With Such A Sky

[^ With Such A Sky. watercolor. 6x6". August 2012. © Bullock Online 2012]

With Such A Sky
It is a beauteous Evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquility;
The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the Sea:
Listen! the mighty Being is awake,
And doth with his eternal moon make
A sound like thunder --- everlastingly

-William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

With the summer beginning to wind down, we have been having some very fine sunsets here in Brooklyn, and it is a short trip for me to the fire escape with my watercolors and some paper. Caught this one that was so strange, with the sun looking like some wounded saint resting in these thick, woolen clouds.

August Recess

[^Imaginary Landscape 061512E. watercolor on Khadi A6 handmade paper. 4.25x6". © Bullock Online 2012]

Bullock Online has been on August recess, but will be back for September.
Hoping that the summer was good for you all.
Bye.
Robert

Interruptions

As the Bullock Online blog and website are being worked on, in order to better coordinate them visually, interruptions are occurring which result in some images inadvertently being dropped from the blog. We are aware of the problem and are working to fix it. Thanks for your patience.

familiar things

[Still Life with Pink Bottle and Flower Bulbs.
watercolor. 9x12". June 2012. © Bullock Online 2012]

"On a superficial view the still-life attempts nothing save the true-to-nature portrayal of familiar things. But deeper insight does not miss the symbolic and the decorative function. All art symbolizes or decorates in one way or another. Blossoming flowers, ripe fruit remind one of the gifts of creative nature, of increase, growth and genesis."
- Max J. Friedlander, Landscape, Portrait, Still-Life: Their Origin & Development, 1949

A happy occurrence for me — achieving the seemingly contradictory goals of (a.) straightforward depiction and (b.) refinement of the object(s) to clarify the subject and the composition. “Fidelity and simplification”, as my friend Margaret Krug recently put it to me.

Painters have to be editors, and I find that painting is a process of abstracting generalities out of tangled reality. A building can be depicted without describing each and every brick. A wash of color, by the way it is handled, can mean different things — it is not a brick wall but it can depict a brick wall. Observational painting creates a natural abstraction and I find this fascinating and exciting.

nocturne

[Nocturne. watercolor on Whatman's paper. 6.25 x 8.5". 2012. © Bullock Online 2012]

Nocturne: : a work of art dealing with evening or night. From the French nocturnal and the Latin nocturnus. - Merriam-Webster Dictionary

This watercolor painting is based on a brief watercolor study I did back in 1999 in Central Park. I remember it is a view facing east and at the very southern end of the park. I made a few adjustments to the composition in order to emphasize the sense of moonlight. I've been reading again the fairy tales of the Grimm's Brothers and of Charles Perrault, and I think these had an influence on this painting.

'studies'

[Jawbone. graphite on prepared paper. 6 x 9". 2012.]

"Drawings may be done simply to illustrate an object so that the artist can learn and understand its shape. Such drawings are called 'studies'. An artist will refer to such studies and then, with some modification, work them into a picture."
- R.W. Alston, Painter's Idiom, 1954.


I have been working in drawing media for the past two or three months, with only a few small paintings, concentrating on soft, subtle transitions between tones. This clay-coated paper from New York Central Art Supply is an ideal surface for working on in graphite. I don't prefer it for silverpoint but for graphite it is really beautiful to work on.

the slightest line

[Still Life with Glass Bottle, Marbles and Pine Cone. silverpoint. 7.5 x 10". 2012.]

"Fundamentally, even the slightest line partakes of mind and spirit." - Emile Mâle, Religious Art in France, 1910.

I am continuing my work in silverpoint and other drawing media. This still life composition took some time as I worked towards achieving a more dense atmosphere than previous pieces (March's Tulip & Paperwhite Bulbs, for example).