But Can He Draw?

For the past two years I have been doing abstracts. I frankly do not know the connection between classic drawing and what I do now. I know that my sense of space, color and balance are necessary. And I know that certain people think that creating abstracts entails no special skill. (Of course, I disagree.)

I recently came across these two photographs. I did this drawing when I was studying at David Hardy's Atelier in Oakland. I created the setting from an old Navaho blanket, book, plastic lizard and a photograph of my mother as a teenager. What do you think?

Easter Eggs

Several years ago I picked up some goose eggs at an auction. They were already hollowed out. I thought that I would give them as a gift to my wife, Donna. They sat here for two years and I thought that it would be fun to decorate them. I added a gold patina to some of them. At the Goodwill I found a rose stand that once adorned the top of a wedding cake. I posed them there.

Comparing Two Paintings

The first painting (8" X 12") I call Spring Cutting. Both examples are the same photograph. One is turned vertical, one, horizontal. I am having difficulty deciding the way I want to sign and hang it. It is actually a good sign that it works both ways. I once heard that a good abstract painting should be able to be turned in any direction. I think that's right. I would be grateful and any comments from my readers.

The second painting (9" X 13") I call Over Easy. I took several photos. I am amazing by the difference in color. The first shows the blue washed out. The second I took in natural light without a flash. It looks fairly close to the actual painting. Both look fairly good, but I use only a little Kodak Easy Share C 180. My nice camera was stolen from my automobile in Southern France last June. When I photograph my work, I am constantly challenged by the demands of color matching, and minimizing distortion.

John in Mexico City

I just gave away a beautiful painting by my uncle, John. He did it at the art school in San Miguel de Allende. Shortly thereafter there was a teacher strike, and the government withdrew GI Bill funding. He briefly studied at the Pyrotechnical Institute in Mexico City. It was there he had a show with other GI friends and of course saved the article in the Mexico City newspaper. What is great about this article is that the painting hangs in the background of the publicity photo. I will publish all three here now.


I have been trying to figure out how to put a link to my webpage in my lead paragraph. Perhaps I will figure it out. http://www.wix.com/sebastopoledwar8/home

I just found some more of my card, as yet unpublished. I bought some blank card at Staples to begin some more. Now I'm sorry that I did. I found some much better cards at our local art store.

My Christmas Cards

Many of my art pieces come from the accidents of rolling paint on paper. It sounds simple but I cut up a lot of these experiments for collages. For Christmas I picked up a bunch of blank cards in Berkeley. I have made our family Christmas card for a long time. Most of the time it ended up being a Christmas flavored cartoon, much like the cartoons that I did in my cartoon diary.

I mixed paint- there is the key- and made one stroke on the card. I was going to sell these on Etsy when I realized that either we sent all of these out or I just can't find them. I am thinking of doing some more for Art at the Source in June. Let me know what you think of them. Which are your favorites. Which do you not like. I will sell them for about $10 each, so just about anyone can afford them.

Marketing myself

Perhaps this post is the beginning of a new series of posts. I went to a great workshop yesterday. It appears that I can do a lot to show my art to the public. It begins here. I will try to more regularly post some of my newer pieces with commentary, explanation, stories that connect to art that I have posted.

I seem to have an affiliation toward Paul Klee. It is not that I consciously immitate his work. In fact when working on a piece, I look for interesting shapes and colors to combine. In this piece I seem to have reproduced a head? an animal? a monster? If that, it is a friendly monster.

1956 San Francisco Art Festival

I am fixated on the fifties art movement in San Francisco. I have a couple of fliers that my uncle left from the San Francisco Art Festival. The flier lists over 700 exhibitors, a few well known. I plan at some time, I hope soon to create a continuing investigation on a website. My uncle John is among the first listed with members of the Artist's Guild. Also notable is the Six Gallery with Jay DeFeo, Peter Forakis, Wally Hedrick, Manuel Neri. I am posting the entire flier. I find it fascinating. If you know any of the artists listed here or have samples of their work, I would appreciate you contacting me.