Friday, December 14, 2007

bing



Bing is the real "King". Okay, here's the quick history of popular music as I've learned it through my "learnin's":

-Bing

-Dean Martin ( often quoted as having the strong desire to mimic Crosby's style, and indeed did. Look for it in his manner and singing style. It's pure Bing!))

-Elvis Presley ( often quoted as wanting to mimic Dean Martin's style of singing. No real evidence of this ambition, but remember...It's still Bing)

-Everyone from the Beatles to the Rolling Stones. All of the British invasion and American Rock comes from Elvis and Blues. The Jazz ( primarily Dixieland, but also "experimental" as well) influence was brought into American households ( and parts of Europe) by, you guessed it, Bing! I know I'm over-simplifying, but the musicologists know the score.

Hey, it's important.

I made a movie showing the making of this painting ( I'm working on Bob Hope to go with Bing). I used all M.Graham products for this painting. The walnut oil in the paint and the medium are a super safe alternative to linseed oil/ turp methods. They also make a walnut oil for cleaning. You can eliminate petroleum from the oil painting process ( Leonardo didn't have them either). Walnut oil also doesn't yellow over time like linseed oil.

I also mixed the neutral grey ( gray?) from color. Using a black/white ( or worse, straight out of the tube Payne's grey) mixture doesn't have the same "vibrato" as a neutral mixed from complementary colors. You can play against your backround color that way.

Oh, incidentally, I took this from a "head shot" studio pic from 1942. This is my favorite period for Crosby's music, but he made some fantastic recordings up until the late 50's. My interest in his material ends in the 60's ( and don't get me started on that David Bowie "song").

Here's my new movie:

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Sunday, December 09, 2007

granny lady



What's the one variety of insect that I won't break a $500.00 lamp to kill? The ladybug! I make every attempt to make the house and yard a bug-free zone, but the ladybug seems to slip through my net of Malathyon ( a super nasty neuro-toxin that works REALLY well! Oddly, we have no cats or birds around the house either...).

I was painting the other night and had a 45 minute "departure" just watching one moving around my palette. These little guys are all over the house, and I have absolutely no fear/gross-response at all. Is it because they're cute and they move in a neat little meandering way ( kind of like Groucho negotiating an office...)? Is this why Jessica Simpson ( or any one of "those"...) makes zillions of dollars to contribute basically nothing to the world of "entertainment"? Whatever happened to the triple-threat ( singer, dancer, actor...and you had to do them ALL well)? Now you can just be kind of generic and cute!

Hey, at least the ladybugs don't sing off-key!



granny lady, 2007

6" x 6", oil on gessoed panel

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