Update on the work in progress of my life-sized nude, and about the composition.
Model in the Studio, wip
Embargo Series by Michael Newberry
The Animal Lifted Embargo Series has significantly changed my opinion about including animals in my paintings. They really help set off the scale and atmosphere of the landscapes. I am surprised that just two tiny marks, in the case of the sandpipers, can reset the landscapes dramatically.
3rd and 4th in the Animal Lifted Embargo Series by Michael Newberry
With this Animal Lifted Embargo Series I am refining my hierarchy of subject values. Humanity is at the top, consequently I paint/draw individuals filling the universe of the canvas or paper space. Animals are a far distant second place, recently insignificant, but I am now enjoying placing them in landscapes as minor players. It makes be feel peaceful and the experience of painting them in feels a bit magical. If I made them the same size as humans (allowing perspective truth etc) I would be extremely uncomfortable with that.
Newberry, Seagull at Picnic Island, 2020, oil on panel, 12×16″
There is an exciting tension in placing an animal just right, it seems to set off the landscape and definitely twerks the composition, like a zigzag incorporating the direction of the light, the bird's flight path, the feeling of "lift," setting off the formal composition of the water and land masses. Delightfully fun.
Book Idea: Psychological Aesthetics and the Exciting Fight to Evolve by Michael Newberry
Beyond Obstacles, Malevolence, and Ignorance Willendorf Venus c. 28,000 BCE – 25,000 BCE Discovere 1908 near Willendorf, by Josef Szombathy, Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria I have been thinking about writing an art book filled with stories, anecdotes, speculation on prehistorical art, real life experiences, and the knowledge of what is it is like to strive …
Doggie at the Beach and an Aesthetic Musing
In the past I have rejected doing animals because humanity is at the forefront of my mind. I love my dog, Frida, and she loves me, but she doesn't even glance at my art. :(
Thodoris Archontopoulos, Byzantine Archaeologist and Art Historian
I met Thodoris in the Fall of 1994 in Rhodes, Greece. Incredibly smart, both an archaeologist and an art historian with a perfectionist integrity for styles, dates, and research in art. It was a huge honor that he made a presentation and wrote the review for my 1996 show at To Dentro, in Rhodes, Greece. The review was published in the Greek newspaper the Rodiaki. The show was about the creative process for large definitive works that were then works in progress. A few years later, the same show but with the completed definitive works became an international traveling exhibition “Visions” 1998 November-Athens College, Athens, Greece; August-Ministry of Greek Culture, Rhodes, Greece; July-institute for Objectivist Studies, Summer Seminar, Boulder, Colorado.
Icarus: How Visual Artists Such as Myself and Bryan Larsen Steal, Borrow, and Originate
Icarus: How Visual Artists Such as Myself and Bryan Larsen Steal, Borrow, and Originate
Update on my WIP Model in the Studio
Today’s update on Model in the Studio, wip, oil on linen, 42x56” It is very interesting that there is a war going on now in the humanities, arts, and in politics. Essentially it’s reason, perception, truth, science, human values, benevolence, resolution, sense, and evolution vs. misinterpretation, manipulation, lies, opinion, ignorance, snark, malevolence, arbitrary, senseless, and devolution. I could not be happier and I chose wisely. Everything in this painting is in the first group, the 2nd group is post modern crap. Hard work and flourishing or bitter rage? Apparently for many people it’s not an easy choice.
Michael Newberry 