Sheherazade  52 x 34 oil on canvas


It's been 9 months since my last confession...well not really...but I have sinned in not posting . But I do have ample excuses.

I needed money to expand my Gallery business as well as free myself up a bit to travel and paint. So Jana and I sold our home at just the right time in Auburn. The market was hot and even though we fell out of escrow 2 times for weird reasons we finally sold to a nice couple. Jana was sad and attached to the house but I had no problem letting go and hoping for just the right location that will suit our art type lifestyle better. We are renting an apartment while we look for another house, but frankly, after being a homeowner for 30 years it feels great not to have to look after a lawn and all the work in taking care of a property.  Plus , we have a wonderful north east view of the Sierra.

 Selling , packing , moving and finding......I guess you can say we had a lot on our plate.

 I finally finished " Sheherazade " and I was happy how it finally came together. The painting was on my wall in the gallery for over a year and I had no clue where I wanted to take the painting. What I did know is what I didn't want. I did not want the painting to look like anything I had painted before and I did not want it to be boring and predictable. I also did not want another Salon like image that looked like another rehash of a Sargent or Bougeareau. I have no problem with those men, they are my heroes. I just feel strongly that you have to set your sail and let the wind take you where you only have to go. No one else can chart that current.

 Then one day...it came to me. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and how to paint it. I wanted to capture Mo's creative energy and spirit in the background in an abstract way with swirls of color like a cosmic dance. She attends Burning Man and I wanted someone to look at this painting and "get her". I wanted the painting to be about her and not about what I thought about her...if that makes any sense.

 The painting went pretty quickly from that moment of awareness and vision and I painted the shapes and background with heavily loaded swatches of brilliant paint that glided in swift arcs across the canvas in bold gestures.

 I entered this painting in the California Art Club's Gold Medal Show and it was rejected although a little 5 x 10 painting that I threw in as an after thought got in. Go figure.

 No one like's rejection, but I am very please with this painting as I feel it is a breakthrough image for me. The Ordaz does not give up and I hope to enter another interesting piece next year.


Wiley was painted recently and I guess when he first walked into my gallery studio and made a dash to my chair and urinated on it may have been a sign of the judges view of my work. It makes me laugh and enjoy the differences.

Blessings and Happy New Year. Forget what is behind and let's forge on to the future bravely.
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  1. Welcome back, was going to send out the dogs after the 1st of the new year. Happy New Year

    ReplyDelete

  2. Welcome back, was going to send out the dogs after the 1st of the new year. Was it a boy or a girl? Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete

  4. Hi Frank,
    Nice to have you back. Sorry about the rejection, but you, better than most of us, understand the curiosities of show juries. I choose not to play, which may be something of a cop out, but I just can't stand the pain.
    I salute you on making the decision to sell your home. We did a similar thing about eleven years ago and have never looked back. The freedom to move about is priceless to us and we've taken maximum advantage of it. Almost forgot...We became renters after selling and are able to live in places we could never afford to buy!
    I hope all goes well with your new life.
    Sincerely,
    Gary.

    ReplyDelete

  2. Sheherazade  52 x 34 oil on canvas


    It's been 9 months since my last confession...well not really...but I have sinned in not posting . But I do have ample excuses.

    I needed money to expand my Gallery business as well as free myself up a bit to travel and paint. So Jana and I sold our home at just the right time in Auburn. The market was hot and even though we fell out of escrow 2 times for weird reasons we finally sold to a nice couple. Jana was sad and attached to the house but I had no problem letting go and hoping for just the right location that will suit our art type lifestyle better. We are renting an apartment while we look for another house, but frankly, after being a homeowner for 30 years it feels great not to have to look after a lawn and all the work in taking care of a property.  Plus , we have a wonderful north east view of the Sierra.

     Selling , packing , moving and finding......I guess you can say we had a lot on our plate.

     I finally finished " Sheherazade " and I was happy how it finally came together. The painting was on my wall in the gallery for over a year and I had no clue where I wanted to take the painting. What I did know is what I didn't want. I did not want the painting to look like anything I had painted before and I did not want it to be boring and predictable. I also did not want another Salon like image that looked like another rehash of a Sargent or Bougeareau. I have no problem with those men, they are my heroes. I just feel strongly that you have to set your sail and let the wind take you where you only have to go. No one else can chart that current.

