"I Worried" a Poem by Mary Oliver

Hill in High Summer, oil on Arches oil painting paper by Thimgan Hayden

I WORRIED by Mary Oliver

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And I gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.

As usual, Mary Oliver has perfectly expressed a feeling that I understand intimately.

me enjoying painting outside barefoot in the summer

What’s the difference between an original, print, reproduction and giclee?

Original Art

Ah, the creme-de-la-creme!
Original art means that the piece is hand-drawn or hand-painted in whatever medium I choose to work in and while it may be reproduced, those are never the same thing.

Original art retains its value for posterity and has the possibility of increasing in value and can even be part of a trust or investment portfolio!

There is something materially wonderful about original art.

Not only are you part of the big art story picture (every unique picture has a provenence story that will follow it thru generations), but there are colors, textures and layers in the original work that cameras and inks cannot duplicate.

The closest is certainly an artist-embellished canvas reproduction. They are the very best 2nd choice option in my opinion.

About Prints etc.

• A fine art reproduction means the image is being reproduced on a machine, this is actually the more precise word for the kind of art prints I’m selling, because I’m using a machine process.
  

• The word “print” is often used for mass/machine art reproductions, but it can also mean hand-pulled or a much more specialized process. Just be aware of that. Artists who make their own handmade prints often don’t like that the machine reproduction industry uses the same word.

• What’s a giclee? A giclee (pronounced ‘zhee-clay, it’s French) is an archival quality reproduction or print.

  Giclees use ink printing machines instead of toner. It’s a more expensive process, but often yields richer, more nuanced color that may match the original art better.

  There is some debate over the quality distinction between a print reproduction made with toner or ink. With ink, I feel more assured that the color integrity will last from 100-200 years (that's a long time). This is plenty of time to enjoy the rich colors!

Watercolor Painting for Relaxation

It’s summer here, and I don’t know that I ever feel more joyfully alive than when I’m out in my own yard & garden space.

Better yet, barefoot.

There’s all kinds of scientific evidence that describes the health benefits of grounding oneself by being outside with bare feet, especially in the early mornings. It gives our mitochondria a boost! Not that I think about that when I’m enjoying myself. It’s purely justification for messing about in the out-of-doors.

Here I am, working on a garden painting.

I am more at home with oil paints than water medium paints, so this is a bit of a deviation for me to paint plein air in something other than oils.

Truthfully, I wanted to sit down while I painted, and how well the art turns out or how saleable it is, is secondary to the pleasure of the process this time. I don’t want to sell the painting, anyway. It’s my way of enjoying the garden.

1. Watercolor does dry quickly and is better in many ways for light, high-key colors.

2. Watercolor is less fuss to set up and take down and clean up.

This is how it turned out…

Important! It is NOT finished yet! I went out this morning to sit in the chair and dab at it some more.

I was fairly unhappy with the artwork yesterday when I put it away, although I was happy with the experience of being in the garden. It was another confirmation of a reason that I paint/create things….

I paint as part of genuine inquiry. If there’s something I’m entranced by, I try to capture its essence in my humble way.

Like the next person, I am wanting to keep body and soul together as long as possible. This takes $, maybe even $$$ now that inflation is rising (LOL!). I have discovered though, that I am personally incapable of making art based on popular motifs, or “what’s selling” and keep my self-respect. Kudos to those who sincerely have art tastes that match the trends! In some ways I’m jealous.

I’m in it for inquiry’s sake. I self-soothe with art-making. I make artifacts for myself… and for you.

That being said, changing mediums is a great way to refresh.

Tips for Watercolor and Gouache Painting

• Watercolor and gouache may be used together, but since gouache is an opaque paint, you will want to begin with watercolor, switching to gouache only when you feel you need opaque and/or deeper, darker colors.

• I find it pleasant to work on gessoed watercolor paper. I like how I can add a little water and reactivate an area and move it around.

• I like to use an aesthetic set up… a real glass (not plastic), a plate, a wooden support board, a pretty rag.

• Use better brushes than I have:-)! I may spend a little money to upgrade both my brushes and gouache quality soon.

