Test Flight

Oh wow. I never realized that Mr. Masqua were this great an artist! It's times like these that I realize just how much I still have to learn!

Do you often use mixed medium, i.e. the painting that used to be your avatar, it looks like you used actual tinfoil (with acrylics?)?

I would love to see the final result of the tree/scene in this picture:


You do understand that I’ll be coming to you for “art advice” all the time now…?

Wow... 4 months later, I finally get back to this thread

I used to do a lot of mixed media, Gemwolf. Sometimes in subtle ways, like mixing talcum powder with acrylics to get that matte look on certain sections like, if I wanted to represent stucco walls or something. Or I've used sand, pebbles, beach glass, plastic stuff out of CrackerJack boxes and even nose cones from used fireworks that washed up on the beach here.

Lately, though, I've become a bit of a purist, using only watered down acrylics. I sand the paintings down and then polish them, so that's a bit different. I guess you might say that my focus is much more centered and that I get more experimental when I'm searching for some new way to express something. No doubt my magazine stash will soon be cut to ribbons for doing collage. I love that stuff and have done some really popular works (since I only have a few left in my collection).

I have every Heavy Metal magazine since '77 and there's some great material in those. Now if I were to mix that up with cut-outs from national Geographics, you can imagine the kind of fun images you can make up.

Thanks for the compliments on my work, but please understand I never took it all that seriously for most of my life. I've got 40 years worth of art that is hanging all over my place, but mostly stacked in corners or stuffed into drawers.

My first REAL showing just happened because of a member right here at ATS. FattyP has a store in Toronto which is called Conspiracy Culture and, about a year ago, we talked about maybe hanging some of my artwork in his store. August 21, my wife and I made the trip to his place and I hung 12 paintings which tied into a conspiracy theme. Most of them are already in this thread because i've been working on them for 2 years.

Here are some thumbnails of the paintings hanging, starting with the store symbol which I did NOT design, but wish I had and finishing with a pic of fattyP 'on the job'.

Enjoy;
























[edit on 2/9/07 by masqua]

such a sexy fellow!

lol. Masqua... your artwork is inspiring! We love being able to showcase the work and the feedback has been great. Lots of people taking the pieces in and as you now know, we've already sold one piece!

Keep up the great work brother. It was nice seeing you last weekend!

There's a word for what I'm attempting to produce in the next paintings.

It's called a pareidolic illusion.




en.wikipedia.org...

What does it say about the neurology of the viewer, though? If one sees threatening demons and gargoyles in a piece of work and another viewer sees angels and symbols of peace and tranquility in the same work?

Are the pareidols perceived a reflection of our individual mental state much like a Rochard test?

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edited to remove some posts with crappy thumbnails



[edit on 24/3/08 by masqua]

The Shaman Artist has passed, long live the Shaman Artist.


I admired Norval Morrisseau for decades. His spiritual paintings have enriched the artistic landscape of Canada and will continue to bridge the gap between the native and European communities through his brilliant work for centuries to come.


image source: http://multimedia.thestar.com/images/cd/d4/1758d1d9445aa8c3caf93e1585f2.jpeg

An old painting of mine in a REALLY old frame;

reply to post by masqua

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That's quite different than some of your other paintings. Wish I could paint clouds like that!

reply to post by Gemwolf

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I did this painting in the '70's, if I remember correctly. I've changed my topics and style quite a bit over 30 years

In that painting, the clouds were done by layering colour and sanding. The paint is really very thick and I didn't spare the sweat in rough sanding. Once the background clouds were satisfactory, I painted the rest of the foreground.

Here's a couple from the '80's and '90's when I was a huge fan of Harleys. This Panhead belonged to a buddy;



- and this was my ride... a 1978 '75th Anniversary Special Edition' Flathead.



edit to clarify dates



[edit on 11/12/07 by masqua]

The Pareidol Series is just about finished with 3 out of 4 done and signed.

Here are the four elements...

Earth


Wind


Fire


Water (incomplete)

A variety;

I shot these close-ups in natural northern light to get the colours right. There's no un-natural illumination at all...

Here are some old and recent works;

The first is a painting of Lake Temagami in northern Ontario. The scene is looking out of a rented cabin at sunrise when the black flies are too much for most to handle. The Lake Trout in Temagami are huge, btw.



This one is of my son when he was a star forward with the local Peewee hockey team. The lad had style. The painting is done on canvas and you can tell the weave in the pic. This is the main reason I went to masonite since I found the matting distracting.



The next is an impressionist style painting of a fisherman. I did this one very quickly with broad strokes and a full palette of paints. The posture is of an angler who has caught a fish. Look hard and you can see the bent pole.



The following is a painting I finished this morning. The idea was to group a series of simple circles in a random manner giving an impression of frivolity and light. I used both gold and silver in creating these hues.




