I created the fighting cock painting as a result of recognizing forms when I sat down to do an abstract. My first intent was a very abstracted work but I soon saw the shapes forming while I was painting and it resulted in this abstracted painting of two birds fighting.
It is acrylic on canvas.
This painting is 24″ x 30″ (61cm x 76cm) and is available for sale. The colors included in the painting are Cadmium Yellow, Pyrrole Red, Green Gold, Iridescent Pearl, Interference Blue.
In an Instant © MFCarter 2012
This painting was inspired by a conversation that I was having one morning with Mario. We were talking about how things can change in what seems a blink of an eye. Things such as health, a job, a loved one, a lifetime… the list is long. Whatever you care to name; it can leave you quickly and with a sense of loss, of gain, of comfort or abandonment. These feelings can be overwhelming and rapid.
Life and time are like this. Things change, simply change, no matter how hard you try to grasp them and hold them tight – maintaining them and nurturing them. Change is always there and it sometimes occurs much more rapidly than you or anyone else could ever think possible.
Like a lightning bolt traversing the night, things in your life can blaze and fade quickly, almost as if they never existed at all and yet they leave a mark in the retina of your eye that no one else can see but can change you forever.
This painting is acrylic and gold leaf over canvas and is sized 24″ x 30″. It is available for sale.
estigma
Santiago studied painting in Barcelona and was part of a group of young painters influenced by informalism. Tàpies was an influential figure for him. Tachism and working with different materials, accidents, chance, and texture are all highly influential in his works. He likes to experiment and is influenced by the avant-garde. His own work is realistic in nature and combines elements of romanticism and minimalism.
Carbonell feels that being an artist is not inherited and that the environment that one grows up in is more important than one’s genes. His father loved art and took him to museums when he was a young boy. As a child, he learned from his parents a passion for music and literature. He claims that the love that parents had for the arts and imparted to him was much more important than any inherited gene.
His paintings cover a broad spectrum of subjects. He prefers to use dancers as his models because they know how to move and are comfortable with their bodies. He captures this sensuality in his paintings. In his paintings, we recognize ourselves, our frailties, and our dreams. He is paints slowly and his paintings sell well.
He currently lives in Mexico with his wife and children and teaches art in Querétaro, Mexico in the University.
His web site with many fine examples of his art is located at santiagocarbonell.com
Copyright 2011 MFCarter
Composed – serenely self-possessed and free from agitation especially in times of stress; “the performer seemed completely composed as she stepped onto the stage”; “I felt calm and more composed than I had in a long time”
One of my most recent works. It was inspired by the idea of Composure and how to represent the concept graphically through color and design. I choose to interpret it as a series of nested quadrilaterals. Going from an exterior red canvas or agitated state to an interior black rectangle representing composure.
The canvas is 24” X 30” (60.96cm x 76.2cm). The red is a mixture of acrylic and sand and all other colors are acrylic. The black area is covered by glass beads. The reflective areas are iridescent acrylics.
This painting is for sale as well as a number of others which can be found at my web site.
All enquires should be sent directly to mfcarter2@gmail.com.
I found a useful reference for those of you who are interested or just starting out in painting written by Marion Boddy-Evans on About.com. It’s called Absolute Beginner Painting – Common Questions Asked by Absolute Beginners to Painting.
Marion Boddy-Evans is an artist, writer, and photographer who lives on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. She loves to travel which provides her many opportunities to paint new lands and people as well as visiting galleries and exhibits. She has been the About.com Guide to Painting for several years.
In this article, She addresses many of the basic painting questions such as:
And many other questions.
This is a very good reference for beginners to start with and should be very useful to anyone with questions about painting.
Check it out. Absolute Beginner Painting – Common Questions Asked by Absolute Beginners to Painting.
Anthropomorphic – adj, ascribing human form or attributes to a being or thing not human, esp. to a deity.
I have been interested lately in exploring balance and vaguely anthropomorphic shapes. This is the first painting in the series. I approached it a little differently this time and started with a black and sand covered canvas. The sand provides a text that I love to see, almost a velvety look.
The paints on this are all acrylic.
Painting size: 30″ x 24″
I had an idea of what I wanted to do with this painting but I wasn’t sure if I could get the texture the way I wanted it. I used a large amount of sand in all the paint on the canvas. The sand helps to provide a very visual, almost tactile texture that is not quite like velvet. It makes people want to touch the painting to feel its texture. The photograph at the left really doesn’t do the texture justice.
I have also incorporated some glass beads in the red and pinkish portions of the painting to provide some additional reflectivity of light.
The statement that I am trying to make with this painting is about the trials and tribulations of life. They are unavoidable. The dark portions represent the dark places in our spirits while the pinks, reds, and oranges represent various levels of positive every day occurrences. All of these things go together to make the texture of our lives. When in balance, as I believe this painting is, it makes a harmonious whole that is quite beautiful.
I hope you find the beauty in this painting and in your own lives. Let me know what you think.
Trials and Tribulations
Acrylic, Sand, and Glass
24” x 30”
Espermatozoide is the Spanish word for sperm. It is the male sexual reproductive cell or male gamete which fertilizes the egg, providing additional genetic information to the female cell. In size, it’s about 10,000 times smaller than the egg.
Recently we’ve been seeing in the news the hysteria over the swine flu virus now called h1n1. This simple name change represents the confusion and fear that the name flu or virus creates. It’s difficult for me to believe that in this age that some countries were banning or killing their pigs out of fear that they could be contaminated with the virus.
When I was recently in Costa Rica, we had to fill out forms when entering the country indicating if we had any symptoms of the flu. When we were leaving the country there were announcements in the airport saying that visitors should report to a special area if they had any symptoms of cough, headache, or fever.
In my mind, a virus is a normal part of life. They’ve been here at least as long as humans have and will be here long after us. Perhaps, one day we will be able to control the movements of humans or perhaps provide a “cure” for a virus at a moment’s notice but we aren’t at that point today.
Perhaps it is a bit fatalistic on my part but there’s little we can do except wash our hands and be extremely conscientious when we or others around us are ill.
My latest painting I have dedicated to the virus.
Two Rivulets side by side,
Two blended, parallel, strolling tides,
Companions, travelers, gossiping as they journey.
For the Eternal Ocean bound,
These ripples, passing surges, streams of Death and Life,
Object and Subject hurrying, whirling by,
The Real and Ideal,
Alternate ebb and flow the Days and Nights,
(Strands of a Trio twining, Present, Future, Past.)
In You, whoe’er you are, my book perusing,
In I myself—in all the World—these ripples flow,
All, all, toward the mystic Ocean tending.
(O yearnful waves! the kisses of your lips!
Your breast so broad, with open arms, O firm, expanded shore!)
Poem by Walt Whitman