My secret ingredient.

Seek and Ye Shall Find  oil on canvas 36x54

Want to know my secret ingredient for making a work of art?   It's complicated and I am constantly seeking the answer myself but today I had to pony up and answer a similar question to a gallery director. I think I gave a pretty good explanation, let me know what you think.   I was asked -

"I just wanted to send a quick note to tell you how much I love your painting for Cats vs. Dogs. I loved it from the images you sent, but the surface texture and little carved surprises make it ten times better. Thank you for taking the time to create such a thoughtful piece for the exhibit. We will treasure having it on display here. (And I’ll send photos once we’re finished with the installation!)

If you have a moment, I’d love to get any stories behind the piece - anecdotes or what the composition means to you."

and I replied:

So glad to hear you liked the painting!  So what's behind the scenes here......Hmmm.

Most of my art tells a story, some are very complex stories, some simple.  The subject matter I paint is very personal to me but I like to present it in a way that most can relate to it and develop their own idea or story.  Seek and Ye Shall Find is kind of a simple story, to me but may be a complex story to someone else.  An example would be the empty bird cage, it could mean a lot of different things.  A lost bird, a dead bird, looking for a new bird, a new friend, setting a bird free, freedom, etc.  Actually for me the bird cage means very little - sorry to say - but it's something I put in just for the curiosity of it.  Some people may call this simple minded trickery but I am doing it for the viewer.  I want them to get lost in my painting and create a story, so I added this detail.  Things in the painting that do mean a lot to me are: my daughters name which is Aspen, my sons name  which is Seven. In most of my work you will find a number 7 (obscure or obvious),  I've been including 7's for twenty one years now.  People that know my work enjoy looking for the 7's and letting me know they found it. The dog pictured is my German Short Haired Pointer, her name is Lucy. She is a rescued dog from my local shelter.  The Mallard Ducks in flight were my dad's favorite bird, he collected decoys and such and I remember being in awe of these as a child. Some of the earliest paintings I was exposed to were of these ducks pictured in their native homes.  The fact that the boy and dog are sailing away reference going off on an adventure.  They are looking for something - the dog pointing may mean they have found something - who knows?  Personally, I am an adventurer by heart but all of my adventures happen on land. I have always wanted to build my own boat and learn to sail, I don't know why, but it's always been romantic to me.  This is surprising because water is one of my biggest fears.  Drowning, sharks and giant octopus - all freak me out, but still I long to be out there.  I also like flying.  As a child my dreams were filled with me flying or floating.  As I got older I learned to control the dreams and I could get myself to fly in a certain direction and see things from this different perspective, flying high or skimming the surface of the water.  These dreams really influenced me and ignited a fire in me to constantly explore.  Here on land I am always finding myself looking up to the high places and wondering what it would be like to be there, who else has stood up there, what could you see from up there, how do you get up there? I am a mountain hiker/climber.  I know this sounds like I am all over the place with ideas but that is the purpose of my art.  It grounds me and lets me put all these ideas together to make an image for all to enjoy.   

Those little carved surprises and surface details you see are things I do for "eye candy".  I have always thought art should look good from a distance as well as close up and the closer I bring someone to my art the more I want to give them for their effort.  The carvings are put in as I paint and many actually get painted over and lost.  They may be thoughts I had, random doodles, things added to help tell the story, etc.  I have had paintings hang for a month before anyone notices these details and they are always so excited to discover them. Once they do discover them, they will spend an hour looking for others. Sometimes I'll get calls months later because they have found something new and are excited to let me know. They become very personal with the work and I like this.  It's like knowing all of the birth marks and bumps & bruises on your child.  I think, in a way, these discoveries also help bring out the kid in all of us.  It ignites something with us.  

So, overall, the painting is about adventure with a boy and his faithful companion. What they are seeking and how close they are to their goal is up to the viewer.  But overall, this is classic stuff, like Old Yeller.  Makes you want to adopt your own dog and start your own adventure - right?  Lucy is the third dog in my life.  She hasn't even been with our family for a year yet but she has already settled in and become a part of us.  I know she will be with me, and my daughter, on many, many adventures yet to come.

I hope this helps you and everyone else understand a little bit more about me and my art.

-End of response.

So what did you think?  Did I let you in my head a little bit?  A little larger version of this painting can be seen here Seek and Find .  There's also added information regarding the show here too.  I know you still can't see the carved surprises, sorry.  It would kind of kill the meaning if you could as they are meant to be for you all who visit the painting in person.  If you can't see this one in person wait for the next.  I've got a lot of ideas, adventures and surprises left in me for many years of painting.

Cheers,

Larry

www.larryreinhart.com

A simple setup.

Desktop setup

I think simplicity it key to making good art.  Not simple art but a simple set up.  In the picture above you can see my setup that I have used for years.  I have a movable slanted board, a pallet, paper towels and brushes.  I have been using this same setup since college.

Side view of slanted board

In fact, I used to haul the piece of board around from class to class back in the college days.  I liked it because I could tape my drawings and paintings to it and I could use it in perspective class and run T squares along the edge.  I also used it outside, in the car, on camping trips, took it to moms house, etc.  It's simple, it works and I have painted hundreds of painting on this board.

From this board I have produced paintings for Warner Bros, Mattel, Harcourt Brace, Leap Frog, Spider Magazine, and many more.  This board has felt water colors, acrylics, oils, gauche, colored pencils, pastels, pen and ink and probably every other medium you can imagine. When I reflect back on this board I am amazed how a few scrap pieces of lumber from the wood shop and six wood screws could earn me so much money.


I'm amazed and humbled.



The other pieces of equipment that are here are my pallet, paper towels and brushes.  My pallet is a frame that was picked up at Michael's.  It's simple glass that has a wood holder, AKA - pallet.  Nothing special.  The paper towels are bought in bulk at Staples.  One big box of towels lasts more than ten years.  I'm on my third box.  The brush holder is an old jar filled with beans.  The beans keep the brushes upright instead of falling over to the side. This old jar is probably from some blackberry jam I bought - it's my favorite.

Pallet, towels and a bit of a brush holder

You can go to any art supply company and find many expensive things that are made just for  these purposes.  The thing to remember is to keep it simple.  Spend your money on good brushes and good paint, not on insignificant things like a brush holder.

I hope you found some delight in this post.  I think it's always fun to see how different artists are set up for their work.  It's almost like getting a special backstage access to a ballet or concert.

I suppose I can always tell people that the secret to making good art is to have bears, foxes and caribous on your painting pallet and black beans in your brush holder. But I'm sure they'll just think I'm nuts.

Take care,

Larry

It's a glamorous life.

Pink Glam

I'll admit this one was a fast one.  I was pushing paint around with colors chosen by my daughter.  The pink was a very hot pink but I couldn't get a good reproduction of it.  There is also glitter on the surface, again it didn't photograph well.  It does look way better in person.  You'll just have to trust me.

Oh, it's also acrylic.  99.5% of my work is oils so this is a rare panting.

Hope you enjoy!

Larry

Through the turbulence a new painting arrives.

One of my newest paintings completed. Through the Turbulence, 12x24 oil on Canvas.  Are you interested in my process?  Read on and I'll share a little bit of it.

original sketches from sketch book.  These are about 2-3 inches across.  Very small

First comes the idea.  Recorded in a sketch book.  Sometimes just one sketch is needed, other times I play around and do different sketches.  In this case I did multiple sketches, different times, the key thing is the image kept returning.  Since I am always working on something the sketches will sit in my sketch book for a while, untouched.  Then, when the time is right I go through my sketch book and choose a few possible sketches to work out.

reference material

After deciding on a couple of sketches I gather reference material if needed.  In the bottom reference shot, the guy in the boat, left side figure, is actually from a kayaking picture.  I used Photoshop to cut and paste.  The boat at top center ultimately inspired me for shape and color.  At this point I am considering adding tribal marks to the side of the boat.  I'm not 100% sure of the direction yet.

final drawing

I use the sketch and the reference material to create my final drawing.  I'm pretty sure there will be no tribal markings but I still feel something is missing.  I just haven't figure out what yet.

color study

I use a copy of the final drawing to make quick color studies.  I usually do these in colored pencils and acrylics.  Above is the color choices I liked the best.

