Chinese Art Forgery

I was looking through eBay today and stumbled across a painting by Calvin Liang. Funny, the ad said "From China" but that couldn't be right....but it was. The painting was Calvin Liangs but according to the auction it was painted by Liu Jian...an "original oil painting" it says. WTF? I don't know if Calvin Liang knows about his work being sold on eBay by a company from China without his signature and the auction description claiming it is the painting of Liu Jian instead....that would piss me off.

Naturally I poked around after that trying to find out just how bad Chinese art forgery has become. According to people posting on eBay forums it has ruined the eBay we knew it as 10 or 15 years ago. I used to sell art prints on there all the time...made great money but things changed in the mid 2000's. After that it was almost impossible to get people to buy on there. I've sold a few paintings there, small ones when money was tight. That worked at first but the last few times I've tried that it didn't. The economy??? Forgery causing the loss of trusted eBayers??? I'm not sure but I would believe Chinese forgery hasn't helped eBay but for the life of me I can't understand a company like eBay who puts up with it. It's pretty blatant and I'm sure they've been warned by the people getting burned by it. Then I read an article about how hard it is to go after the forgers in China....http://www.cbsnews.com/news/booming-chinese-art-forging-business-hurts-us-artists/ ....
I guess what it comes down to is people want to make money...keep their corporation going and no complaining, ripped off, whiney artist is going to mess that up. It's sad to think America has become a country that doesn't protect their own people from getting screwed by foreign countries. Heck, if we allow foreigners to cut the heads off of our people why would it bother them that some artist is getting ripped off for a painting or two....or 10,000.
When I was in the service in Germany we used to brag to each other about how awesome America was compared to other countries. I wouldn't brag at all nowadays. I can't believe that America would still allow trading to go on with China at all. Imagine all of the industry that would come back to the US if we made our own steel, built our own ships, made our own shoes and clothing. You know, we used to do that stuff and it was more expensive but most of us had jobs to afford it. Of course....I'm no expert, I'm an artist.  

Shell Beach Bluffs

 "Shell Beach Bluffs"

16"x20" Oil on Canvas

North of where I live is the tiny spot along the coast called Shell Beach. It is located just north of the beach city of Pismo which is famous for it's sand dunes. Shell Beach has wonderful bluffs jutting out from the ocean and great sea caves. This painting is of the bluffs there. Actually in this image, I left it out, are some fence posts and a gazebo. I would have painted it in but I really liked that sunlight hitting the bluffs and wanted to concentrate on that in this painting. The bluffs here are just wonderful looking, maybe I'll do another with the gazebo added in. Below is a cropped section of the painting showing the mustard plant. I liked how that came out so this is a larger version of that. The best part of this painting is what it looks like when you have lights on it...it looks so cool when it's lit up...the light hitting the rocks really makes it come alive.   

A Sunset Painting

"Umpqua Sunset"

18" X 24"

Oil on Canvas

 

While travelling through Oregon back in September I was fortunate to enjoy a great sunset near the Umpqua National Forest. I was on the outskirts of the town of Green. After a quick dinner at the local Arby's I grabbed my camera and found a spot to get what I wanted on film. I created this painting working from 2 reference photos taken that evening. I only took two photos because I felt I had waited too long and the sun had set lower than I'd planned. Looking over my photo the day before yesterday I felt maybe it would work anyway since the sun was just below the mountains. Off to the easel I went. I was able to block in the sky that first night....worked off and on most of the next day and finished today....good thing since it's getting hot in the studio and it's time for dinner. 

Firestone Vineyard

"Firestone Vineyard"

18"x24" Oil on Canvas

It was time to do another vineyard scene so I searched through my reference photos and found some vineyard shots taken at the Firestone vineyard in Foxen canyon. The main house on the vineyard is just off to the left of this scene. I didn't include it because it is a wonderful older house that I feel needs it's own painting using it as the main point of interest. I was told the house came from Santa Maria and was brought down to the Firestone location years ago. The colors are a bit off, I think, from my actual painting and this photo. The difference is due to my lack of being a better photographer....you could write volumes on taking good photos of paintings. This photo is close though. This painting would look good in a gold frame or even a nice dark wood frame.

I'm actually not a big fan of vineyard painting. I'm not crazy about the bright greens and yellows of the vineyard against the muted colors of the hillsides around here....I know, I'm crazy. Just a personal feeling about it and I'm allowed that. I'd rather catch the sublime colors of the landscape in the evenings or mornings on the central coast or try to get better painting the ocean. Still, I'd like to paint better vineyard scenes so more of these will happen. I think I'm in search of a way to paint them and marry them to my sublime look of the hillsides and oaks. Painting has so many challenges to it. The vineyards are now in their full bore growing time with lots of new green leaves so I will hunt down some new scenes to paint.

Eucalyptus and Grass

"Misty Morning Eucs"

12"x16" Oil on Canvas Covered Panel

This painting started out as just messing around cropping pictures taken of eucalytpus trees up in Nipomo, CA. One crop was just as you see, lots of grasses with the trees set high up on the picture plane. This would give me more prasctice at painting the trunks of trees and grasses. I liked the look of the scene and so I painting it. The painting is very different from my normal work but lined up along my other paintings will look pretty neat.

Painting From A Past Painting

"A Spring View"

12"x16" Oil on Canvas Covered Panel 

While I was having fun trying out paintings in the new frames we had company show up and I still had some household projects that needed to be done. So, not the time to get involved in a new painting from the ground up but I still wanted to paint. I decided to paint another version of one of my previous paintings again since they go pretty quick and should company get in the way I'd practically be done with it.
I like the painting below on my blog, "Valley Evening", so I reversed the scene and did changes to the background on it. At first I was going to put in a trail but then opted for just some stray paths intersecting but none of them being overly dominate in the foreground. I feel both paintings have lots of parts in them that I really like but areas I'd change again. That's ok, I'm used to not being satisfied with any of my paintings at this point....and besides, the point was to paint something so it worked.  

Frames Arrived

The Fun, and Worry, Of New Frames

Finally, my new frames arrived. I needed these for submitting work to a new gallery in South Carolina. I'm hoping that the new gallery works out well and I'm still connected to it this time next year. I'm very interested to see how working with a gallery over such a long distance will work out. I'm not crazy about shipping artwork back east but that's where the gallery is so no getting around that. Once all is up and running back there I'll post the info on the gallery.
    Anyway, I was glad my frames arrived and that there was no damage from having them shipped here from San Diego. It's not a great distance from San Diego to here. I have had frames arrive from the same supplier before and there was plenty of damage. I know first hand what people who load and unload trucks can do to boxes they could care less about. Its a pity some people have absolutely no pride in their work or enough integrity to do a good job no matter what job that it. I've driven trucks and I've worked on docks so I have seen plenty of these guys...and gals. Each time I order frames I'm always on edge until they are here...undamaged. If they are I will take them to my garage and fix them. I've so far always been able to do this.
    The cool thing when all is fine is to swap paintings in the new frames to see how paintings look framed up. I paint way more than I have frames for. Frames are expensive so I tend to only order what I need for a show or gallery. I live for the day when I can just call up and order a few different sizes and colors just to see what certain paintings would look like. When is that Lotto going to hit.

"Morning At The Wilcox Property"

18"x24", Oil,

This painting above looked great...even when it was drying. After varnish and putting it into this frame it looks absolutely gorgeous. This size always looks great on any wall because it's .

"Valley Evening"

12"x16", Oil

The upper painting is on stretched canvas and the lower is on canvas covered panel. I like the panels because they are a nice size to work with and don't flex like stretched canvas. Some stretching is good at times and a pain in the butt at other times. I also like the panels eas of being framed...just shoot brads into the frame behind the panel and your done...no drilling pilot holes or screwing in brackets to lock to stretched canvas in. Mega fast framing!

Nocturne....Night Trail

"Night Trail"

12"x16"

 Oil on canvas covered panel

I painted this scene about 5 or 6 years ago on a smaller canvas and decided to do a larger version. I didn't want to do a copy of my other painting becasue there were things I wanted to try out differently on this one. The nice thing about painting is over the years you get better at it so there were changes I made the included these. I really liked the original but when you look back at paintings you see things you wish you could change....so why not do another painting huh !? I'm glad I did this one. I like the larger size and I like my changes. One of these days when I get much better at nocturnes I'll do a really large one. Years ago I saw a nocturne show up in Los Olivos, CA and they had some very large pieces that were just awesome. Many, many years ago, Charles Rollo Peters painted a nocturne of our local mission here in Santa Ynez....maybe I'll give it a try on large scale....we'll see.      

Photo of a barn in Wisconsin

 

Back Again....

Well, I had to take some time off from my life of art and go back to work for a while. I decided to do this at the start of last summer and it has lasted up until 2 weeks ago. There was a chance to go to work for a period of time that would take me all over the US and I could use the money so I took it. The job had nothing to do with art at all. In fact the whole deal would have been a culture shock had I not done this type of work before. So, I bit the bullet and proceeded.

There is one hook about it all though, I was able to use my time out there taking a gazillion reference photos which I did. Honestly, I think I took about 15,000 photos. I was able to photograph the desert, the plains, the rockys, the warmth and gloom of Washington State, stand and snap photos along a pier in Massachussets of the Atlantic ocean, snowstorms in MO, WI, KS, MN, IL, WY, NE, UT, NV, OH, PA, NY, NH, CT, SD and OK. There was a lot of weather out there and of course I have a new found appreciation for just how large our country is. 

 

I did one commission while I came home for a few days, a restored airplane for a woman and her husband who live in Los Olivos. I also sold two paintings and a print while I was gone too so a little bit of art snuck in during that time. I was also contacted by a gallery back East so I'm in the middle of dealing with them, I'm hoping that works out well....sort of a new fresh start again as I am sorting things out here and readying for paint to start flying.

The experience was just that...more experience. I'm happy that art was always on my mind and I've been able to add to my never ending supply of reference photos, yahoo! I'm more than glad to be back and soon will be painting away.     

Elverhoj Show

Art From The Groves

I have a couple of paintings that were juried into the Elverhoj Museum of History & Art here in Solvang, CA. I feel pretty good about that because getting into any show is good. I know many of the artists in the show so it will be nice to be together and talk shop. One of my paintings is a studio piece and the other is a plein air piece done last Winter along the olive groves below the mission.
Sales have been practically non existant for me in this economy, and yes, the economy still sucks, so the occasional show is something to look forward to. I like shows...it's fun to see your peers and meet new painters....see the talent out there. Shows are good for inspiration. As a person it is great to see really fantastic art but as an artist it really inspires you to do better work. I've always been honest about my work and when I see something else painted better it makes me want to paint better so shows are a good way to push your(my)self.

Teaching yourself to paint....I hate that term because nobody really teaches themselves to paint. Books, the internet, art teachers, seeing other painters works....it all effects us even if some of us want people to think they were some naturally gifted miracle that discovered painting all alone. Baloney. If you want to learn to paint you turn into a sponge and soak everydrop of inspiration in no matter where it comes from. Thanks to nature what you take in will become your own vision and have your own look unless you're trying to go after some other artists style and you don't want to do that. Be who you are....even in art.

Anyway, if you are around Solvang on June 14 between 4-6 pm come by the show reception. The rest of the show runs June 14 - September 28, 2014. The Elverhoj is located at 1624 Elverhoy Way in beautiful down town Solvang, the land of Danish bakeries and wine tasting rooms !    

The Arroyo Seco, Pasadena

"San Gabriels Over the Arroyo"

18" X 24" Oil on canvas

      I think this is my 3rd attempt at painting the Colorado bridge spanning the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena. The first attempt was too close casuing me to get hung up in details so I just completely scrapped that one, haha. Somewhere around here is a nice landscape covering my feeble attempt. I like this view only because you can see more of the San Gabriel mountains in the background and the nice vegetation in the arroyo. The fact that it also causes the bridge to be in the distance is a not overlooked by me bonus.
      Many, many painters have painted in, near or above the arroyo over the years so I feel honored to be able to paint it along with them and with decent results. If you want a foliage workout the arroyo can give it to you. I took more time to work on these treees and plants wanting not only to get better at them but to experiment and also to just enjoy myself painting them....it's funny because at first there is so much canvas to cover and it can be almost overwhelming. Enjoyment wasn't even in the picture then but it soon became that. Everyone had gone to bed, it was quiet and so I just relaxed and took my time.
      When I look at this painting I think of  my Dad. He's gone now but I spent so much time as a kid being taken to these mountains to camp by my Dad...and besides, on the otherside of this bridge, about 1/4 mile, is the Rose Bowl. I played football in it in high school and also graduated there. Right next to it is Brookside Park golf course...my Dad was the golf starter there for years. My Dad also worked at another golf course, Carmilita, which is long gone but over it was built the Norton Simon museum. My Dad, Pasadena and I share a lot of things in common.  

Refugio Road Alfalfa Field

"Alfalfa Field"

12" X 16" Oil on Panel

There is something about farm fields that just draw the eye in. I guess it's just the immense size and geometric patterns they can have...linear draws to the eye. This field is about 10 minutes drive over in Santa Ynez enjoying late afternoon sun...the cut alfalfa just drying away. In case you're not a farmer, they cut the alfalfa when it's ready but freshly cut alfalfa is too rich with water in it so it has to dry laying in the field in rows like this...then it's turned over to dry the other side. After that it will be scooped up by the baling machine and then stacked to further dry and store until it's sold or eaten.
I'd just like the drive the machines they use to do all of this because they look so cool. I'm sure it's hot weather doing all of this too. In Oklahoma in 1976 they payed you a nickel a bale to lift the bales onto flatbed trucks....it's all done by machine now.

Summer Light

My reference photo

If I had about 10 sets of arms I could paint all day long paintings inspired by the area I live at, the Santa Ynez valley. Late afternoon light is the best I think and many of my paintings have come from that time of day. Seeing the bluish/purple mountains with their pink highlights from the setting sun was enough inspiration for me to paint this scene. I was driving down the road and had my camera so I took some reference photos. I didn't want the entire image, but maybe one like that will happen, so I located a nice spot in the photo and away I painted.

I am out of larger canvases at the moment so I did this one smaller at 12"x16"...should have gone larger though. Maybe I'll use this later as the study for a larger painting.

"Summer Light"

12"x16" Oil on canvas covered panel

....and a detail image from the painting:

 

 

Mission Bluffs

"Bluffs at Mission Santa Inez"

16x20 Oil on Canvas covered panel

Paintings that are inspired by our local mission, Santa Inez, are always fun to do. This painting was inspired once again by the bluffs next to the mission that overlook the entire eastern part of out valley. I've hiked many times up and down the bluffs. Below the bluffs is a large filed used for planting. Right now they have olive trees growing in that field and once they are established it is going to look great. This view looks southwest towards the santa ynez mountain range that borders to southern end of the valley...on the otherside is the Pacific Ocean about 600 feet lower than here.

 

This view is looking the other way, to the north. I was standing on the trail you see in the painting. I've painted from this same spot too overlooking the valley. It's nice and quiet here.

Coast Guard Painting for 2014

"AMLEP Boarding Mission"

18" x 24" Oil on Canvas

A couple of weeks ago I was notified that my painting "AMLEP Boarding Mission" had been juried into the 2014 Coast Guard Art Collection. This painting makes for my 8th painting into the Coast Guard art collection and I'm pretty proud of that. Long after I am gone I'm hoping these paintings will still be in the collection and shuffled about the country being seen in various shows or maybe even hanging in some government office. Leaving something behind that my two daughters would be proud of and remind them of me was my original point in becoming a painter in the first place. I'm on my way to doing just that. I'm hoping for even better paintings to be left behind to really show them what their Dad was capable of doing.
Being a member of COGAP, Coast Guard Art Program, has been a lot of fun so far. It has also been my way of helping to support the troops that serve our country. These paintings in the collection are sent all over the country to be displayed in shows that show the mission of the Coast Guard and maybe will inspire some to one day volunteer to serve. I'm happy to be a part of that.      

Morro Rock Surf

I remembered to take some work in progress shots with this painting. This is titled Morro Rock Surf but shows nothing of Morro Rock which majestically juts out of the waters edge in Morro Bay. The title just sounds better than Morro Rock Jetty Surf...and I wasn't that far out on the jetty. Morro Bay gets some huge surf so no messing around out there for me.

Here's the start. Not much of a sketch but that's not needed much in painting...it's all done on the fly and with color.

Painting in the base colors of the rocks and water. I try to do 2 things here...get it as close to what I'm looking for and to fill up the canvas fast so it seems like you are making progress, haha. You are painting over these base colors so the sooner they are in the sooner I can begin the "real" painting.  

Adding detail to the rocks while the water sets up a bit. I don't like working wet on wet so I will move around to let areas get as tacky as they can.

 Adding the water detail and shaded foam of the wave. This is the beginning of dialing it all in which really is more of the work. As this stage progresses things get altered and changed around quite a bit to get the finish I want. In looking at the final image you can see how many changes were made from this stage. 

 

The final painting. In the upper stage you can see how the rocks vary in color. In my final version I went back over some of them to tie them in more with a tan/reddish tint leaving only foreground rocks grey. The last two marine paintings were primarily blue colors so for this one I wanted something different...reddish grey water, tan rocks with a reddish tint and an overall lighter value to the painting. 

"Morro Bay Surf"

12" X 16" Oil on Panel

 

 

Work Work Work..on the website

            Late last night I went to check something on my website and realised I was way behind in keeping it updated. So I started updating the pages of the website....what a chore that has become. I built it and maintain it but it is way larger than when I first built it 18 or so years ago. It's a beast!
           My website is divided into two galleries, pen & ink and painting galleries. The painting gallery is keeping me plenty busy when it comes to updating pages, adding new paintings etc. I spent most of today fixing glitches on pages and adding 8 more pages for new paintings. I still have other work that needs to get posted there but that's going to have to wait.

The ftp program I use to load pages online sometimes works slow. I was having a boatload of problems with my computer too the last few months. A slow computer and an iffy internet connection is no fun. I got a cool Christmas present from Linda that I was begging for, a Toshiba 3 terrabyte desktop harddrive ($80-90). I moved almost all of my images and all of my music files onto that which made my computer speed back up and work better...gigabytes and gigabytes of photos/music were moved over to that puppy but because it holds so much it hardly put a dent on it's storage capacity. I also made a complete backup of my computer on it too. I think I've used about 1/10th of it's disk space. I love that little black box on my desk. For the bad internet connection I bought a Netgear WiFi Range Extender ($60.). Plugs into any wall outlet halfway between my computer and our router and bam...a way better signal here. I went from a connection of around 20-30 on a good day to 80-90 now....much faster connection. Life is good. If you store a lot of image files, like most artists, having more storage helps a lot.

           

We Move On.....

Welcome To 2014 My Friends

Today is Jan 2, 2014. I'm glad you are here and wish you and your family the best the New Year that truly deserve. I hopefully will continue down the twisty road of art and if things go right I should be a better artist by the end of the year, if you are a painter the same should apply to you if you work at it...nothing is free except doing nothing, that doesn't cost anything but you get what you pay for. We continue to pursue being better painters in 2014.

I couldn't paint yesterday because of the holiday. I even went to bed at 11:30 but because of that I was up at a dark 4:45. I made coffee and headed for the studio. I had planned on starting work on a new painting I have in mind as a good way to start out the year but instead I decided to go back at one I had painter in early 2013 but over the year had grown less and less happy with the mountain colors. In the original painting the mountains were painted a more violet color. I've done that before but for some reason in this painting the violet was just too intense. To me the painting looked like 3 horizontal stripes moving across the painting. I know the compositional move to fix that and in future paintings will do just that. For this painting, adjusting that color of the mountains will do for now.

"Valley Evening"

12" x 16" Oil on panel

 

Now it feels better to me. I like the atmosphere in this painting. A few birds in there too which is the easiest way I can think to add some life to the scene. I'm still no big fan of including people in landscapes....they just draw too much attention. I know a lot of painters would disagree but that's ok. They can paint their own paintings.

My trees are always slowly evolving as I learn to paint them more and more. Each painting is another race, another lesson, another test of how much better you can paint compared to the last painting. Of course, how you see your progress and how fast they happen are variables all of us painters have to deal with as we learn.

 

 

Happy New Year...and Good Riddance 2013

This will be my last blog post for the year 2013. I've decided without a doubt 2013 has been yet another sucky year to add to the last few years. Lets see....rock & roll had some great years, the 50's, 60's, 70's even the 80's were all good for music. The 90's were the declining years of rock & roll and 2000-2010, well, there just was no rock & roll. Rap, white kids trying to rap, female singers spewing out vocal gymmnastics or using the voice of a 12 year old....all of that since 2000 continuing up to date. I try and keep myself in check and not let myself become "an old person who doesn't understand the music of our youth today" but honestly, turn your radio on and decide for yourself. Classic Rock has become the last bastion of rock & roll as we knew it but how many times can you listen to the Eagles singing Hotel California or Walk This Way by Aerosmith. The only saving grace to music is that a computer allows you to hunt down all of the B-sides you like...thank you "for not getting it" Xerox.  

In the last installment of Indiana Jones there is a line that goes something like this "Indy, it appears that we have reached a time where Life stops giving and starts taking". I've lost my Dad and youngest sister. Friends I know have lost people too. An old school friend of mine since the 7th grade is now going through treatments for cancer...that used to be something old people got. The worst part of growing older has nothing to do with yourself, it has everything to do with those around you that you love. A good goal for 2014 would be to learn to keep my head up in spite of the things to come. 

Art....I am painting better than I ever have. Better than I can imagine I have the ability to. Go figure. Art is such a bumpy ride. There are times where you make definate progress and other times you seem to be going sideways instead of up. To those of you who paint just hang in there....the "up" will happen. As for sales....did I mention 2013 totally sucked! I'm right there with a lot of you who this economy has effected. Remember...VOTE! The People of this country still call the shots, not the Government....nor the Media. VOTE! 

 

 Hopes for 2014....I hope all of you, including myself, improve in our art. My goal has always been to one day paint something spectacular...something a Master would have painted. You should have this goal too if you paint. Never be satisfied with your work or you'll never even get close to painting something spectacular. I hope our country finds it's way and that's up to you and me. It's important. I know this is an art blog but America, and the state of it, should be in everyones mind. I hope our kids stop killing each other in our schools, I hope the people running around knocking people out for no reason other than to see themselves on video doing it enjoy a long, slow and painful death, I hope every single terrorist does the same.

Lastly, I will try more to do good in 2014. Doing something good for anyone is what life is about. It makes you a better person and makes life a little easier for the other person...so why not. To start the year off on the right foot I will do something good...now. To the first of my Subscribers or Followers who emails me with the promise that they will do something good for someone else I will send you the painting below titled "Above Santa Ynez"...for free. The painting is an oil painting that measures 8"x10" on stretched canvas. All you need to do is buy an 8"x10" frame, put a nail in your wall and you're good to go. You have to be a subscriber or follower of my blog and the first to email me....my thanks for your interest in my art and for you promising to do something nice for someone in 2014.

****To email me go to "About Me", click on Ron Guthrie then click on Email****

Now I've strarted my new year off on the right foot.
UPDATE....The painting has already been snagged up by Monica, the first to email me. So the painting will be on it's way to Atlanta soon...Congratulations Monica!

! Happy New Year !

    

Foxen Canyon Moonrise

"Moonrise Near Foxen Canyon"

16" X 20" Oil on Canvas

 

This painting is one of maybe 3 or 4 that I really feel are the best I've done of capturing what the Santa Ynez valley really looks like. I have it hanging near my computer here and get to see it daily...yep, I like it that much. The painting was one of those milestone paintings you do, a painting that you feel shows some significant growth as an artist. I like this painting so much I used it as the cover of my art book. I'm getting ready to start another painting and have been looking at my work here getting ideas.

I love the sky colors here, not mine, they belong to the valley. I had a period of painting a lot of large sky/low horizon paintings. I can see the draw to artists who paint skies...they are so much fun to paint. Skies can be painted so many ways and direct the rest of the painting. I'm looking back and forth at the actual painting and telling myself I need a better frame on that painting! I think if you kept a painting around long enough you'd reframe at least it 10 times.My advice is sell them quick so you don't go broke buying frames!