Stone Circle

In the spring of 1992 I was a senior art student at Alfred University.  I had spent four years studying art, history philosophy, and literature.  I had met a whole cadre of new people, and the person I was leaving was very different than the person I had been when I had arrived as a high school student of 17.  Hundreds of paintings, dozens of sculptures, thousands of photographs, a half dozen acting roles and my first illustration commission, and I was leaving, forever, for the real world.

Most seniors just carve their names into a tree or a dorm wall (which I did), but I wanted to leave something bigger.  Something that really spoke to my transformation as a person, and that truly marked the places that meant the most to me.

Alfred was a rural college.  A short walk off campus you could climb the fields and hills that overlooked the campus valley, listen to the carillon echoing and for four years I had climbed those hills in rain and snow and sun, and they had a lasting effect on me.  In April of 1992, with my graduation looming I began reflecting and to construct a monument to my time at Alfred on the green hills overlooking the valley where I had spent so many pleasant afternoons wandering.

I began with one stone.  That one stone became more and over the next several weeks as I returned to the hill top and lugged the heavy slabs of rock that generations of farmers had discarded to the wood line back into the center of the field.  What had started as a simple cairn became a stone circle, about ten feet in diameter, approximately three courses tall.   In the end I felt satisfied and upon my graduation I left Alfred expecting never to return, and assuming that the circle would be plowed under the following spring.

Today, I realize with the advent of satellite photography that my little stone circle, 22 years old at the time of this blog, still stands, much to my surprise.  If you are ever in Alfred New York, and happen to climb the Pine Hill just south of campus, up the fire road, past the water tower and into the fields.  At the top of the ridge you should find the broken remains of my stone circle.

Enjoy

WOC

The Art of Health

When I started painting at the age of ten in the atelier of The Huntington School of Fine Arts, I remember my teacher, Joe Mack, telling us that we couldn't sit.  Art was a whole body experience that had to be done standing up!

When I got to college I recall an assembly lecture for all artists regarding the health hazards of the artist.  Everything from toxic photography liquids to the dangers of turpentine fumes and the health risks of heavy metals such as cobolt, lead and cadmium for the painters.  I was nineteen at the time and took little heed of the warnings.  What they didn't teach us was the the long term physical damage of the arts.

As a forty-plus year old artist who has been painting for thirty of those years, I assumed that cancer and organ failure was to be my cause of death due to toxic exposure to paint.  Little did I know that my body would fail long before the paint ever got to me!

I have, for the past five years, endured excruciating chronic pain in the form of a herniated lumbar disk in my lower back.  The cause, as every orthopedist I've talked to claims, is being hunched over a drafting table and painting easel for the past thirty years. 

The long term physical effects to the artist are varied including carpel tunnel in your hands, myopia in your eyes due to straining over minute details, and as I have experienced, a bad back from bending over your work.  This is nothing new of course. In researching famous artists this is a condition that is quite common over the centuries.

Unfortunately for the freelance artist there is no Worker's Comp or Disability Insurance. you just have to suck it up and keep painting.  I only wish that that I had heeded my childhood teacher and continued to paint standing up.

Good Health and Good Luck.

WOC

Above:
"Self portrait"
William O'Connor

The Riddermark

The following is a series of images of a personal work.

"The Riddermark"

17"x48" oil on panel

©William O'Connor 2013

Enjoy.

WOC

Artist of the Month:Bruegel

http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2013/08/artist-of-month-bruegel.html

Midgard Tales

The following is a series of work in progress images that I did for a commission from Kobold Quarterly....

Enjoy-

WOC

Making Choices

Someone much wiser than me once said, "To be an artist is to make choices."  Do I use oil or digital? Canvas or panel?  Horizontal or Vertical?  Abstract or figurative?  Cobolt Blue or Aquamarine?    Every brush stroke that  a painter makes is a little choice.

As a commercial artist I am constantly reminded that most of these choices are not up to me.  Illustration, concept art and commercial art are collaborative.  There are art directors, editors, authors, marketing directors and advertising considerations that are making choices with you. So it is very enjoyable when I am given the opportunity to make many of the choices myself.

It is about 3 months until Illuxcon in Allentown, PA.  An event that I look forward to every year.  Its a chance to spend time with a small group of dedicated painters and enthusiasts and share ideas and the work we've been doing for the past year and talk freely without the censoring presence of art directors looming around the corner.

Every year I like to do at least one painting for myself without the restrictions of the client.  This year however I thought I would recruit the help of you, my audience.  Usually, the public is the last to see my work, after its been notated, changed, color proofed and edited.  In this instance I'd like you to be the first to see it and to help me make the choices.

First, The Composition.  I have already made several choices at this point.  This is going to be an oil painting 17"x48", Why?  I like to work in odd formats, and to be honest, I have an empty frame that I sold the painting out of. (Choices.)

Below I have three concept sketches for three possible paintings.  I only have time in my schedule to do one.  Please leave a note suggesting which one you feel would make the best painting.  I'm not promising that I will adhere to the majority, but this could be fun.

As the painting progresses I will share color comps and WIP images to enlist your suggestions again as the painting develops.

Thanks in advance.

Enjoy.

WOC

The Oracle 

"This image was inspired directly from the photo reference. The ominous lighting reminded me of a Pyle or Sargent painting.  This painting would be very dark with a lot of tonal variations and texture, contrasting against the smooth skin of the figure.  Unfortunately this image is very similar in theme to another painting I completed earlier this year including a mythological nude with tree branches. I might be willing to present them as a set."

The Riddenmark

"Inspired by bonsai design this image depicts the windswept plains of Rohan from The Lord of the Rings.  I envision the golden fields of wheat shimmering in the dappled sun.  The winds of war stir the clouds.  The aged tree represents King Theodin, bent and worn, but not broken.  Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli look out across the plain."

Prospero and Miranda: from The Tempest

"This image has been hanging next to my easel for months taunting me.  I love the emotion and the tenderness.  As a father I'm drawn to the narrative.  Steel Grey storm clouds breaking as the storm abates, and fresh sunlight spills across the couple.  Every time I think I'm ready to start I become daunted by the level of work involved, and find something easier to do."






















©William O'Connor Studios

Muddy Colors

I am proud to announce that I have been invited to be a member of the Muddy Colors blog.  This site that shares the work and ideas of some of the industry's best artists and is one of the most insightful blogs on contemporary art today.

My Artist of the Month series will now be posted at this site, and I hope that you all will follow me and the other artists as we discuss our trade, craft and art.

Thank you.

WOC