Friday, December 29, 2006

One Thing in Life is Free

Sold at the Cape Museum of Fine Arts Auction. View a larger image. Sold at the Cape Museum of Fine Arts Gala Auction.


Excerpt from this posting:

"...I visited Robert Frost's grave in Vermont where the inscription reads, "I had a lover's quarrel with the world."..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Loosee Leftee, Tightee Rightee

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...There are two types of people that come in the studio. There is the loose group and the tight group and I distinguish them not by personality but by stylistic preference..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Sunday, December 24, 2006

From Antiquity to Antique

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Excerpt from this posting: "The central figure is the muse among the ruins (though these scalloped columns are pink) and the carved organ pedals are in the shape of her lyre..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Sparking Psyche

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Excerpt from this posting:

"One morning, while I was attending the Schuler School in the mid-eighties, I woke from a dream in which I figured out a new method for drawing with accuracy from the portrait...."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Friday, December 22, 2006

Head in the Clouds

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Excerpt from this posting: "...It happens like this: What should I paint? Wow, look at the light in the clouds. Set up. Work quickly to capture the moving sky remembering what it was moments before and anticipating how it's going to become. Periodically survey the scene for unexpected events. Feel the wind on the left side of the face and then brush in the waves and then back into the clouds. The palette and hands move colors around automatically. Realize the sky is completely changed: stop. Stand back and see what happened. Just as a song or a smell can take me back to a long past memory, this painting will always take me back to that afternoon on the beach..."

-Doug Rugh

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Painting Seasons

Excerpt from this posting:

"...I'm no longer embarrassed when someone asks what I do -- "I just paint little pictures." -- because I've got a good thing going..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Small Heads



Excerpt from this posting:

"Each of these heads is about an inch high and was done in 20 minutes. When the model doesn't show up at one of our local portrait sessions we all take turns posing. It reminds us how hard it is to sit still for even short periods of time. It's also a chance to talk about our friend, now frozen, without them butting in..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Saturday, December 16, 2006

A Slow Slide Sideways

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...There are two types of people. Those whose horizons sink to the right and those whose horizons sink to the left..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Perpetuating a Might Have Been

Excerpt from this posting:

"...someone was quoted as saying that Degas had said (it may have been another person quoting something a little different from someone else): "Orange lightens, green neutralized and violet darkens." As a young art student I thought I had found the "secret" in an old library book because when I experimented..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

The Temperature of a Painting

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...Squint to see basic light or shadow falling on the table but open your eyes to see how temperature changes create the pattern. In this case the pattern reverses..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Staring so Hard You Can't See

Magic Mirror by Doug Rugh View a larger image of "Magic Mirror."

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Ironically, slogging along in the process artists can be painting blind..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Monday, December 11, 2006

By the Light of the Moon

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...Just like in the old movies when the heroine gets that dreamy quality (from grease on the lens) the moon is just far enough away and out of focus so that romantics and poets aren't confronted with its geological presence..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Saturday, December 09, 2006

An Untoward Dalliance

Excerpt from this posting:

"...But there is more. Did you notice that the thumb of his non-dominant arm was tan while the rest of his hand remained closer to pale?" asked the detective.

"I'm afraid I did not," said Watson.

"This is an affliction peculiar to the outdoor landscape painter where only the largest of the digits is exposed to sunlight as the hand holds the palette. This in itself would be enough to confront our "finance" man but there are other clues as well."

"Please," begged Watson.

"After saying good-bye I turned to watch the gentleman leave and noticed another blatant clue."

"Yes?" said Watson..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Friday, December 08, 2006

The Color of Color



Excerpt from this posting:

"...our brains are used to subtracting this pervading tint from what we see before us..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Lord of the Flies

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...Soon I had a little girl and boy leaning on the shoulders of both my palette arm and my working arm. They had no idea that I couldn't work like that and the two girls who stood right in front of me -- right in my view -- didn't need their parents to tell them to look at the artist..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Michelangelo at the Coffee Shop

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Without signing the drawing I quickly walked out, leaving it on the table..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

Monday, December 04, 2006

The Glooming

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...I overhear someone outside my door say, "...he's in one of his moods. I wouldn't go in there." But with imperfect hearing I remember that I'm prone to imaginings and just continue along..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Friday, December 01, 2006

Color Mixing Secrets

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I suppose few make the attempt to master color mixing because it seems complicated (aren't there millions of colors?) The subject has come up because someone asked about the colors I would choose for a limited palette. Since I'm on a self-imposed exile from the technical aspect of painting and because I've come to the conclusion that the only way to have a command of color-mixing is to discover it for yourself, I've tried to boil down everything I know about the science in the following principals (at the risk of appearing evasive):

Black and white are blue (I know this is a secret because I've never found it elsewhere.)
Add two and change three
The triad is the key
Light beats dirt
The dull cannot become pure again
A fluted column lacks unnecessary material (this is the response to the limited palette question of which there are many shapes)
The core shares axes
Complexity competes with purity
The vision is changed by the viewer
Switch domains and become contrary
Start with one and the rest follow
All according to the rules of proximity
And bound by the laws of gravity

I'd like to give a small framed oil sketch to the first person who can decipher these clues. Email me privately for confirmation.

-Doug Rugh