painting | The Direction of Intention

Paint The Can [on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on March 13, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

duke's painting copy

I imagine this still life is a painting that Duke merely tossed off. It was an exercise, something he painted because, well, he wanted to paint but wasn’t awash in inspiration. He looked around for a subject, any subject, and laughed when it occurred to him that the coffee can stuffed with brushes and tubes of paint lying willy-nilly on his table would make a sufficient study. When it was complete, he liked it enough to hang in the hallway of his house. It hung there for years. I imagine he and his wife, Eileen, looked at it everyday – to the point that they probably stopped seeing it. It was the norm. Part of the hallway.

It remained in the hallway after his death.

A few weeks ago Kerri and I helped Duke’s son, 20, move his mom into a nice assisted living apartment. After the furniture was moved in and the dishes and lamps, the final piece was Duke’s painting of brushes in a coffee can. It is the piece that made Eileen’s new apartment feel like home. Before we hung it on the wall we took some time and studied the painting. Duke was great painter! I imagine that he had no idea on the long-ago-day that he decided old brushes in a coffee can would make a nice study, that his coffee can, like the Velveteen Rabbit of paintings, would come to mean so much. That it would carry associations like “home” and “Duke.”

It’s probably good that an artist cannot know the destiny of their work.

I imagine he put on the final touches of paint, the highlights, stood back and thought, “It’s good. I like this one.” He dropped his brush in some turpentine and made his way upstairs the get another cup of coffee.

read Kerri’s blog post about DUKE’S PAINTING

Filed under: Art, Creativity, Flawed Wednesday, Uncategorized | Tagged: art, assisted living, comfort, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Duke Kruse, home, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, old brushes, painting, painting study, still life, studio, Velveteen Rabbit | Leave a comment »

Make A Mark [on DR Thursday]

Posted on February 7, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

k.dot & d.dot see an owl, mixed media, 24 x 48IN

Every once in a while I paint a chronicle piece, capturing an event from something that happened in our lives. Early in our relationship, sitting in Adirondack chairs in the front yard, sipping wine, listening to music, we broke into a spontaneous fit of dancing. Dancing In The Front Yard was the first of the chronicle paintings.

Picasso said that painting was just another way of keeping a diary. I suppose that makes all of my work or any artist’s work a chronicle. A record. Jackson Pollock’s ‘action paintings’ are considered a record of the artist’s movement, a visual register of the painter’s dance.

I knew a man whose passion in life was rock art. Petroglyphs and pictographs. Human-made markings on stone. He traveled the world to the caves or cliffs – sites – where these ‘records’ are found. We had many conversations about the “why” of it – why people so long ago scratched images in rocks, ground minerals to make pigment and painted walls deep in a dark cave. Ritual or roadmap? Worship or whimsy? Both/and?

A diary? A register? A reaching? A marker? Maybe it is simple: humans make marks. And then give the marks meaning. Or, perhaps more to the point, we make marks and believe the marks give us meaning.

Kerri and I saw an owl in the pine tree in our backyard. It was thrilling. We thought it was a good omen, a gift. We slipped into the house to get the binoculars, careful not to move too fast to scare it away. Later, standing before a blank canvas, all I could think about was the thrill of seeing the owl.

read Kerri’s blog post about K.DOT & D.DOT SEE AN OWL

k.dot & d.dot see an owl ©️ 2015 david robinson

Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: chronicle, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, diary, Jackson Pollock, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, meaning, meaning making, painting, petroglyph, Picasso, pictograph, Rock Art, society6.com/davidrobinson, studio melange | Leave a comment »

Meditate [on DR Thursday]

Posted on January 31, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

mother&childprocessshot copy

It’s a universal theme that I’ve painted over and over throughout my life. Mother and child. Sometimes the painting is inspired by a dear friend becoming a parent. Sometimes, like this iteration, I look up and find it staring at me from the canvas. When that happens I know I need to follow it.

I learned when I was a teenager that the act of painting was, for me, a form of meditation. Sometimes the meditation has nothing to do with the image that I am working with. The process becomes an exercise in presence. Sometimes, like this painting, the image has everything to do with the meditation. The image is the meditation.

