Be Careful In Your Thriftstore Shopping

I know it's been awhile since I last posted and I need to get better at that. I've been spending a lot of time in the garden lately, getting spring bulbs in the ground and doing some general clean up. I do promise to make my postings a little more regular.

Today I have a tale to tell, a bit of a cautionary tale. Some details I hesitate to divulge as I can imagine some artists will gasp in horror when I do. Some will accuse me of being an uncultured oaf. But, I digress.

A few days ago I was doing a little thrift store browsing with my girlfriend in one of our local Goodwill stores and I headed to the art section. Yes, there is an art section at the Goodwill stores, as there is in just about any thrift store you go into. They usually have shelves upon shelves of discarded paintings and prints of various sizes and shapes. I can spend quite some time going through these "treasures."

Am I trying to find some discarded Andrew Wyeth masterpiece or a long lost Van Gogh? Well, that would be nice, but no, my search is for something a little more down to earth. I am searching for frames that can be used for my own artwork and in some cases, I will look at canvases that aren't too heavily textured. I can hear the screams of "BLASPHEMER!" coming from all corners of the world. How could I possibly think of destroying another artist's work of art to create my own? Well, it happens. Especially when I find a nice 48"x48" canvas with some gaudy painting that looks like a reject from a junior high school art class. When the canvas can be bought for about five dollars and it is in good condition, I consider it manna from heaven allowing me to go large without spending over a hundred dollars on a pre-stretched canvas.

And the frames I've found have been used in many of my pieces of art. You can't imagine some of the frames I've found, frames that would cost large sums of money that can be had for just a few dollars. I found a brand new, still in plastic wrap, 16x20 frame a couple of weeks ago, that was in the thrift store bin because it had been dropped and the finish on the backside have chipped and flaked off. So, I bought it for four dollars, took it home and spread a small amount of epoxy across the chip and then painted the backside of the frame with black acrylic. It looks brand new and for four dollars and a few minutes work I picked up a frame that cost close to $70.00 in the art store.

Now, where does the cautionary tale come in? This last trip to the thrift store netted me two VERY nice frames that I thought would make excellent frames for some future pieces of art. These were two very nice, carved wood frames that were a matched set. And the great thing about it was that there were two paintings already in the frames, that weren't highly textured and would make great canvases for me. The paintings were nice, but nothing special in my eyes.

As I walked up to my girlfriend with frames in hand, she asked what I had. I explained to her that I had two nice frames and canvases to do some paintings on. When she saw the paintings she gasped in horror, "You blaspemer!" At that very second I knew that my treasures were no longer mine.

To make a long story short, those two paintings are now hanging, untouched by my sacrilegious hands, in our bedroom, laughing at me every time I walk by them. And my girlfriend has made it quite clear that I will NEVER paint over them.

From now on, I go thrift store shopping alone!

My latest project

I've put down the pencil and pad for a little while and picked up my brushes and palette. I'm doing an acrylic that should take about another 3-4 hours to complete. Knowing the rate that I work sometimes, this could take me a week to finish. Anyway, here is the progress so far.

When finished this should be recognizable as a hibiscus flower.  Only time will tell.

Art and The Meaning of Life?

This evening I was eating a quick dinner at my desk and watching some artist videos on YouTube and I came across one that got me to thinking.  It wasn't the art or the artist themselves, but the opening of the video that did it.  It opened with a quote from Antoni Tapies that said, "Art should startle the viewer into thinking about the meaning of life."  I really only had one reaction to that quote and it was just one word.  Why?


First off I guess we would need to ask Mr. Tapies what he considers to be art, because I can think of a ton of art that wouldn't get me to thinking about the meaning of life in any way.  And having stopped by a gallery of some of Mr. Tapies' art I can say without hesitation that his art didn't get me to pondering any deep meanings of life either.


I would never criticize another artist or their art in the negative because I feel that there will always be someone out there that will appreciate it.  I may not, but someone will.  However, I will question an all-encompassing idea that art should be one thing or it should be another, no matter who was making the comment.  Even if Da Vinci had made that same comment I would feel just as negatively towards it.


I have seen incredible paintings of roses that I would consider great art, but they don't evoke a search for the meaning of life in my heart.  Drawings by my children and hung on the refrigerator when they were young were considered by myself to be art, but I don't look for those pieces to be hanging in the Louvre anytime soon.


