Into the Weeds we go

From here we begin to start laying in the top colors ( Colors in the area above the Water line [ which you will see later] ). We are just hinting at shapes and pulling out aggregate highlights. We search through the space to find a space in which the Manatees will be swimming and we find the upper air of the brackish marsh starting to grow above. Using a wet board technique I apply the colors to the primed wood to allow the medium to float above the surface and allow me more time to bring in my big brushes and textured towels to wash and wipe away to I see a realistic background coming into view.

A lot of People have said that my style is either very realistic or slightly stylized. I tend toward the latter assessment when I conceptualize my Art but I do when time allows go all the way to Photo-realistic. I do push my paintings to a level, if I might say, where the craftsmanship and values reach a level where my clients can't look elsewhere for them. That is survival for me because to hold and solidify a following allows a future for my Art and skills. I do really like to paint in a more Stylized realism where the line and the colors, and in a small part I guess the composition, resemble the Masters Prints of old Nippon and works of some of the Turn of the Century Art Nouveau Masters. I have blended my background in Graffiti Arts, Drafting, and Sculpture to pull out images in the Canvas that will leave you visually shocked. Shawn and I learned in Rush Rankin's class and use it religiously that the Sublime is the world into which I like to take the viewer and offer them a taste of it.



Some artist have admitted in the past that when in Creative moments they enter a state where they are sublimely connected to all the things around them and pull from all that space the images and the feelings which which come through in the master's works! We have to respect and search for the space and time in which we can release the pressures of performance and business and remember the Ethics of Workmanship which gets us to where we are going. Because it may be some that sell there art through slick media or tricky advertisement but it boils down to the meat's bone where we all know that the Person who owns the Art must love it first and be excited by having it and also continue to love it and continually keep getting some sort of value out of the work as they live with it. All in all when you are creating a piece for a certain individual or group you are making an entity that will live with them forevermore ( Either in their face or in their mind ). We have to keep ourselves as Artist and Craftsman honed with the standards that supply our own true wealth and that is the Beauty of the peace and tranquility that we find ourselves when we are fighting to bring that Artwork into life. We travel to that spot into which professional athletes and performers call the "zone" and we should always be yearning to get back to that place that brings you the most joy. You soon realize that what brings you "true" happiness in this life will serve you well unto your dying day.



I haven't told you about the tarp I laid out to form the base in which I paint and position my mural on to. I laid out a huge black pool tarp that covers the driveway over and blew it off with a leaf blower ( because it is so big ). I lined up the boards with great scrupulousness to make sure all edges lined up perfectly


I had to move a few boards around before I found the perfect fit. So I was loosed to paint freely as I saw fit. I painted in the oyster beds and Spartina grass. I began the Wet painting technique in the water before I put too much detail into the grasses so I wouldn't lose them to over-painting. I ended the evening when the Sun went down by blacking out the shapes of some of the upper left hand corner land areas before I cleaned up and turned in.

After a good day of painting ( no matter how long ) I feel that tomorrow I can wake up joyful in the knowledge that my task will be easier after the work I got done the day before. Tomorrow I will start working in the shapes of the background, working in the grassy knolls, and tying the water effect from one panel to the next. I look forward to seeing what tomorrow brings and I should be done by the weekend!!!

Good on you, Mates.

Bud Hale!