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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It is done – new Painting is finished

The second painting from the new pigeon project Contemplation on a Predator is finished. I scanned the painting today. I must say, the original does look better than the photo and viewed from a distance makes the skull glow dangerously  – this is not quite visible in the photo – probably due to the subdued pastel colours – although in nearly all cases the scans of my paintings come very close to the original.

Of course I have no influence on the appearance on other monitors which may be of great disadvantage because of all the different settings people have on their computers. So there is always the danger of creepy colours on someone else’s monitor. I know for example that Dell monitors tend to show colours with a greenish touch which looks devastating on certain images. I have no idea why they do that. Heaven may forbid that…

Now enough words – here is the finished painting:

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While the skull turned out quite nicely in the end I am not content with the feathers yet. In my opinion they are still too coarse. I am working towards getting a photorealistic result but am far from that goal. I like the colour composition though – this is exactly as I planned it.

Off to the next painting and more feathers…

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Contemplation on a Predator – WIP (2)

Here is an update on my latest painting of the new pigeons series – Contemplation on a Predator.

I must admit that it turned out a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. The problem was the skull, which I started allover 3 times. I am still not really satisfied with it but I leave it for now until I know what could be improved. Also there is still some work to do on the background…

Those are Pete’s feet again. I find that he has exceptionally beautiful feet so they make a wonderful role model. Also his white wing feathers look beautiful, especially when he is flying. You can recognize him from far…

If you would like to know more about our feral pigeon family, read my Pigeon Tales – a diary and documentary blog with lots of stories and photos…

Pigeons are an endless treasure for painting motifs. So be sure this painting will not be the last one. There are more projects in the pipeline.

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Contemplation on a Predator – WIP

The second painting of my Pigeons project is: Contemplation on a Predator.

Pigeons have many enemies and often sit between two chairs. For example there are other birds, which prey on pigeons such as the peregrine falcon, being the #1 enemy and then hawks. There is a declared hostility between crows and pigeons although crows normally are not able to catch pigeons unless they are too young or sick and old. Pigeons are simply too fast and too maneuverable to be caught by crows.

But pigeons can also be caught and eaten by birds you would not expect to be predators such as a pelican f.e. But these are rare and strange incidents and rather accidental. I assume this can happen because pigeons normally do not consider pelicans being their enemies.

There are endless 4-legged predators, who can be dangerous for a pigeon such as cats and dogs. Normally pigeons are too fast to be caught by such a predator but it may be inattentive, without experience, too young, sick or injured. Pigeons are often not alert enough, trusting that their environment is safe. The reason for this is that city pigeons are not really wild birds but feral birds which are to be considered domestic animals due to their genes. This is something that most people do not know about pigeons. Although they can learn to be alert against certain circumstances and predators (which they normally learn from their parents and the flock to whom they belong) they do not own the same instincts as wild doves and wood pigeons. Then it can happen that the pet dog from the neighbourhood or the nice little cat from another garden suddenly decides to eat pigeon meat.

And last but not least there is a certain 2-legged predator, called human, who’s behaviour is definitely not human at all. When pigeons get used to humans who are nice to them they become easy prey for all kinds of cruelties and ferocities, stupid jokes and endless disrespect including from all kinds of organizations which pride themselves rescuing birds and other animals. As soon as they get to know it is about a city pigeon they back down from giving help and or protection. This is very sad and makes me really furious. This is discrimination of a whole species.

Pigeons are mistreated, beaten for fun, kicked, shot and run over by cars when the driver thinks the bird takes too long to get off the road only because it was desperate for food. Pigeons are chased away by any means, sometimes only by clapping hands, sometimes by placing dreadful and dangerous spikes on places where people think they should not roost. That pigeons can injure themselves in these traps is not relevant. Pigeons are poisoned, beaten to death, strangled. Pigeons are bred to be eaten, trained for “racing sport” with methods which seem to originate from the dark middle ages, senseless, barbarous, cruel, and totally against any understanding of treating any living being with respect and care.

Pigeons are bred for purposes which are beyond my understanding, f.e. the king pigeons. These are bred to be meat only, huge, white, beautiful but for one purpose only: a dish on one’s plate. The cruelty of this breeding is that these birds, whenever they happen to escape their cages, do not know who their predators are. They do not know any more how to survive in the “wild city”,  which means they are doomed for starvation if not fed. They have lost their shortening reaction which makes them prey for any animal that is keen on pigeon meat. How sick is this?

I could go on and on with this rant. I will continue in another post about the myths regarding pathogenic deseases which merely do not exist, not for humans nor for other animals.

For now I am going back to painting…

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My challenge in this painting is the plumage. I have never painted feathers before so this becomes a real exercise. To be honest, it became more difficult than I thought it was because I really want to show the delicacy of those feathers, their wonderful luster, their different shapes. I am still working on it….