Just a travelin’ man

Midsummer dance, Anders Zorn, 1903

This morning I’m off with my pal Brad Marshall to see Anders Zorn: Sweden’s Master Painter at the National Academy. Before Brad suggested this, I knew absolutely nothing about Zorn. That’s ironic, because at the turn of the last century he was one of the world’s most renowned painters. In fact, he painted three American presidents: Grover Cleveland (and his wife), William Taft, and Theodore Roosevelt, along with many other of the social luminati of the time.

Portrait of Hugo Reisinger, Anders Zorn, 1907

Anders Zorn was raised on the family farm in rural Sweden. He studied at local grammar schools before enrolling in the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.  His painting and social skills must have been prodigious, because he rapidly became a luminary in the Stockholm art world. His wife, Emma, was from a wealthy and cultured family; they met through his work.

Not content to be a big fish in a small pond, Zorn traveled to the world’s major cultural centers.  He was feted internationally while still in his twenties. (He in turn became a notable art patron upon his return to Sweden.)

Sensitive to cold, Anders Zorn, 1894.

Like John Singer Sargent, Zorn was a highly-skilled watercolorist; like Sargent and Joachim Sorolla, he was known for his loose, lyrical paint handling. Unlike them, his fame has flamed out, at least here in the United States.  What will I think of his work? Only one way to find out.

Anders Zorn: Sweden’s Master Painter runs until May 18, 2014 at the National Academy of Art, XX Park Avenue, New York, NY.

Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Belfast, Maine in August, 2014 or in Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!

Help! I need ideas.

The buoy itself, awaiting ideas. Any suggestions, friends?

Last year, when I got a buoy in the mail, one of my kids asked, “Who sent us an oversized dreidel?” This year, we’ve moved on, so the question is, “What should Mom paint on that oversized dreidel?”

Once again, I’ll be participating in Penobscot East Resource Center’s  Annual Lobster Buoy and Reverse Auction. There are a lot of very witty buoys submitted, some of which you can see here.

Last year's buoy.

Penobscot East Resource Center works to rebuild a small-scale diversified fishery where fishermen and their communities are a part of the governance of fishing. They serve 50 communities from Penobscot Bay to the Canadian border. This is the most fishery-dependent stretch of the East Coast.

If you’ve followed the news, you know that lobster wholesale prices have been in freefall—they’re somewhere near a twenty-year low. This is devastating for lobstering communities. (The New Yorker did an interesting piece on why that hasn’t translated into lower restaurant prices, which you can read here.)

So they’re a good organization, and I want to support them by painting a good buoy, one that will make patrons smile and pull out their wallets.

Gnomes are known to indulge themselves at times. I'm leaning toward painting them, but am open to suggestions.

Last year I painted a mermaid on a rock. I discovered in the process that the tapered shape of a buoy makes a wraparound painting devilishly difficult. Still, I want to paint something realistic again this year (ahem). I’ve bounced around from gnomes to fairies to gluttonous gnomes feasting on lobsters while being serenaded by fairies.

Any suggestions, friends?

Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Belfast, Maine in August, 2014 or in Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!

Art that moves me

These are my cousin’s Black Angus, on his farm in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia.  This photo actually took first place in a county fair art contest, so I can legitimately say I’m an international award-winning artist.

Yesterday I was looking at paintings by friends on Facebook. When I’m just “browsing the catalogue” in this way, the art that interests me is often aspirational. For example, last week, I found myself lingering over paintings with a hint of spring color. It’s been a brutally long winter and I long to see the shrubs and trees leaf out.

Of course, one man’s banality is another man’s inspiration. There was a time when I was fascinated by the glacial eskers and bogs in the landscape here. After twenty years spent living on the hip of a glacial moraine, I have to admit they no longer fascinate me so much.

Black Angus painted through a fence somewhere in New Jersey. You've got just a few minutes to get cow to canvas; don't fret about the details and keep on crooning. (By little ol' me.)

So what am I finding inspirational this spring? Oddly enough, it’s cows.

They say there are horse people and there are cow people. I think that’s nonsense; I’ve kept both, and both have their place. But it’s easier to paint a cow than a horse, because it’s easier to sucker a cow than a horse.  If you stand at a fence crooning, cows will almost always walk up to try to figure you out. And they’ll spend enough time doing it that you can quickly splash a few dots of paint down and capture the essence of their cowness.

