Welcome.
Listening to Mark Murphy right now..."The Red Clay" which I believe was written by Freddie Hubbard. On this album Mark Murphy sings and he's got David Sanborn, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker and Dave Matthews, are you kidding?
My favorite though is "Stolen Moments" By Oliver Nelson and lyrics by Mark Murphy.
This island hideaway belonged to a friend of mine. Stolen moments were every moment.
When Chet Baker sings "Let's Get Lost" (written by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Frank Loesser) this is where he's talking about (a mindset of a place like this where the two of you can inhabit that oneness of serenity) and he knew it for sure.
Languid bodies, soft happy energy, perfect music, sun, shade, air, gourmet cooking of simple and healthy foods, knowledge of the tides, lush, sensual, timeless, sleeping like a contented child met the natural rhythm of the day and night.
I like the freshness in this piece.The sun was just peeking above the dawn horizon.
There's a lot of visual information but it doesn't compete it collaborates! It is 15 x 20 inches oil on canvas and available for $1,500.00 US plus handling and shipping.
"If I told you I loved you pretty baby would it it make up for what they say?" LOL!
More to come......
If you wish to communicate you can contact me at alanlovesart@gmail.com
All art copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome.
You may have seen an oil portrait similar to this Royal Tern way back in July 2014. I like that one.
This was a quick watercolor study for it. I think it stands on it's own. What I like about pieces like this is that they are more visceral than my 'finished' work.
There is an excitement and a freshness to leaving things a little rough.
This was 9 x 12 inches approximately, watercolor on watercolor paper DArches I believe.
More to come......
All art copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome.
I heard an album the other day with Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald singing classic duets. It makes me laugh.
I enjoy them together so much because it seems like they are having more fun than anyone on the planet! It is such a pleasure to hear, see and enjoy performances by artists who own their instrument and then take that knowledge and joyfully express their creativity. Dizzy
Gillespie once said, "Learn your instrument, learn the music then forget everything and blow."
"I see skies of blue......" and I think to myself, what a wonderful world. Pops never fails to make me smile whether he's singing a ballad, Cole Porter, Gershwin or a wailing on his horn with a mournful New Orleans dirge.
This was a commissioned piece for my friend in Boston, Paul. He was an early supporter of my art and continues to be, as he was then, one of the loveliest human beings on the earth. He was my boss at a department store where I worked in display.
I salute all the people in the world and in my life that make good days and bad days brighter.
Thank you Paul and Satchmo too.
This was a 18 x 24 inch oil on canvas.
All art copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome.
I once read a quote from a very famous and somewhat successful contemporary artist
that went something like this, "Paint what sells and keep painting that." I disagree with all my being. That is I disagree as an artist. A smart businessman knows it as a commercial truth.
We as artists have to connect our soulful search with the crossroads of commerce and there are many who have done just that. I like the idea of experimentation and creative growth after all the thing that you show that is successful has to begin somewhere as an unproven
journey. In the meantime we still have to eat and pay for canvas eh?
This is a series that I tried out simply because I am in part a scribe, a cave painter digging into the side of a rock or clay wall and expressing my beliefs, my desires and my fears.
My work in this instance is from the central flow of my calligraphic nature. The hyperslipstream is where I live and although this piece has a fair amount of formal structure it is a relative explosive expression of that inner dimension.
This is a 30 x 40 inch mixed media (oil, white marker, black marker and gold pen) piece on canvas and was sold a few years back with several others. I will post them as well in the future. It is a series that I have done studies for and will continue to develop in the coming years.
More to come......
All art copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome.
This place in Connecticut in the USA is so quiet, so serene. Except for the sound of the calls, ours and theirs and the crack of the shotgun it is the simple silent sound of the marsh rising for the day.
Seems to me the best color fish or fowl is out in the wild in natural habitat but then I live in a world where I am 24/7 noticing of color,form,shape, texture, design and space whether I am walking down fifth avenue in New York City, bopping on Sunset Boulevard in LA
or sauntering down the Champs Elysees in Paris or in any backwater marsh up and down the east coast of the USA. Stick around for a year or two and you will be treated to a range of art from the city. Central Park in NYC, Hyde Park in London, Rive Gauche in Paris and many from the homeland....you know Boston Massachusetts.
