Wedding Paintings

 I've continued to create wedding paintings for couples over the past year.  These are incredibly rewarding to me.  Most of my personal art winds up on the rack in my studio and is rarely seen.  Some artworks find new homes and are appreciated by others.  But wedding paintings are very personal stories from a very important day in that couple's lives.  If I do my job right, these paintings will be appreciated from day one.  They'll be hung on the wall and the subject of discussion for years, they'll be handed down to children, and then maybe those children's children, and in a century or so, somebody will be saying "that was great-grandma and great-grandpa when they got married way back in 2025".  And that really floats my boat.

So here are a few wedding paintings from the past year:

 Nick and Nicole

They had a beautiful wedding at a castle in the mountains of western North Carolina.  For their painting, they wanted just the two of them, the mountains, and something of the castle.  As normal, I took a lot of photos for reference and one group really stood out.  The way they held each other spoke beautifully of their passion and tenderness.  So I used one photo for the basic pose, plus two others for various bits, plus others for the mountains and castle.  No single photograph could ever have created this image.  

 

Manisha and Dilesh 

Indian weddings are so much fun for me to paint.  There's so much COLOR!  Having done a few, I'm beginning to appreciate the subtleties in how different couples have their ceremonies.  This couple wanted the painting to feature the last of the Seven Circles.  This is when they are tied together and circle a sacred fire.  Each circle has a special meaning.  At the end, they are technically married, although there's more to the ceremony.  So this shows the couple beginning the last circle, with a rather saucy look on the bride's face.  Loved getting that look!

 

Tiana and Lennon

 A personal connection here: Tiana is a veterinary technician for the vet we've been going to for over 20 years.  They had simple requests: just the couple, one item from the venue, and their dog.  I poured my effort into capturing (first) good likenesses, then (second) bringing joy and life to their faces (getting a good likeness does not necessarily mean it has life), and finally (third) bringing in a very energetic pooch.  Oh, and the tractor at the venue, which I think adds the message that these are two very down-to-earth individuals.

 

Exhibition in the Salmagundi Club

 Two of my artworks are in an exhibition at the Salmagundi Club in New York City.  They're part of a show of work by military veterans called "Journeys Onward".  This is the second time I've been part of the show, for which I'm honored.  Here are the two pieces:

My Afghan Interpreter

Charcoal and pastel on toned paper, 30"x24" framed

Now and Then

Oil on canvas, 22"x26"

Earlier this year, I had works in two other exhibitions: "Beyond the Uniform", another exhibition of art by veterans, in Washington, DC, and the National Juried Art Exhibition at the Arts & Culture Alliance in Knoxville, TN.  And I'm waiting on notification for two more shows this fall.

So what's the reason for all the exhibitions this year?  A combination of people twisting my arm to participate with other veterans, and finally being in the mood to join in.  There are years that I don't apply to anything and have no interest, and then there are years like this one.  

It's been over a year since my last post.  I haven't had much inclination to write anything here, but lately I've had a lot of things that I wanted to say.  So here's the ice-breaker to get me going with the blog again.  Check back again!

A Couple of Artworks

Here are two artworks that started in our weekly life drawing sessions.  In both, I got to a certain point, didn't like it, wiped it out, and started over.  Both wound up being muted and quiet, which in these cases is a pretty good quality, I think.

This was the first one, a portrait of Apryl.  I started it in charcoal and let the drawing tell me what it wanted.  From the very first, it wanted to be quiet.  I worked on getting the drawing right, but wasn't successful.  Well, it was kinda close, but not there, so I wiped it out and started over on the same sheet.  This time, I saw some of what was wrong and corrected it.  Then I began working with the pastels.  Here's where the drawing's demands for quiet really showed up.  It didn't want strong reds and yellows in the skin tones, and didn't want strong reddish-browns in the hair.  So I kept the colors barely there.  At the end of the night, it looked pretty good, but the likeness still wasn't quite right.  I took a couple of reference photos and, a few days later (with a fresh viewpoint), I reworked it.  It really didn't take much: the face was very slightly too long and her mouth was a bit too far down.  Two hours of work and this was done.  

This drawing of Emma was started in our most recent life drawing session.  It was another artwork that told me from the get-go that it wanted to be quiet.  I blocked in the figure in charcoal, then developed it to a higher level than what you see now.  It was still relatively un-developed, though - nothing was brought up to what most people consider "finished" except maybe in the face.  Then I brought in the pastels and messed it up.  The colors were too harsh.  So, one hour into a two-hour session, I wiped it out.  This left a lot of marks on the paper that I thought were interesting.  I re-developed only a few areas of the drawing in charcoal, primarily the face and shoulder.  Then I brought in the pastels, only with a very light touch, and gave her some skin tones in the head shoulders, and parts of her arms.  A couple of days later, I did some alterations: scrubbing some areas down, bringing the shapes and darks and colors up in other areas, and adding a touch of color in the background to help set her off.  Sounds simple, but it took all afternoon before it felt like it was really done.

I'm really liking the effect of the muted colors and "incomplete" drawings.  There's less specifics here, which means that you, the viewer, have to bring more of your own ideas to the artwork.  Less "telling" on my part, more "suggesting".  There's a tension between the developed and undeveloped areas that I like.  I might be on to something here.  Or not - check back in a few months!

Social Media

As an artist trying to get my work out into the world, I have to use social media more than I want to.  And as an older guy, every platform is annoying in its own way.  

