FROM THE STUDIO

STEAL THIS PAINTING

2012-01-22T10:01:00.000-05:00

I'm reminded of Abby Hoffmans' Steal This Book.

You can steal a book, but stealing a painting is a whole nuther thing.Unless it's a museum heist of old master, it's uncommon. Not exactly shoplifting.
An exception would be looting, which was the dessert as first course when the Third Reich attempted to devour Europe.
Intentional copying, however, can be a learning technique, such as Van Goghs' copying of Millet and others. Or a teaching technique, where a student, with prior permission, can set up in front of a painting at the Met, or the Louvre, and learn by copying.

A procedure I would not aspire to under any circumstance.

Then there is out and out copying, with someone elses' art tacked on the wall as reference, but given a few twists and turns in the hope that no one will notice.
An amateurs approach, and the painter is therefore destined to remain an amateur.
There are levels of influence in art. To be influenced by a teacher, by an artist you admire, by what you see and hear, and to filter the input is to eventually find your own way to express yourself. In a perfect world.
There is "After", or "Homage To" meaning to imitate a technique or subject and especially, acknowledge the source.
Come to think of it, I've never seen a painting with "after DaVinci" in the title.

(I'm not going to get into copyright issues etc at this point)

The dirty word in art is plagiarize, from the Latin for kidnap. To pass off anothers' work as your own. In particular, in order to profit.
For those of us that have spent a lifetime learning and practicing and exploring and working to improve, knowing that the best painting is always the next one, plagiarism is particularly galling. Rise above it? Nah.
Since I've recently been involved in a venue that permitted it, even though it wasn't my painting, I've decided to opt out of any future involvement in said venue. So there.
Since this blog is about influence, inspiration and old masters, I'm inserting, for lack of a better idea, a favorite artist and a favorite painting, one of a series inspired by a cigar box.More on him next time.

Dutch Masters II Larry Rivers

Apropos of nothing in particular:
A note to Googles' GMAIL spell-checking dept: Although your suggestion to spell Van Gogh as Van Gosh, while accurate and amusing, is not something I'm going to do. Sophomoric.

GOT ART EGO?

2012-01-10T09:30:00.000-05:00

I found this on the internet years ago and couldn't part with it.

I know nothing about it otherwise.

So what else is new?

A SAD TALE OF UNREQUITED LOVE

2012-01-04T06:47:00.001-05:00

Syd is in his prime. Tall (at times) dark, and handsome, with an aquiline nose and startling blue Paul Newman eyes.
He's hopelessly in love however, with an older woman. She is, as well, small and shall we say ...pudgy, with too much eyeliner and a volatile temperament.When she's happy, she runs. When she's really happy, she drools. Not a pretty sight when there are missing teeth.
Syd has tried everything in an effort to be near Millie, but is roundly rejected, even spit at. In desperation, he tried jumping into bed with her, big mistake. So he's reduced to stalking her, which doesn't help his case. If she could open the front door, he'd be out of here in a hummingbird heartbeat.
Maybe he doesn't know he's been neutered. Maybe he doesn't know she has. Either he's not very bright, doesn't care, or is just plain lonely.
Rescues are like the Gump box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.
Syd (nee' Sagwa) was picked up on the street about a year ago, terrified, starving and flea-bitten. Labeled by the shelter as a Siamese.
Millie (nee' Camilla), a Dilute Tortoise, had been in the shelter for six months, "left behind" by a family that moved, or something. At seven plus, she was considered elderly and therefore not easily adoptable.
Last March, feeling cat-deprived , I signed for Millie, saw Syd watching me with those eyes, and said what the hell. She tore around the house, in heaven. He hid wherever he could.

On the advice of my vet, I tried confining him (Syd, not the vet) so that he would know who was feeding him. Good move.

So Syd turns out to be a purebred Natural Mink Tonkinese.Wow.

Millie, his lady love

Postscript: Millie still snores, but her bad dreams have stopped.

WOLF KAHN

2011-12-23T08:36:00.003-05:00

In 1997 there was a small family reunion, don't ask, in California.
(The people were normal size, just not many of us.)
We stayed in a motel in Laguna Beach, a real treat for me. It had a balcony that overlooked the Pacific ocean. The first morning I sat contentedly drinking coffee and waiting for the sunrise. Duh. After a lifetime of sunrises over the Atlantic I felt entitled to forgive myself.

I decided to explore the town and stopped short at a gallery filled with a wonderful explosion of color, it was if I had died and gone to art heaven.
I had stumbled on a solo show of one of my favorite landscape painters, Wolf Kahn, and the gallery was The Diane Nelson Gallery. Not a single painting, or a book, or Google Images, but the real thing wall to wall.Wow.

Dancing Trees 20x28 Pastel by Wolf Kahn

I don't know that a museum show would have had the same impact. There is something about large paintings in an intimate setting that pull you in.
Much has been written about his lush pastels, his lyrical landscapes, but I'll let a few images and my memories fill this space.
Later that same day I went back to the gallery with my son and his fiance.He saw my excitement I guess, and went to the desk to ask about the price of a particular painting I was in love with.(I had a birthday coming up)

HO $40,000. or so HO

Freud,schmoid, as long as he's a good boy and loves his Momma.? Oh well.

Wolf Kahn at work

What I originally intended to blog about, an uncharitable piece about all the little Wolf Kahn Wannabees out there, etc, will have to be Part Two. In the course of researching dates etc I discovered that Wolf Kahn is currently showing at the Addison Ripley Gallery in DC. 12/9/2011 to 1/21/2012

Now is that serendipitous or what?

Now to get myself there.

A BANNER YEAR

2011-12-07T14:19:00.001-05:00

In the almost year that I've lived here, I've been getting involved in the local art community, which has been so far, nearby Easton. In this case, The Avalon Foundation, the folks that bring that hugely popular Plein Air Easton to life.
It's been a tradition to hang banners from the downtown lamp posts from July until December, at which time they are taken down, separated, and auctioned.
Make no mistake about it, these are signed paintings, not reproductions, done on both sides of a doubled 40x32 canvas.
There are about 44 artists involved, which gives The Avalon Theater 88 paintings to hang, promote, and hopefully profit by. Not to mention a percentage to the artists. Now that's a refreshing concept.

For the first time this year, they're taking bids in advance online.

                      http://www.theavalonfoundation.com/bannerprogram/
                All banners can be seen there, click each image to enlarge.
               You can also follow the bidding. I can't stop peeking.

This is TORN BANNER A.M. oil on canvas copyright Margery Caggiano

And TORN BANNER P.M. oil on canvas copyright Margery Caggiano

I was initially uneasy about the banners braving the elements, but the people in charge took them down temporarily when a (the) hurricane was expected.
The live auction and party will be held December 10 in Easton.
All are welcome.!!!! New video via Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPHoh_9XZpA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND

2011-11-17T14:03:00.006-05:00

Well, two anyhow.

It's been awhile, so I need to play catch up, get the rust out, blow away the cobwebs of my mind.

Nice song title, that last one.

Funny, but I thought that when I stopped writing, people would stop reading. Go figure.

I see that my last blog was about my cat, so I won't bore the dog lovers, much less any readers who think they are visiting a painting blog, except to say that I rescued two basket cases in March, cats that is. I'll wait awhile on that topic.

Meanwhile I'll post a painting that was done in early spring, and promise both of you that I'll blog more often. I'll leave the meaning of the painting to you, dear reader.

Young Girl in Black 18x24 Oil over Acrylic/On Linen

BO

2011-04-19T10:32:00.006-04:00

It's been almost a year since I've posted anything. But stuff happens, and I need to write about a perfect cat.

Bo was a girlfriends' gift to my son, (no comment here) who traveled a lot, lived in a condo, and would rather get a hole in one than a pet. Having no previous experience with a cat, he taught him to fetch. And let him explore the balcony of his condo, figuring that animals pretty much stayed to confined areas. Ha.

A challenge to any red-blooded cat, particularly this one, who more than once ended up on the roof , or stuck on a ledge.

A few years later Bo left California and moved in with us, for obvious reasons. We promptly changed his name from Beau to Bo. Luckily, for unlike most cats, he came when he was called.

At the time we were living on a small farm in rural Virginia, and had two other cats. A haven, and heaven for Bo, of wild turkeys, raccoons, woodchucks, blacksnakes, and mice of course. Occasionally eyed from above by The state bird of Virginia, the Turkey Vulture.

I might add that at one time or another all of the above used the cat door, except for the vultures, who kind of hung around and waited.

An aside: Oddly, the local hospital was plagued by vultures that set up shop in the trees behind the building. Between the hospital and the nursing home actually. They tried everything but couldn't get rid of them, last I heard. Not too good for patient morale, ya think? I'm not sure I want to know what the vultures got out of it.

At any rate, we moved several times over the years, always an adventure for a curious cat. (See previous blog, My Cat is 80)

And finally, and sadly, for the past 5 years it has been just him and me. We took walks after dinner, like the geriatrics that we were. And of course, if you're a cat that thinks you're a dog, you like to take walks. Heel, even.

This past December, in the midst of moving to a new life in a new state, Bo died of what turned out to be lung cancer. At least he made it to 18, and they were good years.

So this is a tribute to my best buddy.

MOVING ALONG

2010-04-26T09:13:00.005-04:00

It's been just about a year since I started this blog, and I think it's time to take a sabbatical.
I don't know for how long, or if anyone will be here when I get back. The photo above sums up my mood.

I started this blog annoyed by yesterdays NY Times article about Alice Neel's show. The writer, in an effort to look informed and au courant, used too much space on a few minor but contemporary (NY) portrait painters. For instance, Elizabeth Peyton, who couldn't touch Alice Neel with a 10 foot paintbrush. Not her fault, but still.
I think I need to paint.

A week later : May 1

For the first time, I've gone back and heavily edited this blog that has bothered me, that I didn't want to leave online. Everyone has bad days, bad weeks, bad years; why inflict petty annoyances, if that's what they are, on others?

I've spent the last few weeks living with a Marathon of Music- Ken Burns' brilliant (but not always accurate) documentary on Jazz, via Netflix. Music is powerful stuff, and the CDs, taken from the beginning, and in sequence-flooded me with memories of times and places and people starting with my childhood . Nostalgic? Sure. Sad? That too.

ALICE NEEL: CONTINUED

2010-04-15T07:10:00.004-04:00

It's not who we choose to celebrate, but who we choose to ignore.
The work of Alice Neel wasn't widely exhibited or written about until she was of an age to be considered a senior citizen. Her communist leanings didn't mean that her paintings were blackballed, as were the movie scripts of Hollywood writers. She did, however,attract the attention of the FBI, and was interviewed in 1955. She asked the agents to pose for her, with no luck. I can imagine how interesting the painting might have been, since she liked to paint couples, preferably nude.
It wasn't about what she was, but what she wasn't.
Until the feminist movement in the 70's, the New York art world was dominated by men. It was a time of manly hard drinking action painters who swore that Abstract Expressionism would last for a thousand years.
She was a woman, a realist painter, a mother who lost her first child to diphtheria. Her second, at the age of two, was taken to his family in Cuba by her husband. She suffered a nervous breakdown, a suicide attempt, a lover who destroyed her drawings and watercolors and slashed 50 paintings. In 1938 Alice Neel moved to Spanish Harlem and worked there for the remainder of her life. Her studio was her living room, her subject matter included the streets of Harlem, but her focus and strength has always been portraits.

Dead-on and unflinching portraits, about as far from salon painting as you can get.

But still, or more likely, because of that, she was forced to depend on public assistance until the 50's, including a stint as a WPA artist until 1943.
My first encounter ( or at least the one that stands out in my mind ) with Neel's paintings, was at the Whitney Museum in 1974. I sailed from portrait to portrait thinking wow.
Then hey, I know that guy!
It was a nude, male, posed somewhat like the reclining Olympia. A strawberry blond. The title was “John Perreault.” I met him in 1966 when he was a critic for Art News. He came to the gallery (The Spectrum, at the time it was on 57th St )I was exhibiting in, and gave my show a sweet review. So who could not remember him?
When I was doing some research for this, I of course Googled him. His Neel portrait can be seen there, plus his comments. http://www.johnperreault.com/
I also just recently learned that a friend that I previously blogged about, Jan Culbertson, went with her husband to a post-show party at Neel's studio. Alice asked if they would pose for her for $3000. Jan and Doug decided not to.

When I asked Jan if she had any regrets, she replied:
“ It seemed like a lot of money at that time, and I was annoyed that my Snoopy knee socks
caught Neel's eye, rather than my character...or the lines on my face! So instead we bought an autographed catalogue from her, the one depicting her current Whitney show. (1974) Alice had a big box of catalogues which she sold for $10. each.

The image below was in my previous post, a Neel painting titled "Jackie Curtis and Rita Red"

This painting fetched $1,650,000 via Southebys last November

If you assume that Jackie Curtis is the figure on the left, you're wrong. If the genders seem obvious, think again. If you can pick out the male transvestite, you may be right.

ALICE NEEL

2010-04-07T07:38:00.000-04:00

FAITH RINGOLD (C) Alice Neel
CHARLOTTE WILLARD (C) Alice Neel

Jackie Curtis and Rita Red 60x42 Oil (c) Alice Neel

Alice Neel in her studio

The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston has organized a retrospective named "Alice Neel:Painted Truths", on view March 21 thru June 15, 2010. It will then travel to the UK and Sweden. Only.
Tch tch I say.
Alice Neel died in 1984 at the age of 84. Her grandson, Andrew, filmed a documentary (available on Netflix), of her life and work that is extraordinary. But then she led an extraordinary life.

