Photo Realism

White is not really a color I need to remember
but sometimes intricate shapes do need
clarifying.

I have little interest in photo realism as a painting approach, but I have learned in my projects related to flowers to use the camera to record the colors of my subjects. While in Missouri last month to draw flowers I also took photographs of many of them to help me recall with some semblance of reality the color of the blossoms and sometimes the shades of green in stems and leaves. 

I had a good time drawing and then photographing flowers in four different locations even though I looked at several others. I wonder now if I didn't have my camera with me then. 

Shades of green often escape my memory.
Now I have this guide.

In a couple of weeks I'll start making the pieces of mixed media art for my Wildflowers of Missouri project working from my drawings. I'm not interested in providing technical, scientific drawings but rather to move toward some kind of abstraction related to the flowers. I'll follow the advice of one of my teachers suggested about plants. "Draw them over and over again until they quit being flowers and become lines." That's my goal and I'll use the photos for color references as I move into this project. Probably you will see some of them in this blog and hopefully soon.

Just this closing note: below you can see photos of my consulting companions during my treks across meadows and into the woods.

Denver, 2015

A Day Late and Quite a Few Dollars Short

I'm back from my Mid-Missouri trip during which I spent time in a semi-retreat and more time in family matters including graduations, parties, meals, seeing old friends, and much more. I drank lots and lots of coffee, so much really fine coffees and espressos I could barely stomach the breakfast coffee here at home in Denver. Oh well ... I'm back and getting back to work on my many art-related projects.

I hiked in prairies with my son and daughter-in-law one afternoon. Eventually the green grass turned into green poison ivy. Fortunately none of us got the itch. I also drew sketches of many Missouri native flowers and made a good start on a rather complex writing project about a challenging year of my life. I'm so pleased to have quite a few pages of writing and even more of drawings, both of which I will draw on in the next months.

I also found a surprise project. When stuck at a motel without my writing notebook, I grabbed a map from a display and wrote my regular pages on it. The Kansas City map led me down pathways from back in my early teen years until just two weeks ago. So with my pen I traced story after story--fourteen in all--and before I left Missouri last week I transcribed them all in a Word Processor file. I suppose they will guide me into even more stories.

In all, I had a great time with my ex-wife, son and his family, daughter and her family, and a large constellation of friends and acquaintances that surround them. And I am glad to be back in the city. After all, I have Artist Trading Cards to make and trade later this week and next week new stories to tell.

Artistically speaking, do something beautiful.

Denver, 2015

Arts Retreat

I write from Mid-Missouri, the place where my ex-wife, children, and grand children live. I’m here getting ready to begin an arts retreat at the Green Goat Farm near a tiny town named Prairie Home. It’s a rather tiny farm, too, just about 20 acres in some upland just 10 miles south of Booneville, and not far from the mighty Missouri River.

I begin my retreat on Tuesday morning, a retreat that will feature two main parts. I’m going to spend many hours drawing native Missouri plants for a project I am planning. I plan to fill quite a few tablets with drawings of vines, grasses, flowers, bushes, and trees. I do hope to avoid poison ivy itch and chigger bites. Of course one can never be sure just what may take place.

The other part of my retreat is to write. I have a plan to start a new story of a past relationship that meant a lot to me. I have no good idea of just how this will develop but I’m planning to fill a 400 page notebook of my scratching, type it all into my word processor, and get somewhere beyond a rough draft. Who knows?

I’m looking forward to being in my son and daughter-in-law’s house where arts rule. Music, writing, and dancing are just a few of the things that occur there regularly. Perhaps I’ll add dancing to my repertoire. Who knows? I just hope the animals that live there are nice to me. I think they don’t have any goats right now, but there are chickens (which means roosters) and ducks and cats and dogs and cows and horses. But I’m not there to draw animals, just the flora.

I’ll be back to my regular Denver schedule late in the month.

Missouri! 2015

A Flight of Owls

I'm unsure of the traditional way to designate a group of owls. Perhaps they don't have such a designation. Other birds have rather fancy names attached to their groups. But I do know that the many owl Artist Trading Cards I made took flight. I had made twenty seven cards. Now I have none! 

I took three sheets of nine cards each. One sheet had nine drawings. One had nine prints. You may have seen them in last Monday's post. I also had one sheet of nine collages. Now I have none!

Maybe I'm bragging. I certainly am happy that I have twenty-seven new cards from the trade. (Actually quite a few more than that!) I'm happy that I got to see a number of artist friends Saturday at the trade. I'm happy that I got to see a fine installation of art at CORE New Art Space. I'm happy I spent the morning with my artist friend Sue. Oh, she got several cards.

Here are the collages for your inspection. Sorry I cannot trade them with you!

Owl collages with mixed media on paper
Phillip Hoyle

Denver, 2015

Owls to Trade

ARTIST TRADING CARDS

Coming up this Saturday 

Another card swap

at CORE New Art Space

in Santa Fe Art District

DENVER

Topic: OWLS

I've had many thoughts.
     When I was a kid we called Dad an owl.
     Bought him owl things.
          (So many adult males are difficult to buy presents for)
     So I have an owl in my background.
     Saw an owl on the neighbor's fence.
     Surprised by an owl that on a dark Kansas night
     Swooped up over our windshield.

     So I drew some owls last week.

These are my serious owls. I also drew some goofy ones but didn't
get a good photo.

     This weekend I cut blocks and printed some owls as a tribute to American Indians and far north Eskimos.

I enjoyed printing these on different kinds
of paper.

I still have a set of nine torn-paper collages to complete before next Saturday. I feel good about this group of OWLS. May my owls be as interesting as my Dad's music was accurate and beautiful.

Have fun with YOUR artwork this week.

Denver, 2015