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New Painting In Progress, One Year
Dec 29, 2008 — 2 comments
Here is the newest painting, in progress. I’ve recently come into a bit more spare time, so I’m doing something I’ve never really done before. The other day I started 3 new paintings, one right after the other. Add those to the other two that have been in progress for a while now, and I’m currently working on 5 paintings, which is a monumental achievement, a definite record of immediate worldwide importance. I’m on hold with Guinness right now, I’ll let you know what they say.
Usually I like to have two or three paintings going at any time, for a variety of reasons. The most important and obvious of these being that I tend to get bored, frustrated, or generally disenchanted with painting and existence if I focus on a single project for a long period of time. It helps to have something else to switch to when I get agitated. Secondly, I use oil paint, which takes a long time to dry. I generally work with thin layers of paint, applied over and over again, which can be a little tedious, but it helps me get a “glow” in the colors that I can’t really figure out how to get with heavy paint. In order to do this effectively, the previous layer of paint needs to be dried to a certain degree, so that the next layer can be glazed over it, and so the brush won’t wipe it off the canvas like a broom. Or a towel. As the layers progress, the painting gets refined, moving from broad strokes of color for the general layout of the composition toward more refined detail work near the end. The thought processes are different for each stage of progression, so switching from a painting in the early stages to one near completion requires a totally different mindset. Switching it up keeps me conscious during the whole process. Now there are 5 paintings fighting desperately for my attention and my approval, we’ll see how it turns out.
Also, as of this month, www.erikebelingart.com has been alive and running for one year. Thanks to everyone who looked around, and who sent the site to their friends. If you know anyone else who might be interested in my work, be sure to force the site on them until they submit and look at every single page.
Ephemeral Transition
Dec 11, 2008 — 1 comment
I finally finished the newest painting, Ephemeral Transition. Above is the video made from the images I took during the process of painting it. Like the previous progression videos, this one runs forward from the first sketch on canvas to the finished painting where it pauses, then runs backward to the beginning. Repeat.
Here is the actual finished painting. I was told that it is “strange in a way that you have not gone before.” I’m not sure if I agree with that or not. This photograph isn’t 100% perfect, but it’s close enough to the actual painting that you can get the idea. If you want to see how it really looks in person, email me, and you can come by and see it. I will have beverages available, and no topic of conversation is off limits.
Apocalypse Now, Being There, Dasein
Dec 09, 2008 — 4 comments
Apocalypse Now may be the greatest movie ever made. There are movies that contain an equal amount of greatness, but I don’t think there are any that surpass it. I won’t go on about how amazing the cinematography is, the Flight of the Valkyries scene, the fact that it might be the greatest novel-to-movie adaptation of all time (along with Fight Club, No Country for Old Men, Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange…) or how ridiculously awesome in every way the last quarter is. Instead, let me focus on the line everyone knows, Robert Duvall’s famous “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” The whole speech he makes there is amazing, but all anyone remembers is that line. The problem is that the greatest line is at the end of his speech – a line without which the speech itself is almost meaningless – and it is always ignored. He says “someday this war’s gonna end.” He looks around, then gets up and leaves. It’s impossible for someone of my limited mental capacity to explain the subtle brilliance of this closing statement. You could write 100 pages on what it says about war freaks, pacifists, the nature of human conflict and on and on. It’s subtle. Subtlety is lost today.
People gravitate toward what is simple and memorable, subtlety is rarely immortalized (ergo any music awards show). Everyone needs everything force-fed, brightly colored and think hard-proof. Corporations running the media and entertainment industries take full advantage, but politicians are the worst, because they use this public desire for the easily digestable to mask their actual intentions. If it’s subtle, people generally miss the point, and they use this against us, bludgeoning us with vague, meaningless, optimistic slogans over and over. And the public loves it. They switch back and forth on every subject, lie constantly, but the inane, nonspecific optimism persists, and people follow.
The ultimate satirization of this phenomenon is Jerzy Kosinski’s book, Being There. The story follows Chance, a man with limited mental abilities and zero experience in the world outside of the Old Man’s house, where he works as a gardener. The Old Man dies, Chance is set forth into the world, where he is hit by a car owned by a powerful financial advisor and friend of the President. He befriends Chance, and begins to see economic wisdom in his vague and optimistic garden-related philosophy: “In the garden, after the summer comes the fall, then winter, spring and summer again” Chance says very little, and nothing specific, and people begin to see him as an important government advisor, a man on who’s word the entire economy and the nation itself rests. The book is short, the language is perfect, clear and concise (Kosinski said he wanted the language to be “invisible,” so that the reader would only see the events being described), and it’s a brilliant and extremely relevant commentary on our current political and economic situation.
Jerzy Kosinski
The working title for Being There was Dasein, which is a term used by Martin Heidegger in a philosophy called Phenomenology. Roughly translated from German it means “being there,” and, being way too complex to go into now, it basically is used to describe a person’s current state and time of existence. I studied Phenomenology in college, and since then I have tried to incorporate many of the themes and ideas it confronts, especially those regarding time and its relationship to existence, into my paintings.
Landschaft by Odd Nerdrum
Back to subtlety. Subtlety is why I like art. I believe it is the main characteristic of a good landscape painting. A painting can be a pretty picture, skillfully executed with subtle color variations and details. But if you look closely, you can also find some sort of meaning, defined implicitly by composition, symbols, colors, everything you see. Most people wouldn’t look at one of my paintings and immediately think of Phenomenology. But if they look a little deeper, they can see how it relates to them, to their current state of existence. But you have to grasp the subtlety (if you’re counting, I used some form of the term “subtle” 11 times in this post. Subtle right?)
The Mill by Rembrandt
Read Being There. Now. Then go watch the movie, it is equally as amazing as the book.
Gallery Representation
Dec 09, 2008 — 1 comment
I recently found representation at an art gallery, Eva Reynolds Fine Arts Inc. Three of my paintings are hanging in her newest space, located at 4851 West 134th St., in Leawood, basically 134th and Roe. Eva is an excellent person to work with, she’s extremely competent and motivated, and most importantly, she has good taste in art (her decision to show my work the clearest example of this). Her newest space is awesome, it’s well designed and has a good location, also there are some very impressive pieces in there.
This is very cool for me, and if you’re around that area, you should stop in and check out the pretty pictures.
click here to see Eva’s website.
Progress of the New American Landscape
Dec 01, 2008 — 1 comment
I like the title for this post. It sounds like the title for some second-rate sociology professor’s pseudointellectual treatise. Anyway, the top image is from the last post regarding this piece, the bottom I took last night. Clearly a decent amount of change has occurred, and I think it’s starting to move in the right direction, although this thing is evolving a little slower than I would like. I guess they all tend to do that.
This is somewhat of a new color palette for me, usually (clearly) I use a lot of blue. I’m allowed. Erik likes blue. Back off me. Working with red is never easy, it’s frustrating and irritating in a lot of ways. If there is a specific color you want that necessitates red in the mixture, it’s a hell of a time figuring out how to get it to work. I like the colors I’ve gotten here, but I’m not sure if I went a little too nuts with the red in the sky. If you think I did, now is your chance to let me know. Otherwise, once it’s done, it’s done. Your voice will not be heard.
Also, as I’ve mentioned, there’s something about shadows I really like.
Artwork In Its Natural Environment
Nov 17, 2008 — 1 comment
The overall effect of a piece of art can be greatly enhanced by its surroundings. Paintings, and to an even greater extent drawings, usually look much much better framed, hanging in a place of prominence in a room. I usually hang things to dry in my studio area, where they’re all sort of jumbled together, and not allowed to live in their own space, which dampens the impact of each individual piece. Once you see them hung in a way that allows them to breathe and command attention without competition, they become much more effective.
These photos show a few of the pieces that I have sold, hanging in their current positions of adulation. Having this website is great, I can easily and quickly show a painting to anyone anywhere. But seeing a small digital image is a lame substitute for actually seeing something in person.
Be sure to note that the rooms in which these pieces are hung seem strangely impressive, bigger than most, almost awe inspiring. It’s clear that the person who owns the painting, the person that chose it from amongst the masses and hung it here, is a great human being, that they are doing something important for this planet, something bold, praxis embodied. Wouldn’t you like your room to have that same effect? Contact erikebelingart.com, I have just the painting for you.
Ok I’m kidding about the last one. That’s a picture I took of Albert Bierstadt’s Among the Sierra Nevada, California, 1868, in the American Art Gallery in Washington DC. It’s a famous painting, and rightly so, it’s incredible to see in person, but probably only because of the frame/environment. Or something like that.
Magnus Is Going To Be Large
Nov 17, 2008 — 1 comment
Here again is Magnus. He’s about 32lbs now, and watching him double in size since we got him, and looking at his paws and forearms, it’s becoming pretty clear that he’s going to be a beast.
To see how much different he looks from just a few weeks ago, click here.
Successive Generation
Nov 10, 2008 — 1 comment
Finishing a painting is a strange thing. I put of a lot of effort into everything I do, and though it might seem like painting would be relaxing or dull, it’s actually a real physical and mental struggle to get things to look the way I want. By the time I’m done with a painting session, I am legitimately worn out. Anyway, considering that, it seems logical that there would be a sort of hooray! climax when a painting is actually completed. There isn’t, at least for me. Generally I’ve already been going back and forth between a few different pieces, so when one is done, I just stop working on it. I like having my mind split across a couple of paintings, all sort of evolving on their own timeline, trees planted at different times moving together toward the canopy (for some reason I picture the image of carbon atoms taken by a tunneling electron microscope, only that is way too linear. See below, clearly not related except in my own mind, but the pictures are cool). I usually start something new once I’ve finished something off, so the tedium of the final stages of one are replaced by the freedom of the early stages of another. Insert springsummerfallwinter, genetic transformation, human existence/evolution, gardens, some sort of metaphorical something or other. So lo! here I am, having just finished a painting, and now, above, in all it’s larval glory, is the future of erikebelingart.com. At least until it fades out into completion, to be replaced by something else.
New Painting Finished
Nov 07, 2008 — 5 comments
Finally finished with the new landscape painting, which I’m calling Synchronous Vigil. I’ve added it to the 2D section, here. Glazing layer after layer to get the right opacity for the mist was tedious, but I think it turned out alright. Also note that this may be the most difficult painting in history to get an accurate photograph of. The extreme contrast of the light on the left and the darkness of the right made the digital camera go all crazy, washing out all the color and the detail. I’m clearly no photographer. Anyway, let me know what you think.
Chi Cheng, Deftones
Nov 06, 2008 — 1 comment
Deftones are one of my favorite bands, easily ranking in my top five ever since my friends in college introduced me to them. Last night their bassist, Chi Cheng, was severely injured in a car accident, and is now in a coma. This really is a bummer, totally ruined my day. I’ve seen Deftones live three times, in a huge amphitheatre, a giant hangar, and in a small theater where I was about 12 feet away. They are an amazing live band, not for everyone I’m sure, but really something to see. Their music can be loud and aggressive, but is also surreal and atmospheric, sort of a strangely combined art/prog-rock and metal amalgam, which ends up much better than any of those genres could ever be separately.
Hopefully he recovers quickly, he really seems like a cool dude. The picture above I took at Sandstone Amphitheater, 2006.
Read Chino’s comment on the Deftones blog here