Painting:Stage Two

This painting is surprising me, I did not think the color scheme would hold up, not my usual palette. The pigments that make up the reds, blues and greens are derived from the phtalocyanine chemical compound, called Phthalo by the paint makers. These are modern pigments, very intense in color and tint. Beginning painters abuse these pigments, seduced by the bright color they provide. I rarely use them but this painting might change that. I have added raw sienna and yellow ochre to tone down the phthalos. What next?, I'm thinking the tulip might lose some of the pink, leaves on trees?, do I need that swan?, we'll see.

Snow Scene

I have never painted a snow scene, the frozen stuff is just not a part of my visual vocabulary. Atlanta gets a few days of snow each winter, yesterday was one of them, nice.

Above top:Outside my studio yesterday afternoon.
Bottom:The next morning, the melting has begun.

The Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is not a sporting event, it is a television event. If you boiled down the whole 4+ hour broadcast to just the action on the field, the running time would be about 12 minutes. A majority of those gathered around the big screen today will only be interested in the chicken wings and the other 228 minutes. I enjoy it all, now pass the cheese dip.
Above: 1969, Joe Namath, quarterback of the NY Jets, in Miami before Super Bowl III, the catalyst of everything we'll see today, thanks Joe.

The 104 Million Dollar "Walking Man"

This past week Sotheby's sold Giacometti's bronze sculpture "Walking Man" at auction for, $104.3 Mill. (foreground above). It was the top price ever paid for a work of art. What I always wonder is, what would the artist's reaction be if they were alive to witness such a phenomenon, would they feel pride or disgust? Giacometti spent a period in his career unable to finish anything. He would carve his plaster pieces with a penknife to the point where he could carry around his sculptures in a cigarette pack. Eventually the whittling reduced them to a poof of dust, gone, nothing. Yea, Giacometti would probably feel a bit of disgust over such an obscene sum.
After the sale writers were speculating that this could be a signal that the art market was bouncing back. No, but "blue chip" artists at auction are and definitely Giacometti, the rest of us will wait for the "trickle down".