Stormy seas. Is this what I am missing?

Katsushika Hokusai's - Great Wave of Kanagawa from his series of 36 views of Mt Fuji, 1830-1832

Halfway through painting the sky and water I realized what was missing.  I wanted Iconic Japanese Waves, like the ones in the pictures above.  I was already thinking the canoe was emerging out of the darkness and going toward the light but the consistent water on the bottom was what was bugging me.  I thought it would be more exciting if he was emerging out of a storm.

Through the Turbulence 12x24 oil on canvas

And here we are today with the finished painting.

What do you think?

Cheers,

Larry
www.larryeinhart.com
Follow me on Instagram
Follow me on Facebook

7

Seven

This started out as an abstract but morphed into this.  As I worked my thoughts were to have scrapped concrete on the lower portion for a rough textural surface.  I would then fill in the upper portion with a leveling compound and finish it off with a shiny enamel paint.  After all dried and cured I would scratch the 7 back into it to resemble graffiti or something.

This image is just oil paint on paper and at 5x7 is quite small.  The one I was dreaming about would have been in the 24 x 36 inch realm.  Unfortunately, after completing this little study, I can see now the bigger version just wouldn't work out right.  The contrasting surface treatments would be good but I do not feel the overall image is enough to sustain it's life.  It is simply too simple.  At a larger size the white enamel would give you nothing to look at and ponder over.  Unless I had more images and words scratched into it at a smaller scale - Hmmmmm?

This is a complete break away from anything I have done in the past.  It's good to experiment and try new things but also good to know when to stop. 

Larry

It needs a shift. Right?

A Shift to Green, 6x6 oil on paper

I don't have much to say about this painting.  I was just play'in with the square format.  I generally like the earth toned paintings better, but this one just got a little too pink-ish for me.  I'm just not love'in it with the green.  To be honest it looks like baby poo.  Yea, not the best sales tactic, say'in your work looks like poo.

I should have shifted all the colors to the green side of the force. 

I also should have probably tossed this one but something about it made me keep it.  80% of the time I don't like it but there are some days I look at it and say "It's not bad."

What do you think?  Good or Bad?


Larry

What is this?

What is this?

Its a brush cleaner!  They sell these things in the art stores for about $4-&7 dollars a pop.  But there's a problem with the ones they sell in the stores, they are way too small.  I should clarify - too small if you paint large paintings, if you use large brushes, if you use many brushes and if you paint daily.  If you don't do the above then I guess they are fine. All the problems listed above originate from a single problem, too much oil paint getting mixed in with the cleaner. The ratio is off.

To get around this, I have tried using a "dirty" jar to use as an initial cleaner, followed by a "clean" jar for a final rinse.  This fails though when you accidently mix the two.  I have seen other artist used larger cans (like the old coffee cans) to increase the ratio of used paint to cleaner.  I often then them used with no scrub element inside though.

What's a scrub element?  It's the wire inside that you can scrub your brush against to get the paint out of the bristles.  It doesn't work to scrub against the bottom of the can because that's where all the sediment is.  Scrubbing on the bottom just makes the cleaner over saturated with paint again, you need something else to scrub against.

The jar you see in my picture is a homemade brush cleaner.  Homemade in the fact that I bought separate items and combined them to make my perfect brush cleaner.  I bought the jar at Hobby Lobby - a local craft store for $2. I could have purchased a larger jar but this is the size that works for me.   The wire inside is scrap wire I had around from making screens for my garden.  A role of this stuff can be expensive ($5-$10) but the roll would probably make 3 dozen jar cleaners or more. 

