Dali

Oil on canvas
9″ x 12″

Between prepping the canvas and sketching for the next piece, I knocked out another Alla Prima portrait in a couple of hours today.

Dali -in my opinion the greatest artist of the 20th century-has become so ubiquitous that the impact his surreal art had on me when I first encountered ‘The Death of Narcissus’ in a copy of Man, Myth and Magic in the 1970’s, seems almost neutered by its legacy into mono culture.

That mustache like an upturned curly bracket so synonymous, that the portrait didn’t resemble him, until the follicular finishing touch.

Still, the work remains utterly phenomenal and back then I was utterly obsessed, so I shan’t understate the influence he had on my own artistic quest.

In fact, I still read his wonderfully salacious ‘Unspeakable Confessions’ yearly, because the enigma of his work was made all the more profound by the fact that he was as mad as cheese.

Rasputin

Oil on canvas,
9″x 12″

With Russia in the news again, I thought it’d be quite nice to trot out one of the Slavs other infamous sons- the Mad Monk, Grigori Rasputin-Alla Prima.

He’s another of those fascinating esoteric cult figures, from the time of the Romnovs, ministering all manner of occult practices from Theosophy to being faith healer to Tsar Nicholas’s son, Alexei.

A nice gig if you can get it, particularly if  the laying on of hands extends to the local nunnery.

Ongoing rumors of an affair and his influence over the Tsarina Alexandra, that such were the times then, it wasn’t too long before he was knocked off, although given that it took an afternoon buffet of arsenic laced cakes and wine, three bullets-one in the forehead- and dropping in the frigid Nevka waters to do the trick, may lend to the reputation of his mystical prowess, and the rumor that he did a zombie Jesus.

Regardless, the fall of the Romanovs wasn’t too far behind.

One hopes a similar fate awaits the current US dynasty.

Splendor Solis

A reproduction of my piece “Space enough have I, to lie in such a prison” was recently included at ‘The Studio and Gallery’ exhibit ‘Splendor Solis, which is based on an alchemist grimoire of the same name from 1532.

My piece was a kind of riff on one of its plates, having first saw it in the magazine Man, Myth and Magic back in the 70’s-the golum figure stepping from the mud into the welcoming arms of the princess. The princess of course in my version, being my wife Lani as the Miranda figure to my Ferdinand.

Including among others, are the exquisite works of Laurie Lipton, and I’m honored to be included, as it looks like a tremendous exhibit. Its also notable because its my first showing in beautiful Scotland, and I’m hoping it promises to be my first of more exhibits in the UK.

You can see full details of the show from the following website:

The Studio and Gallery 

Show runs until the 24th February.

Climbing trees.

This was a week ago, so I’m further along. Detailing, nitpicking, slowly losing my mind  seeing the wood for all the trees, or at least its many branches. I never imagined that the landscape would be something I’d busy myself with, but on daily walks with the little dog now, I find myself lost in the threadbare treeline and crooked manzanita’s, not on the internal dialogue. I suppose it could be that thing Larkin said about his own fascination with trees…’Is it that they are born again, and we grow old?”

Still ten more to go before showtime in a year, got myself a portable easel courtesy of my wife in the meantime. Weather and knees permitting and as a sort of compliment to the series, I’m going to be knocking out some of the little landscape study’s to sell in the interim.

Perhaps I’ll follow in the footsteps of my more famous namesake after all.

If only I could find a money tree.