Silver and Gold

23 x 36 Oil on Linen

I've been reading Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia. It examines the place music occupies in the brain and chronicles anomalous perceptions of music by his patients. Some experience seizures when exposed to certain kinds of music (musicolepsia), others hear tunes or musical phrases repeated over and over (brainworms), some, like Schumann, are tortured by a single repeated note. Some suffer from amusia (perceiving music as noise) while others with perfect pitch cannot help identifying the musical signature of a car horn, or a sneeze or a dog's bark. Last night I read the chapter on synesthesia. Synesthesia literally means a fusing of the senses. The most common form is seeing color when hearing music, D major is blue or G minor is yellow. Some people experience letters of the alphabet as colors while others can taste musical notes. Normally only the auditory cortex of the brain is activated when one hears music but a synestete experiences activity in more than one part of the brain. If they see color when hearing music both the auditory and visual sections are activated. I hear my paintings as music and am often asked if I experience synesthesia. I think not because my associations are not so specific but rather general patterns and rhythms and dynamics. The auditory and visual sections of my brain are playing with each other or having a conversation rather than acting in concert. Reading this book has made me aware, however, that I hear music all the time. It is at a very low volume and is easily overridden by, or combined with, any other brain activity. It does not disrupt my life in any way but it is always there. If my mind is not occupied with another activity the musical volume increases and keeps me company. It has been my constant companion as far back as I can remember. On the other hand I've probably never experienced a genuine moment of silence in my whole life.....

Roses and Apples

18 x 16 Oil on Linen

I met someone at a party and introduced myself as an artist. "Oh I would love to have your life" he said, "just wake up each morning and paint exactly what I see in front of me." We were standing near a kitchen counter with a toaster oven, a small vase with a flower and a napkin holder on it. "Well" I replied "if you paint exactly what you see you'll be painting a mask of what is there." He looked confused. "You are only seeing the front of everything" I continued. "To paint a convincing illusion of what you are seeing you need to also paint what you cannot see. You must be able to convince the viewer that the vase not only has the front that can see but also a back side that you cannot see, and that there is space between the vase and the wall. You can't see weight and yet the flower must look lighter than the toaster oven. Then of course you have to think about what it is that you want to express." "Oh" he said deflatedly "that's a lot harder than I thought it would be, but at least you get to do what you want and then sell it for a lot of money." "Oh yes" I said not wanting to deflate him again "Rubens did quite well for himself." I didn't mention that Van Gogh only sold one painting, or that Rembrandt had to sell everything that he had, or that Hals died in the poorhouse.....

PAINTING OF THE MONTH

Spring Runoff

Oil on Linen

Image 16 x 14 - Framed 22 x 20

$1400

When winter begins to fade away the word spreads quickly. As soon as the temperature nudges above freezing the first few drops of melted snow drip into the hard stream bed. Each drop seeks out another and before long they join together and start flowing along. As they go they begin to send out the word "spring is coming, spring is coming" they whisper. Awakened by the call the frost begins to thaw in the ground and rises to the surface to accompany the little stream. Now the melting snow in the lowlands and valleys joins in and the stream becomes stronger "spring is coming, spring is coming" is heard clearly across the land. The momentum builds and soon water is rushing from the mountain tops "SPRING IS COMING, SPRING IS COMING". There is now so much excitement that the water dashes over the rocks, jumping and splashing, tripping over itself in it's headlong rush downstream. Landscape painters know when nature is about to put on a good show so you will often see them perched next to the rushing waters, painting the spring runoff.....

The Painting of the Month is a special offer to my blog readers (click on the image for a larger view). This month Spring Runoff, which retails for $2400, is being made available for $1400 (includes shipping, VT residents add 6% sales tax). To purchase this piece contact me at thomastorak@gmail.com. Payment is by check only please, no credit cards. If you prefer you may make 3 monthly payments. This offer is available for 30 days from the date of this post.