     Then one day...it came to me. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and how to paint it. I wanted to capture Mo's creative energy and spirit in the background in an abstract way with swirls of color like a cosmic dance. She attends Burning Man and I wanted someone to look at this painting and "get her". I wanted the painting to be about her and not about what I thought about her...if that makes any sense.

     The painting went pretty quickly from that moment of awareness and vision and I painted the shapes and background with heavily loaded swatches of brilliant paint that glided in swift arcs across the canvas in bold gestures.

     I entered this painting in the California Art Club's Gold Medal Show and it was rejected although a little 5 x 10 painting that I threw in as an after thought got in. Go figure.

     No one like's rejection, but I am very please with this painting as I feel it is a breakthrough image for me. The Ordaz does not give up and I hope to enter another interesting piece next year.


    Wiley was painted recently and I guess when he first walked into my gallery studio and made a dash to my chair and urinated on it may have been a sign of the judges view of my work. It makes me laugh and enjoy the differences.

    Blessings and Happy New Year. Forget what is behind and let's forge on to the future bravely.
    Posted by
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    1. Welcome back, was going to send out the dogs after the 1st of the new year. Happy New Year

      ReplyDelete

    2. Welcome back, was going to send out the dogs after the 1st of the new year. Was it a boy or a girl? Happy New Year!

      ReplyDelete

    4. Hi Frank,
      Nice to have you back. Sorry about the rejection, but you, better than most of us, understand the curiosities of show juries. I choose not to play, which may be something of a cop out, but I just can't stand the pain.
      I salute you on making the decision to sell your home. We did a similar thing about eleven years ago and have never looked back. The freedom to move about is priceless to us and we've taken maximum advantage of it. Almost forgot...We became renters after selling and are able to live in places we could never afford to buy!
      I hope all goes well with your new life.
      Sincerely,
      Gary.

      ReplyDelete

  3. Rosie , 14x17 oil on linen


     Well, it's very hard to get back in the blogging game when you don't have a way to upload your images via your usual android tether. I know , I know...it's a bit stone age and cheap but I was tethering my android phone to my iMac to get internet . All was well in the world until my phone went south and I had to get a new phone. Of course getting back up to speed is NEVER an easy thing. My guess is purgatory will have some sort of internet hookup game to frustrate and purge patience into you. You just want to break things when you can't get your new device to work right away. I've gone through several tether apps all to no avail. I am only online because I hauled my iMac to my home and I am using an ethernet cable to get online.( If I am smart I will do several posts ). I guess I may have to break down and buy internet access to the Gallery. Oh well.....

    I was hoping to enter this painting in the Portrait Society of America Competition but I missed the deadline. In my mind, I had the notification date of the 24 as the entry deadline and not the 4th of March. Drat. The competition seems to go for more social comment these days....so I don't think it may have placed anyway. But I will never now.

     Also, I was accepted as a Signature member of the California Art Club....but not without a little controversy..... and that will remain a secret.

     I am painting portraits of 4 children for a family in Auburn. The above was the first and it was from an out take when little Rosie was resting. I caught her with my camera and it was the view that we selected together. It captured her sweet personality. The parents are very happy with the painting.


    a painting in progress of my Uncle Ralph, survivor of the Bataan Death March....


    blessings
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  4. Last Saturday the gallery was full with students who watched and learned how I approached painting a portrait from photo reference. This portrait was done in about a 3 hr clip with my discussion about seeing and visualizing the object in the third dimension. I went over my modified Zorn palette and also explained how I use Photoshop to key in value strings. I plan to add a background in the future to this portrait of my buddy John Downs. This was painted on a 18 x 24 oil primed canvas linen canvas.

     I asked the participants to take pictures of the portrait progress along the way and many were taking my advice. Come back soon as hopefully some will email me some of the early set up paint strokes and thinking process.
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  6. What a weird topic for an Art Blog. But hey. This may be the most important thing you'll read today or even possibly this week because your attitude will affect your income. Let me repeat. Your attitude as an artist will affect your income. Now here is the twist. For this post I will define INCOME as that good which comes your way by the Art of being friendly. As the hunkered down soldier will yell when a bomb approaches ... " INCOMING"! Life comes AT YOU whether you like it or not and how you handle Life's curve balls and bombs will affect your income as an artist.

