New Series – Modigliani

Modigliani and me

Yes. Amedeo Modigliani is back again. Previously, I used his style for a family portrait late last year. Even before THAT, in 2014 I did a quick colored pencil Bob in his style as well.

Now, as with the previous Hopper series, I felt the need to do every member of my family individually.  The motives are purely selfish – I dig Modigliani’s work and want to do more.  I genuinely feel at home in his style.  But, I’m sure I’ll learn a thing or three diving into his work.

Hope you enjoy this next series… I’m just as eager to see what I’ll do as I hope you are.

Categories: art painting studio thoughts

Covering the walls…

Walls were meant to be covered…

When we moved into our house in 2008, I wanted art all over the walls. The art that I liked and appreciated. Sure, I had (even in 2008) a TON of my own stuff I could put on the walls, but that can get weird if it’s all you and no one else.

Lez didn’t care what I bought… she was more concerned with other things… rightly so. Even so, when I ordered prints of what I wanted, I made sure she knew what was coming.

The three prints I ordered were:

Picasso’s The Old Guitarist Hopper’s Nighthawks and this…

My plan was to hang all of these in the living room. That plan was altered.

Lauren (at the time she was 5 going on 6) was freaked out by the guitarist. He ended up in my small studio. The 50 Foot Woman was deemed not suitable for the living room. We “debated on that one for a while… with her ending up next to the guitarist in my studio. The Hopper painting was acceptable. That’s when she asked to see more work like that… Two scrolls later I purchased a print of Hopper’s Cape Cod Evening.

Lez liked it because there was a collie in it.  I liked it because it was a Hopper… and as mentioned before, at that time, I was just starting Grad school with plans to become the next Edward Hopper. Lez’s collie Lady was still with us and making my life interesting.

I’d always meant to do a painting of Lady for Lez… but just never got around to it. Not that I would do something like the Hopper, but just something.

Fast forward a decade plus two and the guitarist, Nighthawks and 50ft. woman have long been rolled up and stored. But the collie is still hanging in the living room… in the same spot I hung it in 2008.

For the last Hopper in the family series, I thought it would be appropriate to put Lez and Maggie in Cape Cod for the day. Maybe someday this image will hang in Lauren’s living room.

Categories: art painting

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Edward Hopper and me…

Ed and Frank

I’ve always loved the work of Edward Hopper… I may have only said that 3,293,112 times to you and the world.
Hell, when I applied to Graduate school I fancied myself becoming the next Edward Hopper. Seriously. I managed to get in the program without a single cartoon piece. My entrance portfolio consisted only of paintings.
I wasn’t concerned with becoming a better Frank Page… I wanted to be the next Edward Hopper… which is the definition of illogical logic. I guess I really needed grad school (and the subsequent student loans I’ll NEVER pay off) to get that horribly idea out of my head and bury it. Still… love Hopper.
I’ve studied the work. I’ve studied the man. For years.
But… (there’s always a ‘but’)
Sitting before his work and trying to re-create it… I’m realizing that I didn’t know him at all… despite what my overloaded bookshelf conveys. You only get to know an artist (somewhat) by painting a mile in their work.
So, I think I know Hopper better. I also think he and I wouldn’t get along. Just a hunch. Probably a personality thing more than anything.

Categories: art painting Uncategorized

Isolation in the age of COVID-19

Edward Hopper, Morning Light with Bob the SquirrelIsolation in the age of COVID-19

No other artist (in my semi-educated opinion) does isolation better than my good friend Edward Hopper.

I created this image of Bob this morning and realized we’re probably all feeling a little Edward Hopper at the moment… we don’t know how long it’s going to last either. Unlike Hopper’s characters, we’ll eventually get to leave our paintings… but what the other side of the canvas will look like is anyone’s guess.

I feel bad for my daughter… her senior year of high school curtailed by a pandemic she had nothing to do with. Things like her graduation ceremony…which, aren’t exactly cancelled… but aren’t exactly set in stone either. I hope after all the pissed off feelings subside she, and her generation, become stronger for dealing with it.

The lemonade made from the lemons they have will have an interesting taste to say the least.

I’ve depicted my family in a Hopper work before… but for the next series of images, I’m going to depict each member of my family individually in a Hopper work…because like I said… we’re all in a Hopper painting at the moment.