Winter Scene

14 x 16 Oil on Linen

We changed the clocks last night and the first day of spring is not far away, but I can't let the seasons change without a post on winter. Winter is always on your mind when you live in Vermont. We jokingly call the four seasons winter, mud season, the fourth of July and winter. It all starts out quite charmingly, the magic of the first few snowflakes, the familiar smell of the woodstove, the nip of a chill in the air. Then soon enough the snow is quite deep, the roads slippery, the woodstove becomes a daily chore and that nip of a chill turns into biting, bitter cold. You have two choices, either embrace the snow and head off to the slopes or hunker down. Those who hunker down find ways to keep in touch with a monthly book group, a weekly drawing session or, for the heartiest, moonlight hiking. Others are grateful for a few extra hours to read, or reflect, or spend that longed for time with some Schubert lieder. If the artist should start to feel low he has only to visit his palette. While the rest of the world seems dark and cold and forbidding the artist's palette is light and cheerful and exciting. Everything is high in pitch. Instead of white in the highlights now white is everywhere. Even the shadows have moved from the bottom of the palette up to the middle. The only thing at the dark end are the stubborn evergreens who refuse to partake in the change of seasons. Everything on the palette, and in nature, is soft and gentle and noiseless. Goodbye dear winter. Soon the finches will be putting on their golden spring outfits, the daffodils will push forth to announce the growing season, and the brilliant greens and blues and yellows will return to the palette.....

Daffodils

20 x 18 Oil on Linen

I have more paintings in my head than I can possibly produce in one lifetime so if this idea appeals to any artist reading this post please feel free to use it. I am thinking about a series of paintings based on Bach's cello suites. Each of Bach's six suites starts with a prelude, setting the theme and mood of the piece. That is followed by five dances, a moderately paced allemande followed by a lighter courante, a stately sarabande, then a pair of minuets (or gavottes or bourrees) and concludes with a gigue. Now let's take that format to the easel. For a landscape it might look like this, a suite of six paintings of the same scene. The prelude would be sunrise, followed by a clear morning (allemande), then clouds and wind appear (courante), an afternoon storm (sarabande), a rainbow or sunset (minuet) and finally the same landscape lit by a full moon (gigue). For Andy Warhol fans the suite might be arranged for unaccompanied soup cans, tomato (prelude) followed by vegetable beef (allemande), cream of potato (courante), beef barley (sarabande), chicken noodle (gavotte) and minestrone (gigue). We could use Daffodils and Bartlett Pears from the previous post as the prelude for a suite on the theme of daffodils, although it would also work nicely as the minuet. Daffodils seems to me to be a sarabande. Now, four more daffodil paintings and my suite will be complete.....

Daffodils and Bartlett Pears

20 x 18 Oil on Linen

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote six magnificent suites for unaccompanied cello. They are very high on my long list of favorite pieces of music. I like them so much I have four different recordings of them; an intense, full bodied version by Mstislav Rostropovich, a lighter, livelier interpretation by the Dutch cellist Anner Bylsma, Yo-Yo Ma's correct but somewhat colorless rendition and the warm, sensitive performance of Pablo Casals. I find it fascinating to hear the different personalities even though they are all playing from the same score. I try to develop this same sense of uniqueness in my painting students. I am the composer telling them what to paint and how I want them to approach it and they are the musicians, each interpreting my instructions in their own way. This week is the annual class show for my class at the Art Students League. As we hung the show on Sunday I was delighted to see all the different versions of the same pose. Each student worked hard to get the drawing, light and shade and atmosphere, trying to understand and employ what I was teaching them, but each brought their own personality to their work. Some intense, some lively, some colorless, some warm and sensitive. A mature artist, on the other hand, often works alone and consequently there is only one version, one interpretation of his subject. I often wonder how my still life would be rendered if there were another artist in my studio painting the same subject. What would Daffodils and Bartlett Pears look like if painted by Mason or DuMond, Matisse or Cassatt, Manet or Goya or Breughel.....

PAINTING OF THE MONTH

Untitled Landscape

Oil on Panel

Image 16 x 16 - Framed 21 x 21

$1600

I painted this Untitled Landscape twentysome years ago. I don't remember why. I doubt that I was taken by the subject, the trunk of a half dead apple tree in front of a whitewashed old shed, a gate that hasn't been closed in a generation. And why a square panel? That's certainly odd for a landscape. The play of light and shade is delightful and the abstraction is quite compelling. Was that my motivation? It's an unusual piece yet I've never had any desire to rework it or wipe it out. I've tried several titles but they all seemed rather pedestrian. Sometimes I'm a mystery even to myself. Perhaps one day a critic or an art historian will explain it to me. I've kept it all these years because I like it, it fascinates me, I don't know why....

