jdteehan

It's been a while since my last post. Much has been going on, not the least of which has been a firestorm of painting over the past couple of months. I'm in that awful searching stage where I'm trying to find myself--and not sound like an idiot while trying to describe what I'm doing right now. My new Irish music series of paintings are a lot of fun and definitely something I feel strongly about. Likewise, I've been enjoying my watercolor waterscapes.  I've been feeling a bit less so of my oil seascapes. I'm thinking they're a bit derivative, but I'm learning some process from them at least. What I end up having fun with are seascapes with a more alien feel.

It probably comes as no surprise to anyone who has perused my gallery that:

a.) I have had no formal art training or education, and
b.) I can't draw worth beans.

That said, I've always loved art and wanted to be an artist. Eventually, I decided to dive in even without any training or proper knowledge to see what would happen. It's more or less been an instructive, positive experience with some occasionally decent results. But I've a long way to go. My painting techniques suck--particularly in watercolor and oil. I've been spending a lot of time lately practicing watercolor, and I've been studying oil. I don't expect overnight results, but I can look back on this past year and see that this year's works are better than last year's. One can only assume that next year's will be an improvement on this year's.

Among the many other things I'm practicing, I'm going to put a focus on drawing. Mostly figure drawing as I find it the most interesting and fun, but also trees and buildings because I need the practice. I've been using a book composed of handmade paper from Indonesia which is okay, but the surface is uneven and the pen doesn't always respond well, so today I'll go out and get a proper sketchbook and some waterproof pens. I may get a very small watercolor set--something that will fit in one of those little pencil cases--and commit to at least two drawings a day. Scribble sketches, rough and loose, and somewhat expressionist.

Every day.

Likewise, I've been studying the work of one of my favorite artists--Jeffrey Catherine Jones. Her paintings and her pen and ink drawings. I've recently acquired the Jeffrey Jones Sketchbook which includes a lot of conversational notes on the process, but doesn't get into any sort of detail. She was never a teacher, but folks have picked up little nuggets from her over the years. I'm hoping to do much the same. I expect a couple of more Jeff Jones books to arrive in the mail any day now.

But back to work. I'll post a few more figure studies and such as the mood strikes.

Cheers!

--John

Not entirely a Deviant subject, but there is some intersection...

I've recently redesigned and updated my personal website at www.johnteehan.com. There's an art section which features galleries of much the same you see here. There are also pages devoted to writing, to publishing, and to music. The home page is a blog which will be updated most weekdays.

When you get a chance, check it out. If you see any bugs or glitches, feel free to let me know.

Cheers!

--John

So in continuing my education/development/whatever as an ersatz artist, I've been focusing lately on watercolors. I think soon I'm going to start mixing up the paintings with photos to see what all happens, but for now I'm enjoying picking up the various tips and tricks. Sure, nothing here ready for the Louvre by any stretch, but I think if one were to look at some of my very earliest attempts at painting and compare them to today's, they may see a bit of progress being made. I pretty much have pencils down. I'm getting the hang of cakes, and mixing colors. I've done tubes and mixing, but I should get some more practice on those soon. I tend to save the tubes for the larger pieces. I have a couple sketched out, but because tube paints involve a little more setup and cleanup, I've been waiting for a good time. I may just have to make the time.

In other news, I've also been experimenting a little with framing and mounting. I've had most of my works printed as either mattes or glossies, and have been seeing how they look formally matted. Not bad. Glossy finishes work better on the darker pieces. Matte finishes work better for the lighter pieces. I found some very inexpensive frames for the 4x6 prints at the local art supply story, and I found an online vendor for pre-cut mat boards and bags for the 5x7s. At some point, I'm going to try some 8x10s as well.

Fun stuff.

I said I'd start a new series soon, and looks like that series has turned out to feature UFO sightings. With the exception of the fake picture from 1926 Port Jefferson, NY, all of the UFOs are from previously recorded UFO sightings--just transplanted into new pictures. I'm going to work on a few more of these to see where the series takes me. I'm leaning toward a certain retro-feel for them which I may stick with.

As for the Port Jefferson picture (Sighting 4), that was more inspired by Enki Bilal's "La Foire aux immortels." I was fascinated by the idea of a big-ass pyramid floating inexplicably above a futuristic city. I shamelessly stole the idea and simply changed the setting. I'll cop to that.