What Art Did He Make Today

grazing cow

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 04:31:00 +0000

13" x15" overall size with painted frame - acrylic on foamboard

The older I get the more I paint like the way a cow grazes

We don't have many silos in the farm area I live in - so it is rare to see this kind of scene here. It seemed like the perfect subjecyt mstter

Montana de Oro Landscape Painting

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Sun, 15 Mar 2020 13:15:00 +0000

Montana de Oro painting by John Robertson

approximately 48" x 72"

acrylic/latex on unstretched canvas

We went camping at Montana de Oro a few weeks

ago and this painting came out of that trip. Camping

is an odd way to take a vacation. You have to make

reservations to sleep on the ground. But you have a great

time living in discomfort. No showers, a smelly

outhouse and smoke filled clothes. You'd think

that if there was smoke then there would be fire.

Not so.

Farmer in Grove Landscape

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 22:07:00 +0000

This piece was commission to go into an entrance way of a house. I'm in the painting so you can get a sense of it's size. I had originally photographed this organic farm a number of years ago up in the Ventura Ca. area. The original painting is about 18" by 24" horizontal and on wood and can be found somewhere on this blog. This painting is 5 feet by 8 feetacrylic/latex on unstretched canvas.

Seascape Sunset over the Ocean

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 23:07:00 +0000

Seascape Painting 5" x 7" oil on canvas

I have slways lived by the ocean so it is natural for me to paint a seascape. My studio is only a couple of blocks from the beach. Even from my studio I can see the water and the boats sailing out at sea. I have been painting in this privitive outsider style of art most of my life and find it very satisfyiing to do so. It is how I started and I always revert back to it as it is my favorite style.

What I particularily like about this is the way othe light from the setting sun catches the tops of the waves

May be available in my etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/WhatArtDidHeMake

Venice Canal Walkway Landscape Painting

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 17:53:00 +0000

Venice Canals Walkway in Venice Ca

Landscape painting by John Robertson

approximately 60" x 72"

acrylic/latex on unstretched canvas

This canal is about five blocks from my

sweetheart's studio and just a few blocks from

the beach. Venice is half artists community

and half tourist trap. California's Venice is

a rubbishy Venice, Italy. SOLD

Dog art Painting of a Bulldog Art

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 01:57:00 +0000

Although I have painted hundreds of human portraits I prefer to paint dogs. And I have always liked painting buldog - there are so many types of them and what someone may think is one kind of bulldog may be something entirely different.

The reason I perfer painting dogs instead of humans is that a dog doesn't tell me there is
something wrong with the nose.6" x 8" oil on canvas dog painting SOLD

dalmatian dog art painting

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 16:58:00 +0000

A Dalmation dog has the great distinction of being known as the "Fire Dog" or in even older times a "Coach dog". They would run in front of the horse drawn fire carriages or the regular carriages and cleared the way for the vehicles. It was just natural fir the Dalimations to become mascots of the fire stations evern after the horse drawn fire carriages were replaced by engines.

For me I have always liked the coloring of them - with their big spots splattered over different parts of their body. They are almost abstract in the patterns which are of interest to me.

As ab asiude, dogs have slways liked my psintings - with gravy.
5" x 7" oil on canvas dog painting SOLD

Lifeguard tower Painting and Woman Meditating on Rock Jetty - Painting by John Robertson

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 13:55:00 +0000

I finished the Temescal Cyn. Life Guard Tower painting.. It’s just down the beach from my studio. Painting is 45" x 72", ink and acrylic on unstretched canvas.

About a hundred feet from the lifeguard tower is a rock jetty. I saw this woman meditating on the day I photographed the lifeguard tower for the painting. If I turned and pointed my camera behind me - about a hundred yards away you would see the cars on Pacific Coast Highway with their occupants stopped at the Temescal Canyon Rd. light – all on their way to work.

I prefer not to look in that direction. I’m sure in their rush they are off to do something significant. Bertrand Russell said, "One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important." Not me - my life is pointless and not too hard. All I do is a little artwork and breath, breath, breath. I guess that is better than sitting around doing nothing.