• Be sure you have a rag and paper towel handy. The rag is softer and will pull out color more delicately, while the paper towel can be twizzled to a sharp point or used when you want harder edges in what you lift from the paper.

• Think in terms of light to dark. Begin with a thin wash of color to get the overall tone started, then let it dry (a few minutes).

• I like to alternate between painting with deeper, darker color where I can in the negative space, and painting the main features, closer to the front of the picture.

• Reserve your white/lights! If you lose them, you can be very pro about it and buy Miskit (like rubber cement, it preserves a section that you can paint over and rub off later), or do what I do and scrub it out. White gouache is also useful, but know that it tends to look blue or cool unless it’s wet, straight out of the tube.

• The main thing is to enjoy yourself and RELAX. Listen to the wildlife around you! Even if you end up with a green blob, remember there are ways to artistically justify that, too! Have fun!

I stood in the shade for the first session, but no shoes!

I sat in a chair this morning to work on it a little more. I feel it’s good to show you a piece that I am not confident about. I don’t think this is amazing. For me it’s more of a mental health time and a way to enjoy the brief blooming time of my hollyhocks, which I adore. There was a fine misty rain spraying down on me and the picture. I think there are tiny droplets speckling the picture. Wonderful!!

It’s still not finished. I can’t truthfully say that it’s even attractive yet!

I quit for the day as soon as I feel tired of observing. I’ll add a photograph of it when it’s done in the near future.

I’d love to hear about your boredom busters!!!

Do you switch mediums often?

Beauty and Bocklin

This pic is linked to the Amazon book listing. It may be worth noting that she has quite a few classically styled nude photos of herself in the book. I think they’re lovely, but you may not be cool with that. I see she also has a book on flowers!!! Nice!!!

I was invited to create a piece for an upcoming show entitled “Beauty”. An idea that’s very open to personal interpretation of course, the only real guidance for our work beyond that is that it be uplifting. We’ve all come through (or will at some point) a shadow, a difficult path, and this collection of works is intended to be an encouragement to all who see it.

Beauty is such an immense concept to explore!

I was surprised to find how many emotions and opinions I already held on the subject without realizing it. My particular art identity (I guess you could call it) has always had a lot to do with beauty.

What are some words and feelings that instantly come to mind when you think of beauty?

To me, beauty is very much a formal, regal concept - full of grace and balance, it treads on Plato’s “realm of the forms” sacred grounds. It’s a glimpse of Heaven, an other-worldly sense of harmony that we cannot know here in our world where everything strong overtakes, even eats, the weak. (Sorry, got a bit serious there)

As humans we aren’t always in the mood for beauty, and that’s totally a valid state of mind. It doesn’t mean beauty is no more. I think Beauty meets us in our deepest moments… it folds us entirely, including our pain and want, in its gentle arms and rocks us back and forth as a loving mother might.

How is this similar or different from your idea of Beauty?

A book sprang instantly to mind, “An American in Provence" - Art, Life and Photography” by Jamie Beck. If the French countryside is your idea of the bella vita, do find it in your local bookstore and have a look. I bought a copy. Here’s mine.

Paintings by the artist Arnold Bocklin also popped into my head. I think I’m making a modified copy of one of his paintings for the exhibit, because there is one image in particular that has elements that just sing of perfection to me… “The Island of Life” (not shown here).

I have some special associations with the artist, too, which makes his work more personal for me.

First, I had never heard of him until my artist friend Clemens Fuchs (Austria) introduced me to him and pointed out Bockin’s work. I promptly bought a little Bocklin paperback book.

Secondly, Bocklin lived and worked in Florence. His very famous works on the “Island of the Dead” theme are based on the “beautiful” English Cemetery just north of the center of Florence (interestingly, he is buried in Florence, but on the Altrarno side out past the Boboli Gardens). I lived a few blocks from it (The English Cemetery) and passed it at least twice a day on foot or bicycle coming and going from town and the studio.

Island of the Dead (3rd version) by Bocklin

Finally, Bocklin died in Fiesole, just above Florence, after having lived there for many years. A place most enchanting! I have many happy memories of hours spent there, too, with my family. It’s a place truly magical, truly beautiful!