How does it work?  I paint and paint and paint and then when I am ready to clean my brushes I wipe off excess paint and then use the jar to clean them.  The gamsol inside does get dirty, as you can see in the above picture, but by the next day the particles have settled to the bottom and the jar is ready for more cleaning.  This happens quicker because there is more gamsol in the jar than paint particles - my theory anyways. 

The one thing I know for sure, if you clean your brushes with dirty cleaner there will be paint residue within your bristles.  Go on vacation for a week and you will return to stiff brushes.  Some people can get fanatical about cleaning their brushes with different soaps and conditioners; that's fine but it's not for me. I've been cleaning oil brushes without special soaps for about 15 years now.  This works and I'm good with that.

FYI - I made a second jar and use it for my acrylics too.  

Larry

Lift Off- Where's it going?

Lift Off, 5x7 oil on paper

This abstract painting started with a streak of bright yellow paint.  And with only this bright yellow paint it sat in the studio for a week before I touched it again.  I didn't know what to do with it. I didn't think the placement of the yellow was good as it was way off balance.

When I did start working on it again I started laying in colors around the yellow.  The yellow still really bugged me though.  I kept thinking it looked like projectile vomit.  I had this vision stuck in my head and I couldn't get beyond it.  You know what I did?  I tossed it in the trash can.  Actually, I flicked it into the trash like when you flick a playing card.  It landed perfectly in the trash can from across the studio.  It was a good shot!

But that's when I saw it, the yellow streak was up top and I was looking at it from a distance.  It looks like a rocket flying off the paper. Where's this rocket going? Is it one my son makes (He's in school to be an Astronomical Engineer - go boy!) I retrieved the art and went back to work.  No more vomit, just fire and smoke now.  Hopefully I have chosen the right title.  If I would have named it "projectile vomit" you would probably be looking at it differently right now.

Sometimes it helps to clear your mind and take another look.

Larry

An angel appeared

Angel , 5x7 oil on paper

The initial point of abstract art is that it is void of any recognizable shapes or items.  This is what made  Jackson Pollock so famous.  He eliminated everything but the color by dripping the paint onto the canvas.  For the time, this was the pinnacle of abstraction.  You have to understand that a simple brush stroke on a canvas is in fact a line, a recognizable element. Well, there's a lot of different theories you can study and learn more about Abstract Art in books, or online.  My way of thinking of abstraction is simple and I'm not here to say who's right and who's wrong?  Actually, the person who's right may be the person paying for the painting?

In my abstract art I am simply playing with color, texture and maybe a bit of form. Most of the recognizable elements in my art come from the scratching or doodling I do directly into the wet paint.  Often times the doodling is simple geometric shapes, other time they are simple icons, like a heart or a cross.  Everything I add to an abstract is there for the beauty and balance of the image but the individual elements do not necessarily tell a story or convey an idea.  In fact the titles have more information or may lead you into a certain direction more than the actual painting or doodles.

In my painting Angel, seen above, an angel appeared in the paint.  I thought it was interesting and so I kept her there.  I did touch her up a bit to make her a little more prominent, but not much.  I think I achieved balance in this painting when I added the little yellow dot near the top.  It almost appears as a moon or star.  I have noticed that when I make something recognizable (like the angel) other things take on related shapes (like the star) and our minds start to put conceived puzzle pieces together to try and make a story.  This is interesting to me because the Angel is just a blob of paint.  No story to be had.  The yellow dot was just a bit of warmth added to compliment the bottom warm colors.

Funny how things develop.

Larry

A studio tip. Keeping things at hand.

My paint brush holder.

Paint brush holder or pen, pencil, Exact-O knife and scissor holder or cooking utensil holder or screw driver and wrench holder, the list can keep going but I'm sure you get the idea.

I use old coffee cups to keep these types of things in.  I can buy these cups with bears, or trees or whatever I want on them for decoration.  I think they look better then some generic plain container or a tin can.  Have I ever mentioned I hate plastic?  Plastic has got to be the ugliest thing in the world.  I love ceramic, clay, cement, rock, wood, glass, etc.

