Tuesday, August 12, 2008

"Sitting on Top"

Just couldn't resist trying a few more along these lines. "Violin" was so much fun.
The color in this one is a little more subdued.



"Sitting on Top", 18" x 14" oil on board, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection

49 comments:

Nava said...

I stumbled upon your blog via "On Painting" blog, and I am so glad I did! I love your work, it has great looseness and abstraction, which makes the viewer work to complete some of the parts. Very nice!! VERY!

Anonymous said...

Hey Frank,

Both of these are nice. bright colors and abstract brushwork with areas where the painting comes into focus. I like the blues (underpainting maybe) in the top left corner of this one. nice paintings.

Frank Gardner said...

Hi Nava, welcome to my blog. Thanks for stopping by and letting me know.

Frank Gardner said...

Colin, thanks.
Are you done with your workshop? I thought that maybe you were still out on the schooner somewhere.
Can't wait to hear about it.

Yeah, I think that blue helps set the tone for a lot of the other colors. There are a bunch of layers, some underpainting, some on top.

Anonymous said...

Your paintings express such a glorious display of precise chaos.
I don't know how else to describe it now that I can see the enlarged version and look at the loose brush strokes but at the same time, the exact placement of value and tone to give the finished effect.
Just beautiful.

I love your work.

Unknown said...

Yowzers, Frank! This one is fabulous - sure strikes a chord with me at least! I love how the horse/cart seem to be emerging from the background, and center all the attention on the movement of this piece. Very, very NICE.

Jennifer Thermes said...

Wow, Frank. I love how this looks so abstract in the close up, yet is still recognizable. Beautiful! :-)

Anonymous said...

...um, you gotta know I LOVE THIS ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no other words, yet. they'll come later.
for now: radically fabulous!
: )
Solveg

mike rooney studios said...

now this is life. i'm drinking a redbull, checking out your sweet painting, and all the while watching "the sopranos". it doesnt get any better than that!
glad youre back and posting again. this last ones cool the way you made the guy on the cart come out of the jumbled background. WTG

Frank Gardner said...

Hi Bonnie. Hmm, precise chaos, I like that term. Thanks, I'm glad you like it.

Frank Gardner said...

Thanks Joanne. I appreciate that.

Frank Gardner said...

Thanks Jennifer.
I know what you mean. A lot of my paintings have that abstract look up close, but these take it just a little further.

Frank Gardner said...

Hi Solveg. Glad you like it.

Frank Gardner said...

Hey Mike, thanks.
Well, one out of three ain't really that bad.

Christine Mercer-Vernon said...

as chaotic as it looks, there really is a controlled looseness to it, 'precise chaos' as bonnie said...love how it all comes together right in the center...that horse is fabulous! it looks like you slipped back into this style so easy, did it seem that way as you painted it?

Frank Gardner said...

Hi Christine. Controlled looseness is what I am going for. I LOVE that controlled chaos thing that Bonnie said. I need to get all of you to write my stuff for me.

I did slip in pretty easy. Just because the time was right. I had been thinking about it for a long time, but it seemed forced, so I stayed away. This time I slipped right in.

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

beautiful brush work. Dedication pays off.

Don Gray said...

Don't know how you do it, but I sure like watching! These enlargements are great!

Anonymous said...

Whoa - what a loose but completely beautiful painting.

Frank Gardner said...

Thanks Mary.

Frank Gardner said...

Much appreciated Don.

Frank Gardner said...

Thanks onpainting. I'm guessing..... Bill.

Anonymous said...

OK- here's the deal: I'll write for you, if you PAINT for me! :-)

Frank Gardner said...

Done deal Bonnie, You supply the ladders and how many square feet is your house?

Anonymous said...

:-) it's a small house, Frank- about 11X14 inches........
:-)

( those silly emoticons but sometimes they convey just the right tone..)

Christine Mercer-Vernon said...

hey frank, saw you posted on karen c.'s blog about the toned paper sketchbooks, I don't know where she gets those long formats (very cool, I want one), but i use one made by Cachet, it's their Classic Ecru Hardcover Wirebound, comes in three sizes and the paper is a lovely warm cream color, it's spiral bound and has a hardcover, very durable. it's all i use....hate white paper....here's the link, dickblick.com carries them...

http://www.dickblick.com/zz103/52/

Anonymous said...

"it's a small house...about 11x14" made me laugh out loud!!!

thanks for the witty reparte', Bonnie and Frank!!!

Solveg

Marian Fortunati said...

Beautiful work! I stumbled onto your website and what a nice surprise!.... I love your lively colors and loose style. -A real treat!

Elizabeth said...

Glad to catch up with you after your vacation.
I loved your old fish painting.....and your latest too.

Barbara Pask said...

You're amazing Frank, so many strokes and so much going on but everything reads just right.

Frank Gardner said...

Good one Bonnie :o)

Frank Gardner said...

Thanks for the link Christine. I looked at that and it does not seem cream colored. They never give a good shot of the actual paper though. I would rather see that than the cover. I'll take your word for it and try one.
What I am actually looking for is a nice gray tone that can take gouache like Nathan Fowkes uses. He said his was a canson I think that they no longer make. It is hard to search for on line when they just show you the covers. I need a trip to Pearl Paint in NYC or something.

