well, the painting is finally done, completed, fini, accomplished! it hasn't settled in yet, but i imagine it will tomorrow...i signed it and that's that, varnish and the end. on to newer exciting things!!!!! i ghosted a logo so the slightly dark spots are that...also, the signature in the lower left has been digitally added for the web...the actual sig is smaller and lighter in the lower left....anyway..."ready to run" is done. (24x30" acrylic on canvas original painting.)

Tags: acrylic, etsy, harley, harley davidson, motorcycle, original, painting, wb eckert, wb eckert studio, wbeckertstudio
Current Location: http://wbeckertstudio.etsy.com

well, just thought i'd post this. the infamous albatross painting is nearing completion...probably within the next 3 days. i'm working to try to get it off the easel so i can get on to something else...this has taken way too long (i won't say how long, because frankly, it's embarrassing).

this is 24x30", acrylic on canvas. the photos that can be seen are reference photos that i took of the bike and client for the portrait. i usually take as many photos as i can of the bike's details, cause when i'm at the easel working on it, trying to figure out what a particular shadow or highlight was part of is impossible.

anyway, here it is 99% finished. (by the way, that's a 1916 HD board track racer.

i had a good time painting this piece...something along the stream of consciousness ideas that get committed to a real image. i'm not sure what sparked the image, but i found the real challenge this time was to figure out where it came from. usually i don't go there, but this time i was curious about it for some reason. something about it seemed vaguely reminiscent of a painting that i'd experienced  before.  the most glaring was  a memory of a paul klee self portrait entitled "senescio". i like the whimsy in much of klee's work...forms and colors that seem to me to be hung together on invisible threads... colors that dance and sparkle, and yet are strangely muted...like some game of hide and seek, now you do and now you don't. i can remember trying so hard to intellectualize his work when i first came across it...and then totally giving up and just enjoying his paintings with the part of me that doesn't sort things out.

now, i'm not saying that my colors and forms do that, but it was fun putting them together. i was curious as to where my head was when i was painting it...if asked "why are you painting it that way?" i would have had to reply "i dunno, it reminds me of something." and if queried further..."what does it remind you of?"...i would have to offer an equally frustrating "i don't know!"

creative senility! i'm sure the inquiring mind would have concluded that, but leaving out the "creative" part i'm sure. kind of a nice place to be...creative types, and "artists" in general always have that excuse...in how many other endeavors in life when asked what are we doing, can we say "i dunno...it just reminds me of something."

don't ask me why i titled the piece this way, it just seemed right... " Yawn and Yang"

i'm a sucker for calla lilies. for some reason they endlessly fascinate me. i've painted them and photographed them (oh, hundreds upon hundreds of photos) over the years and i'm still not tired of them. along the way i see fake lilies and am compelled to size them up against the real thing. which brings up an uncomfortable "mulling" that i entertain from time to time.

what if someone finds out i'm a fraud! painting or any kind of creating is a dangerous thing. i assume that i should make every attempt to be as honest as i can about my creative leanings. i also aspire to communicate my vision and my wonder at the things i see and ponder...i also worry at times that i may attain a modicum of success at this endeavor...and it will be painfully obvious to all that i am a fraud...shallow, bereft of any integrity, totally lacking in any kind of meaningful artistic sensibility, and, well,  just a little kid pretending to be playing the same game as the "big kids".

it usually happens right after i  finish something that i've worked hard to create and am feeling some sort of creative satisfaction. i'm enjoying the euphoria of having finished the piece... and then the plague of "what if's" descend like locusts to torment me with toxic doubt. (notably, "what if i'm deluding myself?", and on and on and on....)

so what's the remedy? maybe there isn't any. however, i do know that every new painting or creative work that i do is new...new to me at the very least , and new is always dangerous ground, uncharted territory. if my greatest aspiration is to create works that are new to those who look at them, i should be willing to take the risk of revealing the very personal, whatever revelation that might entail...as far as i can tell, it's the only way to make what might be termed "art".

so, without an apology........"Four Faux Flowers"