This work of art is a 24 x 30 inch oil on canvas and is in a private collection.
More to come......
All art copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome.
Just so you know, I did release these two caught within seconds of each other on a sunny afternoon by a huge rock about 800 yards off shore that I waded to on Long Island Sound on the Connecticut side at low tide back when I first started fly fishing with a 9 weight saltwater rod and reel.
These are some of the feistiest fish I found running close to shore in the Sound. That particular year I probably caught 100 or so through the season often plugging into schools of them chasing bait fish in the channels of the changing tides. Every single one of them tested my line from start to finish.
They are exquisite in the shinning sun and pick up so much of the surrounding color and there is something rather 'handsome' about them. Love the point and counterpoint in this one and the contrast of the lighter fish and dark wet sand as well as the green flyline weaving across the painting. That's a 'Grey Ghost' fly fyi and always worked like Striper candy!
This was a 20 x 30 inch watercolor on watercolor paper. It was sold in 1998.
Must get back out to the marsh soon and catch some of their southern relatives! Reds!
Thanks again for all of you who check in over at zazzle.com under sunnybeachman and purchase my watercolor art and cards, t shirts, and other fun items.
More to come.....
All art copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome.
Oh my. Here is another from the ancient archives.
I mean how much fun is this? FYI Sometimes this is what my dreams look like!! It is what my illustrations looked like for a couple of decades back when I was doing montages and fantasy work for book publishers.
This work was 30 x 40 inches oil on Belgian Linen and is in a private collection.
More to come.....
All art copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome.
Listening to Kenny Rankin right now. Beautiful. He is singing the Beatles 'Blackbird' tune and that guitar is just as lyrical as a spring morning and Kenny's voice is just riffing into ,over and around the melody and yet still infusing the tone with meaning and that place that he and his instrument inhabit which he shares with us....just seems to float on a magical river of the great overtone!
Here is a very old piece. This is a pastel 15x20 inches on Canson pastel paper. This was towards the end of my pastel era. I did about 30 pieces or so as illustration assignments mostly in New York and for book publishers like Random House and Doubleday. This one had a mixed media combination of pastel and gauche for the heavy opaques for the white table and the black of the chairs.
This was a little French lunch cafe somewhere on fifth avenue. It maybe had 3 tables. It was down some stairs a level or two hence the overhead view. My companion and I had Croque Monsieur. And as my imagination tends to run amok (in a grand way) in all areas of my travels why not have a barnyard bird in the middle of Manhattan? I wonder what Charlie Parker would have thought?
Well, I have got a few more notices from my store over at zazzle.com under my sunnybeachman brand where some of you have been purchasing items with my watercolor art on them, Thank you!
More to come....
All art copyright Alan Phillips 2015
Welcome.
I think I will be posting a few of my sports pieces from the archives when I am in the process of completing newer work. This is one of Gabriela Sabatini the great Argentine women's champion at Wimbledon. She played the game with a beautiful grace and made a baseline topspin winner look effortless all on center court.
I like the simplicity of this art. I like the point and counterpoint. This was well into my illustration career 1989 or early 90s. I had been studying how Bart Forbes was using his washes in oil and how Bernie Fuchs was handling shapes, silhouettes and color tonally for backgrounds and both of them using variations of the pull off technique...I still think it's an elegant way of handling paint.
My work for tennis magazine I think was from around 1983-1993 and many thanks to a talented and unbelievably great art director, graphic designer, creative print guru Lori Wendin.
Lori was my liaison/friend in all of my work there. She made it fun and gave me the tools, faith and freedom to do some of my best sports art. Thanks Lori. That was a nice run.
This one was 18x24 inches oil on canvas. It was sold but was not used in the magazine. I'll post some of that art in the future as I think it still holds up in quality of execution.
More to come.....
All art copyright Alan Phillips 2015