Sometimes when I see art that looks like the artist was trying too hard to make a statement, I am left with nothing more than a desire to move on to the next piece.  Some artists are born to stir up the hearts of the viewers, causing feelings of deep uncertainty, while others are moved to paint something of beauty that will be pleasurable to look at.  It might just be a simple bowl of fruit or a portait of one's cat.


Some of the great artists of history have created art that evoked such responses and then the next week produced a piece that was just a fine piece of art.  Van Gogh could create a painting like Starry Night that caused people to write songs about it and then turn around and paint a vase full of sunflowers.  A painting of a vase of sunflowers by Van Gogh, while pleasing to the eye won't get me to thinking about my existence.

I think art is whatever the artist decides it is and when their work finds an accepting viewer then the artist has done their job.  If it evokes feelings of the majesty of our lives, then so be it.  If it just gets us to stop for a few minutes and admire the beauty of the artwork and maybe even pull out our wallets to buy it, then the artist has done just as valid a job.

Enjoy art for what it is.  Not for what it isn't.

Blog Action Day '09 - Climate Change

October 15th was what was called Blog Action Day '9 and it was to deal with the subject of climate change.  It seems everyone has an opinion about this and I am no different.  

 I am solidly in the middle on the subject of global warming.  Yes, I do believe that there is a bit of warming going on, but I also believe that it is the natural state of things.  Cooling and warming trends have been happening since this planet was created and they will continue to happen long after we humans have been stupid enough to kill ourselves off.

Do we need to clean up what we've done to the environment?  Sure we do, just as we should clean up our rooms and wash the dishes.  It isn't healthy, physically or emotionally, to live in squalor and that's what we are doing right now as a human race.  But, to think that we are that significant to this planet that we can affect the climate on a global scale, at least to the point of annihilation, is ridiculous and arrogant on our part.

And who's to say that these "solutions" that are being bandied about by the climate change PACs aren't going to make things worse?  If these people truly think that we can bring the Earth's temperature back down, then what's to stop us from going too far and causing the next ice age?

The solution is to clean up our acts, develop new energy sources that are emission neutral and let the Earth take care of herself.  She's been doing it for 4 billion years, so I think she can do a much better job of it than we can.

A Live and Learn Moment

Sometimes being an artist is a trial and error experience. We try things and sometimes it's a fabulous success and other times it's an abject failure. Then sometimes it falls somewhere in between, as with this drawing.

My drawing of Lance is finished, but there was a problem that kind of caught me off-guard. I like to tape my larger pieces of drawing paper down to my clipboard and I've been doing it for quite some time. I just use a regular masking tape and have not had any problems with doing this.

The problem that came up this time was that when I started the Lance drawing I was just a few days away from moving to a new house. So the unfinished drawing stayed taped to the clipboard for almost three months. When I finished the drawing last night and peeled the tape off, well, you guess it. The adhesive on the tape had become one with the paper and now there was a sticky residue all around the outside of the paper.

Being as how I hadn't sprayed the drawing at that point, there was plenty of loose graphite to go around and some of it ended up in the sticky white border of the paper. Which obviously caused a real mess, making the drawing unsaleable in its present condition.

I took it to Aaron Brothers this afternoon to see if they would cut the white portion off, but they wouldn't do it. So the solution we came up with was in the mat. I had them cut the opening in the mat to cover the white portion of the paper, thus covering up the sticky, dirty part of the paper.

After coming home and placing the mat and drawing in the frame I have to say that I think it looks pretty darn good. So, without further ado, I present His Lanceness. Graphite drawing on 14x17 80# drawing paper.

©2009 Dave Casey
HIS LANCENESS
Graphite pencil on paper, 17 x 14"
Available WITH frame at my Etsy store or my ArtFire store - $89.99
DG Casey's World of Art - Etsy
DG Casey's World of Art - ArtFire
Also available as a print at my Red Bubble store - from $14.25
DG Casey's World of Art - Red Bubble

The Lance portrait continues ...

I think someone needs to remind me someday how much detail there is in a bicycle. I think I'll stick to nudes for the next month or so. Not as much detail there. Anyway, here is the Lance portrait thus far.

This blog isn't the only work in progress ....

Sorry that it's been awhile since I posted. I've been doing quite a few things over the past couple of weeks and haven't had time to sit down and write. So, I thought I'd show you one of the pieces I'm working on right now. This is a drawing of His Lanceness. If you've looked at my profile, you know I'm a cyclist and my hero is Lance Armstrong. Anyway, here is a drawing I'm doing of him that is about half finished. I should have the rest of it done in the next day or so.

