Enjoy this link to Sergei Bongart: Notes on Painting Compiled & edited by Norm Nason

As most of you know my personal focus of discussion this summer has been on value and color. I recently found a good article on color by

Sergei Bongart: Notes on Painting

Compiled & edited by Norm Nason

at this link.

I was particularly interested in the comments made about shadows in relation to form and the color of light and the object.

Enjoy!

A PIE CONVERSATION: Developing Creativity or Skills

From Our PIE Conversations.....
I know that some of you have been part of the Pie Conversations of this past Sunday evening. Some of you walked away quite surprised that after four years in school as a painting and drawing major so little painting was actually done. You learn that the emphasis in much of the University training in art is more designed to foster a broad understanding of the creative endeavors, be they theater, music, dance and well as the visual arts. The general trend in the 70's was not to teach skills but to facilitate investigation and inquiry. Schools vacillate in their emphasis depending on the staff and goals of the school. In art education, most assuredly the emphasis is on providing an opportunity to explore and develop creativity in the young, over teaching skills, especially in the younger years.

Curious to me why art is singled out as the mechanism to teach creativity. Why not music? A young child is given some materials and encouraged to explore and create.... a picture. Would a young child be given an flute or drum and told to make music? It is assumed that making music requires some preliminary skills, while it seems that there is the belief that visual art has no such criteria.

I remember teaching first graders how to do blind contour drawing of weeds. They, their parents and the other teachers were amazed how beautiful and life like the young children's drawings were. But teaching blind contour drawing was not in the curriculum for First Graders. The idea was that art was not to involve quiet concentration or attention ( like music ) but play.

Besides what value is there to teaching basic drawing as opposed nurturing creativity that can be applied to many disciplines?

What are your thoughts?

A Still Life - Una Naranja y una Manzana (An Orange and an Apple) # 5

Una Naranja y una Manzana
(An Orange and an Apple) # 5

This little light study of fruit was started on Saturday, the day I pulled the electric cord out of the freezer. As a result the painting is pretty electrifying.

"Electrificar Naranja y Manzana"

Today I will be preparing more panels for painting.

Have a great Holiday!

# 3 Su Bollo y la Taza del Té sin una Manzana y una Naranja (Your Scone and Tea Cup without an Apple and an Orange)

This is the delicious cranberry orange walnut scone, freshly prepared by me that was never eaten.

The title of the artwork is
Su Bollo y la Taza del Té sin una Manzana y una Naranja
(Your Scone and Tea Cup without an Apple and an Orange)

It is sized 5" x 6"
I put the cranberry, orange, walnut scone on a black plate along with a white tea cup onto a blue checkered table cloth.
The black shiny plate caught subtle reflections.

I did eat another scone with a cup of iced coffee today. I have 15 other scones that I won't eat, for dietary reasons. You are welcome to them, as long as you clean up the kitchen while I paint. :-)


The scone that I ate was delicious.

Still Life with a Knife: "Una Naranja y Una Manzana" ( An Orange and an Apple) #3's

This is the set up for today's Plein Air painting. This photo does not accurately

represent the colors in the cast and form shadows.

Which painted version do you like?

Version A

Version B

Version C

Vote here or at the blog link below.

The Still life with the teapot : Una Naranja y Una Manzana (An Orange and an Apple) #2

Una Naranja y Una Manzana
(An Orange and an Apple) #2

Today I again painted a still life with an apple and an orange. This time I included a tea pot on a cloth covered table out in the sun.
I did not end up putting the fruit on the black plate rather I placed the objects on a light blue light. I ended up turning up the glow of the sun on the tablecloth to juxtapose the cool shadows of the pot and fruit.

Tomorrow I hope to paint another orange and apple in a sunlit setting.

I am enjoying these still lifes.

Now my Spanish sentence for the the day shall be:

La manzana y la naranja están en la mesa con la tela azul.

hint

A Still Life "La Naranja y La Manzana " # 1

La Naranja y La Manzana
(The Orange and the Apple) #1

Today with the companionship and encouragement of a good friend and artist I painted an apple, orange and a white tea cup on a bamboo table outside. My friend, Fred Bell painted the still life, too, from a different angle. It was interesting since yesterday I painted basically the same collection of items with one exception. Yesterday, I had the fruit on a white plate. The reflections on the fruit from the white plate virtually obliterated the shadow on the red apple. Today we looked at different colored plates with the fruit. Each plate created a different reflected light on the fruit. We decided not to use a plate and just go with the natural bamboo table top. Tomorrow en Plein Air, when I paint #2, I may try a black plate as a tray for the fruit.

I am also learning Spanish this summer with my husband, Tim.
"Me gusta comer una manzana y una naranja."