Here are some brief facts about Arnold Bocklin, followed by some images. He may be too strange for some of you- LOL! He also doesn’t show much diversity (being an old white guy), so take his work in the context of his time.

Arnold Böcklin was a Swiss painter born in Basel on October 16, 1827. He is considered one of the most important artists of Symbolism, a movement that sought to express through art the subjective and emotional aspects of the human experience. Böcklin's works were characterized by their dreamlike quality, the use of mythological motifs and a fascination with death and the afterlife.

Böcklin began his artistic training at the Düsseldorf Academy in Germany in 1845. He studied under the landscape painter Johann Wilhelm Schirmer and the history painter Karl Ferdinand Sohn. In 1853, he moved to Paris, where he studied with the history painter Franz Winterhalter. During this time, he was influenced by the Romanticism movement and the work of the French painter Eugène Delacroix.

Böcklin's work was also influenced by his travels to Italy and Greece, where he was inspired by classical mythology and the ancient ruins. He created a series of paintings called "Island of the Dead", which depicted a desolate island covered with mist and populated by ghostly figures. 

Böcklin's art was highly influential in the Symbolist movement, which emerged in the late 19th century. Symbolism sought to express the inner, emotional world of the individual through art, and Böcklin's work was a perfect fit for this philosophy. His paintings were filled with mysterious, dreamlike imagery that often included mythological figures and supernatural creatures.

Böcklin's influence extended beyond the Symbolist movement, and his work was also admired by the Surrealists and the Expressionists. His use of rich, dark colors and the intricate, detailed compositions were a source of inspiration for many artists in the 20th century.

Arnold Böcklin died on January 16, 1901, in Fiesole, Italy. His legacy continues to live on, as his work remains an important part of the Symbolist movement and continues to inspire artists around the world. His contributions to the world of art cannot be overstated, as he was one of the most innovative and influential painters of his time.

Flora, Scattering Flowers by Bocklin

Vita Somnium Breve (The brevity of life) by Bocklin

“Summer Day” by Arnold Bocklin (public domain)

Die Lebensinsel- Isle of Life by Arnold Bocklin

For the Grapes' Sake... ("October" by Robert Frost)

“Solace” 8”x10” oil on panel by Thimgan Hayden

October

BY ROBERT FROST

O hushed October morning mild,

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;

Tomorrow they may form and go.

O hushed October morning mild,

Begin the hours of this day slow.

Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,

Beguile us in the way you know.

Release one leaf at break of day;

At noon release another leaf;

One from our trees, one far away.

Retard the sun with gentle mist;

Enchant the land with amethyst.

Slow, slow!

For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,

Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,

Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—

For the grapes’ sake along the wall.

‘Farmer’s Field in November” 10”x 20” oil on linen deep frame

“Watermelon and Grapes” (inquiries welcome)

Oil Painting Surfaces - uneven or unwanted sheen and dry spots

I play with transparency in paint and try to hold to the rule of applying fat over lean paint, but sometimes if there is a wax in a medium or if I use OleoGel, I find my surface will dry with dull, repellent spots as seen in the upper portion of exhibit A and on palette in exhibit B.

If we try and apply painting medium to these patches, they bead up, the oil just sits on top and doesn’t soak in an allow us to continue working that area of the panel or canvas.

There are all sorts of solutions (including rubbing a cut, raw potato on those problem spots) but what works for me is a bit, the smallest bit possible to get the effect, of medium rubbed in with a lint-free cloth. The abrasion of the cloth and medium does the trick and saturates your surface!

No need to add retouch varnish or heavy oil (or potato). You’re welcome.

Toward the upper right corner, you can see an almost square section of dull paint that won’t accept medium.

You can see the oil beading up here on my palette, it won’t absorb.

