Readers of this letter frequently ask if I think there’s some sort of malaise in art these days—particularly in Western Art. Some want to know if it’s all to do with the economy.
You can read more here.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Art, Dreams, the Recession, Google.
By now you've heard me talk a lot about inspiration. Painter and mentor Robert Genn has just posted a very interesting blog entry that touches on this subject:
You can read more here.
You can read more here.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Eighteen.
Howdy. Another numerical post title tonight - eighteen being the number of paintings that'll be in my next show.
Past few days have been extremely productive. Creativity is bursting at the seams again. Lots of painting, a bit of drawing, lots of design. All of the metalflake paintings are well underway now - the final four are in the glazing process. That should be finished soon, and then it'll be clearcoat time again.
The glazing process is probably my favourite part of the whole sequence now. So much fun playing with vibrant colour, and it's probably the least labour-intensive step, too. It's funny - my first attempt at glazing was only four years ago, and at the time I thought I did a bang-up job. Other painters who saw the piece were generous with their praise, too. And the painting was garbage. Just horrible. I didn't even know how to hold a brush properly for glazing at that point. Plus I kinda skimped on the drawing part of the process 'cause I was so geared up to start painting.
Anyhow, glazing and I are old friends now. I think it was reading about how and why glazing was done in the Renaissance era that made it all come together for me - essentially, the pigments they had were so primitive, they'd do a yellow glaze and then a blue glaze on top to create green (for example). In some ways that seems needlessly complicated in the modern era, but similar practices do add a lot more vibrancy and chroma to colour.
Meanwhile, I thrashed out the designs for seven more of these paintings today:
And last night I whipped up a list of what design will go on which painting:
Everything's coming along nicely, now. I should soon be able to predict a completion date.
Good times, good times...
Past few days have been extremely productive. Creativity is bursting at the seams again. Lots of painting, a bit of drawing, lots of design. All of the metalflake paintings are well underway now - the final four are in the glazing process. That should be finished soon, and then it'll be clearcoat time again.
The glazing process is probably my favourite part of the whole sequence now. So much fun playing with vibrant colour, and it's probably the least labour-intensive step, too. It's funny - my first attempt at glazing was only four years ago, and at the time I thought I did a bang-up job. Other painters who saw the piece were generous with their praise, too. And the painting was garbage. Just horrible. I didn't even know how to hold a brush properly for glazing at that point. Plus I kinda skimped on the drawing part of the process 'cause I was so geared up to start painting.
Anyhow, glazing and I are old friends now. I think it was reading about how and why glazing was done in the Renaissance era that made it all come together for me - essentially, the pigments they had were so primitive, they'd do a yellow glaze and then a blue glaze on top to create green (for example). In some ways that seems needlessly complicated in the modern era, but similar practices do add a lot more vibrancy and chroma to colour.
Meanwhile, I thrashed out the designs for seven more of these paintings today:
And last night I whipped up a list of what design will go on which painting:
Everything's coming along nicely, now. I should soon be able to predict a completion date.
Good times, good times...
Friday, July 22, 2011
First Rule of Creativity.
I've said this elsewhere, but I think I oughta elaborate on it here a bit: The first rule of creativity is, feed your head.
You need to stuff your brain full of inspiration - read more books, go to more movies, listen to more music, talk to more people, travel to more places, drink more booze. Then let all the input rattle around in your subconscious. You might just be surprised at the result.
Case in point: I haven't been creatively blocked in years. I've got notebooks and sketchpads full of untapped ideas that could keep me going for a long time to come. Surely I can't be unique in this regard.
You need to stuff your brain full of inspiration - read more books, go to more movies, listen to more music, talk to more people, travel to more places, drink more booze. Then let all the input rattle around in your subconscious. You might just be surprised at the result.
Case in point: I haven't been creatively blocked in years. I've got notebooks and sketchpads full of untapped ideas that could keep me going for a long time to come. Surely I can't be unique in this regard.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Seventeen.
Tuesday was an interesting day. Didn't get to sleep till about 3:00AM, and then abruptly woke up three hours later. And let me tell ya, I was WIDE AWAKE. Tried to get back to sleep for half an hour or so, but it just wasn't working. I felt like I'd been mainlining Full Throttle.
So I got up, checked my email and then had a look at the previous night's artwork. Immediately started touching up a few details on the various paintings. By 7:30 I'd worked on four paintings. And of course there were plenty more needing my attention; I've always got a few paintings on the go, but lately the numbers have ramped up considerably.
Kept chipping away at the artwork all day, other than for a couple hours when I took a break and went down to the beach.
At the end of a 19-hour day, I'd lavished my attention on 17 paintings. No errors or missteps, no regrets. The creativity and the paint flowed, despite how jittery I was from sleep deprivation. Not a day I'd necessarily want to repeat, but the results speak for themselves:
So I got up, checked my email and then had a look at the previous night's artwork. Immediately started touching up a few details on the various paintings. By 7:30 I'd worked on four paintings. And of course there were plenty more needing my attention; I've always got a few paintings on the go, but lately the numbers have ramped up considerably.