These fellows are on Sweets Corners Road in Penfield.

In contrast, you’d better bring a sketchbook and pencil if you want to try the same trick with horses. Oh, they’ll be interested in you, but horses are wilier. Either my song repertoire needs work or they have more sophisticated taste than cows. They’ll come to the fence and crop grass, but they’ll never relax, and they’ll never stay in one place long enough to get paint on the canvas. But you can get decent drawings of horses this way, if you move fast.

When I was a youngster, Western New York was dotted with dairy farms; sadly, most of them are now gone, and the ones that remain keep their cows inside. The best place to see dairy cows now is in the barns at the New York State Fair. There’s not enough room for an easel, but you can bring your sketchbook. A resting dairy cow, carefully groomed and loved by her teenage 4-H keeper, is as beautiful as an odalisque, and probably a better conversationalist.

Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Belfast, Maine in August, 2014 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!

Why Do So Many People Shop Online?

Millions of people go online every day to buy items. They may be something they need for themselves or their business. They may be looking around and find something that tickles their fancy so they buy it. Others are looking for the lowest possible price on something they really want. With the economy being in the mess it is today, more consumers are being very thrifty when it comes to what they actually purchase.

As a result of that though they have turned to the internet more and more. Many businesses found online have slashed their prices. They feel it is better to make some money at a lower price offer than it is to not get any sales at all due to people not being able to afford it. Another option is that many businesses found online now offer payment plans. It can be hard to swallow a big ticket item these days, but it is easier when it is broken down into smaller monthly payments.

The internet allows people to pay for items very quickly so that convenience is in place. Why drive to the mall to get a new pair of shoes when you can shop for them online, compare prices, order them, and know they are on the way to your home in a matter of a short period of time?

There are plenty of payment options offered as well for online shopping. You can use a bank card, credit card, Paypal, BillPay, and many other types of payments. This type of payment is very secure so you don't have to worry about someone compromising your information. It is easy to keep track of your purchases when you shop online too.

The internet is open around the clock too. You may be shopping at midnight, five in the morning, or at noon. It fits into your schedule rather than you having to organize your day to get where you need to be before they close. The selection is better too so you are never limited to what a local retailer has to offer.

Nothing is more convenient than getting all of your items delivered to your door too. Instead of having to haul them around in your car you can just meet the mail man and get them. For those that find it difficult to go out due to their health, the weather, and even due to having small children this is a huge benefit that they greatly appreciate.

Anything and everything you could ever want is found online which is why people shop there. It doesn't matter if you are looking for goods or services. It doesn't matter if you want to spend $10 or $10,000. New online businesses crop up every single day. The healthy competition helps to keep prices low.

At the same time though it also helps to improve the overall quality of what is offered. Some of the warranties and guarantees offered are excellent too which reduces the risk that a person will buy something online and then not be happy with it. When a person does buy something they can get signed up for email offers as well. This can entice them to make future purchases due to the additional savings that they will receive when they do so.

If you haven't started shopping online, then you are definitely missing out. It doesn't matter if you want something that is brand new or a collectible from decades ago. There isn't a better place for you to find those items and to make them your own for a price that fits well into your budget.

Whew! That nag very nearly got ahead of me!

A running tide, painted by little ol' me.

As a former newspaper reporter, I’m embarrassed to admit that I posted about my workshop yesterday without including the date. “Who, what, where, why, when and how” was drilled into my head back in the day. But I’ve gone stupid; as I mentioned yesterday, I used to have a manager, but she’s gone to live in a yurt.

The view from the Fireside Inn. Not bad, not bad at all.

I managed to get a brochure and postcard for this workshop printed in record time. Hopefully, it has all the relevant information and is more or less accurate, because I had a lot of them printed.

A painting by one of my 2013 workshop participants, Nancy Woogen, who's coming back in 2014.

You can either send me an email and I’ll mail one to you, or you can just print one yourself.

The links are hereand here. Isn’t the internet cool?

Here’s the gist of it:

Sea and Sky Workshop

August 10-15, 2014

Based at the Fireside Inn, Belfast, ME

Basic package includes

Five nights lodging at the Fireside Inn on the shores of Penobscot Bay in Belfast, ME.