Thoughts on the Cezanne Exhibit (Chicago 2022)

Bay of Marsaille from L’Esaque by Cezanne

I don't count Cezanne amongst my top favorite painters, but I saw a landscape-focused show in Florence, Italy years ago and was surprisingly moved by it. The memory of that exhibit made me determinded to get to this show in Chicago of a wider range of his works, including his bathers and still lifes. After attending two, I can say that the viewing experience in Italy may have added to my pleasure. It was not very busy the day I was there. I could get really close to the art and was able to really feel the lightness. I remember being moved to tears. It was wonderful that didn’t feel the breath of someone queued behind me in a hurry for their one minute maximum turn with a painting. As someone who feels guilty inconveniencing others, I felt very rushed in Chicago.

The Opening Piece of the Cezanne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago! I like his landscapes best of all so this I felt was a stunning beginning. This show was very busy!

Unless an artist violates all my sensibilities, it's hard for me not to delight in seeing a body of work together. It gives me kind of a shivery sense of another artist’s visual perceptions, their favorite places and their contemporaries. Sometimes I boldly wonder how my work would look in a show with art as well lit and as well framed as these top calibre exhibitions…. Lighting can really upgrade art! Just saying…

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/paul-cezanne-bathers-les-grandes-baigneuses

As a painter myself, I watch scholarly reviews with a somewhat skeptical eye. I feel like some art historians like to look at artist's work as though everything, even technical misteps, were intentional and I don't think that's true. I watched an excellent YouTube on Cezanne's (big blue) Bathers on loan to the show from The National Gallery in London, and I find it interesting at how far experts will go in reading into pieces, suggesting it took years for Cezanne to paint it because his emotions, trail-blazing skills, and high concepts were so…. profound (pronouce in a breathy whisper, please), and not because he struggled with getting his concept to be passably pleasing. I also sort of roll my eyes at the Cezanne quote about how he felt so deeply. I would hazard a guess that most creatives feel this way. It doesn’t mean that his art come from deeper in his heart than did others’. Not trying to be mean or tout my ignorance here, it’s just that as much as I enjoy the art as human, sometimes naive, sometimes brilliant, we’re not dealing with gods, here (or are we?).

My blunt opinion is that Cezanne struggled for grace in his figures. His academic figures were laboured and stiff and as a student of a rigorous French Academic tradtion myself, I know that he would have worked on those student pieces for many hours and would have had critiques and corrections suggested. They still weren’t anything to write home about. To me, his only figure with true musicality to it, true grace in the forms is this one, “Scipio” which was in Claude Monet’s collection.

Scipio by Cezanne from my onw photo 2022 Chicago- This is by far my favorite portrait or figure of his.

It didn’t escape my notice that when Cezanne needed money, his art dealer suggested he make and sell prints of some nude male bathers. They sold well and may have encouraged him to keep going with the bathing series. Ya know, struggling artist and all that.

Bathers by Cezanne

I’ll be making a video on composition and style and I’ll talk about Cezanne’s work there, but for now let me say that after seeing the range of his work, I still prefer his landcapes to all other subjects. My second favorite of his would be the still lifes. Maybe not too shocking of a revelation.

Stoneware Pitcher by Cezanne

I enjoy the drama of his still life works. To me, it looks like he knew he was master of space and atmosphere when he approached his interior set ups, very much like a competent stage director. His use of blues and deep yellows, common in all his work, really shines in these subjects. Don’t let it pass you by that the two colors he seemed to use most were warm cyan blues, grays, yellow ochres and rosey rusts. These exact colors are widely used in movie color palettes. More on the color theories later (in the coming video).

screenshot from: https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/cinema-palettes-famous-movie-colors/

All in all, I think that Cezanne was at his best with space and atmosphere (composition), and if he was sore that his realism and sense of mass never reached the level that he might have originally hoped, he was likely pleased with the degree of fame and appreciation he earned in his lifetime. HIs work was collected by other artists (like Claude Monet) whose approval meant something as the new art, Impressionism established a path for a broader appreciation of what was meant by “good art”.

And now his work I like best…. the landscapes. His landscapes have a relaxed, airiness to them. They feel less laboured than his other pieces. As a painter always trying to loosen up, I love it when I feel the mellow calm of the artist just playing around in the colors, as it were. Maybe that is not at all how he was while painting landscapes, but that’s how I feel when I look at them. I feel like they’re a nice balance between stylization and cheerful observation. I also enjoy the fact that many are what we might call unfinished. I like to think he got to that point and didn’t have any guilt put on him by other artists or academy saying, “Make that paint thicker” and “aren’t you going to finish that corner?”