I've put off doing this blog because the issues she had to deal with, and still manage to keep painting boggle the mind. What to include? Where to start?

From her beginnings as a student in Philadelphia, where women were forbidden to paint the nude male model? (In 1886 the Penn. Academy of Fine Arts fired director Thomas Eakins for removing the loincloth of a male model while female students were in the class) (It is still, to my knowledge, common for life drawing sessions to cover the males but not the females)

On that note, my next blog will include my "six degrees of separation" regarding a very remote connection to Alice Neel and a nude male, or is it male nude? There's a difference there.

The books of her work are available on Amazon, one is $150, the other $250. Out of reach.

Luckily http://www.aliceneel.com/ is a comprehensive website

A WEDDING PRESENT

2010-03-31T05:39:00.004-04:00

NORA AND JESSE 25 x 15 Oil on linen (C) Margery Caggiano

APRIL 17, 2010
I can't blog about a painting that is supposed to be a surprise, as was also the case at Christmas.
But now it's in their hands.
It's kept me busy, trying to organize, if that's the word, an image based on a grainy, if that's the word, snapshot taken under artificial light with no tripod. Oy.
I painted Nora (my granddaughter) last fall in profile.
So best wishes, congratulations, mazeltov, Nora and Jesse.
May you live as happily ever after

THE ILLUSTRATED MAN

2010-03-25T08:34:00.002-04:00

Until life became the ultimate science fiction, I was a fan of the genre, and Ray Bradbury one of my favorites. The Illustrated Man is a collection of short stories, with the hook being the tattoos

of a vagrant, each tattoo with a story to tell.

This week a contemporary illustrated man has been a temporary aside in the headlines.

I wonder if he has room on his forehead for one more tattoo

K R E J

PAT RALPH

2010-03-20T08:05:00.007-04:00

I met Pat when we showed together at The Heckscher Museum in Huntington, NY.

"Twenty Women Artists" was Part Nine in their series called "Artists of Suffolk County" It was 1975, and was declared International Woman's Year. The United Nations officially pronounced 1976-1985 as the Decade for Women, and March 8th as International Women's' Day.

Bet you didn't know that did you?

Does Hallmark have a card? Is there a minute of reverence on March 8?

Those in charge assumed that we would then disappear, go back to the kitchen-but we were outed. I'm digressing.
Pat lived in Centerport, I lived in Watermill, geographically not close, and we traveled in different circles. Like cogs though, occasionally coming together in a gallery, or a show. Pat was known for her landscapes, so her figurative paintings were a revelation to me. Strong and gutsy enough to paint herself examining a tick.

AT THE END of THE HARBOR 26x26 Oil on Linen

YOPAH AND STAR 72x48 Oil on Linen

DOUBLE PORTRAIT 20x20 Oil on Linen

SELF PORTRAIT WITH DEER TICK 21x17 Oil on Linen

Lots more on her website http://www.patralph.com

THE PRINCE

2010-03-14T09:51:00.005-04:00

SANDYS PORTRAIT detail Acrylic on Canvas (c)1975 Margery Caggiano
This is a detail of an (approx) 40 x 38" painting that was my attempt at a portrait that was comprised of Things. (I apologize for the uneven color quality of the slide)
Sandy was an engineer, a carpenter, an artist, a perfectionist. A sweet and unique friend.
The jars were of skin color, hair color, and the jar of stripes was his shirt. (oh how clever)
For all that -I know he was disappointed to be painted this way.
Later, he turned away from his splendid- I thought- large oil paintings for reasons of his own-saying only that he liked to do too many other things. He gave me a few of the stretcher frames he had made for himself. One was 72 x 54", ultimately used for a painting of mine named Telechron, which was also about things, symbols, that had meanings for me. Later still, one was used for a for-real self-portrait, also 72" x 54". Both paintings using Sandys' stretchers are in the Archive section on my website.

In memory of Alexander Bainbridge of East Hampton, NY, who passed away on March 12, 2010

ITS JUST PAINT

2010-03-12T05:39:00.003-05:00

SUNSET FIELD 10 x 8" Oil on Panel (c) Margery Caggiano
I tell myself that as I'm laying the paint on with a knife. Forget the cost, get over it, if it doesn't do the job, scrape it off and mix it up and put it somewhere else. Best to work on a few paintings at a time in that case. Like an explorer that never leaves the room, you never know what's over the hill. Better yet is the Gump approach, painting with a knife is like a box of chocolates- you never know what you're going to get.
My first teaching experience was an adult ed class. One lady confessed that the cake decorating class was full, so she took the painting class. (A hint of things to come in the World of Art) I don't remember what or how she painted, which may be just as well.
Once in awhile I'll see an article about a painter that lays it on not with a knife, but with a trowel. But you don't get points for bravura, or how thick the paint is.
It either works, or it doesn't.
I was amazed to turn to PBS (anything but more commercials, which has come to be an hour of commercials with ten minutes of programming) and see that white guy with the Afro still painting with a knife after 40 + years. I confess that I watched with much interest.
Very cool

GET A ROOM

2010-03-08T10:29:00.000-05:00

Photo Courtesy of B.Lindner

SPRING IS HERE, KIND OF

BUYER BEWARE

2010-03-02T11:13:00.000-05:00

If you subscibe to anything art-related, or have a website, or a blog, or buy art supplies, or even think of taking up painting-you've received an email from someone offering you exhibition space, whether online space or real world.
I decided to look into just one, rather than throw it down the spam shoot. As far as I can learn, and that's not a lot, it doesn't seem to be a scam, but rather a money making venture for whoever decided to find an empty store or warehouse and send out email invitations. This particular one is named New Art Originals, and they've gone from an online "gallery" to, and I quote, Exciting Physical Space in London.
A little exploration with Google street view show a part of the city that I wouldn't want to be in after dark, plus the address of 65 Hanbury St shows what I assume is the former occupant, a gallery.

Strychnin Gallery. True. I bet that gallery had a big following.

So....They rent space, which they call slots. Hmmpf. 1000 square feet per slot. Which could be 10 feet of space if the gallery has a 10 foot high ceiling. If it has a 20 foot ceiling, your slot is 5 feet wide. Etc.

So....You can rent one space, er, slot, for one or three days. A one day slot including "website registration"

(why?) is $308. US. A three day slot is $772 US.

There's a Special Introductary Offer, but you get the idea.

There is no talk of jurying, naturally. Or insurance, and of course the shipping is your problem. I shudder to think. All in all a can of worms. But endeavors like this stay in business because some artists need that line on their resume.Has exhibited in London, or Paris, or Florence.

You can rent space in New York at some pretty good locations, but you rent by the foot.Vanity galleries are big business. Art is big business. Except for the artist. And ain't that a shame.

STRETCHER STORIES

2010-02-24T07:28:00.002-05:00

DORIS 56 x 30 Acrylic on CanvasThis is another figurative painting done on old window screen frames. (See previous post)
This is of my second daughter , done when she was about 19.
If you're inclined to work bigger, two screens can be attached, in this case giving you a size of 60" x 56". A little square for my taste.
The alternative is 30" x 112", OK for a trapeze act.
Or, horizontally, a panoramic landscape.
The wood was usually painted white and well seasoned. Just be sure to remove all evidence of screening. And I wouldn't strip them, lead paint or primer was almost certainly used in the old screens. These days, when permanent storms and screens or double pane windows replace them in so many old houses, there should be sources for the discards.
Every area has salvage yards, for instance, which are fun even if you don't find frames. When Interstate 95 was run through Stamford, Connecticut, (and a lot of other towns of course,) hundreds of old houses were demolished, and a huge salvage yard emerged; thriving on stained glass windows, claw foot tubs, gingerbread, etc.
I'll ask my CT connection, is it still there?

WHATADUMP

2010-02-20T08:34:00.003-05:00

VINCE 56x28 Acrylic on Canvas

At one time we lived on Accabonac Highway, The Springs, in East Hampton. About a hop and a hoe handle down the road (one of my mates' favorite expressions) was the East Hampton Town Dump. ......Sorry, they're now landfills.

It was a fun place to cruise and peruse................ Sorry, it's now called dumpster diving.

The town finally noticed that more things were leaving than coming in, and put a stop to the shopping. You'd think they'd be grateful. I was happy to discover lots of discarded window screens, strong and solid and even cross-braced. Stretchers for paintings at the time were either custom made, therefore expensive, or very lightweight. I cut out the screening, put lattice wood around the edges to off-set the canvas, and stretched away. I adapted to the sizes by doing figures such as Vince.

To add some pizazz to the open shirt (oh please) I added crosses and used gold leaf on one. Oddly, I was told later by someone who knew him, (I didn't) that he usually wore a cross on a chain, but not on the day that I took the photo. I think it was in Montauk. I had a studio/gallery there one summer. Don't ask.

I DON"T THINK SO

2010-02-15T07:34:00.005-05:00

ORANGE FIELD 8 x 10" Oil on Board (C) Margery Caggiano

When I do something fast and colorful and easy to live with-I wonder why I don't do more like this, and more often.

Am I such a masochist that I have to agonize over a painting before I take it seriously?

I've always tended to dismiss paintings that seem to come too easily, possibly afraid of becoming facile. Yeah, so?

This was done on gessoed masonite, starting with a brush and then what the hell, laying the paint on with a painting knife.

It's only PAINT, after all.

As a result of the painting being on my website, I got an email from a "student" in the Midwest who liked it and asked if I'd send her a larger image, meaning (she hoped) higher resolution.

To repeat. I don't think so .

DEJA VIEW

2010-02-09T06:58:00.008-05:00

My deck with cat door. Hah.

If this looks familiar, it is, only more so. Almost 30 inches this time, with more expected today.

This is for anyone that pops into my blog from warmer climates, who, if they've heard of Virginia, think it's in the South.

My driveway, from inside of my garage. Thanks to a local farmer.

The scoop was brought to within an inch of my car, lowered, and then dragged backwards.

Wow

Now I know why guys stand around and watch machines.

IF YOU HAVE TO FALL....

2010-02-04T17:17:00.002-05:00

THE ACTOR Pablo PicassoYou may have read about the poor woman who stumbled into this Picasso painting at the Met.
The painting is valued at $80 million dollars. It received a (fixable) 6 inch tear as a result.
(I'm sure her life insurance is for much less.) She will also never live it down, which is no way to attain your allotted 15 minutes of fame. But just think of the complications, as it were, if she had stumbled into a Damien Hirst vat of formaldehyde. (previous post)
Would the inevitable result be
TITLE: An Adult Ed Student in a Vat of Formaldehyde?
Medium.? Hmmmm.
At least she would get to travel.

RUMP OF REINDEER

2010-01-30T08:01:00.009-05:00

THE GOLDEN CALF Damien Hirst

I'm shocked I tell you, shocked. Am I so out of the loop when it comes to even reading about the Artworld with a capital A that I hadn't heard of a Christies' spinoff gallery named Haunch of Venison? Don't believe me? Google it.

Should I also be shocked that Damien Hirst has gotten very rich and very famous by dropping a whole, and large, animal (dead I hope) into a tank of formaldehyde?
( I wonder how and where he signed it?)
Or how about the Brooklyn Museum receiving a million dollars worth of publicity in 1999, displaying, among other controversial works of art, a painting of The Virgin Mary done with elephant dung? Actually, like a lot of other deliberately shocking exhibitions, the publicity raised the value of the art, and in this case, Charles Saatchi, whose collection it was, benefited hugely. Fanning the flames was an enraged Rudy Guiliani, who tried to stop the public funding, and even evict the museum from its city- owned building. Unsuccessfully, I might add. Protecting one of those pesky amendments was paramount. Australia flat out refused to let the traveling exhibition in the country. I like their wine too.
P.T.Barnum (or more likely,H.L. Mencken) said that

" You'll never go broke underestimating the taste of the American public"
I'd like to change that to
"You'll never go broke underestimating the power of publicity"

ALAS, POOR YORKIE

2010-01-26T06:30:00.000-05:00

REMBRANDTS DOG Oil on Canvas 6" x 6" (c) Margery Caggiano

I regret to say that the original Yorkie, (below), abandoned and ignored, expired on the mean streets of New York City, more specifically, the Lower East Side.

HOWEVER

He has been reincarnated as Rembrandts dog.

Maybe a better title would be Dog of the Living Dead.

MASONITE

2010-01-23T11:33:00.011-05:00

When Mr. Mason wasn't counting crows, making mints, mounds, dots, or jars, he came up with a very handy surface to paint on, which, I'm sure, was not his original intention.

When I first started doing "important" paintings, defined as big and non-objective, I used Masonite because it was so much cheaper than canvas and stretchers.

It's a composite wood panel, formed using wooden chips, blasting them into long fibers with steam and then forming them into boards, which are then pressed and heated.(Thank you Wikipedia)

It comes in 4' x 8' panels, and the quarter inch board was used (then) primarily as floor underlayment for tile or linoleum, and was "untempered". The eighth inch "tempered" Masonite has oil in it, and can be recognized by a waffle weave on one side. Not suitable for fine art.

Home Depot and Lowes carry Masonite in 2' x 4' panels. As a courtesy they will make a free cut for you, so one cut will give you an 18 x 24" and a 24 x 30", for instance. If you have a table or saber saw, use a fine blade and you can get all kinds of smaller sizes.