The first one I was ever on was Facebook.  I've found that to be a good way for me to keep in touch with my real-life friends.  Eventually, I figured out that my personal and art professional pages needed to be separate.  So I created a page for my studio work (https://www.facebook.com/Studio.of.Skip.Rohde).  Later, I added another for my wedding painting work (https://www.facebook.com/Asheville.Event.Paintings/).  Both of those are open to the public.  I keep a wall between my personal and studio pages, though.  If I don't personally know somebody, I don't take their friend request to my personal page.  

I've found Facebook to be a complement to my websites.  It's like an easily-available resume.  Both the studio and wedding painting pages have a huge amount of images.  The studio page has the images arranged into photo albums of related work, while the wedding painting page has all the images on one file.  For those who are interested in my work, it's easy to see what I've done.  Both pages are much more complete than my websites, and they're chattier and more relaxed as well.  Neither gets a whole lot of looks, but that's okay - it's a resume that people can/do reference long after the initial posting.

My Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/skiprohde/) is pretty much strictly for my art business.  It combines both my studio and wedding painting inputs.  Instagram has more of a "church of what's happening now" feel than FB, at least to me.  For younger people (95% of the planet), it's more acceptable and cooler than FB, so my IG page gets more views than my two FB pages combined.  I think of it as another form of my artwork resume: almost all my output is there, it's just not organized into pages like it is on FB.

One thing that irks me about IG is that it seems to have an upper limit on the number of times it shows a post.  My account has a little under 1,000 followers, meaning people (or bots) who have said they want to see my posts, but IG only shows my posts to a small number of them.  I think Meta wants money to show my posts to more people.  Everything I've read from other artists says that's not the way to go.  I'm not alone in this: there are a lot of artists I follow, many of whom are friends of mine, that do great work and still only get 20-30 "likes", if that.  But FB has no problem filling my feed with posts by "name" artists that have thousands of "likes".  "Here", IG says, "you should like this work, too!"  Well, fuck that.  If any post has more than 200 "likes", they don't need mine, and I don't give it.  I support the smaller accounts that have great work but just a few "likes".  Suport your struggling local artist.

Pinterest is a strange beast.  I have a page for my studio work (https://www.pinterest.com/skiprohde/) and another for my wedding painting work (https://www.pinterest.com/skiprohde0389/).  I created the studio page years ago and it didn't seem to do anything at all for me, so I forgot about it.  Last year, I kept hearing that brides used Pinterest to find ideas for their weddings, so I created the wedding painting page and posted more on the studio page.  So the wedding painting page had a huge influx of visitors over the first few weeks.  I thought it was going to be great, but then it quickly tapered off to just a handful a day.  There are many posts that Pinterest has, literally, not shown to anybody.  Most of the other posts have just one or two showings.  The studio side is the same: everything has somewhere between no views to maybe ten views, except for one post that has over 4,300 views and counting.  WTF?  I can't figure it out, and actually, I don't care.

I had an account on Twitter.  Elon totally wrecked the platform, so I don't go there anymore.

As for other platforms, like TikTok, SnapChat, and LinkedIn, I'm not there.  Not going to be there, either.  Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest take up too much time as it is.  Social media is a time suck and I'd rather be in the studio.

A Crack in the Wall

 

A Crack in the Wall

Oil on canvas, 45"x45"

This is a new and very different sort of painting for me.  Rather than just post it and say "new work, here ya go", I think it needs some discussion.

Several years ago, I was doing a photo session with one of my regular models.  We had been having fun, making photos that I could use for artworks, going through a variety of themes for her to play with, when I suggested "how about something defensive?"  She got down on the floor and curled up into this ball.  It hit me like a gut punch: she wasn't imagining what it was like, she was reliving something that had already happened to her.  It was unnerving and I changed the theme to something lighter.  

She didn't explain what had happened to her, but some time later, I learned something about it.  Yes, it was bad.  I couldn't just walk away from this raw experience, though.  I did a charcoal and pastel work from it and it has been in a few exhibitions.  It has always gotten strong responses from women.  And I have wanted to make it a much larger painting ever since.

What held me back?  Maybe the fear of not doing justice to it.  What she showed me was her response to a very personal infliction of violence.  And what the viewers of the pastel artwork who talked to me later showed me was that this was a very wide-spread experience.  Way too many women have been subjected to physical, mental, and sexual violence.  I wanted to honor those experiences in a way that helps others to see that they're not alone.  

Finally, I realized that if this painting was ever going to get made, I had to get off my ass and make it.  So I got busy.  I made a small study in oil on paper and worked out the composition and color scheme, then stretched the canvas and dove in.  It took several weeks, much experiementation, and many layers to get it to where it said what it needed to say.  

The next step is to get it exhibited.  Don't know where that will be yet.  Will let you know.

And the title, "A Crack in the Wall"?  I'm not so sure about that one.  I'm not very good at titles.  Got a better suggestion?

Wedding Painting Equipment

 Every artist develops a unique set of tools to get the job done.  Wedding painters typically go for a minimalist approach - just the basics.  An easel, a light, a canvas, and some paint, and they're ready to go.  This setup is lightweight and easy to get in and out of the venue.

Yeah, not me.

My setup is a direct outgrowth of my studio way of working.  I paint in oils and need a lot of equipment, and it seems to grow a little bit every year.  The photo shows my setup at The Farm at Old Edwards Inn in Highlands, NC, last weekend.  Let's talk about what's there and why.