Thanks for reading! I’m sure I missed getting some nuance just right in this post. It’s hard to explain that I do really like his paintings, yet have misgivings in attributing him with the same kind of godlike technique accolades that some give him.

---

watercolor by Paul Cezanne pic taken at Chicago Institute of Art

Man in a Blue Smock by Paul Cezanne

The artist’s father, reading. Hanging in the Art Institute of Chicago.

Commissioned Paintings on the Easel

I’ve been happily occupied by bespoke artwork the last few months, and I thought you might like to see a few photos from them!

The first is a painting of Christ of the Sacred Heart. My son-in-law posed for it, but I took liberties with eye color and hair. The clients are Sacred Heart Southern Missions in Walls, Mississippi and I am delighted that they chose me to paint for them!

Christ of the Sacred Heart I, 30” x 24” oil on panel by Thimgan Hayden

Close-Up of Eyes in Christ of the Sacred Heart I by Thimgan Hayden

The second Christ painting will be quite different, with another Jesus, equally gentle and loving, but drawn and painted from my imagination and several sources.

Christ of the Sacred Heart II, on the easel (commissioned)

Additionally, I am doing two or more paintings for fans of English novelist, Georgette Heyer. This first one is in the “it may be done but I have to stop looking at it, for a while” stage! This is my idea of what Georgette may have been like around the time of writing her first work of (published) fiction at the age of seventeen.

Quality canvas prints will be available after the painting is dry and scanned.

Young Georgette Heyer - The Black Moth

16” x 16” oil on panel, Talisman Ring Georgette (Heyer)

Georgette Heyer - The Talisman Ring 16x16 oil on panel SOLD

Do you have an artwork that needs tp be realized? If you’d like to discuss a concept, please contact me. I’d be happy to consider it!

What's the Story Behind Thimgan’s Art?

Stories enrich our experience.

Once a painting or art piece has pulled me in by its visual appeal, the provenance story is the next most important aspect of experiencing art for me.

Me in 1975, Marquette, Michigan

I enjoy reading about the lives of artists and finding interesting intersections in their lives and social circles. Take the Pre-Raphaelites or Impressionists (any school of art) and we discover painters, sculptors, poets, writers and musicians who mingled and influenced one another.

By owning a Thimgan Hayden original, you are participating in an art lineage, a provenance story, that will outlive us both.

Below, I am sharing a small bit of my own artistic biography. If this sort of thing bores you, read no more. But if you’re curious about how the tapestry of my life has been woven, and who some of my mentors and art friends are, read on!

I come from an artistic family. My maternal grandfather was the first one to start painting and sculpting. While I was growing up, my mom, dad, aunt and uncles all were actively creative, some as professionals (Jerry Dodd, Elsie Stewart). My cousin, Natalie (Stewart) Utley is also a painter. Art making was praised and encouraged in my family.

In the first grade and through early elementary school, I returned again and again to my mom’s book on the Pre-Raphaelites and another art history book that featured a particular portrait of a man with a blue sleeve (Portrait of Gerolamo Barbarigo in the Tate Collection) by Titian and The Blind Girl as well as The Bridesmaid (the model looks just like my mom did, maybe that fascinated me?) by Sir John Everett Millais. 

The Blind Girl by J.E. Millais

The Bridesmaid by J.E. Millais

I drew a lot for fun when young, and as a young teen I went to an adult watercolor workshop with my mom and aunt in Spokane, Washington, taught by the well-known watercolor artist Stan Miller. At the same time, my talented Aunt Elsie (artist E.L. Stewart) began setting up still lifes for me, and teaching me the basics of realism, and my mom also inspired and coached me. While on my mother’s side I had the closer ties to active artists, my father’s side included a great uncle, Bill Borough, who was a serious watercolor artist selling work in Florida. He took my art ambition seriously and went out of his way to check on my early progress and encourage me. By the time I was seventeen, I was teaching watercolor classes to adults and other teens. I sold several watercolors of children and draft horses, and had a few pieces in a gallery in Appleton, Wisconsin (US) before switching to oil painting at the age of twenty.

