DR Thursday

Posted on March 1, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Kerri calls them “morsels”: snapshots of a portion of one of my paintings. May You Be Peace is a morsel. I love watching her take the shots. I delight in how she helps me see my work anew. I appreciate how each morsel is a complete work of art in itself.

Shift the focus. Pull in the frame of reference. We live in a world of cameras and microscopes and telescopes and compartments; what we see and believe is very much determined by where we place our focus. Georgia O’Keeffe knew it; she was a master of the close-up.

A few years ago I began taking photographs of my paintings-in-process. The camera helps me sees aspects of the painting that would otherwise remain invisible. It’s odd. I stand before a canvas stapled to the wall and see one thing. I aim a camera at the canvas stapled to the wall and see a wholly different painting. Just imagine the infinite perceptions and perspectives at play in our world!

My photo-painting-practice is a constant reminder that my perspective, my perception is mine alone. You are most certainly looking through a different set of lenses.

Peace, I think, has nothing to do with sameness and everything to do with the celebration of difference, the capacity to help each other see our lives anew.

MAY YOU BE PEACE merchandise

read Kerri’s thoughts on MAY YOU BE PEACE

May You, 55″ x 36″

kerrianddavid.com

may you be peace and may you ©️ 2016, 2015 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: DR Thursday, Seeing, Uncategorized | Tagged: art, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, difference, focus, Georgia O'Keeffe, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, may you, may you be peace, painting, peace, perception, perspective, seeing, society6.com/davidrobinson, the melange | 1 Comment »

DR Thursday

Posted on February 22, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Nap on the Beach, mixed media, 22.25″ x 55.5″

“I paint the way some people write an autobiography. The paintings, finished or not, are the pages from my diary.” Pablo Picasso

I’ve been selling my paintings from my studio, un-stretched and unframed. When potential buyers come to my studio they view the raw canvas tacked on the wall or spread on the floor. Many of my pieces are big. It’s how I like to paint: big canvas stretched and tacked to the wall. These days when I ship paintings to another state, when I ship paintings to those courageous people who take the leap of faith and buy an expensive (and very personal) painting based on an image from the internet, I roll them. They receive the piece in a tender unembellished state.

There are practical reasons for my seeming-shoddy showmanship. It saves my customers money to stretch and frame the canvases themselves. The cost of shipping a large framed canvas is breathtaking! If I stretch or frame it myself, if I sell a painting through any gallery, online or brick-n-mortar, the cost is easily inflated by 70%.

But, that’s not why I show the unfinished edges. Before moving from my Seattle studio I had studio open houses. People inevitably drifted to the paintings stapled to the wall. They touched the edges. They asked me about the drips and marveled over the charcoal lines. They gently brushed the bumps of paint. They entered the story and became a part of it, they took on a role greater than witness. Instead of approaching art – my art – as an untouchable abstract thing, they engaged with it, questioned it, touched it. I loved it. Art is supposed to be accessible. It is supposed to open and say, “Follow me.”

Recently a client slid this painting, Nap on the Beach, from the pile of paintings stacked on the ping pong table, touched its complex surface, and, with Kerri, he held it by the corners saying, “Oh, this canvas is heavy! This one makes me yearn for summer!” And then he asked, “Did you take a nap on the beach? Is this about something you did?”

Yes. And yes again.

On DR Thursday, on your visit to the melange, I hope this painting inspires you to embrace the raw edges, the drips and bumps, and perhaps give over to a quiet mid-winter yearning for sun and sand and a spontaneous nap.

A NAP ON THE BEACH reproductions

framed art prints

canvas prints

A NAP ON THE BEACH original

read Kerri’s thoughts on DR Thursday

kerrianddavid.com

Filed under: Art, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: art prints, artistry, artists, autobiography, beach, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, kerrianddavid.com, nap on the beach, pablo picasso, raw edges, society6.com/davidrobinson, story, the melange, unframed | Leave a comment »

DR Thursday

Posted on February 15, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

[Held In Grace: Embraced Now, mixed media on canvas, 48″ x 36″]

Beaky showed me a photograph taken of Kerri and me early in our relationship. She said, “I like this one because your strong arms are holding my daughter.” I took her comment as a kind of blessing. It was her way of telling me, ‘This is right and good. In this embrace you two have found all that you will ever need.’

In the studio melange, Thursdays are for my paintings. I chose this painting as the first in our melange offerings because it came from Beaky’s sentiment. During this Valentine’s week, let this painting, Embraced Now, from my Held In Grace series, remind you, as it does me, that all is right and good. In this embrace you will find all that you will ever need. It’s not a shabby thought to help navigate through a Thursday!

HELD IN GRACE: EMBRACED NOW [art prints]

HELD IN GRACE: EMBRACED NOW [purchase the original]

kerrianddavid.com

Filed under: Art, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: artist, Beaky, beakysbooks.com, comfort, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, DR Thursday, Embrace, embraced now, held in grace, held in grace series, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, love, melange, nurturing, painting, relationship, society6.com/davidrobinson, studio, valentine, Valentines Day | Leave a comment »