So. Birth. New life. Possibilities. Life giving. A good meditation for the middle of winter. A good meditation for an artist surrounded by good friends retiring from work, becoming grandparents, asking what is next. A universal theme. A universal symbol.

read Kerri’s blog post on MOTHER AND CHILD IN PROCESS

mother & child (in process) ©️ 2019 david robinson

Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, meditation, mother and child, painting, presence, studio melange, symbol, universal themes | Leave a comment »

Ask The Question [on DR Thursday]

Posted on January 10, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

a morsel of Tango With Me. Kerri calls this one ‘Palm Trees.’

I’m proud of Skip. He decided that learning to paint with a palette knife was the best way this year to work on his soul. In my eyes, it is a sure path. He sent photos of his first efforts. Luscious in color and texture, they are abstracts. He showed his efforts to his wife and received the single question that no artist can answer yet it is the first question that every viewer-of-art asks: what is it?

It is the assumption of representation. The need for location. The desire to be told what “it” means. No one wants to be wrong or offend so they ask the artist to provide the interpretation – which will rob the viewer of their own experience. It will short-circuit the relationship between viewer and painting. As Joseph Campbell quipped, ” If the artist doesn’t like you, he (or she) will tell you what it means.”

Color, form, composition, and movement. Art. Abstraction. In a world of individualism, abstractions are capable of telling a different story unique to each individual. They refuse to locate you and, instead, ask you to participate. Make meaning. Don’t seek what is expected, bring to the painting what is evoked.

It creates a tension. It calls us to sit in the paradox of our times. Is there one meaning or many? How is it that people so devoted to self-expression believe they can best express their individualism by shopping together at The Gap?

At the center of potent art, at the bottom of great learning, is the same question: what is it to you?

Tango With Me, mixed media, 39 x 52IN

read Kerri’s blog post about PALM TREES

tango with me/palm tree ©️ 2018 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: abstract art, art, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Joseph Campbell, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, location, meaning, meaning making, painting, palette knife, society6.com/davidrobinson, studio melange | Leave a comment »

Reach With Wonder [on DR Thursday]

Posted on January 3, 2019 by davidrobinsoncreative

“One of the reasons that we wonder is because we are limited, and that limitation is one of the great gateways to wonder.” ~John O’Donohue

I loved this canvas before I painted Cloud Watchers on it. It was old and used. Chunky with layers. I can’t remember how it came to me but I do remember thinking that it was the Velveteen Rabbit of canvas. Loved. Well worn. A long history – that is to say – filled with lots and lots of story. Perfect.

And, how appropriate that it is living a next chapter as Cloud Watchers, part of a series that I call ‘narrative.’ All narratives – inner and outer – are projections. Life’s stories are image transfers, meaning imposed just like the meaning we place upon the movement of clouds. There’s a duck! Look! There’s a dragon, a dinosaur, an elephant. A fear. A goal. An opinion. Mr Magoo! Belief! There’s Thomas Jefferson! The Buddha.

We reach with wonder from our isolation. We touch through imagination. We are cloud watchers full of story, filling the air with our stories. We are glorious creators all!

cloud watchers, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 49.5In

read Kerri’s blog post about CLOUD WATCHERS

cloud watchers/morsel ©️ 2002 – 6/2018 david robinson

Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Perspective, Story, The Direction of Intention, Uncategorized | Tagged: acrylic painting, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, images, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, meaning making, narrative, narrative series, narratives, painting, projection, sense making, society6.com/davidrobinson, story, storyteller, storytelling | Leave a comment »

Use 1000 Words [on DR Thursday]

Posted on December 20, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

Horses Morsel copy

this may or may not be complete. 48″ x 48″ as yet untitled

read Kerri’s blog post about this PAINTING

Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, new painting, painting, process, society6.com/davidrobinson | Leave a comment »

Practice. [on DR Thursday]

Posted on November 15, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

a morsel from Waiting & Knowing

The quote is from Carlos Castaneda, A Separate Reality. In a nutshell, it is this: know that you are waiting. Know what you are waiting for. To me that seemed to be a kind of yoga. A practice. It is a practice that might be useful in the age of one-click fulfillment, twitter diplomacy, road rage, ubiquitous impatience. It is a practice with balance as its intention.

in process

It is also a practice that in many ways encapsulates the art of painting as I understand it. So, it seemed a useful spark for a painting in my yoga series. Waiting and knowing. Balance. Sisu. The practice of being where you are.

