Fools Gold

The other day someone enquired as to why I was not selling any of my paintings and I told her that I was not really ready to… On thinking about it some more during our conversation I also remember mentioning that I was really not too sure if anyone would want to buy works of mine. To this, the individual countered that only if one plans on selling the works does one know the true worth of the work.
I replied that they were worth a lot to me and I was happy with that for now...

Untitled_061808′, Sunil, latex based house paint, kumkum powder, oil paint, dirt and gesso on canvas, 36″ X 48″

At a local art fair

The weekend was unbelievably hot. Amidst the viscid humidity that accompanies the soaring mercury, we managed to sneak a quick visit to a local arts festival in nearby East Brunswick. I did not participate this year (had a good showing last year), but I did manage to catch up with a few local artists showing what they had accomplished over the ensuring time. Needless to say, I was happy to note that painting still flourishes, very nourished and cared for amidst the booths catering to silver jewelery, glass blowing and wood carving. Not that these other crafts are any less good, but one instinctively seeks out what is closest to one's heart. Suburban arts and crafts fairs are usually affairs in real life paintings of cats, dogs, people and like creatures, but this time I noticed that abstraction was making a strong showing at this festival. Most of the pictures I managed to take were of paintings, but one particular artist - a sculptor working in cast-off metal which was then whimsically welded caught my eye.


Paintings by Smadar A. Livne. Colorful abstractions featuring Jewish and Kabbalah themes using mixed media on canvas.

Sculptures by Michael Andrew Taylor. Fanciful sculptures using cast-off metal parts welded together. He even added painted spoons and forks for effect in some of the pieces. Part grungy, part outsider, part Chamberlain.

Paintings by Nicholas Skally. Mixed media abstractions by a collegue of mine. Has a lot of shows going on in the NJ, PA area. I hope he breaks it into the NY scene. As usual, his charming wife accompanied him while they patiently waited on curious visitors.

Paintings by Marina Ahunhahaeva. She seems to have so much potential in some of her works, but seems to spend a lot of it on simpler themes as is evident from her website. Well, we all need to make a living here, right. The batik style painting at the end was one of my favorites.

Painting Post

This rather large painting is finally over; took about a couple of months, I must say. 16 feet (no mistype) of unstretched painted canvas has its advantages and disadvantages. It is easy to carry around and transport but not the greatest at preserving the essential flatness that one would want to associate with an oil painting. Plus, one is not sure if the paint might peel or crease at points where it might have been dabbed on too thick (planned or otherwise).

Of course, photographing the thing is another story. For this one, my father and I carried the canvas gingerly from our basement and then hung it from the deck. After that, my wife helped hold down the canvas on one side with my father at the other trying to stretch it taut as a light wind on this fine spring day schemed successfully to sabotage the amateur photo shoot. Lucky for us the neighbors were not outside as we went about our antics in photographing this monster; must have seemed like a strange spectacle to them - two well meaning people trying to hold down a large piece of what looked like an arbitrarily painted cloth while a third filmed the proceedings.

'On a Beginning That Was Filled With Objective Reality', Sunil, Latex based house paint, kumkum, oil paint, dirt and gesso on unstretched canvas, 192" X 72"

Weekend spatter

Sunil, 'Untitled 021608', Acrylic, housepaint and kumkum on gessoed canvas, 36" X 48"

Sunil, 'Untitled 021508', Acrylic, housepaint and kumkum on gessoed canvas, 36" X 48"

Weekend paint spatter

Sunil. 'Untitled 020308', 36" X 48", Latex based house paint, acrylic and kumkum on canvas

Sunil. 'Untitled 020208', 36" X 48", Latex based house paint, acrylic and kumkum on canvas

Chelsea outing on a warm January day

Yesterday was one of the warmest days in January. I decided to take a quick jaunt through some promising shows in Chelsea and here is what we have...

Stellan Holm gallery had a group exhibition of oil and acrylic paintings from international artists that were larger than life titled, well: 'Larger Than Life'. The black and white face of Emilie (picture below) painted by Martin Borowski stood out from the other paintings on display there for its attention to detail and a Chuck Close type airbrushing that must have been done to attain this level of realism. Of course, it would not have looked any different from a large scale blowup of Emilie’s face using a high definition black and white photograph, but a self same attempt in acrylic takes balls.

George Billis Gallery is showing the works of Daniel Phill. The works are primarily wild flowers done in lush acrylic. For some reason, I tend to detest flower pictures because of the repetitious and cloying sense of the subject… However, this one stood out for its artful transition between the abstract and the figurative accentuated with the help of heavy impasto. The artist is said to pour, drip, smear and scrape paints of varying viscosities (that was from the gallery statement - sounded original and clichéd for some reason)... I guess too much of abstraction is not playing too well with a lot of people... hence, a safer and a more understandable bet for potential buyers might be to look for artists who work in the middle ground of 'abstraction and realism'. I see a lot of this kind of 'middle ground' work nowadays… All said, I did like these paintings a lot…

Gallery Henoch is showing the paintings of Stephen Wright. After seeing Lucian Freud at the MoMA last week, I must say that it takes quite a bit to be awed by more paintings of white peoples’ skin and flesh, but, I must say: I was still taken in by this one. White epidermal bounty with all of its attendant frailties, garnishes and warts reveled by the harsh gaze of the studio lamp rendered in full frontal display on canvas is in abundance here. His style reminded me of academic painters for some reason – just the right tones and the workmanship on canvas…

Kent Gallery is showing works by Mike Cockrill who continues his explorations of children’s psyche as they pass the transitions between youth and adolescence. The correct lingo for that stage is now defined by the word tweens – (guess they are growing into a market segment all by themselves – otherwise why coin a new term for them?)... The works are sexually charged and aims to bring back repressed childhood memories. With the ever present danger of advertisers trying very hard to get young pre-pubescent girls (and sometimes boys) to strut their wares, it is indeed a statement that the artist is making with these paintings. The effects of innocuous indoctrination of sexual mores veiled under adverts for items of mass consumption into the younger minds doubtless will have real consequences for the future when we would live in a world governed by them. Get ready for more cultural cataclysms in our old ages. Mike Cockrill’s style was a bit sloppy but high on ideas and surrealism.


Pictures from Group exhibition at Stellan Holm

Martin Borowski, 'Emilie', 2007, Acrylic on linen, 74" X 132"

Brendan Cass, 'Dutch Landscape', 2007, Acrylic on canvas, 84" X 132"; Note: Heavy impasto. Between abstraction and the literal. Full of color, the artist is said to draw from photographs in travel brochures. Not too sure what is up with the blue gash in the middle of this huge canvas. Not very appealing, but the rest of it was lush enough for me...

Till Gerhard, 'Holle der Saison', Oil on canvas, 90" X 118"

Pictures from Daniel Phill at George Billis

Daniel Phill, ‘Banksia’, Acrylic on canvas, 41” X 61”

Daniel Phill, ‘Frisson’, Acrylic on canvas, 37” X 61”

Daniel Phill, ‘Ipomoea’, Acrylic on canvas, 61” X 49”

Pictures from Stephen Wright at Gallery Henoch

Stephen Wright, ‘Figure’, Oil on Canvas, 66” X 30”

Stephen Wright, ‘Mid-Century Modern’, Oil on Canvas, 46” X 44”

Stephen Wright, ‘Figure, Robe, Sofa’, Oil on Canvas, 66” X 44”

Pictures from Mike Cockrill at Kent

Mike Cockrill, 'The Best Pumpkin', 2006, Oil on canvas, 56" x 44"

Mike Cockrill, 'The Broken Fence', 2007, Watercolor and pencil on paper, 19" x 25"

Anselm Kiefer - shock and awe at MASS MoCA

Anselm Kiefer showing through 2008 at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art

"Born and raised in southern Germany in 1945 during the final days of the collapse of the Third Reich, Anselm Kiefer experienced divided postwar Germany firsthand. A law student, he switched to art in 1965 and held his first solo exhibit in 1970. His works often incorporate materials like straw, ash, clay, lead, dirt and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan have played a role in shaping Kiefer’s themes of German history and the horror of the Holocaust, as have the theological concepts of Kabbalah"

Anselm Kiefer, 'Rorate coeli desuper et nubes pluant iustum' (Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One), 2006. Oil, acrylic, emulsion and shellac on canvas

Anselm Kiefer. 'Aperiatur Terra et Germinet Salvatorem' (Let the earth open and bring forth a Saviour) 2005-06. Oil, acrylic, emulsion and shellac on canvas 110" x 299" (Images ripped from here)

Corona - A poem by Paul Celan

Autumn eats its leaf out of my hand: we are friends.
From the nuts we shell time and we teach it to walk:
then time returns to the shell.

In the mirror it's Sunday,
in dream there is room for sleeping,
our mouths speak the truth.

My eye moves down to the sex of my loved one:
we look at each other,
we exchange dark words,
we love each other like poppy and recollection,
we sleep like wine in the conches,
like the sea in the moon's blood ray.

We stand by the window embracing, and people
look up from the street:
it is time they knew!
It is time the stone made an effort to flower,
time unrest had a beating heart.
It is time it were time.
It is time.

Michael Goldberg (1924 - 2007)

"Abstract painting is still the primary visual challenge of our time. It might get harder and harder to make an abstract image that is believable, but I think that just makes the challenge greater" - Michael Goldberg

Michael Goldberg, 'L'Adorazione dei Pastore', 1991, oil on canvas, 62" X 57", (From the Seraphin Gallery)

My kid might paint that with help

Is 4-year-old Marla Olmstead a painting prodigy or a hoax? A new movie "My Kid Could Paint That" asks questions about abstract art, marketing and a family willing to go the questionable length. Salon's take on the movie is worth a read. I am sure actually going to the movie would be most insightful.

Run for your lives - it is abstraction!!

Steve Durbin of Art and Perception has a good eye for photography. He photographs a lot of nature in and around his home in Montana. He knows about my interest in painting faces and about three months back on a whim he asked me if I saw any faces in this picture of his. He had photographed rocks outcroppings (I must say some of the shapes were pretty eerie looking) at an area known as the Devil’s Garden at the Arches National Park. Poetically he plans to call these 'Bones of the Earth' - a fascinating concept as the rocks indeed function as the 'bones' of our mater earth...

Original picture

I looked at the picture and told him that I indeed did see some faces staring back at me. Last week, he asked me if I could have a go at painting faces that I saw in the rocks and this is what happened.

I took the original image above, inverted it completely, studied the contrast levels by looking at areas that contain the greatest shifts in contrast and decided to paint faces that I saw in the inverted rocks.

Inverted rocks

'Zephyrus Cupid and Phyche', Oil on canvas, 24 " X 36"

I remember thinking that each of us sees the nature around us in different ways and this was just one way to look at it. I also remember thinking looking up to the sky on cloudy days and trying to decipher and attribute the wondrous figures that form ever so ephemerally in the ethereal reaches of the upper atmosphere and then so suddenly shift away in the winds. I saw Zephyrus Cupid and Phyche playing on the canvas when it was complete.