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Blog Posts for "my painting"

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Friends Hold Hands (Done)

 

I tweaked the words and finished the painting. Of course, I reserve the right to modify it later, but I like it.

This will be my first card with words inside:

I'm so glad that you are part of my life.

Simple is best, I think.

 

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by Brett Rogers, 8/1/2006 12:45:16 AM
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Maine Shore (Watercolor)

 

I'm about halfway done. Maybe less. But I hate my scanner. It darkens part of the picture.

 

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by Brett Rogers, 8/9/2005 9:19:46 PM
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Love It!

 

Worked a bit on the Maine Shore watercolor, and love Vivaldi while I paint. I think it's the lack of steady percussion. Writing is about rhythm; painting is not. Classical music is a better fit.

Tried my new brushes, and they are awesome.

The brushes are Princeton, and the one displayed is a Liner #20, and it holds its point very well. I'll buy more of this line of brush.

 

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by Brett Rogers, 8/6/2005 4:31:42 PM
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Ahead

 

My daughter had her last final today. That's it - absent the diploma that will be handed to her on Sunday, she's done.

As she left the house today...

My relationship with my daughter has always been special. I remember when I looked at my wife, Jamie, and told Jamie that she was pregnant and that it was a girl. Jamie didn't know. In fact, it was only a few days after Bari's conception. Later that month when she suspected that it might be true and got a test, she was in fact pregnant. In the hospital eight months later, Jamie sprouted a fever and they took her to the operating room for an emergency C-Section. The nurse looked at me while Jamie succumbed to the general anesthesia and asked me what names we had picked out.

"Bari."
"And if it's a girl?"
"No, that's the girl's name. Bari - with an 'i'."
"And if it's a boy?"
"It's not."
"You had a test? The doctor told you?"
"No. I just know that she's a girl."

The nurse kind of shrugged and went to work with the doctor and 5 minutes later, she confirmed that Bari was born and doing great. Because Jamie was out cold, I was the one who held her for the first 45 minutes of her life. She looked at me and I'm not even sure if she blinked that whole time. I was crying, of course, and talking to her, but it was just me and her in the rocking chair in the 5th floor nursery.

Fast forward nearly 18 years, and here we are today. Bold, vibrant, loving life, and ready to rock the world... that's my daughter. She leaves in a couple of months. I'm glad that I have unlimited long distance.

This summer will be nutty. My son, Aaron, goes up to spend the summer with his mom. Nick will spend some time there too, but how much time is up in the air at the moment. During weekends, I plan to go camping with whichever kids are around. In thinking of that, and since my busy schedule lately hasn't allowed me much time to paint, I did a lunchtime sketch of a guy sitting in front of his tent.

He looks so relaxed. Sounds good to me. But with my boys bouncing around all over me.

 

4 Comments
Tags: bari | painting
by Brett Rogers, 5/24/2005 9:25:53 PM
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Red Flowers: About 1/3 Done

 

ETC: I've abandoned this painting... I wasn't happy with where this was going...

 

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Tags: painting | watercolor
by Brett Rogers, 5/7/2005 1:19:52 PM
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Another Card

 

It occurred to me the other day that my web site here can be construed as:

Be At Canvas

Heh - I kinda like that.

I had so much fun painting my mom's Mother's Day card yesterday that I painted her husband's card today, for Father's Day.

He lives for golf. And for taking care of my mom, which makes him a great guy.

I like this "paint a card on my lunchbreak" thing. It's fun.

 

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Tags: sketch | painting | watercolor
by Brett Rogers, 5/5/2005 7:45:44 PM
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Getting Ready for Mother's Day

 

In kind of a sentimental mood, I painted this for my mom's Mother's Day card during lunch today. I've been thinking a lot about my daughter, who leaves my nest this year, and I've been reminiscing about my own childhood.

Understandably mushy stuff inside the card, of course. I love my mom.

 

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Tags: sketch | painting | watercolor
by Brett Rogers, 5/4/2005 7:01:40 PM
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Left to Right

 

Stopping for the night. I'm going from left to right, so I should make my way to the trees in my next pass.

I'll paint the red flowers last... they're in the foreground and the focus.

 

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Tags: painting | watercolor
by Brett Rogers, 5/3/2005 11:57:21 PM
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Red Flowers - First Steps

 

I'm having a lot of fun with this painting while INXS does "Taste It" in my headphones.

It's bigger than the little postcard paintings that I did before. After working on it more, there was this...

From this:

Woo hoo! Enough with swatches of colors and theory. It's good to push the brush around again.

 

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Tags: painting | watercolor
by Brett Rogers, 5/3/2005 9:57:08 PM
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Subjectivity and the Means for Deeper Respect

 

I went painting today at the local Botanical Center.

Stefanie joined me for this, and it was fun. She tried her first watercolor (did well!) and otherwise sketched and took some great photos, which I'll post later.

We also met a person who has her work in the Smithsonian. Her name is Jean Wilson, and she does extraordinary calligraphy.

While Stefanie charmed the little kids who stopped by our little section of paved path to see what we were doing (she even coaxed one cute little girl to sketch along with us and submit her work for the contest!), I tried to figure out how to paint what lie in front of me. I learned a couple of things and had some thoughts on the drive home...

Most of my painting thus far has been from photos. Today, I did it "plein air" style, or painting in one sitting from real life. Very different.

I've mentioned before that painting is a process of constantly forcing oneself to see things as they are. You can't just see a ball and then spend five minutes at the canvas. There's no such thing as a photographic memory when painting. Memory is reconstructive and once you start reconstructing, you're guessing. Hence, the constant scanning of the subject and the few brushstrokes each produces.

Well, that's tiring mental work, and in one sitting, it's not something I'm accustomed to doing. Holy cow, my hat goes off for all of those who do this a lot. I didn't finish mine... I needed a break. I will finish it later from photos that I took, but I need to do a lot more of this. I started well, I think, but as I grew tired of the constant scanning and checking and rechecking, I found myself guessing more and just throwing the brush around in a way that felt lazy.

I don't do that when painting from photo. Why?

Thinking about it on the way home, an analogy came to me. When I'm sitting in front of my subject, painting plein air, I lose perspective. I mean frankly, there is so much that I could paint. The far wall, the plants that are closer, the bridge, the plants in front of the bridge, the people wandering around, the plants behind the main flowers that I wanted to paint, the flowers that I wanted to paint... our eyes can focus on objects far and on objects near, and it's all important.

Not so with a photograph. It's much easier to see the main elements and not get lost in everything else.

Kind of like how friends can tell you that you're engaged to the wrong person, but you have a harder time seeing their point. They see you like a photograph, but you're living it and there is so much to focus on.

"Dude, she's not right for you."
"You just can't see her like I do."

Exactly. That's the point. It's subjectivity and objectivity. I'm sure that you've been told before that you're too close to something to see it as it is. Painting from real life is just like this, ironically enough.

I think this is why Picasso painted as he did. He literally painted it as he saw it - even if his model moved or if his perspective changed - whether it made sense to others or not.

Painting is a growth experience. I look forward to finishing what I started today and then sometime this week, begin to paint what I see and stop working from photos for a while.

ETC: Pictures...

 

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Tags: my life | painting
by Brett Rogers, 5/1/2005 6:22:11 PM
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