c o l o r

  

 W  O  M  E  N       O  F       A  L  G  I  E  R  S

P I C A S S O               1 9 5 5

Based on a painting of an Algerian concubine

by nineteenth century French artist Eugene Delacroix,

Picasso adds his own gloss to the story with his

vibrant color and Cubist based disposition.

A woman resembling Picasso's second wife,

Jacqueline Roque, presides over this Kamasutra 

of challenging head over heels positions.

The owner of this Picasso paid a princely 

$179 million for it in 2015, the price of a

fabulously appointed sultan's yacht.  

P  R  O  M  E  N  A  D  E

A U G U S T     M A C K E               1 9 1 3 

 

Macke moved his wife and son from Germany

to the peaceful serenity he found in Switzerland.

This became his most productive period, with works

celebrating nature.  The following year Macke was

among the soldiers killed in the opening days of

what became known as the First World War.

Like millions more to follow, the Kaiser had 

called him to service.

 H  I  M  M  E  L

M A R S D E N     H A R T L E Y               1 9 1 5

Himmel is German for heaven.

A red toy soldier on horseback is fastened

to a pedestal like they are a park monument

pigeon roost.  An American named Hartley

is busy painting abstractions in wartime Berlin.

The work shown here comes with its own frame

and also makes a striking design for birthday

wrapping paper.

 

G  E  I  S  H  A

G E O R G E     H E N R Y               1 8 9 4 

British artist George Henry traveled to Tokyo,

Nagasaki and Yokohama to immerse himself,

firsthand, in Japanese culture.  Eighteen months

later he returned to London, his many new 

works of oil carefully rolled into one large

canvas bundle.  Tropical heat and exposure

to moisture on the long voyage home caused the

still tacky oils to stick, crumbling when pulled apart.

All was not lost, though.

This Geisha was a lucky exception.

 S  T  R  E  T  C  H       S  T  A  M  P  E  D  E

L E  R O Y     N E I M A N

 Raw color and energized brushwork.

The dash down this straightaway is a chaotic

mix of thundering horse and jockey, whips

savagely flailing the air, slashing the hide.

The excitement is heightened by having

the herd charging directly at you.

Artist Le Roy Neiman was the 

Steven Spielberg of action screen-prints. 

 

 

 S  U  M  M  E  R

P E T E R     M A X

 Peter Max emerged from his San Francisco

Summer of Love to become an artist for the 

Cosmic Sixties.  His works vibrated with

psychedelic palette and acidic innocence.

Here were works suited for a blacklight poster

but they wound up framed on walls.

Pity.

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

 

OVER   EASY

 

coldValentine

Good Morning Jacob

Letter to my Son
Sunday, 29 June

Dogpatch

Good Morning Jacob…

Drawing was never any good for me unless I was not my usual self.  I could never think my way through anything I did.  What I wanted to do was readily available for me to see or feel beforehand or it was never there at all.  It had to all be made up.  I haven’t the skill or patience to work from life, to attempt to portray what I see in front of me.  It’s about basic shapes and colors and maybe some music to help stir the pot within.  Things are sort of spilled on the paper.  There are plenty of mistakes.  Nothing I do is ever really finished.  So long as a drawing is within reach it is susceptible to change.  Sometimes they improve.  Other times I disaster them.  It can be depressing.  Occasionally, I try to undisaster them.  It’s been known to work but most of the time the result just further sinks beneath its awkward ways.  There are so many false starts.  I’ve created a field of debris.  How good it feels when I’m happy with something I’ve done.  Those moments are few.  It’s like capturing a lightening bug in November when there aren’t supposed to be any lightening bugs flying about.  Darkness settles in but a small light burns off and on within my jar.

Basic colors have rewards.  They each appear to have a distinct personality.  One finding of interest to me is that a particular color may reveal a certain personality in one setting and then show a surprising different turn of character when placed in a wholly separate context.  Let’s take a color of blue; one we might associate with a summer sky over the tumbling of surf upon sand.  How this blue feels depends upon the company it keeps.  Coupled with a sedate yellow I might find this blue giving me the scent of honeysuckle while on a first date.  Were the same blue to cozy up against a brooding red then my pleasant blue becomes more willful.  The light joy of walking hand in hand with faded ochre has now become more of an impassioned embrace.  It’s serious business between these two, red and blue. 

I rarely listen to the words of a song.  Images in my drawings often don’t count for much. They can merely be a starting point.  A wheel is an approximation of a circle.  A building is little more than a box.  A path is a meandering line.  They provide my excuse to record the path my mind plots through the movement of my hand.  The forms must have meaning but I know not what.  Should it matter to me?  I think not.  If you view a dance from some distance the impression left is that of the group.  It’s the play of men and women together.  Together they are the vessel that holds the charm.  Ideally the various items in my drawing best serve the interest of making something whole.  Have they come to dance?  Can I see the music?  A false note is like stubbing my toe.  The melody is lost to the pain of stumbling over today’s misguided debris.  What a colossal waste of time it has all been.  What conceit.  Trash. 

Still, later in the day I can hope.  Tomorrow may be better.

Love,

          Dad

Good Morning Jessicca...

Letter to my Daughter
Sunday, 15 June

Portrait of two from Mariachis

Good Morning Jessicca…

Lettuce never is as it should be when I wish the green of its brightest look.  The colors in beach sand and summer sky are best discovered when easily misplaced upon the contours of one’s disheveled face.  No words elicit the mystery woven within a variation in blue.  Four quarters delivers a cheek to cheek portrait of two rendered in a tight black booth.   Here then are the wedding guests from the picture Mariachis.

Love,

          Dad