LYLAS 4 ~ "Maginty" ~ J. M. W. Turner Exhibit ~ DMA ~ Angel Painting

LYLAS 4
SOLD
LYLAS 4 "Maginty" Acrylic
9" x 12" Gallery Wrapped Canvas, 3/4" profile black (depth)
This is the fourth in the Lylas series. See this post to read how the paintings came to be.

Now to the DMA

J. M. W. Turner "The Angel Standing in the Sun" 1846
was painted in his 70's and it shows where the light of the sun dissolves the boundary of Heaven and earth and an angel appears causing a bridge between Heaven and earth.
The Turner exhibit closes at the Dallas Museum of Art May 18 and it was very busy when I attended Thursday, April 17. I recommend you make the trip and get the audio guide. I'm an artist without an art history degree and much of my Turner education came from this visit. From this brief day of information, I think Turner would have been an art blogger with a web site promoting his art. I'm an art blogger and I think I know one when I see one. He embraced the technology at the time and was a canny business man. While other artists would wait until their painting was hung to put on the final varnish, Turner opted to do some actual painting on his, in other words a short free demo and then varnish causing more hype. Usually his paintings included some descriptive statement with a few lines of poetry and sometimes the poetry was written by him. Sounds like a blogger to me.
Turner, at times, used watercolor like oil and oil like watercolor. On several paintings the oil was used so thinly the texture of the weave of the canvas was visible. The exhibit is a dazzle to the eyes with approximately 140 works and there are over 20 stations discussed with the audio guide. It is the largest and most comprehensive retrospective ever held in the U.S. of J. M. W. Turner's works in oils and watercolors (1775-1851). One word, LIGHT, has always been associated with his work and it is prominent in his depiction of seascapes, mythology, religious themes, imagination and historical events.
The one above, The Angel Standing in the Sun, spoke to me as I'm been painting some angel type figures and up close you could only view one wing.
Here are some links of this particular angel piece and gives more insight and explanation of the work. Eat a hearty breakfast before going as you will want to linger and read the additional information posted by the paintings or you can take a museum lunch break and go back in the afternoon but please go. If you have time, the Wikipedia article would give a little additional information before attending.

Another view of the painting.

Art Notes.

The TATE.

Steve Rogers Workshop ~ Tuesday, Day 1 ~ Fort Worth, TX

Disclaimer: Some of the photos were taken through an overhead mirror and the image is reversed and the mirror is cloudy in places and some of the paintings had plastic protectors on them.
I’m still not unpacked from the last 2 or 3 workshops. Well, maybe a little. It’s out of the suitcase and on the kitchen table and couch. Saturday was a blur. I did fit in a needed seafood fix at Fish City Grill. Then on Sunday the family “inlaws and outlaws”, friends, and cohorts had a kickball game in Alvarado. One new friend was welcomed – Davran from Krygstan, a foreign exchange student staying with a family member.
I was smart enough not to play and the sun was wonderful to sit on the sidelines and listen to the banter. I got to see my granddaughter Autumn’s recent college sorority’s mud wrestling photos on her laptop – a definite plus for the day.
The best news is that CBC members did not paint Monday but some of us had to meet for an El Chico lunch to discuss giclees and then home to begin to gather up the supplies for the Steve Rogers workshop. I didn’t begin to finish before our SWA meeting at 7:00 where he gave a demo. It was a great preview of things to come for the next 3 days but after coming home I did stay up until about 2:00 a.m. getting the rest of the supplies together and to get my palette to look like his. It is my goal someday, sometime to read a book, watch TV or go to a movie before a workshop. Instead my days and weeks and nights are filled with last minute details and things to pack. This is not how it should be done. The only excuse is that I’ve recently attended workshops from Donna Zagotta, Robert Burridge, Carla O’Connor and now Steve’s. It’s been the gamut from opaque watercolor to acrylic to transparent watercolor. I’ll get it all sorted out eventually.
I was glad that for Day 1 Steve gave us a demo first thing and then had us to do some color exercises and practice some painting techniques before diving into a painting. He wanted us to work on a full sheet, but chicken me opted for only a half sheet and by days end, I had a very wild colored sky and not quite as wild water. This painting may not be able to be pulled out of the fire and I'm not brave enough to share it yet. We are all working on boats and reflections. I don’t have enough down on paper yet to post the painting so I’m putting on a slide show of photos from last night’s demo and some from the Tuesday’s class.

When Steve began to paint his demo at the Monday night SWA meeting, he put on a red bandana so I decided I needed to wear one today to show support at the workshop with my new Llano Estacado T-shirt from the winery in Lubbock. Workshop participants might enjoy reading more about Steve’s life in this article by Stephen Doherty “Inspiration at Higher Levels” in the American Artists Watercolor Magazine.
Our class goal seems to be to put down color and modify it, bring it to life, and have the color show movement and to make an attractive painting. Steve is a master of color and there was many variables on achieving his look such as how you put the paint down, the tilt of the board, the tilt of the brush and we are all trying our best to mimic his work, not to copy him, but just get the feel of how he works and maybe sometime during the 3 days we will become more comfortable using vivid color in a loose way, and a way that we haven’t tried before. Check back here for Day 2 and progress reports.
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