A Few of Judith Reidy's Images from "Remembering the Land" Exhibition

Just a few of the images by Judith Reidy
from
"Remembering the Land"
Exhibition

It was a great show.
pictures of reception forthcoming.

Selecting a New Apprentice

Travels of Jord by Judith Reidy

I have an idea. I am looking for an apprentice to train and work. This apprentice would observe me paint and learn to paint as well in exchange for labor. The tasks of the apprentice would be to observe me place paint on my pallet after they brought me a cup of freshly prepared latte. Throughout the day they would bring me ice water in a glass and adjust the fan on hot days. They would be taught to build canvas stretchers and stretch canvas. They could then make my stretchers and theirs. They could gesso the canvases. They can drive out to the mill and purchase frames or parts for frames and assemble them, remembering to pick up the glass and matts as well. They would take my business calls and take down messages from me for correspondence which they would prepare and send on my behalf. They could prepare lunch and supper and bring it to us for our meal.

If I wanted another chair they would get it. ....and maybe something for my feet. which might get tired since I would be standing and painting most of the day.

At the end of the day we could share a glass of wine or a beer and sit on the porch.

After 5 to 10 years depending on their progress, I would certify them as a master painter and begin bringing up my next waiting apprentice.


How about it?

Survey Avante Garde

A conversation with Professor Marjorie Perloff Tuesday, May 9, 2006, 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm about the European Avant Garde on Standford University's KZSU - 90.1 "Entitled Opinions" http://french-italian.stanford.edu/opinions/z

A R Ammons - a poet I discovered.....

Ammons, the American poet, had a brother who died at a young age....the event shaped his life....

The pair of birds in flight ...their tested routes .....their return and return.....

consider the authors journey....'

Easter Morning

A. R Ammons

I have a life that did not become,

that turned aside and stopped,

astonished:

I hold it in me like a pregnancy or

as on my lap a child

not to grow old but dwell on

it is to his grave I most

frequently return and return

to ask what is wrong, what was

wrong, to see it all by

the light of a different necessity

but the grave will not heal

and the child,

stirring, must share my grave

with me, an old man having

gotten by on what was left

when I go back to my home country in these

fresh far-away days, its convenient to visit

everybody, aunts and uncles, those who used to say,

look how hes shooting up, and the

trinket aunts who always had a little

something in their pocketbooks, cinnamon bark

or a penny or nickel, and uncles who

were the rumored fathers of cousins

who whispered of them as of great, if

troubled, presences, and school

teachers, just about everybody older

(and some younger) collected in one place

waiting, particularly, but not for

me, mother and father there, too, and others

close, close as burrowing

under skin, all in the graveyard

assembled, done for, the world they

used to wield, have trouble and joy

in, gone

the child in me that could not become

was not ready for others to go,

to go on into change, blessings and

horrors, but stands there by the road

where the mishap occurred, crying out for

help, come and fix this or we

cant get by, but the great ones who

were to return, they could not or did

not hear and went on in a flurry and

now, I say in the graveyard, here

lies the flurry, now it cant come

back with help or helpful asides, now

we all buy the bitter

incompletions, pick up the knots of

horror, silently raving, and go on

crashing into empty ends not

completions, not rondures the fullness

has come into and spent itself from

I stand on the stump

of a child, whether myself

or my little brother who died, and

yell as far as I can, I cannot leave this place, for

for me it is the dearest and the worst,

it is life nearest to life which is

life lost: it is my place where

I must stand and fail,

calling attention with tears

to the branches not lofting

boughs into space, to the barren

air that holds the world that was my world

though the incompletions

(& completions) burn out

standing in the flash high-burn

momentary structure of ash, still it

is a picture-book, letter-perfect

Easter morning: I have been for a

walk: the wind is tranquil: the brook

works without flashing in an abundant

tranquility: the birds are lively with

voice: I saw something I had

never seen before: two great birds,

maybe eagles, blackwinged, whitenecked

and headed, came from the south oaring

the great wings steadily; they went

directly over me, high up, and kept on

due north: but then one bird,

the one behind, veered a little to the

left and the other bird kept on seeming

not to notice for a minute: the first

began to circle as if looking for

something, coasting, resting its wings

on the down side of some of the circles:

the other bird came back and they both

circled, looking perhaps for a draft;

they turned a few more times, possibly

risingat least, clearly resting

then flew on falling into distance till

they broke across the local bush and

trees: it was a sight of bountiful

majesty and integrity: the having

patterns and routes, breaking

from them to explore other patterns or

better ways to routes, and then the

return: a dance sacred as the sap in

the trees, permanent in its descriptions

as the ripples round the brooks

ripplestone: fresh as this particular

flood of burn breaking across us now

from the sun.