Venice is a Myth - Painting by John Robertson

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 14:11:00 +0000

"Venice Sign" 60" x 72" painting is ink and acrylic on unstretched canvas SOLD

Venice is a myth. It is part of Los Angeles but to live there, you would never know it. It’s a community with only a hundred and eighty degrees and backs up to the Pacific. And when they say," move west," Venice is about as far as you can go. It takes all kinds to make Venice, from the delusional to the peaceful and enlightened - with the delusional dominating. Which is why the people move here (I say "here" as I live about a third to half my time in Venice).

The original population of Venice was comprised of refugees from Los Angeles. And the legacy of Venice is the artists and the boardwalk. The boardwalk expands the artists are in decline. Nobody makes much fuss over the departure of the artists. With the loss of artists and the low-income families the neighborhoods are changing – new houses, new cars, new people, new expectations. That could be a plus. New money restored the "Venice Sign". The old guard would steal the light bulbs for their own use. The minus is that some homes are still without light.

So where do the old "Venetians" go? Good question. We do not relish the change as we will have to leave soon - and probably will end up adrift off the coast in a dory with a jug of water and a broken oar. But that is much how Venice started.

Painting a Location Palisades Highlands art

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 02:39:00 +0000

This is a painting I did from a hike I took on one of the Palisades Highlands hiking trails that is about 4 1/2 miles from my studio. The photograph below shows the actual location I worked from.

Someone once asked me how I decide on what to paint. The easiest way for me to decide is to walk with my sweetheart (here’s her web site) in the woods. Suddenly something catches my eye. I say to her, "Look at that!" Now, if she says "What is that out there, a dead possum?" I know she is not seeing what I’m seeing. I disregard it as a painting. But if she sees the same thing that I found interesting then I photograph the scene and paint it.

As you can see by the photos I do not accurately represent the actual scene. For me, painting is about the feeling of the object being painted. I try to express my feelings about the location through the color and brushstrokes.

sailboats

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 00:40:00 +0000

8 1/4" x 16" acrylic on cardboard
Because the painting was done on cardboardpeople have asked if it would last
a long time. I say, "it on cardboard" What do you think?

northern california lighthouse

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 00:52:00 +0000

5" x 7" oil on copper Painting is 10% inspiration and 90% desperation. SOLD

Pin a Note on Your Web Site

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 21:16:00 +0000

A few years ago, on the doorstep of my website, I left a note with an address of my blog pinned on it. Prior to that I really didn't understand the importance of a blog.

You know, the number of cats and dogs in the United States is over 90 million and there is well over 150 million blogs. That means there is twice as many blogs as there is cats and dogs - and I didn't have one - a blog, I mean, not a cat or dog. My dog walker had a blog, my cat had a blog - but me, I didn't have one.

What did I have against a blog? Nothing. I just didn't have a clue. You would think that, as an artist, I'd understand the whole idea of changing my art content regularly. Art is not something you hide or store on your own or the back pages of a community art website. It has to be changed, updated and seen.

I can have an art opening at the neighborhood gallery and if I'm lucky a hundred of my closest and most intimate friends will show up - mainly to eat cheese balls and drink "Two Buck Chuck"... and maybe a few of the local homeless will wander in for some baloney slices. Heck! As a starving artist I'd live off the leftover cheese and crackers for a week. But after the art show nobody sees the work - unless an occasional lost couple drops by for directions to the nearest tattoo parlor.

You could put on a Thomas Kinkade, the "Painter of Light," art opening and a thousand screaming, treacle seeking collectors would show up. Yes - I am jealous. I want that many eyeballs. But how was I going to get the "looks?"

People used to make a case that an artist needed a web site. It was exclusive - elite and cultivated - a champagne site with all kinds of flashy stuff to distract the viewer from how the art really looked. Artists had their art zoom in and fade out - twirl like a spinning belly dancer right before your very eyes. And most of the time you were only dazzled by the technology.

For me web sites are now old school. I'd be out of step with only a web site. They are worth preserving if you like wax museums. I'm not into historic artifacts. My blog has been such a better alternative First: I can have a blog, for a year, at the cost of a good cup of coffee. Second: Building and maintaining a web site is a painful, time consuming process - like assembling and maintaining a ... - well, for me, there really isn't anything much harder than maintaining a web site. My blog is easier to build and maintain than Lincoln Logs. Third: It is interactive - I like the easy access to "post" and "comment" - but some of the those "attic living" commenter's do get on my nerves. Fourth: Google Loves Blogs! And best of all - I get more looks than a pack of "Jellied Eyeballs" candy.