The Painting of the Month is a special offer to my blog readers (click on the image for a larger view). This month Untitled Landscape, which retails for $2600, is being made available for $1600 (includes shipping, VT residents add 6% sales tax). To purchase this piece contact me at thomastorak@gmail.com. Payment is by check only please, no credit cards. If you prefer you may make 3 monthly payments. This offer is available for 30 days from the date of this post.

Sailing near Brooklyn
14 x 16 Oil on Linen

Sometimes inspiration is served to the artist on a silver platter. This happened to me a few weeks ago when I received an invitation to enter a competition at The Salmagundi Club. The Salmagundi is wonderful arts organization founded 137 years ago. It is now housed in a beautiful brownstone building on 5th Avenue in lower Manhattan. Elizabeth and I have been members since the early 90's. I love being part of a long tradition, walking the same halls and exhibiting in the same gallery as such great American artists as J. Francis Murphy, Childe Hassam, William Merrit Chase, Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth and Louis Comfort Tiffany, as well as my teacher Frank Mason and his teacher Frank Vincent DuMond. The competition involves an exhibition at the Salmagundi to celebrate the Dutch founding of Manhattan 400 years ago. Artist members were asked to paint contemporary scenes of New York waterways. From this exhibition juror Leendert van der Pool (you can't get much more Dutch than that) will select 40 works to travel to the Zeeuws Maritiem Muzeeum Vlissingen in the Netherlands. Holland, the home of great seascape painting, Ruysdael, van Goyen, van de Velde, de Vlieger. I couldn't pass up an opportunity like that, but I moved out of the city 14 years ago and whatever cityscapes I had were sold long ago. What to do, what to do, think Torak, think. I used to live in Brooklyn Heights and frequently walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to lower Manhattan, I especially enjoyed exploring the South Street seaport area. So I rummaged through some old sketch books. There's got to be something there that I can use. Aha! The bridge! Perfect! Late afternoon, the sun to the south of the bridge and west of Brooklyn. Yes I remember it well. Keep it luminous, the Dutch love luminosity, a few big clouds, the Dutch are famous for their clouds, simple, contemporary, atmospheric, cheerful...done. The show opens at the club on Monday. Wish me luck.....

Onions

24 x 36 Oil on Linen

Why does an artist paint a particular subject? Where does the inspiration for a painting come from? Many artists will answer "I don't know, ideas just come to me." The more poetic might say "Inspiration is everywhere, it's in the air." Students, generally, are not inspired at all but are given something to paint, a still life or a model. Their goal is to paint what they see. Fair enough. After that goal is achieved the budding artist begins to struggle with expressing the character of their subject or their emotional reaction to it. Bravo. Soon enough they are out of the classroom and must find their own subject matter. A flower, an aroma, a bit of conversation, a written phrase, the seeds of inspiration are easily planted. Now how does one go from inspiration to masterpiece? How those seeds are nurtured is often what makes a work of art. Some artists invite everyone in, "Come see what I'm doing. What do you think?" He feeds on every comment, every suggestion, anything that comes along while the work is in progress. Then he takes what he likes and uses it to cultivate his seed. Other artists can't bar the door fast enough. Any interference with his thoughts is considered poison to his seed. He ponders and puzzles and toils in solitude. Only when the seed has matured into a strong healthy painting can it be shown to others. I belong to the latter group. I often become very quiet in social situations, rarely offering my opinion. It's not because I am antisocial or uninterested in the conversation, it's because I am in my garden of inspiration protecting my seedlings.....

The Morning Newspaper

18 x 20 Oil on Linen

Elizabeth did a wonderful painting of me 15 years ago. I was working on a painting and she painted me in rim light which made me seem to be at the moment of inspiration. Tom Painting she called it. Later that year I was inspired again as Elizabeth sat at the kitchen table reading the newspaper. She agreed to spend the next couple of days in her bathrobe as I worked away at The Morning Newspaper. Not long after I did that painting we moved to our new home and studio in Vermont. It was the year of our 10th wedding anniversary. We don't keep many of our paintings because we need to sell as many as we can to make a living, but we decided to give each other these two pieces as anniversary presents. It was the perfect way to commemorate our first decade together in our little studio in New York. It seems like yesterday but it was 14 years ago. Today is our 24th anniversary. Harmony, happiness, delight...bliss.....

