Cream

"Lawdy Mama," 1967 (outtake from Disraeli Gears, later released on Live Cream). Jack Bruce, bass; Ginger Baker, drums; Eric Clapton, guitar and vocal.

So smooth. These guys truly were the cream of the crop, each complemented the others perfectly. I love this – the perfect vocal timing, the masterful strutting beat, but perhaps most of all Jack Bruce’s expert bass playing, which supports Clapton then subtly emerges at the surface in places with something unexpected. Functional, I suppose, but never pedestrian, though I’m no expert (and yet arguably there were some cases, e.g. the famous live "Crossroads," where Bruce outplayed Clapton).

If you are somewhat familiar with Cream you may notice the similarity here to the song "Strange Brew": their producer, wanting something more trippy and pop than a white-man’s-blues rendition, put a new vocal and guitar track from Clapton over the existing bass and drum parts. From what I gather Bruce wasn’t around to supply a revised bassline and was unhappy (understandably?) with the result.

I don't know what the equivalents in painting would be to the layers in a musical piece, but I think of a great bassline as something like the imprimatura or primuersel that shows through in a painting, whether visible in transparent passages or in parts left exposed outright (see Rembrandt). In the best cases it doesn't immediately jump out and smack you in the face.

[Credit to the original posters.]

Idiom!

LAUNCELOT: ... At last! A call, a cry of distress! This could be the sign that leads us to the Holy Grail! Brave, brave Concorde! You shall not have died in vain!!
CONCORDE: Uh, I'm - I'm not quite dead, sir.
LAUNCELOT: Well, you shall not have been mortally wounded in vain!
CONCORDE: Uh, I - I think uh, I could pull through, sir.
LAUNCELOT: Oh, I see.
CONCORDE: Actually, I think I'm all right to come with you, sir -
LAUNCELOT: No, no, sweet Concorde! Stay here! I will send help as soon as I have accomplished a daring and heroic rescue in my own particular... [sigh]
CONCORDE: Idiom, sir?
LAUNCELOT: Idiom!


Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975.


I’ve been in one of those periods of uncertainty, when I wonder if I might ever get my particular idiom figured out. I know that all along I’ve been honing certain qualities that are definitely "me," but there are infinitely more trials and errors to make and more paths to explore.

Painting isn’t so difficult when you don’t know ... But when you do ... it’s quite a different matter!

So Degas said. I envy those who are seft-taught, because I’ve always believed they can retain more of their original selves in the learning process. Sometimes I feel so detached from my old way of seeing (my creatively boundless, high school art class way) because of good teaching - some unlearning of it here and there will probably be necessary forever. Of course this detachment could have been caused by the gradual filling in of my brain’s more potent recesses by all that cortisol from depression. If only I had a Pythonesque cartoon brain-cleaning guy up there to scrape away the residual plaque.

(For those who have never seen this, and those who have:)

Pomegranate **VIDEO**

10/9: Pomegranate, oil on canvas panel, 5x5 in.

Maybe because I was able to keep it fairly soft and loose, when seen from across the room this is more convincing than most of my other pieces. It was about 70 minutes.

Avocado #3 **VIDEO**

10/6: Avocado #3, oil on canvas panel, approx. 4x6 in. SOLD

The reddish color in some avocados is very striking, and I like red. Feeling adventurous again, I made a video of this painting, too:

Egg sketch #8 **VIDEO**

10/5: Egg sketch #8, oil on canvas panel, approx. 3x5 in. SOLD

Finally! Here I am performing in my debut video. I wish I could paint this fast: