A Painter's JournalA Painter's JournalDaily painting, essays, journaling and etchings by Michael S. Parkes, artist and writer in Eastern Washington. Capturing a daily inspirational thought, reflecting on the process of life itself, expressing a new vision for human existence 
Articles
Staying true
2007-12-16 15:18:00 The hardest thing for a painter is listening to your own heart and embracing that small voice over the din of voices demanding a successful and applied art be wrought. Not easy when one is working a job, has kids and a mortgage and art could be seen as a “revenue stream”. The pressure always ... More About: True
Low study
2007-12-15 04:25:00 Worked on this 20×16 acrylic and oil on masonite down at the Lows. Worked on it for a good part of the day on location. Perhaps relying too much on the violet and umber, but it is what was seen and felt and it was done so that is that. I think the jury is ... More About: Study , Painting
Dance street
2007-12-14 15:58:00 I pulled off this little sketch of some bushes near Dance Street Ballroom. Kept expecting someone to come outside and yell at me to get off their property. A simple view, there is a little covey of quail that live around these little bushes. More About: Painting
City streets
2007-12-12 23:47:00 I went out at lunch and sketched this little view looking east from the Dance street pay lot off Washington. Using burnt umber, violet and white. Once I had it finished (this that I thought underpainting,) I didn’t feel the compelling need to belabor it with color, overpainting that would only conceal the raw simplicity ... More About: Painting , City , Streets
Joy
2007-12-12 13:50:00 4 a.m. Here is a little study of Joy last evening. Every look, every touch we make, is hallowed. Emily showed me her latest sketch of a dress design last night and I thought this is art, this is the expression and heart of man. The sadness is in everything, nothing we touch escapes the ... More About: Painting
The apartment building
2007-12-12 01:54:00 I painted this little 9×12 acrylic on masonite today on my lunch hour. Just around the corner from work. This building has caught my eye for some time now, something almost sinister about it, sad, a very sad and lonely place to live. My heart goes out to the people trapped in this place, living ... More About: Building , Painting
Portrait of the artist as a confused man
2007-12-11 18:41:00 It is all I can do now to keep from crying, at every turn I see so much exquisite beauty, so profound are the depths of our eternities, the jeweled embrace of life slices us llike razors and we cry at the wonderful pain of her. I did this sketch of myself last night, I fell ... More About: Painting , Artist , Portrait , The Artist , Artis
The lights of the river, the cold, cold buildings
2007-12-10 23:34:00 I went back to the little parking lot overlooking the park today at lunch. Fresh snow from yesterday, the sun is out, crisp, still a haziness when looking deep into the city. I was mesmerized by the reflections of the river glinting through the trees, and the gray, cold buildings surrounding this wonder. I was ... More About: Painting , Cold , River , Buildings , Lights
Palouse fields
2007-12-10 15:27:00 I am constantly amazed at the twists and turns made as I seek out an appropriate expression. After spending the better part of Saturday exploring abstracted landscape impressions, I ventured out yesterday only to find myself painting a very representative view looking southeast along Spangle-Waverly road not far from the house. Temps in the 20’s, ... More About: Painting , Fields , Palo , E field
CREATE!
2007-12-09 15:57:00 I tried some larger panels yesterday, these were 17×21 or so, went down to the low area and did a study (using the term loosely) of an area below the one tree. There was a little frozen streamlet below it that was quite lovely in the shadows of early morning. I was enraptured by the ... More About: Painting , Create
Acrylics
2007-12-08 14:48:00 I have started using just the acrylics. Allows you to pretty much develop the painting from general forms gradually, shifting, changing as you go. Although when its really cold out, I think the drying time becomes longer and you’ll find additional layers affecting the paint below. But I may try and go back to using ... More About: Painting
Shadows
2007-12-06 14:22:00 The essential issues are still with us. Life. Death. What does this pageant called life reveal? What is color, tears, sex, children, debt? How do we navigate through what must seem an unreasonable journey? Painting helps. It forces you to watch, study, behold. Driving home tonight I was taken by the lights. Everywhere the lights. Car ... More About: Shadows
Coast trading company
2007-12-04 15:38:00 Went out on my lunch hour yesterday and did a sketch of the old Coast trading company grain silos, near my office. From inside the car as it was raining slightly and windy. The results are okay, I start to feel like this is the bread and butter work, not particularly decisive of anything, but ... More About: Company , Trading
Draw, just don?t draw too many conclusions
2007-12-03 15:29:00 Windy as the devil this morning. The last week or so of frigid temps and snow has now given wayto the rain and wind. Beating against the house, relentless, powerful, steady. Much like the wind that beats against my desire towards art. I create… and the winds start up, winds of criticism, judgment, a harsh self-regard. ... More About: Draw
One hellish agony?
2007-12-03 06:27:00 What a day. Three days and about all I have to show for it is one halfway decent painting of a view across the valley fields.