There is a famous quote from Picasso that goes something like this, "When I was young I could draw like Raphael but it has taken me a lifetime to draw like a child." That sounds good, everyone finds children's drawings very charming. But on reflection is drawing like a child a desirable thing? Is he referring to the innocence or the ignorance of the young artist? He seems to be favoring ignorance, rejecting the knowledge and skills of Raphael. But do children really draw that way? Ask any child about the scribble they drew and they will tell you exactly what it is. "It's daddy" or "It's a princess in a castle" or "It's Fido playing with a ball." I've never heard a child say "I don't know, I was just expressing my feelings." They are drawing with all the knowledge they have and rather than avoiding or shunning knowledge they gather it in at a rapid rate and apply it to their drawings. Before long the princess has a face with a nose and eyes, and Fido has four legs. Knowledge doesn't bind an artist, it frees him. By this line of reasoning Raphael drew the way a child draws. He used all his knowledge to express what he wanted to say. A child is satisfied to draw a line to indicate a nose but Raphael wanted to express the character and dimension of the nose he drew. As the things you want to express in your drawings become more sophisticated your knowledge must increase to convey those ideas. Perhaps Picasso just wanted to return to the innocence of childhood, but is that such an enviable thing? There is an interesting passage in the bible that addresses this, "When I was a child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things." Let's try Picasso's quote another way. Imagine a poet who says "When I was young I could write like Keats, but it has taken me a lifetime to write like a child" or a musician who says "When I was young I could play like Heifetz, but it has taken me a lifetime to play like a child".....

Jelly Donuts

8 x 10 Oil on Panel

I needed some new brushes and a few other supplies so I thought I give the old Santa Claus trick a try. I didn't want to give up Elizabeth's fresh baked cookies so I left a few donuts out in the studio for old St. Nick. I didn't really think it through very well. How was Santa going to fit through that 6" chimney pipe on my woodstove? "Well, why let a perfectly good donut go to waste" I thought the next morning. So I started to chomp away as I puttered around the studio. I opened a bag of handmade paints that one of my students had given me as a Christmas present. The alizarin crimson he made was a beautiful color and prepared perfectly. "That would be just right for the jelly in that donut" I said to myself. I reached in the bag and pulled out a few more tubes. Cadmium yellow light, ivory black, titanium white. Soon I was squeezing the paint on to my palette. These old brushes aren't that bad and that little canvas is ready to go. So I set to work."Why let a perfectly good still life go to waste" I thought. Oh, right, Santa. Well, I suppose next year I should go back to the traditional cookies and milk. A tall white column of milk, a few cookies, maybe something with a fruit filling and a dusting of sugar on top. Yeah, that would be great to paint.....

PAINTING OF THE MONTH

Moonlight in Vermont

Oil on Linen

Image 24 x 24 - Framed 31 x 31

$3200

Every now and then the neighbor's sheep get out and come to our place. My dog is usually the first to know they have arrived and in her enthusiasm to greet them sends them running in every direction. One day I saw them first. I gave the dog a marrow bone to keep her busy, grabbed my sketch pad and slipped outside to do some drawing. I didn't want to scare them off so I stayed a little distance away and made a few scribbles. Gradually I got closer and closer and my drawings started to capture more of their character. Suddenly they noticed me but didn't run because I wasn't threatening. They knew they weren't supposed to be there and they looked, well, sheepish. The five of them huddled together and moved as one behind the trunk of a small apple tree hoping to hide. I continued to draw, this one grazing, that one staring straight at me, another in profile. I gathered quite a bit of information before they went off down the road looking for adventure. When I came back to the studio I looked around for my moonrise sketch. The sheep were just what I needed to bring the scene to life.....

The Painting of the Month is a special offer to my blog readers (click on the image for a larger view). This month Moonlight in Vermont, which retails for $4500, is being made available for $3200 (includes shipping, VT residents add 6% sales tax). To purchase this piece contact me at thomastorak@gmail.com. Payment is by check only please, no credit cards. If you prefer you may make 3 monthly payments. This offer is available for 30 days from the date of this post.

Elizabeth has written such a profoundly beautiful post on drawing that I can do no better than refer you to her blog
On the Easel.