Anything bigger than 30' or so should be cradled with wood strips.

That's how I learned to use the table saw and all kinds of mean and nasty tools.

My husband bought me a set of matching screwdrivers, not pink, for Christmas one year. Wow.

Anyhow.Lightly sand the edges of the Masonite, then seal both sides and edges with a 50/50 mix of shellac and alcohol. "BIN" is a shellac based sealer with white pigment added, an alternative.

Gesso to your hearts delight, but keep in mind that both sides should be done or the panel will not lay flat. Golden makes a sandable gesso, for hard surfaces, if you want even more control of your surface.

Nowadays I sometimes use Masonite to mount double-primed linen on, which is so difficult to stretch. There's no waste either. It also is useful if you have an odd-sized frame- you can cut the Masonite to fit.

I almost forgot. One of Mr.Masons' ancestors got together with a certain Mr.Dixon (the pencil people?) and together they drew lines. So there's your art connection.

JUANA SINGS

2010-01-19T09:58:00.005-05:00

JUANA SINGS Oil on board 24 x 30 (c) Margery Caggiano

This is one of a series of portraits that I consider to be more drawing than painting.

I cut masonite panels, technically called quarter inch floor underlayment, to size. Then lightly sanded the edges, sealed both sides of the panel with thinned shellac, and then applied at least 3 coats of gesso. Again, both sides should be done to equalize the tension, which keeps the panel flat. Finally I sanded to an eggshell finish, which is a lovely surface to draw on. I drew with a hard litho pencil, and finally added just enough oil paint to play with, almost a stain.

This particular portrait was determined by the photos I took. She had been talking, but I liked the idea of singing, and gave her a yellow throat and feathers. Morphing, changing, not yet flying. This is not a new painting by any means, but remains one of my favorites.

Strangely (to me), years later she acquired a parrot, then some fertile finches, then a few macaws.

A bird whisperer

JAMIE WYETH

2010-01-11T05:09:00.007-05:00

There's nothing like the attempt to paint portraits that makes you appreciate what others have done. In my estimation, Jamie Wyeth is one of the best of this generation. I especially admire his lack of pretension; that he has the confidence and curiousity and ability to paint everything from seagulls to pigs to pumpkin-headed children. He sure nailed Andy Warhol.

ANDY WARHOL Chalk drawing Jamie Wyeth

ANDY WARHOL-Oil- Jamie Wyeth

And the dynamic Lincoln Kirstein

LINCOLN KIRSTEIN drawing Jamie Wyeth

LINCOLN KIRSTEIN Oil Jamie Wyeth

PORTRAIT OF A LADY

2010-01-05T07:15:00.004-05:00

This photo was all I had to work with, but I like challenges.

The painting was intended to be a surprise Christmas gift, and I didn't have a lot of time, which can be a good thing.

And because of the lack of detail, I kept it soft and loose, an impression if you will.

I was told by a pleased family that this is how she was remembered.ELSIE LINDNER 7" x 5" Oil on Linen (C) Margery Caggiano

A NEW YEAR

2009-12-31T07:08:00.002-05:00

The past 10 years have been referred to as The Decade From Hell
From my own point of view, it's been 13 that I never saw coming.
Nothing happens
Nothing happens
Everything happens
So here's to a new improved decade; and try to live by the words of that eminent philosopher, Satchel Paige
"Don't look back-something might be gaining on you."

PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN

2009-12-27T13:13:00.001-05:00

MR. BERNARD DWYER 16 x 12 Oil on Linen (c) Margery Caggiano

FROM HIS FAMILY: Born in Nova Scotia, Pop Dwyer had 18 children, but half of them died during childbirth. He made the coffins for each one himself. In Newfoundland, he would walk by himself to buy a cow, and walk it back, a journey of 50 miles. He could tell you the weight of any cow, to the pound, just by looking at the animal. He could see ghosts and identify each one. A roofer by trade, he could look at a roof and estimate the number of shingles needed, and was exact. He built cabins, grew legendary vegetables, raised children.

And what have I been doing, you ask?
Before I became a snow shoveler, mainlining calories via Sabroso with some eggnog added as homage to the holidays?

Before I had to keep clearing a path to the garden for a frantic cat who thinks a litter box is beneath him? (Let's hope so)
Before all that ...I did a few portraits. The painting above is one, finished just in time for Christmas.

So now the sun is out, and it's time to get back to work. I'll get on the scale in a few days, in case of a miracle meanwhile.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2009-12-23T06:39:00.007-05:00

SMITH CREEK, NEW MARKET 12.24.09 Photo (C) Margery Caggiano

(C) Margery Caggiano

No time to blog. Got 2 feet of snow. Shoveling. No mail. Cat bored.

WHOA,SNOA

2009-12-19T07:53:00.012-05:00

So far, at 7 a.m. today

9:45 a.m. and still snowing......

There's a cat door there somewhere, but he's not going anywhere

I haven't blogged for awhile. I've been painting a lot but I can't expose them to the light until after Christmas.

Meanwhile, if you haven't been to Julian Beevers website, it's worth a visit. Some of his images are again making the email rounds.

Pool-From a different vantage point

Pool
http://http//users.skynet.be/J.Beever/index.html

IN MY DREAMS

2009-12-12T09:34:00.008-05:00

Sculptor Ron Mueck -preparing for an exhibition

The finished piece-with real woman in the chair

SEATED MAN Duane Hanson

I was enthralled with the realist life size tromp'loeil sculptures of Duane Hanson when I first saw them at a Soho gallery in the seventies. Later, at a solo exhibition at the Whitney, the pieces became onlookers, guards, janitors; and were that much more effective when people mingled with them, did double takes, and watched other gallery goers react.

Duane Hanson with his sculpture

Hansons' sculpture was cast from life, and made of polyester resin, fiberglass, polychrome paint, real hair, clothes etc.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST

The plaster cast sculpture of George Segal - with my brother-in-law

DEFINE ART

2009-12-09T07:05:00.008-05:00

These are from a group of the 15 or so images by Swedish photographer Magnus Muhr. They're making the rounds via the internet and email, and thanks to my daughter, got to me.

Mr.Muhr is an otherwise serious, talented, professional photographer who may forever be stamped as the dead fly guy.

http://muhr.area81.se/

JEAN

2009-12-03T14:50:00.005-05:00

JEAN, COOKING 10 x 8" Oil on Canvas (c) Margery Caggiano

Jean is more than a good cook, she's an excellent graphic designer. And painter.

http://www.gryphondesignassociates.com/

I'm having a good time (and re-learning) applying oil paint from scratch after all the years of acrylics, or oils over the acrylics.The acrylics are good for underpainting, (not thick and glossy though) and they accept oil paint very nicely.

Now, however, I'm finding the acrylic gessoed pre-stretched canvas too absorbant for oils without that acrylic underpainting, so I give the canvas a coat of retouch varnish-a 50/50 mix of dammar varnish and turps, and let it dry. Much better.

I decided to stop cleaning the plate glass I use for a palette. It's a pain, even with a window scraper. So I've been tearing off 12" lengths of freezer paper, which is plastic coated, then stapling 8 or so to a piece of train board I had. Works out well. I don't like the white, however, it throws your values off, but I understand one company is (finally) making the disposable palette pads a neutral gray.

By the way, awhile back I said that mineral spirits are fine, you don't need turpentine. No one called me on that. If you are making your own medium or retouch varnish, mineral spirits won't dissolve dammar varnish, just turps. Live and learn.

Now if I only had the discipline to clean the brushes and not leave them standing in mineral spirits. To wipe the threads of the paint tubes and put the caps back on immediately and to

blah blah blah blah ....

DUALITY

2009-11-30T07:00:00.007-05:00

DUALITY 40 x 48" Acrylic on Canvas (C) Margery Caggiano

I delve into the internet a lot, to see what's been auctioned, to see if links are accurate etc, and to see whats popped up as more and more info makes its way online.

I found a registry of women artists named CLARA, in case you ladies want to look.

Then my name came up on a portfolio that's in the database of the American Art Portrait Gallery Library of The Smithsonian. The entry was for a painting of mine, titled "Duality", with an approximate date of 1896 to 1975. Naturally I contacted the person of record, suggested that I was still alive, and asked why that painting?

Answer: "Peter and son Paul Juley headed the largest fine arts photography firm in NY from 1907 to 1975. Their clients included museums, galleries, schools, art dealers, private collectors, and nearly every major artist of the period. The Smithsonian American Art Museum acquired the Juley collection from Paul Juley, just prior to his death in 1975."

It seems that the (wincing here)1968 Audubon Artists Nat'l Exhibition was documented by the Juley firm, and I was one of the exhibitors, with "Duality" above, which received a Medal of Honor. Nice.

I cleared up the date with the library and sent an image for the archives. The site is SIRIS

The painting in question is of a friend and fellow artist, Edith Borax Morrison. I've used her as a model several times over the years.MRS B 16 x 18" Acrylic on Canvas c) Margery Caggiano

I was in my one-eye- Larry Rivers period.

MOI with frame

Edith and I were also antiquers, and found this top part of a cottage dresser, sans mirror.

So I painted her to fit. The (my) hand is cast plaster dipped in wax (yes, and ouch), the bird is of course faux. Both are on the shelf (arrow)

She looks a little double jointed, but you can't have everything

EDITH WITH BIRD Acrylic on Canvas (Size?)

Edith is an extremely accomplished artist, currently affiliated with the Kehler Lidell Gallery in New Haven, Conn.
http://www.kehlerliddell.com/

WHAT'S A HENWAY?

2009-11-27T09:00:00.002-05:00

MUTANT CHICKEN 24 x 18 Oil on Panel (c) Janet Culbertson

This is a good time to talk turkey (sorry), but I'd rather introduce an artist and friend, who is a dedicated environmentalist who puts her money where her mouth is, art wise. Janet Culbertson in her studio on Shelter Island, NY.

When I saw the painting of the nude chicken in her studio I thought she (how clever) invented it, but learned from her that, unfortunately, they do exist ( and not pleased let me add). They're engineered for countries that are too warm for raising poultry with feathers. The eventual oven is pretty warm too, but by that time the poor things are not only nude but, hopefully, dead.

I never thought I'd want to knit a sweater for a chicken...

I first met Jan when we were two of the four women chosen in 1980 to exhibit in "FOUR" at the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, LI, NY. The other two artists were Joyce Stillman Meyers and Susan Zises.

Malcolm Preston wrote in Newsday: "Each year, with funds provided by the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for The Arts, the Creative Artists Public Service Program awards fellowships to artists working in various categories. Four of those CAPS recipients are currently showing their works at the Heckscher Museum in Huntington. it is interesting to note that all four are, to some degree, realists. all four, too, by the way, live, work and have exhibited frequently on Long Island."

And, in the part of the review that refers to her work: "There is in Janet Culbertson's work a real concern for nature, for preserving the ecological balance, for protecting endangered species. Her large, beautifully textured mixed- media drawings include several of her earlier works like "Resting Tortoise" and "Iguana." Very skillfully handled, they affect a fossilized, prehistoric look, but really they ask us to respect those early residents of our planet and not destroy them, and perhaps ourselves, through carelessness."

Her paintings, drawings, philosophy and travels can be seen and read about on her website, along with an amazing resume. http://www.janetculbertson.net/

PS If you don't know what a Henway is, ask around.

HARRIS

2009-11-24T07:07:00.004-05:00

HARRIS ONISKO 10" x 8" Oil on Canvas (c)Margery Caggiano

I've come to the conclusion, like I didn't know, that painting feels better than not painting. You can walk away. You can run, but you can't hide. You can complain, you can give it up and decide that there has to be something out there that doesn't cause so much angst. I walked away from the Art World for 20 years for a lot of reasons, some personal, some I couldn't define.

In retrospect, I had become good enough to know I wasn't good enough.

But there came a time when I needed to retrieve that lost limb, there had been too many real-time losses to deal with.

So my attitude has become ****** I yam what I yam.

I'll always whine and complain, that's the New York legacy.

While I'm at it, how come, with all of the talent out there, is one of the better few seconds on TV is a talking pothole? Frustrated with TV, I took myself to the movies last week, got some popcorn that cost more than the movie, put my earplugs in, and watched the world end.

Ahhhhh, that's better.

MIKE

2009-11-22T05:04:00.012-05:00

MIKE ONISKO.... 10" x 8" .... Oil on Canvas .... (c) Margery Caggiano

I'm calling this series of 8x10 portraits "oil sketches"....Trying to get the essence of a person without doing a highly finished painting. This was done from a photo sent via email, on gallery wrapped canvas. I'm currently accepting commissions for this size, unframed, from your photo. Cost is $195, for this size only. The photo can be black and white, and even somewhat out of focus. Obviously, the higher the resolution, the better. Some candids "get" a person, whether alone or in a crowd.

But teeth, however sweet the smile, don't make a good painting. Nor will I, or should I, use a professional photographers studio portrait.

If I don't think I can do a good job I'll tell you. No charge.

CECILY (Gallery Opening)....Original 1.2 MB photo .....(c) Margery Caggiano

CECILY... Oil on Canvas ...10" x 8"..(c)Margery Caggiano

The painting can be seen in her gallery on Love Lane, in Mattituck LI

OPEN LETTER TO HELEN TUCKER

2009-11-20T07:47:00.004-05:00

This was in the Letters section of the Artists Magazine last month. I read it for the first time yesterday, and am repeating it here in its entirety in case anyone else missed it, or doesn't subscribe.