    Many people have come to the Gallery and told me that I am a friendly guy. That was not always the case. In Art School, I had an extreme adversarial attitude towards other students in my class. It was my East L.A. way of copeing with the stress of competing with other aspiring artists. It got so bad that in my Fashion class  a nice young lady came up to me during a crit one day and told me.... " Do you know that I am quite possibly the only student in this class that likes you? I was taken aback. For me , other students were in my way . I wanted to achieve greatness ... not make friends. In fact, I was told by a relative that friends would bring you down. You don't need them. That was bad advice. It was right around that time that I had to re examine my attitude about being friendly.

     I was impressed that my Mom would talk to strangers and strike up a pleasant conversation. What a marvelous gift I thought to myself. Mom would tell me that you just got to like other people and be interested in who they are and what they are about. From there she said .... things flow. That advice has proved very valuable. At the end of the day , I needed to get out of my head and look and see what was around me. As part of the TV generation , people can seem like actors that are concocted from the pen of a scriptwriter but they are not. People live , breath , eat and bleed just like you and me.

     So when they walk into the Gallery, I greet them with a friendly salutation. Usually , after awhile , the visitor will get comfortable and will begin to want to talk. It's usually then that I steer the conversation to them and try to get their life's story. I've even asked a couple of people point blank ... So.... What's your story?.....

     Okay, so what does this have to do with anything. Everything I learned about Living I learned by doing the wrong thing first. Like painting, we need to adjust when conditions change and seek balance...otherwise we tip!

     Well, I have discovered that by being friendly at the  Gallery  and caring about people will often find us at a point of mutual intersection. And that intersection is where the next chapter to the Story can start.

     Try it out artist type!
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  7.  I had a little extra time the other day and I needed to paint John the barbershop guy. The Auburn Barbershop is right across the street and just like Mayberry , there can be a group of us in there just shooting the breeze....and once in a while catching a duck.

     John cuts my hair the best it has ever been cut.... so says my wife. So like a well trained husband, I routinely walk across the street and John cuts my hair. I'm impressed how these barbers stand on their feet for the full day cutting hair. The place is always busy.

     Anyway...he wants his portrait and now we are trading haircuts for this small portrait.
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  8. Dorothy Indelicato and me
    I had the honor of judging the 29th annual juried art show at the Delicato Winery on Saturday. There were over 200 entries and I had to limit the show to 100 pieces. So I guess around now there may be some angry people looking to get even with me .

     The highlight of my time there was meeting and spending the afternoon with Dorothy Indelicato who is co-owner of the Winery. Her family has been  making wine  in Manteca, Ca since 1929. They make a wine specially labeled for Wolfgang Puck . She let me sample some of their fine varietals ( only after you judge said Dorothy ) and I was blown away by their Brazin Old Vine Zinfandel. I drove home happy with some extra cash and six bottles of some of their finest offerings! Thanks Dorothy...as they say...she is a swell gal!!!!!






    If you love Norman Rockwell, you will hate yourself if you miss this once in a lifetime WestCoast showing of many of his original oils and drawings at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. The museum was packed the day I went and I hope to go back when it is less crowded. Boy o boy....some of his most famous paintings are in the show!

     

     I really learned to appreciate Mr. Rockwell as my old mentor Sam Hyde Harris was personal friends with him. I would stare at an original Saturday EVENING POST COVER behind Sam's couch with the inscription by his signature....to my good friend Sam. Wow! Sam introduced Norman to his second wife Mary Barstow who was an elementary school teacher in Alhambra Ca. Norman also used a janitor in Alhambra for several of his Post covers. What a wonderful world that was opened to me as a young man by older men of Art. I appreciate those days more and more as wrinkles line my face.




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  10. 11x14 oil on panel
    I am usually asked to paint portraits where often times getting the subject to sit and pose is not always possible. In the case for the portrait above, the young lady in the right has cancer and she no longer is in the condition you see her in. The photograph was very washed out and if it were not for the fact that I studied anatomy in my early years of training this portrait would probably have been a disaster. A relative commissioned this piece for her father. She is posed next to her brother and this was the way she wanted her remembered.

