Welcome to M.E. BAILEY ART . . . .

Here you will find adventures in painting. . . . Victories, absolute defeats, frustrations, highs, lows, lessons learned, commentary and thoughts from me and other artists.

As an art instructor, I don't wish to hide the fact that I crash and burn often. I will always be learning. So, it all gets shown here . . .good and bad. Every painting we do counts in the learning and experience process. The failures actually are much better teachers than successes. Every piece made is a teacher. That's the fun of it: the challenge to learn.

SEARCH FOR A WORD IN THE BOX TO THE RIGHT: COLOR, VALUE, PERSPECTIVE, IDEAS, MUSE, PLEIN AIR. . .ETC . . . .YOU'LL FIND PLENTY OF PAINTINGS AND IDEAS AS A RESULT. hAVE FUN!

Join in and comment or email me, if you would like.


Saturday, June 23, 2007

Testing My Grit

"Cliffside"
oil on stretched canvas, 16" x 20"


You saw the last post. Who wouldn't be excited about painting thaaaaat?! I sure was. That photo was taken last week at about 2 in the afternoon. Placid water. Warm day. Gorgeous sky. From that visit, I was exited. I flew out of bed at 5:45 AM with no alarm. I had loaded car the night before and I was psyched.


I left later in the morning with shorts on and a light summer shirt. When I arrived a brisk breeze was coming in off the sea . . . .a cold sea! We painted long after the morning demo. We started at around noon. Prior to that, several easels had blown over and the wind was now at 15 to 2o mph and carrying large quantities of dirt and sand. I found a 40 pound rock to hold in my easel weight pouch so it wouldn't go over, but still had to bungee it down to a root at one point.


The wind disallowed puting up any sort of sun shade (Umbrella) as it would have become a very efficient sail! Short version: we painted till 4 PM and willingly threw in the towel. It tested every bit of patience I had . . .and my grit. The canvas bucked and wobbled the whole time.


As for the final test? To be sure I could stand it, nature sent me home with 1/2 pound of grit in my back pack . . .every pocket . . .every cranny . . .every wrinkle, on me and my belongings had grit in it. And . . . you know what? . . . . . .


I had a BLAST !!!! :-)

5 comments:

Hank said...

Great painting, Mike!
Nice Compelling U-shaped abstraction, and the eye is rewarded with that rich Orange mark on the rock!
You clearly overcame the elements!

silvina said...

Oh, Mike, you are such a trooper. If I was experiencing what you described, I would have blurted some expletives and burst into tears. And you say it was fun? At least you got a beautiful painting out of it.

C. Ousley said...

That strong wind ain't nothin nice. Good work here. I dig that Mosaic Pineapple.

Robin Neudorfer said...

I am so glad that you added the last comment. It takes twice as much energy to paint in that element and you came to a fantastic ending. You have captured the verticle depth that is so desired in that view. Glad you stuck with it.

Mike said...

Robin, Chris, Hank and Silvi . . .you guys made my day complete! Thanks for your compliments and for coming by to look in on my work.

You guys are great!
Mike