ARTISTS OVER 60
"I'm very disappointed that The Artists Magazine is once again featuring a contest for the over-60 crowd. Here's my question:Why give extra points for the artist who's not able to compete with 20-year-olds? I find it distasteful. Art should be celebrated for art itself, not for the age of the artist. Why not keep contests open for all to enter? If the winner is then found to be half senile, to have partial vision and to create art while leaning on a cane-then you can celebrate the artist! Until then, please stop with the categories (both young and old)."
Helen Tucker
Via e-mail

An Open Letter To Helen Tucker
Dearest Helen,
I figured you for a sulky artist of course, and googled your name but could only come up with a bikini model on YouTube. (true) One Who Paints?
Which pretty much explains your attitude, if you're one and the same.
But you're right, I can't compete with any 20 year old in a bikini contest.
I'm also completely senile and proud of it.

Yours truly,

Margery

detail from 21 ARTISTS OVER 60, The Artists Magazine, March 2008

PS This blog insures that the brain of Helen Tucker will show up on a search or two for a long time. So sue me. I'm senile.

DUALITY

2009-11-19T08:40:00.002-05:00

I was checking my links on Google, as I do occasionally; it confirms my existence, which I sometimes question.
I paint therefore I am.Lo and behold there's a link that's new to me, a connection that caused me to say huh? It seems that the Smithsonian Institution has a research information system, the acronym is SIRUS. Narrowed down, in my case, to the American Art Portrait Gallery. Since you rarely know where your paintings will end up, I was at the wow stage. But it was a catalog in their “vertical files”-a photo of a painting, with the title “Duality”, and my name.
Oh well. I emailed the registrar and inquired.
“Peter A. Juley (1862-1937) and his son Paul P. Juley (1890-1975) headed the largest and most respected fine arts photography firm in New York from 1907 to 1975. Their clients included museums, galleries, schools, art dealers, private collectors, and nearly every major artist of the period. The Smithsonian American Art Museum acquired the Juley Collection from Paul Juley, just prior to his death in 1975.”
One of his clients was the Audubon Artists Society, and he photographed the paintings in their Annual Juried National Exhibition, which is still held every year in NYC.
”Duality”, the painting in question, was a (sort of) portrait of fellow artist Edith Borax Morrison. It was acrylic, and was 40 x 48”.

I entered it in the 24th Audubon Artists Juried National Exhibition in -gulp-1966. It received a Medal of Honor.

HOW TO RECOGNIZE AN ARTIST FROM FAR FAR AWAY

2009-11-18T13:50:00.007-05:00

ARTIST 1
My last blog was about a painting I did (Cecily), using as a reference one of the photos I took last year at the Love Lane Gallery. There is no wasted film with a digital camera, so for me there is rarely pre-planning. It's useful for recording an event, a landscape, a seagull, paintable people.

I left the camera on auto and flash,-it was evening.

Anyhow, a few days ago I took a closer look at my photo files from that opening. (Technically, it was an auction). I enlarged the photo above, saw something interesting, lightened the photo, and got a little extra. Well well well.

ARTIST 2

I also saw that she had been wearing sunglasses.

In case she wanted to attend incognito?

LOVE LANE GALLERY

2009-11-15T17:17:00.010-05:00

CECILY 8" x 10" Oil on Canvas (c) Margery Caggiano

I had previously invested in a bunch of 8 x 10 x 1.5 " pre-primed canvases that are a nice change from doing my own stretching, priming etc, but I'm not entirely happy with what is called "the mechanical look" (weave) of the surface, so I've been giving them another two coats of gesso, using a foam brush, then sanding. Not perfect, but it helps.
I've also been experimenting with closeups, using (sometimes) unposed, candid photos. The challenge I've set for myself is dealing with flat or overhead lighting, and trying to do them in a day. Sometimes it works out.
This particular photo was taken at the Love Lane Gallery in Mattituck LI, and Cecily, being the owner, was behind the counter at the time, pouring wine. Living dangerously, because some idiot decided that it was illegal to serve wine without a liquor licence. State? County?or local law. Strange that it only became an issue when the Long Island wineries took root, so to speak. At any rate, the media being the only message these days, I figure getting raided would be a good thing. Just think of that delicious headline "Love Lane Establishment Raided !"
I still remember (see?) an East Hampton artist (Robert Gwathmey I think, father of the architect), getting a lot of Coverage with a capital C for using the US flag in a work of art.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2VSt15x12k

SHE DOESN"T KNOW MUCH ABOUT ART BUT..

2009-11-10T06:35:00.015-05:00

yes, she knows what she likes

THE INNOCENT EYE Mark Tansey 1981
I think the original of this painting is at the Met. Since I've been blogging about cows, I remembered it.

Actually one of the first paintings I saw and loved, was on a high school trip to the Metropolitan. It was a landscape by John Constable, with you guessed it, cows.

John Constable: ”Wivenhoe Park, Essex” (1816)
I found this image on Google, thankyou.

The bad news is that it was used as an illustration for a german treatise on "foot and mouth disease". We all know that it's Hoof and Mouth disease, don't we?

My Back Yard, Oct. Photo (c) Margery Caggiano

The landscape I currently live in is much like this, except that they're Black Angus.
Beeves.
And then there are the traffic cops

GREENPORT LI Photo (c) Margery Caggiano

All together now, "mammeries, all alone in the moonlight........

THE LADIES OF LUMBER LANE

2009-11-07T06:35:00.001-05:00

LUMBER LANE Oil on Canvas 20 x 26 (C) Margery Caggiano

COWS ARE NOT FOOD .......continued

Lumber Lane, in Bridgehampton LI, was close enough to where we lived that I sometimes used it as a shortcut to avoid the traffic. Even then, thirty years ago, traffic was bad enough to want to blow up the bridge over the Shinnecock Canal. If you've ever been on an interstate that was funneled down to one lane for 25 miles, that's what Montauk Highway became.
The curse of the Hamptons.
This particular painting was shown only once I think, and later destroyed. I do that occasionally.Sometimes its the right thing to do, sometimes it's not. The ladies on the beach, "Holiday" in my last post, resulted in a little flak at the gallery. oh yuk, cows on the beach.
Some people just don't get it.

COWS ARE NOT FOOD

2009-11-03T07:57:00.011-05:00

Cows Are Not Food, Cows Are My Friends

HOLIDAY 9 x 12 Giclee Edition of 50 (c) Margery Caggiano

Once upon a time, my husband and I took the old Chevy pickup cross country, following back country roads . He fell in love with Nebraska and their shotgun surveying. Square and straight. Nothing much, that we saw, but miles of corn, and miles of sunflowers.

Heaven for a claustrophobe.

When we returned to Long Island, we bought an acre of farmland in Watermill. At the time it too was wide open, nothing there but potato fields, hayfields, and dairy farms, with the town comprised of a post office and a candy store, and an estate that housed retired nuns. The land was cheap at the time, and we could, and did, build a small house with studio space.

Heaven for a studio deprived painter.

Like still waters, still villages run deep. Turns out our farmer liked to ride naked on his motorcycle, our other neighbors were gender challenged, and a few doors down lived Carl Yastremskis' parents. (My husband was unimpressed, being a Cardinal fan.)

The neighbors to the north, being dairy cows, were naked but their gender was obvious. Meanwhile, our son had applied to join the Secret Service, and the Men in Black were required to interview our neighbors.

He got the job regardless.

The dairy farm was on the corner of Scuttlehole Road and Strongs Lane. The cows in the prints above were from photos I took at the farm. There was a milk machine on Montauk Highway which came in handy as you can see. The ocean was also nearby, and that also came in handy.

MILK MACHINES 8x12 Giclee Edition of 50 (c) Margery Caggiano

Milk Machines was never a painting as such, so technically doesn't qualify as a Giclee. It started out as a watercolor, unsuccessful as usual (I try) then pastels over, then acrylics over that. (I get stubborn about some images.) The mountains were added later, when we moved to Virginia.

So there.

BIRTHDAY

2009-10-31T13:28:00.010-04:00

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3 Lisa and Will Oil on Linen 18 x 24

This one was, is, a challenge. The source was a 328 kb email I received. The lighting was hospital , and it may have been taken with a phone. ( Will wonders never cease)
Being a glutton for punishment, I decided to give it a shot.
It was drawn in with thinned acrylic paint, and a then a general wash. I tried a very dark background but didn't like it. So I sanded it and broke out the oil paint. Stage 2 is oil paint, and I still didn't like the background. Blech.
At that point I put it away and spent a week on Tilghman Island, my last blog. It hasn't been easy to get back to normal, whatever that is.
And now, for better or for worse, I've fallen in love with a mongoose brush that's angled.
I don't do advertising, so I'm free to pan or promote.
I found a source for brushes in the UK. They make their own brushes, almost unheard of these days. And it's the only source that I know of that makes mongoose brushes that are angled.
Rosemary and Company. http://www.rosemaryandco.com/
Keep in mind that the prices are in pounds, and there is shipping. Google is handy for converting currency. They have a catalog of course, a necessity for the details that aren't online.
I'll post the next stage in a few days, I hope.

EAT YOUR LEAD-FREE HEART OUT

2009-10-27T09:46:00.006-04:00

While visiting Saint Michaels, I roamed through an annual rummage sale put on by a Main Street church, and pounced on a cardboard box that held ancient looking art supplies. Cans of turpentine, linseed oil, copal medium, large never used tubes of paint, and 2 very heavy little cans of Dutch Boy white lead, again, never opened. Since lead paint was taken off the market in the mid- seventies, except for housepainters etc, I knew this stuff was pretty old. But still good!A code number in a Grumbacher flyer tucked in with a tube of paint put it at 1961 or so.

A loot list, some with original prices: 2 pounds of Dutch Boy lead

Large Titanium white ($1.60)

Large MG Underpainting White ($1.50)

16 oz can of Copal Medium ($.65)

Glass jar with approx 10 oz dammar varnish

2 32 oz. cans of turps

1 16 oz can of linseed oil, plus 2 8 oz cans

Except for the lead, everything was Grumbacher, and their enclosed flyer was a treasure as well.

You don't want to know the brush prices, trust me.

The box full of stuff was $2, should I have haggled? Nah.

I coudn't resist getting my Jerrys catalog out and comparing to today's prices; without the cans of lead, the total came to about $140. Of course I have enough linseed oil to last well into the next century. I intend to use the lead to make my own grounds for oils. I promise not to eat it.

For our own good, the lead based artists paint has been off the market for a long time, except for flake and cremnitz whites.

Unfortunately, lead based paint is why many wooden buildings, as well as paintings, have lasted as long as they have. A must for tin roofs, for sure. But it has done a lot of harm. A nursery man on Long Island once told me that they thought nothing of seeing dead cows, from the lead arsenate used on the farms. Altogether a long list of lead-related tragedies.

I found this 1923 children's coloring book on an interesting blog named http://www.weaselmouseonmarketing.blogspot.com/

A PAGE FROM THE BOOK
He also blogs about classic advertising that includes unreal but true past cigarette ads, and a fun section of monsters running off with big bosomed women.YAY

PS I thought to sell the cans of lead on ebay, but reconsidered on the grounds (pun there) that it was probably illegal. Could the church Rummage Sale Committee have been busted?

SAINT MICHAELS

2009-10-25T05:22:00.008-04:00

Chesapeake Waterway photo - Margery Caggiano

I've been playing tourist for a week, staying on Tilghmans Island, MD, and investigating nearby Easton and Saint Michaels. I've missed being near the waters of Long Island.

The Chesapeake Bay alone was worth the trip.

Oxford from the Ferry photo - Margery Caggiano

D.Cheney and D.Rumsfeld supposedly have second homes in Saint Michaels, but the house in the above photo seems more likely for either or. Easton is as beautiful as they say, more than a town, less than a city, and very much attuned to the arts. But Saint Michaels is funkier and more to my liking.

Think I'll move........

ANGLOPHILE GO HOME

2009-10-17T10:02:00.009-04:00

I don't know why they haven't made a t-shirt with this. I for one would wear it.

Terry Gilliam's illustrations for Monty Pythons Flying Circus were the initial draw, so to speak, that in no time at all made me a fan when they first came to the USA via PBS in the seventies. Since then, with the advent of computers etc, the sketches have been swiped and so badly reproduced on YouTube that the Pythons decided to have their own YouTube channel, with links to buy their DVDs, books etc. (Can't blame them) But there are only 26 sketches that have been digitally improved.

Two of my favorites for this blog at any rate, are not on the list. One is The Art Gallery, (in drag and chomping on a Turner), the other is Picasso (painting) On a Bicycle. He falls off of course.

I don't think it has anything to do with my ancestors, but a lot of my favorite books, movies, comedians, and it seems, artists, are from the other side of the ocean.

From The Water Babies as a child, through Jane Austen, The Brontes, HG Wells, Robert Graves, George Orwell, Graham Greene, Roald Dahl, John Wyndham, Mary Shelley & Frankenstein , Breaking The Sound Barrier -great movie- to traveling the world with Michael Palin, to Pink Floyd (who put $20000 into Life of Brian) to of course the Stones. (Eric Clapton is canceled out by Jimi Hendrix, and the Beatles by Elvis) Come to think of it, Alice in Wonderland was written by an Englishman. But canceled out by The Wizard of OZ.

