2K11 Painting for a Purpose

Solar Sun Dog, June 4, 2011

Came out of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art yesterday after viewing the Wright Ludington Collection, and saw many people on the streets looking upward and taking photos. I turned my gaze skyward to see the most spectacular circular rainbow around the sun.

Ice crystals in the upper atmosphere, were refracting the mid-day sunlight like a prism, creating this rainbow effect.

Some day I'd like to capture one of these "Sun Dogs" in a painting. I've seen them appear at night around a full moon. I wonder if they call these, "Moon Dogs".

My understanding is it's nature's way of warning us, in a strange way, to pay attention to what lies ahead. Coming events cast their shadows...and it looks like rain!

Nocturnes: A Violet Night. May 28, 2011


Milpas Street Crossing, Santa Barbara California.

This railroad structure stood for years; ever since the steam trains rolled through, to and fro, at a slow enough pace that the Hobo could jump on or off without much danger, and seek shelter in the nearby Hobo Junction.

Like the block signal in yesterday's post, this signal tower no longer exists. It has since made its way to the editing room floor of the great creator. It's just a memory now.

I liked the contrasting colors of warm yellows (Sodium Vapor Lights), with the blue violet (Halogen Lights) shining in the mist, all coming together on a toned canvas of light Thalo Green. It actually made the area more aesthetically pleasing to look at.

I didn't like when a homeless man snuck-up on me, from behind, and began speaking incoherently in a loud voice, arousing my fight or flight instincts. This startled me so much I almost evolved into an expressionist painter.

Milpas Street Crossing
18x26 oil/canvas 1999
Private Collection

Einstein on the Beach Santa Barbara April 4, 2011



Even the brilliant in mind realize the miracles and restorative nature of the Ocean. The Pacific Ocean has no memory.

I saw this photograph of Albert Einstein on the somewhere near Santa Barbara. Being a landscape painter I saw the landscape behind him in the picture and knew instantly where it was. I printed out the photo, and one Saturday morning I took my two boys to that spot where Einstein once stood, probably in the 1950's.

Remarkably the beach has still the same type of sand. There are houses now, out of the picture on the right.Padero lane runs to that first Promentory known as Loon Point. (Kevin Costner lives just around the bend). Santa Barbara is the furthest land mass in the picture.

Even though Einstein wasn't a painter, his mind was Masterful. My job as a Dad was to try to integrate the importance of history to my kids; to try to get a feeling of what Past Masters may have experienced, as if they could follow in their foot steps.

That is not a requirement, but it would be a comfort it they strived hard.

Einstein: "Genius= 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration"

Waiting for the Tequila Express



Teaching Day: Painting at the Santa Barbara Train Station due to bad weather,(which turned into nice windy weather) Anyway, at the end of my demo, a passenger train arrived with an old private car on the back. The private car had "Tequila Express" painted on it.

If it's true that, "coming events cast their shadows", then this train foretold a night ahead in Margarita-ville.

Photos by Atilla