live oak #5
Live Oak #5, 20x16", watercolor, $300
wess foreman studio
creativity by wess
Index
landscape with oak tree
Landscape with Oak Tree, water media, 10x8", $90
many new watercolors
I haven't been consistent in posting new paintings lately, so I thought I'd post a bunch of these new watercolor/gouache paintings all at once. Additionally, I will take this opportunity to say that I have made prints for every one of these paintings and they are available for purchase now. More information below.
Prints Available!
All these prints are just under 8x10" and $10 apiece (plus $5 shipping on one or more prints) --- prints are shipped unmatted.
To order prints or originals (all of these are available as of this writing), just send me an email at wess@wessforeman.com or use the contact page on this website, and let me know which ones you're interested in and the quantity (at which point I can send you a payment request via paypal).
painting process: three cabins
Another painting process video. Three Cabins, 5x7", watercolor, $50.
Specklebellies
Another watercolor and gouache composition.
Specklebellies, 11x14", SOLD
black cat
Black Cat, 10x8", $90
army men
I took the reference photo many years ago---three plastic army men set up on the window sill in my shop. The photo was dramatic and beautiful, the background transformed into out-of-focus blur of shape and color. I just had to paint this in my new media, gouache. Don't forget to check out the video of the painting process down below!
Army Men, 9x13.5", gouache on paper, $125
climbing the crepe myrtle
I'm nearly ready to call myself a two medium artist at this point. I've been playing around with water media lately (pen and ink/ink wash/watercolor/gouache/watercolor pencils . . . yes, the wide gamut of water media). I still don't think of myself as an expert, but I must admit a great fondness for it when it works---and it doesn't always work, mind you.
I started playing with watercolor first and found it a bit difficult and didn't like the restriction of using only the white of the paper as white . . . in other words, I prefer to work more sloppily and fix my mistakes later on. So I added a white gouache to my watercolor palette---this improved my enjoyment (and success) tremendously. But moving from watercolor to a full gouache compliment was the moment, for me, of true bliss. I love it. It gives you the watery feel of watercolor but adds the ability to correct mistakes and add opaque details later on rather than having to preserve details throughout the painting process. Not to mention the ability to add dramatic darks and vivid colors quickly without layers and layers of glazes.
Climbing the Crepe Myrtle, 13.5x7.5", $125
So, I will be doing more of these gouache paintings going forward. I may even get around to putting mat board around them and selling them one of these days. We'll see. Thanks for checking in, and if you want to see more of my painting process, check out my Instagram feed!
painting process: cooper
This was a recently commissioned pet portrait of a Boston terrier named Cooper. If you're interested in commissioning a painting of your own, see my pricing page for more info. Enjoy!
Fuel to the Fire
I've been writing some on a new book about art---my take on it anyway---and I thought I'd post a section of it here. It's just a first stab at the topic and will probably change in its final form, if and when the project ever gets finished. Enjoy and please leave a comment if you have anything to add on the topic!
Fuel to the Fire
When I stand at my easel and paint, I recall a simpler time. A time half-forgotten. When I paint, I remember what it was like to play, what it was like as a child to imagine worlds within worlds and to speak them into existence. To negotiate imaginary battles. To summon heroes. To build castles out of sand and place oneself on the ramparts yelling down to a plastic action figure in a friend’s hand: “Who goes there?!” To hear him reply in an altered voice, “It’s me!” To respond in turn with the inevitable question, “What’s the password?!” (and then the fantasy would be paused as we played twenty questions to resolve the issue)
It’s not that when I paint I think about the details of my childhood—-I do not—-but it’s the essence of that time: echoes of a mind untethered, a discovering mind, a creative mind. When I paint, I am unburdened and set free of distraction and worry. I am an instrument of intuition. I am pulled out of time. I have come unstuck. The brush moves; it scrapes against the canvas, leaving behind a trail of paint—-all that is true but for one detail: I move the brush. The artist wields the power, makes the decisions, creates worlds within worlds and speaks them into existence. The artist is in charge.