To keep the items upright, I fill the vessel with dried beans.  The beans could be marbles, sand or whatever else you can think of.  I use beans and I like the multi-colored beans.  With a paint brush covered in oil paint, I can stick one in and I know it won't fall out or touch something unwanted - like a clean brush.  I also know it won't roll across the pallet and get stuck in another pile of paint  - I know, you know, what I mean - fellow artists. 

The secret is the beans.  What makes it look good is the cup.  A win / win.  If things ever get really dire, I can always make bean soup and I'll have something to eat it out of.  I'll just need a spoon.

Speaking of spoons......I've got spoons in my studio too.  Want to see them? - LOL

Until then, cheers,

Larry

Commited to what?

Committed  oil on paper  Larry Reinhart

I have just started the next phase of committing myself to my abstract art.  I am now working on my web site, adding a new portfolio page tilted "Abstract World."  When I get it complete I'll share it and you'll be the first to see it.  I'm not exactly sold on the title yet, still pondering it.  I'm guessing the new portfolio will take most of two weeks to get it up and published online.  I like to think about things, a lot, before I go public.  I also tend to be a neat freak when it comes to design.  I want things to line up and be balanced so there is a lot of nudging two pixels this way or that way.  I see this neat freak stuff a lot in my personal life too.  Not a squeaky clean sort of neat freak but more freaky about other things.  I like my ducks in a row.  That's probably why I love painting so much.  In my Obsessions work there is the organization of the sketch, the reference and the color choices but when it comes time to paint, I just paint.  I get lost in it, it's like a break from reality.  It truly is -  I can be yawning and tired but if I pick up a brush and start painting I'll have to force myself to go to sleep 3-4 hours later.   This break from reality is true for the abstract art too, but there's a lot less preconceived work and a lot more getting lost.

The painting above, tilted "Committed" was a piece I was getting ready to abandon.  I wasn't happy with it.  It was mainly a color issue, but I don't like tossing paintings at the slightest problem.  I do have some patience and I will think about the painting a great deal before acting upon my initial thoughts.  Eventually this one got a couple layers of glazing and certain areas got wiped back out.  Metaphorically it was buried under layers of paint then wiped clean for a rebirth.  That's not squeaky clean but it's still a bit freaky - Ya' know.  I am happy with it now though.  I guess that's all that matters.

Have a good day and stay committed to everything you do!

Larry

An abstracted way of looking at things.

Fault Line 2017 oil on paper Larry Reinhart

Artist do many things to play in the art world, like going to a cafe to sketch people.  When I play, I make abstract art.

For me, abstract art started out as just playing with colors.  This is what I liked the most, it was just me and the paint colors.  There's no reference material, no sketches, no preconceived ideas.  Things have changed now because I don't go so blindly into the abstracts as before. I still love them, I just go about them kind of differently.  When I first starting doing these I saw things happen on the surfaced that brought up ideas, so I experimented.  An experiment is a per-conceived idea so I guess I can say I am not so free anymore.  I have a goal or a purpose but it's still kind of random and I am still experimenting.  It's hard to explain, but do you kind of know what I'm say'in?

Anyways, I am at a point now that I want to share these abstracts publicly.  I want to see where these can take me.  See what the future holds.  Let me know what you think.  I need the feedback!  I'll be posting different abstracts for the next couple of months or more.  - Don't worry, I'll post other things too.

The one above it titled Fault Line, it is only 5x7 inches.  I loved the way the white shows through creating a sense of two different land masses.  The colors are my favorites too.  I love earth tones with a plash of color thrown in, like the red.  This painting has three layers of paint on it.  The middle layer gets most of the work.  I don't think I have ever completed an abstract in a single sitting.  I don't think abstracts should be about randomly throwing colors down and calling it art.  An abstract is a work of art and should be cared for and caressed like any other painting you produce.  Put a little love into it and it will show.

Don't forget to let me know what you think about abstract art, my painting or what ever!

Cheers,

Larry