Anticipating breakfast.

Oh, eggs are glorious.

This photo is from Laurie’s blog, Liquid Paper.  She has a recipe for boiled eggs that Jonathan is going to try out for me tomorrow.  I can’t wait.

A talk about symbolism, allegory, and 9/11.

This is the first video of a talk Graydon Parrish gave about his painting “The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy: September 11, 2001″ at the New Britain Museum of American Art on September 11, 2009.

A bicycle.

The weather has been nice lately.  Enjoy!

Best documentaries of the decade, and my favorite film.

Documentaries became my true entertainment for the decade.  When in the mood for a comedy, choose a documentary.   Ditto that for drama, action, and the news.

Newsworthy:

1. The Corporation
2. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism
3. McLibel
4. Control Room
5. Darwin’s Nightmare
6. The Trials of Henry Kissinger
7. Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Prices
8. Why We Fight
9. Taxi to the Dark Side
10. Born into Brothels
11. Fog of War
12. Grizzly Man

Makes me smile:

1. Spellbound (I could watch this a million times)
2. Jazz
3. Word Wars: The Trials and Tribulations of the Scrabble Game Circuit
4. Crazy Love
5. Word Play
6. Man on Wire

While you are in the mood for a documentary:

1. The Staircase
2. Who Killed the Electric Car?
3. The Thin Blue Line
4. King of Kong
5. Food Inc.
6. Supersize Me
7. Sicko
8. Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden

Once you are used to documentaries and not much else looks good, try these:

1. Vernon, Florida
2. King Corn
3. Roger and Me

Well, I got tired of linking everything; sorry.

For Film:

The most memorable movie of the decade for me was Russian Ark.  Perhaps it is unfair to compare other films to it.

It is a film that is part play (filmed in one long take), part documentary (taking you through the history of the Hermitage), and part symphony (with a gorgeous score).  It is so enchanting and devastatingly beautiful.  Please watch it.

Old head studies.

Happy 2010!  For me it is time to clean up and refocus.  I was clearing out the garage this morning in an effort to make room to park our van in while the temperatures are below freezing.  In one old, enormous container was stored some head studies from my Graduate days.  I used to paint head studies once or twice a week. The first thing Jonathan said when I showed him was, “Your style has really changed.”  I think I have progressed and have started going down a different route.  Classical Realism is my new favorite; it takes much longer and yields a different result, one that is more statuesque and calm.  The impressionist style is a beautiful chaos.  I like the controlled manner of the Classical Realists.  Take a look:

The Classical Realists call this type of color theory “broken color”:

This head study was painted from life back in 2001 or 2002.  My skin tones always came our very patchy.

This is a pencil sketch that I am working on now in preparation for a painting:

I will continue to smooth out some of those values on the back to keep from getting those exaggerated value changes.

Shaken.

Below is a response that I pulled off of the Rational Painting forum.  I feel like the author is talking to me.

You seem to be under the impression that mastering drawing will be a simple matter of doing a few exercises when you get around to it. I think you’ll realize how unrealistic an idea that is if you ever do try it. Every day you waste doing something else is another step forward you’re not taking. At the end of our lives, we are not reimbursed for time we’ve wasted. If you aspire to ever become a Master-level artist, the time to begin the serious pursuit of it is right now, and if you put it off, you’re kidding yourself if you think it will be attainable later in life through a less than whole-hearted effort. The easiest time to learn these things is in childhood. A late start is a handicap one has to work very hard to overcome. In fact I doubt it’s possible to ever overcome such a handicap entirely. How good an artist do you want to be? The place to start is drawing from direct observation. Working from photos will be counterproductive in that regard. It will interfere with the development of your eye.
–Virgil Elliott

Listing, everyone is doing it.

Lists from the last decade.

Some books I read (in full or in part, or on audio):

The Idiot, Player Piano, The Feast of Love, In Defense of Food, Facing East, Becoming Orthodox, Moon and Sixpence, The Plague, Sophie’s World, Crime and Punishment, The Iliad, The Odyssey,The Painter in Oil, Charteris’ John Sargent, The Elements of Color by Itten, Charles Bargue Drawing Course, Letters to an American Lady, Loved Ones, Brideshead Revisited, Treasure Island, The Botany of Desire, To the Lighthouse, Columbine, The Cheese Monkeys, The Minpins, No Country for Old Men,…

Some people I met:

Jonathan Pope, Miles and Henry and Jane Pope, Johnny and Barbara Pope, Laurie and Mark Bertand, The Hortons, Nick from Islands, Jacob Collins, Nancy Guzik, Molly Schmid, Stan Rayfield, John Hodgman, Bishop Antoun and another Russian priest, Paula and Josh Gibbs, The Mosleys, The Wilkins, Michelle Henghold, Gloria Cooper, The Hughes, Lauren and The Chiltons, The Hollands, The Nolands, The Trotters, Mary Willis and the Bertrams, Toby, Casey Price, Anna Barnes, Theresa Raus, Justin Hughes, Becky Cox, Meg and Bruce, John and Nadia, The Wagners, John Schortmann, The Bleams, The Youngs, Dan and Joice, Camie Davis, Nick Hiltner, Andy and Remy, Fr. Ambrose, Judith, Kevin and Garrett Thomsen and Penelope, Jesse Weaver, Jennifer Friedrich and Frieda, the ladies at Malena’s Mini School, Becca Huber and Tracy Malone.

Visited:

Greece, England, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Houston, Natchez, Chicago, Monroe, Dallas, Waco, Lake Kiowa, San Antonio, New Orleans, Mobile, Gulf Shores, Graceland, Memphis.

Became Orthodox.

I don’t really enjoy chopping up my life in decades, but I guess doing it helps me remember popular culture and gives context.  I aged from 21 years to 31 and that felt more like 3 decades.  I look forward to the next X.

Painting by Hiroshi Furuyoshi: