I am very happy to inform you that my new website is live, is up, is running, is set, is done and done...you get my drift! I don't know what took me so long to update it, but better late than never right? Check it out and tell me what you think. www.luiscolan.com
Friday, April 27, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Why Beauty Matters
I came across this video on another blog, it was actually the Peruvian Figurative Society, a group of Peruvian painters who focus on contemporary realism. To my surprise this video is in English, and for close to an hour I sat in my studio watching and feeling inspired and moved. We live in a society that values the ugly, fast, and cheap. We have lost ourselves and beauty has become a taboo subject, at least in art. This video will show you that beauty is a human need and that it hasn't been lost, we have just closed our eyes to it. I hope you enjoy it.
Labels:
Art History,
film,
information,
inspiration,
video
Friday, April 20, 2012
Grisaille of Jarod
I finished working on the grisalle, or underpainting of Jarod's new portrait. So far so good, the scary part will be adding color which at first always tends to look a bit messy. I'm hopping to achieve dramatic chiaroscuro with this painting, something a bit like Caravaggio, not that I'm close to his amazing genius, but you never get anywhere without trying. Cross your fingers for me and lets hope I get through this painting with flying colors, no pun intended.
Labels:
figure,
grisaille,
Jarod,
Jarod Asleep,
portrait,
process,
underpainting
Friday, April 13, 2012
Four Burners Going at Once


Wednesday, April 04, 2012
New Plein Air: Triborough Bridge
Triborough Bridge, 2012, oil on linen, 9 x 16 inches
Recently the weather became warm, and in one of those days when temperatures reached the high sixties I took myself out of the studio for the first plein air session of the year. Too bad that with this crazy weather consistency is too much to ask for, a day after I started this painting temperatures dropped bringing us back to winter. Now what's that all about mother nature? Since I don't do so well in the cold I was forced to finish the details of this painting in the studio.
The Triborough Bridge has been a big part of my life while living in NYC. It is through this bridge that I have driven through many times to get to my parents' home in Connecticut. This is also same bridge that stands tall above the running track in Astoria Park, where I go for a run a few times a week in the summer. This bridge has always been looming above me, there was even a time when my apartment was located near the foot of the bridge, everyday I would walk by it to and from work as it rose majestically above buildings and trees. It was only natural that at some point I would paint it as it extends over the East River, connecting Astoria, Manhattan and the Bronx.
Labels:
cityscape,
landscape,
New York,
plein air painting,
Triborough Bridge
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