First, the easel.  It's a wooden full-size French easel.  It's very efficient: it's a box that holds my paint tubes, has three telescoping legs, a support for the canvas, a place to mount my light, and a tray that I can clamp my palette to, and hang my roll of paper towels from.  The drawback?  It's fairly heavy.  I usually don't have to lug it very far, though, so I'll take the weight penalty for the convenience.

See that tall table just to the right of the easel?  That's mine, too.  I take a lot of photos and load them into a laptop.  The laptop needs to be up where I can see it.  Many wedding artists use their phones or iPads for reference photos, then wind up painting with one hand while holding the phone in the other.  No, I need a stable and larger screen so I can see the reference photos.  Having a place to hold my Coke and business cards is a bonus.  When I first started at events, I asked the venue for a tall table, but soon learned that I can't rely on them.  So I don't.

The mat on the floor is part of the setup.  It's there to protect the venue.  I've never actually spilled anything or had a wet painting do a face-plant on the floor, but if that ever happens, we're safe.

I've got a plastic trash can under the easel.  Because trash.  It's something else that I can't rely on the venue to provide, and it looks a lot better than hanging a plastic bag from the grocery store off the easel.

You can't see it here, but I also bring an extension cord to power the light and computer.  Again, something I can't rely on the venue to provide.

You can barely see it here, but under that black cloth between the easel and tall table is a big rolling toolbox from Lowe's.  This is to haul all the stuff that doesn't fit into the easel.  That includes the light, computer, computer power cord, iPad, paint brushes, palette, painting mediums, roll of paper towels, various tools, gaffer tape, extension cord, apron, business cards, granola bars, sketchbook, DSLR camera, straight edges, spare batteries for the camera and computer mouse, and various other bits.  

Does that sound like a lot of stuff?  It does to me, but it's all necessary for my way of working.  It also means that I don't fly to do weddings.  I load my car and drive, and I only go to events that are within one day's drive of Asheville.  Events in Miami or southern California?  Sorry!  But I have done weddings as far off as far western Kentucky, Atlanta, and the Washington, DC area.  

So that's my wedding painting equipment loadout.  It may not work for you, but it does for me.  

Andy

 

This is a portrait of Andy, the brother of a friend.  Andy's a great guy, very smart, very accomplished, and one of the nicest people I've met.  This is a fairly small painting, 16"x12", in oil on panel.  It's one that I'm really glad I did.

Me at 21

There's a challenge going around on Instagram and Facebook to show a selfie from when you were 21.  Most of this is coming from people in their 30's or 40's, and to be honest, their "21" photos don't look that different from their "current age" photos.  Then there's me.  I've got quite a few decades in between the time I was 21 and now.  So here I am, age 21, a very long time ago, doing my best Napoleon Dynamite look, long before there ever was a Napoleon Dynamite.  You may laugh now.  I don't miss that big hair, but I do miss being able to fit into those 30" waist jeans! 

Now and Then

 

"Now and Then" is an older painting of mine, done in about 1995, before many of y'all were born.  It has a very important place in my growth and I thought I'd discuss it here.

In '95, I was still in the Navy and stationed in Maryland.  I was taking a night painting class at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.  The teacher gave us a homework assignment of painting a still life.  Since I'd been painting for many years at that point, I didn't think it would be very challenging.  Actually creating the painting wasn't difficult.  I piled a bunch of things onto a table, moved things around, tossed things out, added something every now and then, and kept whittling away until the only things left were my Navy hat and my ancient teddy bear.  The contrast in colors, values, and textures appealed to me: lots of harsh blacks and whites and hard-edge lines in the hat, compared with soft textures and warm colors in the bear.  

At the next class, we set our homework assignments up against the wall and everybody critiqued everybody else's work.  When they got to mine, it got a lot of emotional response.  One of the students said it was about a father who had gone off to war and wasn't coming back and the kid was going to grow up without a father.  I was looking at them thinking "umm ... it's just a still life ...".  I was really taken aback.

However, the big lesson at the time was that I can't control the story the viewers see in my work.  They come to it with their own background, history, mental associations, prejudices, likes, and dislikes, all of which have nothing to do with me.  All I can do is tell my story as best I can.  Maybe suggest a particular line of thought, but that's about it.  They'll see what they're going to see.

There was another lesson quite some time later.  Eventually, I realized that my choice of the hat and teddy bear wasn't random.  Something in me specifically chose those two items.  It's a self-portait done with two of my possessions.

These two lessons have affected every piece of art I look at now, and every piece of art I make.

Sema's Shadow

 "Sema's Shadow" is a new figurative artwork that I recently finished.  It's in charcoal and pastel on toned paper, size 25"x19".  I thought I'd share a bit of background on how it developed.

This started as a drawing from one of our life sessions. It was an okay drawing but that's about it. Not much life to it and it was a standard life drawing pose. I wanted to see if I could take it up a few notches, giving it character and more interest. So I began drawing over it, covering things, erasing things, but keeping the same basic pose. I wanted it to be more evocative and less descriptive. After working on it intermittently for several weeks, in between other works, here's how it turned out:

So what do you think? Is it better? Worse? Neither, just different?


