Artist Process: 'White Rose', Demo turned into a Work of Art.

'White Rose'  C.T. Rasmuss, acrylic - 14"x 18" (2015).

I hope you like what you see here!!!

 I meant to post this a few months back when I actually finished this painting after 3 short sittings.  I started it as a demo to a student of mine, during a 2 hour beginner class.  After the class I put it away for about week or so, until I took another look.  In order to establish artist process, you can see the original for yourself, which I've posted below...as finished in the class I taught:

"'White Rose' - 1st composition"   C.T. Rasmuss, acrylic - 14"x 18" (2015). 

You'll notice, all I did was add more layers, detail and mostly plenty of texture to my favorite part of the finished painting:  it's Blue vase!

This entire composition and floral was taken mostly from the top of my head, and partly from a few imitation silk florals that I pieced together for my student's lesson.  Upon reviewing the original condition of the Still life, my girlfriend agreed and convinced me that it was worth finishing; two sittings later I ended up with what you see in the 1st photo.

I also took a snapshot of the 2nd sitting, but had since then lost it somewhere.  Anyways, once I was convinced that I could do no more harm, the foreground & vase calmly found a place into my heart; so I framed it and a few weeks later was able to find it a new home in June.

Most importantly here, it wasn't the fact that I sold it to confirm the painting was absolutely finished, but it was purely artist's intuition I must say; and I stand by my work!!  I hope this helps you with any of your still-life painting's in question, new or old.

ZEN; Another Lucid Mosaic(in process) by C.T. Rasmuss.

'ZEN(in process)'  C.T. Rasmuss, Lucid mosaic(original concept by C.T.).



Here's the Lucid Mosaic I've been workin on since, late January of this year; I've posted some conceptual drawings below, in order of conception.  Just to verify to anyone who has followed my career and my original mosaic/painting method - My direct influences for this particular style is not just the pouring method of Jackson Pollock and impasto style of Van Gogh, but here particularly like my last Mosaic('Night & Day; A Modern Dilemma' by C.T. Rasmuss) my additional influences on this one are: Frank Stella for the color/grayscale effect, and M.C. Escher concerning composition and mathematics.

 

 

 



I have included these preliminary drawings to give you a sense of my preparation that goes into, coming up with the ideas for my mosaics.  Many people, other artists and professionals of all kind always talk about being afraid of others stealing their ideas; as for me, I am some what concerned, when the thought of it crosses my mind, but I feel in my heart that I'm blessed with a talent that is to be shared with those who are willing, and if my talent/idea is truly strong and unique enuff, as I 'believe' it to be, then I've nothing to worry about.

 

 

 

Enjoy and I hope you learn something, especially from how we can learn so much from the Masters..

 

 

Link to: ZEN Part II - The Finished Piece



 



Huang Gongwang's 'Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains' (Part 1of 2).

So I enjoy meeting with an artist's group called, Creativa where there's always a plethora of mediums and backgrounds from which the artist operate; we've meet every 2nd Saturday for the last 5 years here in Cincinnati, OH. great times I might add!!

Monthly dilemma: what to do?  Like any other piece I attempt, I'm lucky in that it usually comes to me quick, then I just need to figure which direction to go in; again most like any other time, but this is a live performance which I've incorporated over the last few times we've met.  Here's my process for tonight; (short and quick) if your interested...

note: some variations in steps/order for each time I prepare, as artists are hopefully always changing their ways!!


Step 1: MEDIUM-  Which will be India Ink tonight.

Step 2: SET UP-     I will be using what I have available, which is a large sheet of heavy watercolor paper
                               tonight.


Step 3: COMPOSITION-
                               
                                Tonight I decided for the 1st time to pay homage to the originators of this  
                                medium; and  I'm now in the hunt to learn more about one of these masters from                             
                                the East.


Step 4: SKETCH- Once I find what strikes me, I'll learn more about their work, and quickly sketch it.

Step 5: CHOOSE MUSIC- I usually choose 3-4 songs totaling under 10-12 minutes, theme's important.

Step 6: EXECUTE!!!

Step 7: SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE REST OF THE NIGHT AND ARTISTS AT WORK!!!

Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (first half)  Huang Gongwang (1350).

Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" is one of the few surviving works by the painter Huang Gongwang in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).  He's considered a member of the "four great masters of the Yuan." 

Huang spent his last years in the Fuchun Mountains near Hangzhou and completed this painting in 1350.

After Sketching I ran into bit of a problem..

This MASTERPIECE requires much more than just a quick sketch I believe, and I wouldn't be giving it's due or the artist his respect if I didn't study this very intricate and complex composition much more before executing.  It took an attempt at sketching before realizing this and rather than forcing it; I will now move to plan B, and render a photo I took last night after leaving a disappointing art opening.

TO BE CONTINUED...