Updated: 11-19-07......I fixed a link..............................................147a.
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July 7, 2005
Artmail 147's: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i
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Aloha all...
A lot of things started happening around the 4th of July weekend and I never got a chance to really start this Artmail before. The Purple Feather Greenback project has been delayed while I explore a variation of the idea. Here's what happened: I decided to paint a PF Greenback of Erica for her graduation-birthday party last month. It turned out pretty good (even though I could have continued painting for a better result). Erica liked it and appreciated the likeness of her image.
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Erica's PF Greenback.
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That was the first time I've ever tried to paint a real person like that. It is all experimental, anyway, because the painting on both sides of cocopalm fiber with acrylics probably is a new idea. Cocopalm fiber has been around and used by humans for centuries, but acrylic paints are relatively new...invented in 1964. Also, when in the Cook Islands last year, I checked out the palm fronds on the ground. Fungi! Probably, before the old palm fronds fall to the ground, fungi has already begun its work on the fronds and its fiber (The fiber I use is that which helps hold the frond onto the tree). Maybe, because Kekaha and Polihale have very little rainfall and low humidity, the fungus doesn't get started as soon. Anyway, most artists would probably reject the idea of painting on the fiber after trying to clean it before painting. So, until I hear or see on the Internet, otherwise, I believe I am the only person "painting pictures" with acrylic paints on both sides of cocopalm fiber.
I am an artist of sorts, but not an artist who "paints pictures," usually. The whole bevy of projects that I am working on during my retirement, my art, is meant to productively fill my leisure time during the journey through my senior years. I started painting Polihale Palm Frond Faces in 1995. In 2002, I started the first of the Purple Feather People palm fronds using colors directly from the tubes so that I would not have to mix paints to get the desired colors when starting another painting session. I have over 25 PFP's keeping me company in 15B with their silly cartoon eyes. My plans are to finance my photo-taking travels with my artwork using materials from coconut palms from the westside of Kauai.
It is much more interesting and fun painting on the fiber than painting on canvas. Part of that may have something to do with my myopia. I wear contact lenses, but not when I'm painting. When I am painting on a 2-1/2 X 3-1/2 inch Greenback, my dominant weaker right eye is about 4 inches from the palm frond! I can see individual fibers and the small paint brush clearly with no strain on my eyes. To paint a Greenback on canvas would be boring with it's regular pattern. There is a whole "toolbox" of techniques to be learned through experience in applying acrylics to the fiber to get the desired results...and little surprises along the way.
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My daughter, Lorilyn, who is a real artist, sent me an email about Erica's Greenback. "You do faces real well. How do you know what colors to use? What is your technique? It kind of looks like you do little dabs of color and blend'em a little. Is that correct. Anyhow, I like it."
Painting on the fiber is different and there are many little things to know to get the paint to do what is desired, rather than have the same repeated "problems." For example, when mixing the paint with water, it should not be too thin at the early stages or the paint will "run" out of the painted area down the the grooves between the fibers and have to be blotted off. Later in the painting, after several layers of "colored plastic" have coated the fibers, some of that "running paint" is desired for that "little dabs of color and blend'em" affect. There's no way to explain just how it works, one finds out by doing it.
I painted and sent Lorilyn a Greenback and some cocopalm fiber to experiment with (as well as at least one piece of fiber already prepared with two coats of acrylic gesso) several months ago. I had hoped she or John, an artist friend, would experiment with the fibers and acrylics. Not yet. So, I emailed Lorilyn that if she sent me a photo with a good view of her eyes, I would attempt my second "real person" Greenback of her...and photograph the steps along the way which I would include in special webpages for her. (This process would be a lot easier than trying to describe all those little tricks that will be learned with experience. Lorilyn inherited myopia, too, but has never tried doing her art without corrective lenses).
She sent me five photos or her eyes alone...no nose. (I included the nose in Erica's Greenback, the only "real person" one I've attempted). I still have a lot to discover about the process about this kind of painting, so I decided to do a Greenback with only Lorilyn's eyes...as practice. (She has since sent me a great photo that I'll use for her next Greenback).
I'm not finished with the eyes Greenback, yet, but here is an update:
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Eyelashes come last. Look at all those changes I must paint.
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When painting with acrylics, (these comments are from my own observations, I have never had an "art course" nor done any research on techniques of acrylic painting) thin layers of colored plastic are laid down on plastic and its final effect on the color in the painting will be influenced by the color of plastic beneath it. The harsh darker colors around the eyes will be lightened and softened by following layers. And look at that darker part above the nose. Here's a closer look:
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This is the first time I've look at it in this way. It looks about the way it does to my eyes when painting.