#figurativeart #figuredrawing #artistmodel #lifedrawing #charcoaldrawing #pastelfiguredrawing #contemporaryfigurativeart #ashevilleartist #ashevilleart #skiprohde

New Exhibition at Mars Hill University

 One of the things I do besides create artworks is to show artworks.  I manage the art gallery at Mars Hill University.  We just finished installing the first show of the spring semester.  It's a series of prose and poetry printed in letterpress, along with line etchings, all made with exquisite quality.  I'm not exaggerating: it's some of the best I've ever seen.  And the story that the artist is telling is extremely powerful. 

Click on the image to see a larger version.  Then zoom in on it even more.  Take your time - the more you look, the more you're going to see.

Artist koreloy mcwhirter has created this collection of works titled "redhanded: a songe forre the loste". She doesn't capitalize names or titles, and deliberately uses spelling that evokes olde English.  It's essentially a book of prose, poetry, and imagery, each page of which is individually mounted, framed, and presented.  They're arranged such that you enter the gallery and follow the "book" around the wall, one page at a time, in order.

redhanded is based on her own experiences of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, both as a very young child and continuing into adulthood.  This is not a happy story.  It's not a hopeless story, either, and you'll find humor, love, mourning, forgiveness, anger, and much more.

You'll find it, that is, if you take the time to read the prose and poetry, and to study the prints.  It's not an exhibition that you can pop in, get a quick look, and say you've "seen" it.  But if you take the time, you will be profoundly moved.

Weizenblatt Gallery is in the Moore Fine Art building on the Mars Hill University campus in Mars Hill, North Carolina, about 20 miles north of Asheville.  Hours are 10-4 MWF.  We're having a reception for the artist on Tuesday, Jan 16, from 5-7 pm.  I hear from koreloy that there will be music, singing, and maybe some dancing as well.  

Be there.

Wedding Painting Subjects

Deciding on the subject matter for a wedding painting is one of the key things for a couple.  It's a very personal decision.  I advise my clients on what I think would be a good approach, but they're the ones that live with the painting after it's done.  So it really has to match who they are.

I've found that there are four popular subjects:

• The ceremony, usually just at the end when they're the world's newest married couple. 
• The recessional, walking back down the aisle at the end of the ceremony.
• The first dance.
• The couple away from a formal setting.

Let's look at each of them.  Click on each of the images for a larger version.

The Ceremony

Paintings of the ceremony capture THE moment that they are now a married couple.  It's about them, but it's also about a particular moment where they become one.  Sometimes the couples want members of the family or the wedding party, other times they want it to show just them.  Either way, I try to capture the formality of the moment.  

The Recessional

The recessional is a variation of the ceremony, except now they're moving.  I try to capture their feelings for each other as they are walking and realizing that they've really, finally, done it.  There's a joy in their walk.  Sometimes the wedding party is in the background, but more often the families are.  Either way,  it's a balanced composition: the couple is in the center, bridal party or family to the left, groomsmen or groom's family to the right.  But this is where paintings are different from photos - I can put people in, or take them out, in ways that photographers can't, and so I do!

The First Dance

A First Dance is a more romantic and informal subject than the recessional.  I have a lot more freedom with the composition.  Usually the couple is positioned slightly to the left or right, other figures are offset in some fashion, and I use perspective to help guide the eye around the painting.  There's a lot of adding and subtracting in these artworks to create the feeling of the evening.  These paintings are about the love of the couple for each other, the celebration of the day, and the support for them from all their family and friends.

The Couple

This subject is my favorite.  At it's most basic level, it's about these two people and their love.  By simplifying the composition to just them, I can focus on their connection.  This subject is more timeless than the others.  Friends and family members may come and go, but the two of them are forever.  I can zoom in on them, making their figures larger and bringing them to a higher level of completion.  

So there are the four most common subjects.  There are infinite variations: Indian weddings, for example, usually have the same subjects but bright colors.  Paintings of the couple can have them in a room or walking in a field.  Some want their dogs included - and I like dogs.  Every painting is very different.  That's what keeps it fresh and interesting for me!

What's Your Process?

 "What's your process?  Will you finish it tonight?  Is it done?  Did you watch Bob Ross?"  These are just some of the questions I normally get at a wedding or other event.  (Answers: (a) Got 15 minutes?  (b) No.  (c) No.  (d) No.). No two artists are the same.  We've each developed a way of working that fits our style, standards, and personalities.  Mine is very different from almost all the other event artists that I know of.

Most wedding artists work in acrylic on either canvas or panel.  They want to travel light, finish the painting that night, and give it to the couple at the end of the reception.  So you'll see them bringing just an easel, canvas, and a light, taking pictures on their cell phones, and completing it (or almost) by the end of the evening.  Some work in watercolor and they also have minimal gear, work fast, and finish that night.  

I don't know how they do it.  Some of those artists are phenomenally good and can get beautiful results, including good likenesses and life, in one session.  But there's no way that I can get the level of finish I want in just one evening.  It normally takes me two to four weeks of additional work in the studio to get it to that level.  

I start by talking with the couple about what they want their painting to show.  Most of them want either the recessional as the world's newest married couple, the first dance, or just the two of them.  There are variations: the kiss at the end of the ceremony, including their dogs, a big grouping of both families, or a dance outside, for example.  So I need to get a feel for who they are as people to determine what they really want, which may or may not be what they thought they wanted.

Next, I coordinate with the wedding planner, venue manager, and photographer.  I work closely with all three to ensure that I get the access and support I need while also ensuring they have the information needed to do their jobs.  

