my son

So started this portrait shortly after the birth of my grandson ... Initially i had it a lot further, but the technique I'm using is pastels layers with a varnish over lay on each layer... and... I accidental picked up the wrong varnish one day and it reacted badly... and pretty much melted off the entire face... an accident that to my chagrin my kids wont let me forget ;-) ...

(yea its rough but remember its nowhere near finished)

This portrait has been my arch Nemesis for a number of years now...

the family joke is that it might be finished in time for the grandsons 18th birthday

I'm frequently asked... "why haven't you finished that portrait yet?" "when are you going to finish that portrait?" "where the hell is my portrait and why haven't you finished it?"  
I can understand the frustration of waiting... and there are many reasons why i keep hiding it ...

  

The one i will go into on here is ... I'm not fucking good enough... this is my grandson and my son, its important to me ... so it has to be perfect. How well i achieve it has to reflect how important they are to me...It has to be the best damned portrait iv ever done. Perhaps not necessarily my magnum opus, but definitely something that i (and my family) can look at years from now with pride. Instead of looking at it and cringing at mistakes. In other words it needs to be as close to perfection as possible ... and as i cant yet paint portraits to the standard i want it to be able too i keep running into problems.

(what i can do)

(what i want to be able to do, and will never in a million years achieve)

(HA im crap lol )

So for now its back on the projects list... i noticed that by posting the updates of my projects you guys are really helping me achieve more and get further, faster than i usually do so the hope is that you can nag me bitch at me encourage me and point out ways i can improve it or areas that are glaringly wrong on it and between us we can can get this one finished

this btw is what all that practice on "fry" was all about

art experts

what a certain type of "art expert" wont tell you

art is, as it should be, accessible to all. it is by no means an exclusive or elusive gift.

any one can collect it no matter what their budget is (from $20 to $200000 and any where above or in between). iv seen tat sold for $2000 and some fantastic talent selling for only $20

it might be fun but you dont have to fly to far flung places to find fine art, chances are there is probably an artist in your own street.

local collages are also a good place to start.

(preferably before the collage has had a chance to staled the artists unique view of the world and conform it to the norm)

yes im biased, iv seen way to many potential greats go into them only to come out having lost that "spark" that made them unique in the first place. they are great places to learn techniques but do have a tendency towards conformation

the price tag does not validate the quality of the art. the price merely validates how good the artist or their promoter is at public relations,how popular they are or indicate that they know the "right" people.

hell it can even just indicate they have had some extremely lucky breaks.

always remember.. high price does not necessarily mean good art and low price does not mean bad art

(a lot of artists will rather sell low or gift to folk that they know connect to a piece rather than sell high to some pretentious pratt that is just out to impress their friends)

the only person that can tell you what a piece "means" is the artist himself... and even they will tell you that it will "mean" something different to each person. art is interactive what you "see" will depend on your own lifes experiences. the "art experts" are merely interpreting what they themselves see or feel, your own interpretation is just as valid as theirs.

(i was once at a show and an "expert" tried to impress me with his rather shallow "insight" to a piece we were standing in front of. what he didnt realize was it was one of my own, his "interpretation" differed wildly from my own )

and for all you budding artists out there, you dont have to spend a fortune on materials to "create" art.

i was once in a show where i had to have a professional valuation of each piece

(for insurance purposes)

one piece ( Scar ) valued at somewhere around $1500

(yea sounds good but dont get excited shit rarely sells for even a fraction of its valuation price lol)

materials ... newspaper, glue, kitchen roll, childrens foam modeling material, roofing mastic, house paint, varnish.

another ( paradise found ) valued at around $500

materials ... pre stretched canvas, high quality (bloody expensive) artists oil paints.

its the imagination, the vision, the ability to communicate a thought, idea or emotion that creates the value, not the cost of materials

so for all you folk that say

"i would love to create art but i cant afford the supplys"

stop useing that as an excuse

stop being afraid to fail

and start looking around your house for things you can use to express yourself