"Peonies in Sepia Tones"

 

"Peonies in Sepia Tones"  35 by 28 inches  Oil on canvas $500.00

Completed a new painting today.  In keeping with the trends and preserving the surface texture of O'keefe and the Moderns, I visited the Target retail store on Howard and McCormick streets and saw that they had 2 or 3 sepia tone canvas prints for sale in the home decor section.  I liked the look of both of them!  Still, they were merely photos touched up using computerized software then enlarged and printed on canvas to look as if they were paintings.  The manufacturer is not fooling very many with these phony paintings but it does point to a desire amongst the public.  They want paintings.  I figure I will simply give them what they want but in a genuine form and of course I shall pick the trend I most appreciate.  Apparently, the "sepia tone" style has gone national...even international and I am along for the ride!  

New Painting for May 2012 "Nautilus Spiral"

 

"Nautilus Spiral"

oil on linen 12x12" $ NFS

New painting. Been reading about the golden section lately and it's naturally occurring spirals which occurs in the nautilus shell among other forms.  This coincided with my mother picking up a book on Thomas Gainsborough for me which I found interesting. Gainsborough along with James McNeil Whistler, Georgia O'Keefe and many of the "Modern" painters obtained a delightful surface texture as seen during many visits to the Museum of the Chicago Art Institute.  I set out to obtain that texture here and was successful. Thanks go to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale's painting instruction from back around the year 2000. Rock and roll! Now that I have a solid technique it is on to increasing the sizes of my paintings (in the manner of O'Keefe) and negotiating trends a bit more assertively ...

YeeHa!    

"Expresso Elegante"

                                                   Expresso Elegante' Oil on Linen 12x12" $300.00
This one went easy and direct.  I was actually setting up a new still life and taking down the previous when I spotted an accidental arrangement of the previous items.  I immediately started working on it rather than put it on the back burner.  This one is influenced by a study of Raphael's early period approach.  Recent studies have shown scientifically some information regarding paint vehicles and layers.  It appears as expected to be closely related to egg tempera in technique but in oils from top to bottom.  That period and a bit earlier too has always been a favorite.  The paint much thinner and realism a bit relaxed and decorative.... I like it.

New Drawing..."Loneliness"

                          "Study for Loneliness" 2012, 5x5 inches chalk and graphite on paper  $150.00

This one is about a sense of separation perhaps, forced or through exclusion-social/economic etc.  The feeling one is likely to have when their significant other is "locked away" or turns away.  Don't know where this emotion is coming from but Valentine's day came around and I had a sort of gush.... going with it. Ed Paschke was at my first Chicago art show shortly before his death and he mentioned that art must begin with emotion if it's charms are expected to last.  I have taken his communication to heart ever since....even if technical problems have been a prime concern.

Study for "Morning Meditation"

                " Study For Morning Meditation" 7X7 inches chalk and graphite on paper $150.00

New Drawing today..."Study for Morning Meditation".  It is graphite pencil and chalk on toned paper.  This style is deliberately similar to what one of my favorite painters used to do...James McNeil Whistler.  I like to produce a drawing prior to painting as I think it is a good way to study the subject.  It seems a great way to start a still life, portrait or historical sort of picture. 

                             "Fortune Teller"  oil on canvas  by Anwar Shaikh 2012   $300.00

This is the 2nd studio painting since I started renting a place on the lake near the Howard el.  This one is called "The Fortune Teller".  This image was thought provoking for me while I painted it and interesting as subject matter.  It is a mix of Asian and Persian objects and had me thinking about China and Pakistan as allies which they are.  Also about the "Silk Road Trade Routes and the cultural exchange occurring there. It now seems to me that pre-Islam Persia is THE missing aesthetic link between East and West and that art invested in historical Persian culture can appeal best to both Western and Eastern sensibilities.  Such positive and rewarding associations are subdued in modern non-objective abstraction which appears more often concerned with technique and surface qualities.

"Night Time"

                                                    Night Time 20x20 oil on canvas 300.00.

So, this is the first still life painting done in my new studio.  The one I set up via Mark Carder's advise.  And this painting uses colors and technique newly learned via Mark.  I find that with Mark's method the paint remains thin and fine detail is possible.  The paint took weeks to dry and accumulated some dust which I did not like.  That said I have learned some new things in this method of which I am surely grateful.