Dan's random thoughts....

This summer will prove to be a busy one with many shows and events.  I will be showing two of my paintings, "The Falcon" and "Lum and Abner" at the WVA NE Chapter member show at The Windhover Center in Fon du lac, WI from May 13th-June 30th.  I will also be entering into at least two Juried auctions, the Secura Exhibit in May and the Northern National Juried Art Competition in Rhinelander, WI.  The Arts of Daycholah will be having their first Plein air painting auction on May 29th in Greenlake, WI and I will be there as well.  I am sure more events will be added as the summer progresses.  Unfortunately I can't do everything and keep my sanity so I try to take care in what I choose. 

New paintings this summer include "Seven Sleeping Ducks"  Which will be posted soon so watch for it, and one that is on the easel right now, titled "Bel Air".  There will be more of course so make sure to check back often. 

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One could say that I am an artist without direction.  Looking at other artists work I see how many of them (not all) choose a certain subject matter and a particular style and hold fast to it.  Their work becomes recognizable to people at just a glance and usually gets them the attention they desire.  I wonder if this is something that is forced by the artist or if it is just something that we gradually settle into.  I look at my own work and see subject matter that is endless.  I paint whatever inspires me, whatever makes me feel passionate.  I have even started a new series involving childhood toys.  This isn't surprising though, given my personality.  I am the type of person who is always exploring and although I like to be settled, I can't help but desire new experiences.  So I find myself often coming back to a question of conformity in my art.  It might bring more prosperity to my budding art career to pick a subject and a style and mold it into something that people could point to and say, "That's the work of Daniel W Green, I could spot that anywhere", and that wouldn't be an entirely bad thing.  Many artist do quite well and are happy with this method.  I am just not sure I could do that.  I always feel the need to keep exploring, at least for now anyway.  Staying true to my heart and passions is what always seems to be guiding me.

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What's been on the easel these days?  Well, for the past month or so I have been working on a very large commissioned painting for a local woman.  It is a double portrait in an outdoor setting.  It is coming along great and has had many ups and downs along the way.  I expect to be wrapping things up with this work in the next month.  I will post a picture of course when I am done!

I have also started work on a painting of an old boat.  I am working from photo's I took in Escanaba recently of an old fire boat that is sitting in a field along the shores of lake Michigan.  It's a wonderful old relic and I can't wait to make a painting from it.  The painting will be 30"x40", oil on canvas.

Today, I will also be continuing work on a self portrait I am doing.  Working from a mirror I am working to improve my skill of capturing resemblance early on, and getting skin tones right. 

I have entered a couple of juried exhibitions this fall and soon they be judging all the submitted works by local artists.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!  It would be great to see my work hung in one of these exhibits.

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This past month and into the next I am working to finish a few more paintings in the snow series.  These new paintings will be displayed at Studio 213 in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin from Novemeber through the end of the year.  On November 13th I will be painting live during the downtown for the holidays event. I will be there from 11am-2pm.  I welcome all to come down and see me working on one of these icy scenes.  I am also considering having some of these paintings turned into holiday cards!  Hope to see many of you there!!

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This week I was recalling something that happened to me a long time ago.  When I was 17 I went on a class day trip to Chicago.  We were there all day.  We went to the Museum, The Art Institute, The Aquarium, and of course downtown shopping.  It was a long day and it was really nice to see another part of the world that wasn't anything like where I had been growing up.  When I was leaving Chicago on the large charter bus, I remember looking out the window at the city.  It was dark already and the city was lit up like a Christmas Tree.  I put on my headphones and started to dream about a life in this place.  I thought about what kind of a free life I could have, to be whatever I wanted.  It made me feel excited about getting past the current point in my life so I could start really living.  When I got home I continued to stay in my thoughts and I picked up a pencil and started to draw.  There was one Saturday in perticular I started drawing on a large sheet of paper someone had given me.  I created a place I had in my head.  It was an apartment in downtown Chicago.  As I sketched out the layout of the high rise living room I thought about my life there and who I shared it with.  It started to become a reality that I had control over.  A  place where I could live out my fantasy.  I spent the whole day emersed in this world and to this day I can recall all the details of it.  I still have the drawing and every once in awhile, I revisit the memory of that day.  This past week I had put in a CD on my way home from work, and it happened to be the same music I listened to that very evening on the way home decades earlier.  It made me think about how much that drawing means and how the paintings that I create are many times brought about by this same type of daydreaming.  Many of my paintings have these same dreams connected with them.  Sometimes,  I wonder if anyone even remotely knows what I was thinking about when I created the painting.  Is that information being conveyed to them?  I know that many times they can feel the energy in it, and that amazes me.  In away, it truely is a mystery, even to me.

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With every painting I produce I like to think that I am increasing my skill and becoming a better artist.  To keep moving in the right direction I try to choose subjects that will help to keep me challenged.  Right now I am working on three paintings, well four, but one is a life long project that hits that back burner often.  I am working on a nude figure painting, the perfect sky, and one called, "The Wedding Dinner".  This last one has consumed most of my time and is really one of my most difficult paintings to date.  I have been taking progress pictures and will bring them to you when the project is done.  This one will take some time.  I may not be producing a mass quantity of paintings right now, but I am working to make better and more thoughtful pieces.

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I am just coming back from vacation and I spent the time fishing and doing a lot of painting.  I spent four days up by my father in beautiful, Florence, Wi. The scenery on the lakes up there is simply breathtaking.  I didn't have my new camera to capture the moment so I tried to visually burn it into my memory.  While I was up there I also worked on a small portrait of my stepmothers grandaughter.  It was fun and challenging to work outside of the studio and my stepmom was pleased to have the portrait.  I recently (today) finished a large portait, 24"x30", of my grandfather.  It turned out great and I will have it posted here soon.  It is titled appropriately with just his first name, "Ralph".  I also have been working on another commisioned painted of a 16"x20" portrait, a figure study which has proved to be challenging, and a fun landscape of an apple orchard with a young couple sitting in the grass.  The couple is my greatgrandparents when they were young.  I enjoy using family photos for these paintings as it allows for a stong emotion during the process.

On Friday I attended the Small Works Project in Sheboygan, Wi.  It was a really fun evening and I enjoyed watching people get their new paintings and swapping them out on the trading wall.   It's something I would definately participate in again!

 I have been brainstorming for some new painting ideas.  Some of them include a painting of the president, the butcher, and the rebel.  We will see what the rest of the summer brings...

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The Oshkosh Gallery walk at the Grand Opera House last night was a success.  The paintings looked great in the wonderful vintage lobby.  There was a great musicans and singers there to entertain the whole evening.  It was a very special night for me.  The rain didn't even seem to keep too many people away.  What a great start!

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I read a lot about how other artists just knew that they were an artist from childhood.  It was something they never questioned.  For me, I was down right lost for a long time.  I had the drive and the creativness, but never had any direction.  In my life I did some down right strange things that represent this burning desire for an outlet.  When I was very young, I would play with watercolors and elmers glue.  Sometimes I would even put my creations in the freezer to help them, "set".  My mother didn't appreciate that too much.  Over the years I experimented with drawing and music many times.  I worked on my flower gardens to the extent that they became a work of art in themselves. At one time I had large saltwater aqauriums where I could create a visual wonderland of life.  Once I even sawed the roof of my old car off, for what reason I am still trying to determine.  None of these things ever seemed to really satisfy my drive though.  A few years ago I found painting.  From that first day when I sat down and put paint to canvas I knew that this was my calling. This is how it's supposed to be.  Since then I have immersed myself in this craft and I can truly say I have been born into being an artist.  Finally I have arrived.

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I brought three paintings to the Green Lake Gallery today, "A Snowy Afternoon in the park", "A Quiet Snow", and "Creek Bed".  The Gallery will be opening up later this month with a wide variety of artists. 

The Arts of Daycholah is located at 526 Mill Street in downtown Greenlake, Wisconsin. 

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Lately as many of you know I have started to work on portraits.  This is something I am very passionate about.  There is something about capturing a persons face in oil that is very satisfing. Working with photos of the deceased can be very intense.  When I paint I ask myself many questions about who they were and what kind of life they led.  It becomes a very intimate time for me and my subject.  In someways it feels almost as if I am paying them some type of honor and communicating with them on some sort of spiritual level.  In a small way I am bringing them back to life, or at the very least the memory of who they were.  It's a lot more than just putting paint to canvas.

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