Hello again all you New Haven artist readers. Please pardon my absence these past few weeks. I've been very busy with painting commissions and...well.....life. But enough about me, let's talk about this new painting, shall we? This painting represents a return to a subject matter that I absolutely love in painting. The human figure. Particularly woman and children. Capturing them on canvas doing simple everyday things. For me these are subjects that are most interesting. Children tend to be very animated and spontaneous. There is never any false pretense with children, just honesty filled with life and innocence. I also enjoy painting images of woman doing the everyday things that you might see; waiting for the bus, window shopping, conversing with friends (don't you hate it when people say "conversating". The word is CONVERSING!!!) To me women have much more interesting postures when doing these everyday activities. There is also more variety with each individual; hairstyles are very different, etc. I sort of departed from these favored subject for a while to create smaller, faster and less complicated images to broaden my ability to paint a variety of subject matter. I feel that I have accomplished that purpose,........for now. It is now time for me to get back to the subjects that I enjoy most. You'll see more of these kinds of painting in future blog updates with occasional paintings of other subjects I've worked on but never had the chance to post on line. Now moving to other things, you'll notice by the title of this entry that I've been pondering what makes a person a great artist. Does it take a genius to be a great artist? The answer to that is no. There are many people whom I do consider to be true genius's. For instance in the world of science there's Albert Einstein, George Washington Carver, Dr. Emmett Brown (inventor of the DeLorean Time Machine), and the late Jimmy Neutron. In the world of music there is Beethoven, Stevie Wonder, James Brown. Also Bob Dorough, George Newall and Lynn Ahrens the primary song writers for the School House Rock cartoon series. Also there are James Brown( yes I mentioned him twice). Other people on my list of brilliant minds are Jim Henson and Walt Disney. But there are also people in the world of visual art who were genius's, Sir Thomas Lawrence, James Whistler, Leonardo Da Vinci to name a few. But to truly be a great artist you don't need a brilliant mind. All you need to do is to be able to pick up a pencil or paint brush and create something. That's something even a small child can do. My 5 year old daughter is creating what I consider to be true masterpieces. No they won't hang in a fancy museum or art gallery and no they won't be selling for thousands of dollars ( like that kid in Great Britain, boy, compared to him I actually have to pay people to take my paintings) But to me my daughter's works are priceless. No you certainly don't have to be a genius to create good works of art. Take me for instance, I recently took an I.Q. test and found out that I have the I.Q. of a German Shepherd. No, not a person who herds sheep in Munich but a doggy German Shepherd. At first I was disturbed by this news but than I found out that German Shepherds are the most intelligent breeds of dog in the world. I felt much better. ( no offense to you sheep herders residing in Germany) Well I've rambled enough for today. I'll see you in my next entry.
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