Saturday Experiments in the Gallery at Redlands

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Watercolor sketching bison & Shelton Hall

The tensions of “publication” had been followed by a rest–now I notice that it is over, and the demon is beginning to rummage and push me again.”

Martin Heidegger, in a letter to his wife

Saturday has been a whirlwind in The Gallery at Redlands, and now the evening is already underway. I have tried throughout the day to find space to launch a blog and finally a space seems to have opened. Last night I finished the Sacred Heart Church watercolor, framed it and put it in the window. The previous blog shows that work on display.

A strange turn has happened with the bison subject matter. About a month ago, I taught a watercolor class on bison painting, and the demo I created laid about in Studio Eidolons for weeks. Every time I noticed it “out of the corner of my eye” (Andrew Wyeth’s favorite expression for evaluating his own finished work), I liked the simplicity of an iconic bison against a white background. So, on a lark, I framed the sample in a 5 x 7″ window mat and placed it in an 8 x 10″ frame and priced it at $100. It sold the day I set it up in the gallery. A week later I decided to try another one, and it sold. Yesterday, a third one sold. So now, I have a fourth and fifth to present, prices remaining at $100 each. I have no plans to make reproductions of these; as long as I have enough imagination to experiment with color and different techniques I believe I can create an authentic image and continue to offer if for sale as an original framed watercolor. We’ll see how it goes. In the meantime I am enjoying the changes in the palette as I seek ways to introduce more color into this magnificent animal.

Shelton Hall is slowly but surely taking shape. I know I won’t finish this one tonight, but will take it back to Studio Eidolons to work on the following week.

Things are getting busy again, so I’m going to close and say thanks always for reading.

Friday Evening in The Gallery at Redlands

Beginning a new 8 x 10″ watercolor of Shelton Hall in old town Palestine

Completed the Watercolor of Sacred Heart Church

I’ve been trying in vain to launch a new blog all night, but the Friday night traffic from the Queen Street Grille and bar has been continuous. Nevertheless, I wanted my readers to see what’s been happening today/tonight. The church is finished, framed and in the gallery window. And I’ve barely begun this 8 x 10″ watercolor of Shelton Hall, a popular night spot in old town Palestine.

My intention is to paint as much as I can throughout tomorrow. Sometimes Saturdays are busy here, but not always. We’ll see what happens.

Thanks for reading.

Morning Salute from The Gallery at Redlands

Another Day with Opportunities for Creative Eros

What underlies our metaphysical questioning and hence metaphysics itself is not a foundation but an abyss. It is not solid ground, it is nothingness.

. . .

In this sense the ideological and philosophical structures that human beings construct for themselves to cling to as a guide . . . to equip themselves for this world, and make it as bearable as possible–distract from the essence of existence.

Wolfram Eilenberger, Time of the Magicians: Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade that Reinvented Philosophy

Sunlight floods The Gallery at Redlands this morning and the horn of Charlie Parker punctuates this artistic space as I read while listening to The Savoy Recordings. The book cited above has provided excellent company for weeks now as I read this intriguing biography of four great thinkers who steered their intellectual careers through the turbulent waters of 1920’s Europe.

Years ago I was rocked when my worldview changed from the illusion of my standing on a solid stationary ground to the reality of being perched on a spinning orb wobbling through space. I likewise experienced the existential shock when my philosophical view of life changed much like that described in the text above. In my early years, I knew everything and the future was secure. And then one day I faced my own mortality and transience.

Such thoughts paralyze some with anxiety. But once they are faced, a dizzying freedom has the potential to show itself. Not wanting to oversimplify, I just want to express my gratitude for waking this morning to a new day, offering new opportunities, new adventures, hopefully some quality art. I love my Studio Eidolons at home, but am grateful for quality light and this gift of a drafting table in The Gallery at Redlands. Wherever I am from day to day, I have this gifted space to pursue creative dreams. Personally, I cannot envision a better morning than one that includes coffee, journaling time, quality reading and then walking over to the drafting table to lean over my latest attempt at art.

I wish all of you the best of days, and invite you to check out new images I’ve posted on my website www.davidtrippart.com. If you are in the Palestine area, I’ll be in the gallery all day today and Saturday till closing at 9 p.m.

Thanks for reading.

I make art in order to discover.

I journal when I feel alone.

I blog to remind myself I am not alone.

New Additions to the Gallery at Redlands

We have added a new plaque to our gallery display

Lovely Plaque displaying recent article from County Line Magazine

Greetings from Palestine, Texas at The Gallery at Redlands! As is the custom, I arrived here around noon Thursday and will remain till 9 p.m. closing time Saturday night. We just proudly hung the plaque that arrived a few days ago, containing the entire article from County Line Magazine published April 28 to celebrate the gallery re-opening under our ownership and featuring The Twelve. I also spent the bulk of this Thursday afternoon hanging new work and rearranging the display of earlier pieces.

Cecilia Bramhall has brought out a large collection of new work!

If you have not been by the gallery recently, you will want to check out Cecilia Bramhall’s new body of work. Some of this was on display last weekend for our city’s first “Art Walk”, but I myself did not see it as it was displayed on the other end of town in one of our area businesses. Now we proudly make a provisional home for it as patrons begin the adoption process.

Grace Hessman pastel

We have also just received word that Grace Hessman, one of our pastelists, has new work coming into the gallery soon. It is currently being framed for presentation.

Grace Hessman work

Nearing the finish of this watercolor of Sacred Heart across the street from the gallery

I am hoping to finish this “Sacred Heart” watercolor by the end of the weekend. Recently I’ve had more time to work on it while in the gallery during the quieter hours.