     These portraits tend to be difficult to paint and being somewhat detached from knowing her helped me concentrate on finishing. I probably would have been a wreck if I would have known her personally. We hate to see our children suffer. I pray for her....blessings and hold your children a little tighter tonight.


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  11. Someone once said something a bit clever that rang true about how our bodies were designed. You and I were not made to walk backwards comfortably. Well, I guess you could set some world record and get some media attention if you walked everywhere backwards but everything about where our eyes are set as well as our feet and arms and torso are made for moving forward!

     I thought about that as I screwed around with the design of this Blog and "checked" out the new blogger displays last week. Little did I know that a Pandora moment awaited me. No longer could I get all my info and design layout back to the way I had originally  designed it...at least with my level of incompetence.So I was left with a decision. I could curse the internet Google Gods and get bummed or set my mind to launch the New Year with something new and uncharted.

     So I am moving forward, no longer lamenting about how it was and looking at the glass half full as we all together turn the page and get ready to blast off to a new year. Life is about finishing strong as St. Paul said. Although I don't expect to leave the planet until my said time is up... we can all make a decision to make next year even more better than the last despite setbacks and disappointments. Its a good part of attitude...I've learned that the hard way.

     I don't know where I would have been this year without the help of my friends and family. An artist needs a good support system to pull this madness off.


    "MoGoddess"

     Around this time I look over all the work that I have produced the entire year. I try to see where I can improve and also I have found that if you have a tendency to be critical of your art...then its a good time to see the good things you have pulled off. Sometimes I sez to myself...heck...that wasn't half bad.

     Next week I am off to judge an art show in Manteca Ca at the Delicato Family Winery.
    .....

     Progress is going along slowly on "MoGoddess". I am painting this portrait right on the Gallery Wall. The portrait is for "Mo" and while talking about it I stumbled on the title MoGoddess...and not to be confused with Will Farrell's character MoGato in Zoolander!
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  12.  Today we honor a true American hero. He is homegrown around these parts and he lives in Auburn. He is Bud Anderson. Clarence Emil "Bud" Anderson (born January 13, 1922) is a retired officer of the United States Air Force and he was a triple Ace World War 2 fighter pilot. He retired a captain and is also known as Chuck Yeager's wing man. Chuck Yeager lives up the road in Grass Valley.

     He gets his hair cut regularly across the street and I caught him in a good mood...and why not, the hair cut was great. He posed for me before but I was not satisfied with the results. I liked the relaxed look I captured while he sat for a hair cut last week. He reminded me that it was over a year that he posed for my picture and frankly I felt embarrassed that I di not get around to it. So that evening I started a small 11x14.

     He is a genuinely an " ahh chucks" sort of man. You would never guess he was a fighter pilot with over 16 kills against the German Luftwaffe. Some of his exploits are truely death defying and he flew his P-51 Mustang s/n 44-414450 B6-S, nicknamed Old Crow,  safely through 116 missions without being hit by fire from enemy aircraft and without Anderson ever having to turn back for any reason. He returned to the United States in February 1945 as a captain. He has been decorated 25 times and retired a colonel.

     He was recently our Grand Marshall during our veterans day parade.

    The painting is ALMOST finished. I am still tweaking the background and areas of his head. The painting is signed because I have the odd habit of scratching away my signature and it is easier doing it while the paint is wet.

     H



     Well....I made the mistake of clicking on dynamic view and lost alot of my original data as I tried to revert back to classic. Well...I guess I will have to set aside some time to get it to work in this new format. Them changes keep on comin...
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  14.  The Tiburon Arts and Crafts Fair was held again in this quaint Marin County town. The painting above was one of 9 paintings that I sold at the event. It found a good home in Massachusetts.

     more to come....
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A Which Wert and Art Production . Take 2...
A Which Wert and Art Production . Take 2...
Frank Ordaz's New Website
Frank Ordaz's New Website
Greetings all. I am now adding many of my Fine Art paintings onto a new website at http://ordazart.com

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