On the Big Day, I'll arrive a couple of hours early to start work.  I'll set up my easel, light, table, rolling toolbox, and laptop.  Here's a standard setup:

Then I'll break out my camera (a real camera, not a phone) and start shooting.  I'll take a ton of photos of everything that may conceivably be needed: flowers, the ceremony area (for ceremony and recessionals) or reception area (for First Dances), decorations, and surrounding environment.  I'll tag along with the photographer for the pre-ceremony photos and the post-ceremony photos to ensure I have lots of the couple plus everybody else that may be in the painting.  Usually, I'll take between 200-400 photos.  These are NOT photographer-quality images - they're strictly references that I may or may not use in the painting.  I don't stage my photos - I try to capture the unguarded moments in between, which is a big difference.

First Dances take a bit of planning.  It's usually dark by then and I don't like to rely on a flash.  So I'll coordinate with the photographer to do a faux-first dance during the pre-ceremony photo session so I can at least get an idea of what they're going to do, along with some decent reference shots.  Then I'll still take some shots during the real First Dance.

Once I feel that I have enough photos, I'll load them into my laptop.  I usually have an idea of what the composition will be like, so I'll do a very rough sketch and then a quick look through the photos for some initial references to get started.  Then it's time to start slinging paint.  The first 10-15 minutes are the most important in the whole process.  This sets the general composition, the placement of the figures, and the color scheme.  If I get this wrong, then I'll have to scrub it out and start over.  That happens about once a year.  Everything in this first rough-in will change: the figures will be revised larger or smaller, or moved slightly one way or the other, people will be added or deleted, and I'll do a lot of inventing.  Just because something is there in real life doesn't mean it will be in the painting, and vice versa.  It's a painting, after all, not a photograph!

Then, for the rest of the night, I paint.  I try to get a decent indication of the couple,  including some indication of their connection, but I don't try for a good likeness.  I'll revise the setting, adjust colors, add things in, find photos that offer better images of faces or postures, and just develop as much as I can.  And I talk with people.  Most people have never seen an artist at work before and are very curious.  Lots of them will say "I don't want to bother you!" but I tell them that's why I'm here.  Most of the painting will be done in the studio, but at the event, I'm an art ambassador.  If kids are there, I'll often give them a brush and let them put something in.  It may go away later, but it doesn't matter, they get to contribute.  

The best is when the bride and groom come by to check on things and the bride breaks into tears.  That makes my night.

At the end of the evening, I pack up and take the painting back to the studio for much more work.  That's where the quality comes from.  It may take all afternoon to get a couple of faces, or the likenesses may come together in five minutes.  You just can't predict it.  When it's almost done, I send them a good image and get their feedback.  They'll often have a couple of small things that I managed to miss, which is exactly why I do this.  Then, when they approve it, I deliver it, whether in-person or through UPS/FedEx.

So that's my process.  I'll talk more about what goes into a painting in a future post.  

A Year of Painting Weddings

Photo courtesy of Jill at Realities Photography

Over the past year, I've done a lot of very different weddings and created some very different paintings of them.  "A lot" is relative, of course: I normally limit myself to about nine per year, while other artists may do 50-70 per year.  I just can't do that and produce the quality of work that I want.  

Part of that is due to the fact that I'm slow.  Go on Instagram or YouTube and you'll see videos of artists cranking out a painting in 60 seconds flat.  Okay, they're sped up, but you get the drift.  There's a reason you don't see me doing videos like that - they'd be an hour long and show only a small bit of development.  Another reason is that I want to know the couple in the painting.  I need to know who they are, see them interact with each other, their family, and friends, how they carry themselves, and so on.  The more I know, the more that comes through in the painting.  Don't know how that happens, but it does.  And I can't get to know them if I'm doing a lot of paintings.  They would get lost in the shuffle.

Since my last post of a wedding painting, I've completed 14 paintings, with two more in progress.  Some of those are among the very best to come out of my studio.   No, I won't tell you which ones.  You decide for yourself.  Some of the things I've seen, experienced, and noticed over the past year and a half are:

- More couples want their dogs included.  As a dog lover, I'm happy to include the furry family.  One of the paintings in progress has a beautiful German Shepherd with a floppy ear. 

- The subjects have been equally divided between the first dance, the end of the ceremony, and just the couple.  There's no single style that dominates because every couple is different.  

- One of this year's events wasn't a wedding, but rather a dinner for a business event.  Sounds boring?  No, it wasn't - I had some great conversations with some very interesting people.  And it's going to be presented as a gift to a really great couple who didn't know it was coming.

- Most have been set outside, regardless of whether it was of the ceremony, first dance, or just the couple.  That brings an occasional challenge with weather.  It can be a beautiful day, it can be Noah's flood, it can be hot and muggy, or cold and very, very wet.  Fortunately, most of the outdoors events had good weather.  

- Kids!  They're a lot of fun.  At a recent reception, a 6-year-old girl at the table next to me saw what I was doing and turned her chair, and her brother's, around to watch.  Never mind that speeches were being made, first dances and parent dances were being danced, and cakes were being cut, all of which were the focus of attention for everybody else.  Nope, she wanted to watch me painting.  If she'd been tall enough, I'd have given her a brush and let her "help".  (Yes, she could have stood on a chair; no, I didn't want to go there.)

