I need a wall to paint on about the same size of Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel

July 20th, 2010 Darren Daz Cox Posted in Art History, Art in progress, Michelangelo, My Art, My life, Pekin Illinois, Quantum Intent, angel, antique, art building, fairy, figure, fine art, heart, huge canvas, my art studio, nude, oil painting, organic frame, random art, surreal oil painting, swirly art, trippy art, winged being, writing on art | No Comments »

I now need a wall to paint on about the same size of Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel.

Below is an excellent pic from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel

Michelangelo's Last Judgement fresco in the Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo’s Last Judgement fresco in the Sistine Chapel

I have proven to myself that I can paint big with my 20ft by 10ft oil paint mural in the Speakeasy Art Center and gallery in Pekin Illinois. Now I wish to go bigger and really expand the ideas I started. Here is a detail of my current work that you can see on the third floor of the Speakeasy Art Center, across from the courthouse in Pekin Illinois (there are many other cool artist’s there too with lots to see but please don’t disturb their work!).

Pekin Illinois trippy mural July 12 2010

Pekin Illinois trippy mural at the Speakeasy Art Center July 12 2010 by Darren Daz Cox

I’ve been working on some smaller paintings with the idea to have something I can sell but you can’t get the detail in a small work that you can with something huge. It is nice to share art and allow people to own something that I put time and effort into.  Below are some of my current small works that will be available to whomever wishes to own them for a modest contribution. I figure I’ll sell my small paintings for $99.00 US which is a sum most anyone with a job can afford and will appreciate in value as my work gets more and more noticed.

Angel of Ambiguity oil painting by Darren Daz Cox

Angel of Ambiguity oil painting by Darren Daz Cox

Angel of Ascention oil painting by Darren Daz Cox

Angel of Ascention oil painting by Darren Daz Cox

Fern Faerie oil painting by Darren Daz Cox

Fern Faerie oil painting by Darren Daz Cox

These oil paintings are obviously unfinished but I work on as much as I can without forcing the work. If it becomes a chore or a "job" then it doesn’t turn out well so I take my time and slowly build up a picture while I think good thoughts! It is important to me that the quantum intent associated with my art is of a positive nature and while that has no apparent relevance in a world where scientists cannot measure such things it is very important to me,,,

Post to Twitter Post to Yahoo Buzz Buzz This Post Post to Delicious Delicious Post to Digg Digg This Post Post to Facebook Facebook Post to MySpace MySpace Post to Ping.fm Ping This Post Post to Reddit Reddit This Post Post to StumbleUpon Stumble This Post

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Code red in Peoria Illinois

July 1st, 2010 Darren Daz Cox Posted in Code Red, Darren Cox, Dunlap Illinois, Graphic Design, Lake of the Woods, My Art, My life, Peoria Illinois, Photoshop, The Hot Finance Lady, WMBD AM 1470, Wayne R Miller, abstract art, angel, creative energy, current events, drawing, figure, fine art, illustration, laure feld, pencil sketch, photography | 5 Comments »

As heard on the Wayne R. Miller and Laure "The Hot Finance Lady" Feld radio show on WMBD 1470 AM this freezing sunday morning, Peoria is experiencing a Code Red, which is a weather emergency they found out for us. It’s bloody cold alright! There is a half inch of ice on everything and it was minus one degree when I took some pictures this morning, but you can’t beat the sight of sunlight through ice on a trillion branches!!!!

Lake of the woods Dunlap Illinois ice storm winter 2008 Darren Daz Cox

Lake of the Woods lake (just outside of Dunlap Illinois), first day of winter 2008.

My internet was down yesterday so I didn’t get to post this sketch I made recently so here it is now!

Peace angel sketch fine art by Darren Daz Cox

Peace Angel pencil drawing enhanced in Pshop by Darren Daz Cox.

**Note to self, check out the Picasso and Matisse prints at Lakeview Museum in Peoria Illinois****

Here’s the new logo for Riverfront Media.

Riverfront Media logo by Darren Daz Cox Peoria Illinois

Riverfront Media

 

Originally posted 2008-12-21 11:13:53. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Post to Twitter Post to Yahoo Buzz Buzz This Post Post to Delicious Delicious Post to Digg Digg This Post Post to Facebook Facebook Post to MySpace MySpace Post to Ping.fm Ping This Post Post to Reddit Reddit This Post Post to StumbleUpon Stumble This Post

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Proficient or good? which are you?

July 1st, 2010 Darren Daz Cox Posted in Alexandre Cabanel, Art History, Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst, Emile Zola, Michelangelo, Tommaso dei Cavalieri, William Bougereau, fine art, motivation, writing on art | 1 Comment »

The greatest masters have never done pictures "out of their heads."  is a quote from The Painter in Oil, by Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst who was pretty strict in his opinion of how an artist should paint the figure, directly from a live model or suffer artistic failure!

I challenge this closed-minded thinking and propose that you can get better results by working "out of your head".