My Aunt Elsie Stewart (photo by Natalie Stewart Utley)

College lasted one year for me, I was in a commercial art program in Florida and did not feel it was a good match. Computers were just becoming essential in graphic design and illustration and I wanted to be a gallery painter or pencil-holding illustrator.

Home again, I began oil painting and immersing myself in any materials from Atelier Lack and the Minnesota atelier group. I also took a painting workshop with Gregg Kreutz around this time, which forced me to paint a portrait from life as well as a still life (which I had avoided to this point). Another workshop attendee, Robert James, and I began a lifelong friendship and correspondence. The direct impact upon my creative life is that, over the thirty years that followed, Robert has gifted me an amazing art book library, book by book!

I also began corresponding with Joseph Ruppert, who would prove to be my soulmate and lifelong love.

Me in Florida looking 15 but being 20 with a watercolor. Smile.

I went to Maine and happened to meet American painter Abbott Thayer’s granddaughter (or niece? I cannot remember now) who married a family friend. While living there, I also got to see the Helga Exhibit there at the Wyeth Museum. The Wyeths, all of them, always impressed me.

Me in Maine in front of what was my first oil portrait commission (the lovely Dori Vermette and son)

Joseph and I (now married) moved back to Spokane in 1995 where I sold work through the Douglas Gallery, but I wasn’t content. I wanted to gain more skills. I wanted confidence. I was happy to be invited to the accomplished artist, Delbert (and wife Marjorie) Gish’s home and studio. I was blown away by Del’s work and although he was no longer teaching, he allowed us several visits to his home and studio. He and Joseph both were Russian literature fans, so we talked about more than art. Gish had studied with David Leffel (American) and (Ukrainian born) painter Sergei Bongart.

One of Delbert Gish’s still lifes

Another exciting master artist soon settled in Spokane, Melville Holmes. It was Melville’s desire to create paintings that felt like cherished friends, “works of contemplation” and that really struck a chord with me. I had recently hit a wall with my technique and was frustrated, wanting to understand how to work in layers and get more depth in my work. Melville is not only a beautiful painter, he is a materials expert, and opened a world of inquiry for me.

Object of Contemplation by Melville Holmes

I began longing for a European education and, thanks to the support of my family, I enrolled at The Angel Academy of Art. I studied drawing in the atelier tradition that had been passed down from the French Academy. This combined with Michael John Angel’s firsthand knowledge learned from his master, Pietro Annigoni. During the 1960’s and 70’s, a handful of artists (many of them from the Minnesota atelier schools) sought out students of French-trained painters like R. H. Ives Gammell (who had studied with William Paxton, a direct student of the French Academie), to learn from these last legacy bearers. Art for art’s sake and Modernism were dangerously close to obliviating a vast store of technical knowledge in its effort to revolt against the political and, yes, often distasteful art world gate-keeping. Several young Americans chose to study in Florence, Italy, with Pietro Annigoni (b. 1910 d. 1988), a teacher who himself had learned at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze.

A self portrait by Pietro Annigoni

Painting at Santo Spirito on my free time.

“Nicoletta” by Thimgan Hayden (a charcoal draw from a live model) 2004, Collection of Fred and Sherry Ross

Studying in Florence was a rich experience for me, really for our little family. Valuable insights and treasured moments were not isolated to what I was learning at The Angel Academy. Times were changing rapidly. The US was at war in Iraq, the Euro currency began gaining strength against the dollar, and we had just welcomed our second child. Now we knew I would not be able to stay for a full painting program, but that was okay. I attended history lectures by Charles Cecil, took a really helpful workshop from Leo Hresko-Mancini and Jura Bedic, and took a bus out to the Tuscan village of Caldine to learn about paint chemistry and pigment grinding from the impressive Adrian Gottlieb. He was just about ready to return to the US and begin his career.

Our little family in our 2nd Florence flat 2005. Our daughter’s Italian speaking proficiency exceeds mine.