American-style full breakfast buffet.

Sunday evening welcome reception.

Morning and afternoon instruction, Monday-Friday.

Ferry fare to Isleboro, ME.

Rates

Single accommodations, double-queen room: $803.25* plus $300 instruction fee.

Shared accommodation, double-queen room: $401.63* plus $300 instruction fee.

*Room rental is subject to 8% Maine state sales tax.

Available on request

Instruction only, no accommodation ($300)

Non-painting partner accommodations (at no charge in single room).

Room upgrades.

Private portfolio critique.

Extended stay to tour galleries and museums.

Register now!

Space is limited! Call or text 585-201-1558 or email PleinairBelfast2014@gmail.com.

And that's me, in Maine last summer. I like this photo!

OK, I’m going to put a cold compress on my head. All this practical thinking has me prostrated in exhaustion.

A great opportunity

Sea and Sky

August 10-15, 2014

Belfast, ME

Ocean, woods, sea, sky, hiking, birds, sea creatures, waves... what's not to like about painting in Maine?

As regular readers know, I had a fantastic summer teaching in Maine in 2013, which was followed up with a cancer diagnosis that shook my world. This—combined with my manager quitting the industry to go live in a yurt—put my 2014 workshop schedule in limbo.

Drawing at Owl's Head last summer.

I’m very picky about venues. From the folksy Great Camp ambience of the Irondequoit Inn to the elegant, gourmet experience at Lakewatch Manor, the last few years have been utterly fantastic. And I wasn’t going to settle for less. So I booted around and inquired of my friends in mid-coast Maine about inns, rental properties, etc.

The answer, when it came, was one of those “oh, duh, why didn’t I think of that?” experiences. I’ve got friends who stay at the Fireside Inn in Belfast every time they’re in mid-coast Maine, and they rave about it. All the rooms face Penobscot Bay, so when you’re not painting with me, you can paint from the balcony of your hotel room. And this locale is close enough to Lincolnville that we can scoot over there to the ferry to Isleboro for an island painting experience.

All kinds of boats in the harbor.

Belfast is one of my favorite places, not only because it has a beautiful harbor and an ambiance all its own, but because I love the little restaurant in the Belfast Co-op.  You crustacean-eaters will love Young’s Lobster Pound. We will have no shortage of good eatin’ on this trip, I promise you.

The view from the Fireside Inn... isn't this absurdly lovely?

In addition to easy access to painting locations, the Fireside Inn is close to many of Maine’s most picturesque coastal villages and harbors, along with Acadia National Park and the Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory. Nearby Sear’s Island is home to over 160 species of birds. Kayak or take a sailing trip. Dining, shopping and gallery-hopping opportunities are unparalleled.

I think the rates are great too:

Single accommodations, double-queen room: $803.25* plus $300 instruction fee.

Shared accommodation, double-queen room: $401.63* plus $300 instruction fee.

Instruction only, no accommodation: $300.

*Room rental is subject to 8% Maine state sales tax.

One of Camden's schooners, which we saw while painting in 2013. 

The Belfast Fireside Inn lets two adults and up to three kids stay in a room (each with their own breakfast) at the same rate. So if your significant other wants to come and sit on the terrace and play his euphonium all day, that’s all just fine.

You can add the following:

·         Non-painting partner accommodations at no charge.
·         Room upgrades.
·         Private portfolio critique.
·         Extended stay to tour galleries and museums.

When I say “space is limited,” I’m not pulling your chain. Hotel rooms in mid-coast Maine in August are at a premium. I reserved eight on my credit card; I had three commitments to the workshop by dinnertime. And this is the only time I’ll be teaching during summer of 2014. If you’re interested, you really should get in touch with me sooner than later.

 For more information, call or text me at 585-201-1558, or email PleinairBelfast2014@gmail.com.

Best Online Business - How to Trade Forex From Home For a Triple Digit Income!

If you are looking for a simple online business which can earn you a triple digit income, in around 30 minutes a day then, online Forex trading could be your route to a great second income - lets take a look at how to trade currencies from home in more detail.

You can get started in Forex trading with just an internet connection and a few hundred dollars seed capital and your all set. Lets look first at the advantages of Forex trading and then how you can take advantage of the profits to be made.

As a business, the currency markets are hard to beat in terms of the advantages and profit potential they offer:

You can work your own hours

As one currency rises and another must fall, giving you constant opportunities for profit regardless of any downturns in the economy

- You don't need any staff or stock and you don't need to do any selling

- You can leverage your investment, so you can trade more money than you have in your account - this

- Leverage is free and granted to you as soon as you open an account

- Forex trading is a learned skill and anyone can learn to be a winner quickly

The above advantages make currency trading from home the best online business; you can choose between manual trading where you learn about how to spot trends and trade high odds chart patterns or you can get a computer to do it for you. Forex robots trade high odds chart patterns on your behalf and all you need to do is follow the signals. If you want a Forex robot to trade for you, the Turtle Trading Robot is a good choice:

The Turtle trading robot is based upon rules devised by trading legend Richard Dennis, who taught these rules to a group of traders, who went on to make millions in real time trading with them. These rules work and will continue to work and if you check out this robot, you will see how profitable it is and how you can make a triple digit income with it.

If you decide to learn trading yourself OR use a robot to trade currencies online, you will find this is the best business, for building big gains in just 30 minutes day so check out this business and see for yourself.

Jesus was an Anarchist

W.W.Denslow) who illustrated the first edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was a Roycrofter.

This week, in honor of Dyngus Day, I’m concentrating on my home town, Buffalo, New York.

On the southern fringes of Buffalo lies the village of East Aurora, which was a center of the turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts Movement called the Roycroft.

The Roycroft was founded by Elbert Hubbard. After achieving success as traveling salesman for the Larkin Soap Company, he eventually came to the firm’s Buffalo home office, where he was an innovative and successful employee.  A visit to England exposed him to William Morris and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. After returning to Buffalo, he founded a short-run press based on Morris’ ideals. This press was called the Roycroft Press and the movement would eventually take its name.

Hubbard was a self-described anarchist and socialist living in one of America’s capitalist boomtowns. In A Message to Garcia and Thirteen Other Things, Hubbard wrote, “I am an Anarchist. All good men are Anarchists. All cultured, kindly men; all gentlemen; all just men are Anarchists. Jesus was an Anarchist.”

But don’t dismiss that statement as quaint.  The same year that A Message to Garcia was published, President William McKinley was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz on the other side of Buffalo. Anarchism was a threat to American culture on a par with fundamentalist Islamic terrorism today.

Elbert Hubbard may have described himself as a socialist, but he was clearly a genius at marketing and branding. The double barred cross and circle logo was a logo used by the Roycroft artisans to identify their products. It came to signify the Roycroft movement, used only on authentic Roycroft pieces. Even today it commands a premium.

“I believe John Ruskin, William Morris, Henry Thoreau, Walt Whitman and Leo Tolstoy to be Prophets of God, and they should rank in mental reach and spiritual insight with Elijah, Hosea, Ezekiel, and Isaiah,” Hubbard wrote.

Somehow Hubbard managed to stay on the popular side of outrageous. He was a brilliant promoter. His championing of the Arts and Crafts movement attracted craftspeople to East Aurora, where they formed a community of almost 500 printers, bookbinders, furniture makers, and metalsmiths. Their creed was taken from John Ruskin, and it’s hard to argue with: “A belief in working with the head, hand and heart and mixing enough play with the work so that every task is pleasurable and makes for health and happiness.”

Roycroft was one of several rugged faces used around the turn of the century, when the Arts and Crafts Movement was in vogue. It was inspired by the Saturday Evening Post, and came by its current name when it was adopted by Elbert Hubbard for the Roycroft Press.

Hubbard and his wife were killed in the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915. The movement struggled on under the management of his son, but without Elbert Hubbard’s charisma, it foundered and closed.

The Roycroft Campus consists of fourteen buildings in the center of East Aurora. This complex has National Historic Landmark Status and includes the Elbert Hubbard Roycroft Museum and the Roycroft Inn.

Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Maine in 2014 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!

America's most beautiful city

Buffalo's City Hall. Finished at the start of the Great Depression, it raises a fist to the world. Its tile bands and frieze work are characteristic for Buffalo architecture.

This week, in honor of Dyngus Day, I’m concentrating on my home town, Buffalo, New York.