If you are in the vicinity of Palestine, Texas, I’ll be here at 400 N. Queen Street, Suite 109. The Gallery at Redlands has brought in a considerable amount of new work waiting for buyers to come in and claim it. On behalf of The Twelve, let me thank you for reading.

I make art in order to discover.

I journal when I feel alone.

I blog to remind myself I am not alone.

Happy that WordPress is Fixed

Getting toward the end of this Watercolor

I’m happy that WordPress finally showed me another way to access my blogsite. I just wanted quickly to put up my watecolor in its later stages. I promise that I’ll blog again soon, now that I am back online.

Thanks for reading.

Still Locked out of WordPress

Hello everyone. Since Saturday, I have been unable to access my blog with my laptop, and have to resort to my smartphone, which I detest using for blogging. I wanted you to see the painting in progress. Meanwhile after repeated phone calls and emails and chat boards, I still wait for WordPress to fix this problem.

Hello, WordPress. . . ? Anybody out there?

Having enjoyed blogging since July 2009, I have been unable to access my blog from my laptop since Saturday morning. All attempts to get support from WordPress have been futile. Phone numbers, chat rooms, emails–all futile. Anybody out there know how to reach this organization? I don’t want to blog from my smart phone.

Morning with Whitman

Inspired by Whitman’s “Eidolons” Poem

Sacred Heart Church

Saturday morning finds me up early on the second floor of the Redlands Hotel. Reading has been inspirational, as well as my recent work on this large watercolor of Sacred Heart across the street from our gallery. I hope to have more to write later, but for some reason I cannot access my blog from the laptop. My attempts to blog using this smartphone are clumsy. Hopefully, I will have more to report later…

Sunday Repose

All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

Thomas Carlyle

What a serene Sunday! Dragging in at 11:30 last night after a 48-hour gallery weekend, I was quite bedraggled, but happy. Happier now, rested! My reading this morning over coffee yielded this remark from Carlyle that I had recorded 15 years ago in my journal, and forgotten (I really should spend more time digging up the old bones I’ve buried in those notebooks since 1985). I cannot exaggerate the power of books to light creative fires for me. When I’m feeling flat, someone will always pull me out of the funk with what s/he cared enough to write for others to find. I still love the quote from the film Shadowlands: “We read to know we’re not alone.”

I have decided today to push further with this “Lone Bison” series. It began in Utah last September when I encountered a herd and took dozens of photos. Not long after, I used the photos as models and began drawing and watercoloring in sketchbooks my experiments with color and composition. I am becoming more daring with my colors of late and want to see how far I can push it.

When it comes to selling my art, I often find myself talking out both sides of my mouth: I’ll sell anything. However, there are particular pieces that I’m attached to for various reasons, and while in my possession, I spend time looking at them and contemplating how I can repeat the painting or extend it into a new direction. When a new work sells quickly, I’m robbed of that contemplative, composting time that has come to mean so much more in these later years.

Case in point: The Lone Bison. Last weekend I pulled from my collection at home a solitary bison, 5 x 7″ inches, that I painted as a demo for one of my “Watercolor Wednesdays” classes. I liked the way it cropped neatly into a 5 x 7″ inch matt, so I framed it and set it on the display case in The Gallery at Redlands. That very evening, someone bought it. So . . . all week long I could not stop thinking of that small watercolor study. Yesterday, in the gallery, I painted another one, using the same model as before. Before I could get it into the frame, a dear friend I’ve known since high school texted me that he wanted to purchase it. So . . . in the evening, I painted a third one, matted and framed it, but left it in the gallery in case someone just might see it this next week and wish to purchase it. So now here I am, at home in Studio Eidolons, thinking of all the possibilities I want to pursue with that solitary bison. We’ll see what happens today. I’m grateful for the time, the space, and the quiet.

Thanks for reading.

I make art in order to discover.

I journal when I feel alone.

I blog to remind myself I am not alone.

Thoughts on the Lone Bison

Today we are searching for things in nature that are hidden behind the veil of appearance… We look for and paint this inner, spiritual side of nature.

Franz Marc

Vacationing in Utah last year brought me in close proximity to a herd of bison. I was moved profoundly as I gazed upon those behemoths grazing quietly on a broad plain, continually kicking up dust as they moved about. I attempted a pair of watercolors of them and was satisfied with the results. However, I found myself far more engaged as I continued sketching them in my watercolor sketchbooks and even once taught a watercolor class on bison sketching. This morning, waking in The Redlands Hotel, I determined that after breakfast I would make my way to the gallery downstairs and attempt yet another bison watercolor sketch, just a simple 5 x 7″ one.

In my most recent bison experiments, I am trying to open up and use Daniel Smith quinacridone colors more aggressively. This morning as I attempted my latest one, I thought about Franz Marc, the German Expressionist who founded the Blue Rider movement (Der Blaue Reiter), something that started as a published journal and eventually drew about it a circle of artists including Wasily Kandinsky. Marc imposed a vivid array of colors on the animals he painted, and I’ve never been able to get those images out of my head. So I decided “Why not try this on the bison?”

I’ve decided to mat this 5 x 7″ piece and place it in an 8 x 10″ frame and price it at $100 in The Gallery at Redlands. While I’m at it, I’ll go ahead and post the other two already hanging in this space.

Utah Evening Serenity, 21 x 20″ framed watercolor. $450

Bison Herd in Utah, 23 x 31″ framed watercolor. $600

The Lone Bison, 8 x 10″ framed watercolor. $100

Saturday in The Gallery at Redlands is proving calm and productive for me. I’ll be here till we close at 9 tonight.

Thanks for reading.

I make art in order to discover.

I journal when I feel alone.

I blog to remind myself I am not alone.