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Tags: animal, art, babe, biker, drawing, eckert, etsy, fine art, fineart, fox, foxxxy, foxy, harley, illustration, limited edition, motorcycle, motorcycles, pencil, print, prismacolor, wb eckert, wbeckertstudio
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well, been some days since my last painting of the day. i did miss it and i guess this could cast a cloud of doubt on my resolve to do a painting a day...but here i am again! my resolve did go south for a bit, but i wasn't snoozing in the stockroom, honest. i have an "excuse" but i won't burden anyone with it, suffice it to say that i find it somewhat easier to paint a one-a-day after painting all day than after a day of physical and mental labor at some "stoopit" task that will not be denied! nuff said about that!

i did enjoy this painting immensely...it was a real test for me to just do it and not labor over it to get it "just right". i love clean composition and formal setups, but they enable my meticulosity and that's not what these are about. i can see how these exercises are opening me up in my "serious" work (neat distinction, eh?) and i'm having a blast with color...i remember a painting instructor's rails against my "precious" approach to my work...i wonder what he would think if he knew after all these years that i finally heard him!!

the "albatross" will be finished this week and that will be a load off indeed....and so notwithstanding my southern meander (like the one tomato in the painting) i return to the path with .... ""three tomatoes in the sink"

i don't know that i've much to say today. i felt like this painting lacked some heart till the very end. got me thinking about doing one's duty. sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do no matter how you feel. i often think about the phrase "you have to follow your heart." and have to acknowledge the temptation to avoid persevering with something difficult because i "don't feel it in my heart". i need to keep pushing through to the end, often "without heart" because the task has gotten stale or overwhelming (or i've just gotten amazingly or typically lazy).

typical scenario....i get a great shot of inspiration for a painting or other endeavor...away i go! nearly as soon as the brush hits the canvas, i realize i feel as though i've committed myself to swallowing the cow when all i really wanted was a burger. it's not happening with the ease and mastery that i imagined...paint turns to mud, canvas seems more like a peevish trampoline, i'm convinced that i should have pursued carpentry instead, and all of a sudden i start thinking of all the things i need to take care of...all those things that i've put off or nearly forgotten about.

of course if i don't walk away and keep at it, i always come out the other side...and very often am delighted by the result for one reason or another. along the way i carry on a madman's dialogue in my head, embarrass myself with my lack of observation, ham-fisted paint slopping, and still come out the other end of the jungle with some gem of insight at least one idea for another piece. i feel like the king, and "it's good to be king"!

so the plain fact, i guess, is that "doing something with my heart" entails something more than lip service or just doing it when i feel like it.......basically for me, without pushing through the struggle, there is no real sense of accomplishment. i still like easy! (i guess i did have much to say!)

and today's journey ..."shouldn't the heart be red?"

It is good to be king! mel brooks certainly had that right in the movie "History of the World Part 1". Unfortunately only one gets to be king and the rest of us don't.

in the world of private endeavors, art in this case, the same fact of life holds court. some get to be the prima donnas, the king of the art world, and the rest sit in the wings waiting to be discovered, working our asses off trying to be in the right place at the right time (to get discovered), or in some unfortunate scenarios, just giving it all up (sometimes getting discovered for the wrong reasons). mostly though, getting to be king is out of our hands, as is becoming the next jasper johns, or for all you graphics people the next milton glaser. yes we do our best, but whether or not we get "found" is a matter decided only by fate. sadly, in like manner, i've heard the story time and again about the old dude who smokes like a chimney and is still kickin' a fuss at age 87, while some frightfully concerned 30ish who works out daily, eats only what god eats, and makes every effort to live righter than rain, only to wake up dead one morning or dropped in his tracks from a heart attack after the morning run.

the old saws about "it's not about the destination, it's about the journey." and "it's how you run the race, not if you win"....seem to hold a great deal of weight in this kind of musing.... might as well concentrate on running the race the best we know how...(who knows, we might run headlong into a scout!)

given all that .... i enjoyed tackling "the king of the plastic beasts"

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Tags: art, cat, cats, drawing, etsy, feline, felines, fine art, fineart, limited edition, print, prismacolor, watercolor, wb eckert, wbeckertstudio
Current Location: http://WBEckertStudio.etsy.com

i know this is one more post today, but i thought that this was a pithy little entry to gnaw at the mind.....

"Many would be cowards if they had courage enough."  Thomas Fuller

really makes ya think, don't it?