heldforyears

Latest Posts by heldforyears

Cups   -   Cornelius Völker, 2016.

German,b.1965 -

Oil on canvas ,  190 x 140 cm.

I want to tell a story to the artists and would-be artists out there.

When I was 19, I made a large oil painting of the nerd I would eventually marry. I poured all my attention and care into this painting. It's the only art I have from back then that still holds up as a work I'm proud of today.

I entered it into a judged show at the local art center. It got an honorable mention. I went to see the show with my beloved model. One of the judges came up to talk to me, and highlighted that all the judges really liked the painting. It would have placed, except, you see, the feet were incorrect. They were too wide and short, and if I just studied a bit more anatomy-

I called over my future wife, and asked her to take off her shoe. Being already very used to humoring me, she did. The judge looked at her very short, very wide little foot. Exactly as I'd lovingly rendered it. I would never edit her appearance in any way.

The judge looked me in the eye, and to his credit, he really looked like he meant it when he said "Oh I'm so sorry."

Anyways the moral of the story is that all of those anatomy books that teach you proportions are either showing you averages, or a very specific idea of an idealized body. Actual bodies are much more varied than that.

So don't forget to draw from observation, and remember that humans aren't mass produced mannequins. Delight in our variation. Because it's supposed to be there.

Hubert D'Artigue

Four Horses, details from a 17th century Persian manuscript.

Grażyna Smalej (Polish,b.1976)

Bath LXVI, 2011

oil on canvas

some_sewing_nerd

I had a Terry's Chocolate Orange once in an airport 10 years ago (they’re very hard to come by in the US, I’ve never seen them sold anywhere else) and I think about it everyday.

fellas. tumblrinas. do you want to see my art project i’m so proud of it

A friends cat

Please enjoy this Just Practicing water colour that came from a conversation with a stranger on blsky. They were on a Floor Vent Grate saga and somehow we got to imagining an entire ocean in there.

getting ready

The Sea and all the Lighthouses are girlfriends

Alke and the Wedding Flowers I - Jesse Dayan , 2024.

Australian , b. 1982 -

Oil on linen , 40 x 30 cm.

Trying to chart out a border element from embroidery in a historical context

Accidentally created Godzilla instead

if you want to create but feel intimidated and overwhelmed, you're forgetting something: good art doesn't exist. all art is terrible. every story and song and movie and picture is worse than the one before it and all artists should be in prisom

*points at bag of resentment* I can carry that for you if you like, just while you have a rest.

I've got weird resentment from when I thought I was a man and I hope it leaves me. It makes me feel like I'm lying to myself when I see something that touches that nerve. It is what it is I guess.

Advice about painting portraits from my younger brother. I think

incredibly obsessed with ivan pokidyshev’s work. i believe these are all from his shining man series

oh man i never told you. recently we went to the albertina art gallery and in the contemporary wing we saw this painting, “nacht der skorpione”

and we were fucking blown away by it, like audible gasping from everyone, it’s almost as tall as the room and incredibly expressive and impressive

and after having walked around looking at the work of 99% male artists and their endless studies dedicated to The Female Form for so goddamn long my very first thought upon seeing it was “this was painted by a woman”, so i walk closer and sure enough, i was right, her name is xenia hausner.

and then i look at it for a moment longer and my chest swells because these are intense characters with internal lives and that is what makes them attractive and my second thought is “this was not painted by a straight woman”

and i mean i can’t say anything for sure but i looked her up and

and nobody else picked up on this in the original painting? when i told them they were like “what, why, because of the masculine (???) brush strokes”? they were not shaken to their very core by the authenticity of it? what i’m trying to say is gaydar is extremely real and straight people extremely do not have it.

I just want to remind everyone that Plains Rats are an Actual Thing that exists in real world Australia, and they look like this:

Look at them. How can anyone not love that?

We were watching the glass blowing competition show on netflix because it's really cool to see those talented artists do their thing...

But I will NEVER forgive the judges for eliminating an amazing artist who's concept was that plastic hamster tubes are actually dangerous for hamsters yet they are normalized in our society so they made a beautiful glass rendition of an endless loop of colorful hamster tubes as an expression of how we can be trapped by society in a loop of behavior that is normalized but actually killing us

And the judges were like "this isnt DEEP ENOUGH" because they dont care enough about hamsters to learn and interpret the artist's statement at the level it was meant for.

They literally saw the glass renditions of colorful tubes that represent suffering and being trapped in a glossy predesigned hell and went "this is too normal and isnt saying anything important actually" Fuck them!!!!

Anyways Gemma should have won and I'm so happy to see that she didn't let it stop her amazing concept and she continued with it outside of the time constraints of the show. Fuck yes Gemma

Tjupi.

Wedge Tailed Eagle floating over the salt pans yesterday. A little further south than normal. We pulled over to watch it until we were running late.

source

nights lately