Life as a Painter

I have been rising early and starting to paint around 3:30- 4 AM every morning, before everyone else is up and the phone is ringing. I can say I have been painting 3+ hours. I then stop for breakfast and rest my hand and arm, (working large in pastel can be very physical). I enjoy conversation, do a few household chores, brew a good cup of freshly ground coffee, and return to my painting. By 11 am, I have been painting about 7 hours. I am ready for a walk and lunch. It is a wonderful feeling, to know that I can paint more or do whatever else needs to be done or I wish to do, knowing that I have a good day of painting in already. I seem to enjoy the rest of the day more.

I have been listening to Entitled Opinions and the literature under discussion while I paint. I look forward to my conversations with many of you either on Facebook or in person peppering the balance of the day.

Judith Reidy Painting Live at ORO di Oliva during Westside Artwalk

Harwood Night
oil
9" x 7"
This was painted while out on the sidewalk looking south on Harwood Ave toward State Street on Friday night April 23, 2010, from dusk until about 8:30 pm.



Rainy Day at Bartollota's Corner
Oil
7" x 6.25"
It was a very rainy Saturday, so I painted this view of the corner of State and Harwood from the inside ORO looking through double glass, a window and my glasses. Am I painting the Plein Air if I look through double or single glass?

Sunrise
Acrylic
13 x 10
This painting was actually one of many paintings painted in Oconomowoc during the 2009 Plein Air season.

I actually had my studio paintings on display at ORO di Oliva, many of which you can see on my website with my video clip on my home page and on my studio gallery page

I chose not to work on my pastel painting in the special store, becasue pastels can be messy and dusty.

I will be having my latest pastel studio paintings shown at an exhibition
Judith Reidy and Darron Lillian
Uihlein-Peters Gallery
at Saint Johns on the Lake (View Map)
EXHIBITION: June 5 - July 17, 2010
RECEPTION: Saturday, June 5, 2010, 1-4 pm
1840 North Prospect Avenue, Milwaukee, WI.

I will also have my oil and acrylic paintings at
Charlene's Gallery 10,
Door County
(View Map)
Open 10 to 5 daily, May 8 - October 14
12625 Highway 42,
Gills Rock, Door County, Wisconsin 54210
Charlene's Gallery 10 Website
I will have a sizable number of pieces available for purchase
though out the season at Gallery 10.

Blues in the Studio

Gauze

Ireland Blue

Valley Mist
These are a few of samples of what I have being creating in the cave. Enjoy!
See you at the Westside Artwalk,
April 23 and 24
at
ORO di Oliva
Wauwatosa, WI

Response to Robert Genn's Newsletter Post Regarding Creativity and Fundamentalism

Robert,

I wish I had time to write a treatise in response to the article in your newsletter, Creativity and Fundamentalism. I currently am a creative artist who in the past graduated from UW- Milwaukee with a Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree. In my final years of college I "returned" to God. As I married shortly thereafter and started a family, I began homeschooling. It was one of the most creative activities of my life, hanging in trees reading poems, hunting out woodland flowers and drawing them, building forts and dressing up like Athenian heroes. What ever we read as a family, I found my four children pretending and extending. They named all our trees and gave them life stories. They built whatever was needed to make their world come alive.

Today they are grown, or still in college with advance degrees having traveled continents and lived in diverse places among diverse people. They are not all artists but they create artfully and see with fresh eyes in their pastimes. They write, they shoot photos, they use their hands and their minds in their life work. They are invaluable in their respective jobs because they are able to look at the world in different ways. They are not hindered by peer pressure and mob thought, yet they love and respect their fellowman because God has taught them to love their neighbor. They are not perfect by any stretch, but I am proud of their courage.

They are creative, yet responsible...and kind...yet not easily manipulated.

I don't believe in creative divergent thinking without boundaries. Ah, some will say, there is the rub of her fundamentalist religion that smashes REAL creative thinking.

My reply is: do we really want a society without boundaries? More accurately can we survive a world without boundaries? Do we want to define creative freedom as the place to think or imagine and physically build something...anything? I don't think so. Do we really want a place where slashing murder or verbal abuse are just another alternative or divergent pattern of thought turned into "creative" action? How far is too far?

Rigidity is character trait of any cultural group. The boundaries that define rigidity move, but are just as rigid and unyielding. Have culture group A or B define the boundaries of fundamentalism and the fundamentalist attitude regarding man as a creative being; the answers would demonstrate the simple cultural rigidity of both that limits their understanding.

A fundamentalist premise is God created the universe from nothing and we are created in God's image and likeness. Hence...conclusion, we are creative beings. That is our lineage.

A fundamentalist premise is God is moral being and we are created in God's image and likeness. Hence, conclusion, we are moral beings. That is our lineage.

As a fundamentalist, those are boundaries. I am created, I did not create myself from nothing. I am not God, but I am made in God's image. I am most certainly a creative and moral being.

