Stuart Davis' "Yellow Hills"; The Gift of Sight

About 6 months ago I went to the Taft Museum to see a guest exhibit of work on loan from the collection of The Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California.  I went with my then new girlfriend Michelle, we had a good time and remain much closer today, which I'm very thankful for.  It was an inspiring exhibition, we were both glad we went; the painting that inspired me the most was a painting by Stuart Davis, which happens to also be the painting surrounding this post; the original seen here:

Stuart Davis "Yellow Hills" c.1919 oil.

Most of my posts usually are all about art or my processes n so on, but today's post is a little different; the reason for this is due to the fact that I'm still recovering from eye surgery to repair 2 tears in my left retina.  For the last month I've been deathly afraid of losing the sight in the one eye, which would be very tragic, especially with me being a visual artist n all, I feel much better as the surgery went well, and recovery seems on schedule, but the scare it has put in me fades slowly...

Above 2 photos: I've posted the sketch I made from Stuart Davis's "Yellow Hills" c.1919 and the initial painting I finished the night we got back from the museum.  I wasted no time at all getting something done via the inspiration I received from the exhibition that day, but it has taken me over 6 months getting back to finishing what I had started...shown below is where I am with it today after my second sitting since just before surgery last week:

As it stand for now, perhaps the 1st sitting is better than the 2nd seen here...but today I'm not concerned with the recurring topic of "when is an artist finished?"; I am only concerned with the new question that I've never truly digested before:  "Am I happy to just be able to paint, or do art in the first place?"

That answer is: YES!!! I am, and I hope to no longer take it as for granted I have in the past, ever again.

amen

And here's to a full and speedy recovery...

amen

Mazement: Finding the Cheese Again.

Mazement   C.t.Rasmuss, oil (2014).

I can't remember the mood I was in when I set out to paint the above oil abstract, that I finished a few weeks ago, but I can say that the drawing on the canvas about a month before and it just sat there ever since.  Since then I'd been like a deer in headlights, and every time my eyes were cast upon it, it reminded me more and more of my laziness, frustration, vexation, annoyance, or being stumped(perhaps all of them at one point) and this is all I can remember and why I chose this particular painting today.

Because this is also how I feel today, not 'Mazement' as in amazed, but just the opposite: suck in a maze, today I contemplated earlier, hear at a place I frequent for coffee and WIFI, and where I show some of my work; where I picked up four of my artworks today from November's show, as soon as I saw the two large ones leaning on one another face to face(the smaller two in the same fashion I later found), I was instantly offended, I felt immediately that the person in charge of this: 1, has no idea what they're doing and either 2 has no real regard for the art-work.

No matter the actual truth behind it, I got a feeling that my art-work(style) was probably completely misunderstood in such a place, and therefore: I drew a quick conclusion that perhaps it has no home hear or anywhere really; so now I contemplate: "Should it Matter?"(there's a good chance that I could be mis-reading the entire situation); but at least I know I could never twist my talent and make work just to sell - this is entirely out of the question to fix this problem, and as a result I'm faced head on with: the difficult choice to continue on with no promise, nor any clear direction, into the Abyss I feel...lol!

Some days this journey is "on hold", some days I jump in face first, some days it just happens natural, and some days, like over this weekend, it beat me up pretty good, so the question is: What kind of mouse will I be today in this Maze?;  I'd say the same goes for all of us, so...how bout you?..what will you get done today?  As for me, tho minimal, I've at least gotten started...gotten over that hump or around that 1st turn, and hopefully I just might find the cheese again, even if its just for today, F it!!!

'Struggle' Turns into 'Heavenly Dutch Windmill' by C.T. Rasmuss.

                      Heavenly Dutch Windmill  C.T. Rasmuss, oil/acrylic colle (June 2013).


With this one, I started off with a blank canvas(of course), but the finished work shown here, is entirely different from what it was just the nite before last.  I finished a painting that I wasn't sure about, if it was finished or a just complete mess.  It was very dark & chaotic, and I saw it as a metaphor for my struggles, I mean clear as day; but it showed me winning in this struggle...I was 'stamping' out the enemy.  And after a few days my victory was obvious and I was tired of looking at the ugly residue!!!

                                        'Struggle', no longer exists...reference above work.


So I decided I was going to 'stamp' this image out of existence, for real..."I want Beauty", I thought to myself..."I don't need to be reminded of its ugliness, not in the least".

When I started out originally I had no idea what I was going to do, I was practicing a subconscious technique, which obviously worked, "but could it be done again? is this the final product or is there a second part to this interpretive metaphor?"; only one way to find out and I took the hard way out!

I recalled a student of mine asking me "do you ever paint off the top of your head?";  that day I answered with a quick painting(Top of the Floral), off the top of my head...and now this day I realized, after spending many more hours on 'Struggle' that The finished piece now known as 'Heavenly Dutch Windmill' is what was off the top of my head, the 1st ugly one is what got me there, a Metamorphosis if you will.  I win!

                                            Top of the Floral mentioned above C.T. Rasmuss

Paul Gauguin's 'Still Life with Mandolin', 1885; featuring a remake by C.T. Rasmuss.

Opening statement from one of my art-books on Paul Gauguin:

"Gauguin has reworked the traditional still life and brought it up to date.  He has retained a number of conventional ingredients-the rose...however he's not studied the different textures of the objects-the peonies are solid as the wood...The picture on the wall belonged to Gauguin(painted by his artist friend, Armand Guillaumin), similar to a view out of a window as in his own, 'Vase of Flowers', 1881."

                                          Still Life with Mandolin, Paul Gauguin; oil (1885).

The following is my interpretation/Remake of the above accompanying statement/composition:

                       Remake of Gauguin's 'Still Life with Mandolin' (Lily); C.T. Rasmuss (CHAD), oil (2013). 

I see now after looking at the table, that I have a larger angle sloping downward from the left, changing the space and composition via vanishing line.  Where the vase sets, this vanishing line is briefly interrupted, here I'm reminded of Cezanne's still life's; where many of his lines were adjusted, sacrificed for the overall feeling of the work, which played a big role in Gauguin's work(and later the Modernists)..

From the beginning I set out to fill a space similar to Gauguin's original, which included color.  I planned on leaving out the Mandolin & possibly the China bowl(another reference to Cezanne); due to my unfamiliarity with such iconic objects, as I've never had a use or interacted with either one.  Once everything was in place, including place-mat(pun intended) & vase, I then started with the darkest leaves(undergrowth) continuing to use a brush, experimenting with technique; then I tried the peonies, but being unfamiliar with them up close, I had trouble to get them to work for me.  

Solution:

I turned my attention to the opening statement above(from my art-book)...I said to myself: "This is not me" and reached for the palette knife, from then on I never left my array of knifes, end result:

Thinly brush on 1st layer over entire canvas, brush on texture and objects as far as the brushes will take you; when all else fails: "Pick up the palette knives..and don't look back"!  In other words, study all you can and when you like something, don't copy it, but "make it your own", same as Gauguin had done over 100 years ago; hence my Lily instead of his Mandolin, I'm very familiar with Lilies:)