Vincent van Meyers?

January 13, 2015
   Is it just me or is Vincent van Gogh a dead ringer for Seth Meyer's brother?

Vincent van Meyers

Daily Whip Out: "Vincent van Gogh"

"There's a deception to every rule."

—Hal Lee Luyah

The Come On Final And Van Gogh Gunfighter Logo

January 12, 2016
   Finally finished the final, big scene for the next Classic Gunfights: "Murder of Crows." Spent the entire weekend noodling this sucker. Lots of moving parts. Had some good reference. Wish I had parts of it back.

Daily Whip Out: "The come On"

   This morning I did a logo:

Daily Whip Out: "Van Gogh Gunfighter Logo"

   "Experience teaches only the teachable."

-—Aldous Huxley

Van Gogh Floats All Boats

January 10, 2016
   So, what would the Secretan brothers look like if van Gogh painted them fishing on the Oise River in a row boat? Hmmmm, well, here's the first sketch and basic idea:

Daily Whip Out: "The Secretan Bros Fishing Study"

   This is too straight up illustration and not enough simple abstraction, like Vincent would do. So I whipped out three more:

Didn't like these either. So did a fifth sketch, trying to simplify it as Vincent might do:

Daily Whip Out: "What Would Vincent Do?"

I realize this is still more BBB than VVG but I did learn a thing or two about green next to red (one of van Gogh's favorite complimentary color tricks). Anyway, all of this was done so I could imitate Vincent's underpainting on "The Come On." That big booger will be in the magazine.

   What is the most telling quote that pints directly at the Secretan brothers and especially Rene?

"Do not cry. I did it for the good of everybody."

—Vincent to Theo, as he lay dying from a bullet in his gut

Nina Joy Memorial Produces Rhymin' Simon Serendipity

January 10, 2016
    Here is a random shot from the Nina Joy memorial get together yesterday at Prankster's in Scottsdale. Got some Rhymin' Simon serendipity going on in this photo: Danny Z, Johnny D, Linda T, Triple B and Carole C. How 'bout them apples?

"When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school. . ."

—Rhymin' Paul Simon

The Come On: Putting The Moves On A Poor Defenseless Artist

January 8, 2016
   We've had rain for three days now. It even hailed for about 15 minutes yesterday.

   Working on one of the last pieces in the Vincent van Gogh cover story which will run in the next issue of True West (March). The Paris punk, Rene Secretan, bragged about bringing in girls from the Moulin Rouge to taunt Vincent. One of my books says Rene actually posed as a fisherman in a van Gogh painting, although I don't recall any fishing paintings by the Dutch Madman, but the idea intrigued me. When I put the two anecdotes together I imagined Vincent trying to do a painting on the banks of the Oise River with the Secretan brothers posing in a boat, and fishing. Before Vincent can get too far on the underpainting, Rene sics a couple of his "chicks" (Rene actually calls his girls "chicks," although he is saying this in a 1956 interview when, perhaps, the word had more cache than in 1890). Here are his comments in context:

    Being the wealthy son of a Paris businessman provided high-end perks: the Secretan boys often imported show girls—cantinieres—from the Moulin Rouge. Rene bragged that van Gogh “would modestly look the other way,” when the boys were kissing and fondling the girls, “which seemed madly funny to our little chicks,” he chortled. Rene even encouraged the girls to “provoke him with their amorous attentions.”

   Anyway, here is the rough-idea-sketch:

 

Daily Whip Out: "The Come On (rough sketch)"

I pictured a typical Impressionist, idyllic-French-River-Bank scene with two Moulin Rouge Nymphs putting the moves on a poor, defenseless artist (an oxymoron I know, but the dude was damaged at this point!). From there I got the bright idea to do a parody of the famous, nude picnic scene, "Luncheon On the Grass" by Edouard Manet:

 

Daily Whip Outs: "Sketch utilizing the nude model from 'Luncheon On The Grass'"

   But ultimately I thought it was too precious and pandering to art snobs. Plus, I wanted to do something a tad sexier. The dilemma then became, where do I find a good painting, or image, of a topless model, a la 1890s, from the BACK? Well, guess who did a brilliant painting of this exact subject matter?

