tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3618025896103645633.post4920722164674140972..comments2023-11-25T08:33:24.935-05:00Comments on art, birds, nature: Winslow Homer - Baaad Example!Ken Januskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16984782169460110520noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3618025896103645633.post-36546645118245199922009-01-09T09:02:00.000-05:002009-01-09T09:02:00.000-05:00Hi MadSilence,I'm glad you like my Blackburnian Wa...Hi MadSilence,<BR/><BR/>I'm glad you like my Blackburnian Warbler and my abstract work. As I mentioned on the <A HREF="http://100swallows.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/michelangelo-copied-leonardo-da-vinci/#comments" REL="nofollow">BestArtists blog</A> recently I've always considered myself a much more accomplished abstract artist than a naturalistic one. Much of this is probably due to the fact that I spent many years working more or less fulltime on my abstract work.<BR/><BR/>I've been concentrating, parttime, on naturalistic art for the last three years now. I wish I could devote the time and focus to it that I used to do with my abstract work but it's not possible right now, not economically possible that is.<BR/><BR/>So I'm feeling my way through naturalistic art and that's been the subject of much of this blog. Sometimes I work from photos, which are more likely to offer the radical cropping that I use in the Blackburnian painting but other times I try to work from life, which I think makes for more lifelike, true and dynamic art but which not have the same design qualities as work based on photos.<BR/><BR/>I like the Blackburnian myself, which I guess is why I use it as the header photo. It's obviously not what you'd consider traditional bird art because it's so slapdash. But it also has I think the artistic expression, especially in color and shape, that I myself often try to have in my abstract art. It's probably the one naturalistic work I've done that has the expressive freedom of my abstract work.<BR/><BR/>And it's relatively old for my naturalistic work. I feel that I need to get a little better at drawing birds, or any wildlife, realistically before I take more artistic liberties. I continue to be torn between being true to what I see and using the artistic expression that is my background and that I love, but which sometimes seems to take too great liberties with its subject. Given how little respect the natural world seems to get today I've leaned toward being truer to it, at the expense of the artistic expression that I used to have in my abstract work.<BR/><BR/>As usual both here and at your blog you've given me the excuse to ramble on..........<BR/><BR/>I do think that as I'm able to devote more time to naturalistic art that there will be some resolution in which direction I go with it: more Blackburnians, or more sketching birds from life, or somewhere in between maybe like the Lesser Yellowlegs and Shortbilled Dowitcher charcoal drawings.Ken Januskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16984782169460110520noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3618025896103645633.post-14569338285524858172009-01-08T21:51:00.000-05:002009-01-08T21:51:00.000-05:00I like the slide show. My favorite: the Blackburni...I like the slide show. My favorite: the Blackburnian Warbler that you use as a header on your blog. I visited your website and was surprised to find abstract art. I like the abstracted natural forms, organic & flowing, in a natural palette. <BR/>~MadSilenceMadSilencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14247714475972112958noreply@blogger.com