Thursday, February 28, 2008

Back to the Future

It's 5:30 and I am just getting of work. All day I have been contemplating what I was going to paint after work today. Well I can't seem to shake this future idea, so I am going to go with it. If you read the last post you may think it was a little crazy, a little out there. Well it is. The thing about trying to explain a painting with words, without the painting is that it's just words. It is like trying to explain a song with out the music just the lyrics. Imagine trying to explain a Fergy song, take Lady Lumps. Try to explain this without humming the tune or dancing or anything. It simply does not hold water on it's own......Not to say that that song holds water with the music playing but I hope you understand my point.

Well I'm gonna go for it, the Future Freeway painting. It has a nice ring to it.. I have painted so many freeways that I can look at a blank peace of paper and see a freeway on it without even the stroke of a pin. Because I see freeways, because they are imprinted into my head I feel I am ready to go for it with no visual references. That's right, right out of my head. This is why I am doing a future freeway instead of a normal freeway. I don't think I could actually depict a normal freeway without visual references but a future freeway I may have a chance at.

Trying to paint a future freeway is a lot like trying to describe a dream that you forgot.

This painting is a good exercise for me because it makes me create. It forces me to go some where I am afraid of. In painting something that does not exist I am stepping out of my comfort level. I feel as I did as a child jumping of the high dive for the first time. Scared but excited.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The Future

When did we get to the future. Well what I mean to say is that we don't look toward the future anymore as this place with men in tin foil suits. We don't have visions oi flying cars and floating city's in the sky. I think this is largely because we feel we are so advanced and that we are in the future. Or is it that we just grew up and those thoughts don't come up in everyday life. Well I don't know what the future holds as a race. Global Warming, a water world?.... Most theories I hear these days are negative, and perhaps they are correct. They do have evidence to back them up. Maybe humanity is going into a tailspin and soon it will be all over.
The sketch I did today did not reflect this negative vision, in fact it was the opposite. The sketch was of a positive outlook on a city in the future. It had a productive feel to it. I did not consciously come up with the idea, I just drew it. When I looked at it I wrote the future. Why was this sketch the future? Well everything looked different. The freeway seemed to have more cars on it. The buildings seemed to be the size of mountains. Something about this sketch was the same but different. So I went from sketch to painting (A small
one). My ideas of the future grew. I will upload the picture soon. But what if the future is a place where cars buildings and mountains grow. What if our knowledge allows us to create a living breathing world where houses build themselves. Some kind of Genetically engineered planet. Well I know it's not in these days to have a positive outlook on the future, nor a positive future for genetic engineering, but we have to be headed some where.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Portrait of Kim Louie

I am currently working on a portrait of a good friend Kim Louie. The painting is in the early stages and so far I am happy with it. I am using red violet and green. As the painting stands now it is very green. The green is there for what it will become. I will add the red violet to the green, which will cause the green to dull it, will become almost no color. A color that is on the cusps between green and red violet. This is what I want because in the shadows of the face colors are very dull.

For the areas of the face illuminated by light I will not add the red violet because I don’t want the colors to dull. Instead, I will add orange and red. In doing this the greens will become brownish but keep there intensity. Then I can add white witch will create the fleshy color.

You may ask if I am changing the colors anyway then why start with green. Why not just mix the colors and apply them directly?
The green is the middle ground. While most of it will disappear it keeps the colors connected on a natural color spectrum. As darkness falls on a subject it not only gets darker but it loses saturation. I am tapping into an intensity spectrum that happens in nature.

Thank you Kim for posing you are doing a good job I am looking forward to the next session.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

How the west was Won


This painting is about Manifest Destiny and how it made the West as it is today.

Highway 280


Why was it painted?
I painted it because I felt i was ready to re-visit my visual obsession, crowded Urban Landscapes. This time I wanted to bring it home to San Francisco on a highway I drive, 280.

How long did it take?
11 hours.

What about the color palette?

Well this time I stared with Cobalt Violet and Cadmium Yellow. I started with these colors because they are contrasting and they are very bright. When you combine these together they get very dull. The Brighter they are the Harder the Dull. Using these colors makes it possible to achieve many tones quickly. Most of the painting was built up in these two colors. In the final hours I added some blues and and reds to cool it down and bring it back to earth.
What inspired this painting?

Excess, Crowded Malls, Oil Spills and NFL linebackers

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Elite Artist

I was at a very small art show in the gallery today. I was wearing what I paint in. My old work pants (Which ripped on my bike) and a t shirt. It's a large rip from the base to the knee of my pants. I was checking out the work and chatting it up a bit. There was an artist there who really had a problem with what I was wearing. I could tell he was talking about me with his group of Friends. Knowing this I confronted him. He made it a point to call me out on my pants. I explained to him that I was at my art studio in my paint outfit I told him how the pants ripped and that I wanted to make good use of them. He then questioned the length of the rip, How could they rip that far from catching a bike chain?, he asked. I explained to him that the rip was small but it has been getting bigger. I then explained in great detail exactly how the rip came to be. I thought it was very silly that I had to explain to him the that the rip was unintentional. I think he thought I was trying to make a statement with my clothes , and this statement that he thought I was making he did not like. Then he went on to ask me why I didn't put a safety pin on them. I then got frustrated with this guy. I explained again to him that I am at an art studio and That my image is the last thing that I care about here. I don't know if he had a problem with my leg hair Forrest or what. I then told him my penis is not showing, the rip only goes to my knee so whats the problem. Annoyed I left the gallery to go paint.



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Anthony Papini
tonypapini.com