What the English don't have is jazz, the original, the roots. (And ok ok a few other things)

Right now, and for a few more days, I'm in a cottage on Tilghmans Island on Chesapeake Bay, and if I'd had the brains to pack my camera cable, I'd be feeding some photos into the PC
and writing my next blog.
Anything but what I'm doing, trying to put some magic into a stubborn painting.Blimey.

FREUD, NO NOT THAT ONE

2009-10-16T07:29:00.011-04:00

Photo Courtesy of Max Wehlte

I love this palette. It's every ones' idea of An Artist in Action. Try this with acrylics

And I love this unfinished portrait of Francis Bacon, by Lucian Freud, grandson of Sigmund.

It appeals to me, not in spite of, but because it's unfinished, and shows the process. I think it epitomizes the magic and the lure of realist painting in general, and portraits in particular.

The two met in 1945, Bacon was 36, Freud 23. They became friends, and were destined to be subjects in each others paintings for many years. Freud sat while painting, so it was knee to knee with, so it was said, constant grumbling by Bacon, until he finally got up and left.

As a result, the portrait was never finished.

It was auctioned at Christies in 2008, and sold for $9,403,306 US

Portrait of Francis Bacon by Lucian Freud
This was the first of the only two portraits Freud did of Bacon, it took four months to paint in 1952.While it was on loan in Berlin it was stolen, and has disappeared.

The paintings of Lucian Freud by Francis Bacon, however, are a whole nother ballgame.

NORA AND EMMY

2009-10-12T05:22:00.012-04:00

NORA Oil on Linen 18 x 14

EMMY Oil on Linen 18 x 14

I thought I was finished, but I decided to use the same background on both paintings.

They kind of go together.

and

They're sisters

FAUX VAN GOGH

2009-10-07T16:20:00.012-04:00

HEAD OF A MAN 13 x 16 Formerly Attributed to Van Gogh

After some comments, and a lot of interest in the discovered photo of Van Gogh (last months blog), and my ongoing interest in fakes and forgeries in the art world, I got interested in a story that made the rounds last year, mostly in Australia and the UK, but a story that I've just come across..In 1940 the "oil sketch" above was bought by the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia for the equivalent of a few thousand dollars, destined to be their only Van Gogh. And valued at 20 million or so. Pounds? or dollars? No matter now. The painting spent a lot of time on loan to other museums, and after questions regarding its authenticity, the folks in charge belatedly decided to send it to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2006. The experts there spent a year testing it (really?) and decided it was old, but No Van Gogh.

Further reading led me to an article in The Guardian, written by Germaine Greer (that caught my eye) this past April. She rightfully claims that "any fool with an eye, let alone two", could tell it's not Van Gogh. She proposes that the painting could be one of the many oil sketches done by Rubens. I'll pass on that.

My personal opinion when I saw the painting? And why not. It doesn't claim to be cropped, but it obviously is. The anatomy is off-eyes too far apart, the back of his head is missing, etc. And the cross-hatching of brush strokes in the background is not something an accomplished artist does. Aside from the fact that the marks look like they were done with a square brush, and Van Gogh not only used round brushes, but his brushstrokes followed the contours of his subject. Beyond that, when I read that they traced the painting back to Berlin, 1928 -I immediately thought of Han van Meergan, the famous forger of Vermeer, who happily sold one to Herman Goering. (6/9/09 Blog "Good NewsBad News"). Could he have branched out.? Wow. Further searching turned up dozens of forgers, but one caught my eye because of the resemblance. Self portrait?This is Eric Hebborn, forger etraordinaire, even the Getty Museum has him in its collection. He has written "The Art Forgers Handbook", born 1934, murdered in 1996.

And so it goes......

NORA, NOT QUITE

2009-10-05T11:04:00.002-04:00

NORA Stage 3 Oil over Acrylic

I thought I'd post this stage now, even though I don't consider the painting finished yet. I can't come up with a solution until I know what the problem is. So I need to put it away for a few days at least, and get on to something else.

Like another painting, or horrors, cleaning the house.

NORA, ALMOST

2009-10-03T15:17:00.007-04:00

NORA Stage 2 18 x 14 Acrylic on Canvas

NORA Stage 1

I decided pretty early on to use the turtleneck sweater as a slash of bright color. I converted the photo to gray scale on Photoshop so that I wouldn't be tempted to stay with what she was wearing. It also enabled me to experiment somewhat. Her jacket was originally burgundy, but the design works better in white or a light color.
I thought it would be easier to get a resemblance using a profile, it usually is, but not this time. Or not yet anyhow. If nothing else, I hope I can do her justice.
To be continued......

EM PORTRAIT FINISHED

2009-09-29T07:22:00.001-04:00

EM Oil on Linen 18 x 14

The first stages were painted in acrylic (see below), and the final stage was refined using oils. I changed her (faux) raccoon collar to a (faux) silver fox so that it wouldn't be confused with her hair. I have a few minor details to bring out yet, the zipper for instance, but will wait until it's dry.
EM is her nickname, and her initials, and this is how I see her.

EM Acrylic on stretched linen
This is partway through the painting, blogged as "Portrait in Progress, Sept 7

SMALLVILLE

2009-09-27T07:00:00.002-04:00

http://www.6x6gallery.com/

If you live in or near NYC, save the date.

Friday night, Oct 2 is a reception from 6 to 8 pm. I wish I could be there. I don't know if there will be "liquid" refreshments. I was in a co-op ( The Spectrum) on 57 St a long time ago, and they, we, stopped serving wine. It attracted the homeless and thirsty, shall we say. (Not to say that we wouldn't have wined and dined them if they bought art instead of Ripple.)

When the co-op moved to SOHO the openings were moved to Sat, daytime. But still.

I don't know if I'm going to put anything in this new gallery on a regular basis, but for this show, my Yorkie puppy will be there.

So go already.

WILD THANG

2009-09-24T08:05:00.006-04:00

STAR Original Photo- 72 k

This is a candid snapshot of a lovely Irish Setter.

I had previously painted a puppy (Emily) using a low resolution email for reference. I've painted a lot of things over the years, but never dogs. I wanted to see if I could do what I considered an interesting challenge. Even if I could get an animal to sit for a portrait, hardly likely, I would undoubtedly get lost in the detail.

WILD THANG 32 x 24 Acrylic on Linen (c)Margery Caggiano
So .........my preference for working from photos has enabled me to tackle subjects that would otherwise be impossible, seagulls for instance.

Unlike Audubon. I'd really rather not kill them in order to paint them.

GULLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN

2009-09-20T09:00:00.002-04:00

LITTLE GULL Oil on Canvas 8 x 10" (C) Margery Caggiano

I've just set up a page on Artshow for six paintings, all oils.

Five are new seagull paintings that I'm fond of.

http://www.artshow.com/MargeryCaggiano/

With the ability to buy via PayPal.

I'm fond of that idea as well.

POQUATUCK HALL AND STAR TRUCK

2009-09-17T07:26:00.011-04:00

POQUATUCK HALL Orient, NY Acrylic on Linen 24 x 32" 2001(C)Margery Caggiano

Up until yesterday this painting was on my website, but I decided to pare the site down and just leave the more recent paintings, while adding some new ones. Luckily, or not, I have a do-it-yourself website. I couldn't afford me otherwise.

We were living on Main Road in Orient in 2001, hopefully making some cosmetic improvements on a ca 1780 house. The Village of Orient is a little gem, and off the main road. Poquatuck Hall is the town hall, and adorned with a huge flag. For anyone not familiar with Long Island, we got rid of the natives many moons ago, and kept the names. I'm not sure I want to know what Poquatuck means.

I was working on this painting in September of 2001, and the flag itself on 9.11, believe it or not. The painting took on a whole new meaning for me. I changed it from sunlight, which bored me anyhow, to moonlight, which was a challenge. I've only done one other painting set in moonlight.

STAR TRUCK Oil on Canvas 16 x 20" 1980(c) Margery Caggiano

I was reminded by this blog, so dug this out of my archives. This truck was kept parked by the side of Montauk Highway in Wainscott, and had been a honey wagon belonging to the Town of Easthampton. Those were the days.

PORTRAIT FINISHED

2009-09-13T13:28:00.008-04:00

FRIENDS Oil on Linen 26 x 20" Margery Caggiano

This is my daughter Jean on the left, a fine artist in her own right, and her longtime friend Bobbie. Way back when.
I have a habit of working close to the edges, which doesn't bother me - we are all fond of our habits - but it dictates the use of a floater frame. If a frame at all.

I don't like to intrude on the painting with a copyright notice, but I'm finding out how many images are scooped out of Google's search. That's show biz

WTC

2009-09-11T07:14:00.000-04:00

DENNIS photo by Margery Caggiano

Date: Sunday, September 16, 2001 8:07 PM From: ryugin0447@...........

To: margcagg@optonline.net >Subject: Re: Thoughts from me too
hi marge & bill i was in the city on tuesday driving downtown in a cab the driver says the wtc is on fire i look and smoke pouring out a long dark river of smoke on his radio it says a plane hit the tower were getting closer and closer hipmotized for a while i tell him its to close and pull over i get out and pay tell him not to go any closer and walk down heading for varrik st stiil looking up with everyone in the street thinking it is surreal people on cell phones with cmeras focused then the second plane hit the second tower and a moan went up from the people louder then the fire engines and ambulances and police rushing rushing down towards the towers i made my way back up town to the bus tunnels and bridges closed word on the street the towers have colapsed i look down town and its gone ingulfed in huge cloud of gray smoke people streaming north I we walk uptown ti 95 st squeeze into a bus to 125 st get a train to yonkers and my family feeling like a refugee stund and numb only now am i wakeing up and its still a bad dream and its only the begining ive been going to the ocean a lot this past week alone looking out to sea for something i dont know what. love you guys.dennis

PORTRAIT IN PROGRESS

2009-09-07T09:01:00.011-04:00

This started out to be on an 18x24 linen that I stretched and triple primed. But a few minutes after starting I realized that I wanted the head to be smaller,closer to life size, and switched to a 14x18 pre-stretched and pre-primed linen from Fredrix. Since I am forced to get my art supplies online and can't see them first, there will be an occasional disappointment. In this case the linen weave was not square, a very obvious downhill slant. Which can be corrected to a point by sanding and a few more coats of gesso. But I wanted to start, and got lazy.

Live and learn? Never happens.

EM 18x14 Stage 1
This is from a photo I took, which I prefer if at all possible. Once I bring it into Photoshop, I'm able to crop and compose and experiment with the values. I also like to convert the photo to greys for a better idea of the composition. You can do all of that in any simple photo software.

I did the initial drawing in watercolor pencil, then went over that with thinned black acrylic. When that was dry the the pencil drawing was washed off and a transparent acrylic wash of burnt sienna brushed over the face, and wiped down. I then mixed burnt sienna with cerulean blue and laid in the darks with a thin wash, except for the face.

EM Stage 2
My initial intention was to do a thin underpainting in acrylic as a basis for an oil painting. As usual, and instead, I let the painting tell me what to do as I went along. So I washed some more color on the face, and went back in with an opaque white. I usually use gesso instead of titanium so that the paint won't build up too early. If the acrylic paint becomes thick and shiny the application of oil paint over the acrylic becomes, I think, structurally problematical and harder to work on.

I always use the fluid acrylics, and thin with water. (distilled is best if you have a well)

If I need to thin the paint extensively, I add some polymer medium.
I can see that I'm going to have to make sure the raccoon (?) collar on the coat does not get confused with her hair. And vice versa.

EM 18x14 (c) Margery Caggiano

To counteract the orange in the skin tones I added a little ultramarine blue to the mix, and lightened the shadow side. Did a little re-drawing here and there if I was losing the shapes. Except for lightening the fur on the collar somewhat, I'll leave it til last, and after the hair is done. I gave the background another coat of gesso, and partially covered the lines that were drawn on the arms. I'm playing with the idea of leaving as is, the black and white thing that's going on. Sometimes less is more..... To be continued

PORTRAIT

2009-09-05T07:10:00.004-04:00

FRIENDS 26x20 Oil on Linen (c) Margery Caggiano
I've been working on this; the combination of using an old photo for reference and using oils from scratch has been a bit of a hassle. I had a lead primed, stretched canvas, a lovely surface to paint on, and it was was nagging me to use it.
It's my oldest daughter on the left, who I've painted many times, and her best friend, who is still a good friend. There are still some things to be done on the painting..the tiniest changes can alter the expression. A good way to go nuts.
Time to put it down and start something else. Only I'm going back to an old method that I've used, doing a thin monochromatic underpainting (grisalle) in acrylic, then glazing and or scumbling in oils. I'll take photos in stages while doing the next portrait I have in mind.

ALLA PRIMA

2009-09-02T08:43:00.004-04:00

FIVE OR SIX CEDARS 15x21 Acrylic on Linen (c) Margery Caggiano

Sometimes I forget and call it Four or Five Cedars. Who's counting?

Sometimes things come together; events bring to mind a painting from "before" that has become "now." I'll be picking up this painting from a gallery, along with several others, in a few weeks. It's a favorite painting, one of a few done in 2002, where I experimented with the Alla Prima technique of putting the paint down and Leaving It Alone. Not easy for a nudge.
Which is why I'm not successful with it's counterpart, Plein Air.

