Len Sodenkamp Art: How long did it take?

Len Sodenkamp Art: How long did it take?: One of the most common questions folks ask is HOW LONG DID IT TAKE. I think what they are really asking is how much$$. They don't now i...

How long did it take?

One of the most common questions folks ask is HOW LONG DID IT TAKE. I think what they are really asking is how much$$. They don't now if I am joking or serious when I say it depends on how big a brush I use. This seams perhaps an arrogant reply however it is for the most part very true. Using large brushes and lots of pigment allows for those happy accidents to just happen. Spontaneous passages and shapes that appear with a single stoke. The trick is recognizing them before with the next stoke you paint them away. Just because a painting happens quickly does not mean it is in some way substandard or invalid. The need to place time into the creation of art is just a condition known as tick-tock sickness. We live by the clock--- tick-tock. All our lives we get compensated hourly or yearly but art doesn't happen that way. Art is that amazing thing that humans do were time really isn't a factor. Admittedly I let tick-tock sickness creep in at times and get caught up with the incorrect notion that time has a relationship to art value. Paintings that happen fast without seemingly any effort are always in my personal opinion the best. I do from time to time catch myself placing an hourly value on them. I look around my studio at the stacks of paintings and wonder why I do it and then I paint another and another. I am a landscape painter and I cant think of anything I would rather do. Years ago a painter friend ask me who my favorite painter was, I rattled off several names and he said no; you are. Its true, I must paint because the next painting will be my best or certainly the one after that. I suppose that sounds O.C.D. Anyway perhaps it is but the more important question one might ask is how did you paint that. My reply will most certainly be; with a large brush just for you. It should be in your home not my studio. Its just in the way, I am trying to paint my best one and I need the room.

This painting was done with a three inch brush and took approximately 3 hours.

oil on panel 48 inches x 24 inches (250.00) unframed + shipping

www.sodenkampart.com 



The word work

The word work means something slightly different to just about any one you talk to. For the most part however work is a place we go and a thing we do. We go there to do what needs to be done and we get paid to do it. Sometimes we do work like mow the lawn or clean the house usually for ourselves but occasionally for others and we don't get paid to do it. Monday comes and we think wow I have to work all week. Friday comes and we think great I have some time off. You hear terms like got-a-work or work-is-work. For most people work doesn't seem to be a word that brings great joy and happiness to mind. Most certainly however your blessed to have work to go and do.

A painter often refers lovingly to a painting as their work. People look at the painters work and say that is beautiful work. You can feel the happiness of it. You can hear the joy of it. The painter went to work in the studio with tools and a plan of execution. He or see did the work and labored over it. It was work but yet it became something more.

Why are the two sonorous so different?

The work below was completed for a client last month and was painted on a bedroom wall for an expectant mothers new nursery. The mural is acrylic 6 feet across and  includes a STARSCAPES FX night sky over the entire celling above it. The mural was over painted to tie into the ceiling cosmos when viewed in the dark.

www.sodenkampart.com







Thoughts

Making a conscious effort to respond to positive  thoughts  and picking just the right way to express is a life work in progress. So much wasted time spent on negative thoughts. I Am in control of my own thoughts or I should be. The brain is an organ with a shelf life but the mind is E=mc2. No one has ever looked inside a brain and seen a thought. The brain produces electrical impulses or thoughts which demonstrates power/energy. Thoughts or ideas brought into form took us to the Moon and put mankind's technology on Mars.

 

Quote "The mind is matter in solution and matter is mind in form"

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866) Unquote.

 

Basically he is saying that what we think about can and does come from no-thing 

(The Mind) manifested into the physical universe as matter in form or some-thing. That's some very positive thought manifesting itself into words and one amazing life work in progress that began over 200 years ago. 

 

The Sculpture looks with mind in solution into a block of stone and sees the desired

form. The painter applies thought and pigment to canvas and brings a masterpiece into form. A writer puts pen to paper and magically thoughts enter the world as form and great works of literature are born. But wait all of these things were just thoughts before they showed up as real. So in a way we can see thoughts after all.

