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Archives:May 2010
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Looking Down

by Steve Andrews on 5/3/2010 10:13:20 PM
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36 x 36

Why do we artists do what we do? Don't expect any answers. I don't know. I spend a lot of time and mental energy doing this painting thing. For what? Cash? No, I dont' think so. My other job pays much better. Strokes? I don't get too many. A desire to leave a bit of yourself for future generations? Not sure about that. I'm probably leaving more trash than treasure. A sense of accomplishment in mastering a thing? When do you get that sense. Even the supposed masters didn't have that. Cause you want to? Too simple, only restates the question and provides no answer. It's fun? Oh yeah, I forgot.

So here's the message if you're reading this because you think this guy knows something, or paints a decent painting, or if you're checking in on your favorite emerging artist (at 50, emerging yeah) -- Confidence is a tenuous thing. Sometimes its there. Sometimes not. Just pick up the brush and do something. Because? It's what you do. You can't think about not doing it. It has infected you. It will not go away. Might as well try to get good at it.

This painting is from a photo I took at Crescent Beach. I'm almost positive it was just a misfire on my camera. Going through my files it struck my eye. Simple, but lots in it. Colors and textures. On one of those nonconfidence days I just thought 'what the heck'. Pick up the brush and lets do it. The result might be trash or treasure. Not sure. But it does make me smile.

Thanks for looking.

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Ugly Baby

by on 4/8/2010 3:33:43 PM
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Bait Bucket 22 x 28

Here's a new piece that I think will be in the Chain of Parks Show. I like it. I like the figures on the bright beach. I like the motion of the water. It's interesting and challenging to put out new work. I posted some new stuff on facebook and one of the face to face comments (not computer generated) was essentially 'I wish you would put up some of your nicer stuff'. Ouch. It reminds me of the famous "shrinkage" episode from Seinfield. (No, not for that reason.) In that episode one of the side stories is about the ugly baby that the parents are proud of, and the doctor (who Elaine is interested in) calls 'breathtaking' (after he says the same thing about Elaine), but the parents believe the baby is perfect. That's the same with artists. Our works are our babies. Sometimes we can't see them with an unbaised eye. Or maybe they are just perfect, but there is another painting that someone else sees as more perfect. (I'll choose to take that comment that way.)

Thanks for looking at my ugly babies.

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Busy April

by on 4/7/2010 8:43:56 PM
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Starting the Day 18 x 24

It is going to be a busy April. I am going to participate in the Chain of Parks Art Festival here in Tallahassee next weekend on April 17 and 18. It is a traditional outdoor art festival so hopefully the weather will cooperate. It takes a lot of work to get ready. Picking out peices, ordering frames, all that stuff. But I am really looking forward to it. It's a benefit for the Lemoyne Art Center so come check it out. I'll have a lot new work, plus they have kettlecorn!

Then the next day, April 19, I start a week long paintout in Evinston, Florida. Evinston is a tiny town south of Gainesville just off of 441. I will be joining about 30 other artists from around Florida. It's always great to hang out with other artists and get to paint "like its my job"! I drove through the area this weekend while driving to my daugther's track meet and it looks great. It is definitely that old Florida feel. Here's a link to the website for the paintout: www.Evinstonpaintout.org Come check it out if you are in the area.

Thanks for looking.

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Plein Air Clouds

by on 12/21/2009 4:24:22 PM
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"Cloud Forming"
5 x 7 (plein air)

This is another plein air painting from the end of the dock at Lake Weir. (You can tell I like it at the end of the dock, can't you?) One of the things I set out to do this year was paint more clouds. You really need to be able to use clouds for compositional elements in Florida. But clouds are really tough to paint "en plein air". Why? Because painting clouds outdoors is like going to a preschool at recess and trying to do paintings of the preschoolers on the playground. They just don't hold still. For this one, I studied the cloud for about 2 minutes. I started with the part that was most dramatic and would likely change first. That was the sun peaking over the top of the cloud. Once I got the value of the cloud I put a spot in the water that corresponded to the correct value for the water at that time and then finished with the things that would not change as quickly. Bottom line you have to paint fast and you will have to paint most of it from memory. You can't chase the cloud from one formation to another. So when you get that moment that makes you want to paint the scene, take some time and study what is happening with the idea of the elements that will make up your composition. Look intently at the relative values of those elements with the idea that they will not be the same in a short time. Two minutes doesn't sound like a lot of time, but right now walk outside and look at a cloud for two minutes. You will be surprised at how much it changes.

Thanks for looking.

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Postcard Update

by on 12/15/2009 10:30:59 PM
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I wrote earlier about the postcard project. I have done the Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival in Thomasville, Georgia for the past six years. It's a great show with some high caliber artists. Last year with the economy in the pits it was a slow show all around. I decided in May that I would do something different for me. I would bring 100 small 5 x 7 paintings of landscapes of the local area. I ended up with a total of 105 and I put them up unframed with velcro on a big board. They were lined up together in rows. I sold them for lower than my normal prices at $110 each. Heres a photo of the set up.

Not a great photo but you get the idea.

And . . . . well it went over very well. I got nothing but very nice comments. I ended up selling 21 of them during the show. I thought that was pretty good considering that crowds did not seem as numerous as usual. It was fun to see people agonize over one of two paintings and end up buying two or three. Not sure I would do it again to such a large degree. But who knows. I did feel like it was a great practice and I definitely feel like I learned something.