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When looked at magnified, it's pretty easy to see the effect that the rows of fiber have on how the color is perceived. That dark spot has depth to my eyes and I just have to fill it in with the correct lighter color which will "fill in that darker hole." The "filling in" can be modified by diluting the color to let a little more dark from below show through, etc. etc. Also notice the "blending" of the colors produced by the "topography" of each fiber itself:
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Look at how those those fibers effect the color perceived.
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That light and darkness of the same color of acrylic as perceived can be played with in many ways. It kind of hints of an "engraving" with colors. It allows for a different kind of "blending."
One might wonder how one can paint the kind of detail that I am attempting without using a magnifying glass. I use just my naked, near-sighted eyes.
During the painting of these Greenbacks, I speculated about how individuals who were very near-sighted in ancient times, survived in order to pass their near-sightedness genes on to their present-day descendents. Obviously, myopia would ordinarily be considered big handicap in ancient times before eyeglasses were available to the populace. It is recorded that 1306, a monk in Pisa was quoted from a sermon: "It is not yet 20 years since the art of making spectacles, one of the most useful arts on earth, was discovered." What were myopics doing to survive in the centuries before eyeglasses.
I think that they may have been valuabe to establishment as scribes creating manuscripts (and acquiring knowledge while they did).
"While knights underwent special education that prepared them for the battlefield and the court, and artisans learned their craft from their masters, the contemplative life of a monk provided the perfect setting in which to learn to read and write, and to acquire and copy manuscripts whenever the opportunity arose. A reverence for books and for the knowledge they contained was not surprising in monastics, who turned their creative energies not only into writing books of their own but into making the manuscripts they created beautiful works of art." (From About).
In the middle ages, many manuscripts were "illuminated" with additional artwork. Imagine doing the art on this first letter of a manuscript's page...
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...while working in this monklike position:
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I think many of the scribes of the middle ages were very near-sighted and would have their eyes much, much closer to their work...It was before the invention of spectacles, remember.......
If, I had many nearsighted scribes among my thousands of ancestors through the centuries, maybe there is information that has been encoded in my DNA which may be triggered when I'm painting on the fiber (with my myopic and uncorrected eyes) which leads me to make the numerous significant discoveries of technique. I believe that instinct is inherited. I also believe that instinct is the result of a repeated learned behavior through all generations of the organism which, with enough replication time, eventually does not have to learn (be taught) that behavior. Somehow, that repeatedly learned behavior's sequence of instructions is encoded in the organism's DNA. Maybe as I paint, the internal dialogue in my head about what I am painting, is, in effect, the "voice" of a scribe ancestor, expressing "hidden learned behavior" through me via my DNA.
Since, as far as my painting time goes, I have been on a "real person's eyes" kick, I have not been painting the PFP Greenback that I had started. Here's where it rests since June:
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This is PFP 22's Greenback...unfinished. That design isn't easy and not a lot of fun to paint.
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I don't think I will paint more than one or two of these. I am in no hurry to have the raffle(s). Another variation of the plan is forming in my head. Maybe, I should concentrate on "real people eyes" Greenbacks.
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Change of subject: Last month, I found out that trees and plants must be at least three feet from the foundation of the building. I had to move my panax trees. I decided to make a little alcove which will be in the shade most of the time. I do not want to fight weeds, so I decided to put down black plastic in the 3-foot zone and in my alcove. Tashi's False Kamani tree produces a lot of leaves that are not moved much by the wind. I decided to cover the alcove and zone's plastic with some of those leaves. Later on, I have a plan with old palm fronds for the alcove.
Here are photos from June 22nd:
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Photos from July 4th pretty early in the morning:
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Kekaha Ha'aheo 15B.
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My Ti plants.
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One view from the doorway.
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Kekaha Beach got crowded on the weekend of the 4th, but on any day it is a nice one-block walk to the beach from Kekaha Ha'aheo through this pathway:
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A pathway in paradise.
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It's now the 8th. Today is going to be a busy day. I want to get back to painting the Greenback, but first I want to get the 4th's photos in. Nothing exciting, but a nice day:
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Those are the two brushes that I mostly use.
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That's as far as I've gone on that one right now, I've got more to do. Then, I'm going to be doing something different with the Greenbacks that maybe I'll start to talk about in Artmail 147b.
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Artmail 147's: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i...........Next one
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