I am not random chance happening. Get serious, imagine what would it really be like to live in a totally random world at the end this sentence?

Judith Reidy


Dawn in the Mist
by Judith Reidy

Judith Reidy's Website:www.judithreidy.com

Blog Art Thoughts with Judith Reidy
Blog Article: Time and Strength Slip Through our Fingers
Blog Article: Introducing From Dust to Dust

Judith Reidy Homes and Businesses

Judith Reidy & Fred Bell Painting - 78 Degrees at Whitnal Park 3-31-2010

Fred Bell and I were out painting today at Whitnall Park. It was terrific day to be out. We picked a spot just east of the Golf Club House on a hill overlooking an embankment covered with evergreens.

Spruces by Judith Reidy

Where is Fred Bell's painting?

Judith Reidy laughing at Fred.....



But where is Fred Bell?

Good Picture of Fred
Ah, there Fred is painting a spruce too. Two Freds?

Hidden under her hat, Judith is painting with her double.

Where is Fred's painting?

Looks done to me.

Check out Fred Bell's Facebook page to see the Painting close up.


It was a perfect day to paint outside.

Four more Paintings

Mind's Eye
pastel
16.5" x 10.5"

Veiled Bride
pastel
21.5" x 6.5"

On Eagles Wings
pastel
15" x 6"

Be Thou
pastel
24" x 7.5"

A Light in a Dark Place

I have been quite amazed at how fun un-distracted painting can be. I like to close my eyes and think of the first sensation that comes to my mind's eye. It is light, pure light. It glows and burns away the dross of life. This morning I had another reminder of new life when I stepped outside. In our part of the world, a robin's breast is the first sign of spring. There the Robin was.

Nigeria Alerts Me

But I have been thinking about Nigeria...the ongoing genocide. What do Nigerian mothers wake up to each day? Is there a sense of gloom that hangs over them, as they wonder if they will be the next target?
Because of that, I am thinking about figures again in my landscapes. Figures as living souls, how do they rest in a world shaped by dichotomies?

One Oil, Two Pastels Today and a Little Joke

Light's Rapture
oil
7" x 9"

Blue Mist
Pastel
9" x 12"



Blue Mist 1
Pastel
9" x 12"

These three paintings kept me dreaming during my weekend fever with the flu. I am happy to make them into a reality.

Ok, I have a joke.

An artist asked the gallery owner if there had been any interest in his paintings on display at that time.

"I have good news and bad news," the owner replied. "The good news is that a gentleman inquired about your work and wondered if it would appreciate in value after your death. When I told him it would, he bought all 15 of your paintings."

"That's wonderful," the artist exclaimed. "What's the bad news?"
"The guy was your doctor..."

Oh well.

Time and Strength Slip Through our Fingers.

Fallen for You

From Dust

Fallen Again

I began in the previous post...."As I have explored the effects of light burning away the mists, I have considered what it is in the imagery that has fascinated me..."

but that was not it.

Hearing those rattling cages, I gather my recent work in my “From dust to Dust” series has created quite a stirring reaction from many of you, . Good!

I have been stirred up and the work is a bi-product….but the motivation behind the work may not be what you may think. I am passionate about the stunning reality of the transformations and troubles of the unsettled dust of the past several months because…

“She held out her arms and pulled me toward her…. “

In mid- December a woman arrived to be a guest in my home for the holidays. She is an unbelievable delight..always an encouragement. For one she has always been the one who said I could do anything. She was my first art patron. Everyone has a mother, even artists.

At the time of her recent arrival, she seemed more unsteady on her feet than at her last visit. As the month past, her ability to walk declined rapidly, until now her walker is her constant companion.

Her falls began daily as she would attempt to rise or sit or turn, until I stood guard spotting for her at each step. When she collapsed in my arms, I then understood I could not support her with my strength nor was I capable of being her main and only guard.

I saw time and strength slip through our fingers.

It is out of this context and the ensuing struggle that my new series “From Dust to Dust” took shape. As I wrapped my arms around her frail body and bathed her back while she clawed herself through the day in and out of her bed or chair, I saw time and strength slip through our fingers.

I ask why. I hear reasons, but they are not fitting into our Madison Avenue view of life. They are not tidy. My religious conviction prepared me, but only the reality of being with her gave me understanding.

At night, I tucked her into her covers, she held out her arms and pulled me toward her to gently kiss me with her quivering lips, holding me so tightly for ever so long … then whispering, “Thank you, Judy;… I love you.”

Yes from dust we came yet, most assuredly to dust we will return. While “From Dust” may declare the glory of our bodies, “Fallen Again,” returns us to the troubles of living in a world gone awry.

My mother had to move to a place where she could be assisted with every task and where staff were prepared to carry her.