Friday, October 29, 2010

Dora blows the whistle on Citigroup

Surely we are all familiar with the Picasso painting titled Dora and the Minotaur? The Dora in question is, of course, Dora Maar, one of Picasso's many lovers slash muses. This is it:



And this is it again, this time cropped for my high-minded purposes:



And this, dear reader, is a progression from what one might call zero to what one might call half-baked. Hah.











If you read closely, you can see that the copy scrawled across the top reads "Meredith Whitney grapples with the next big prediction."

Which will, in due course, read Prognostication, not Prediction.

I'm experimenting with the idea of pouring one color onto the canvas, then shmooing it around a certain area, then pouring a smaller amount of a second color into the same area and then shmooing that around. If you look at her body in image two you can easily imagine that white was the first color and red was the second. I rather prefer the lightness of images two and three, but the head of the minotaur was a disaster. The caravan moves on.

Picasso knew this.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Presented without comment, Volume 2











Comment #1--We are about half way there. One member of the Year of Magical Painting Commentariat wrote: "The boobs seemed to disappear from the first to the last. This is a problem." Remain calm and consider this:



First, just for the record, the "boobs" (to employ the writer's terminology) are already there. It's the nipples that are missing. And this, let me tell you dear friend, is the hardest part. It took me two weeks to summon the courage to apply the nipples on "Elena in the Morning"--one of my all, all time favorite paintings. And look how they turned out.

Comment #2--there is still work to be done on, among other things, the breasts, face, hand and the question of whether the panel behind her head should remain white. I'm of the school that says yes, but friends have suggested something a little softer.

Comment #3--But I am becoming extremely fond of this painting. I think I'm gonna write a bunch of stuff on the back (something I've been doing more and more of lately--a kind of private annotation of a public image) purely for the benefit of the subject/owner. Of whom I'm fond.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Presented without comment











Comment #1--Okay, I'm not presenting them without comment. I'm instead saying that, unlike the women in the fields that have had so many babies they just squat down and have them (this may be an urban myth but the image is compelling), most of my paintings are a struggle. Here you see one.

Comment #2--The painting has evolved considerably since then and I'm beginning to feel good about it.

Comment #3--Belay that. I always felt good about it. Just degrees of goodness, if you catch my drift.

Comment #4--I'm calling it "Woman with Roses". Which, as you can see, haven't been inserted as of this post but which now exist.

Comment #5--I'd post a more recent image but my camera is messing with me.

Friday, October 15, 2010

My favorite video of the day...

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I missed the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. Oy gevalt, as they say in Japan.

Nonetheless, wandering around u-tube I found this: my favorite video of the day. Only problem is that it's in German.



For you pathetic monolinguists, here's Mark Webber sharing his thoughts in English. Mahk Webbah!



Now that the cool stuff is over, it's fun to guess how much Krugerrand they invested in building that simulator. Me? I'm awaiting the arrival of F1 2010 (the video game). Because I'm a boy at heart.

If you weren't paying attention, Vettel won; Webber came in second. Me? If Alonso can't make up the ground, I'm rooting for Webber to win the championship. It will be interesting.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

This may now be revealed...

"Big Maggie I (Hail Britannia)"

Which is the name of the thing. The thing itself is here:



I'm pretty fond of this painting, actually. Positively regal, if that's the right word. I was shooting for a kind of Margaret-Thatcher-Channeling-Joan-of-Arc feel circa Immediately-Post-Falklands.

And that jawline! Monumental. Rushmoresque!

It's signed in green along the top of her left shoulder, and on the back. Hard to see, but this, as they say, is a genuine Geoffrey Raymond thing.

Which must count for something.