There's more, but you get the idea.  Weddings are fun.  Wedding paintings are a challenge, but very rewarding for me to do.  The couples trust me to capture one of the most important days in their lives.  The paintings are very meaningful to them from day one - they're a treasure forever, not just entertainment at the reception.  And that floats my boat.

Artificial Intelligence and Art

 Over the past couple of months, I've seen a lot of artists on Twitter experimenting with AI and art.  This is a very fast-developing thing right now.  There have been multiple online software programs launched that do it in a similar fashion: you type in a few words or a phrase and the AI returns two or three images.  One AI image was given an award in the Digital Image category in a recent juried exhibition, which caused a stink among many artists.  So what's it all about?

The primary AI generators, at least the ones that I've seen images from most often, are DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, and MidJourney.  There are many many others.  Results can be stunning.  I see a lot that look like sci-fi landscapes or urbanscapes: impossible architecture, cities floating in the sky, barren horizons, Star Wars-like figures, or a single figure silhouetted against an ominous sky.  Others seem like Old Masters paintings that have been bumped up to 11.  Many are extremely realistic, others less so.  Here are a few examples: 

The Exorcist, by Lorenzo

Returnlessness, by Reimers

Busy, by Alex MJ

When I compared AI images to oil paintings, I thought that they had some really interesting aspects.  They made good use of composition.  See how the padre is highlighted by the arch, or how the single figure in Returnlessness is offset to one side and balanced by the light pole.  They can be highly detailed, far more than the typical oil painting is taken (Returnlessness again), or they can suggest details without actually portraying them (Busy).  All the AI images I've seen have been representational - that is, they show recognizable things: people, buildings, light poles, and so on.  None of it has been abstract, although they certainly make use of good abstract principles.  

I tried out a couple of programs, but got really awful results.  And I didn't like the process.  It felt like pulling the lever on a slot machine over and over, only instead of a money, you might get a nice image.  There was nothing of "me" in it.

It seemed to me (and still seems, come to think of it) that AI is good for a "Wow" effect, like great eye candy.  But what keeps bugging me is that it's machine made.  It can't have soul, but it can simulate it, sometimes well.  

Having said that, I have found one artist who is doing really good work with AI.  Francien Krieg, a Dutch artist, is the exception that proves the rule.  She has been doing a series of oil paintings using herself and old women as her subjects.  Earlier this year, she started playing with AI and she seems to have figured out how to get it to do images that are very similar to her oil paintings.  Here's an example:

Heat, by Francien Krieg

Francien is the only one I have seen who is able to give her AI images character, depth, and most importantly, heart.  You really should check out her website and compare her physical paintings to her AI work.  

As for me, I will stick with physical artworks.  But I like seeing what other artists are creating with AI.  Many of the NFTs that I've been collecting are AI-generated.  In fact. all of the ones in this post are NFTs that I've bought.  So, yeah, I think there's a place for AI art.  Just not in my studio.

Solo Exhibition!

My new solo exhibition opened Friday.  The show is titled "What May Be" and consists of twelve paintings that explore the theme of what might be in our future if we don't get our collective acts together.  Doesn't sound like a cheerful romp, does it?  Well, as is typical of my shows, it isn't.  (Previous such collections: "Old Times", about aging; "Bush League", a political satire series about the Bush administration; and "Meditation on War", about the effects of war on people and nations).  

Here's the artist statement: 

"News reports today can be frightening.  Wars rage across the globe.  The world’s population is exploding at the same time that climate change threatens our ability to produce food.  Social media and news sources stoke anger and violence on the local, national, and international scales.  At a time when cooperation is more in need than ever before, it is in very short supply. 

I was asked once whether I was an optimist or a pessimist.  My answer was that I am a short-term optimist and a long-term pessimist.  We have an amazing ability to muddle through in the short term, but the long-term trends are ominous.  That’s what underlies all these paintings.  However, I was surprised  at the hope that came out during the making of some of these paintings.  Maybe I’m more optimistic than I thought.

These paintings are arranged in a rough timeline.  At one end of the gallery is the present and at the other is some possible future.  The future may or may not happen as these creations suggest.  Nobody knows.  But one thing is certain: we all will have a hand in how it develops."

The Mountain XPress, the local Asheville paper, ran an article on it in this week's edition.  They got the general gist of it right even though some of the facts are a bit off.  You can read the article here.  If you want to see the paintings, they're on my website. 

The reception was Friday night and was lots of fun.  Many friends showed up, some of whom I hadn't seen in years.  Met some interesting people as well.  

The show will be up until September 25th.  If you're in Asheville, swing by Pink Dog Creative at 348 Depot Street, in the River Arts District, and go through the show.  And let me know what you think.

Gabe and Lynnea's Painting

 

I just completed a painting for a wonderful couple.  Gabe and Lynnea were married out near Santa Fe, New Mexico.  They chose a rather spectacular location in a state park.  They're both very laid-back and not at all concerned with traditional weddings, as you can probably tell from their outfits.  The ceremony was scheduled for 2 pm, but everybody was having a great time chatting and socializing, so they didn't get around to it until closer to 3.  Did I say they were laid back?  

This was a different process for me.  I didn't take any art supplies out to Santa Fe because I didn't set up and paint there.  I took my camera and worked with their photographer prior to and during the wedding to get several hundred shots.  Then I came home to North Carolina to create the artwork.  And I did something very different from my previous efforts.  Instead of painting the surrounding environment, or friends and family, or both, I stripped it down to just the two of them.  And I think it worked.  To me, it captures their love on that day, which is what it's all about.  No distractions, nothing else, just the two of them.