 

Daily Whip Out: "Study after Toulouse-Lautrec's 'The Toilette'"

So, armed with this excellent art reference I bailed in this morning to finish the final scene. Got about half done, but had to come into the office.

Daily Whip Out In Progress: "The Come On"

"In my mind, Vincent took a bullet for a punk who didn't deserve sympathy, or compassion."

—BBB

 

"

Gunfight at The XX Corral, Part Deux

January 7, 2016
   I really admire the artwork of another Frenchman—Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. I also admire his courage. The diminutive artist once challenged a hater of Vincent van Gogh's art to a duel. This happened before an art show in Brussels, called "Les XX" (which I'm guessing means The Twenty, as in, twenty artists in the show?) When I got up this morning I noodled a couple sketches:

 

Daily Whip Out: "Toulouse Stands Tall"

   I was particularly fond of the small fry duelist, at bottom left, and went searching for some good art reference for the tall dude. Unfortunately, in one of my Toulouse art books I discovered his adversary, Henry de Groux, was actually not much taller than Lautrec. So, there went that concept.

  In the same book, "Toulouse-Lautrec: A Retrospective" edited by Gale B. Murray, I found a caricature of Lautrec by Maxime Dethomas, c. 1898, and extrapolating from that I did this sketch:

 

Daily Whip Out: "The Shootist"

   From there I studied a close-up photograph of Lautrec in the book and marveled at the "Pinched Nose" sunglasses, especially after trying to locate glasses like these to illustrate Theo van Gogh.

 

Daily Whip Out: "Toulouse-Lautrec's Pince Nez Glasses"

   At about ten, I decided I wanted to do a color painting of the concept, and since the feature needed to go down to Dan The Man later today, I stayed home and worked on the final until 11:

 

Daily Whip Out: "Who You Callin' Cadmium Yellow?"

   Of course, I had big hopes for this, but what the hell.

"Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered."
—Cymbeline

The Kid Is On The Way

January 6, 2015
   One of the best writers in our genre, Ron Hansen, is getting set to come out with "The Kid." And he sent me a preview and it totally rocks.

 

Daily Whip Out: "The Kid"

   Of course it was Ron's previous stellar book, "The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford" which was the basis for the movie of the same name, starring Brad Pitt as Jesse. The movie uses much of Ron's poetry, I mean narrative, in a voice-over that is pure music to history nuts like me. Here is a thoughtful note I got from Ron last summer:

"I want to compliment you and offer my gratitude both on your very fine Illustrated Life and Times of Billy the Kid, which I have read and reread many times, and for your most recent article on John Tunstall's murder on the Ham Mills trail.  I learned a lot that will be going into my rewrite of that chapter."
—Ron Hansen


   And, by the way, here is Ron's answer to my question about the two different titles to van Gogh's iconic painting, "Wheatfield With Crows" or "Crows Over A Cornfield." I was puzzled by the weird difference:


"The confusion comes from the American sense of corn as maize only, while in Great Britain, and possibly throughout Europe, corn can refer to oats, wheat, or anything else that can be ground into flour."
—Ron Hansen

Blood On The Canvas

January 4, 2016
   Finally got down to brass tacks this morning and bailed into the signature scene of the Classic Gunfight that features "A Murder of Crows." Had some decent reference:

Daily Whip Out In Progress: "Blood On The Canvas"

This depicts the climatic moment when Rene Secretan fools around with his pistol "that worked when it wanted to" and the accidental discharge hits Vincent van Gogh in the stomach. And my art references are:"Farm Near Auvers" by Vincent van Gogh, 1890 (open book, top, left); "Landscape at Twilight" also van Gogh, June, 1890 (see small postcard, just above my painting); "Luncheon of The Boating Party" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1880-81. The latter painting I used for the outfit worn by Gaston Secretan, who wanted to be an artist, so I chose the boating dudes with the semi-wife beater shirts and the straw hats. Ended up with this:

Daily Whip Out: "Blood On The Canvas"

final with the bottle of 69 Crimes wine gifted to me

by Mike and Fran Douglas on my 69th birthday.