When I stand at my easel and paint, I often listen to music. I assume this is true of many artists in many different disciplines. Music has a way of pushing away the real world and redirecting the mind to a more creative space. I find that to be true. It’s not magic and it’s not altogether automatic, but it does seem to help. And any type of music will work, I’m sure. I don’t normally listen to country music, but I’m pretty sure if I played country music when I painted it would do the job just fine. I have tried classical music and I have tried music from the eighties as well as “oldies but goodies.” I have listened to entire albums from single bands—-Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles, Radiohead, Beck—-and I have let the radio play down the top 40 hits while I’ve painted. It all seems to work just fine. However, in the interest of honesty and in full disclosure, I should tell you that I paint most of my paintings to angry music.
There is something to be said for the raw passion and unbridled energy of punk and post-punk alternative music—-maybe sprinkled with a bit of metal and a bit of grunge and even a bit of post-ironic garage band thrown in the mix. I like it. I can nod my head to it. I can paint to it—-and I often do! Nothing beats a wall of discordant power chords fed through the right distortion pedals and tube amps complete with microphone feedback and lyrics belted out in bold abandon—-you can almost see the sweat spraying off the brow of the lead singer as she bounces to the frantic rhythm unconcerned with reality as she knows it. Nothing beats the isolation this creates as the raw energy is radiated out like some undiscovered thing that kindles the fire of creativity. It washes over me and passes right through me as I stand at my easel to paint. And I use this energy best I can. I channel it onto the canvas—-it becomes a rich landscape; it becomes a delicate flower; it becomes the face of a portrait; it becomes art. Art creating art.
There is a bit of chaos to the music. There is something dangerous in it. An idea that goes against the grain. No, I do not subscribe to the idea of nihilism—-my paintings might be amoral but I am not—-but there is something primal to the energy that music can project (now I’m sounding all New Age-y). I guess I’ll just leave it there: music injects energy into creativity.
Materials and Equipment of an Artist
Since I've been doing videos lately, I thought I'd switch it up from my painting process to the materials and equipment I use as part of that process. In case you're interested.
Painting Process: Lake St. John, Morning
Another painting from start to finish. 8x10" canvas.
where the Harvey meets the Mississippi
This mural-size painting (anything that can't fit in my van without rolling up, I'd consider mural-size) was done as a commission for an office in Covington, Louisiana. The title I've given it is the subject matter, as is often the case, and this view can be seen from the interstate traveling through New Orleans. It's not an accurate depiction of the location---I mean, it's generally accurate but the specific details have been rearranged and reinterpreted and re-imagined (for no other reason than as a shortcut, I suppose).
I'm happy with the results and looking forward to doing more large paintings in the future---want to commission one for yourself? My email address is wess@wessforeman.com or you can use my contact page. Let me know what you have in mind!
Where the Harvey Meets the Mississippi, 5'x7.5', N/A
paysage energique
These four imagined landscapes were born of an energetic series of painting sessions wherein I had the idea to make these four canvases work as individual paintings and as a group. Together they form a rather fantastical, fiery copse of trees, an arrangement I could only call an energetic landscape (or "Paysage Energique" in french).
Paysage Energique #1 through #4
Paysage Energique #1, 36x24", $500
Paysage Energique #2, 36x24", $500
Paysage Energique #3, 36x24", $500
Paysage Energique #4, 36x24", $500
another pineapple painting
Pineapples #3, 24x36", $850 (framed)
pineapples means hospitality
Pineapples #1, 18x36", $400
Pineapples #2, 18x24", $300
fishing trawler
Dear blog,
Yes, it's been awhile. Ever since the new year I've been down with a cold and a lingering cough---and, as far as I'm concerned, incapacitated beyond all possibility of creative thought . . . I'm useless when I'm sick.
But it's a new month now and the cough has diminished somewhat. I just finished this Fishing Trawler painting. The reference photo has been sitting on my hard drive for a year or two now; I took the shot on the Tchefuncta River in Madisonville. I kept the style loose and I'm pleased with the final painting.
Fishing Trawler, 18x32", $400 (no. 1007)