Syd 01

©2009 Dave Casey
SYD 01
Pastel & charcoal on paper, 17 x 14"
Available at my Etsy store. - $19.99
DG Casey's World of Art

Learning To Draw

One of the things I've always felt about art was that the better you were with the pencil and charcoal, the better you would be as an artist overall. In my opinion, learning to draw should form the basis of your art education. Of course, I am also of the opinion that if you can sign your name and it is halfway legible, you can draw. About the only thing it comes down to is a desire to learn and the lesson plan.

Given this, I have decided to work on my drawing technique and wanted to start from the very beginning. I have been drawing for quite some time, years in fact, but I've never had any formal lessons in the use of the pencil other than one five week course at the local community college and it really wasn't all the helpful.

One of the crutches that I've used from the beginning was the use of a lightbox. Now, I don't feel there is anything wrong with using a lightbox. Professional artists have been using them for decades and even before then by holding a paper to a window with the sun behind it and transferring a design to a new sheet. But, the really good artists are the ones that could draw freehand and do it well, only using the lightbox when they needed to.

My freehand drawings are getting better and I am getting more and more comfortable with it, but I still go to the lightbox once in awhile to speed the process up somewhat. At the bottom of this entry you will see two drawings. The one on the left started on the lightbox and the one of the right was freehand. You can see that I have a ways to go with my freehand.

So, the question for me was, whose lesson plan should I follow. I have picked up a number of books from Amazon on drawing so I knew I didn't have to venture any further than my own bookshelves. I had the following books to choose from:

The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Pencil Drawing Techniques

Drawing the Head and Figure

Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes

Keys to Drawing

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth (How to draw and paint)

I have heard nothing but good things about the Betty Edwards book, Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain. So this is the book I've chosen to start this little adventure. Over the past couple of days I've gone through the first couple of lessons and can see that I probably will need to un-learn some of the things I've taught myself over the years, but I have time. I have all the time in the world.

Let's see how this goes over the next month or so.

Keep drawing and take care.

©2008 Dave Casey
LIGHTBOX STUDY
Left - Graphite pencil on paper, 12 x 9"
Right - Charcoal on paper, 17 x 14"

To Sketch or Not To Sketch

As with a lot of artists, I struggle with the idea of whether I should sketch my ideas before setting brush to canvas. There are plenty of times when I just want to pick up a brush and start slopping paint on the canvas and see where my brush leads me. There are times when this approach can work and there are times when the finished canvas will make great kindling in the fireplace. But, no matter the outcome, the process is going to be fun.

When doing a figurative work, it is obviously desirable to start with a quick sketch. Getting proportions correct and all the parts placed properly is what is going to make a good portrait or figure painting a great piece of art. If these elements are not what they should be, the whole piece is going to suffer in the end. Unless, of course, you're trying to become the next Picasso. Then you can put body parts wherever you want and in whatever size you want because it really won't make a difference.

Even when doing a landscape I will do a bit of sketching, usually with either a watered down wash of color or a piece of vine charcoal. I guess I have Jerry Yarnell to thank for that. He and Brenda Harris are quite big on beginning with a sketch directly on your canvas. It is a difference that I noticed between these two and Bob Ross (one of my heroes, by the way). Bob would just start plastering paint wherever he damn well pleased and he made it work. But, he also worked from an image in his mind and that image would change as the painting progressed. But, if you're going to be painting from a reference photo or on location, this methodology rarely works and there is nothing worse that getting a good ways into your masterpiece and finding out that the elements of this work aren't going to fit on the canvas.

Now, when I say it's a good idea to sketch in your ideas before attacking the canvas with a brush I mean sketch, not draw. There is a difference. Sketching a 16x20 canvas shouldn't take more than a minute, with an extra minute to step back and take a long look at the canvas and making whatever adjustments are necessary. And that is a critical step. Step back and get a good look at the canvas from a distance. It took me awhile to learn this little item. It would be nothing for me to sit down at the easel and not get up for the next two or three hours, never once getting a view of the painting from a distance. And these are some of the most boring paintings I've ever done.

If you’re worried that your sketch may show through your transparent glazes, then use charcoal as your sketch medium and after getting the sketch on the canvas, take a fine, soft two inch brush and dry brush the canvas. It will take most of the charcoal off the canvas, but leave just enough for you to see what you are doing.

