Random Musing No. 1

The human eye has a range of 120°, mostly peripheral vision, compared to the camera’s typical 200° or more. That is why the figures sometimes seem distorted at the edges of a photograph. We make up for this seeming deficit by moving our focus (in movements called “saccades”) around a scene to build up a gestalt awareness of its appearance.

A painting, curated by human intelligence, is superior in every respect to a photograph, except for how long it takes to make it. If cameras took three hours to create the exact same image as they do now in a split second, there would be no question as to which medium people would choose when they needed an image recorded.

Nude Portraits

When I draw the nude I usually try to get in a portrait during one of the shorter poses. My nudes also have strong portrait elements, but sometimes it’s nice to forget the body and just concentrate on the face.

Recent Drawings

Let’s take a break from posting paintings and post some recent figure drawings.

I wish I had some recent figure paintings to show you, but I’ve been finding it frustrating and difficult to find venues in which I can paint. I’m ready to pay some ridiculous sum–$20 or $25–for the opportunity to paint the model. There’s a place in Somerville but it’s a train, subway and bus ride away. Then I had a brainstorm! There’s an outfit in Boston called “The Realist Academy of Art” that’s a short walk from South Station. Surely they’d have an appropriate venue to paint the model! I called and sure enough they did, at a time that was convenient for me too, and oil paints were encouraged.

I thanked the woman and was about to get off the phone when she said, “One more thing. No turpentine, only odorless paint thinner.”

I said, “You’re kidding. I can’t use turpentine?”

She said, “Some of our students complain about the smell so we don’t allow turpentine.”

I said, “How can you claim to teach traditional academic techniques when you ban the use of turpentine?”

“I’m sorry sir, no turpentine.”

I said, “You do realize that the fumes from odorless paint thinner are just as dangerous if not more so than turpentine, you just can’t smell them?” She said, “I’m sorry sir, that’s our policy.”

So that was that. I wouldn’t clean my brushes in odorless paint thinner, much less smear it on canvas with my expensive pigments. It would be like having to mix dog crap with my paints, completely non-archival, an insult to the noble craft of painting. Plus it’s made from petroleum products instead of being squeezed out of a pine tree like good ol’ turpentine. Nevertheless, turpentine [air quotes] smells bad and [air quotes] makes me feel queasy, so no turpentine only kiddie media that doesn’t make me feel bad.

I hate the modern era.