1a. Start with the right photo.

Since this is my first blog post, I had to make a decision. Do I get personal with my new life here in Costa Rica and tell people what it is like to live here, or should my blog be something else all together?

After giving that some thought, like about 30 seconds once I absolutely had to think about it, I decided that there was already too many Gringo bloggers in Costa Rica and they have covered most of what it is like to live here.

They were, and still are, very helpful blogs and I have to admit I took good advantage of them when planning our move here. But, I'm not one to follow in another person's footsteps, or reinvent the wheel, so I decided that my blog was going to be about Art. My art to be specific.

Well, it is my blog isn't it?

So, take it or leave it, I will be talking about the "what, when, where and how" I paint. If you are an artist that wants to paint realistic you might be interested. If you have followed my work in the past few years, maybe even buying an original or Giclee, you might be interested. If you are not familiar with my work you can view most of it at my son's Felder Gallery in Port Aransas, Texas. The website is www.feldergallery.com.

As far as my art goes, I have several styles, but I am generally thought of as a realistic painter of Texas harbor scenes and Gulf Coast shorebirds. People seem to like my water reflections. I am a member of the International Guild of Realism. I earned my BFA at the University of Texas at Austin in 1974, but spent most of my career in graphic design, advertising and publishing.

I didn't paint during most of those years while my wife and I raised our family, but I returned to my love of painting after quitting my corporate job and moving to the Texas Coast in 2004. I am still painting Texas, even though I live in Costa Rica. Go figure............

My plan is to send rolled up paintings back to my son, Robby, where he will stretch them and display them at the gallery. I do plan on painting Costa Rica, but have plenty of time to do so and lots of ideas. I painted this little 9 x 12 beach crab I photographed on the beach in front of our house. Sometimes small pieces give me a needed break from a large one.

But meanwhile, the Felder Gallery could use more of my work, so I am concentrating on painting those right now. Which brings me to the title of this first post, "Start with the right photo."

Having been in the gallery business for about seven years, I have an appreciation of all kinds of artist's styles. The Felder Gallery represents over 25 artists of many different styles and medium. But, I do what I do because it makes me happy and it seems to make other people happy as well. Positive feedback is a wonderful thing. I grew up with a lot of it!

I always start with photography, 99% of which was taken by "your's truly." If I am not using my own photo, you can be assured that I have permission from the photographer, and I give them credit where appropriate.

The advances in digital photography has been a blessing to an artist like me. Lots of detail in a photo gives me the choice of what to include and how far I want to take the details. When you look closely at my work, you see a lot of brush strokes, but those do not show up at the proper viewing distance.

With my small Panasonic digital camera I get a good image for the work I like to do. I gave away my old 35mm Nikon a few years ago out of neglect. The photography in my work is not the end result, even though I believe that photography is an art form in itself. My photos are my reference.

To me, the photo is simply a tool to remind me later of what I saw at that specific time when I snapped the photo. None of my paintings have actually been an exact reproduction of the photo anyway. How boring that would be! People tell me that my work looks just like a photo, but I hope they are wrong. I try to make it look better than a photo. A person's eye can see much better than a camera lens, so why not go for that.

Technology has not surpassed Nature yet! As good as they are now, camera lenses have yet to duplicate the range our eyes can see all in one exposure. The camera has to choose between the details in the shadows and the details in the lighter areas of highlights. So, I use the photo as a starting place. I want my work to be like you are actually standing there looking at the scene. Better than a photo. According to my son, "ultra-real" is the term. This is where realism starts to be a subjective "grey area." What does "real" actually look like?

I have literally taken thousands of photos of the areas that interest me, recently the Texas Coast to be specific.  The number of oil paintings I have completed to date stands at a little over 100. That's a good start, particularly since most of those are sold. But, I have so many more that I would like to paint!

My photography of the harbors around the Corpus Christi area could some day be an important collection. I documented them in all seasons and situations. And, much of what I have in my archives no longer exists. Progress marches on. Old wooden docks are replaced by new modern ones. Not as interesting to paint. The old wooden shrimp and oyster boats are also disappearing. Yet, I could continue to paint them until the Tarpon come home.

When I decide which photo I want to paint next I look at my collection using a "thumbnail" view on my iPhoto or Adobe Bridge applications. If an image looks good at that small a scale, it will look good at a distance on someone's wall. I have to be very choosy, since one of my paintings might take me three months to complete. Wasting three months of my life is not
something I take lightly, even though I often work on more than one painting at a time.

So, what are my other considerations in choosing an image to paint? There must be many. Many are decisions that I don't even have to think about any more. They are just there, intuitively. The image has to strike a cord in me personally, but it also has to be an image that people will not be able to pass by without it having an affect on them. I hate the idea that someone might not look at my work if they are in the same room as it is.

That is one reason why I paint so large. If there was one thing I learned from my years in marketing and advertising was that in this information age (or was that the last age?) people's brains are so cluttered with input from so many sources, that you had better do something impactful to get their attention. Then, you better have something worth their while once you stop them.

I guess that is the secret to choosing the right image/photo for a painting. Ask yourself, "Why should they care?" Forget how they might want to decorate. The question is, "Why would they want this image on their wall?"

Here is a cropped version of the photo I have chosen to paint. I shot it a couple of years ago in the Port Aransas harbor. I'm not sure any one has ever tried to paint this particular image, although they pass it by every time they get off the ferry and drive into Port Aransas. At least not a realistic oil painter. Its just too hard! All those lines and those reflections!

Ah, but I see a challenge. I'll paint it large, so I can get a lot of details in, and take my time. It will be a "master work" and about 4' x 8' when completed, so I will have to add sky and more water top and bottom to get to those proportions.

In the next few segments of my blog, I will take you through how I got started on this piece and will eventually bring you up to real time. I will also share what I am thinking about painting next and why.

Hope you decide to follow along. You can click on "Follow" and get notifications when I post something new (I think). Or, if you already are on my email address book, I will send out a notice.

Even if you are not an artist, you might gain some insights into work like mine and become a better informed art patron.