Parkhurst was also a student of arguably the most proficent painter of all time, William Bougereau.  Being proficient however doesn’t necessarily equate to "good", after all, most people don’t know who Bougereau was but most everyone has heard of Vincent Van Gogh and a majority of them consider Van Gogh to be a "good" painter.

 Van Gogh sold so few paintings because most art patrons in his time expected work in the neo-classical/accademic style of painters like Alexandre Cabanel. Cabanel, like Bougereau, painted with a technical perfection that had echoes of Renaissance master Raphael.  Raphael will forever be beloved and stand as one of the greatest masters, so why not seek to reach his level of perfection? When you work from a live model and know all the techniques to make a 2d picture look 3d you can produce some stunning paintings, but you have to add in the human factor to be considered "good". 

I am little concerned with beauty or perfection. I don’t care for the great centuries. All I care about is life, struggle, intensity. – Emile Zola

Poor old Cabanel and Bougereau were only upholding the ideals of masters like Raphael when they blocked the Impressionists from the salon, they thought they knew what was "good" based on an idealized perfection that could only be achieved through superior craftsmanship. But craftsmanship alone is not enough for things to be regarded as good.

There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman. - Emile Zola

I think that the sketches Michelangelo did ‘out of his head’ rank among his finest work, here is one of them.

MICHELANGELO di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

(b. 1475, Caprese, d. 1564, Roma)

The Fall of Phaethon

c. 1533

Black chalk, 41,3 x 23,4 cm

Royal Library, Windsor UK

Michelangelo made many erotic drawings for Tommaso dei Cavalieri, including the Rape of Ganymede, The Punishment of Tityus and this one with Phaethon being zapped by Zeus for his reckless behavior.

This is a drawing that Michelangelo drew for pleasure, a drawing with real passion and stands as sweet example of non-accademic proficency, perhaps Parkhurst had never seen this sketch at the time of writing his book?

Another example that counters Parkhurst’s statement is arguably the most famous and referenced figure drawing of all time, Leonardo DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man. No model was used for that one!

I suggest that if want to stand out of the crowd and shine then seek to be good at what you do rather than to be proficient at what you do. This is not mere sematics. Proficiency encourages work that seeks to reach an ideal, an ideal is a generic concept and generic concepts don’t grab you by the heart until they are made specific. Making something specific requires that you make your stand, get off the fence and lay your cards down etc etc. You can be romantic but you don’t truely know what love is until you take that leap and risk having your heart broken.

The first time people saw Michelangelos fresco of god as a rugged old man with white hair it captured the imaginations of all who saw it, but a thousand variations on the theme later the idealized concept of god as a white haired man loses it’s punch no matter how well it is painted. 

Thomas Kinkaid’s lighthouses and sunbeams show the concept of god in a different but far more popular way these days and while Kinkaid is not highly regarded as an innovative painter he did take that leap to make his art specific to something rather than just follow the idealized concept of ‘pretty art is good’.  Take that leap, find a step off point before reaching ‘perfection’ and don’t be afraid to pull an idea out of your head.

Originally posted 2008-01-24 13:07:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Post to Twitter Post to Yahoo Buzz Buzz This Post Post to Delicious Delicious Post to Digg Digg This Post Post to Facebook Facebook Post to MySpace MySpace Post to Ping.fm Ping This Post Post to Reddit Reddit This Post Post to StumbleUpon Stumble This Post

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Happiness is unfinished landscape and nude art!

July 1st, 2010 Darren Daz Cox Posted in Art in progress, My Art, art techniques, creative energy, figure, fine art, heart, huge canvas, nude, oil glaze, oil painting, photography | 2 Comments »

Two more big oil paintings far from finished. I drew on the canvas and then added oil glazes.

unfinished landscape and nude painting art by Darren Daz Cox

~*all art by Darren Daz Cox*~

Originally posted 2008-03-11 17:38:32. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Post to Twitter Post to Yahoo Buzz Buzz This Post Post to Delicious Delicious Post to Digg Digg This Post Post to Facebook Facebook Post to MySpace MySpace Post to Ping.fm Ping This Post Post to Reddit Reddit This Post Post to StumbleUpon Stumble This Post

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

The shower, unfinished oil paints on board

July 1st, 2010 Darren Daz Cox Posted in Art in progress, Health, My Art, abstract art, blonde, creative energy, figure, fine art, frolic, happyness, oil painting, pencil sketch, pose | No Comments »

this one is oil paints on a wooden panel, soon to have oil glazes with rich colors oooh! I need to redo her ear though, funny how it’s easier to see the mistakes when i look at an image rather than the actual peice hmmm…

the girls shower by darren daz cox

~*Art by Darren Daz Cox* -

Originally posted 2007-09-17 16:39:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Post to Twitter Post to Yahoo Buzz Buzz This Post Post to Delicious Delicious Post to Digg Digg This Post Post to Facebook Facebook Post to MySpace MySpace Post to Ping.fm Ping This Post Post to Reddit Reddit This Post Post to StumbleUpon Stumble This Post

AddThis Social Bookmark Button




Twitter links powered by Tweet This v1.6.1, a WordPress plugin for Twitter.