Waiting & Knowing, 48 x 48IN, mixed media

read Kerri’s blog post about WAITING & KNOWING

waiting and knowing ©️ 2015 david robinson & kerri sherwood

Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: A Separate Reality, balance, carlos castaneda, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Don Juan, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, painting, practice, society6.com/davidrobinson, yoga | Leave a comment »

Read The Image [on DR Thursday]

Posted on October 25, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

morsel: tango with me

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

Kerri and I love to dance. This painting was inspired by one of our spontaneous backyard dances. We don’t know how to do the tango but that has never stopped us from making it up.

When I was much younger, my little brother told me that my studio was one of the darkest places he’d ever been. I didn’t see it at the time but now, looking at my few remaining early paintings, I can’t deny it. Painting, for me, is the log book of a spiritual quest and, like all spiritual quests, the real work is in retrieving the lost pieces and making a greater whole, walking into the wound and transforming it, stepping firmly into the realm of the possible (and becoming it) instead of being transfixed on the monster obstacle.

What once seemed so complex now looks so simple. What once looked so bleak and impossible is now practical, immediate, and infinitely rich. I am lucky. I delight that my diary these days is filled with dances and quiet appreciation.

tango with me, mixed media 39 x 52IN

read Kerri’s blog post about TANGO WITH ME

Filed under: Art, Awakening, Creativity, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: autobiography, calling, dancing, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, diary, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, life, mixed media, painting, quest, spiritual path, spiritual quest, studio melange, tango, the melange, transform, visual diary | Leave a comment »

Do A Rough Draft [on DR Thursday]

Posted on October 4, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

the field in early october: a morsel

I love seeing artists’ rough drafts. One of my all time favorite art exhibits was the hundreds of drawings and sketches John Singer Sargent executed en route to his painting, El Jaleo.

I’m more interested in the process than the final piece. I’m more captivated by the search than the find. That includes my own work as well. For me, the final painting is less a finished piece and more of a pause in the conversation.

It bothers me when a curator tells people what a painting is about or what the artist intended. I’ve squirmed many times during openings of shows when the gallery curator, introducing my work, tells people what my paintings mean. It locks people out. It prevents them from having THEIR relationship with my painting. I squirm equally when the work is not mine. I want a more pure experience.

To me, art is a doorway to the sacred, to the deeper things that words often cannot reach. It is a passage back to the beginning, to the fingerpainter, the child freely playing – prior to the time when a judge is planted between the painter and the piece, the painting and the viewer. That is where the riches are. And in that place it is all a rough draft.

read Kerri’s blog post about THE FIELD IN EARLY OCTOBER

like what?

Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: art, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, el Jaleo, fingerpainter, john singer sargent, judgment, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, painting, purity, relationship, rough drafts, Sacred, seeker, sketches, society6.com/davidrobinson, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

See Simply [on DR Thursday]

Posted on September 6, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

autumn hillside pair copy

Kerri’s morsel choice often surprises me but none more than this week. She took a close up photo of my painting We Watch The Setting Sun, flipped it over, made two copies, left one untouched and manipulated the other. “I want to use both!” she announced with THAT look in her eyes. “It reminds me of a hillside in the fall.”

I write this often, perhaps too often, but it matters: through the morsels I am discovering simplicity. In her Autumn Hillside set I see the freedom of my brushstrokes. I see the collision of thick paint and thin washes. I see simple color that, in its movement, serves as a suggestion. Less is more. Nothing else is needed. I understand Mark Rothko. I appreciate Ad Reinhardt. I am seeing their work through new eyes.

New eyes. Could there be a greater gift for an artist, for someone who has worked his entire life at ‘seeing?’

“Don’t you love it?” Kerri asked of the morsels. I smiled. Yes. I love it.