Two fellow art student friends directly influenced my approach to drawing and painting (as well as just being really awesome friends). 

Clemens Fuchs (Austrian) frequently dined with our family, and during the summer, we did portraits from life of one another and he showed me, not what the Angel Academy teaches, but the techniques passed down in his family, from his prominent father, Michael Fuchs, and grandfather Ernst Fuchs (a founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism). What Clemens taught me is closest to the portrait technique that I use most often for studio pieces. It remains the most natural process for me. 

Jonathan Sherman (American) now has a wonderful studio in Marble Head, Massachusetts. We have enjoyed a long-running discourse on oil painting methods and found we were simpatico in our passion for old techniques and the philosophical aspects of painting and still keep in touch.

My portrait of Clemens Maria Fuchs

After completing the Drawing Course at the Angel Academy, I began painting independently at Rebecca Harp’s Studio in the Piazza del Republica as a way to unpack all I’d learned so far and start combining methodologies and make something “my own''. During that year, Rebecca kindly invited me to exhibit with her and a couple of other women painters at the studio. Among the several distinguished artists in Florence who attended the Opening, were Richard Maury, who introduced himself, which completely thrilled me (Read this fantastic interview with Mr. Maury here- https://asllinea.org/richard-maury-interview/), and Richard Serrin. Richard Serrin invited me to his home and studio to show me his experiments with mediums and their profound effect on texture. He was deeply fascinated with Rembrandt’s technique.

L to R - Rebecca Harp (USA), Malin Stromberg (Sweden), Sharon Okun (Canada) and me

A close friend of one of Annigoni’s inner circle was walking his dog one day and found me landscape painting and kindly invited me to the artist Romano Stefanelli’s studio. There were frescoes everywhere, casts, and huge paintings galore. It was incredible! It was a glimpse into the deeply historical local art life of the great city.

I have been fortunate to meet many more fascinating artists than I can mantion here, but I have a cool photo of this particular opportunity. For the sake of brevity, I am leaving out names of very dear friends, many of whom have gone on to earn fantastic international reputations. I’m proud to know them because they are wonderful, kind people doing amazing work.

My visit to Stefanelli’s studio (seated) 2007

Coming back to the States, we settled in Michigan (where my extended family has lived for generations). We lived for several years in Saugatuck/Douglas, called the Art Coast of Michigan and for good reason. This small community pulls together art lovers from Detroit, Chicago and Grand Rapids and beyond that, the world. It’s a terrific place! I had my own studio gallery for a year (I knew nothing about running a business and it was 2007- an economic disaster).

I taught, and saw some of my artwork go into wonderful homes and a few prestigious collections in the US and the UK.

I had the eye-opening experience of world travelers come in and cry at how beautiful and soulful my paintings were, only to be followed by a local telling me that I should watch more TV painters to improve my techniques. Go figure.

my studio in Douglas, Michigan 2008

Cedric and Chickadee - a study in innocence

painting the piazza in Montefiascone, Italy 2012 Residency with Artegiro

Life is an adventure! My life is woven with the colorful threads of so many people. In a time when I often feel alone in grieving the passing of some of old ways of connecting and making paintings, I sincerely take joy in the chance meetings, friendships and life experiences that contribute to making me who I am and my work unique in ways that go beyond technique.

I hope you found this interesting. Maybe you, like me, are overwhelmed by all the wonderful people and small miracles that have changed your life for the better. I do hope so! and I’d love to hear about it!

May Newsletter on the Blog and Video "meet the paintings"

Watch the short video below to see a few new paintings. For better color resolution, look at the pieces as they go up on my website. As always, I'd appreciate you sharing with your friends if you like what I do.

"Potted Daffodils" in the frame.

Making Giclees in Scale/Proportion to Originals

This is a brief post, just stopping in to make a public bookmark for myself, really. 

If you are going all in the canvas print market or just dabbling, one of the first challenges you'll run into is that the original dimensions of your paintings don't necessarily scale up or down to a popular sizes, i.e. easy to frame for most people. 

Below is a link to Century Editions, who has kindly posted a chart showing scaling options.

Link opens in new tab: www.centuryeditions.com/proportion.php