Night Sketch Group, to vehicle paintings, land- and seascapes, still lifes, surrealism, and nudes.

[YES, THERE IS A THREAD DEVOTED TO NUDES! YOU SHOULD BE 18 OR OLDER, GUYS!]

I am a member of a couple of local art groups and am a semi-regular contributor to the on-line Wet Canvas.
Where do I show my paintings? Usually locally, at H'Art Gallery, the local Fine Arts Center, a local library, at one or another local art group. Years ago, when I did 48 x 48 airbrush paintings, I exhibited at Chicago Juried shows such as Oak Brook and 60th Street Art Fair.

I'm always asked if I sell. The answer is yes, but my prices scare people off. For example, my 16 x 20 vehicle paintings are $1000. My 24 x 30 still lifes are $4000. On the other hand, my 8 x 10s go for as little as $50 (but they don't sell either).

A NOTE TO THOSE PERUSING THE THREADS.

I RARELY START NEW THREADS. FOR EXAMPLE, WHEN I COMPLETE A THURS NITE SKETCH, I ADD THE PTG TO THE TOP OF THE PORTRAIT THREAD.

SO EVEN THO IT LOOKS LIKE I'M NOT UPDATING THE BLOG, I AM! REALLY!

YOU GOTTA KEEP COMING BACK FOR THE NEW STUFF!

By the way, earlier I had posted a Work In Progress (WIP) of a 24 x 36 painting I'd done of an early 1900s Postman. He was sitting on a two-wheeled cart that was drawn by a single red ox. There were probably a dozen or so photos of the WIP. I had rendered a B+W newsprint photo in acrylics. When I queried one of my artist colleagues about offering the ptg to a local African American Historical Museum, he advised me to check the copyright info. Sure enough, if the photo was taken by an unknown person, the copyright is valid for 120 years from the expected date of the photo. Because it was estimated that the photo was taken in the early 1900s, the copyright is valid until at least 2020. Meaning of course, any public display of a copy is in violation of the copyright. Ergo, I took down the WIP thread on this website. Sorry!

Friday, July 13, 2012

Surrealism

THIS THREAD IS ON SURREALISM, MY STYLE

I am fascinated with surrealism. It was a French art movement that began in the 1920s as a spin-off from DADAism and Expressionism. It was supposed to be a manifestation of the unconscious mind, a collection of things that do not seem to rationally go together. Altho most people recognize Dali as the greatest surrealist, his very early work seems to be closer to the surrealistic ideal. My favorite surrealist is Magritte.

I've played with the concept off and on for a few years. I am posting some paintings that I believe capture my view of surrealism. I'll try to explain as I post them.

Almost all are 12 x 16 acrylics on canvas panels.

SOCCER MOM

This is one of my first attempts

There are five elements that I have tried to include in each painting - A ship, a creature, landscape, a building, a human (nude?), and a section of a well-known painting. So here we have a ship, two crabs, mount fuji, the Pisa tower, a nude, a castle as a kite, and way in the back a wagon from a famous painting

[I offered this one to a local art show but

they rejected it - the nude, they said!]

SPIDER LADY

This is also an early attempt

A trantula, a street scene from Kent England, a lighthouse, a ship, and a horserace from a famous painting (Oh, and on this one, I've included fire!)

Some News! SPIDER LADY won 2nd prize against dozens of professional artists in an area-wide PAVA art show on 27 Sep 2012!

This is gonna re-inspire me to do some more

So why is the caption on this one 'X'?

The semaphore flag held by the person on the hill is X

Camels, a beached ship, castle ruins, a burning bush, and nudes

KONG

So far, this is my favorite

Twin towers on fire, King Kong, a sailboat, a moth as a kite, a nude statue, and a nude at the base of the statue

FROGS

Had some fits with this one

It's somewhat based on a Magritte, where the painting melds into the view being painted (or is the view a painting?). We have a couple of painted frogs, some nudes, sail boats, and a balloon on fire

GARGOYLE

This deviates from the conventional surrealism into fantasy but I include it here 'cause it don't fit anywhere else!

A WOMAN'S TOUCH

Allegorical, I guess.

The stone statue turns to flesh

while the woman turns to stone

Okay, you ask, what's the above painting all about?

Well, there's a movement underway called

STEAMPUNK

It essentially combines 19th century mechanical

things with people [Go look it up, okay?]

So the guy and the boiler above represents

the STEAM part of STEAMPUNK

Bits and pieces of this will be overpainted to include

the PUNK part of STEAMPUNK

Okay, below is the painted over version of the above painting. I have now PUNK'd it

If you look carefully, you will see that the guy now wears goggles and an apparatus that covers his ear

Furthermore, he's wearing power arm sleeves and his wrench now has a hand guard and a torque meter

Steam has been added for effect only!

Monday, July 9, 2012

Some old paintings - to redo or paint over

TRASH OR TREASURE?

I decided that I've accumulated a lot of "old" paintings. Meaning stuff that goes back to when I decided to restart my hobby in earnest about 2005 or so. I'd been painting acrylics for many years until I started my consultancy in 1985. At that time, I decided to "abandon" painting to emphasize my business. In 2005, after much of my consulting business went overseas, I resumed acrylics, this time focusing on brush painting rather than airbrush painting.

I dug the paintings that follow from under a workbench. Many of the paintings are from photos I've taken on my trips around the world.

Some are okay, some need some redoing, and some need to be painted over. Right now, however, I consider this thread of the blog to be a repository for them. There is no rhyme or reason to their order here. I will try to identify their source, however.

Abandoned estate at the Thai-Cambodian border

Balboa Park, San Diego

Bok Tower, Florida

Window and Doorway, Burgundy, France

Lake Canandiagua, New York

From a B+W photo in newspaper

A church in Southern Germany

Photo taken from van window

An inn, taken from that same van in Southern Germany

Beach at Destin, FL in Feb

Second from 7AM photo

Trainmaster house, Dunedin FL

Bldg on left was supposed to be a modern office building but the attachment to the early 20th century National Register house was violently objected to by the townsfolk. As a result, the building was torn down and the house was moved to another part of the town