This blog is about daily paintings of things we create as art, place in galleries and museums, travels in China, at home, and the world. A painting a day, usually but often every few days.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Entrance: Antique China Doors
Entrance
6” x 6” acrylic on gessoed panel SOLD
Doors have been of interest to me since I was a child. There’s something mystical about doors that give us an imaginative view into another dimension, or a view into another time or space as C. S. Lewis’s doors through the wardrobe gives us entrance into Tales of Narnia.
This door is an antique one from Asia, which could be a door into a room, a wall, a cabinet, or wardrobe. What’s behind this door is the question that makes this object so intriguing. It could be the subject of a new novel or could simply give one enough to dream or imagine for a long time to come.
$99.00 unframed (free shipping in USA)
To buy this painting send an email to: wolberinchina@hotmail.com
International collectors send email for shipping information.
Textures, Morning Light on Li River
1/2" x 5" x 10" acrylic on gessoed panel SOLD
3D Detail
This is the third and last in the Li River series. This study almost violates the principle that warms advance and cools recede. Early morning light is coming up behind the limestone hills and cool shadows are still lingering in the foreground and the summer heat is coming up in the distance. So in this case, cool tones are in the foreground and warmer tones in the background and intermingling. I work from sketches and photos and when I took the photos for this painting I knew I’d have to rely on my visual memory for these color tones because the camera couldn’t record them well. I don’t want beginning students to work from photos for this reason. Many haven’t developed good visual memory and some don’t even know there is such a thing.
This painting is the opposite of the last one, “Reflections”. Here the light and color is coming alive with the new day. In “Reflections” everything is rapidly fading at the end of day. These are two different ideas and two different results.
To purchase other paintings or to receive additional information, send email to: wolberinchina@hotmail.com
Reflections, On Li River at Twilight
1/2” x 5” x 10” acrylic on gessoed panel
3D Detail
This is the second in the series on Li River in south China. Limestone mountains form “Dragon's Teeth” against the sky as boats travel down the Li River to Yangshou in Guangxi Autonomous Region.
While I was teaching in Beihai, on the Gulf of Tonkin coast in Guangxi, my wife and I traveled up to San Jang and from there to Guilin where we boarded the boat for the tour down Li River. If the water is still, there are good reflections on the river creating a mirror image of the jagged hills of limestone. Twilight is a magical time where everything begins to change and in a few minutes the image disappears.
The boat is a bamboo fishing boat, and sometimes you can see the owner's fishing bird, a cormorant (not seen here), with a ring around its neck to prevent it from swallowing the fish it catches.
Buy it now at $199.00 (free shipping in USA) or to receive additional information, send email to: wolberinchina@hotmail.com Purchase safely with PayPal from this site.
Perspective: Rice Fields on Li River, China
1/2” x 5” x 10” acrylic on gessoed panel SOLD
This is the first of a series of three views on the Li River in south China. A famous boat tour travels down the river from Guilin to Yangshou. Each painting focuses on a different visual element found in the natural environment, Perspective, Reflections, and Textures. Each painting will be posted as they are finished.
3D View detail
This work is created on a 1/2” thick wood edge so it stands out from the wall and is easy to hang on nail or hook without a frame. The panel gives the painting an “implied” depth or thickness that adds to the substance of the work. One of my old painting teachers taught that a painting should have a feeling of thickness or depth within itself and the way one presents the work helps to suggest this depth or space. Framing the work, of course, can add to this depth/space, but some frames can actually take away from this feeling and flatten the work against the wall surface. Painting on a panel such as the one above allows the work to be exhibited in a way that is contemporary and enhances the energy in the work.
To purchase other paintings or receive additional information, send email to:
wolberinchina@hotmail.com
Purchase safely with PayPal from this site.
Wall II 24” x 36” acrylic on gessoed panel with cutout Private Collection
This work takes the concept of “Trompe L’oeil” a step further. The upper left hole in the wall is literally cut out and set back into the frame, while other parts are painted to appear they are holes or set back. It is intended to play with the perception of the viewer. This work is now in a private collection and not available for sale, however, I posted it to show how a Trompe L'oeil work could be developed in a different way.