Fall Colors

36 x 40 Oil on Linen

In Vermont we have two versions of fall colors, the famous autumn leaves for the tourists and the harvest for the farmers and gardeners. A comparison of the two gives us an excellent opportunity to discuss how artists mix colors. Let's take, for example, a pumpkin and a maple tree full of orange leaves. Both are bright orange but one is brilliant and the other, by contrast, somewhat subdued. The maple is in full voice, the pumpkin is singing sotto voce. To convey the intensity of the maple leaves the artist uses pure colors. You can make a wide variety of oranges by mixing cadmium yellows, from lemon to yellow deep, with the cadmium reds. If it is too gaudy reduce the chromatic value by using the less severe earth colors, yellow ochre, terra rosa, siennas and umbers. Stay away from black and white as much as possible as they will rob your tree of its color. When you paint the pumpkin however black and white are your best friends, we want the pumpkin to be a bold but less intense orange. By slowly adding white we can gently bleach, and thereby mute, the color in the lights. A touch of black will delicately drain the color in the shadows, be careful not to use too much or your pumpkin will start to look moldy. Combine the two and you will have a lovely gray to subdue the color in the middle range, should you wish to do so. I'm not fond of rules so take these thoughts as my observations, not as formulas, and use them as you please.....

Oops. My pumpkin is starting to collapse. "It'll keep" I thought. I feel like a cartoon character caught in a dilemma with a good angel whispering in one ear and a bad devil whispering in the other. "It's okay Tom" said the good angel "you got a good start yesterday, don't be discouraged, keep going." "Don't be a sap" said the bad devil "the whole thing is ruined, wipe it out, ditch the still life and paint something else." "Think of the color" whispered good angel "and the design of the whole." "It's halfway to the compost heap already" sneered bad devil "just soak a rag in turpentine and get it over with. Who cares about beautiful painting anyway?" The little devil went too far there. So the pumpkin is collapsing, so what? Any good art student can paint a round pumpkin, where's the challenge in that? Try painting a convincing collapsing pumpkin. I accepted the challenge, the good angel sat on my shoulder to watch me work and the bad devil went off to see if he could create some mischief at the woodstove. So I set to work. Brilliant orange for the pumpkin, being careful not make it garish, a bit of reflected light coming back into the collapsed side. A rich, but not brilliant, yellow for the spaghetti squash, what a great chance to paint perspective. Colorful gourds in front. Drapery winding like a river around the pumpkins. "Not a bad days work" said the good angel...damn, why is the woodstove leaking smoke into the studio.....

Elizabeth set up a great still life for her last workshop. Squashes, pumpkins, gourds, it was beautiful. Rich, colorful, joyful, lovely rhythms, big sweeping motions, a late Mozart symphony. I knew I had to paint it. Our big still life table is on wheels so I moved it to my studio, then continued to work on other projects that were already started. "It'll keep" I thought. A week or so later I got started. There were two pomegranates, I love painting pomegranates. They were sitting next to each other looking in different directions, very nicely composed, but I couldn't resist breaking one open. A freshly opened pomegranate is so luscious and so juicy the sight of it makes your mouth water, how could Persephone resist eating a few seeds? I had to paint and I had to paint fast, before it started to turn brown. A few broad washes set the composition then I jumped in and painted the pomegranates. Beautiful cool whitish flesh dotted with a wealth of garnetlike seeds. What a marvel of nature, what a marvelous thing to paint. Surround it with a tough rich red skin, drive the knife through it for dramatic effect. How delightful, what fun, "lucky me" I thought "to be an artist." Just enough light left to put in that little gourd in the front. Wonderful, exhilarating, satisfying...not a bad days work.....

Breakfast

16 x 20 Oil on Linen

Like most artists I've always painted the way I wanted to paint, but have been uneasy explaining why I paint the way I do. The recent political season helped me clarify my philosophy of painting. As I considered my vote I asked myself "How does someone raised in a conservative religion come to live by a liberal philosophy?" Which led to "How can someone with a liberal philosophy paint in what most people would call a conservative style?" I grew up in a middle class Catholic/Labor Union family, the kind that voted for JFK and later Reagan. I've always loved the kindness, gentleness and humility, the "love God, love your neighbor" aspect of religion. It was a good fit with the "look out for the little guy" view of the labor unions. My interpretation of the Bible is closer to conservative socialism than it is to social conservatism. I love the core philosophy of Catholicism, it is a wonderful guide to living, but I've never been big on rules and rituals, I'd rather apply the lessons in my own way, thank you very much. I seem to have approached painting in the same way. Looking for a solid foundation to build on I sought out those who could teach me the basic concepts of painting. Beginning with light and shade, creating the illusion of three dimensional form on a two dimensional surface, moving on to anatomy to make that form more convincingly human, then on to space and atmosphere, color and composition, the laws of harmony and of dissonance, the power of abstraction. These are beautiful principles, they are a wonderful guide to painting, but I'm still wary of the constraints of rigidity and orthodoxy, I'd rather apply these lessons in my own way, thank you very much. So there you have it, one part conservative tempered by one part liberal, one part classical moderated by one part romantic, and always a healthy dose of curiosity.....

