Bad News continue but there is a Light…

You would not believe it but in the meanwhile I have hospitalized 3 members of our pigeon family: Pina is sick, her Daddy Willy as well and Pina’s uncle Jimi too. All 3 of them have a PMV infection which means, feeding them 3 times a day as well as giving them to drink with a syringe, cleaning 3 boxes, cooking a lot of hot water for three water bottles to keep them warm, which is the most important so that they can use their energy for healing.

After leaving my panic behind me I have learned to cope with the situation with the help of my dear partner and the kindest people in the world – the people from the Pij’n Angels Forum.

We will do our best to make these birds healthy again but it will take probably a while. No matter how long it will take they are cared for. Each day there are little positive progresses.

In between I sneek in a little painting, some other work and all the other things that need to be done. I hope to have more time for painting again soon…

November continues to be a bad Month

Did I tell you already that I hate November? This month is cursed. Truly. At the moment my work is on hold again because our sweet little Pina is very ill. But we hope for the best. The little pigeon girl needs a lot of support and time intensive care but she will get everything she needs. And the nightmare continues – Willy has become very sick also. Now we have two little pigeons to care for, medicate, feeding by hand etc. It is simply awful. But if you read the Pigeon Tales blog then you will understand that these wonderful birds are like children to us…

Please pray for both that they recover fully again. See you soon hopefully…

Progress on “The Rain Dancer” (WIP)

It is taking time – painting feathers is really a time consuming “job” but it is also entertaining and I am learning a hell-uva-lot about the consistency of feathers and how you can interpret them in colour. It looks in fact so simple but I realized it is quite tricky especially where you don’t have much different shades because the feathers are all white or all grey. The contours seem to disppear yet it is necessary to show their fluffiness and make them look 3-dimensional. Otherwise the whole painting looks completely flat.

Although I am working from a lot of photographs here I have realized that you need to know the bird, you need to actually see how the feathers grows and in which direction the bird can puff them up. I am watching Pete now since nearly 2 years and he surprises me again and again. And I am enchanted by his lovely plumage which he always keeps in utmost care and beauty.

And while I am observing “our” pijjies closely I have realized that the birds can make very well different face: Pete f.e. sometimes makes a funny face like in this protrait because he loves showering, sometimes he looks sad and depressed (especially in bad weather) and sometimes he looks really content – when he can take a sunbath.

This is defitnitely his funny face:

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There is still a lot of work to do and I try my best to really show his lovely plumage…

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Working on the third – The Rain Dancer (WIP)

Currently I am working on the third painting of my new pigeon series. Again I chose Pete, the patriarch, as a model for this painting. He is such a beautiful and impressive bird that I owe him a special hommage. He will always by my inspiration. I only wished I could paint him in a much larger format than currently but this is simply not feasible at the moment for lack of space…

So instead of painting this on a 10′ x 15′ feet canvas I have to refrain to a table piece  . But one day – who knows…

I haven’t come far with the feathers yet but this is it in progress:

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Back to work now….

Realistic Minimalism – a new Genre?

…nay – not really. Nothing is really new under this sun – someone has somewhere used this “genre” at some time already but it would have been nice to have a first start. And you know my faible for definitions – so please do not take this too seriously 

As you know I am somehow fascinated by photorealistic and hyperrealistic painting and have written quite a few articles about painting from photos with interesting conversations with other people, the painters who represent these genres and what I think about this style of painting. You can check out the series here.

Here are some short definitions from Wikipedia:

Photorealism is the genre of painting based on making a painting from the use of a photograph. The term is primarily applied to paintings from the United States art movement that began in the late 1960s, early 1970s.

Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high resolution photograph. Hyperrealism is a fully-fledged school of art and can be considered as an advancement of Photorealism by the methods used to create the resulting photorealistic paintings or sculptures. The term is primarily applied to an independent art movement and art style in the United States and Europe that has recently developed since the early 2000s. However, many Photorealists are also considered Hyperrealists.

I do not want to dig deeper now into these genres but go back to my new series. The new series is very exciting for me because it merely represents a new painting style. I was wondering in which genre this would fit and I came up with an idea such as Realistic Minimalism. What do you think about this? Astonishingly this term has not been used yet – at least not on the Internet – and at least not in the painting medium but rather in philosophical writing and here in a completely different context.

There is a painter I discovered shortly ago on another blog, who is talking about photorealistic minimalism in his work.  Nigel Cox, who’s delightful and phantastic work can be seen on his website says about the discovery of his painting style:

“I was captivated by how special people can be when removed from the crowd and how wonderful it is to observe them, alone, in this state. This idea developed in my mind over the coming months and emerged as paintings incorporating photorealistic people, who have been removed from busy City scenes and placed into minimalistic spaces and landscapes.
The above painting ‘A Quiet Moment’ was the first in this style and was the beginning of what I call ‘Photorealistic Minimalism’.”

Coincidently I had a similar idea some time ago. Only that my objects of interest were not people but my balcony pigeons which I am observing so often. Their stance and dignity, their postures, their look into an indefinite distance, far beyond the horizon. They spend so much time just looking and I wonder what they are watching or philosophizing about.

This inspired me to create paintings which represent the love for detail as well as an uncluttered canvas background representing an indefinite space.

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Help needed – Copyright Issue

These days I have come across following problem:

a customer wants to buy a print of one of my photos. The photos are detail shots of a public artwork, an iron statue by Eduardo Chillida, created in 1997, his last. What fascinated me so very much regarding this statue was the transformation of the iron surface into some magnificent rusty colours created by nature, wind, rain, sunshine etc. with a very subtle pattern. I have processed and enhanced these photos digitally to emphasize the beauty of a rusty surface.

Can I sell these prints legally or would this be copyright infringement? I mean these are my own original photos but of an artwork by someone else. What is the legal regulation of such an issue?

 

Through the help from WetCanvas I am answering this myself: I am not going to sell these prints as I might run into troubles. So if anyone else runs into the same question – check out these links which have been provided by WetCanvas forum members:

Who owns public Art? by Kelly Kleiman

The Public’s Right to look? by Joshua Kaufmann

If you should know about more articles which describe this problem please let me know – thank you!

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