A different perspective

I have always liked the way Expressionists can aesthetically distort spaces to make them add to a piece. I was looking to achieve that here in this piece called "Working Without a Net" 16 x 20. I also wanted to engage the viewer in the question.......Will she make it? Its a long way down...........all symbolic of the way I am painting lately......no net, just start attacking the canvas with an idea. I know its a long way down, but does anyone get this?? Or am I just tilting at windmills?

Later............

This is a Test

This piece is called "Homeward Bound" 16 x 20, and its quite a bit different than most of my work, in that I was really trying to tell a story with it. Now maybe I just don't know how to tell a story, or maybe its one people don't want to hear..........but so far no one really gets it.

To anyone out there........What do you get from it??

Bueller....Bueller....Anybody?

My favovite RED

I wanted to do another spontaneous flower, so I keep some smaller panels in my studio for just that purpose. If I have a pile of wet color left from a big painting, I'll use that to get these little florals started. Today I had red left, so away we go!!

This is "Gerber Daisey" 7 x 10 and a cute little guy he is. In fact, so cute, the gallery requested I bring him out! Hurray.

One for the good guys. :)

Here comes the Sun.

This 16 x 20 is titled "Sun, Flowers and Bluebirds". I don't have a whole lot of reasons for painting it other than another way to say sunflowers, which I really like. I did want to try and push the texture and color so that the piece would have enough drama where one might be tempted to reach out and touch it. Depth and texture.............that's what I was shooting for.
Well, I think I'm in the right neighborhood.

Who painted that?

This is the 1st piece I started after my long work hiatus. I always start with blue when I'm struggling to get things moving. I was shooting for a evening back-lit floral............weird huh, because people like florals for the color. This one almost makes the jump, but kinda got stuck in low gear.
As one of my favorite painters once said...."If the work doesn't excite you, don't expect it to excite your audience". I do feel it was a good starting point and an exercise in building up texture, and it led to the cat painting posted previously, which is as spontaneous and fresh, as this one is not.
I am starting to reach a limiting factor, texture wise with my acrylics. They are too soft to build up in one pass and they dry down so fast that you cannot rework into them, only on top. Its also very hard to make changes in your design mid-stream, as the initial design is always frozen in place underneath. If I did not live in Hawaii, I would be switching to oil painting right about NOW!
Some much more expressive and intimate pieces are drying here in the studio, that will knock your socks of, so enjoy "Back lit Floral" 11 x 14, and I'll see you.........later!

I dig those crazy cats

This is a painting of Lloyd and Cooper.......2 feral cats who regularly come to breakfast, lunch, and dinner at our house. Cooper (white cat) is always more than willing to "help" any of the other cats finish their food, hence the title "Are You Going to Finish That?" 16 x 20.
I just started the piece right on the board with no preliminary drawing....just pow! straight away. And on we go.......

I think I broke something

This piece is new..............painted back in September. My studio has been silent till today! Finally after extended low tone artists block I came back to the surface today.

I must have pushed the color so hard on this piece called "Radical Flowers" 11 x 14 that something somewhere broke. But enough of what was............what is, is that there are 2 new pieces here, with more on the way... Later, and thanks for your patience.

Here I am.....again

Just back from an extended work trip to California. How different it is there compared to Hawaii. As I get acclimated to home again, its time to start thinking about getting the paints out again.

In the meantime....I had the privilege of being included as an artist interview at a really nice website called www.whopple.com

They also provided me with a direct link to my interview page, so please check it out!
www.whopple.com/artist-interview-with-james-c-osterberg-jr.html

That being said.....here is a painting I did when I lived in California, called "DayDream" 30" x 30". It was one of my favorites from that time......hope you like it.

Tell your clowns to Shut-up

This is "Big-Top Billie" 16 x 20, and the last clown out of the car. I'm finding these clowns communicate a bit too well.....so its time to move on.