Fruit Basket and Peonies

30 x 34 Oil on Linen

Rejoice oil painters! Be happy! Celebrate your uniqueness! For you have the only medium in all the visual arts that is fat. Acrylics, watercolor and printing inks are all lean. Pastels, drawing and sculpture are dry. Oil painting has a distinct advantage. Grind your pigments in linseed oil to achieve the richest colors. Add some lead to your oil and it will dry faster. Heat it in the sun to thicken it. Cook it in a pot with lead, mastic and turpentine and it will become a gel. Use a loaded brush for a thick bold stroke or lay it on thin for a subtle glaze. Make it as solid as a rock or as transparent as stained glass. Use walnut or poppy oil for a more delicate effect. Blend it as much as you please or let each stroke stand alone. Beautiful, rich, voluptuous, lively, vivid, lustrous, fluid, dynamic. Use your oil, fellow painters, to your advantage...make it a part of your expression.....

Studio 7 at the Art Students League has a unique and remarkable history. In the last 100 years only 2 instructors have taught the afternoon class there, Frank Vincent DuMond and Frank Mason. It is where I learned to paint. When I was a student in Mason's class it was sometimes so crowded that I couldn't see the model. I would use that opportunity to paint the other students as they worked or paint the plaster casts that were available for us to study. My favorite cast was Donatello's David. A heroic yet touchingly human version of the biblical hero. Since it was a white plaster cast against a gray wall it seemed logical to me to do a black and white painting. I did my best to create the illusion of form, of light and shade, of weight and atmosphere. Frank made a few kind remarks about my efforts then gently manipulated what I had done, making it both stronger and more subtle. He used the shadows in the background to create a composition and reinforced the lights on the figure. Then came the lesson that I never forgot. "The entire spectrum of light is coming in through the skylight" he said, "so why are you using only black and white?" He deftly added a few cool blues to my gray shadows and then splashed some warm reds and oranges to express the reflected lights. "Never let your painting die" he said.....

The Apple Harvest

35 x 45 Oil on Linen

A few weeks ago someone came into my studio and complimented me on my "daring and courageous use of negative space" in The Apple Harvest. It may not have been a correct usage of the term but I knew she was referring to the area in the upper right hand quarter of the painting that contained no objects. "Thank you" I said, perhaps unconvincingly. It made me realize how much the language of modern art has permeated our culture. When she looked at my painting she saw diagonals and shapes, edges and tension. I saw depth and form, harmony and atmosphere. In the space where she saw nothing I saw light and air flooding into the painting. To reinforce the harvest theme I designed the blanket to fall from deep inside the painting and spill out to the front to suggest a cornucopia in which the apples rest. This moves the viewer's eye in and out of the painting, a pleasant journey over the blanket, through the apples, into the bowl, up the blanket to where it is nailed to the wall and back again. The daring and exciting aspect is not the negative space but the use of light in that space. The light surges into the painting and boldly crashes into the still life washing over the objects in a most dramatic fashion. Our pleasant journey has been hit broadside, we are taken by surprise and our hearts skip a beat. It is unexpected, bold, perhaps daring and courageous, certainly dramatic. The space is not empty at all but harbors the protagonist of our drama.....

