LARRY BROOKS ART

Pink Rose

2010-08-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

An oil sketch done in about 20 to 30 minutes. The time is only important in regards to not overworking it. I (anyone does) can have a tendency to not stop when the feel of a painting looks right and 'ruin" it.

This (and the ones I'm doing this week) are meant to be studies.

Oil on Linen, 12 x 9

Lemon Tree?

2010-08-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

Well I finished this a couple weeks ago, but I'm not sure the title is right now. I had to to leave it since I entered it in a competition with that title. Now, it seems very feminine and almost like an aging woman. Someone else pointed that out to me. Sometimes things happen in a painting that the painter isn't fully conscious of. I actually like that. Sometimes.

Oil on Linen

30 x 20

Lemon Tree

2010-06-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting on this blog in awhile (not that anyone noticed!) but I felt like putting up a detail of this. I'm liking it a lot. I almost like just this part (top third or less) cropped but when it's finished I'm hoping I like the entire painting. You never know till it's done.

Progress 4

2010-02-28T23:14:00.000-08:00

I like the feel of this underpainting enough, that I'd like to retain it in the finish. That won't likely happen as the finishes are much tighter.

Progress 2

2010-02-20T21:10:00.000-08:00

I got back to this one after working on a few other things.

As of now, it'll have some lemons on the top of the paper.

Usually I set up a still life completely, but sometimes I let it evolve. The only things I knew that would be in this one are the pedestal (which is a banister I got a year ago from a salvage yard, and am just getting around to painting) and the paper. Which was going to be colored tissue paper, but all the whites in this are what'll be fun to paint; the colder white paper with the warmer whites of the pedestal, and the old, even warmer white door behind.

In Progress 1

2010-02-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd document the process of a painting. I sometimes photograph states of a work, but decide to post some here (mainly so I can easily check it myself, with the dates).

This will likely be one of a series of still lifes with colored tissue paper (though this one's will be white).

I've been trying to mute my palette for a while, and "Parsnips" was one of the first ones where I did that, so I think this one will be similar.

Self

2010-02-02T14:50:00.000-08:00

A fairly quick (2 hours?) oil sketch. I haven't painted people in awhile and I'm warming up on my own face. That sounded odd, but ...

Jamie W.

2009-09-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

I think I'm finished with this one.

Well I thought so before then kept messing with it.

Oil On Linen, approx 19 x 15

Jamie W.

2009-07-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

This is one I'm still working on, but I sort of like how it's going. A little smoother and tighter than I intended but that's how these things go. Sometimes the painting tells you how it wants to be painted.

Oil on Linen, 20 x 16

Parsnips I presume?

2009-07-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

I believe these are parsnips and a turnip. So I'm told. I choose things to paint without regard for name, flavor or utility. I just like the way they look.

Trio, Oil on Linen 15 x 16

"You are so talented I would love to see you do something less boring and uninteresting. Try figures. And look up some design books."

2009-07-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

Ouch. This was a recent comment on an Art Website about my work.

Provincetown

2009-07-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

I'm packing up some paintings to send to the Egeli Gallery in Provincetown, (Cape Cod) Mass. The gallery is active mostly for the summer months, and should be open till late September. Stop by if you're in the area and ask for Arthur. And rave about my work loudly so people will hear.

Jamie

2009-06-07T11:49:00.001-07:00

Thought I'd post something that isn't a still life. I'm doing some drawings and paintings of a friend of mine, Jamie. Working on a painting of her but had to stop all painting for a little while while I had my studio rewired. I nearly had a fire from a burning and smoking wall outlet.

Back to normal now.

Pencil on paper, 14 x 11

September

2009-05-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

Turban Squashed

2009-04-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

This painting and another small still life have been juried into The California Art Club Gold Medal Exhibition for 2009, opening April 26th.

www.californiaartclub.com

Oil on Linen, 20 x 16

Apple Peeling

2009-04-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

Apple Peeling, Oil on panel, 12 x 9

Here's an odd little one I recently finished. I say odd, because I don't always know why I paint certain things, and I actually sometimes like that they seem odd to me. Not weird, just slightly different than I intended.

Muddy Waters

2009-04-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

I felt like putting this up, I haven't seen it in a little while. This was a piece I did a couple years ago, that was in a traveling exhibit and book (well the book didn't travel, I don't think), "The Greatest Album Covers That Never Were", which ended at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's a mixed media construction, of steel, wood (from an old picket fence) and the center image is Oil on a Wood Panel.