Sketching will help with your composition also. How many paintings have you seen where it looked like the artist just started painting and put everything they could think of in the painting and didn’t appear to care where they put those items? How many paintings have you seen where the artist appears to have not understood the idea of a focus point and proper placement of that focus point? Sketching is one way to work these bits of the composition puzzle out beforehand.

One contemporary artist that uses sketching quite well is the acrylic painter, Roger Bansemer. Check out some of his videos and you will see how he can take a small piece of wood and sketch out his plein air scene beforehand.

So, if you are finding that your paintings aren’t coming together the way you like, try sketching your ideas on the canvas first and see what happens. You might be surprised with the results.

Keep on sketching and take care.

©2009 Dave Casey
HUMMER WITH FLOWER
Colored pencil on paper, 17 x 14"

A New Chapter ...

As you may have noticed over the past couple of years, blogging has become the "in" thing when it comes to communicating your ideas with the rest of the world. It seems like everyone has a blog now and, it seems, they are just as bad about keeping it going and current as I am. Yes, there are many blogs out there that are added to daily or weekly or even hourly. But, there are even more blogs out there where you find the most current posting is over two years old, there are cobwebs in the corners, dust on the tables and a distinct echo when you call out to see if anyone is home.

And I am just as guilty of that as anyone. I have two other blogs and one hasn't seen me visit it in over six months. The other gets updated as I move from project to project in my second love of a hobby, gardening. My girlfriend and I just bought a house a few weeks ago and there was no backyard, so as an artist, it looks just like a blank canvas to me. When I get finished with my vision, even Monet will have to smile.

But, this is my art blog. This is where I shall impart all of my considerable wisdom in all things art. Should take all of about five minutes.

As an introduction, I am Dave Casey and I have just, in the past couple of years, entered into the second half of my life. A few years ago I came to realization that I wasn't doing some of the things that I had always wanted to do. I wanted to learn ballroom dancing. I wasn't much interesting disco or nightclub dancing, but ballroom has always captured my imagination. About four years ago I decided to take the plunge and have thoroughly enjoyed myself in the world of tuxedos and chiffon.

Other things I've placed on the back burner of the "someday I'd like to do this" stove hiking and backpacking. Now, I go every chance I get, which still isn't nearly as often as I would like. There is something about tossing my sketch pad and some pencils, some lunch and drink and maybe a book into a backpack and heading up into the hills for a day. I'm still trying to figure out how convince my girlfriend to go for some overnighters, but I fear that is a hopeless endeavor.

But one of the things that I have always regretted not giving more time to was my art. I've always enjoyed picking up a pencil and piece of paper and just seeing what I could create. I have been a pencil artist for as far back as I can remember, but I m only now starting to venture into paints and canvases. I have started to take my art more seriously.

I have always been self-taught and feel there is nothing wrong with that, but at the same time I like to see what other techniques are out there. I have, over the past year or so, amassed quite a collection of art books, both on how-to and on art history. I have browsed eBay now and then to see if I can pick up some back issues of various art magazines and now have quite a few years of issues of The Artist Magazine and American Artist.

I like to attend a weekly figure drawing workshop when I have time and, even though I feel quite inadequate when comparing my work to the others around me, I can definitely see a lot of improvement as I flip through my sketch books.

And tonight is First Friday. I think I'll try to make it down there and see if there is anything to inspire me. I've been down there a couple of times and I have to admit that I don't see much of anything that grabs my attention while I meander through the different museums and storefronts. I guess I am more of a classical artist and the new stuff is lost on me. I did see one fellow the last time I was there who was stuck at the end of a dark hallway with about a half a dozen figure drawings hanging on the wall. They were fabulous works. I couldn't afford to buy anything from him the last time I was there, but if he is there this time, I may just have to pick up a piece or two from him.

Anyway, this is the opening of my new blog and I am looking forward to exploring the world of art and my progression as an artist and if you'd like to go along with me, I would certainly love the company.

Until next time, keep on painting and drawing. Take care.

©2009 Dave Casey
QUICK SKETCH 01
Graphite pencil on paper, 12 x 9"

Just a quick drawing I did this evening. When my girlfriend looked at it she asked, "how come her boob is pointing at the ceiling?" I told her it was because, "she's young and they're still perky." She looked down at her own chest and in a moment of remembering days gone by she quietly said, "yeah." It's hell getting old.