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watercolour

Why Watercolor?

October 24, 2010 · 11 comments

La Belle Femme 4 © 2010 Jean Burman

[see the the video clip below]

Why watercolor?

People ask me this all the time… like I have a choice [grin]

Don’t worry… I’ve asked myself this question a number of times over the years and still can’t come up with a decent answer.

I mean… it’s not like I’ve never wanted to quit. I have. And I did once… for a whole year!

During my year of self imposed [watercolor] exile… I painted only in acrylic and oil with the occasional charcoal sketch tossed in. But I never got over that empty aching feeling whenever I picked up a brush!

Something about watercolor keeps me coming back for more. Like a moth to the flame… the brush to the paper… the water to the paint *sigh*

The best explanation I can come up with is that watercolor has a certain magic that other mediums lack. There is something intangible about it. Something you can’t quite put your finger on. You know what it is… but you just can’t quite explain it.

There is a fluidity in the watercolor process… an expectation of the unexpected… an excitement in the impossible challenge.

This is a serious addiction I know [and watercolor artists the world over will agree!]

Watercolor is the quintessential challenge.

“If you can’t handle me at my worst…

then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best” – Marilyn Munroe

It has a well earned reputation for being difficult. But to me… watercolor is clever and brilliant and challenging and rewarding all rolled into one. But that’s not to say that just because it might come across all sophisticated and sassy… it can’t also be cruel and terrible and unforgiving and flat [and downright awful] all at the same time… and I might take a moment to focus on that.

Florida artist Jean Grastorf has described it like this… “every watercolor painting goes through an ugly stage” and I believe her. There comes a time in the making of every watercolor when the painting begins to look flat and uninteresting… tired and overworked [note: I'm talking about the painting here NOT the artist - the artist is never tired - and ALWAYS interesting - grin]

You start to second guess yourself… and wonder if you should toss it in and start again.  But the beauty of watercolor is the number of times a perfectly good watercolor is discovered on the easel the morning after the night before after it has had the chance to dry. Magic eh?

“Some people dream in technicolor… others dream in watercolor”

Watercolor requires us to trust the process more than any other medium. It demands that we submit to the paint… and the water… and the chemistry of both… and to allow what will be to simply BE.

We have to get out of the way and let it do it’s thing… and sometimes that’s the hardest thing to do!

This is where I think WATERCOLOR and LIFE have a lot in common.

Maybe that’s why I like it so much?

THE VIDEO CLIP

Here is a painting that I thought was beyond repair. I was called away in the middle of the initial wash and the consequent run back was extensive… catastrophic… and ugly.  But it just goes to show what a little bit of love and elbow grease can do. There is virtually nothing that can’t be fixed [and I reckon the scars that remain make her even more perfectly imperfect] I hope you enjoy the rescue of La Belle Femme 4.  She is made of watercolor and willow stick charcoal on 300lb Arches paper and measures 15″ x 30″ and is available for sale from Jean Burman Galleries via the Contact Page on this website.

Let me know what you think… leave a comment in the space below!

Oh and… don’t forget to heck out the [almost daily] updates on DearDotcom!

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Who Cares About Art?

October 6, 2010 · 15 comments

I was flicking through Facebook the other day… [as you do when you're waiting for watercolour washes to dry]… and found a challenge by ABC National to describe in 150 words or less why art matters in the 21st Century.

It took me a minute or two to realise that… yes… we are in fact in the 21st century… before also realising that someone seriously needs to let 20th Century Fox know about this… and soon! [grin]

Anyhow… back to the 150 words. Well… I thought about it some more and wondered what on earth a person could possibly say about art in the 21st Century. I mean… hasn’t everything that could have been said been already said?

10,000,000 times over perhaps?

And that’s pretty much all it took for the words to cue up and come tumbling out.

And in a spooky twist… when I counted them up and found I had exactly the required 150 without editing a single word… clicking “send” then seemed like the only reasonable thing left to do.

So was it meant to be?

Probably.

[Hopefully]

Because I wouldn’t mind winning the prize of two nights accommodation in the city and tickets to the opening of 21stCentury – Art in the First Decade at the Queensland Art Gallery [and I don't mind forfeiting the air tickets because I'm already here on the ground - grin]

Oops… almost forgot… here’s the 150 words.

Why does art matter in the 21st Century?

“Art is the distillation of an idea toward an infinite point; the condensation of transient thought into material substance. There, on the canvas, the idea [the thought] comes alive. The brush dances the dance of two hundred thousand years of mark making by humans in their endeavour to make sense of this thing called life. Life meaning is at the very essence of the human search for understanding. Our plight, our endurance, our ability to survive and surpass the expectation of an ordinary existence by the making of art will always be at the core of the search for truth about ourselves and the part that each of us might play in the telling of our own story here on planet earth. The artist sees from a different perspective what others see quite plain. This will not change in the 21st Century” – © Jean Burman 2010

The odd thing is… I completely believe this… and couldn’t have said it better myself!

Hang on… I DID say it myself (((chuckles)))

Whether anyone takes the time to read it is another matter.

But who cares?

I’m just glad the words are out there.

And I got to think about art [and what it means to me] and write it down in 150 words (((chuckles)))

Don’t you just love the questions that make you answer why?

Your turn now.
Why does art matter [to you] in the 21st Century?
Just for fun you have
SIX words!

Fire away…

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La Belle Femme

February 14, 2010 · 12 comments

La Belle Femme 1Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman

I fell in love with Sweet Addiction the first time I heard it.

It was a couple of days before Christmas… and La Belle Femme was in the early stages of conception. I had received a commission for a large nude painting in landscape format. So not being someone who does things by halves… I decided instead to paint three! [I know... I know]

As I was sketching out ideas… and deciding on how I would approach the series… this piece of music dropped into my email inbox via Facebook. I had it playing in the background on my laptop… and listened to it over and over again. I never tired of it. Before long I was completely beguiled by the sound. It was indeed a “Sweet Addiction” [grin]

La Belle Femme 3

The making of the Music…

Sweet Addiction was created by Daniel Marolla… a young man who is definitely going places! He created and recorded this piece of music one afternoon in mid December using [keyboard drums and base guitar] an Mbox and Garageband… then shot his video for You Tube from the built-in camera on his laptop and edited it in Final Cut Studio. If all that sounds like double dutch… well… don’t worry. Just listen to the music… it will speak for itself!

The making of the Art…

The first in this series was initially a commission. The paintings were relatively large for watercolour at 76cm x 38cm – [that's 30" x 15"] with the figures approx. 1/2 life size. It was so much fun working wet into wet in the initial stages… just allowing the paint to flow and directing it where I wanted it to go.

It’s fast… it’s fluid… it’s free and wow… you just gotta love working in watercolour!

Willow charcoal of course… adds another dimension. It’s a style I have been working on for a couple of years now especially in figure and life work.

La Belle Femme 2Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman

The pics were taken on my humble little Panasonic Lumix and assembled as a slideshow in iPhoto. I purposely kept the photos edgy and a bit blurred by movement with [perhaps] some “debatable” degree of success!

And of course… iPhoto is no precise science but that’s about the extent of my techie expertise at this time. I am however willing to learn.  Note to self: Get Final Cut Pro… there has GOT to be a better way!  [Grin]

By the time the three paintings were done… the music had weaved it’s incredible magic into them all.

Consequently… what you hear and see here is the end product of an [unintended] creative collaboration between paint and music. It was entirely unintentional of course.

Daniel could not have known that his music would so happily “belong” to these paintings that afternoon in December when he brought this music to life!  He was afterall on his own creative tangent … and the paintings did not [as yet] exist!  But somehow… still… the paintings and the music seemed strangely made for each other!

Enjoy the clip!  Let me know what you think… leave a comment here!

For availability of original artworks

and to see more… contact

Jean Burman Galleries [click here]

La Belle Femme – Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman

Sweet Addiction – Music © 2010 Daniel Marolla

All Rights Reserved

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The Creative Dilemma

November 30, 2009 · 26 comments

JB for the blog 2Join me on You Tube (see below for the link) but read this first!

Well it’s been a crazy week of revolving doors for me as new doors swing open and old doors slam shut . Generally speaking though that’s great news… and a sign that things in my Universe are starting to shake out!

You know… it’s kind of fun to stand back and watch from a distance all the action happening in your own life. Letting go of outcomes and allowing things to just be can be a bit scary at times… but it’s fun nonetheless. And I could get used to it. [Grin]

The global economic climate (not to be confused with climate change per se- grin) has given everyone quite a bit to think about. But for creative artists of all persuasions (be they painters potters or musicians) the struggle to do well at what we do well… has always been pretty difficult. And historically nothing has changed.

VincentCartoon Pen & Watercolour

Copyright © 2007-09 Jean Burman

Vincent Van Gogh was creatively and financially supported throughout his entire career by his brother Theo.  He never sold a painting. We may well laugh now at how wealthy he might have been in his own lifetime. But he wasn’t. He was a man ahead of his time. But no-one really got that. Not even his fellow artists. Especially not his fellow artists. Consequently without the creative endorsement he craved… he was condemned to continually question his own worth as an artist.

Sound familiar?

The upshot of course was that Vincent finally sliced off an ear and died in a garret with two bullet holes in his stomach partly because he couldn’t handle it anymore. He gave up. And it’s easy to give up on a world that doesn’t know that stars are blobs of swirling bright light circling the evening sky… [grin]

Vincent 2Cartoon Pen & Watercolour

Copyright © 2007-09 Jean Burman

Creative spirits live in a world of their own. There is no clear direction forward for us… not to mention… very little endorsement or feedback for what we’ve already done.

Yes… we know what we want. But what the rest of the world wants is an entirely different matter. Complicate that further by saying that much of the rest of the world doesn’t actually know what they want… or what they like [without being told]… and we have one very perplexing problem!

In the end… fame and fortune pretty much comes down to the “hype” around the product… and not necessarily the product itself. The people who eventually gain recognition… are not necessarily those with the most talent… but those who are best able to bring their product to the marketplace via the best most expedient method.

But this is all terribly left brain stuff. And most artists (well the creative ones anyway) are incredibly right brain orientated. That’s what makes them… surprise surprise… so darned creative!

For my part… well… I don’t want to be famous but I do want to get my stuff out there. So that means I have to spend at least some of my time in the left brained world. It’s a funny nuts and bolts place to be… but it can be a whole lot of fun as well.

Check out my new You Tube clip here.

It was a challenge to put this together and the best fun you can ever have all by yourself in iPhoto and on YouTube. Would also like to thank Paul Simon [the voice and lyrics of my childhood] for the use of Punkey’s Dilemma… the cornflake song… what a great little song it still is!

For my part… I just want to paint and write… live… laugh and love. Whatever comes after [in/around and between] all that… who knows and who even cares? It’s my life. And I’m only going to get one chance at it. I make mistakes like everyone else. And have suffered probably more than my fair share of sadness. But I am also blessed in so many ways.

And the great thing is I am finally beginning to realise that absolutely nothing is ever set in stone. Doors open and close all the time with intermittent regularity. And all that’s required of us is a willingness to step through the next open door to see what’s on the other side. It’s as easy as that! *wink*

The real prizes in life go to whoever opens the most doors… and investigates as fully as possible their own individual potential. There are no guarantees we will survive this life… in fact… it’s a pretty sure thing that we’re not going to make it out alive!

So heck… while we’re here we may as well give it our best shot. With or without any thanks… or claps… and regardless of the heckles… [or the people who would persist in placing obstacles in our way]

Doing our creative thing… whatever that may be… is our gift to the world as much as ourselves. And you never know… maybe someday… someone… somewhere…. might just get it and go WOW!

If not… well… we had a whole heck of a lot of fun doing whatever it was we got to do!

Didn’t we?

Would love to hear your comments about YOUR creative life and experience.  Drop me a line here!

Oh… and before I forget… the 2010 Universal Artist Calendar is now available for immediate shipping over at RED BUBBLE [in case you didn't get that already LOL]  Okay… that’s enough shameless self promotion for me… back to painting… writing… more dreaming *sigh*  :-)

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