Texas Water is Deep

"Texas Water is Deep" $75 U.S.

Painted in Acrylic on 9" X 12" 140 lb. paper.

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Dan Bunch
2236 Co. Rd. 314
Cleburne, TX
76031

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Howdy,

I went to an Art Guild meeting last night. It was neat. We had a demonstration of acrylic painting. A lady did a painting of flowers. And she showed a couple of canvas of things she does, which is dried leaves and very light bright flowers. It is what I call a "dog and pony" show. She filmed it for other future cd's or sales of some sort. Kind of neat.

Thing is; we have a small show of art each month. I was thinking about this one last night this morning, trying to tell my son about the winners. There was a painting done really well, of a Native American in a typical "setting". That, I think is the problem I have with the art they do. And that too is a kind of problem I think. Not for them! These artists are winning shows and selling their art. I am the one that has the "problem".

You see, like this one painting of the Native Woman sitting in front of a hanging skin, and holding a knife and a squash. The thing is that to me it looked like a diorama. You know, one of those "window" like displays at the museum? I could see no movement. Not a hair out of place, not even on the fur of the skin hanging up. No wind. No small dog or child running. No flopping clothing. Nothing. So it was like a perfect picture of a wax figure, sitting in a diorama. And it won. Very great colors. Great art rendering. No movement. No life. (in my humble opinion).

I saw a scene once at a Ft. Worth museum. It was a scene of the typical chuck wagon on a cattle drive. The painting however was anything but typical. There were a couple of cowboys laughing and screaming and pointing at a distant object. The cook in full flowered and rolled up apron and holding a spoon was there doing much the same. The object was a cowboy on a raging bucking horse. It was fantastic art! There was a red blanket flapping in the wind that "pointed" to the action of the bucking cowboy. That made your eye follow the scene from the chuck wagon to the bucking bronco. That was some of the best art I have ever seen. I forget who the artist was....

But that is what I was trying to convey to my son this morning. That as all the women love flowers and leaves and Native Americans in their art, they also go to "schools" or art class. They go learn at the easel of artists that all went to other art classes of other artists holding art classes, all doing the same things the same way. If you see a hundred artists trying to do exactly the same flowers or dry leaves the artist did during the "dog and pony" show, that, to me, gets to be boring with a capital "B"!

A painting to me ought to show first, an appealing overall single type of work. That is; you would not mix a "Georgia Okeef", or R. C. Gorman, type of Native American woman sitting in the middle of a Remington. That would be awkward, right? So why paint a "fixed" diorama looking wax figure of a Native woman? There was no life in the art, is what I am saying. To me, there should be movement and life, if the painting is supposed to show that type of scene. An R. C. Gorman would be more like a graphic design. And so would Georgia Okeef. But if you are going to paint something like a scene of an Indian at work in a village, then there ought, to my mind, be movement, life, and more.

Of course that gives you an idea of what my art looks like! I try for movement and motion and emotion, and it winds up something quite different than what was displayed at the small show last night! No way would any of the people locally vote for my paintings over their wonderful, to me, "art class" paintings. Nothing wrong with showing perfection, if that is your style. And it sure enough sells. But it is just boring to me to see the same old brush strokes of "here is how you do it".

I know, I'm weird. And opinionated!

Later,
Dan Bunch
TX