Monthly Studio Update - August, 2001
MONTHLY STUDIO UPDATE: AUGUST
2001
Monthly Studio Update is where I will bring you up to date on recently finished work, works in progress, and on upcoming lectures, exhibitions, and other aspects of my career.
Studio Updates:
Venus of the Sea, work in progress, acrylic base oil overlay, 4 x 4 feet.
Though it might not seem like much work has happened on Venus, nonetheless I have spent many hours working the mountains on the left. What I am looking to do is to simultaneously give the mountains details, make them seem as if they are recessed in the distance, and bring the color of the atmosphere forward. In an earlier update I mention that the rose base will have a subtle influence on the rest of the colors as they develop. It might be a little hard to distinguish on your screen but the highlights on the mountains have a rose tint which gives a sense a transparency and conveys the warm hue of the sunlight.
Study 1 for Venus , July 2001, pastel on black paper, 18 x 26 inches.
Study 2 for Venus , July 2001, pastel on black paper, 18 x 26 inches.
Late in July I arrived back in Rhodes from my trip to the States. The next dawn, full of jetlag and keen to go back to work, I made these pastel studies of the coast of Turkey for the background of Venus. The earlier acrylic studies of the same subject were too saturated with blue for what I want. By switching the medium to pastel I was allowed more freedom to play with a larger range of color. The first was made around 6:30 am and the 2nd was made a little after 7 am.
Study 1 for Venus, August 2001, pencil on paper, image 11/2 x 8 inches.
Study 2 for Venus, August 2001, pencil on paper, image 2 x 7 inches.
Study 3 for Venus, August 2001, pencil on paper, image 11/2 x 7 inches.
Armed with my new pastel studies I worked and re-worked the mountains in the painting of Venus. After several days of shifting emphasis from one detail to the next I felt frustrated that the mountains did not look right. When I attempted to make them look more realistic I mangled the paint. So off again to my site across from Turkey, this time fortified with pencils and white paper, the rudimentary building-blocks of the visual arts.
In these drawings I wanted to get the details of the mountains, but details are only as good as the form they convey. So my focus was to re-create the sculptural forms of mountains.
Venus of the Sea began as an image from my internal vision but to give the painting a sense of immediacy, of reality, most of the studies are directly made from life.
Little Goddess, work in progress, oil overlay acrylic base, 213/4 x 261/2 inches.
This little painting I have been working on for more than a year and a half. About six months ago I brought it to the point of correctness and I liked it but a little tiny something pricked an obscure area of my consciousness. It was trying to tell me something. But what? When making a painting from a vision I don't have the advantage of simply seeing the entire image in reality, like I have when I make a self-portrait. I am trying to integrate a rock from one place, the sea from another, and the model from my studio. So it is now back up on the easel and I am boldly re-working it.
Study for Little Goddess, 2001, pencil on paper, 41/2 x 51/2 inches.
When I find myself going round in circles with a painting's problem I try to break that pattern by isolating a feature. In this small pencil study I am focusing on the tonal quality of the background.
Study 2 for Little Goddess, 2001, pencil on paper, 5 x 41/4 inches.
Another small pencil drawing. This is similar to the pencil drawings of the coast of Turkey in the sense that I am focusing on the forms of the setting and that it is drawn from life.
Non-visual Updates:
The first stage of my campaign to have my work be embraced by the world's most important contemporary art museums is underway. The Conquer the World package has been sent to acquaintances that are philosophers, scholars, editors, and businesspeople. The purpose is to network, to gain acknowledgement, and to get exposure for this quest. The second stage will be to follow up on their recommendations. And the third stage will be to make the proposal directly to the directors of leading contemporary art museums. The latter should be accomplished by October.
The Conquer the World package contains a new 16-page catalog of my major paintings; a statement of my aesthetic values; and the Newberry Manifesto with an introduction, Post-Postmodern Art, by philosopher Stephen R.C. Hicks. In his essay, he places postmodern art into historical perspective and then, as a postscript, introduces my manifesto.
If you have any questions or would like to take an active role in this campaign please contact me: newberry@MichaelNewberry.com
The Soul of the Artist section of this site has been neglected of late. Actions are being taken now to remedy that. One of the new things to go up soon is a review I wrote of a postmodern exhibition at LAMOCA. Also coming soon will be a published review of one of my exhibitions by Byzantine art historian, archaeologist, and scholar Thodoris Archontopoulos.
And this is all happening in the sweltering heat of a Greek August! Cooler news in September? Stay tuned.
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