Garage News: Recent work

[Lee]

The gun is a small project recently finished and the painting is a monster threatening to kill me but I'm having fun and learning a great deal.........he who teaches himself has a fool for a teacher................I know. I do have a few friends who are really good at this stuff and my visits are becoming more frequent.

 

[BKJ]

Lee, I love the gun and I like the painting!

While you may be right about "he who teaches himself has a fool for a teacher", I do believe that creativity can be stifled. For instance, a teacher telling a young child that the cat they drew and painted shouldn't be navy blue, etc. Where would the art world be if everyone did the same kind of painting, engraving, music etc.?

 

[rayf24]

Lee I would think your teacher statement equates to the world has many fool's, wow that would be mean there are some master fools out there as well ??

 

[silverchip]

HI Lee, very nice as always!!!! What is that action??

 

[JMiller]

Lee, love the gun also and the painting is looking good, would love to be able to do what you.

 

[mdengraver]

Lee that man in your painting resembles you? Were you the model? I believe I've met that beard before?

 

[Tira]

Lee, someone in that painting looks familiar.... = )

 

[Tim Wells]

You've got a great garage!

 

[ETHELBERT]

I like reading your garage news....I love to see the creations that come out of it...

 

[Marrinan]

Lee, That is a beautiful bouquet. At the engraving is excellent and what we expect to see out of the garage. Painting-fire, one armed Yankee veteran and farmers. Sherman around somewhere in there. Fred

 

[pilkguns]

Lee I love your new definition of a scroll ribbon. Your work is constantly pushing scroll boundaries without overdoing it. Perfect.

 

[Eugene Carkoski]

I love your version of what I will call the Italian garland on the right side, it is simplistic but beautiful. Thanks for showing

 

[Lee]

The gun is a Westley Richards farquharson.
In the ribbon I inlaid Westley Richards in gold with an Old English font. I don't have a picture of it.

It was fun using my youngest son and daughter as the models for the two main characters in the painting and then again as the the youngsters looking over the edge of the platform. What a learning curve this has been. Reminds of engraving a few years ago.

 

[Thierry Duguet]

I would say that even if the final result is pleasing I am not crazy about the idea of using different style of scrolls within one piece, I am not speaking just about the sizes but also about the shading. Some scrolls are almost shadeless while other seem to live by them, even among the scrolls of the same size there is no consistency, some of the smaller size scrolls have darker background when other do not.
As I was saying I like consistency, it is not to say that you cannot have contrasting styles within one work but contrast imply that you have a break from one style to the other not a different flavor of the same thing.

 

[Roger Bleile]

Lee,

Can you explain the allegory that your painting represents. I'm sure everyone is trying to divine what its all about.

Thanks,
Roger

 

[Lee]

Roger- The theme given me was "God blessed us with the Civil War". I was asked to include certain elements- in the foreground- Lincoln and Frederick Douglas, soldiers, and something that shows the shackles of slavery removed. Mid ground- groups in a prayerful and reverent attitude. Background- Devastation of war.

Symbolism
- Red, white, and blue in the center
- Happy, proud, and confident freed African Americans on a platform that once was used to sell slaves, they are at the edge ready to step off, (the models are my two youngest although I had to age my son a few years)
-The two youngsters looking over the edge are my children when they were much younger. With these figures the future of freed slaves is represented.
-Amputees on both sides.
-Elderly union soldier concerned about the young rebel lad and perhaps his healing and future. Lincoln's assassination was one of the worst things for the South. His reconstruction plans were quickly scrapped by unscrupulous politicians and carpetbaggers.
-The farmer has turned his sword into the proverbial plowshare but in this case a shovel. It was easier to paint and points towards the young man- a design element.
-My son playing with my granddaughter - beautiful interaction between races and cultures.
-Lincoln adn Douglas standing side by side- united.


So how was the Civil War a blessing? The one commissioning the painting feels that it pushed the country to emancipation. It began the unification of the country albeit forced and tragic. It humbled us.

A lot of work left. I have spent 2 hours on one nose and more on a mouth.

 

[LVVP]

This is a beautiful engraving, thanks

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

Your Art skills seems endless Lee, I love all of your work and you book and DVD

arnaud

 

[Lee]

Still fiddling around.

 

[SamW]

I thought that was Nero that fiddled around while the town burned! Isaac looks like he has grown a good bit since I last saw him. You sure are getting the facial details down...I can recognized some of them quite easily. Looking forward to the finished work. Excellent!