Congratulations to Gabe and Lynnea!

Blockchains and Crypto and NFTs, Oh My!

I mentioned in my last post that I've been playing in the NFT world and learning lots of new stuff.  Thought I'd share some of what I've learned here.  It's an incredibly complex and ever-changing rabbit-warren of technology, community, written and unwritten rules, and potential.

We'll start with blockchains because that's what underlies all of this.  A blockchain is essentially a system that verifies that something else exists and belongs to somebody.  Think of it like a ledger.  You enter the information that you own some digital asset (a photo, a music file, some crypto currency, whatever).  It's recorded in an encrypted block of data.  If you transfer the digital asset to somebody else, the "ledger" creates another encrypted block of data that records who now has it, what date and time the transfer occurred, and some other information.  The first and second blocks of data are now "chained" together.  Their information is stored in the cloud on computers around the world.  Neither block can ever be altered except by adding additional blocks because altering them would require altering vast amounts of information on vast numbers of dispersed computers simultaneously.  So blockchains are incredibly secure.

The first workable blockchain was Bitcoin, created in 2009.  Since then, there have been something like 3,000 different blockchains created.  Some have taken off, like Ethereum, as they targeted specific niches, while most others haven't.  

One of the major concerns about blockchains is their environmental impact.  Bitcoin, Ethereum, and most others use the "proof of work" (POW) verification system.  I have no idea how that works, but this system requires huge amounts of energy to operate.  To create a single NFT (we'll get into that in a bit) can require as much energy as running a typical American household for over two weeks.  There are, literally, entire coal-fired power plants whose output is used exclusively for blockchain operations.  That sucks.  In response, a newer type of verification system, the "proof of stake" (POS) system, was created.  It uses an tiny fraction of the energy that POW systems do.  The Tezos blockchain uses the POS system and says it uses 1/200,000,000th the energy of Bitcoin.  All this energy has to be paid for by the users and can be expensive.  As a comparison, it can cost about $70 to create an NFT on the Ethereum chain.  It cost me about 15 cents on the Tezos chain.  That reflects a huge reduction in energy useage.

So blockchains give us a way to verify ownership.  Crypto currency gives us a medium of exchange.  Each blockchain has its own crypto currency.  Bitcoin, of course, is the oldest.  For traditional artists, the most common blockchains and crypto are the Ethereum chain (using Ether) and Tezos (using Tez).  They are not interoperable: you can't use Tezos on the Ethereum chain.  They're comparable to existing currencies: you go to Japan, you use yen; you go to France, you use euros, and you can't use euros in Japan.  You can exchange them, though, just like you do with national currencies.  

Lots of attention is being paid to the volatility of crypto currencies, and with good reason.  Just recently, the values of almost all crypto currencies collapsed.  Bitcoin dropped by about 70%, for example.  Why?  Lots of reasons, but primarily it's due to the state of the world economy and the fact that crypto currencies are naturally more susceptible to mood changes.  I think that a lot of people bought crypto as an "investment", like stocks, especially over the last couple of years when everything was going up up up.  Well, they can go down down down, too.  Volatility doesn't necessarily mean the chains are bad, just that it's a new technology and people are still figuring them out.

Okay, now that we have blockchains and crypto currencies, what about NFTs?  NFTs are basically some kind of digital file that is attached to the blockchain.  It can be anything: a jpeg, mpeg, PDF, whatever you want.  You take the file, "mint" it by creating a record of it and attaching it to the blockchain, and now you have an NFT.  You can trade it or sell it as you wish.  If you have some crypto, you can buy somebody else's NFT.  I have taken several of my artworks and made NFTs of them.  The first was Natalie #5.  I took my best-quality digital photo, went on the objkt.com site, minted 15 copies of it, and listed them on my page on the objkt.com website.  Since then, I've minted other artworks, sold some, and bought some.  There's some really good NFT art out there.

So why would you pay good crypto for something that is essentially a jpeg image that you could copy/paste for free?  Because you can be sure that it came directly from the artist and is exactly the way they wanted it to look.  And it has the bonus of being "signed" by the artist.  You can pick up a New York Yankees ballcap for $5, but a Yankees ballcap signed by Derick Jeter may set you back $50.  It's a collectible, which is pretty much the same concept.

Going forward, I think NFTs will be a big part of business operations, but it won't happen for a while.  Right now, there are artists playing around with the concept, and some businesses are buying and selling using crypto currencies, but there's nothing large scale.  A big reason is that the whole system is so difficult to learn, and convoluted, that relatively few people want to spend the time and effort to learn it.  But eventually, the tech geeks will figure out ways to make it as easy and simple as using a credit card.  And when that happens, you'll see NFTs everywhere.  Car titles, concert tickets, receipts for new refrigerators, your Amazon orders, all that and much much more could eventually be done with NFTs.  In the meantime, I'll play around with NFTs of artworks and watch how it all develops.

Catch-Up

 So it's been a bit over 3 months since I posted anything.  My legions of fans (all 1 of you) have requested that I get my butt in gear and spill the beans on what's been going on.  It's been very busy, of course (isn't it always??) and my excuse is ... I'm lazy.