Frank Gardner said...

No problem Solveg.

Frank Gardner said...

Hello Marian, I'm glad you stumbled across the blog.
Thanks for the comments and I hope that you will come back again.

Frank Gardner said...

Good to hear from you Elizabeth.
Thanks for the kind words on the fish painting. It is one of my all time favorites. The discouragement of not selling much when I was younger pays of in the long run I guess. I still get to see all of those old paintings.

Frank Gardner said...

You are very kind Barb. It is always nice to hear from you.

Christine Mercer-Vernon said...

yeah the picture is terrible, but it is a very warm cream, not a pale cream either, and it's a nice heavy duty paper. i really like it. i used to work at dick blick and we had a brand of sketch books that had 5 sections all neutral colored paper, but they were small and couldn't take paint. i can't remember the name. if i run by a gray tone i will let you know.

Frank Gardner said...

Sounds good. I'll try one. I bet you could cut one on a table saw and make a long one. I've done that before.

Thanks.

Christine Mercer-Vernon said...

OMG, i'd cut my fingers off!! canson does make an 8x10 bound on the 8" side, but i've never seen that long format, a few brands are starting to bind their standard sizes on the short side too. sennelier makes a small long format watercolor block, it's about 4x9, i have one of those, but it's a block, so no pages to turn. oh well. let me know if you find those books like karen has.

Anonymous said...

i still have no words to describe how much i love this painting.....it's just glorious in so many ways, up close, far away, everything.
thanks for it!
solveg

Frank Gardner said...

Gosh Solveg, you are really very kind.

BTW. We got our tickets today for Sunday's concert!
I wish we could have made it to La Catrina the other night, but this way we get to see the Miami String Quartet as well.

Anonymous said...

I played a wedding reception, just now, and they actually wanted all classical string quartets - VERY FUN!!!
We played Haydn Op. 76 no. 5, one of the pieces you'll hear tomorrow night. I smiled all the way through - I haven't played that in several years (i used to run a string quartet that played every Sunday morning/afternoon for brunch at THE way-coolest, most theatrical and artistic, genuinely creative and food-fabuloso restaurant, that is now closed...of course.....in Minneapolis, all my favorite things were closed, torn down, discontinued......i finally couldn't stand the energy in that city anymore so i moved...it's still creepy to me when i drive through it, honestly...like there's a dark shadow hanging over it, or something. but, we played all the major string quartet repertoire there. i hadn't played this Haydn since then). But i smiled all the way through, knowing you and your family would be hearing this masterful and joyous piece of music tomorrow night. What a great piece of serendipity!!! Haydn had a fantastical creativity, and a whimsical sense of humor. But, he was also a harmony master, and he is the so-called father of "the string quartet" - there's nothing quite like a Haydn string quartet. He knows how to turn harmony on a dime, and how to make great jokes. Clean jokes! : ) And, he can draw out a glorious melody, or send you on an audial rollercoaster that makes you laugh with glee. The last movement of this piece is like that. It's a galloping romp!!!

Felix Mendelssohn is a delight, too - and, interestingly, he was the one who uncovered/rediscovered J.S. Bach's music. (perhaps all of this will be in your program notes - or perhaps you know it all already....but, in case you don't, maybe it's a little bit interesting.)

Have a great time! I wish I were going to hear it, too!!! It's quite a festival going on - really amazing stuff!

Solveg

Frank Gardner said...

Thanks for that Solveg. No, I don't really know that much. I appreciate all of your insight.
Funny that you were playing the Haydn tonight.

We wanted to attend one of the events and since we missed Tuesday night we took your enthusiasm for the octet, Haydn, and the fact that we could see both quartets at once and decided on tomorrow's finale.

Sorry to hear about all of the changes in Minneapolis. That seems to be happening in a lot of big cities.

Theresa Rankin said...

I am speechless....your work is fantastic!

Frank Gardner said...

Thanks again Theresa.

Anonymous said...

How was the concert?????
And, how did your daughter feel about going back to school today? Is it a new "grade" level for her? I seem to recall that she is 5 or 6...... I hope she was excited to see old friends and to meet new ones!
Solveg

Frank Gardner said...

The concert was great Solveg.
Very good.
Both quartets were very good as was Gustavo Rivero Weber.
We don't get out much just the two of us, so it was a treat.
Yes, Erin is 5 1/2. She is in her second year. Kindergarten.
She had a good day. ( see new post )
Thanks for asking.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'm SO happy to read that you two had a nice night out!!! And that you enjoyed the concert.
And, of course, fun to read about Erin - i just noticed the new post - am excited to go read it. Have to get outside for some exercise, first, so I'll comment on that one when I'm back!
SO happy that you enjoyed the concert!
Solveg

Frank Gardner said...

Thank YOU for recommending that night. Was thinking of you while watching the cellist from the Miami Quartet. He was full of life and made the night. what expressions and complexity. Have you seen them?