The Ringmaster

This is "Kirby" 16 x 20. He is kind of the ringmaster clown. I really liked the way that my previous clown Checkers (see previous post) turned out, using the same yellows for the clown and the background, so my goal was to achieve the same harmony with reds. This piece is also painted exclusively with a large synthetic bright for a brush (I call it my shovel) which I used to scoop up BIG brush loads of paint. I wanted to keep this clown a bit looser and spontaneous......just work fast with lots of paint.....and POW! ......there it is.

A Hardy Har Har

Thought I might try a happy clown today, and got a first hand lesson how clowns are like painters are like people. "Face of a Clown" 16 x 20 looks happy enough but its really only a mask for something totally different. You can try to show the world one thing, but the true feelings of the clown, or painter, or person always show through somehow.
I guess if you stop and examine the works of art done by painters who had a high enough skill level where they could just paint a subject without thinking about "how" to paint a subject, that's when the emotion and communication really starts to come through. I think I could paint a lot of happy clowns, but they'd probably all be tinged with sadness.

Drivin the Clown Car

As the parade of clowns rolls on, "Cindy" 16 x 20 was the next to appear. Cindy is the sad clown with the droopy drawers who holds her hands over her eyes to cry, and you see the water squirting out.
These paintings are kinda like watching the clowns all pile out of the little clown car, wondering who will appear next and how many more there are in there.

Checkers anyone?

It looks like the clown paintings have taken off into a full blown series. I do have an affinity for sad clowns........ a feel for them. They all have little pieces of me in them.
Why can people relate to a "sad" painting more than a "happy" one? I've seen people look at a sad painting and say....."Boy, I know exactly how that feels" or "I can really relate to that". I've never seen anyone look at a happy painting, and say how they remember when they felt happy like that. Why is happy so fleeting and sorrow seems to last forever?
Well any ways, this is "Checkers" 16 x 20, and he just seemed to develop on my panel all by himself, like he was waiting for me.
More clowns on the way, so enjoy the ride!

What a Pansey!

Thought I might try another clown today, just to see where this is going. Things are slow at The Gallery so I don't feel any production pressure, so another clown was in order.
This is "Pansey" 14 x 18, who appeared on my easel after a few false starts. Again I'm finding that there is always a little something unexpected lurking under the made up face. Actually, its kinda like looking in a mirror when I look at this piece. Odd.

Who's in (under) there?

What to paint? Who doesn't ask themselves that question when you need a fresh start. A new series seems in order, as I just counted about 20 paintings in my last series. Without the motivation of a bunch of sales, that is about my limit for one subject. So again, the age old question......what to paint??????????? What will sell? What do I find interesting enough to keep me motivated to do a thorough series? What will accomplish both goals?
I find if I try to paint for "sales only" without the emotional connection to my subject, it shows in the work. And a lot of times if I paint something emotional moving, it is too "far out" for people to understand. So instead of trying to figure it all out, I just painted a clown. The cool thing about clowns is that their make-up may convey one emotion, while the person under the make-up may be feeling something totally different. So.....the cool thing about clowns as a subject is that you can try to get the emotion of the clown (painter) to show through the actual made up emotion his make-up conveys.
Well...........this one is called "Benny" 14" x 18". Can you see far enough under Benny's make-up to know what I was feeling when I painted him? And how many people on this planet today wear their "make-up" everyday to keep the rest of the world from really knowing what they're feeling? A planet full of clowns.............would have thought? later.

Watermelon Face

I can remember way back when.........drawing class, where we we're learning about color and composition. One of the students complained to the teacher about how such a boring subject could never become an interesting drawing. To which the teacher replied "Its the artist's job to make the subject interesting".
I never forgot that. Sometimes I purposely try a really simple subject, just to see if I can "make it interesting". That's what was behind "Watermelon" 11 x 14. I like the red and green complimentary color scheme, and this subject really lends itself to playing that up.
So I dedicate this one to you........."Watermelon Face"..............as old Uncle Bill used to call ya..