I just can not do it outside.
But I've made a vow to try harder. I've been working on small sized canvases for starters. Anyhow, this landscape is on Platt Road in Orient, Long Island. We lived around the corner on the Main Road to the Orient Point Ferry. Extremely paintable beautiful area. The distant light is Hallocks Bay.
I'm not sure why the best paintings come out of the saddest times.
This painting was also the one picked for last years "Artists Over Sixty" feature in Artists Magazine. Now there is a conflict. To be in a magazine and give away my age, or not? Oy. They're doing it again this year, and now the artists are getting $100. Too bad it's not retroactive.

MORE MURALS

2009-08-31T05:55:00.008-04:00

GULL Acrylic Mural by Margery Caggiano

The last post was of our main bath mural; all four walls were painted even though few photos have survived. This mural was done first, and was in our half-bath. It too survives as far as I know. The only mural I've done over the years that deteriorated to a point where it had to be painted over, was done on a plaster wall, rather than primed sheetrock as these two bathrooms were. This photo was from a slide, unfortunately done on a sunny day.

Christopher Street Magazine Photography by Robert Giard

This bath, like my last post, was also used as a background for my friends photographs. The background used on the photo on the left was a 4x6 ft (oil) painting I had done of a sky and clouds. It was in my studio, so Bob (Giard) placed me in my wicker chair in front of it, and took the photo. And named it "Woman Sunning".

These photos were used in an article about him, and his photography, in Christopher Street Magazine.

FISH TALE

2009-08-27T09:00:00.001-04:00

JAWS & STONEHENGE North Wall

WEST (sink) WALL

I painted murals on the walls of our main bathroom , in acrylics of course. This was back when we didn't have personal computers, much less digital cameras. I've only these two photos that have survived, that I can find at any rate. The actual tile stopped at four feet, the ledge is painted. A photographer friend, Bob Giard, and fellow teacher at Southampton College, used the bathroom as a background for posing his subjects. When they weren't posing for him, they wore towels, which was a relief for my husband and I, since we didn't know them. Or even if we did.

Especially if we did.

A few of the photos were published in a book, "New American Nudes", and I scanned them from my copy. I'm including only one of his portraits, because the second is, as they say, full frontal nudity, and the model is recognizable. I don't have his permission to post the photo, or the publisher's for that matter.

MAN IN AQUATIC BATHROOM by Robert Giard

When I inquired about the murals several years ago, I was pleased to learn from the new owner that they were in perfect condition. Surprised and pleased, because it is, after all, a bathroom. And in a humid part of the country, Watermill, Long Island.
I painted Bob a few years later in a suit of armour, which can be seen on my website. http://www.margerycaggiano.com/

THREE COLOUR CEZANNE

2009-08-24T07:30:00.000-04:00

Still Life-Paul Cezanne

I've been watching DVDs about artists via Netflix. When you do a search for "artists"- one name on the list is Con. I like that.

This week I watched "Three Colour Cezanne". I kid you not. A BBC production. It goes without saying, because there's a U in Colour.

So we have Mafioso artists? Three Colour Cezanne, , Vinnie The Ear?
Joe Bananas and Eggs Benedict were amateurs and don't count.
Being Italian is no longer a criteria.
I mean Marlon Brando as The Godfather? Come on now.

Why is it that the DVDs about artists come equipped with heavenly music (No wonder people whisper in galleries) that's supposed to be background music, and isn't? It usually drowns out the dialogue, which is at times heavily accented. Without the benefit of closed captioning.

(If I had that option and a mute button, I'd go to the movies more.)

THE BATHERS Paul Cezanne

Back to that particular Cezanne DVD. Flawed, but interesting, since I recognize his importance in Cubism; but he's never been one of my favorites, (except for the wonderful apples and such), therefore my knowledge of his personal life is limited. A little intriguing gossip, an implied connection, between his nude bathers, his boyhood swimming with Emile Zola, his lifetime hatred of being touched, all on the DVD.
It comforts me to know that the Art Gods are human. Boy, aren't they.

SIX BY SIX

2009-08-21T11:06:00.000-04:00

YORKIE 6"x6" Oil on Canvas (c)Margery Caggiano

Like they say, it's a small world. I haven't been to Greenwich village in years, or been in the outdoor show in decades, and it's come up again via Woodstock, (last weeks post), and now a new gallery that will be having a running exhibition of 6"x6" paintings. The location is the lower east side, and more specifically, the East Village in NYC. I'm going to give it a try, the little guy above will be sent in a few weeks. Chris Beck, thank you, sent me a link, and I did some investigating. I like to know what I'm getting involved in, and with who. They seem to be extremely well organized, which is a big plus, but it's your call.
http://store.6x6gallery.com/forartistsonly.aspx

VAN GOGH PHOTO?

2009-08-19T09:54:00.009-04:00

This is from the book, "The Van Gogh File, the Myth and The Man", by Ken Wilkie.

I found it to be a fascinating account of the authors investigation into the life of Van Gogh; where he lived and painted, his family, his physical and emotional health and the doctors that treated him and Theo. (I used this book as a source in my first post, "Isolation")

There are no formal photographs of Van Gogh as a mature man, in spite of the fact that photography as we know it had been developing, so to speak, since the 1840's.

This photo was found, luckily by an artist who must have jumped on it, in an antique dealers shop in Massachusetts, bought for $1, and taken for forensic image comparisons. It eventually was evaluated at the H.C.Lee Institute of Forensic Science, University of New Haven, and the conclusion was "in all probability, this is a rare photo of Vincent Van Gogh as an adult". The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam doesn't agree, but museums don't like their apple carts upset.(my opinion) Van Gogh painted between thirty and forty self-portraits. I've taken some and reversed them for easier comparison to the photo. The last image is a painting of Van Gogh done by an Australian compatriot, John Russell.

Vincent Van Gogh by John Russell

THE ART FAIR THAT WASN'T

2009-08-15T08:00:00.006-04:00

In late May of 1969 I was set up in my usual spot, the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street, in Greenwich Village; doing the semi-annual Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit. If memory serves me, someone made the rounds handing out fliers about an upcoming "music and art fair" somewhere upstate. We were a good source for a lot of the outdoor shows since we were (more or less) juried in. But I might also have gotten the flier in the mail, being on the mailing list, which is more likely, because even June might have been too early. Whichever it was, I sure wish I'd kept the flier....

I thought about it (Woodstock) for about five minutes. Nah.

I had to look it all up on the internet this week, and it jogged my memory, which is pretty good ordinarily, considering how much ground I have to cover. I understand that if any art, or artists for that matter, survived Woodstock, the art would be very valuable.

Anyhow, while surfing for information, I learned a few things about the Washington Square show that I wasn't aware of. It began in 1931 during the depression when some of the Village artists put their work out on the sidewalks to pay the rent. Among them were Willem DeKooning, Jackson Pollock, and Alice Neel. Oh My.

I don't remember when I dropped out, but The Village show continues.

PS: In case you missed my latest News In The Department of Self-Promotion, and if not me, who else? I made the finals for this years ArtKudos. I'm pleased mostly because I'm in some great company, go see

http://www.artkudos.com/index.html

LO THE POOR MONGOOSE

2009-08-14T07:33:00.004-04:00

A mongoose is a member of the family of small cat-like carnivores. Mongooses are widely distributed in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and southern Europe. There are more than thirty species, ranging from one to four feet in length. Mongooses mostly feed on insects, crabs, earthworms, lizards, snakes, chickens, and rodents. However, they will also eat eggs and carrion. Some species, such as the Indian mongoose, are popularly used to fight and kill venomous snakes, even king cobras. They are able to do this because of their agility and cunning, but typically avoid the cobra and have no particular affinity for consuming their meat.
Some species of mongoose can be easily domesticated, are fairly intelligent, and can be taught simple tricks, so they are often kept as pets to protect the home from vermin. However, they can be more destructive than desired; when imported into the West Indies for the purpose of killing rats and snakes, they destroyed most of the small, ground-based fauna.

For this reason, it is illegal to import most species of mongooses into the United States, Australia and other countries.

Mongooses were introduced to Hawaii in 1883, and have had a significant impact on native species. Mongooses are sometimes referred to as "the most dangerous animals on the planet" for this reason. Wikipedia

In India they're listed as a protected animal under the Wildlife Protection Act.

Go figure

I recently ordered half a dozen mongoose brushes, Isabey series, which I've used before and liked. At the time the handle said Isabey-France. This time, no France, but "Memory". They didn't look right or handle well, and the black tips pretty much came off in the wash. Only one art supplier refers to them as "Mongoose-like", others as Mongoose. So beware.

I don't like to think that an animal has to be killed for my paintbrushes. Or my hamburger, for that matter.

The best bristle brushes as everyone knows, are hog bristle. Or as one source delicately put it, male pig. If porkers were butchered only for paintbrushes, they would probably be on our Wildlife Protection Act.

And what of the badger blender? The sable? Better a brush than a coat?

POLLOCK

2009-08-10T07:00:00.011-04:00

ACCABONAC HARBOR Oil 20x24 (c)Margery Caggiano

This is a painting I did many years ago of Accabonac Harbor in The Springs, East Hampton. Not to put myself on the same page, so to speak, as Jackson Pollock, but to illustrate the connection I feel, and the lure of the place, at least as it used to be.

It was 53 years ago today that Jackson Pollocks' car didn't make the curve on Springs-Fireplace Rd, in Easthampton.

When we moved to a cottage in the area 15 years later, the tree he slammed into was still there, and had a huge scar- like an X that marks the spot. At the time he lived there Springs was a blue collar and fisherman's' village, and a lot of the locals were drinking buddies of his. The cottage that he and Lee Krasner lived in on the edge of Accabonac Harbor, is now the Pollock-Krasner Museum.

I've been watching some DVDs about artists via Netflix, which got me interested again. Although very few are done from an artists point of view. There are several about him, but some are really dumb. I highly recommend the BBC documentary named "Jackson Pollock, Love and Death on Long Island". Though a little too much time is spent interviewing his paramour, Ruth Kligman (in some Victorian, pseudo-arty and hopefully age hiding getup); she who survived the accident and wrote a book of course. Lee Krasner, a top notch painter in her own right, who gave up her painting to promote and nurture Pollock when she married him, was in Paris when he died. You can tell whose side I'm on.

Also interviewed in the documentary was Ed Harris, a little clueless, who played Pollock in the movie. Supposedly he has taken up painting as a sideline. As long as he doesn't give up his day job.

I tried to find an example of an early figurative painting of Pollocks', with no luck so far. He studied with Thomas Hart Benton, which seems a stretch, but the influence was obvious. I had read somewhere that Pollock wanted to get back to figurative painting. I'm sure he wanted to paint, not make paintings, and was trapped in a method that was making everyone rich. Life magazine put him on the map in 1948, but also referred to him as "Jack The Dripper".

He was beginning to be a bit of a joke (my dog can do that etc); and contributing to his notoriety were gleeful stories such as a drunken Pollock peeing in a collectors' fireplace.

(Try that, ladies, and see where it gets you)

His "action" paintings were done between the mid-forties and the early fifties. (He didn't paint during the year before his death.) Instead of posting an example of those paintings , I found two that I think bracket them in time.

Stenographic 1942 Jackson Pollock

Easter Totem 1953 Jackson Pollock

There is a website where you can do your own "Pollock", and Googles' image search is crammed with the results. Try it. http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

TILEMAN

2009-08-10T06:26:00.004-04:00

TILEMAN Acrylic on Linen 40x26
To continue the previous post, where I painted over a landscape.
This is one of those rare times when I can see it painted before I start. As a result it seems to go easier than most. Plus I'm always more comfortable painting people that I don't know, and more than likely may never see the painting. Our new house was finally being finished, and I was able to walk through and see the progress on a regular basis. As I was talking to the man who was setting the tile, I was also taking in the clothes and the colors. Luckily I had my camera, asked for a quick "stand by the window", and hoped for the best. It was a year or so before I got around to starting the painting. I probably gessoed over the landscape before I started him, but it might have been interesting if I hadn't. I didn't consider that for more than a few minutes. It would have been too much to deal with, trying to draw a figure on a vertical, very colorful landscape.The background was originally red-bless those acrylics-and as I repainted I left some of the red showing through. .

TRASHED

2009-08-08T08:35:00.000-04:00

THE EGRET Acrylic on Linen 26x40

I found this on my computer a few days ago. I had completely forgotten about it, and with good reason. This was painted about two years ago. It was giving me a lot of problems that I couldn't seem to resolve. So instead of putting it away and working on something else, I sanded it down, turned it vertically, and painted "TileMan" over it. The size was just what I need for him.
OH WELL
I'll put him on my blog next post.
I think that, at the time, I was missing that part of Long Island very much, and was wallowing. Besides, I wanted to get back to figure painting.
It's not the first time I've cannibalized a painting for the stretchers, and probably won't be the last.

A PLEIN AIRE PAINTER

2009-08-04T06:59:00.012-04:00

A PAINTER GOES TO WORK -VVanGogh

WHEATFIELD WITH CROWS- VVanGogh"

......but go and paint out -of-doors on the spot itself! Then all kinds of things happen. From the four paintings which you will receive, I had to wipe off at least a hundred and more flies; not counting the dust and sand; not counting that when one carries them for some hours across the heath and through the hedges, some thorns will scratch them; not counting that when one arrives on the heath after some hours' walk in the weather, one is tired and exhausted from the heat; not counting that the figures do not stand still like professional models, and the effects one wants to catch change with the passing day."

From "Dear Theo"- the letters of Vincent Van Gogh to his brother.