Kept chipping away at the artwork all day, other than for a couple hours when I took a break and went down to the beach.
At the end of a 19-hour day, I'd lavished my attention on 17 paintings. No errors or missteps, no regrets. The creativity and the paint flowed, despite how jittery I was from sleep deprivation. Not a day I'd necessarily want to repeat, but the results speak for themselves:
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Best New Products of 2011.
As you may or may not have noticed, Liquitex makes a few products that really float my boat. I'd be lost without their Pouring Medium (I've probably gone through three gallons of it so far this year), and they make the best palette knives I've ever had the pleasure to use.
But recently they're stepped up their game in a couple areas. For one, they've got a new line of brushes aimed (primarily) at street artists called Liquitex Freestyle. As you can see from the link these are divided into two groups, the large-scale brushes and the more traditionally-sized ones. The first group is particularly innovative, and obviously the result of listening to what painters actually want. The paddle brush and the splatter brush are my faves so far.
The other product shown in the photo is Acrylic Inks. I'm doing a lot of glazing these days, and the inks are amazing in this capacity. Beyond that, they behave a lot like watercolours, but have the permanence and lightfastness of acrylics. That's a winning combo in my book.
Now I just need to paint something huge...
But recently they're stepped up their game in a couple areas. For one, they've got a new line of brushes aimed (primarily) at street artists called Liquitex Freestyle. As you can see from the link these are divided into two groups, the large-scale brushes and the more traditionally-sized ones. The first group is particularly innovative, and obviously the result of listening to what painters actually want. The paddle brush and the splatter brush are my faves so far.
The other product shown in the photo is Acrylic Inks. I'm doing a lot of glazing these days, and the inks are amazing in this capacity. Beyond that, they behave a lot like watercolours, but have the permanence and lightfastness of acrylics. That's a winning combo in my book.
Now I just need to paint something huge...
Friday, June 24, 2011
It's All About Context.
One of the things that makes being an artist so fulfilling is the feedback I get from people. Another big one is knowing that my art is in so many people's homes and offices. Ideally I'd like to have something of mine in every Canadian province and U.S. state (among many other places).
Off the top of my head, there is art of mine in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. That only leaves Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In the U.S.: California, Ohio, North Dakota, D.C., Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Virginia... obviously I've got a long way to go there. I've also sold prints, calendars and t-shirts in England and Australia.
What really floats my boat, though, is seeing the art in context - hanging on someone's wall, where people see it every day. It's kinda mindblowing sometimes to think that people are spending their time looking at my art that way. A handful of people have even been kind enough to send me photos:
Honestly, this does my heart good. Thanks, everybody.
Off the top of my head, there is art of mine in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. That only leaves Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In the U.S.: California, Ohio, North Dakota, D.C., Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Virginia... obviously I've got a long way to go there. I've also sold prints, calendars and t-shirts in England and Australia.
What really floats my boat, though, is seeing the art in context - hanging on someone's wall, where people see it every day. It's kinda mindblowing sometimes to think that people are spending their time looking at my art that way. A handful of people have even been kind enough to send me photos:
Honestly, this does my heart good. Thanks, everybody.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Six More.
Slowly accumulating ideas for the Metalflake series of paintings. I almost wish I'd called it something else, because I seem to be pathologically incapable of typing the word without help.
At any rate, there are now four completed paintings (three of which have been sold), seven more that will soon be ready for the white lineart, and another six that are just in the early, texture-building stage right now. The single most time-consuming phase, of course, is slowly building up layers of clearcoat over the metallic-looking textures.
In the meantime I'm free to design the lineart. I've got a 3.5x5.5-inch drawing pad that I've been slowly filling with thumbnails since December. The process goes something like this: I scan the thumbnails, import them into Adobe Illustrator and redraw the lineart in vector format. Eventually the vector art gets printed at actual size, and I use that to make my stencils.
The ideas have been coming fast and furious lately - inspiration comes when it comes, I guess. Here are the basic designs for the next six:
Till next time,
Bret Taylor
Vancouver
June 20/2011
At any rate, there are now four completed paintings (three of which have been sold), seven more that will soon be ready for the white lineart, and another six that are just in the early, texture-building stage right now. The single most time-consuming phase, of course, is slowly building up layers of clearcoat over the metallic-looking textures.
In the meantime I'm free to design the lineart. I've got a 3.5x5.5-inch drawing pad that I've been slowly filling with thumbnails since December. The process goes something like this: I scan the thumbnails, import them into Adobe Illustrator and redraw the lineart in vector format. Eventually the vector art gets printed at actual size, and I use that to make my stencils.
The ideas have been coming fast and furious lately - inspiration comes when it comes, I guess. Here are the basic designs for the next six:
Till next time,
Bret Taylor
Vancouver
June 20/2011
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