A few years ago, an architect friend of mine seemed strangely excited to be visiting Buffalo. Since I grew up there, I take it for granted. It was interesting to see it through an informed visitor’s eyes.

The story of Buffalo’s architecture starts with economic boom. By the turn of the last century, Buffalo was the eighth largest city in the United States, a major railroad hub, and the most important grain-milling center in the country.

A postcard of the lake at Delaware Park, circa 1906.

All that money meant that some of the nation’s most important architects were hired to work there.  Its parks and parkways were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Fans of New York’s Central Park will find echoes of it in Buffalo’s lovely Delaware Park.

The Guaranty Building (now called the Prudential Building) was an early skyscraper designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler. Completed in 1896, it is a combination of modernism and the terra-cotta ornamentation that is so prevalent in Buffalo.

Louis Sullivan's Guaranty Building is covered in warm red terracotta tile.

Frank Lloyd Wright built the Darwin Martin house in the city. His Greycliff, a summer estate south of Buffalo, has been restored to its former glory. Sadly, his Larkin Administration Building (where my mother once worked) was demolished in 1950 to make a truck stop.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration Building is now gone, but other examples of his work live on.

H. H. Richardson designed the massive, Romanesque Buffalo State Hospital in 1870. He was working along the principles of psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride, who believed in a philosophy of Moral Treatment for mental patients. The building itself was meant to be curative, with sunshine, beauty and fresh air aiding in treatment.

Buffalo Insane Asylum.

Kleinhans Music Hall was endowed by the owners of a men’s clothing store in the city. It was designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen and is widely considered one of the best music halls in the United States.

The grain elevator was invented in Buffalo in the 1840s by Joseph Dart and Robert Dunbar. (Since the grain would be moved along by packet boat on the Erie Canal, this is also an early example of cross-docking.) The Buffalo waterfront is now infested with hulking remnants of these from various periods, which seem to fascinate industrial historians. I would prefer a beach, myself.

Then there is my personal favorite: City Hall. Finished in 1931, it is a fist raised to the world. At 378 feet in height, it is one of the biggest municipal buildings in the United States, and its location on Niagara Square (which is, of course, a circle) makes it tower over the cityscape.

Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Maine in 2014 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!

It's Dyngus Day in Buffalo

A Dyngus Day dousing.

Today has the makings of a party: Lent is finally over and it’s supposed to be fine, with temperatures in the 70s. Most of the detritus from the family Easter dinner is cleared away. If I were still in my hometown of Buffalo, NY, I would  go over to the East Side this evening  to watch the eighth annual Dyngus Day Parade.

Dyngus Day is always celebrated on the Monday after Easter. From its local Polish roots, it has expanded in Buffalo to attract thousands of out-of-towners to the historic Polish area of the city. It is the world’s largest Dyngus Day celebration, having grown into a week-long festival of parade, polkas and pierogi.  

Dyngus Day postcard.

This is, ironically, closing the circle with its historic roots. Historically, Easter Sunday touched off a week-long festival celebrating the end of Lent, but the 19th century saw it cut back to a single day, Easter Monday. (Those darn Protestants and their work ethic!)

In the Old Country, boys threw water over girls and spanked them with pussy willows on Easter Monday and girls did the same to boys on Easter Tuesday. When I was growing up, however, Dyngus Day was considered a sort of Polish Sadie Hawkins Day. Since it’s an evolving tradition, I don’t really know what they get up to now.

Dziady śmigustne, Muzeum Etnograficzne w Krakowie. In parts of southeastern Poland, beggers would appear dressed in straw suits. Their faces were hidden behind masks and they would grunt. This was to commemorate the rescue of survivors of a Tatar raid whose tongues were cut off and faces disfigured. For some reason this tradition hasn’t extended to Buffalo.

The pussy willows are a stand-in for the palms of Palm Sunday. Many words have been expended on the meaning of the water-dousing, but here in the far north, Easter Monday or Dyngus Day is very likely to be the first warm holiday of the year. Why not throw water?

Not everyone gets into the spirit of the thing, and periodic attempts have been made to shut it down over the centuries. In 1410 it was forbidden by the Bishop of Poznań in an edict which instructed residents not to "pester or plague others in what is universally called Dingus."

Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Maine in 2014 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!

Happy Easter!

Christ Appears to Mary Magdalene, 1511, from the Small Passion, Albrecht Dürer

Dürer, above, is illustrating the following passage from the Gospel of John:

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.” 

She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 

Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

Happy Easter! We resume our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Maine in 2014 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!

Shopping Online Safely - Steps I Take to Protect Myself

The dangers of online shopping are well known. Horror stories abound of people who have lost loads of money while shopping online. You may be tempted to shun all online shopping, because you just don't want to take the risk.

However, as our lives become and more intertwined with activities on the Internet, it will become increasingly hard to avoid all online financial transactions. Instead of avoiding the issue, why not take steps to protect yourself?

I'll outline steps I take to limit my online risk. Following these steps are no guarantee that I'll never lose money. But they greatly reduce the chances that I will lose significant amounts of money with my online activities.

To start it's important to recognize two levels of risk:

1. My Immediate Purchase Risk - the risk that I will lose money with the transaction I am currently making.

2. My After-the-Fact Financial Risk - the risk that my financial information will be stolen and used subsequent to the transaction I am currently making, possibly repeatedly.

While both kinds of risk are important, the second can lead to far greater losses of money than the first. We'll cover steps to avoid both kinds of losses, but you'll want to be especially diligent about lowering your After-the-Fact financial risk.

Reducing My Immediate Purchase Risk

In making a purchase, the merchant's reputation is everything. When I consider purchasing from an unfamiliar online merchant, I do my my best to establish that the merchant has a good reputation. Most legitimate retailers work hard to avoid cheating their customers, and their reputation will reflect that effort.

Reputation on Online Auctions

With online auctions, establishing a merchant's reputation is usually pretty easy. Generally each seller will have a score indicating how well they've done in satisfying their customers. Don't under estimate the value of this information. It's very revealing. I usually make sure that the seller has been involved in a large number of transactions -- no less than 30 -- but a much higher number if I want to be really safe.

Further I read the feedback that the seller has received from their buyers. It's important to take particular note of any neutral or negative comments. If the percentage of negative comments is greater than a couple percent, I will probably avoid this seller. Additionally, if the negative comment percentage is low, but there is a consistent theme of poor shipping performance or of buyers not receiving what they expected, I also will likely move on.

Reputation Through the Better Business Bureau

If the merchant is not selling through an auction, establishing it's reputation takes more work. I'll usually take a quick look at the Better Business Bureau web site for online businesses ( http://www.bbbonline.org ). It's pretty rare to find an online merchant listed there, but if it is listed and it has poor performance, I immediately know to avoid it.

Further, if I can find the physical address of the business, I can use the main Better Business Bureau web site ( http://welcome.bbb.org/ ) to find the local Better Business Bureau responsible for the merchant's geographic area. Many times the local Better Business Bureau will have a listing for the online merchant.

Dark days

Descent from the Cross, 1616-17, Peter Paul Rubens.

Today and tomorrow, you may notice that your devout Christian friends seem weary and drawn as they deal with the most difficult two days in the Liturgical Year. Yeah, they’re grocery shopping.

That and pondering the stark reality of what Good Friday and Holy Saturday represent—that moment when Jesus was dead and it appeared that his final gambit failed. It doesn’t take much for the honest Christian to stand in the disciples’ shoes, for we have all doubted our faith.

The first comic book artist was Peter Paul Rubens, who could invest even death with great motion and drama. He painted several Depositions, and they would be difficult for a modern artist to mimic, since most of us have never seen a dead body that hasn’t been propped up with embalming and makeup.

Note the beautiful juxtapositions in the top painting: John the Baptist’s face pressed against Jesus’ wounds, a limp, bloody hand in that of a swarthy and lively young man; the other blue hand being held against the fair pink cheek of Mary Magdelene, the dead Christ’s face next to his grieving mother’s face.

Descent from the Cross, 1612-14, Peter Paul Rubens.

Rubens based this painting closely on an earlier version, above, reversing the composition and changing up some figures. But something radical also changed. The earlier painting is pure Baroque religious styling: Christ is idealized, and his handlers touch him with the reverence due the Eucharist. In the later painting, he is a dead man being brought down from the cross by his friends.