The show was at the end of November so when it was over I took the remaining 85 to my gallery in Tallahassee. They had the velcro already on their wall for the framing business so they just hung them up right there for their Christmas show. They have sold about fifteen more so its all good. If your interested in whats left, email me. They make great Christmas gifts.

5 x 7 Inlet fishing

Thanks for looking.

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Crescent Beach Paint Out 2009

by on 11/2/2009 9:54:14 PM
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Guana Sky
11 x 14

Just got back from the Crescent Beach Paint Out 2009. Great time. Crescent Beach is just south of St. Augustine. I got to stay in a nice beachfront condo and got to paint everyday. Full time artists don't know how good they have it. Well they probably don't get to stay in beachfront condos, but they do get to paint everyday. A paint out is a plein air painting event with a bunch of other artists. Everyone goes out and tries to create their best work. At the end of the week the art work is exhibited.

The above painting was done at Guana State Park. It is just north of St. Augustine on A1A and south of Ponte Vedra. A beautiful and wild place. I hiked about a mile through old Florida woods (jungle) to the intercoastal waterway and did this painting and three others. For this one I walked out to the end of an oyster bank and put my hands up and framed in this big sky. It's a different composition but I went with it and I really liked the way it turned out. I got some nice comments from a number of artists which is always nice. It was a great week. Artist, by and large, are just nice and fun people. And getting to paint everyday, all day, well it doesn't get any better than that. Here's a link to the website for the paint out: www.Crescentbeachpaintout.com

Check it out.

Thanks for looking.

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"Stopping by the Woods on the Way to Orlando"

by on 9/1/2009 4:53:13 PM
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20 x 16

"Stopping by the Woods on the Way to Orlando"

Whose woods are these

I think I know

His house is in

Orlando though.

My little truck

Must think it queer,

To stop without

A gas pump near.

I cut the motor

And open the door

And view with my camera

The woods before.

The only sound

The silent love

Of light wind

In the trees above.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have promises to keep

And miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep.

My apologies to Robert Frost. This is why I am a painter and not a poet. But these woods are much the same as Robert Frost's woods. There just isn't any snow and there is no horse anymore. But I have tried to capture that same idea of woods being lovely, dark and deep. I hope I succeeded.

Thanks for looking.

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Well Worn Path

by on 8/26/2009 9:19:03 PM
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This is a painting that I changed it recently after looking at it for a couple of months. I added the path across the field. I thought it needed a lead-in to the painting. This is more of the farmland scenes around this area that I am looking at more and more for painting subjects. I know this barn is kind of smack dab in the middle of this thing, but sometimes you just have to do something different and try and make it work. Conventional painting wisdom would have you put this rusted red roof closer to one side in the magic one third zone. So . . . maybe there is a reason for conventional wisdom . . . and maybe not. I recently listened to (yes, I am not a reader, but a listener (unabridged only)) a book about Edward Manet called The Judgment of Paris by Ross King. Really interesting historical book about Manet's rise and the impressionist. At that time everyone was painting really intricate paintings of war scenes and mythological settings and Manet does something different. And it is ridiculed and criticized and nobody wants it, until somebody decides they do want it and suddenly there is a new style of painting.

So therefore be it resolved that Steve Andrews will now only paint . . . . hell I don't know. I think Manet was just trying to make good art. He thought there were too many war paintings. "Yeah, no more war, I'm going to put two guys out in the woods in business suits with two naked ladies. Yeah that will work." (For my wife this is Manet thinking. It's one of his famous paintings.) Probably not what he was thinking. He was just trying to make good art.

So therefore be it resolved that Steve Andrews will just try to make good art and leave it at that.

Thanks for looking.

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House by the Railroad

by on 8/6/2009 10:49:48 PM
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5 x 7

From the postcard series of local landscapes.

Can you imagine how loud it is in the bedroom when a train rolls by at 1 am? And how does someone go about picking out a lot that close to a railroad. Or imagine the day the lawyer knocks on your door and says "you know that easement that was on the deed that you signed. Well that notation "RR". That actually meant railroad, not rest and relax. But the good news is they are building a slick new railroad crossing gate with a fancy bell. Some people are just lucky."

But really, I'm sure you get use to it. There are all kinds of noises in our life that we simply accept and ignore. My parents have a house that sits up on a hill above a beautiful swampy lake and about one quarter mile across the lake is Interstate 95. And you can difinitely hear cars and trucks, every day and every hour, but it is, no kidding, kind of like waves crashing out in the water when you are at the beach. I mean by that, it is soothing and not aggravating.

Now, on the other hand, I remember the first night on the seventh floor of our hotel in mid-town Manhatten. It was loud with horns honking and sirens in the middle of the night. And there was nothing soothing about it at all. But New Yorkers probably don't even hear it.

And so, the owners of "house by the railroad" probably talk about the soothing sound of the 4 am express roaring through the Georgia backwoods.

Thanks for looking

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Camp Ridgecrest and Camp Crestridge

by on 8/3/2009 8:14:37 PM
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Crestridge Prayer Garden

Cherokee #3 11 x 14

Ridgecrest Swimming Dock 5 x 7

All of my children have gone to Camp Ridgecrest (boys) or Camp Crestridge (girls) in Ridgecrest, North Carolina every summer for the past . . . well a bunch . . . of years. It is one of those special places. And they looked forward to going there for two weeks every summer. One of them has even worked there the last two summers as a counselor. I recently started doing some paintings of the place and now every time I finish one someone is "putting dibs" on it. That is a good thing. It is very satisfying to create something that sucessfully captures a place that has special memories.

Thanks for looking.

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