Fargo and more!
Well, it was just as exciting as I had anticipated. It wound up being 17 half-hour shows in four days (This includes the 13 series shows, the two special segments for Minnesota Education, and two segments for the bonus "Problem Solving" DVD. They should all be ready about May. In the meantime, I do have several of series 10 DVD's at $30 each.
I am writing this blog the day before November 11Th. This date is very significant in my life for two reasons: first, I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints on that date/ and it is also the birthday of a dear friend, Sam Battistone. Sam was one of the most positive forces in my life as he made it possible for me to leave the Santa Barbara Recreation Department as a Supervisor and enter the world of art as a full-time artist. I will ever be grateful to the big heart of Sam Battistone!
My recent passion in art is to paint genre in the artistic style of Robert Henri. I have included a just-about-finished portrait of my best friend, Carolyn. We have been together as husband and wife for 52 years.
The painting from Pochades was an exciting element in my recent filming. It is such an energizing activity, when you use the TV studio as a home studio with all of the experimenting being filmed as it happens.
I love to hear from so many of my students (who have become great friends as well) and to see what they are doing in art. Some of them I would even love to take lessons from: Nancy Cheadle, Garry Kravit for instance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When I am doing my portraits and genre, I find that if I use a dark primed canvas, that I am very successful in controlling the values for flesh color etc. You don't have to use very bright lights and they respond as I desire. The building to the lights is much more subtle this way.
Painting on location is a great talent for many artists and their work shows such energy. I also like the idea of painting from memory. That is a developed ability that I have acquired. I had heard about it being done with some Oriental art students. It is amazing what can be accomplished with practice and more practice!
COMMENTS?????????????????
Two weeks to go!
It is very exciting to contemplate my 10th Filming season with Prairie Public TV. We will film again in October. I am not sure when this series will be aired. And as you might remember,...........I never know when , or if it will be shown in your area. I have never seen it in Santa Barbara, however my neighbor from across the street has a pre-cable antenna and was able to pick up a Riverside, CA station. One great suggestion is that you contact your local TV station and ask the Program director to consider airing the "Painting with Paulson" series.
Now, the ten years filming with Prairie Public represents a major portion of the 21 years that I have been doing this thrilling TV work.
Each session, I want to do something meaningful, exciting and helpful for the viewers. And I am perfectly aware, a lot of the viewers aren't necessarily artists. That truth is thrilling as I hope the non-artist viewers are inspired to enjoy life more and to see good in spite of any negative headlines.
To have variety in my art shows after having presenting several hundred of them is my opportunity and privilege.
This time I want to again take some small pochades (Paintings done on location, from memory, or from inspiration) and develop the painting as I would if I were in my own studio.. I will have the first stage in acrylics already done as a model that we will work towards in stage number one. Then the oil stage will be a discovery between you and me (no finished painting to look at!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) This is teaching/painting with Risk. I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
To be a little more help to the art viewers, I will make several comments about the pochade before I commence making a painting from it. I will reveal several key ingredients that motivated me to select the subject and what I think makes it a valid subject to teach.
Tell me what you think!"
I receive many requests from across the country, and the world to analyze a painting that has just been completed from either one of my art shows (usually the PBS DVD route)or from one of an artist's own creations.
I don't always have a lot of time to make as many comments as I would like, but I try to accommodate my many of the requests as possible.
I thought that I might give you a sample "Reading" of a painting that I have before me to analyze.
It is called Sunset Sea.
I love the composition of the top wave line leading in a graceful climb up the large cliff.
The miniature tree at the top of the cliff is a coquette toying with the advancing, regally bedecked Sun and Cloud. Just enough of a suggestion so that we follow her gaze, out into the Sunset night.
A suggestion or two: The dark edges of the two lower rocks could be softened (lost edges) here and there, without hurting the contrast sought for.
I think a little more gleam on the front, flat, running foam would help support the magic in the sky.
There needs to be a soft mist on the top edge of the powerful wave. It would relax the wave more, and not feel so much like a cutout.
If the top of the distant blue hills were softened a bit, by the clouds slipping over them here and there, it would bring your eye to the lower dramatic lighting of the cliffs which are negated because of the upper contrast with the sky.
A very fine painting. Keep up the good work Buck!
Yes.........Buck! You see that I have just anzlyzed one of my paintings that has been painted on TV (Series 800, I think), and has been taught in workshops.
Always room for improvement.
Thanks for your nice Blog comments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just a few Random Thoughts
It is Wednesday evening and I have a few moments before I head off to bed.
In the morning I will drop a fellow off at the VA depot so that he can take a bus to L.A. and have his painful feet and sore back diagnosed by the VA doctor. My friend is severely disabled and can only navigate around in his hand held stroller. He is a prisoner in his own low rent apartment which is in quite a disarray.
In the meantime, I will drive up to San Jose, CA, where I will be teaching for two days at the University Art Shop. Do I complain about the six hour drive, the preparing of the canvases with a prime and a tracing. I hope not!
I recently flew a Red-eye all night flight from Santa Barbara by way of San Francisco, to Chicago, then to Louisville. The luggage was lost............and the ordered paint wasn't on time..........................SO WHAT????????????????????? Now a few weeks later I can look back and see...........the luggage did arrive. The paint did arrive, I am rested and ready to go again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We really need to take a look at our time on earth. What is my goal?