The Deposition, 1545, Daniele da Volterra.

A very different treatment is Daniele da Volterra’s fresco of the deposition. Yes, he was working from drawings by Michelangelo and, yes, he’s a Mannerist, but there’s still something very compelling about that dead Christ jutting out in space toward us.

Daniele suffered from his association with Michelangelo: after the master’s death, he was the poor unfortunate assigned the job of adding loincloths to The Last Judgment. Henceforth he would be nicknamed Il Braghettone, or the breeches-maker.

Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Maine in 2014 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!

Maundy Thursday

Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet, 1548-49, Tintoretto (Jacopo Comin). In this version (one of at least six painted by Tintoretto) the disciples are almost buffoonish in their attempts to remove their stockings. Judas is in crimson on the left, isolated from the other disciples. At the top right is a portal through time in which the Last Supper is taking place.

Non-Christians are sometimes surprised to learn that Easter, rather than Christmas, is the most important holiday in the Christian liturgical year. (Easter is really an entire season of the church calendar, rather than a single day.)  

Within the liturgical wing of the church, Lent is a 40-day period of penance and prayer that leads up to Holy Week, which we are in now. Today is Maundy Thursday, which remembers the Last Supper as recorded in the synoptic Gospels.  The services that will be held tonight start the Paschel Triduum, or the church’s commemoration of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece, 1445-50, by Rogier van der Weyden, shows baptism, confirmation and confession on the left and ordination, marriage and last rites on the right. The central panel includes the Eucharist in the background.

The Last Supper having been a Passover meal before the Sabbath, the service is traditionally held at the beginning of Friday as per Jewish tradition, which corresponds to Thursday evening in our western calendar. Its primary component is stripping the altar, but it may also include washing of feet by a priest or bishop and the blessing of Holy Oil.

The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece, 1445-50, by Rogier van der Weyden, shows the use of chrism, or holy oil, in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation on the left. 

The English word Maundy comes from the opening of the phrase spoken by Jesus to the Apostles after washing their feet at the Last Supper: Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos. (“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”)

Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Maine in 2014 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!

Local artist

The Tiger, 1929, Charles Livingston Bull, for Barnum and Bailey.

I was trying to locate a show by a friend last week. Google came up with a number of references to her paired with the phrase “local artist.” It’s a funny term, and one I dislike.

There are local movements in art communities (such as the Northern California Tonalists or the Bay Area Figurative Movement) but in general most of us are working within the broader movement of our age. This is particularly true in today’s world, where boundaries are blurred by the internet.

Even worse is the term, “well-known local artist.” It’s amazing how many artists are unknown in their home towns and well-known elsewhere.

Saturday Evening Postcover art, March 6 1918, by Charles Livingston Bull

Consider the wildlife artist Charles Livingston Bull. Born in West Walworth, New York, he demonstrated an aptitude for drawing at a very young age. He enrolled at the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute (now Rochester Institute of Technology) to study drafting, and took a taxidermy apprenticeship at the Ward Museum of Natural History.

Professor Ward sent the young man to the 1893 Chicago World Exposition to design a bird display for the government of Guatemala. His work there garnered him the job of Chief Taxidermist at the National Museum in Washington. Bull took night classes at the Corcoran Gallery of Art for seven years, until he felt ready to pursue a freelance animal illustration career.

Boys’ Life cover art, Apr 1932, by Charles Livingston Bull

He illustrated more than 135 books and numerous articles for magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, Life, Collier's, American Boy, and Country Gentleman. As exquisite as his drawings are, he’s pretty much an unknown here, in his hometown.

Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Maine in 2014 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!

Hold the date

The Servant, by little ol' me, will be in this show.

Sitting in my living room on a cold spring day, Stu Chaitand Jane Bartlett and I were trying to track down the threads that connect us. We have many friends in common, but unless you’ve done a meet-cute, most of us slide into friendships without too much fanfare. After some thinking, Stu and I could be precise: we met in the Ellwanger Garden on a glorious September afternoon to paint en plein air. Stu and Jane met at a mutual friend’s opening. Jane and I no longer even remember, we go so far back.

We’ve all travelled a long way since then: Jane concentrates on contemporary dye-work and clothing design. Stu left realism entirely, working with watercolors on canvas. And I am peripatetic, wandering fromplein air assignments elsewhere to figure work in my own studio.

