Harley Brown's eternal truths....

[marklowes]

Hello from Canada, Harley -

For the longest time I have wondered how you organize your pastels when working? I imagine you have thousands of them, all brands ever produced. But what does your working area look like, I wonder? I'm guessing you don't fuss over a meticulously organized palette. But is there any sort of method to organizing your materials? Just a small selection of sticks at hand, or hundreds crowding your work area?

I suspect I'm not the only Harley fan who would love a bird's eye view of your working studio.

Cheers

[LGHumphrey]

Hi Harley, great to be reading your posts again.

Mark, I found this photo of Harley creating one of his beautiful paintings--you'll see that tray full of pastels.......in no apparent order.



P.S. Beautiful studio Harley, amazingly clean. Love those wooden beams.

[makinart]

HELLO ARTISTS AND ART LOVERS. PT 2

Hey, LG, I see you got me working in the studio....and it's not a "bird's eye view." By the way, how did you get into my studio?

And Mark, that candid shot of me with the mess of pastels is spot on but there's more to it. As with most good photos and paintings, one of the most interesting bits to ponder is what happened before and after those "frozen" moments.

I often have small paper plates filled with pastels: the blues in one, reds in another, etc. Then, after using the pastel, I'll place it down on the level area below the drawing. I try to keep them sorted, but emotion can overcome the organized layout.

You know, I don't always follow rules in my set up. It can vary under the circumstances. I have sets of pastel where I carefully place the pastel stick back into it's slot. But I put it back in vertical, standing up and ready to grab again. Or I'll lay them out on a wide tray just below the painting; warm on the left side, gradually going to cool on the right.

Once in a while, for fun, I might limit my colors. As long as I have a good value range.

One of the things I've learned in my years is to take different routes; don't be predictable...TO MYSELF. What I am to the outside world is anyone's guess.

How I'm received by people is mostly out of my hands. It took me years to finally find myself and be the real Harley Brown. That comes with the confidence we gain in what we do and how we go about it. Take me or leave me.......including my art. I still have friends from 60 years ago, who, at times,
put up with a VERY eccentric character.

Art is a joy. I often wonder why some artists always want themselves photographed with serious expressions. Actually I don't wonder; they want themselves and their art to be taken "seriously." Personally, I don't think in
terms of serious or light hearted (with myself or my art.) I don't seek or "force" any particular emotion to guide me through the day. This I can say for sure: no matter what I might have gone through before starting a painting, the very moment I begin a piece.........EUPHORIA. It's been that way since I was 7
years old. Oh, there's so much to say.
-Harley-

[makinart]

HELLO ARTISTS AND ART LOVERS. PT 3

How much do we take I to our systems, brain/body. And how much goes out.
We learn plenty when we're hungry for knowledge.....it happens in big spurts.
How much is useful
How much gets clogged up.
How much is remembered.
How much is understood.

I can't answer those questions for myself; I've taken lessons and instructions in large gobs. All I know is what comes out of me, (meaning some of it worked!!!)

We are receptacles of life. As we get older we DO get wiser even though many of us don't actually realize it; wisdom happens slowly in increments.

Getting or having the SMARTS is different. Look at those young people of genius racing through school. Or the gifted, who can play Beethoven's Violin Concerto at 12 years of age. Things are going into their heads at lightning speed. And they understand most of it. I'm in the moderate range of "smarts"(some things I get, other things I don't get. I don't mind that.)

But wisdom itself takes life. Living it.

I'm looking out the window as I write this and see at least a dozen interesting artistic gems to ponder. I've probably seen them before in different settings but remember.......in actual life, everything is new. Similar at times, but in fact new. That means you and I are getting fresh visual information every waking moment of the day. That info goes in to our heads, locked there safely and ready to be released when the moment comes. That "stuff" can be
monumentally major or microscopically minute. it's real and it's important.

In time, the "smarts" and the "wisdom" team up.

This day...this very moment is important. Because it is part of what we are and what we will be.
-Harley-

[LGHumphrey]

Hi Harley, I got that photo by sneaking in the back door when you weren't looking.

Growing older and wiser.....hmmmm. I'm 77, notice a real diminution of my physical and mental strength--used to have a good memory, not now!--and find there's a lot of new stuff that I'm just not interested in learning. "What do I want to learn that for, I'll be off to the Happy Hunting Grounds before you can say Jack Robinson" is my excuse. All these i-pads and i-pods and other gizmos, and Facebook and Twitter etc. are just not of interest to me.

Aren't you the same?

However, I'm not a complete Luddite--internet (especially Google) and artblogs and artsites keep me happy and busy.

[makinart]

HELLO ARTISTS AND ART LOVERS. PT. 4

There are different levels of wisdom that come with time, but it bcomes apparent......take Tolstoy and Mike Tyson. "What?"

One problem I've noticed with "wisdom" is that we sometimes don't use it on ourselves. I ramble on with my kids and grandchildren, things I'd learned through life. Once in a while I'd stop and think, "Hey, that's a clever thought, why didn't I use it?"

Also I've made it a point to dig my mind into only those things that add to my life, knowing the days and years are to be treasured. That means family, friends, nature and an appreciation for life are IN.........and digital, today's
music, (well, the list goes on and is uniquely personal,) are OUT.

LG, you have a few year on me but I'm catching up. I expect you and I and all the good people reading these words to carry on like my dear pal "Dick" Bryers. He's now 101 years old, and in the last few months finally laid down his paint brushes. I saw him a few weeks ago and we had a good visit. He said, "Harley, I've done it all. I've lived life." And he has.....several lives.

For the 35 years I've known him, Dick has been a great friend and inspiration. The reasons would fill a book. (If you'd like dear reader, google his art: Duane Bryers.)

Yes, I have the iPad and iPod. My expertise, similar to a trained monkey, is pushing buttons like "send" and "attach" and "escape!"

We're artists here. We travel our own routes because we are individuals. And like members of a family, we hold together despite the differences.

As we stroll in to our studios, we then appreciate our uniqueness. We do have something we need to create; that will be on canvas or piece of paper for long after we're gone. (But we are not going anywhere for a good while.)
-Harley-

[LGHumphrey]

Good ol' Hilda, what a pile of fun.

http://www.toilgirls.com/hilda/gallery.html

[rugman]

I googled Bryers and had fun looking at his work. Also found a book called "Tuscon 7". Had fun googling and looking at the work from all those guys.

Thanks again, appreciate your time here. I've become addicted to this thread.

[makinart]

HELLO ARTISTS AND ART LOVERS PT. 5

It's a sad time for many of us who knew and admired the
very artist we've been discussing. Duane "Dick" Bryers died
yesterday morning at 5AM. He was a couple of months shy
of his 101 birthday.

If I could proclaim an artist who did everything with class
and such a positive momentum with his own career and eager
support of artists, (professional and amateur,) it was Dick.

He inspired us all. He had enormous talent and he used it.
A lot of what he learned was on his own; when we look at his
originals, he is a master. He has left an enormous, memorable
legacy for the world of art.

When I'd get a phone call from Dick, I'd be in full spirits for at least a
Week.....actually thinking about him and our many visits and
conversations will happily stay with me always.

His dear daughter Patty wrote a tribute that I will place here very
soon. She wanted me to show it to artists and art lovers.
Back with you soon.
-Harley-

[LGHumphrey]

How amazing that he passed away just as we were talking about him.

He lived a long and full life. Look forward to reading Patty's tribute.

Rest in peace, Dick Bryers.

[makinart]

HELLO ARTISTS AND ART LOVERS. PT 6

Here is "Dick" Bryers' daughter's tribute to him and his memory.
I ask as a favor that you pass this on to other sites and friends.
Dick lived his life as an artist for over a century. He has been an
inspiration to me for decades and I would love his very spirit to
be held tightly and passed on by you dear reader.

The Tribute

Duane Bryers: July 2, 1911 - May 30, 2012

A western artist. A pin-up calendar artist. A cartoonist. An ice sculptor. A circus performer. Life is art. And for Duane Bryers, art was life, with a vast measure of humor and nearly unlimited optimism thrown in. "I didn't know I couldn't do it," was Bryers standing joke to explain how much "the little farm boy" accomplished. One of the “Tucson Seven” – a tight-knit group of some of the best known western artists – Bryers made his mark not only in that genre, but in many others as well. He died May 30, 2012, just a few weeks shy of his 101st birthday at his Tucson home where he lived among his paintings, his easel and his wonderful memories.

Duane created an amazing life for himself. His childhood in the woods of Michigan and Minnesota provided a lifetime of artistic inspiration of rural America. A little red-headed kid who could walk on his hands and amuse his teachers later started two circuses where he performed as the aerialist on the flying trapeze.

As a young man, he stood on ladders to carve 20-foot-tall ice sculptures of Will Rogers and Amelia Earhart and others. He won a national sculpture contest using an ivory soap bar as his medium. With little more experience than that, he convinced the local school board to commission him to do a huge mural for the high school on the history of iron mining in northern Minnesota. He took his earnings to New York where he became the proverbial starving artist.

It was just as World War II broke out, and Bryers won the top prize in a New York Museum of Modern Art competition for a war poster. He didn’t have long to revel in his great good fortune before he was drafted into the army. In the service, he did some terrific nose-cone art on American bombers, and drew a cartoon strip, Cokey, that went from the Armed Services Newspaper into national syndication.

Peacetime came. He married Phyllis McFarland and they had three children, Jeff, Polly and Patty. He began a wildly successful pin-up calendar called Hilda that continues to this day with encores of some of his best pieces. It wasn’t until the Bryers family moved to Tucson in 1958 that Duane found his love of western art – often heavily tinged with Midwestern Americana. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award gold medal from the Western Heritage Museum. He had a cadre of adoring collectors and sold his last painting just a few months ago.

Bryers’ second wife, Denise Ray, was the love of his life and truly his inspiration to success. When she died ten-years ago, it was his innate optimism and great friendships among the Tucson Seven that allowed him to go on with charm and good humor.

His children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and many friends will miss him, but take inspiration from what Duane himself described in his last days as "my most amazing life."

~Patty Gelenberg

[Sonni]

I'm catching up on the posts here, and am sorry to read about the passing of Dick Bryers. He led a full life, reading what his daughter had to say. I don't remember Cokey but...maybe I do and have forgotten? But I've always been cheered by his work.

[makinart]

HELLO ARTISTS AND ART LOVERS PT. 7

Sonni, thank you for showing that painting by Dick Bryers. It's a good example of Dick's work. I've always looked at his pieces and thought, "this guy just loves to paint." And in fact he couldn't wait to get into his studio and start wielding his brushes. He drew and painted all the time.

But each painting, (as with so many artists I know,) was the result of a lot of planning and fussing right down to the final stroke....."a hard road travelled."
With the appearance of flying off the brush.

That challenge is the joy in creating art. Patience and demanding of oneself;
you've heard me rattle on about that many times. Actually it was a relief way back when I first saw my mentors struggle through their works and then
seeing their fresh, inspiring results. Proving that they were actually "human." Like Cezanne and Repin and Sargent. Da Vinci and Raphael. "Humans" who actually got upset stomachs, agonies over money, relationship troubles. Oh, and yes, they were also meant to make art.

They were (and are,) just like us. What a revelation that turned out to be for me. It took some time and a lot of observation of the world around me to Get It. Okay, I figured, it was up to me: how important was art and deciding the route I'd take to develop what was inside me ACHING to get out. SIMPLE!
That's it.......I simplified my plans.
-Harley-

[makinart]

HELLO ARTISTS AND ART LOVERS. PT 7B

A SIMPLE PLAN!!??

I like a simple plan. Even though I know there'll be complexities circling it. But the plan is essential; even way back with my young, extremely unsophisticated mind.

"Okay, this is what I'm going to do," I thought.

That's the cornerstone; all else is built upon it.

Really?!
-Harley-

[fritzie]

I expect you will address this shortly, but what constitutes a plan in the way you are using it, and what is a 'simple' plan specifically?