Thursday, September 1, 2011
Peter McLean - At home in the hills
I spent a few days away this week visiting the city and the mountains, and at the end of it was so glad to come home to JB's house in the Bishop Pine Preserve. It really does feel like home - like a perfect dream home. It's great to be working here nestled into the surrounding forests, nice and quite, but also with a feeling of being welcomed into a friendly community of people who are never far away. Many of my favourite things are here - trees, hills, fog, wood. I'm always interested in observing landforms and vegetation and other aspects of nature, and there is plenty of all of that here to incorporate into my work. What has been a little surprising is how more human things are having a strong influence on current work. Things like the way the house is built and the artwork here at the house, especially JB's. Simple things like the light switches and the firewood pile. Not that you'll see light switches in my work, but trust me, they are there.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Oliver Halsman Rosenberg (week 8)
Well, it's my last night here at the residncy...I finished my last painting just before the sun went down (see below), went through the art library one last time, scrubbed the floor, and finished packing up. The sun is out and glorious again! Bird calls fill the air and ipod/itunes remains in hibernation.
The lizards have started coming out, as well as some butterflys, and delicate mini blue flowers all over the property...I think if it was this nice out the whole time I was here I wouldn't have gotten much art "done." No matter how many ladybugs I free from the house and studio it always seems like there are more when I come back in...
I've enjoyed the isolation...as you can tell, the animal spirits have kept me company (and internet spirits also). Well, I leave you with some of images from the last series I did. The full set is on my personal blog, and if you feel like checking in on what I'm up to in the future feel free to visit me here:
http://www.oliverhalsmanrosenberg.blogspot.com/
Blessings,
Oliver Halsman Rosenberg
The lizards have started coming out, as well as some butterflys, and delicate mini blue flowers all over the property...I think if it was this nice out the whole time I was here I wouldn't have gotten much art "done." No matter how many ladybugs I free from the house and studio it always seems like there are more when I come back in...
I've enjoyed the isolation...as you can tell, the animal spirits have kept me company (and internet spirits also). Well, I leave you with some of images from the last series I did. The full set is on my personal blog, and if you feel like checking in on what I'm up to in the future feel free to visit me here:
http://www.oliverhalsmanrosenberg.blogspot.com/
Blessings,
Oliver Halsman Rosenberg
Monday, March 28, 2011
Oliver Halsman Rosenberg (week 7.5)
Last video I will make up here at the residency...
Calligraphic process...
more images on my blog:
www.oliverhalsmanrosenberg.blogspot.com
Calligraphic process...
more images on my blog:
www.oliverhalsmanrosenberg.blogspot.com
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Oliver Halsman Rosenberg (week 7)
One of my collaborators Alexander Kori Girard came up for a few days to work on some paintings together... We have a few nice little pieces on view now at the Berkeley Art Museum in the ABSTRACT NOW show curated by Larry Rinder that we made together in India...the pieces we made just now have a similar energy, and it was a joy for both of us to watch them spring forth...A lot of the time we work together is just filled with Dada nonsense and laughter, so as long as I was learning Final Cut Pro, I decided to share a taste of what that energy is like with this video below...Only one week left here, and I'm using every moment to give thanks and create before I'm swept off into the next nomadic adventure....
Monday, March 21, 2011
Oliver Halsman Rosenberg (week 6.5)
Dear reader,
I sit here in J.B.'s old bed room, at an amazing wooden desk, listening to the wood pop and crack from the down stair's fireplace. Open studios was this past Saturday...the night of the "Supermoon", earthquake scares, and the day before spring. It was a rainy and windy day, but grateful for the folks that came out to see the paintings, drawings, sculptures, and video I have been working on these past 6 weeks.
I have been a complete work horse up till now. I have been traveling nomadically (mostly in India) for the past two years, so this residency was the first opportunity I have had to unpack, ground, feel settled down, and have some meditative silence/creative space. Usually when I travel I work on paper with gouache, as it's the lightest weight and easiest to travel with medium I have found. I also like to take photos, but traveling light is the key.
Since I now had a studio at my disposal I decided to explore oil paints, since this is a medium difficult to travel with. In the Fall I saw an exhibit at the Atlanta High Museum on Dali's late work. There was some thing so sensual about his surfaces...he made me want to lick the virgin Marys and sea urchin shells...in the gift shop I found Dali's 50 secrets to magical craftsmanship, where he shares his alchemical recipes, inspirations, and steps for painting. It is true that I was nursed on Dali's nipple growing up, but I am not Dali. I prefer to operate creatively from an abstract "no mind" state, where as he was more into planning and organizing. Nevertheless, I started out my oil paintings very tightly, as I tried to understand the medium (Last time I pained with oils was in college), its drying time, and layering effects very different than that of gouache.