Viva Francais

I wanted to try something a bit grander in scale this time. An actual setting as a subject, just like someone might sit down to. It started with the idea of french crullers, and blossomed from there. The crullers went down first and then I added the tea cup and sugar bowl. Again, I like the way the direct expression of these items, instead of a laborious drafting of them, seems to make them dance on the table cloth.
So here it is......"French Crullers" 12 x 16. Just makes me want to take one off the plate!

This is how we do it!

I've been looking at some diner sites on the internet, and it got me in the mood for some pie. Today's creation is not only an 11 x 14 titled "Blueberry Pie a la Mode, but a step by step recording of how it was done! Hope you like it! Later.

What a Big Bun you Have!

Another breakfast favorite of mine! "Cinnamon Bun" 11 x 14. I like the way the hard lines of the coffee cup contrast with the icing on the bun. I procrastinated about weather to add some utensils, and decided against it for this piece. I consider these food paintings to be food portraits, but always worry about how the reality of the piece will translate to the viewer with no silverware. Do they enjoy the painting, or go "Where's the silverware?" Inquiring artists want to know!

Homer says.....Dooooooooooooughnuts

Donuts! Something I really like.....but you can't get'em here. Not in Hawaii. I used to go to the "Happy Donut" on Battery St., in San Francisco back in the old days, whenever I needed my donut fix. Before that it was "Buckman's Dairy" back in Rochester, NY.
So I've been thinking about those donuts lately, which lead me to this nice painting....."Coffee and Donuts" 11 x 14. The thing I like the best about this is how charming a painting becomes, when you just paint what you want to say, instead of worrying about all the perspectives, and anatomies, and scales of your subject. Another words, all the things you would get "corrected" for in art class.
And the red mug is my favorite coffee cup! Later

Tribute to Sherman's Deli

Last year when we vacationed in Palm Springs, we spent a lot of mornings eating breakfast in a place called Sherman's Deli. Pancakes were always my favorite! Those pancake breakfasts inspired this piece called "Breakfast, The Sunday Edition" 14 x 18. You can't get food like this here in Hawaii....where the joke is........."Best food I had in Hawaii was on the airplane coming over". Unless of course you like spam! (the stuff in the blue can, not the email kind) Later.

Calling Vincent

I've had this painting in the back of my mind for about a week. Once I got around to painting it, instead of trying to figure out how to paint it, this is what I got......."Peach Shortcake and Ice Cream" 11 x 14. This is a nice high key painting with a lot of electricity, something that I wanted to achieve at its outset.
I wonder if Van Gogh would smile if he saw this?

As the Apple turns

It took me a lot longer than I had hoped to get this painting going. I had procrastinated between peach cobbler and this "Candy Apple" 8 x 10 for a long time. Finally I went for this because I like red. Not my best piece, but it looks cool in a little mahogany frame. Peach cobbler ala Van Gogh is next....yum

Blue Plate Special

Here is the full size version, that the previously posted lobster study was done for. I call it "Blue Plate Special" 16 x 20 and I really like the way the color is organized in this painting, and the diagonals that kind of create movement. Blues in the outer diagonals, then yellow inside of that, with the main diagonal, a nice red lobster, all set up on a redwood picnic table.
I think doing the smaller study paid off in the execution of this larger work, and I will have consideration for doing "studys" more often.

Memories

Its a rainy day here in Hawaii. I'm looking out the window remembering back to how this "painting thing" started. Working at the family sign shop, back in New York state, 36 years old, telling my dad how I was going to be up and running as an artist by the time I was 40. Well I'm 54 now, and I can turn out a pretty decent painting. Most of the time I feel I have something worth while to say when I'm painting. Somewhere on this stretch of the road, the money is supposed to start rolling in, right? Right??
Well, anyways........Here is "Belly Buster" 12 x 16. Makes me think of my sisters kids for some reason.........back when they still were little kids when I left town.

A "little" Lobster

Thought I might try dinner before desert today. Actually this is a little 8 x 10 study called "Lobster" done in anticipation of a larger piece. I liked the way I just picked up some red paint, and started painting......no sketching, just right to it. For the big piece I'm going to change the table cloth, and possibly add some utensils too.
What a nice way to start the week.