To buy other paintings on this blog, send an email to: wolberinchina@hotmail.com
Purchase safely with PayPal from this site
This is an example of a larger work done in similar style as the previous two small paintings. This work required a lot of time to paint and is done in what the French sometimes called “Trompe L’Oeil”, a type of illusionism that, in French means “a deceit of the eye” or “fool the eye”. The light is coming from the upper left side, so the painting needs to have actual light coming from that direction to feel correct in a room or gallery. The painting is 1/8” Masonite mounted on a wood frame almost 2” thick, so it works best hanging on a wall without a frame.
I call these works "self framed".
This painting is also available for sale but at a much higher price level than the small blog works because of the committment of time and work necessary to complete and is for the serious art collector. If you are interested in pricing on this work, send an email to: wolberinchina@hotmail.com
Weathering Process, abstract patterns in wood
7” x 5” acrylic on gessoed board SOLD
Detail at Actual Size
abstract pattern
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It’s interesting to observe how nature reclaims things. Many years ago when I was a professor at Greenville College in southern Illinois, one of my students did a study of sidewalks and how the natural process of weathering broke up the sidewalks and eventually nature reclaimed the earth around the broken pieces.
Weathered wood has always fascinated me and one can observe how nature changes wood over time. Bits of the wood split and crack and fall away. The surface colors are softened and blended in a wood wall and here nature creates beautiful tones that are difficult to reproduce in a painting. Viewed up close, the textures become pure abstract pattern rather than recognizable images. These kinds of contrasts are what interest me most when I'm painting.
Winter Storm, a snowy view 5” x 7” acrylic on gesso primed board
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Ice Storm, a winter scene 5” x 7” acrylic on gesso primed board
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To see all my past work on this blog click HERE.
We lost electric power on Monday, when a second ice storm struck our area and the power was off the better part of two days. It was difficult to see the beauty of the ice while it was creating havoc with our schedule, but after we got the wood stove burning it was toasty warm inside even with 15-degree temperature outside.
One of my former students asks a question I thought others might like to know; “Are the 5"x7" paintings done in a day?? I had to ask”. Here is my answer:
The small, 5” x 7” works are, for the most part, finished in a day or less. Some, I’ve carried over into a second day, but usually because I was distracted by some other activity that had been planned before, such as friends visiting or going to an exhibition or concert. I’m finding now, however, I want to put a little more time into some of them, so there will be some that will take more than a day to finish. Still, I want to regain some spontaneity, so I won’t deviate much from the painting a day idea.
Ironically, or maybe not so ironic, the Chinese painters I was teaching in Chongqing, China, taught me to think about painting more rapidly and spontaneously again, since they had been taught to regularly do a painting in one sitting. My early painting was in abstraction, so I’d painted that way in graduate school, but had become more deliberate when I began to do more realistic work. Now, I’m returning to some of my earlier practice.
I’m updating an earlier ice storm painting along with the one I just did today, so there are two paintings in this posting.
Michigan Red Barn 5" x 7" acrylic on gesso primed board
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To see all my past work on this blog click HERE.
Available
This is another red barn that is a good example of some details typical of early twentieth century architecture. Many of these old images are disappearing from the rural landscape in Michigan as well as in much of the Midwest. This is one of the few barns that is still maintained in relatively good condition. I enjoy seeing how the light plays off the landscape and on the architecture in early morning or late afternoon.
For complete story on why barns were painted red go here:
The idea to do a small daily painting began for me in November of 2006.
It was a way for me to make my paintings available to a growing number
of collectors. Since large works of original art cost much more than
many people are willing or able to pay, these small original paintings
can be purchased for little more than the cost of a very good meal in a
nice restaurant. I like that because it’s a very democratic idea to
make original art available so that many more can have a collection of
small original art in their homes.
I aim to create a new painting every few days. The paintings are small,
either 6” x 6” (15.2cm x 15.2cm) or 5” x 7” (12.7cm x 17.8cm) and range
in subject matter depending on the particular ideas I'm currently
thinking about. My interests derive from my travels and living in
China, Western Europe and here in the USA. My current paintings are
acrylic on gesso primed board and have a small edge or border so they
can be immediately hung without a frame. All paintings posted are for
sale unless indicated and I have shipped throughout the USA and
internationally.
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art, my blog or my experiences as an artist, teacher and traveler.
Please feel free to send an email question on any subject and I’ll do
my best to give a timely answer.
If you see a painting you would like to own, you may purchase it by
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always easy to see the exact color and nature of art works on a
computer screen, please see my handling information and guarantee
below. When purchasing please refer to the handling and guarantee
information.
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