PAINTING OF THE MONTH

By the Sea

Oil on Panel

Image 9 x 12 - Framed 13 x 16

$900

You never know what's going to happen when you paint en plein air. Sometimes bad things happen. Like the time I tried to paint some cows resting under a beautiful old oak tree. As soon as I started painting they all got up and came over to the fence to watch what I was doing. Or the time I was painting an oncoming storm. I decided I was about to get drenched so I packed up to head home. Shortly after I got everything in the car a magnificent rainbow appeared, too late for me to get it into my painting. But sometimes good things happen, like when I was painting By the Sea. It was a rather uninteresting overcast day but I decided to paint anyway. As I neared the end of my sketch the clouds parted just a bit, just enough for the wind to caress the sea and whip up a bit of surf. Then the sun made a brief appearance, kissed the rocks, and disappeared again. It gave the scene an exquisite, subtle liveliness. Delightful. Sometimes good things happen.....

The Painting of the Month is a special offer to my blog readers (click on the image for a larger view). This month By the Sea, which retails for $1400, is being made available for $900 (includes shipping, VT residents add 6% sales tax). To purchase this piece contact me at thomastorak@gmail.com. Payment is by check only please, no credit cards. If you prefer you may make 3 monthly payments. This offer is available for 30 days from the date of this post.

Nasturtiums

24 x 30 Oil on Linen

Still Life? I think not. Anyone who has tried to paint nasturtiums knows that they are anything but still. Action life, moving life, flowing life, rhythmic life, maybe. The first day everything seems great, the vine is doing an exotic dance, there are a few buds waiting their turn to open, the leaves are fresh and lively. You cheerfully start your painting, a flower here, a leaf there, place the vase and the pear, a few touches for the drapery. When you come back the next morning, however, your arrangement is barely recognizable. The little leaf that grew so nicely to the left has doubled in size and now turns to face toward you. The lovely blooms that were the focus of your piece have drooped to the tabletop. The bud that you were waiting to paint has not only fully opened but is hidden behind a fresh leaf. Everything on the right hand side of the painting has turned abruptly to the left, seeking out the light from the window. This is either a disaster for the artist or an opportunity. I chose the latter. Instead of copying what was in front of me I was liberated to pick and chose the most exciting moments of each day. Rather than rush to finish before it all moved again I anxiously waited to see what the next day would offer. My composition took on a natural liveliness. I was able to paint what happens over several days rather than capture one moment. Still life? Well this time it was more life than still.....

Any Given Sunday

36 x 52 Oil on Linen

Football season has begun. I like football. I thought of a few different ways to approach a post about this painting. The convergence of old master technique and contemporary subject matter. A commentary on texture in painting, the challenge of painting pizza and cardboard boxes, aluminum beer cans, nylon jerseys and faux pigskin. The importance of abstraction and balance in a still life. But this painting isn't about any of those things for me. It's about football. It brings back fond memories of my youth. Playing with my cousins in a clearing in my grandfather's orchard, later with the neighborhood kids in the narrow alley behind our house. I didn't like organized sports but enjoyed playing on an intramural team with my friends in high school. Growing up outside Philadelphia I would sit with my dad and my brother and watch the Eagles every Sunday. I still like to watch the games. It relaxes me. It's a kind of meditation. While others might concentrate on their breathing or employ some other meditation technique, I find watching a football game very relaxing. I generally could care less who wins or loses and most of the game is, quite frankly, rather dull with only an occasional exciting play. But it's familiar and comforting. It clears other thoughts out of my head and then replaces them with, well, nothing. Mental junk food, which is probably why pizza and beer go so well with the game. It's not profound or lofty, it doesn't nourish or enrich my life, it doesn't make me a better person. I just like it. So to my fellow football fans...this painting is for you.....

The Silver Bowl

34 x 30 Oil on Linen

I think of my palette as my piano. The colors are arranged from white to black. Each artist can use whatever colors they like but should set them out as if they were the keys on their piano. White at one end followed by the next highest color in pitch, or value as artists call it, then proceed down through the middle range of colors and finally the darks and then black. It would be impossible to play the piano if the keys were not arranged in a logical way and you couldn't find the note you want to play. So it is with painting. It is impossible to mix the color you want if you don't know where it falls on the scale from white to black. Mix your light colors at one end of the palette, keep the richness in the middle, play the dark notes at the other end. If you can control your palette from light to dark mixing color will be as easy as playing scales. At the end of the day your palette will tell you how well you've painted. If it is beautiful and organized and harmonious then your painting will be too. If your palette is a patchy confusing mess then your painting will look the same. Someone recently sent me this quote from Robert Henri, "Dirty brushes and a sloppy palette have dictated the color-tone and key of many a painting. The painter abdicates and the palette becomes master".....