Dude" Golden Retriever
450" x 70"
acrylic on unastretched canvas

Nobody asked me but –

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Sun, 19 Jan 2020 16:08:00 +0000

Painting Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog 4 1/2 feet by 6 feet, acrylic on unstretched canvas.

Here is a list of answers to questions about "Art" that nobody asked me about.

1. How come there are not any really good dog paintings?
2. The only artist (male or female) that looks good with their hair pulled back is Salma Hayek as Frida.
3. Painting is always a good excuse for having a beer in the middle of the day.
4. Any artist using red in a painting should be painting bullfighters.
5. I do not like creamy gallery owners.
6. I think any artist who paints twenty paintings in the same subject in the same colors and/or size is faking it – period.
7. When I see an artist wearing painting clothes to an art opening I figure they are posing.
8. Three times is two too many times to have poisoned myself with the toxic fumes from painting.
9. I think Lucian Freud’s paintings look absolutely fabulous in photographs but not too good in person – except for the queen’s painting.
10. I never met an artist who didn’t think he deserved a show.
11. I think that artists using feces in their work should resign from the human race.
12. I was told twenty years ago that if I’d paint the same subject fifty times I am bound to paint one good one. Good advice – and -that is about my percentage.
13. Every time I need inspiration I visit the Lamp Art Project. - see:

http://www.lampartproject.org/
14. If you told me twenty years ago I’d be an artist I would have thought you were speaking about my wind chimes.

About Obstacles in Making a Living as an Artist

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 13:06:00 +0000

48" x 60" India ink, acrylic, charcoal

I confess, I once thought about making money by painting signs – or going back to graduate school for my MFA. I even considered web-site school. I‘ve been tempted.

I had an opening for a show once – a one-person show – at which twelve people came to the opening reception. That night it poured rain – not only cats and dogs but giraffes and cows – the whole ark. Of the twelve only one person was not family or a friend. Can you imagine. One person! We had sent out over eight hundred invitations and had a short article in the newspaper. Nobody read their mail or newspaper that week and nobody had a boat. We had enough cheese-wiz left over to feed the entire homeless population of Santa Monica. I almost quit painting.

Instead, to achieve some sort of financial success (in the most meager of measurements) I developed my guidelines as an artist.

1. No whining – no complaining.
2. Don’t question the nature of the aesthetic experience.
3. Bite the heads off of chickens
4. Don’t ever be embarrassed or proud about your artwork.
5. Don’t squander time.
6. Wear a cape.

And the final words I live by is: "Kiss every hand and shake every baby" for you never know where opportunity will come from. Why? The one guy who showed up at the opening I had, passed along the invitation to a friend. That friend came in the day before the closing. He was a set decorator and rented twelve paintings and commissioned three paintings for the John Cusack/Minnie Driver movie "Grosse Point Blank".

I’ve lied to you before but this time I am telling you the truth. Trust me. Do it all. It is a trade. You never know.

_____

soil of faith

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 00:46:00 +0000

48" by 60" acrylic on canvas

crows in the field

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 00:10:00 +0000

6" x 12" oil on wood
To paint exactly like you want to without trying
to please someone else is actually hard to do -
unless you become a schizoid or have a drug problem.

Opening Jose Drudis-Biada Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 18:34:00 +0000

Me standing on my painting at the opening

Jose Drudis-Biada Gallery

Mount St. Mary's College

Insight/Inside LA

(Quote from the catalog)

"The present exhibition is a visual history of Los Angeles art over the last thirty-five years seen through the prisim of the artists who have shown in this gallery since its inception. The immense undertaking of creating this living archive aims, on the one hand, to celebrate artist' creativity and on the other, to acknowledge the expra ordinary contributions of this universuty gallery to the arts in Los Angeles and Southern California. This show and related events were coordinated in partnership with the newly opened gallery at CSUCI to take place during the annual College Art Association Confrence, held this year in Los Angeles."