When I bought the old picket fence (it was only about 6 feet long) at a swap meet, (and I don't know why he thought someone would buy it) he asked me, "What are you using it for?" When I said it was for an album cover I was making, he said, "Oh... for Wilson Pickett?"

Wish I'd thought of that.

Three Bells

2009-03-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

This Painting, Three Bells, was recently in an exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of History,

Contemporary Masters, Artistic Eden II, that ran through April 11th.

Oil on Canvas, 14 x 18

Union

2009-03-12T13:34:00.001-07:00

I found out after I did this and titled it, that the origin of the word "Onion" is French for Union.

Makes sense, but I didn't know it at the time.

My teenage daughter thought it looks like the MasterCard logo and wanted me to re-title it, "Priceless".

She's a funny kid.

Ed Ruscha

2009-02-24T13:35:00.000-08:00

Here's another of Ed Ruscha, from around the same time as the one of Paul. It was part of series I did several years ago of artists, actors and friends. Each person sat for me for no more than 2 hours (by design), and everyone was "treated' similarly, small and "cropped" like this one. I always liked this one of Ed, but it's owned by artist Don Bachardy, so I only had a small image to post from a photo. BTW, Don Bachardy's one of the best portraitists alive today. He painted mine twice, one 20 years ago and once recently.

1988, Oil on Paper, image size, 6" x 8" approx.

Paul Ruscha

2009-02-24T13:06:00.000-08:00

Oil on Paper, approx. 12 x 18 Collection Paul Ruscha

I've been revisiting things lately. This is a relatively recent book by Paul Ruscha, the brother of artist Ed Ruscha, and an old friend of mine. Paul's a terrific artist and photographer in his own right, and here in his own WRITE, is a great recollection of his collections. The cover is a painting I did many years ago of Paul. He sat for me several times and slept through this sitting. It was his favorite and he's long owned it, and I was a pleasantly surprised to discover it was used as the cover.

It's a witty, funny and wonderfully written book. I recommend it to anyone, even if I weren't also mentioned within it. The stories about other artists are far more compelling than the brief one about me.

The image of the book here isn't so great; I attached one from an old slide I found.

If you click on Paul's name at the top, it'll link to an Amazon page on the book.

2 Lemons

2009-02-13T17:49:00.001-08:00

Not quite the same style as I've been doing lately, but I may go more this way for a while. Shake things up. For me anyway.

Oil on Board, 8 x 10. Private Collection

Curbs

2009-02-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a detail of the painting below:

Curbs

2009-02-09T09:55:00.001-08:00

I've never known what to call this series of paintings that I've done off an on for many years now. Some say "curb thingies", or curbsides. I usually refer to them as Street Still Lifes. Here's one.

Ten Years Later, Oil on Wood, 30 x 48

Persimmons

2009-02-05T17:02:00.000-08:00

I had to replace one of the persimmons since they had all started to rot, but was able to finish it with my broken thumb still making it tough to hold a brush for long. But now my thumb's almost healed while the persimmons are long gone. What a fascinating story, huh? Riveting.

Oil on Board, 12 x 18

You always hurt the thumb you love

2008-12-16T11:14:00.000-08:00

Not that anyone's reading this blog, because I haven't gotten it going really, but smashing my right thumb (I'm right handed) in my own car door a couple weeks ago hasn't helped matters. I fractured a bone and have been in a cast and splint since. I haven't been able to grip a brush, pencil or computer stylus well enough to work. Not being able to paint has bothered me the most. A still life I started is sitting there waiting for me to finish it. If persimmons could talk. But they seem to be holding up so far. If not, it'll be a painting of rotten persimmons.

Hi Again

2008-11-20T11:13:00.000-08:00

Again, he says?

I sort of started this blog this summer but haven't had time to get it going. It seems nearly every artist has a blog now. And it also seems every artist and his brother is a "Daily Painter"; a relatively new phenomenon. I like that, and wish I could do it, but I don't have that kind of time, being a full-time Graphic Designer, although I was, and am a painter first. Speaking of time, I've been painting a long time. In fact, it was before color paints were introduced and we all had to work in black and white only.

So I was thinking I might (or might not) start a "Nightly Painter" movement.

2008-07-11T15:35:00.001-07:00

New to this. Trying to figure it out.