AN OLD MAN IN SORROW -VVanGogh

MUNCH and THE VOLCANO

2009-08-03T17:48:00.007-04:00

THE SCREAM Edvard Munch
Just about everyone is familiar with this image, it's been used and abused. Never as much as the Mona Lisa, but still, done to death.
The critics and explainers have given it all kinds of deep meanings, but sometimes a painting is just a painting and a red sky at night may be no more than a sailor's delight.
Sometimes, but not always.
Munch painted this in 1893, painted it twice in fact, plus a pastel and a lithograph.
Krakatoa (more properly, Krakatau) erupted in August of 1883, when Munch was twenty years old. Some say that one has nothing to do with the other, but he is not the only artist that may have been affected by the dramatic colors in the sky that lingered for years.

"In the weeks following the eruption, fine fragments of tephra and dust that were propelled kilometers into the stratosphere began to make a ring around the equator. They would remain suspended there for years causing remarkable solar effects and atmospheric hazing as they bent the incoming light. Also the enormous volumes of sulfur dioxide gas molecules that were ejected into the atmosphere combined with water to make sulfuric acid. These acidic aerosols sufficiently blocked enough sunlight to drop the Earth's temperature by several degrees for a few years. Their presence in the atmosphere also created spectacular effects over 70% of the Earth's surface. Effects such as halos around the sun and moon, and amazing sunsets and sunrises were seen. For years these particles would remain suspended in the atmosphere being the final reminder of the massive and fatal blast that occurred in Sundra Straits. Simon Winchester, "Krakatoa"

JMW TURNER The Fighting Temeraire

Turner painted this in 1838-1839, which would have been much earlier than the Krakatoa event. But there was the eruption of Tambora, also in Indonesia, in 1815. And, between 1822 and 1838, there were eruptions of Vesuvius, Stromboli, and Etna.

Turner, like a lot of artists of his day, visited and painted in Venice.

OH PLEASE

2009-07-30T21:10:00.012-04:00

I knew he'd come in handy some day.

I won't even need to give this photo a title, because I know you can think of a good one, even though it's a cliche'.

This En Plein Aire thing is beginning to annoy me.

Time was, you painted outside. You could do it like Monet, with a canvas for every hour so that the light would be consistant with each painting. Like him, you could sit in a boat and paint, even. With mosquito netting as well. Truly, a happy camper. If I could paint like that I would sit in a boat , even if there was no water under it.

Monet Painting on His Boat, by Manet

John Singer Sargent, not to be outdone, painting on a gondola in Venice

Or you could schlep all that equipment into the countryside every day, and stand in the sun with crows pooping on your paintings, maybe sell one or two out of a thousand, and end up shooting yourself. The choices are endless, when painting outdoors.

FURTHERMORE

Time was, if you put each paint laden brushstroke down on the canvas without playing with it by underpainting, glazing, scumbling, and worst of all, overpainting, you painted Alla Prima, which is Italian for "at once". Not a la prima, which is a spinoff of a la carte and a la mode. So to my way of thinking, En Plein Aire is to painting outdoors as Boeuf a la Mode is to potroast.

I'm getting lost here. Louis Prima?

FINI

IT'S ENDLESS

2009-07-30T07:16:00.012-04:00

Lewis Zirkle left Pennsylvania and arrived in New Market, Virginia in 1760. He bought 1500 acres in the foothills of the Massanutten Mountains, built a small log cabin on Smith Creek, and a little later, built a field stone bank house a little north and on the other side of the creek. In Virginia, there are rivers, creeks, and runs. As a northerner, I consider Smith Creek a river, especially when it floods. Which may not matter to anyone but me, because it happens to be in my back yard.
Caves were discovered on the property in 1879, and that area later became Endless Caverns. There is more extensive information on the Internet about the recently updated caverns, and on the genealogy of the Zirkle family.

A few years ago I met a contractor who lived near the caverns who told me there was an abandoned field stone bank house on his property. I was immediately interested because my husband and I did some restoration on a similar house in Hillsboro, in Loudoun CountyVA, some years ago. (See my post Brushwashing, which included the faux stone fireplace.) He took me to see it-it's hidden and private-and it turned out to be very similar. Both houses had similar roots as well, Pennsylvania Quakers, who sure knew how to build to last.

I took photos of course, grateful to be a studio painter rather than Plein Aire. We have snakes, coyotes, and ticks, oh my.

ENDLESS 24x36 Acrylic on Linen (c)Margery Caggiano

Not to mention, buzzards. Who are only a threat if you're small or dead, or both.

GOING TO THE DOGS

2009-07-27T20:40:00.011-04:00

A few years ago a member of the family sent me an email of his puppy. It was a low resolution snapshot, and she had a temporary case of pink eye as well. But I was intrigued, especially since I had never painted a dog. The scarf gave it some color possibilities, at least. The low resolution can be an advantage at times-in this case it prevented me from getting mired in detail.

There's always the possibility of terminal cuteness. But what the hell.

EMILY 18x14 acrylic/linen (c) Margery Caggiano

TWO TOYS 14x18 acrylic/linen (c) Margery Caggiano
I painted her again when I met her in person, who could resist?

SHE'S BAACK

2009-07-25T06:57:00.004-04:00

NO MORE! I'M DONE! I'M FINISHED! THAT'S IT!

(well,maybe a little bit more to do on the hair)
THE REDHEAD 16x20 Oil /Acrylic on Linen (c) Margery Caggiano

Above is the last image posted
What I should not have done, was put it on my web page.

Even knowing I have to live with a painting.
Sometimes it only takes a day or two, sometimes a month or more.
I decided that the background was contrived and unnecessary.
Besides, I had wanted to paint her before I knew who she was.
I was in the audience at an event held at The Parrish Museum in Southampton, NY. About 10 years ago I think. It was to be a talk and slide show by Christo and Jeanne Claude about the Gates project in Central park. As the audience filed in, an apparition appeared.
Wow. Would I love to paint her!
She kept walking and went to the stage. Well well well.
Back to the painting and my original MO, which is usually to isolate the figure -aren't we all-and not tell a story. In her case, I felt that she could handle the color.

HAIR

2009-07-23T07:22:00.005-04:00

I try to avoid most reality shows. It seems that they're thriving on what used to be the subject matter of artists, now the foundation of television, The Seven Deadly Sins. Plus the ability to effortlessly reproduce, which should be the Eighth. I call it littering, big time.
Be that as it may, I have a weakness for Makeover shows. If I was given a week in Manhattan, $5000 to spend on clothes for moi, and a haircut by a guy (I'm also a sucker for a cockney accent) who usually charges $500 to $800, would I blubber when some hair fell on the floor? It'll never grow again? It's spun of gold? What? Even Hercules didn't cry.
To get to the point here, I remembered taking my teenage girls, they were only a year apart, to Sassoons on Fifth Ave (Madison?) for a classy haircut. All of $25 each. Well, it was a long time ago.
I've painted them a dozen times over the years, but I loved the shape of that particular haircut, so I had to paint them again.

JEAN 16x20" Acrylic (c) Margery Caggiano

DORIS 16x20" Acrylic (C) Margery Caggiano

The painting of Doris was in the Nat'l Competition, MAX:24 at Perdue University. It's now in her sisters possession. Unfortunately, I lost track of whoever bought the painting of Jean.

YES VIRGINIA

2009-07-20T06:41:00.007-04:00

This was just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Northern Virginia. Loudoun County, to be precise. Since then development straightened the roads and leveled the land. It came to a screaming halt when the real estate market tanked, but too late.

GOODBYE VA 28x44" acrylic on linen (c)Margery Caggiano

I've always been fascinated by hay rolls, and thought that the ones in this painting took on a menacing quality. Like rolled up Triffids. Does anyone else remember John Wyndham's

"Day of The Triffids"?

The Shenandoah Valley in July photo-M.Caggiano

This is New Market, looking west towards the Allegheny Mountains. I took this yesterday because it's Triffid season, it was a beautiful day, and I needed to play catch-up in the garden as well. Sure enough, the aliens have landed. For the first time in my life I saw this thing in my butterfly bush. It looked like a cross between a Hummingbird, a huge bee, and a shrimp. My camera wasn't able to get the wings.(now I know why) A call for help and some time spent on the internet, and, voila, a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth. Who knew? ....I've christened it a Humbee.

I'd like to thank Cathyann of Cathyann's Studio for forwarding the Bella Sinclair Award to me.

PAINT MEDIA and MESSAGES

2009-07-16T21:01:00.009-04:00

It was one of my few down days when I opened the door to the UPS"Men in Brown"delivery guy. I was thrilled to read the return address on the package.

The FULFILLMENT CENTER!

Were my prayers answered? Or was I in a Steven King novel?

Nah. It was my hard copy of Norton 360.

Symantec is getting fulfilled, is who.

On that note, (how's that for a segue?) here's a little about paint media for oils. For starters, when the quick drying alkyd paint came out, I bought a set. It didn't take long to realize that using the medium only-Winsor Newton calls theirs Liquin-with regular oils accomplishes the same drying speed. Without the concern of the paint drying in the tube. Duh. Alkyd resin is available as a gel also under different trade names. It also contains dryers, sometimes silica for body. I don't particularly like the surface buildup, for lack of a better word, so I cut it with mineral spirits. A so called "magic" medium such as Marogers contains many additives along with mastic varnish . Trust me, it won't make you paint like Rembrandt.

SELF PORTRAIT Rembrandt

Pretty impressive drawing, yes? Especially considering that the original is the size of a postage stamp.

Blockx, which makes an exceptionally high quality paint, also makes an "Amber Medium", a resin that lays claim to"transparency and radiance" etc etc. I'll never know, because a 50 ml bottle is $441 list. So Keep It Simple. Skip the dryers, they can lead to cracking. You don't need turpentine. Don't use unrefined hardware store linseed oil.

A good practice is to start your painting with rapid drying paint: Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Pthalo Blue, Pthalo Green, Flake White (aka Lead or Cremnitz White) and a rapid drying medium: 6 parts mineral spirits, 2 parts sun-thickened linseed oil, and 1 part dammar varnish. Slow drying paints and medium are: Any of the Cadmiums, Ivory Black, Lamp Black, Vermillion, and Zinc White. All other colors fall in between.

If anyone has anything to add or correct, feel free, I'd like to know. Also, the finished Keith Richards painting, and The Redhead, have been added to my website.

PAINTING ON BOARDS

2009-07-15T07:50:00.002-04:00

It's been awhile since I painted with oils from scratch, rather than over an acrylic underpainting. Between that, and doing small paintings that aren't a casual kind of experiment has forced me to go back to school, in a way.

GOLDSMITH INLET Oil on Board 9x12" (c)Margery Caggiano

I think I need to change my approach to subject matter and size. It was never intentional, but whenever I've done figurative painting the figures have been life size or a little larger. So why a 9x12 landscape that should be a big painting isn't pleasing me, becomes obvious.

Shouda woulda coulda.

Better to go for segments, small glimpses, single objects that are nonetheless life-size.

As far as painting surface, I much prefer linen or canvas over board. I had a few pieces of Masonite that I had previously primed, and a roll of lovely oil-primed linen that's a bugger to stretch, (double primed even more so). I cut the linen about 2 inches bigger than the board, and glued it to the Masonite with acrylic gel. So we'll see.

GOLDSMITH INLET STAGE 1 (Gulls later)

This is an inlet in Peconic, on the Long Island Sound. The tides bring the gulls, one of my favorite birds. Almost as funny on the ground as Gary Larson's chickens. I never realized how big seagulls were until a motorist brought one to the vet wrapped in a towel while I was sitting in the waiting room with my cat. (He got goggle-eyed.) The gull had been hit by a car, and this particular vet (North Fork Vet.Hosp) would take in wounded gulls, ospreys, and even seals. Gratis.

What I want to know is, how did seagulls get to to the dump in Denver?

CHEAP TRICKS WITH OILS

2009-07-13T07:00:00.001-04:00

I'm probably the last person to advise on how to save money on art supplies. When I sell a painting the first thing I do is take stock, and if I don't have it, and may need it within my lifetime, or even beyond, I buy it.

I'm glad now, because the mongoose brushes I bought last week not only cost more but are skimpier than the ones I bought a few years ago, same size, same brand. Another change is "mongoose like". It's Read the Small Print time, which is why the catalogs come in handy.
Most of the time I hang a painting on the wall to work on it; and maybe a second on an easel. Which is fine for big stretched canvases. But I occasionally work on boards or small paintings and find it frustrating to keep either one stable on an easel made for big paintings, especially if you don't want to sit down while painting. So I blew the cobwebs out of my lovable, adorable and most of the time, useless, french easel. Low and behold, it's perfect. But in the cheap tricks category, it's not.

All of you plein air painters -and you seem to be multiplying exponentially-are experts at setting up french easels, but I was thankful that no one was around to watch me. I'm going to leave it set up. I can't go through that again.

GOLDSMITHS INLET Stage 1 Oil on Panelli Board Margery Caggiano

This is a suggested list of necessary supplies for painting in oils on a budget.