During the day I would be in the studio, and at night I would work in the house on video editing a film project I had shot on Hawaii, and here on the Blunk property. Video editing was another skill I hadn't used since around the same time as I was last oil painting. It is interesting to consider the 13 year cycle that both skills took to remanifest. Well armed with a Final Cut Pro tutorial book, I sat down and learned the program, and spent several weeks overcomming many frustrating technical problems dealing with converting files from one format to another. At first both oil painting and video editing proved to be difficult, but I am up for the challenge and stuck to it. With time I began to understand the basic premises, and after a few weeks felt like I could take off the training wheels and cruise on my own.
I also had a vision of taking my cosmic calligraphic script and working on large photo back drop scrolls. This calligraphy is such pure expression for me that is was a nice project to fall back on when the fumes or the computer monitor were getting to me. This is typical Oliver...to be working on several projects simultaneously that have nothing to do with another. I really can't help it. I like to explore, and learn new mediums, and ways to express myself. There were also a whole other series of drawings I worked on too (but I already blogged about those here: http://oliverhalsmanrosenberg.blogspot.com/2011/03/virtual-open-studio-1-left-handright.html)
So bellow you will find an assortment of images from works in progress/studio shots/completed works/etc. as well as the final 25 minute short film I shot and edited called THE PIXEL SUTRA. It's all about rebirth, and it was strange to be working on it while in the news Tunisia, Egypt, and Lybia all were going through revolutions, and Japan was shaken by the tsunami and quakes.
I sit here in J.B.'s old bed room, at an amazing wooden desk, listening to the wood pop and crack from the down stair's fireplace. Open studios was this past Saturday...the night of the "Supermoon", earthquake scares, and the day before spring. It was a rainy and windy day, but grateful for the folks that came out to see the paintings, drawings, sculptures, and video I have been working on these past 6 weeks.
I have been a complete work horse up till now. I have been traveling nomadically (mostly in India) for the past two years, so this residency was the first opportunity I have had to unpack, ground, feel settled down, and have some meditative silence/creative space. Usually when I travel I work on paper with gouache, as it's the lightest weight and easiest to travel with medium I have found. I also like to take photos, but traveling light is the key.
Since I now had a studio at my disposal I decided to explore oil paints, since this is a medium difficult to travel with. In the Fall I saw an exhibit at the Atlanta High Museum on Dali's late work. There was some thing so sensual about his surfaces...he made me want to lick the virgin Marys and sea urchin shells...in the gift shop I found Dali's 50 secrets to magical craftsmanship, where he shares his alchemical recipes, inspirations, and steps for painting. It is true that I was nursed on Dali's nipple growing up, but I am not Dali. I prefer to operate creatively from an abstract "no mind" state, where as he was more into planning and organizing. Nevertheless, I started out my oil paintings very tightly, as I tried to understand the medium (Last time I pained with oils was in college), its drying time, and layering effects very different than that of gouache.
During the day I would be in the studio, and at night I would work in the house on video editing a film project I had shot on Hawaii, and here on the Blunk property. Video editing was another skill I hadn't used since around the same time as I was last oil painting. It is interesting to consider the 13 year cycle that both skills took to remanifest. Well armed with a Final Cut Pro tutorial book, I sat down and learned the program, and spent several weeks overcomming many frustrating technical problems dealing with converting files from one format to another. At first both oil painting and video editing proved to be difficult, but I am up for the challenge and stuck to it. With time I began to understand the basic premises, and after a few weeks felt like I could take off the training wheels and cruise on my own.
I also had a vision of taking my cosmic calligraphic script and working on large photo back drop scrolls. This calligraphy is such pure expression for me that is was a nice project to fall back on when the fumes or the computer monitor were getting to me. This is typical Oliver...to be working on several projects simultaneously that have nothing to do with another. I really can't help it. I like to explore, and learn new mediums, and ways to express myself. There were also a whole other series of drawings I worked on too (but I already blogged about those here: http://oliverhalsmanrosenberg.blogspot.com/2011/03/virtual-open-studio-1-left-handright.html)
So bellow you will find an assortment of images from works in progress/studio shots/completed works/etc. as well as the final 25 minute short film I shot and edited called THE PIXEL SUTRA. It's all about rebirth, and it was strange to be working on it while in the news Tunisia, Egypt, and Lybia all were going through revolutions, and Japan was shaken by the tsunami and quakes.
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