Frida Kahlo Monkeys with Artist John Robertson

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 23:35:00 +0000

This small painting (4" x 6") of Frida Kahole’s monkeys (SOLD) was painted for Postcards From the Edge benefit hosted by Metro Pictures in New York Postcards From the Edge is a show and sale of original, postcard-sized artworks on paper supporting Visual AIDS

All artworks (4" x 6" original work on paper) are $75 and sold on a first-come, first-served basis. The works are signed on the back and exhibited so that the artists' signatures cannot be seen. While buyers have a list of all participating artists, they don't know who created which piece until it is purchased and the signature is revealed. A collector might end up with a work by a famous artist or one they don't yet know. Either way, they walk away with a great piece of art while supporting the important work of Visual AIDS

“Thank you Mam” assemblage

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 22:01:00 +0000

(detail)

"Thank you Mam" assemblage
Assemblage by John Robertson is 9 ½" x 7 ½" x 2"
Wood, plastic paper, black shellac

There are some artists who believe that art changes minds – meaning that world’s problems can be resolved through awareness – that someone will actually take action and do something about the problem – if they only know about the problem. So the artist creates awareness through his or her art, and somehow, "wham!" The artist says, "I did my part and now it is your turn to do your part." But what really happens is that the viewer sees the artwork and "bam!" "Oh, artist you have made me "aware." And the artist and viewer goes off happy feeling they have done something because they have felt empathy for the problem. "Thank you mam!"

assemblage art

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 14:41:00 +0000

The assemblage measures 11" x 3 2/4" x 2" wood, plastic, paper.

Portrait of Rocky Dawuni by John Robertson

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Sun, 15 Dec 2019 21:15:00 +0000

Today’s painting is of Ghanaian reggae musician Rocky Dawuni. I've nown him for about 7 yrs. He has a great face and I have painted him three times.

This portrait is 11" x 14 1/2", acrylic on paper. he paper is a page torn from an old Oxford Atlas of the World.

Rocky's website http://www.rockydawuni.com/

crop cycle farmland impressionistic painting

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 19:14:00 +0000

Farmland

As the saying goes, "We are what we eat. - or "We are what we art."

One of my favorite subjects to paint an impressionistic painting of farmland that is only a couple of miles outside of the town I live in - Ventura, California. The fields are on both sides of the 101 freeway that leads to Los Angeles, only fifty miles away.

What is interesting bout driving along the highway is that one can watch the changing of the crop fields from a single day to another. First the farm's fields are covered in a crop. In the case of Ventura and Oxnard farms this can vary from strawberries and other berries, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. These fields stretch for miles. The next day you may see the farm fields full of workers weeding and tending to the crops. In another field you may see the immigrant workers picking the crops. And then the next day the fields will have a big, green John Deere tractor plowing the residual of the crops into the soil. The fields my lay fallow for a bit then, all of a sudden the green tractor is out there again, plowing rows - and the next day workers are laying irrigation and the next day planting new crops. And in a short time another crop of berries or leafy greens are growing and the cycle starts over again.

Cycle of Life

I have painted all the crop cycles over the years - the barren rows in the fields being my favorite. I like the perspective of the rows vanishing into the distance - like the vanishing crops that are picked and turned over, buried into the ground. It seems like a trite analogy to the cycle of human life, the beginning, middle and end. WE all go through it - some faster than others, some slower. But it never ends - just changes from season to season.

5 1/2" x 12" acrylic on wood

Ancient Life, Process of Painting

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 17:03:00 +0000

Process of Painting

Art is the painting at the end of the process of the painting is the carcass of the process. I am not sure which it is. The most interesting thing about painting is the actual process - not the finished work. The painting process is really enjoyable to me. I am not too concerned about how the painting

actually looks (as you can tell by the paintings I have produced). The painting is the evidence that I did something for a short period of time. And after it is finished I have very little interest in it. I just want to get on to painting another painting. The finished painting is just a recording of that time that passed.

Of course the next step is totally separate from the process. How do I sell it. It now becomes a question of how can I afford to paint the next painting. The only way is to sell previously finished paintings. A different person emerges. The businessman.

5 1/2" x 12" Acrylic on wood

dude the dog

noreply@blogger.com (What Art Did He Make Today) — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 13:19:00 +0000

6" x 8" acrylic on wood dog painting

Drab dwelling for whom?

- Home or roam –

Drool or foam –

The porch is better than a dog’s catacomb. -

My apologies to Emily Dickinson
Painting done as a gift for a neighbor