Snow, wind, a perfect day for painting outside.
2007-12-02 14:35:00 Next steps? Maybe just cut down a lot of smaller panels and keep up the quick sketch. I am comfortable with those, not enough room there to become bogged down with composition errors, unnecessary detail. I think what I must be after is a kind of sublime simplicity. I go back to that little sketch of ... More About: Painting , Wind , Snow , Perfect , Perfect Day
Winter wonders
2007-12-02 03:20:00 Another horrid day. Accomplished nothing, snowing most of the day and although I drove down Hays road found nothing that was compelling enough to cause me to venture out of the car and set up to paint. Still I keep hoping for inspiration. More About: Winter , Wonders
Abstracted angst
2007-12-01 15:54:00 Yesterday was a study in the pointless use of paint. I went out around 11 and decided to test my more ambient leanings with a sketch of the woods near the Lows, of a straightforward view of pines, grass in the foreground. I developed what I thought was an interesting underpainting, and then rather than ...
Landscapes of forgotten dreams
2007-11-30 14:49:00 Last evening I decided to work on the sketch I had done from the parking lot, and simply began painting glazes of color as I liked over the basic underpainting. Not really trying to decide anything, I just let me mind and brush wander through color and blend, and developed what seems to be a ... More About: Dreams , Landscapes , Painting , Forgotten
What not to paint
2007-11-30 03:56:00 Maybe what you don’t paint says more than what you do? I went out at lunch today, drove to the parking lot, and could not settle on anything to paint there. Figured maybe it was time to start driving and see what I could find, and made my way over to near the courthouse. Parked along ... More About: Paint
Flour Mill
2007-11-29 14:06:00 I went out yesterday to the parking lot and started a 12×16 looking west toward the flour mill, up the street. Began honestly enough, simply blocking in the tones and general architecture of the scene. Toward the end of my all too brief hour I found I was subduing the scene, painting opposing warmth ... More About: Painting , Flour
Gray and cold
2007-11-29 13:35:00 First real snow yesterday. I gazed across the fields on my way to work and I see the barns, the trees, hidden beauty entrenched in every direction. I want to paint everything if I could. It is all I can think about. A driving need to extract the sonnet sealed in every scene and sigh ... More About: Cold , Gray
Adding, reworking, experimenting?
2007-11-27 23:38:00 More and more I come to see the entire enterprise of art making as simply one experiment tied to another. We try something, we have thoughts in the night of refinement, try new mediums, colors, loosen, tighten, it doesn’t matter, all is a learning. But more than learning, perhaps simply record-making. Ongoing relentless attempts, where ... More About: Painting , Workin
A good day
2007-11-27 05:14:00 Today was encouraging. I went to Spokane art to buy some acrylics to round out the few I have. Picked up Cerulean, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and a large tube of white. Made my way back to the loading dock parking lot and cast about briefly looking for a direction to paint before settling on ... More About: Painting , Good
When will I learn
2007-11-26 08:54:00 Yesterday was arduous. Started out okay, I had found a little group of trees along the road to paint, but was beginning to become frustrated trying to find a method for handling the myriad branches. Began using pine needles to try and paint with, anything to achieve that linear effect. The results? Looks like I ... More About: Painting , Learn
Dead into the wiry bushes
2007-11-25 14:47:00 Our heart leads us true. There really is no place for comparing ourselves against others to try and determine place or value. The expression lives of its own nuanced pleasure, and can do no wrong. I guess this is what I come back to over and over, how that we are of such childlike innocence, ... More About: Painting , Dead
Dream at work
2007-11-24 11:41:00 I am frantically trying to finish a presentation I am responsible to give at work. Some sort of second brochure treatment using a different hotel as the focus. There is some sort of company wide meeting that I am responsible to give this talk at. I have to drive north to go back to where ... More About: Dreams , Work , Dream
Glazing
2007-11-24 02:03:00 Today felt good. Started out down at the bridge over the creek with a 9×12 looking along one of the banks to the north. Beginning to lock in on a violet/burnt umber for an underpainting in acrylic. While down at this spot I crossed the road and did a little sketch looking up the rise. More About: Painting
Nobody told me this in art class
2007-11-23 12:22:00 No one told me in the pitifully few art classes I took in college, that painting was not about making good art, but was simply painting in and of itself. The entire structure of our educational system is founded on producing the “good” work. How ridiculous. Produce work - yes. But good? Who in the ... More About: Painting , Class , Told
Cold turkey
More articles from this author:2007-11-23 02:57:00 Thanksgiving - and cold. Figuring out how to keep painting outside even though the acrylics don’t want to dry. Went out this morning about 9 or so and went down Hays road almost the bridge, looking back across the low area fields towards the hills. I felt good about this while painting, although after bringing ... More About: Turkey , Painting , Cold , Turk 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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