Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Objects of Wonder



















I usually spend plenty of quality time at the Portland Museum of Art, but last week was a little different. I was contracted by the museum to paint some of my small still lifes in the atrium in order to not only promote the new exhibit, "Objects of Wonder", but also to provide inspiration to kids and their families as they tried their own still lifes at stations set up nearby.

Above you see me painting a Totoro (please see Miyazake's films if you haven't already fallen in love with his stuff) that belongs to one of my boys. I had about an hour and 15 minutes to paint him, so he's not at the state of finish I usually prefer, but it was pretty fast for me anyway.
















On day two I painted a Chinese ceramic horse (we call him Percy) that I'd painted before. I did an underpainting of this before I got to PMA, knowing I didn't have much time - and he's sort of complicated, as you see. He's about 90% done, I feel. The little guy in the foreground decided to draw one of my "minumentals" instead of the setups that were for the kids. Doing his own thing, as an artist should do, right?


And on day 3, I painted an orange pepper. This one I actually finished in the time allowed! I even had time to sign it! The Daily Sun plopped me on the front page while painting this.







But this was the best work done that day --This one little girl decided to go for portraiture, rather than still life. How flattering is this? Looks like I need to shave, though. I did.

A fun time, to be sure, but wow - do I have SO much to do before my visit with Kurt Kauper in NYC. It's in a few days, so I'll be reporting back on that, soon.

5 comments :

s y l v i a w i n t e r said...

Rob, What fun! I love the whole 'objects of wonder' theme. You obviously had an impact on the community and the kids. Nice work. Good luck with your meeting with KK. Sylvia

Robert Miller: said...

Rob, what an awesome way to share your gift! An hour and 15 minutes on the Totoro and you really captured it's essence. I love your work and I am glad I found your blog. Thanks for sharing your "GIFT" with all of us.

Anonymous said...

Aww, that's the cutest caricature of Rob ever! Kids are awesome.

martha miller said...

Great fun!! Good luck with your meeting!

Rob S. said...

Sylvia - thank you! It was good to do this. I hope to be able to do something of this nature with the museum again. It's too often that art demos get confined to a classroom.

Robert - I very much appreciate the kind words. Looks like we not only have a name in common, but a theme as well. Your work is quite excellent. And you are a teacher, too! Whoa.

KT - Indeed :D

Martha - Phooey, it didn't happen (see next post). But things have a way of working themselves out.