Supports: Gesso primed watercolor paper, cardboard, or 1/4 " Masonite. A place like Lowes or Home Depot will cut Masonite to size. Make sure it's Untempered(oil free). Also seal both sides before gessoing to prevent warping.
Palette: Plate glass taped over neutral grey cardboard- or a disposable pad.
Brushes: Bristle or mongoose, better to have 3 good ones than 6 cheap ones. Try round and filbert shapes. You can gesso with a sponge.
Brush and hand cleaner: Goop, available in hardware store.
General cleanup and medium: Low odor mineral spirits, quart. Available in hardware store.
Refined linseed Oil, small bottle. Dammar Varnish, small bottle.
Paint: (Don't buy "student "grade. Don't buy "hues") large Titanium White,-Ivory Black,-Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna,- Yellow Ochre,-Cobalt Blue,-Ultramarine Blue,- Alizarin Crimson,- Cadmium Red Med.,-Cadmium Yellow Med.
Make Your Own Medium: Use a glass, not plastic, jar with a lid. Mix 1 part dammar Varnish, 2 parts Linseed Oil, 3 parts mineral spirits. For slower drying, eliminate the dammar varnish.
Make Your Own Retouch Varnish: If the painting is dull and dry. Use a glass jar. Mix dammar varnish and mineral spirits 50/50.
If you are a beginner, you can learn a lot by starting with the first five colors, which are also the least expensive. Then add others one at a time.
The books say to lay out every color you have, and even suggest an order. But a beginner will use them all and end up with mud. Then they'll dry out. Look at Andrew Wyeth's paintings, (even though they're egg tempera.) for what can be done with a relatively limited palette.

SILLY PAINTING PART 2

2009-07-11T07:38:00.008-04:00

Like a dog with a bone, there are some paintings that I can't leave alone. For better or for worse I returned to Greenport Lions and tortured it some more. Below is from my first post, Part 1.

GREENPORT LIONS Stage 3

Sometimes you have to back up and re-focus. When I remembered that the lions that I photographed on Main Street were white, and neighborhood icons, I changed the values. One of the advantages of a small painting is that it will fit on my scanner.GREENPORT LIONS Stage 4 7x10" (c) Margery Caggiano
Adding to the confusion was a recent comment that suggested I put Bo behind the screen door.

Absolutely right.

BO & FRIENDS photo by Margery Caggiano
Which reminded me of my own lions.
But for now

I"M OUTA HERE

NIAGARA RISING

2009-07-09T19:12:00.009-04:00

When I read that the UK's Poet Laureate was a woman, I was curious, and discovered that she's all that and more. I am now a fan of Carol Ann Duffy's.

This is from "THE WORLD'S WIFE"

MRS. RIP VAN WINKLE

I sank like a stone

into the still, deep waters of late middle age,

aching from head to foot.

I took up food

and gave up exercise.

It did me good.

And while he slept

I found some hobbies for myself.

Painting. Seeing the sights I'd always dreamed about:

The Leaning Tower.

The Pyramids. The Taj Mahal.

I made a little watercolour of them all.

But what was best,

what hands-down beat the rest,

was saying a none -too-fond farewell to sex.

Until the day

I came home with this pastel of Niagara

and he was sitting up in bed rattling Viagra

Carol Ann Duffy

Assemblage (c) Margery Caggiano

TORTOISE

2009-07-07T08:25:00.007-04:00

Moving from Nassau County, NY- to The Springs, in East Hampton was a pretty exciting time, for me especially. Since I only like to drop one name at a time, I won't tell you who was living two doors away while fighting the town of East Hampton for permission to build a studio in a residential area nearby. However, across the street was the Green River Cemetery, and aside from the usual suspects, there was the unfortunate Jackson Pollock under a huge stone. Big rocks for monuments became the In Thing after that, and real estate in the Green River Cemetery became highly desirable for those that could afford to spend eternity in the world of art.

http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?FScemeteryid=64703&page=cem
Meanwhile, our son, who couldn't care less, was collecting turtles in our back yard and labeling them with a marking pen. (Names? Numbers? Latitude&Longitude?)

With the help of our border cat.

KITZEL Photo by Margery Caggiano

BILLY Photo by Margery Caggiano

Photo by Margery Caggiano

I did my part in my own way. This is oil on Masonite, mounted on a board that I cut to fit in an antique tortoise, what else, frame I found.

TORTOISE Oil on Board 5x7"plus frame (c)Margery Caggiano

A SILLY PAINTING

2009-07-05T11:36:00.005-04:00

This is one of those paintings that never worked for me, maybe because I stopped too soon. I put it away and have been schlepping it around for years. I came across it this morning and decided that it was aged and cured enough to either finish it or toss it.

GREENPORT LIONS 1 7x10" Margery Caggiano

This was done on 1/4 " untempered Masonite, called floor underlayment in some areas of the country. Not to be confused with the more common 1/8 " tempered (oiled) Masonite. Under 16x20 or so it doesn't have to be backed. Larger sizes should be glued to stretchers or a 1x2" frame. I gave both sides a thinned coat of shellac sealer- BIN (shellac+ white pigment) will do. Then sand and give several coats of gesso, again both sides . An alternative is to glue linen or canvas to the Masonite, then gesso.

GREENPORT LIONS 2 7x10" Margery Caggiano

Since the first stage was done in thinned, almost transparent oils, I stayed with oil paint for this stage, and used some opaque colors. I lost the graphic quality of the first stage, which had more
drawing than painting.

I don't know if it's any better. I do know that it's even sillier, because the lions now look like dogs.

VANITY AND BUPKAS

2009-07-03T11:19:00.000-04:00

Just when I think it's safe to dip a toe into the art world, another shark or two come along.
I've been "nominated" to exhibit in the Florence Bienniale. Huh? Blah blah blah blah feet of wall space blah blah blah euros, converts to about $3800 to put a pretty fancy name on my resume.
That doesn't include crating and shipping of course.

Silly me. I'm assuming that's Florence, Italy.

Read the small print, and decide whether it's worth the gamble. Paintings sent to big venues in Europe have been known to disappear. Do some research. Luckily, I could never afford to show in Europe.
And if you want a show in New York, or any other big city, and don't know a vanity gallery from a co-op from a legitimate gallery, stay home and save your money. I have no problem with co-ops, (only if they're artist/member run) they can sometimes be an introduction to contacts you wouldn't get otherwise. Not to mention feedback and friends.I've been in several, and they're a good solution if you want to control your work.

While I'm feeling irritable, which seems to be a lot of the time, I'll repeat my mantra.

READ THE SMALL PRINT!

Jerry's has been for many years, one of my favorite art suppliers. They're running a series of art competitions that I looked into. Wow free entry? That's a surprise. Of course you have to buy the brand that's sponsoring the contest. Hmmm. No big deal. The big prize money is kind of a gift certificate to use at Jerry's. Hmm. Retail value I presume. Oh well. They get a great mailing list. OK why not. At least it's free, right?

WRONG.

"All entries must be sent copyright free and be allowed use in future Jerry's Artarama advertising promotions"

Not just winners, all entries. How do they get away with that? You let them.

The response will be, so don't enter. So screw the artists, there are plenty more out there.

And if, somewhere down the line, you see your work used in a way you never intended because you gave it away, don't say I didn't warn you.

LANDSCAPE DESTROYED

2009-07-01T07:56:00.007-04:00

SHORELINE 36' x 60" Acryic on Linen 2001 Margery Caggiano

About 1980 or so I took a photo of this landscape while standing on top of the dunes. The village is Sagaponack, on the south fork of Eastern Long Island, N.Y.

I thought it was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. I did two paintings, one at the time I took the photo, and again in 2001, slightly different.

The fields on the left were potato crops, grown right up to the edge of the dunes. It was rare to have to irrigate the potato fields because of the moist ocean air. And at the time, you could drive up a dirt road , park, and be almost alone on the beach. There were a lot of ways to access the beach, public, private, and farm roads.

FAST FORWARD TO LAST WEEK

While trying to kill interminable time at the terminal at Denver Airport, I bought or, mostly, picked up, any and every piece of reading material I could find. Including People (who are these people? And why?) A name caught my eye in the business section of the NY Times. (How often do I go there?)

IRA RENNERT!?

Ira Rennert-NY Times International-June 25, 2009 by Simon Romero Re:Toxic Site+Andes
I'll leave out the details, just quote what is revelant to this post. "Mr. Rennert is a NY billionaire, who built one of the largest homes in the United States, an Italianate mansion sprawling over more than 66,000 square feet (that's just the house, folks) in the Hamptons. whose privately held industrial empire includes a Peruvian smelting company named "Doe Run Peru", in La Oroya, high in the Andes. Quote: "LaOroya has been called one of the world's 10 most polluted places by the Blacksmith Institute, a non-profit group that studies toxic sites."
There is a lot more to this article, including "providing employment" while 97% of the chidren in La Oroya have toxic levels of lead in their bodies.

AS YOU MAY HAVE GUESSED, HIS MANSION WAS PLUNKED DOWN ON THE EDGE OF THE OCEAN IN SAGAPONACK

At the time, the Town of Southampton had no zoning regulations that would prevent building such a huge house. They had covered minimum size, height, dune protection etc. They have since closed the barn door as far as maximum size.

If you're interested, there's a lot more to be found online, in Dan's Papers, the Southampton Press archives, etc. If nothing else, check out how many bathrooms one man needs.

Personally, I think he should be sharing a cell with Bernie

PS- I decided to post the link below. I know its a free country, that birds eye maps can be an invasion of privacy. I don't care. Sue me

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&where1=Sagaponack%2C%20NY&encType=1

OIL OVER ACRYLIC-UPDRAFT

2009-06-29T07:05:00.007-04:00

I moved from Long Island, NY to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia about three and a half years ago because of a series of events that I wouldn't want to live through again, if indeed I could.

That said, the Valley is heartbreakingly beautiful and a reminder of rural life as it was, kept that way because you can't get there from here, and vice versa. There are no trains, no buses, no airport limo service (Dulles Airport is 100 miles). Without a car, you've had it. And in that case, the only way out of the Valley is by ambulance.

UPDRAFT 12x12" Oil over Acrylic (c) Margery Caggiano

The hills are alive-with buzzards and bats, as a result, mosquitoes are few and the roads are clean.

My recent return flight from Denver, via United -we stand, we sit, we walk, we wait, but we don't fly-Airlines took , door to door, 17 hours. Since Denver is about 1300 road miles, I figure that I could have driven it in the same amount of time. Well, almost, and with no pit stops. To be fair, the weather was bad, and the Captain refused the first plane because of electrical problems. Considering that it was an Airbus, I was grateful.

Actually I was stopped on the earlier drive to Dulles by a peach-fuzzed 16 year old state trooper who smelled of baby powder. He had me cold doing 83, so I was surprised to get only a warning. Sweet thing. What may have saved me was the birth date on my license-I could hear the wheels turning, and a clean record, no credit to me, as a result of being married to a current, then retired, Nassau County policeman. No, I didn't mention that part to him.

Back to this painting, which was done in acrylic. I felt that it was lacking something, so I did some glazing with oils using Liquin as a medium, which I modify with 50% or so of mineral spirits. . There is a danger of getting slick with any full bodied medium, and I try to avoid that. Finally, I used a painting knife to apply touches of almost pure white to the clouds

YUMMY

2009-06-27T07:09:00.008-04:00

I've been lax about blogging this past week. Visiting family in Denver, one of which arrived on this earth six months ago. Shiny and tiny and silky. A star.

Will

Instead of a day trip to the mountains to see the wildflowers, supposedly spectacular this year because of more rain than usual, my daughter and I drove to Loveland. A happy discovery, that Wayne Thiebaud's "70 Years of Painting" was at the museum there.

I've been trying to learn where, as a traveling exhibition, it will be going next. No luck there. At any rate, if you paint, or if you don't, see it!!

If you like to eat, see it!

http://YouTube - Artist Wayne Thiebaud at 87

Yes, he's still alive and well and articulate, (don't miss the video interview that accompanies the show) still "painting what he wants to paint", and always returning to his favorite themes, food, the beach, California land and streetscapes.

But his painting is not about subject matter, it's about how he applies the paint, the stunning color, the high-key versus low-key, the surprises that you find in a single mundane eclair. Rather than an "artists' artist" he's a painters' painter.

"Candy Apples" Wayne Thiebaud

I used to haunt the galleries* in the sixties and seventies. Whether it was Alan Stone, or the Whitney, he was one of my favorites. Wrongfully, I think, lumped in with the "Pop" movement. His landscapes are beautifully thought out-twisted perspective-true abstracts.

*Sorry, I'm referring to New York. Never referred to as New York City. On Long Island and New Jersey, and probably Connecticut, you were going to "the city". And for you out of state tour guides -they are not "New Yorkans". Jeez.

The critics and writers, (rarely can they do both well), do love to pigeon hole, to categorize painters. I think they need to compare, to drag out the art history, to use the names.

While I'm at it, the French probably hate us because they haven't been the center of the art world since the Impressionists. Well, one reason anyhow. It takes a snob to know a snob.

BRINGING IT HOME

2009-06-22T17:02:00.000-04:00

Every once in awhile, a great while, I'll see a show that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

I could always count on that reaction if it was Francis Bacon.

Francis Bacon's Studio, Kensington

This is a photo of his studio, which had been in London. After his death the studio was painstakingly taken apart and re-assembled in Dublin.

CAN YOU IMAGINE DOING THAT WITH THIS ROOM?

I can't, but watching would be fun.

The Metropolitan Museum in NY is currently having a retrospective of his work, and it will run through August 16.

I think something that always fascinates artists are the sources used-the photos that some of the paintings were derived from. The collected trivia.

A sampling can be seen on the Mets website.

http://www.metmuseum.org/

Bacon's early paintings are my particular favorites; if I can manage to get there, I'll get there.

This is a link to the first of six videos about Bacon

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhaqwlZxJZI