Monday, April 30, 2012

Artist Lucian Freud Leaves $156 million in Will


(Reuters) - Portrait painter Lucian Freud left a record 96 million pounds ($156 million) in his will, the largest sum bequeathed by a British artist, the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported.
Freud died in July last year aged 88, by which time his uncompromising, fleshy portraits had made him one of the world's most revered and coveted artists, whose subjects ranged from England's Queen Elizabeth II to the supermodel Kate Moss.

 

Freud, the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, is known chiefly for his thickly impastoed portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time.

Read the rest of the story here at Reuters

Thursday, April 26, 2012

It's Just a Jump to the Left

BLOG HOP!

I am not much of a scrapbooker, so forgive an old artist for not having any bells or whistles.
And fie on you, Diane, for making your house the same color! Great minds, I s'pose.






I tried to keep the colors in the copper and brass range, with the blueish tint to the house meant to play off copper patina. Brass was a little too yellow-y so most of that became more copperish.

The letter you're here for is "I" as in "I can't think of a good word starting with "i".

The next letter is at the next blog in the hop - Jodi's Kaboo Designs!

Now, put your hands on your hips...

Monday, April 23, 2012

Thursday, April 19, 2012

A Problem of Social Media

Too many outlets and not enough time.

I've been so engrossed in networking, marketing and gossiping on Facebook that I neglected to post my own artwork on my own blog. Reprehensible! Like my blog was raped by Black Hitler. Literally!

Anywhats, without further dudes:

Phalanx is my new favorite among my landscapes. The detail and lack thereof and the flow of the image and texture came together perfectly. The change from red poppies to yellow blooms highlights it within the series, and the brighter, anonymous flowers have a cleaner provenance than poppies, letting the mind see only flowers or flashes of color.


   
Phalanx
16"x20"
Acrylic on Canvas
Sold



The first two entries in the Dana Project:


Dana No 1
Until I think of a better name.

16"x20"
Acrylic on canvas
Dana No 2

16"x20"
Acrylic on canvas

Somewhat less marketable on Etsy, these are of Dana DeArmond, AKA The Internet's Girlfriend (links likely NSFW). Yeah, I know. She's a porn star. I stumbledupon her tumblr blogcastbook and saw some of her self-pics and loved them. That and I'm a sucker for brunettes. I'd been looking for a subject for a series based on self-pics, especially webcam or phonecam pics and her's were perfect. I asked her if she minded if I painted a few and she said "no problem". Problem is, I've been trying to get her attention to at least show her the finished product, but as far as I can tell she has no email address and my questions on her Tumblr have gone unanswered.

Friday, April 06, 2012

Perfectly Preserved Woolly Mammoth Discovered in Siberia

The preserved body of a juvenile wooly mammoth was found in Siberia by a group of scientists hunting for fossilized tusk. It is so well preserved that it still has it's strawberry blonde hair. The full story will be aired in an upcoming BBC/Discovery documentary.

GINGER MAMMOTH!

Sunday, April 01, 2012

366 Days

If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.   

E Joseph Cossman

"I can't see how it's not cancer."

That's how my day went, one year ago today. My cancerversary.

I had figured out that I had some sort of cancer before I got that casual confirmation. Everything I'd read said either an infection or cancer. Infection had already been ruled out. I don't know if my knowing affected my reaction as much as one would think. That dramatic surprise wasn't there, but like a lot of people, I sit in every doctor's office certain that they're going to find something horrible. Sucks being right sometimes.

Of course, knowing makes no difference in how you go from there. You just have to deal with it as long as you can until it's done. If I had to sum it all up, that's how I'd describe my experience with surgery and treatment and the permanent effects of treatment. Endurance. That necessity of life in general, enhanced a bit. Quite a bit at first, but now it's slowed to a steady pace and it's just another thing to deal with like brushing your teeth twice a day, plus.

That's kind of a good analogy, actually. I used to brush my teeth twice a day, sometimes three. Now I have to brush my teeth four or five times a day, at least. No saliva and stuff. I used to be able to wolf down a slice of pizza in about 30 seconds if I was in a hurry. Now, one slice is a half hour affair and it's cold and I'm bored and tired of chewing by the then.

But this wasn't meant to be a gripey post. I'm grateful to be here, one year later, to be able to write this. The support that friends and family and complete strangers, and even Pizza Hut gave me didn't kill the cancer, but they saved my heart and mind from certain collapse. My parents did what parents are supposed to do and took care of me. Babied me, almost, highlighting how amazing they are, sharper against the dimness of the many horrible families I've known.

It's 366 because of Leap Year, in case you're wondering.