DETAIL 1: OLD & IN THE WAY

A close-up of watercolors tortured in the name of art.  More anguished work in my gallery of CURIOUS PAINTINGS.

DETAIL 2: OLD & IN THE WAY

JANUARY 2012: OLD & IN THE WAY

OLD & IN THE WAY: no, not me, the flowers! Wrinkles are a good thing, especially in flowers.

 

Wrinkles mean you worry a lot. Or someone left you out in the sun and didn’t water you enough. The former has me worrying a lot; about the tide not returning, sun not coming up, about the Pats’ chances in the Super Bowl, no snow, Pats’s chances, too much tide and about what’s for lunch. As for the latter, as a painter, I’ve got a subject matter with character (more than can be said for myself. I’ve got ”cranky,” but you can’t paint cranky.) that demands a somewhat focussed rendering, usually with painfully tiny watercolor brushes, sizes #3 – 7 (which begs the question: how come as the brush gets smaller, requiring fewer camel hairs, it gets more expensive? What, the camel trying to drive up demand?) and a massively big bottle of ibuprofen.  

 

Combine that with a sense of patience that often times leaves your (poor, long suffering) wife suspecting you’ve passed away at your desk because you haven’t twitched a muscle in 4-5 hours, and you’re ready to render wrinkled flowers! 

 

To learn more about aging gracelessly, visit my gallery of CURIOUS PAINTINGS. 

PETULANT PEONIES from BRIAN CODY

What do you get when you cross an irritated peony with a box of watercolors? PETULANT PEONIES!

More mildly disturbed florals at www.briancody.com.

TULIP TANTRUM Close-up

I’ve recently completed 3 new watercolor CURIOUS PAINTINGS. Above is a close-up detail from:

TULIP TANTRUMS

Also new:

ORANGE NOVA

SUNFLOWER WITH HEADACHE

I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the selfless sacrifices made by dedicated watercolors too numerous to mention in the laborious course of my creating these paintings. As demonstrated by the detail of TULIP TANTRUM, special attention should be focused on PAYNE’S GRAY and RAW SIENNA as two watercolors in particular who went above and beyond the call of duty. Thank you both, I couldn’t have done it without you.  The same can be said for all of your silent peers, MANGANESE BLUE and PERMANENT SAP GREEN and all the rest included, thank you, thank you, from the very bottom of my paint tray.

And as a final aside, this was a first for RAW SIENNA. Viewers might know RAW from her work in the adult entertainment industry. TULIP TANTRUM was her first starring role in mainstream watercoloring and I hope there’s many more like that to come; before you know it, Disney will be next! 

Agent’s note: RAW SIENNA is changing her name to SERENE SIENNA. Be sure to watch CURIOUS PAINTINGS for more SERENE updates.

JULY 2011: TULIP TANTRUM

I found a vase full of TULIP TANTRUMs THE OTHER DAY. Very beautiful and a bit wild!

More floral mayhem at http://www.briancody.com.

ROSE PONDERING RETIREMENT

So what happens to a flower once it passes its prime? Does it do a Jack Nicholson and show up courtside only at Lakers’ games? Hide in Florida with the pink flamingos? Rose Pondering Retirement demonstrates a different approach to aging gracefully by turning a bit crinkly, with its once saturated primary color red maturing into a multitude of muted, complimentary hues. Sort of like me except, instead of crinkly I just get cranky. 

More warnings of advancing wrinkles and bad temper at my Curious Paintings.

Weathered Mussel Withered Flowers

I suppose if flowers gossiped – and who’s to say they don’t? - I might be mistakenly identified as the Hannibal Lecter of the local floral community. ”He kills flowers!!!” the chat would go, “Tortures them with no water, lets them dry out to withered, filmy husks. Look what he did to my oldest friend Rose!”

(sigh) It’s never good when the flowers turn against you; next thing you know your lawn’s overrun with nasty, ugly weeds. And, if the local vegetable population gets wind, good luck with next year’s zucchini crop (remember: never piss off a zucchini, they’re in everything. Think of an angry zucchini bread for breakfast. Yikes!) I’m still taking a hit for that whole asparagus-in-a-toaster public relations disaster; the damn thing was unplugged! Who knew asparagus had no sense of humor? Or art for that matter.

So it’s all a perception-versus-reality thing. I really enjoy the character of a dried flower, I think it does things with filtered light that healthily hydrated, well adjusted blossoms don’t. But try explaining that to a perturbed Red Mum with an attitude, it’ll get you nowhere. Maybe next to a Purple Beach Mussel but what good is that?

8 NEW CURIOUS PAINTINGS

I’ve recently posted 8 new CURIOUS PAINTINGS on my website. All bright, colorful and reminiscent of a bright and colorful Summer.

My new stuff continues my focus on focusing. I’d collected this particular shell on one of our many journeys to Crane Beach, or more probably in this shell’s instance to ajoining Steep Hill Beach, and brought it home to use as what, an ashtray? Nope, don’t smoke. Could take up smoking, in hopes of not totally wasting the boat trip to the beach, but probably not a good idea.  It’s a fairly small shell and, once filled with cigarrette ash, what do I do, go back to the beach for more shells? Could be a problem during the winter months when the river freezes over and boat access is reduced.

So, having narrowly avoided adding another addiction to my collection, I returned to focusing on focus.  Hyper-render the aquamarine/blue shell as if it were still sitting beachside in bright sunlight, add a subtle shadow to reinforce its quietness and trap it within an intense, contrasting gold ochre field to pop it out even further.

Viola! Whaddya got? A watercolor painting of an empty ashtray!!! Makes you want to smoke, just to give that damn empty shell something to do. Sublime!

RED SEASHELL SITTING SERENELY

So again, it was a quiet summer; lots of sun and no storms. I’ll bet this afforded the local seashells plenty of time to sit serenely while surveying the seacoast.

More serenity at my CURIOUS PAINTINGS collection.