Okay.  Quick rundown:

In March, we went down to Florida to visit some friends.  We liked it so much we decided to move there, especially since a house in our neighborhood had just sold for a ridiculous amount of money.  So we contacted a realtor here to sell and another there to buy, started some fix-up, and really got into it.  When we were finally able to put some reliable numbers down, we didn't like what we saw.  Down there was nice, but it wasn't nice enough to double or triple our mortgage payment.  So we decided we like it right here just fine, thank you very much.  Actually, I was really happy with that decision, since there was absolutely NO art scene down there.

Right after that, we went up to DC.  Our grandson was going there on a school trip.  Since he lives in California, we don't see them very much, so we jumped on the opportunity to see him, even if it was just for short periods in between his museum visits.  When we were two hours out of DC, we got a call from his dad, saying he couldn't go on the trip because they didn't get his covid vaccination done in time.  Well, whose fault was that?  So we continued to DC, saw some friends, visited the National Museum of Art, and had a great time.  It reinforced our intention to never, ever, EVER live in a big city again.

As usual, our allergies kicked in high gear this spring.  Nose running, feeling crappy, must be covid, right?  Well, covid doesn't last THAT long.  Things have settled down now for a while.

I was asked to do a live painting for the Asheville Art Museum fundraising gala.  This was a no-brainer: get in front of the high-rolling art supporters in Asheville and show what I can do.  I brought in Maya White, another live wedding artist, to be my model and focal point for the painting.  We had a great time, talked with a lot of people, gave out some cards, and created a very loose and lively painting to be auctioned off at the end of the night.  All was good until the auction started.  Since this was an art museum, they were auctioning off a lot of stunningly good works that had been donated by top regional art galleries.  It started with a classical portrait that would knock your socks off, continued through beautifully done abstracts, glass sculpture that belonged on display in a museum, rare lithographs by big-name artists, and much more.  I kept looking at those works, then back at my painting, which looked by comparison to be sloppy, unfocused, and unresolved.  I wanted to just crawl under a rock.  However, it was well received and sold for more than I thought it would to a couple that was ecstatic to have it.  Would I do it again?  Yes, but I'd pick a simpler composition that I could bring to a much higher level of finish.

I just finished a wedding painting for a wonderful couple.  Unfortunately, it was pouring on their Big Day and it was supposed to be an outdoor wedding.  But they rolled with the punch, the venue did a great job with Plan B, and the painting shows them on a bright sunny day, like it should have been.  When the bride bursts out in tears every time she comes by the easel to check on progress, you know you're on the right track.

Looking forward, I have a solo show coming up in August at the Pink Dog Collective in Asheville.  I'm really excited about this.  It will have some older paintings, but a lot that have never been shown outside my studio, including two that aren't done yet.  

And I've been looking into NFTs and crypto currency lately.  Lots to say there, so I'll save it for another post.

End of a Local Era

 My barber has closed his shop.  It's the end of a 63-year era here in my little town.  It's an example of what's happening everywhere.

I've been going to Tim's shop for about 20 years.  He ran a one-man barbershop that his father established 63 years ago.  It was very much a Norman Rockwell place.  It was a small storefront in a 100-year-old string of buildings on Main Street in Mars Hill.  There was a barber pole out front, of course, and the "Mars Hill Barbershop" was hand-painted on the front window.  Inside, there were two barber chairs, although one of them hadn't been used in all the time I went there, and looked like it hadn't been used for a few decades prior to that.  His German Shepherd was the welcoming committee and receptionist.  If you got on the dog's good side, you were good forever, and everybody got on the dog's good side as long as you liked dogs.  

Tim knew everybody in a 10-mile radius.  He'd grown up in Mars Hill and worked alongside his father in the shop until the older man retired.  Tim took it over and made no changes whatsoever.  Well, except that might have been when it went from a 2-chair operation to a 1-chair.  Tim is very funny and very personable.  If you want to know what's going on in the neighborhood, you went to get a haircut at Tim's.  You'd sit in the ancient waiting chairs, along with however many other guys were there, and joined in the conversation.  Everybody pitched in.  It might be about the mystery construction project down by the interstate, or Jimmy Smith's herd of cows needing haybales, or Frank's parents in the local nursing home (an X-rated and hilarious discussion if there ever was one).  There was no sitting there and reading magazines, even though there were plenty, all from ten years ago.  

But the number of people going to Tim's has been slowly dropping for years.  Older guys died off and fewer younger ones came.  Almost all the college boys went to styling salons down in Weaverville or Asheville.  Tim got a part-time job at a big-box store to help pay the bills.  As the barber business slowed, he increased his hours at the big-box.  And this year, when the rent went up significantly, he threw in the towel and retired.  And 63 years of barbering in Mars Hill came to an end.

I knew it was coming, but last week I went in to get a haircut and the store wasn't there anymore.  Everything inside was gone, along with the barber pole and bench outside.  A sign on the window announced the closure.  It was so sad to see.  So I made an appointment at a place down in Weaverville.  It's a franchise operation, brightly lit, lots of chairs and ladies cutting hair.  Everybody waiting was staring at their phones and nobody was talking.  Well, I was, anyway, once I got in the chair, and the lady cutting my hair seemed to be glad to have somebody to talk to.  And, of course, it was a decent haircut at a decent price.

So another old neighborly business is gone, replaced by an anonymous franchise operation.  Progress?  No.