Yes, I want to paint great paintings that the world will recognize as such. But, what if that doesn't happen?
I do not have to worry about that. I only need to do the best that I can right now. I recall working one summer as a construction laborer for my future father in law. I did some pretty heavy digging, hauling and dragging. I remember one day, feeling kind of sorry for myself during the task of digging a cave for the portable toilet to set on top of. A wise old carpenter approached me and after some small talk said, "Just be the best outhouse digger you can be. It doesn't matter about anything else, if that is the job in front of you.
What is fame? Is it somebody else's opinion of you or your work?
My goal is to seek first the Kingdom Of God. And I can do that by being the best outhouse digger or the best friend, or the best husband, or the best artist, or the best art teacher, or the best citizen that I can be!!!!!!!!!!!!
I do not plan to take a bunch of clippings with me, stating what others thought of my art or life............Just relax and make a great day!
I ain't Dead Yet
It's pretty sobering to realize that my time on earth won't be forever. There is so much that i still want to do and so many more pictures to paint!
I feel great and am not checking out yet, but there is a time and age when you realize that you are not invincible.
Part of my melancholy was sparked by a Google alert that came to me a couple of days ago. It heralded a Buck Paulson painting for sale on E-bay. I went to the site as often someone decides to check the value of their art and lists it for sale there. However this one was different..........It is a rather nice landscape with a well dressed gal carrying an parasol, strolling near a peaceful lake. Nice greenery at her sides, and a sailboat on the lake. Across the way we view more spring foliage, and some well conceived cottages.
I was wondering why it appeared on my Google alert, then I spied the signature: B. Paulson. Someone had put my signature upon the canvas and had it listed for sale at $4995. My goodness I was a bit surprised.
Two things caused me some perplexing moments. First, who in the world signed my name to the canvas, and second, did someone think that I was dead, and they could pass off this painting as a Buck Paulson original?
Years ago (I may have mentioned fact in a previous blog) I would sign my painting with a signature, indicating: Good, Better, and Best. Paulson, B. Paulson, or Buck Paulson would be the indicator. Since then I was counselled to sign all of my paintings: Buck Paulson, meaning that I did my very best with whatever time frame I had (TV presentation, public demonstration, or my studio work). So apparently the FAKE signature was put on by someone who was unaware of my "OLD PRACTICES."
After George Inness (my great landscape artist-idol) died, some unscrupulous dealers came to his relatives and asked them to authenticate his signature on their fakes..........for a fee. As a result their are a few spurious Inness' paintings around today.
So, if any of my relatives are collecting money on "MY" paintings, I would suggest the Buck fans to be careful what you buy.
P.S. You still have 21 days to go to E-Bay, type in Buck Paulson paintings and watch it come up. I did notify E-bay.......
Did the photo displayed surprise you?
Let me give you an explanation. I usually clean my palette at the end of the day by scraping the clumps of left-over paint and placing them on the other end of the palette. However, for a short period of time I had been using the same locations for the paint and simply adding more to them each day. After a few days, when I scraped off all of the paint, there were still traces of where the paint had been placed. I was so moved by the power and the richness of the left behind traces, that I photographed the palette.
This power of the pigment is what excites me when I am ready to create a Pochade masterpiece. I love to see the color mixtures as they touch and intermingle with each other.
Sometimes when ideas come to us we wonder where they come from. But why should we wonder?
I am especially aware that someone is guiding me in my art when I go to the studio with an open mind and am willing to listen. I have often wondered if it is Claude Buck who is whispering some succinct suggestions in my ears. Or is it the temperamental, emotional George Inness? He was always ready to paint on any canvas in front of him, be it one of his own, or of a friend’s, or of his son’s.
Maybe it’s both Claude and George. I just want them to stay!
Switcheroo
I remember reading a quote by Maxfield Parrish in regards to wanting to paint a certain tree that he saw near a quaint building on his daily ride to town. “Because I delayed in painting the scene, the next time that I drove by the farm the tree had been cut down and turned into a pile of firewood.”
Parrish’s remark seems to suggest that when inspiration is there, take the opportunity. Well, let me give you a dilemma that I have had that might suggest delaying a bit before going to the canvas.
As several of you know, I am a rapid sports fan. Not just sitting in front of TV or sitting in bleachers, but participating in the events. My transition from being a professional baseball pitcher to a two-man softball game has taken years, but it has been and still is wonderful.
In addition, I love to paint sport scenes, and I also enjoy painting portraits of individual sport stars. Herein lays the problem. I paint the head of an athlete that I greatly admire, in the team uniform that he is currently wearing. Did you catch the caveat word, “CURRENTLY?”
Players change teams in a money musical chairs game that makes the head (brush) swim. Let me give you a few examples: Johnny Damon of the Boston Red Sox. He was a star of the Yankee hating Sox team--until more money was offered and now he is a Yankee stalwart (at this writing). Randy Johnson--went to several teams after my portrait of him in an Arizona game. Roger Clemons was all over the place, and I even have a great rendering of Shaquille O’Neill playing in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform.
Check out my sports art web page: www.halloffameart.com and see if some of the uniforms are out of date!
So what is the solution? I went to the ball field today with a Cleveland Indian shirt and a Boston Red Sox cap. An interested bystander asked me who I was for. I said that, I as a fan, will decide on who can give me the best offer
