2011.06.02 01:00 - Art

The Guardian for this meeting was Zen Arado. The comments are by Zen Arado. Present were Qt Core,  oO0Oo Resident and myself

Introductory:

Zen Arado: Hi Qt :)
Qt Core: Hi Zen
Zen Arado: how are you?
Qt Core: just started the first day of a 4 days weekend and already stressed
Qt Core: you ? :)
Zen Arado: I am good
Zen Arado: went to bed early for a change
Zen Arado: I have been staying up too late
Qt Core: just a sec
Zen Arado: and then feeling tired all day
Qt Core: back
Zen Arado: wb
Qt Core: sadly i know that feeling very well
Zen Arado: yeh i find it so hard to go to bed at night
Zen Arado: Hi Sam :)
Qt Core: i would like to go to bed earlier but i have some famioly issues that prevent that and than that make me go to bed nervous if not even angry so sleep don't come easily too
Zen Arado: I find it hard to get to sleep at nights too
oO0Oo Resident: hi Zen, Qt :)
Qt Core: Hi oOOOo
Zen Arado: Hi Sam :)
Zen Arado: wouldn't it be great if we coild just switch ourselves off at night ?
Qt Core: i had a shock last december when i found myself thinking it was quite early going to sleep at 2am
Zen Arado: if I had a happy experience it keeps me awake too
Zen Arado: I can see Sam on the map but not in person?
Qt Core: yes, but then the little sleep would be a good sleep
Qt Core: he isn't at our level
Zen Arado: yeh
Zen Arado: ah butterfly Sam
Qt Core: here he is in butterfly form
Zen Arado: :)
oO0Oo Resident: still learning to fly.. lol
Qt Core: and the question is who is the one dreaming ?
oO0Oo Resident: ha! worth staying awake for that dream
Zen Arado: you could just say 'there are dreams'
Zen Arado: arisding out of some vast consciousness
Zen Arado: nice colors Sam

Sam arrives as a butterfly and reminded me of a butterfly painting I had just uploaded:

Zen Arado: I did a painting of a butterfly
oO0Oo Resident: ty Zen.. time to change though. ned to land.. would be nice to see your painting.. was it based on a model?
Zen Arado: I tries to give it to you
Zen Arado: but you are a bit fluttery
Zen Arado: :)
Zen Arado: nah ust froma photo
Zen Arado: wish my j key worked better
Qt Core: lovely colors, Zen
Zen Arado: yeh it was the colours that attracted ne
Zen Arado: complementary orange and violet
oO0Oo Resident looks at picture of painting Zen has sent... thanks!
Zen Arado: it looks distorted there
Zen Arado: it is in portrait format
oO0Oo Resident: 1024x1024?
Zen Arado: no that would be square
Qt Core: not even out of place ;-)
Zen Arado: more like that
Zen Arado: I did two versions of that
Zen Arado: oil and pastel
Zen Arado: that is the pastel one
Zen Arado: which I sold
Zen Arado: still have the oil one I think
oO0Oo Resident: ... wondering about these violet coloured flowering plants... what species they are.. there is a real depth to them...
Zen Arado: yeh no idea
oO0Oo Resident: :) nice in the mystery... even deeper
Zen Arado: actually you could see the proboscis in the photo but I left those out in the painting
Zen Arado: makes it too insecty
Qt Core: but they still go great with the oranges and golden yellows ;-)
Zen Arado: butterflies have quite long probosces
oO0Oo Resident: there are a lot of colours... as I look closer
Zen Arado: (if that is the wor)
Zen Arado: word
Zen Arado: I don't bother with details
Zen Arado: I could have made itr more abstract
Zen Arado: cos it is really the colours that appeal to me
Zen Arado: not an exact botanical representation
oO0Oo Resident: kind of fascnated by the upper left section... what looks like . almost a stream of sorts .. the browns with squiggled highlights

Since I had now rezzed a board to show the butterfly painting I finished up spending the rest of the session showing more paintings :)

Zen Arado: I used to paint a lot of azaleas
Zen Arado: because of the bright colours
Zen Arado: springtime Sam :)
oO0Oo Resident: this painting is fun.. It has interesting aspects that one can keep discovering.
Zen Arado: that one doesn't have enough resolution
Zen Arado: it was taken with my first digital camera
Zen Arado: whch only had 1.5 Mp
Zen Arado: seems so little nowadays
oO0Oo Resident waves to observerm.. heya :)
Zen Arado: Hi Observerm :)
oO0Oo Resident: yes that pixel storage capacity has really increased
observerm Resident waves
Zen Arado: yeh but remember how small the memory cards were too
Zen Arado: 2 Mb I think
Qt Core: hi observem, i suggest you to come here or at least cam here to see the great paintings by Zen
Zen Arado: remember paying so much to get one with 8 Mb
Zen Arado: same place different year
oO0Oo Resident smiles
Zen Arado: I took most of those photos myself
Zen Arado: a lot of them are from a beautiful National trust Pooperty in N.Ireland called Mount Stewart
Qt Core: this is quite realistic

Zen Arado: yes that couple were walking towards me and when they passed I turned around and took the photo
Zen Arado: it was a beautiful spring day
Zen Arado: and it captured so much the romance because of the red Rhododendrons
Zen Arado: I think
Zen Arado: hopefully
oO0Oo Resident: beautiful Zen.. nicely composed.. the eye follows on fro the burst of red , right to the couple
Qt Core: and one of them being dressed in red make the connection to the flowers stronger i think
oO0Oo Resident: I like the shadows and light patches
oO0Oo Resident: agreed Qt
Zen Arado: yeh it's funny but I don't think about those thngs deliberately when painting
Zen Arado: it's more by feel
Zen Arado: Hi Eggsalad
Qt Core: if an art critic would alalyze it he would find so many things you haven't thought about when painting it ;-)
oO0Oo Resident smiles... the rhododendron has depth once again like in your butterfly piece
Zen Arado: yeh I know
Qt Core: i don't really believe in overalayzing art (every kind of art)
Zen Arado: there is a beautiful Italian garden at that place
Zen Arado: (I don't know how Italian it is)

oO0Oo Resident: the lavender tinting of the pavers and also some purplish shadows on the one column..
Zen Arado: and a nice lake
oO0Oo Resident: oooh
Qt Core: wow

Zen Arado: it's nice the way you get the colours reflected in the lake
Zen Arado: I must have sold about 30 paintings of that lake :)
oO0Oo Resident: was just thinking the water surface..textures from smooth to rippled to wavey is done so well and with the light and shadow and reflections
Zen Arado: from different perspectives
oO0Oo Resident: and the subtle colours of the lillies, and the mosaic of distant foliage...
Zen Arado: or ducks in the lake
oO0Oo Resident: ducklings in time lol... Zen! your paintings are awesome
Zen Arado: ty Sam :)
Zen Arado: I have lots more in my gallery
Qt Core: an online gallery or a rl one ?
Zen Arado: a SL one
Zen Arado: it's on my profile
Qt Core: then i'll know how to spend some time in the future ;-)

Zen Arado: bluebells
Zen Arado: you have blusbells in other countries?
Zen Arado: or maybe have a different name
Zen Arado: they are always associated with springtime
Zen Arado: we have bluebell woods
Zen Arado: they seem to grow better near trees
oO0Oo Resident: so many things in this one... the symmetry of triangles, those wonderful concentric hooping branches on the right.. the way the central dark green tree is sheltered and blessed by the nearer deciduous tree.. the still water surface.. the colours1
oO0Oo Resident: !
Zen Arado: ha ha Sma
Zen Arado: Sam
Zen Arado: maybe I am better than I thought
Zen Arado: didn't realise all that
oO0Oo Resident: your intuition of beauty captures it all without thought Zen.. that is the truly beautiful thing
Zen Arado: reminds me of the way an art critic analysed a Raphael painting into different sized triangles
oO0Oo Resident: stillness and magic

Zen Arado: think it was that one
Qt Core: both are full of triangles and they are almost "pushed" at you
Zen Arado: yeh
Zen Arado: the woman is a triangle on her own
oO0Oo Resident: that red and blue outfit is so rich and vivid
Qt Core: time to go, thank you Zen for sharing your art
Zen Arado: thanks for coming Qt
oO0Oo Resident: Bye Qt, tc
Qt Core: bye all, have fun
Zen Arado: bye
Zen Arado: Raphael's paintings are so soft and warm
Zen Arado: I like pastel as a medium because they give you nice soft effects
Zen Arado: where watercolour gives hard edges
Zen Arado: though watercolour has charms too
oO0Oo Resident smiles.. medium is the message
oO0Oo Resident: how long did this one take to paint Zen?
Zen Arado: hard to say
Zen Arado: it was at least 10 years ago
Zen Arado: it is an oil painting and they take longer
Zen Arado: and sometimes I leave them and come back to them
oO0Oo Resident nods
Zen Arado: I did a pastel version of that one too
Zen Arado: pastel is easier
Zen Arado: pastel is closest to pure pigment
Zen Arado: just pigment held by a weak binder
oO0Oo Resident: oh? I didn't know that
Zen Arado: so colours are brighter
Zen Arado: yes
Zen Arado: people associate it with chalk
Zen Arado: but it is so much softer
oO0Oo Resident: less and les wet... water colours, oils.. pastels..
Zen Arado: and purer
Zen Arado: pastels probably last longer before the colours fades too
Zen Arado: and no cracking as with oil
Zen Arado: or yellowing of linseed oil
Zen Arado: but oil is nice to work with too
Zen Arado: I never took to watercolour
oO0Oo Resident wonders hao many times the canvass is touched in this one...
oO0Oo Resident: *how
Zen Arado: I was doing abstracts lately
oO0Oo Resident perks up.. got one? you can show?
oO0Oo Resident: hehe

Zen Arado: well not too abstract that one
oO0Oo Resident: colour explodes into view dear reader
oO0Oo Resident: oh wow
oO0Oo Resident: reminded of oohing and awing at fireworks show
oO0Oo Resident: these are great
oO0Oo Resident: I see my mind reading so much into them lol
Zen Arado: it's harder to sell abstracts though
Zen Arado: yeh

Zen Arado: what do you see in that one?
oO0Oo Resident: almost a rising flame
Zen Arado: some see a clown
oO0Oo Resident: like a frozen moment on a candle flame
Zen Arado: or jester
oO0Oo Resident: I'm so drawn again and again to the SS in the yellow block
Zen Arado: hmmm...yeh
oO0Oo Resident: and the turqouise ribbony smear it extends from
Zen Arado: I never noticed that before :)
oO0Oo Resident: hehe
Zen Arado: I better go Sam
Zen Arado: ty for coming
oO0Oo Resident: kk... thank you for this wonderful slideshow
Zen Arado: np
Zen Arado: I love showing off
Zen Arado: :)
oO0Oo Resident: so many amazing colours
Zen Arado: thanks
Zen Arado: not sure if I should add all the paintings to the log
Zen Arado: maybe I will just post the slurl to my gallery
oO0Oo Resident encourages Zen to add as many as humanly possible, so that readers of the log will be able to follow the comments and see the truly wonderful artwork
Zen Arado: anyway bye for now
Zen Arado: ok
oO0Oo Resident: bye Zen.. take care.. ntsy, and Qt and Obs.