Strawberry Season

I spent about an hour today looking for something new. Something red! And here it is........Strawberry Shortcake 11 x 14. Reminds me of strawberry season back east, when mom would take all of us kids out to the local "pick your own" strawberry patch for a few hours. After that it was jam, pie, and shortcake!!

Back under the Big Top again

My first day back on Island and in the studio after a 2 week stint on the mainland. Its a tough adjustment for me, working 2,500 miles away from home. I called the Bay Area home for 4 years before taking the leap to Hawaii and have a lot of familiarity with it. I've lived in Hawaii for almost 5 years now. The shifting of routines from Mainland work to Hawaii art studio creates a very disjointed feeling.......like "routine jet-lag". I never really settle into one mode. Kind of like having 2 half lives instead of one whole one. Needless to say it takes a bit of time to readjust once I'm home and do something positive.
My first effort back in the studio is usually anything to just get me painting. I find that most of the time its an expression of my emotional struggle to readjust. So here is "The Blue Elephant" 14 x 18, because "the show must go on!"
Now its time to put my big boy pants on and get to work. :)

I've had alls I can stands and I can't stands no more!

I remember the first time I set foot on Hawaii. How wonderful and friendly everyone was. It really made you think how nice it would be to live here. But unfortunately, unless you can live in a resort hotel, Aloha takes on a whole different meaning as soon as you leave the resort boundaries behind.
As an artist, I sometimes find it necessary to display my anger in my work..........to expose truth in a way that might make someone sit up and take notice. And co-incidently my painting ability has arrived to the point where it can communicate in a rather direct manner. That being said, I give you "Aloha, from Hawaii" 24 x 30.
A picture really is worth 1,000 words!

Flowers for...........me, I guess

Whenever I start a painting, I'm trying to find something that I feel I want to say, that meshes with something someone else might want to hear. If things get too personal.......... well no one wants to hear that. If its too generic, it gets lost in the blah, blah, blah of the art world. These next 2 paintings are of a bit more personal twist. I like yellow. Its like sunshine. But its hard to really achieve that high yellow note, as Van Gogh used to say. So I paint yellow just for me. Nice and bright.
I call this "Jamie's Flowers 14 x 18 and the only reason I painted it was to make myself happy. And that's the fun part of my development as an artist, I don't have to worry about how to paint anymore........I just have to think about what I want to say.
The second of these 2 personal paintings will show a more "critical" view of my subject matter. I'll save that for tomorrow.

Unhappy Time

As "unhappy time" unfolds here in Hawaii, I am slowly getting up enough free attention to start to paint. I am keeping things small, and fresh, as my ability and desire to concentrate on painting are a bit distracted at this point.
But you know........this was a pretty neat result. "Lime Sorbet and Cookie" 11 x 14 started out a bit on the ho-hum side, until I ran that streak of red around the tops of the sorbet......then POW. Really simple with the complimentary color kick. This color is like music to my ears!

Where do I go from here?

This is my first new piece in about 3 weeks, as some serious personal problems have consumed all of my attention units, leaving me nothing to paint with. I needed to try and get back into some sort of positive energy flow, so I picked up a brush just to see what would happen.
I call this"Orange Sherbert" 12 x 16 and it was simple enough to paint with small attention, and gave me a much needed distraction. Hopefully this will get me back on my feet, and into the game.

And then I died

I like this. Its a painting from about 6 months ago. Why........because its fearless.....takes some chances, and is fun to look at.



