New Art: Separation

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Separation (Alien and Spaceship 01), digital painting by Eric Wayne, 9/2016

I’m going off in a bit of a new direction with this one in that I’m focusing less on surface, more on imagery, and more on realistic rendering. This was a struggle, partly because in the midst of it I decided to do a new series using a different approach, and temporarily abandoned this piece, then took it up again when I convinced myself it would work well as part of the series. The series in question is “Aliens and Spaceships”, and this image seemed like a good one to begin with because it’s unconventional, as in the alien isn’t derivative, in which case the viewer might suspect that what would come next couldn’t be predicted. I can’t predict it. Changing approaches midstream adds complications. For the series I intend to start from thumbnail sketches, line drawings, then establish the values in B&W, and then go nto color. But this one I started as a “speed painting” working directly in color. Yeah, it’s anything but a speed painting now. Read More

Kanye West’s Sculpture Killed Conceptual Art

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Kanye West’s hyper-realist, breathing, conceptual sculpture, “Famous”.

“If you didn’t know that this was a work by Kanye West, and instead was the work of a known artist in the art world, the perception of the piece would be completely different — it would be celebrated and universally supported at the highest level.” ~ Tim Blum.

When aspiring art demigods boldly declared that anything is art and anyone can be an artist, they were really only talking about themselves and their personal legacies. A select few revolutionary artists presumed to possess the radical vision to transform art and civilization along with it. In a room full of Duchamp’s the only revolutionary is the homeless figurative painter stumbling along outside on his way to crash on the cold cement in the subway where he’ll slowly perish [this happened to a figurative painter in real life]. Somewhere along the way the techniques and rhetoric of the most “radical” artists were taken up by commodities brokers, and finally pop celebrities with enormous disposable incomes. We’d thought that anyone could make a painting, but only a true revolutionary could make the mental leap of producing conceptual art. Now it’s reversed. Anyone with the money and connections can be a conceptual artist, and the harder challenge is making something with your own hands and own vision, by yourself.

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Final Eyeborg, and a work in progress.

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Eyeborg, August 2016.

Hi Folks. This was a “speed painting”, but I liked it well enough so touched it up a bit to add it to my gallery. It’s not my normal style, or I should say not really in the range of what I’ve already done, so adds a bit more eclecticism. I may never do anything quite like this again.

For example, here’s something I’m working on now. Uh, it started out as a speed painting, but it’s ending up being more of an unpremeditated, not-overly fussed over painting.

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This one’s got a ways to go.

Meanwhile in the news, things suddenly took a nosedive where I’m living, just when I was actually telling people things are going good. Another government has stepped up their cracking down on expats. I’d say more but better not to stick my proverbial neck out.

The struggles of being a non-conformist artist. The intrinsic rewards are good, but the extrinsic ones suck.

Things should even out soon though, after this somewhat dramatic blip, and then I can focus more on art.

Cheers,

Eric

 

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Speed Painting: Eyeborg

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The idea of a speed painting is to do it as fast and efficiently as possible. This is my first attempt. Probably took me about 3-4 hours. maybe a bit more. And it’s not really finished, but close enough. Oh, yes. this is digital. I don’t think you can work that fast with analog mediums. And normally I work quite slowly, and I generally churn out about a piece a month (and a few unfinished or abandoned attempts). Trying to pick up my pace and do digital painting in a more, uh, conventional manner as applies to technique. Right now I’m focusing on my rendering skills, especially lighting, shading, and modeling.  This is practice, which is also something I’m not big on doing. I usually attempt full blown works or nothing.

I could improve it, but in the spirit of speed painting, I’ll leave it a bit rough and move on. Oh yeah, and the guys who normally do speed paintings don’t do stuff that looks like Picasso or George Condo. They do babes and hulks and dragons and whatnot. Nevertheless they are extremely proficient at their process (the best of them anyway) – I’m talking about concept artists and illustrators.

Seems like either an artist has all the skills (talking specifically about image makers here), and lacks originality, or has lots of originality and lacks the skills. I’m trying to hit home with both, and busy upping my traditional skills.

Expect some aliens and spaceships coming up. Just a theme I think I can get into, so I can focus more on rendering, and less on subject matter for a spell.

Cheers,

Eric

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Observations after watching School of Saatchi

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The original contestants for the art reality TV series.

“I feel insulted to have to look at this”. It looked like crap.

Why am I writing about a reality TV show about aspiring artists from 2009? Because I just discovered it and binge-watched it, and I had an array of responses to it, mostly positive feelings about art (especially conceptual art), until the surprise ending unraveled it all and made it a farce, which makes the whole of the series the more interesting.

The premise of  “The School of Saatchi” is that they get a dozen students, quickly reduce them to six, and then put them through various art challenges until one triumphs and is rewarded with a studio for 3 years, a piece included in a show in the Hermitage , and a head-start on becoming a blue chip celebrity artist. A small panel of art world luminaries, including Tracey Emin and Matthew Collings provide mini-critiques (a normal critique can last longer than the whole series). Read More

WIP, further along

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This piece is unpremeditated, so, right, I’m making it up as I go along, including some of the technique. I can’t predict where it will go, but the more resolved areas are the least likely to change. But they might. Probably need a couple more weeks to finish this.

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Work in progress – Hollowed

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You can see how I’m working here. Very directly. Just laying down color and then looking at it for images, then starting to manifest them. This one’s already surprising me. I wrote more about what it’s about, and why I’m digging where it’s going, but I deleted it. If I say too much, I might lose my excitement about it or motivation to complete it. Hopefully I can pull it off without losing a certain essence it has now, which I find a little scary.

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