 

Here's a thought from 2010 (oil on panel 18 x 24)

Called: returning  

 



 



www.sodenkampart.com

 

 

  

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

It had been over two months since I last painted. Although I work out side the home three days a week many summer chores pull me in one direction or another. Not sure if this has been the longest dry spell but good feelings were washing over me as I stepped into the studio. Some cleaning and organizing always sets the mood; a clean slate as they say. Couple months ago I printed off some landscapes taken in black and white and one in particular caught my eye. It had a sense of simplicity with a nice composition of elements. I wanted to keep this painting simple but interesting. I decided to limit my pallet as well and selected four of my favorites. Two from the iron oxide group, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber. For my cool side I used French Ultramarine and of course a generous portion of white. Going directly into the 48 inch x 24 inch hard board panel with a 3 inch brush I roughed out the main elements with pure Burnt Sienna. Using a 1.5 inch flat I went directly into the drawing with 

ultramarine to establish a sense of water. A mixture of Burnt Umber, Ultramarine and a small amount of white were used to establish the closest upright elements. A lot of white was introduced into the sky mass and highlights with mixtures of all of the above. This painting happened so fast it seamed to paint itself. Perhaps it is true; absence does make the heart grow fonder. Anyway I was pleased with this one.

 

48 x 24 inches oil on panel unframed $500.00

Prints available at www.sodenkampart.com then link to Fine Art America.

   

Change is good

The studio has been quite for a wile.

The warm weather draws inspiration into the garden. Not unlike the canvas the soil also calls for attention. The silent beauty of life coming forth from a tiny seed. A profound lesson for the involved viewer and caretaker. Painstakingly the medium is prepared to receive a tiny container of atoms looking nothing like what it will become. Then once committed, the act of love and care must exist when the gift's emerge. Like first strokes of green they come into existence. A reshuffling off atoms has taken place. Now life has arrived from what seams like nothing into something. Tending this new life must become the artist's obligation in order to produce a masterful outcome. As the days pass into weeks and then months a profound connection between the artist and his work becomes apparent. The work grows strong and beautiful then one day it is barring fruit. The connection becomes more pronounce as the gift of life sets upon the table. Not unlike any life there is the appearance of a beginning and an ending to it. However as the fruit is prepared the artist recognizes that container of atoms and knows it did not die it just changed into something else. It will live again in another place and time. Every moment that passes change was taking place. Nothing stays the same, Every-Thing is in a constant state of change and movement. The universe contains all of existence. Nothing happens outside of it. Everything comes from it and is influenced by it. Nothing dies; it changes. Change is good.

Acrylic on 48 inch round panel called (change)

 

www.sodenkampart.com

 

Bob Ross

Bob Ross

Robert Norman "Bob" Ross (October 29, 1942 – July 4, 1995) was an American painter, art instructor, and television host.

 

To this day I love to catch one of Bob's 30 min painting episodes on TV. I never tire of watching him paint as he gently talks you through in that soft, kind voice. His unique method of applying oil pigment wet into wet enabled thousands to embarked on an amazing journey he called the "Joy of Painting" 

 

There are no mistakes just happy accidents he would say. His gentle encouragement to plunge headlong with him into the unknown improved the lives of so many.  He really didn't want folks to just copy him but rather to take a chance on themselves. He made it look so easy that many viewers no doubt felt unable to do what he did. But those daring soles who took the leap with him discovered something that profoundly changes their lives forever. And by the way "Bob" would if he could would say, its never to late to start.

 

Bob realized that everyone has the creative source flowing through them. All he wanted was to encourage as many as he could to find their own soft, kind, voice.

 

Thank you "Bob Ross",

 

Len Sodenkamp

www.sodenkampart.com

208-484-0792

 

The image below is my version oil on panel 24 x 36 using Bobs method inspired from an episode I watched last week. Painted on a black panel using equal portions of Phthalo blue, Ivory black, and tints using titanium white.

 

Bob Called it, "Surprising Falls"