Honest....I will have some new work up soon. TY to all, if there is an all out there. j

Dreamer's Chair

Its funny how you evolve as a painter. Here is one of my early works from 2001, or 2002, I can't remember for sure. I was really influenced by Picasso, and loved his innovative way of painting. I would spend lots of time in my big studio working on paintings like these, knowing that the public was just going to love them. But they didn't. I have since come to find out that if something is too new or innovative, or communicates across a narrow band, people can't duplicate (they don't get it), and hence they won't communicate with it. And when your art doesn't generate 2 way communication with a viewer, well its just going to sit in your closet storage. I heard a quote said that "an abstract painting isn't done until somone looks at it". I guess that sums it up.
Anyways, I hope my little dry spell here at the studio dissipates, and I have a fresh new piece of work to post in the morning.

Sugar Fix

I am waiting for my paint order to show up from the mainland, and I am getting very close to running out of Titanium White. So the new challenge is..........painting with little or no white. (you mainland artists never have these problems....here I have to drive 30 miles to a store which will charge me $20 for a $9 tube of paint) But I do have an ocean view :)
Anyways, I like the sweetness of this piece, both literally, and figuratively. Sugar for the eyes!

The Darker Side of Blue

I'm a big fan of Chuck Connelly.....how alive his work looks, and how you can see the sadness in a lot of them. How interesting his self portraits are and the view that he has of himself. Its his point of view that really speaks to me. There are days I can feel those same things when I paint. Usually those works are the best artistically, but are a bit too personal to interest or engage anyone else.
"The Blue Clown (My Life)" 14 x 18 is one of these. What more can I say?

Is this the Black Forest?

Let them eat cake! Or at least maybe a painting called "Black Forest Cake" 12 x 16. I'm finding the cakes and pies a bit more constraining than the Ice Cream paintings as with ice cream, you can do just about anything you want. With cake or pie you can't stray too far off the path, or people won't be able to "duplicate" what your trying to get across to them.
Well anyways, I feel I might be winding down on the deserts for now, and all this cloudy weather is making me think I might need to get out some blue paint.

Where's my fork?

I keep looking at this blank page, and I think, what do I write about today? I need to make something positive happen today. At the rate I'm going I'll need 2 more lifetimes to achieve any kind of monetary success as a painter. So everyday from now on, I will do at least one thing to "market myself" every day.
Today I'm going to try and figure out how to put my blog link and my website link onto all my emails. Yeah I know, but its a start.
This little 11 x 14 is called "Cherry Pie". Trying to get a cherry red color can be a bit of a challenge. I have discovered a really neat color called Acra Red that is transparent and really unifies your reds when you apply it right over the top your Cad reds. It sure makes this pie look delicious!!! j

Extreme ways

I have lamented in the past about how some of these ideas might translate into larger pieces. Well this is a step in that direction. "The Big Ice Cream" is a 24 x 30 on canvas, and about as big as my studio/office/workout room/closet can handle. After being besieged on TV by all the extreme eating/food shows I thought, why not......it will give me the opportunity to add.....anything I want to my ice cream.
Now the question becomes, how large can I paint, and still have the pieces be marketable. I can sell up to 16 x 20 fairly regularly, but larger pieces really narrow the buyer pool, and I have not yet established the reach, or status to attract actual collectors. Right now the house is busting at the seams with paintings, and I have days where I just want to load it all in the truck, and take it to the dump. Hmmmmmm. must be this grey weather. later, j

A (not so) simple slice of pie

A simple little piece of pie titled "Lemon Meringue" 10 x 12, but what a monumental effort. I had this idea of an all yellow painting first, but as I progressed it just wasn't happening. So add a little pink......better, more yellow, and a tiny bit of green. Its improving, but not really taking off. And it never really did. After I was done, I cropped the panel down, and phew..........its done. There is just enough awkwardness in the piece to give it some charm, but what an effort, and what a LOT of paint. The next one has got to be easier!

I knew it couldn't be this easy

I've been enjoying the "food as subject" series I am in the midst of. So far the subjects and the results have made me happy. This piece titled "Double Decker" 11 x 14 was one that just flew on to the board. Every color choice and brush stroke seemed to be right on the mark. Its so fun to paint that way. So much fun that I thought I'd just do it again...............wrong.
Everything that went so right with this one went so wrong with the next piece. But that's for tomorrow.

It seemed like the thing to do

Got up this morning and painted this banana. I kind of wanted to see how simple a subject I could make look interesting, plus I wanted to paint with yellow and blue. I'm kind of liking it. The color really sings, and that's what this one is all about. Maybe I should paint a really big banana!! A four footer! Hmmmmmmm.... I wonder. :)

Days gone by

I'm not quite old enough to have ever really experienced a "soda shop", but I can relate to days gone by. I remember learning to paint back in my first studio, way back in Rochester, NY. How exciting it was to have my own separate space in an artist community, and to be creating these wonderful pieces of art that were going to take the world by storm. How I sold my 1st painting at the Clothesline Art Festival. All the "Coffee Shop" shows when we moved San Francisco. Boy I was going somewhere. But then like the soda shops, it just kind of slowly of went away. And I ask sometimes, "where did it go?" "What happened?" And once in a while I think.......I can still do it! Just like I thought I could smell the Black Cherry when I clear coated this piece. Black Cherry Soda.......12 x 16

Leave those lights off!

I tried something new here. I started this painting in the evening using the less than optimal artificial studio light. I can see contrasts better in this low light, but I can't see the color as well..........its kinda like seeing a black and white while painting with color. It causes me to key up the color higher so I can see it in the dark. (am I making any sense???)

Anyways, this is a result....a simple hotdog that just comes screaming off the board with color and dimension. I call it "One on a Bun". So lets eat!

I Scream.........We ALL Scream (I hope)

How fun is this? I've been looking for a new subject and something clicked banana split into mind. I don't know if it was a TV show or just the fact that I really wanted some ice cream, but it seemed "different". So I had an expendable board here in the studio, and away I went. I really built up the paint thickness to the point where I can almost taste the sweetness, just looking at it.
Another thing that pleases me with this piece which I call "Banana Split" is that I'm starting to develop a "style" and a wham factor that makes you want to reach out and touch the piece. Wonder whats on the menu for tomorrow? j

I miss my wife

I wanted to post my most recent piece here today, but I left my camera at a neighbors up the street. So anyways...........I like sunflowers, and sunshine. When I set out to paint this 14" x 18" last week, I wanted nice happy yellows and blues. I call it "Happiness". And it did make me happy for a bit.........
I need something new to work on, and all the doors seem closed. And as I wander around in the dark, off to the left something finds me. If I can remember to bring my camera home.......tomorrow we'll all have Ice Cream!!.

Searching...........

I did some sketches of Tea pots, as I am starting to like the way some of my flower pots are translating in my paintings. I thought maybe keep the pots and make them the subject. So I tried a couple little 8" x 10"s and I got this happy little painting called "A Light Breakfast".
The evening one I called "Elegance" as it has a porcelain look to it. Don't know if they will translate into larger works, but they were fun.

J

Where do I start (again)

This is the last bigger piece I finished before a 10 day "real work" hiatus. It's pretty hard for me to get back in the studio and resume production after a layoff..........which is funny because when I am away and can't paint I have all these wonderful ideas of what I will do when I get home. Its hard to get the "positive" energy flowing. Sometimes a total change in subject will do it, but I really have to push myself into the studio and in front of the easel.
Well before the day is over I will run out of "one more things" to do and will get out the paint. Again I feel I should be saying more than I am with my work. later

Did Van Gogh know?

Sometimes I look at my finished work and think, "Boy this is pretty good". And I've looked a whole web page of my work and gone "wow". Then you look another day.............and "I don't know..."
So I wonder, when Van Gogh painted his masterpieces, did he finish one and say "that's a masterpiece" ?? Did he know?
Who tells the artist......."That's a masterpiece", or even "That's pretty good" And would we listen, even if they did.

We're having leftovers

Did this little 8 x 10 with some paint I had left over on my palette after I was finished working on a larger piece. Paint is so expensive here, I just hate to waste it. It seems to be receiving response from the people who see it. Why? I don't really know. For some reason this piece of art has a more universal communication. ?
j