And, lastly, a fun sci-fi painting I'm still working on for my astronomer friend Ski. He hasn't seen it yet, but my money is on him catching sight of it on this thread fairly quickly. The spacecraft on the pad is an old design of mine and the spaceport shown has a lowered shield which, when rolled into place, covers the craft, pad and buildings totally. In the distance can be seen other constructions looking like bubbles on mountainsides.

An uncle, now deceased, had a stud horse he was really proud of. It's a Welsh Cob commonly used for 'carraige-and-four'... a small but very strong horse.



A multi-media effort (wall-paper/picture cutout/painting) showing the difference in watercraft experience.



And, lastly, a collage/painting effort;

I decided, on the first few hours of fall 2008, to start a little different project.

This work is based entirely on pointillism.

en.wikipedia.org...

Here's the beginnings of a galaxy, starting with a dark background of dots and working inwards on the spiral arms with brighter and brighter colours as they close in on the center.

When I finish it I'll add more pics.

Hope you like it...









sp edit

[edit on 24/9/08 by masqua]

Progress;



Detail;



Method;



No doubt many will think I'm insane doing something like this.



Like beating a rock with a wet noodle...



But, the thing is... I do my best thinking when totally involved in something as tedious as dipping a toothpick in a bit of paint and daubing it a half dozen times on a board.

My mind gets to go wherever it wants because the objective left side of my brain is caught up in the process of putting little dots of colour in the perfect spots and then my subjective right brain has the freedom to rise into my consciousness.

Of all the meditative methods I've tried over the years, this is the best one for me. It's without equal and, in the end, I have something of value to show for my efforts.



[edit on 30/9/08 by masqua]

I was talking to a client of mine and mentioned the toothpick painting style and she got a kick out of it.

Here's something I have noticed about artists in general. Most of them pick a style and stick to it. they alter it slightly over time but their genre remains, more or less, the same. Sure, they might go from black and white to color or from single line minimalism to giant X minimalism but you always can tell it's their work.

the artists that most impress me are the ones who can, and often do, everything. You have no set style or genre and that, to me, is impressive.

Not sure if you ever read Bluebeard by Vonnegut (I think that's the name).

The book is about an artist who never really made a name for himself. One day, while on the phone he doodles an insane picture of their kids (been a long time so if this is slightly off, excuse me for the error). The wife sees this amazing drawing and starts ripping into him. She's laying in to him, asking him why he never did something like this and his response was "it's too #ing easy."

the magnifying glass and toothpicks is certainly not the easy route. they look awesome.

reply to post by Crakeur

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What magnifying glass?



Just kidding. I do use it quite a bit for getting lines and details right. It's just so much easier than squinting and the real hazard is dragging my nose through wet paint in the process.

On the 'quick and easy' method of artwork, it's something I always do before actually starting anything. There's nothing like quick sketches to figure out how a finished work might look.

One of my art teachers, Rudolf Bikkers, had me on the sidewalk outside sketching people as they walked by. It was hard at first, seeing how there was so little time to do a likeness, but after lots of practice, I found that I was dropping details to get to the fundamentals of the facial structure quicker. The surprising effect was that those fundamentals were what actually made it look professional.

An acquaintance of mine, Antony Hare, is a portrait artist who really has that down pat and is now a successful Canadian artist. For him, it's all about simple clean expressive lines.

On the variance in my style; it usually comes out of previous artwork where I did some little bit in it that had an unintended, but nice, effect. Like the dots that I use in this recent work, if you look back on earlier paintings, you'd probably find an increasing use of the toothpick method.

Prior to the toothpick, I did it all with a small brush but soon quit that when the brush couldn't make the nicely rounded circular spot of colour I wanted and which became increasingly important as I went in for detail.

The whole idea behind this pointillism is the combination of complimentary colours beside each other. The overall effect has the ability to make a third colour come out. For instance, if I put a lot of red and blue dots together on a surface, then stand back and look at it, I see a field of purple. That fascinates me because of all the possibilities that multiple colours provide.

I haven't read Bluebeard, but love Vonnegut... checking that one out is now on my to-do list.

So it goes.

added link to Antony Hare's website


[edit on 2/10/08 by masqua]

Amazing thread of art! i really enjoyed browsing through your work and yes the toothpick painting would be tedious to say the least. I started painting a few years back but only digital. I am just now picking up acrylics and air brushing. You have inspired me to keep it going.

There surely is a place for digital art in this madness called 'The Art World'. all you need do is click on Antony Hare's link above and one can see how success may lie on that path. I looked at your work through the link in your signature and see creative talent. Don't stop.



Wonderful. Air brushing is a method I've always wanted to try. Merging fields of colour seemlessly creates fascinating results on all types of surfaces (Harley gas tanks come to mind).

Best of luck with your ventures and I'd love to see the end results someday.

Finished.

I'm not really happy with the way it turned out. It's too busy and holds no message other that it could be both a rainbow coloured hurricane or galaxy. Maybe it looks like a bunch of paint floating on the surface of water going down the drain (toilet?)... glug, glug, glug.

I dunno. What do you think?