Why is this one of my favorite pieces of Jane Bartlett's dyework? Because it is mine!

What links us as artists? All three of us are zealous about craftsmanship. Despite that, all three of us are intentionally loose in our handling, content to find the happy accident that allows a piece to transcend our intentions. Beyond that, we work in highly complementary forms and color palettes.

Vitis, by Stu Chait.

This is all ever so cool, because the three of us are having a three-person show together at RIT-NTID’s Dyer Gallery this July. The opening is tentatively scheduled for July 18. Mark your calendars, and be there or be square.

Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Maine in 2014 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!

Organize Your Business Online For Success in Business Building

When your brain does not have focus, the thoughts appear as chaos. I know how that feels, it happens to me, too. Here are some techniques I have found that will help you put those ideas to beneficial use in your business.

First, get out a pen and paper. Do not use a pencil and paper as a pencil gives a subconscious message to your brain that the information is not really important and can be erased at will. Next, find a quiet place where you can work for about thirty minutes without interruption. Then brainstorm. Brainstorming is a technique that you will find to be very helpful in getting focused ideas on paper. Just write down all the thoughts as they come to mind. Do not try to edit their content or interrupt their flow.

You will find the ideas may be slow in coming at first; but, as you practice, the ideas will come quickly. Once you have them on paper, then look for developing patterns. Are some of the ideas related to each other in meaning? Group them together in categories.

Which of the thoughts seem most relevant? You can then go to Google and look for related content on the topics that will help you build your information on the topic. Which of the business related topics really interest you? Pick those first as they will be the easiest for you to use.

For example, if you are interested in sports, are there ways that you can use a story about a particular sport in order to build interest in what you want to say to your customers? Is there a lesson or technique that can be applied to both sports and your business product? Be creative and stretch your thinking here just a bit.

If you are wanting to attract online customers, then see what is being searched for online by going to Google again. This time, go to the keyword tool and look for the topics that are being searched for that apply to your business. I often find related topics that are actually more searched for than the topic I was planing to use.

It is really not what you want to say that is most important. The most important technique is saying it in the way that your customers want to hear about it and will remain interested so that you can lead them to realize that you are the one who can help them with their business issue better than your competitors can.

The biggest asset in this method is your clients will realize you care about their needs and that you are willing to develop a plan specifically for them.

Just a bit of organization will help you get your message out to the people who need to hear what you have to say. Then, both you and your clients benefit and that is what good business strategy is all about.

How not to buy art

I went on ebay this morning and found you some great masters. Here, a Joan Miró for $75... or was it $90?... dollars. The only difference in buying this from a gallery is the bland assurance of the gallerista that it is genuine. And when you get it back to your brokerage office in Des Moines, it will hardly matter.

The Wall Street Journal ran an article called “How to Buy Warhol, Degas and Renoir on the Cheap.” I hope they were using Sarcastic Font, because it should be read as a story of how to get suckered.

What are people buying when they purchase a smudgy scrap of paper or a print overrun from the hand of a master? Not art, for sure, but bragging rights. And they’re not even particularly good bragging rights. Experts can’t agree about the authenticity of paintings that, if accepted into the artist’s oeuvre, could be worth tens of millions of dollars. Does anyone believe they apply the same level of scholarship to a painter’s grocery list?

And here, a genuine Pablo Picasso. You can tell he really did it because of the bull.

There was a time when it seemed like every gallery in New York had a Joan Miró print for sale at a knockdown price. And yet they were anodyne, unmemorable, and their only selling point was that the collector could say they had a ‘name’ work in their collection.

I once sold a Leonard Baskin print on ebay. I needed the money more than I needed the print. Someone got a far better deal than had he or she bought one of those Mirós. But that buyer knew art and knew the market.

And who would try to forge an Egon Schiele anyway? Just everyone, that's who.

The buyer who loves art but doesn’t know anything about it should try to learn something about it under the tutelage of good advisors. He shouldn’t be buying putative Old Masters; he should be buying new works that have room to appreciate. And if he isn’t willing to put even that much work into it, he should stick to collecting old LPs and band posters.

Let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in Maine in 2014 or Rochester at any time. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!