   They also gifted me a $69 gift certificate to Arizona Art Supply Store, which is where I bought the watercolor paper that I painted the above painting on. Kathy took the photograph of me to send to them to thank them for such a thoughtful gift. Blood on the canvas, indeed.

"Painters are frustrated cartoonists."

—Ralph Steadman

A Murder of Crows In a Cornfield? Or Is It A Wheatfield?

January 2, 2016
   Here's a mystery that just, ahem, cropped up. I'm doing an overview of Vincent van Gogh painting one of his last canvases in Auvers Sur Oise, known popularly as "Wheatfield With Crows." My goal is to view the scene from the crow's POV, as they circle down to harass and metaphorically "kill" the doomed artist. Only, when I looked up the painting for art reference (see book open, below), it says the painting is called, "Crows Over A Cornfield." So, what gives? A wheatfield looks quite a bit different than a cornfield and to my eye, the van Gogh painting is not a cornfield. Are there two paintings with different titles (van Gogh often painted multiple versions of scenes) or has the title "Wheatfields With Crows" overtaken the actual title "Crows Over A Cornfield"?

Daily Whip Outs: "A Murder of Crows POV In Progress"

Daily Whip Outs: "A Murder of Crows In Progress #2"

 Finished the aerial view of the scene (top row, middle, above) and then decided to whip out another, simpler view that encompasses more accurately the intersection that the tour guides show all the tourists on the way to the cemetery (as being the location of the painting and by extension, the area of his alleged suicide):

Took that version and added a murder of crows:

Daily Whip Out: "A Murder of Crows"

   A Happy Accident: the unintentional halo on van Gogh's head. Actually intended as his hat, but changed the angle of his head as it progressed and left the under sketch.

"An artist's last canvas can hold a mythic place in his oeuvre. Vincent van Gogh's 'Wheatfield With Crows,' painted just days before he died by his own hand on July 29, 1890, and enshrined in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, long enjoyed such richly evocative stature. Its vivid palette, tempestuous paint stroke and visceral, engulfing composition—replete with ominous, advancing crows—led even the revered art historian Meyer Schapiro to describe it as the tormented Dutch painters's 'deepest avowal' and desperate last 'defense against disintegration.'"

—Art Historian Mary Tompkins Lewis, writing in the Wall Street Journal

Hogtown Hussies #3 & Letterman's Brilliant Observation

December 30, 2015
   Finishing up another doubletruck for the Bridle & Bit newspaper. Took another run at a gaggle of hussies.

 

 Daily Whip Out: "Hogtown Hussies #3" 

   I also tweaked a sketch of the young van Gogh:

 

Daily Whip Out: "The Young Vincent van Gogh"

   With just a tinge of the sadness and madness to come. Of course, none of us see it coming, but it's pretty clear going out the other side.

"You think that what you are doing is of great importance and that it is affecting mankind
wall-to-wall. And then when you get out of it you realize, oh, well, that wasn’t true at all. It was just silliness."

—David Letterman

Friends, Lovers and Enemies

December 29, 2015
   Home stretch on the big Vincent van Gunfighter feature in the next issue of True West. Poor Vincent and his women. He sure could pick 'em.

 

Daily Whip Out: "Sien"

Not that he picked his men friends any better. Sien and Rene Secretan, two deadly companions.

 

Daily Whip Out: "Rene Secretan #14"

One gave him the clap and the other one a bullet in the stomach.

"I wish I could die now, Theo."

—Vincent van Gogh's last words

In My Head vs. In My Gut

December 28, 2015
   Okay, I've been 69 for more than a week now and I have an observation to make. People ask me how I feel and I have to say, in my head I still feel like I'm trim and in fighting shape

 

Geronimo at 40, still tough and trim.

 That's how I think I look in my mind. But every once in a while, I get a glimpse of how I really look and well, it's a bit like this:

 

Geronimo at the end when he still thought he still looked like a 40-year-old warrior. 

   It's a pathetic illusion, of course, but I can't shake it, or duck it. It's how I feel.

"You're only as old as the women you feel."

—Groucho Marx

Texas Rangers Ride The River

December 27, 2015
   Here's a big board I found recently that I had abandoned but realized it had some potential. So I finished it off this morning.

Daily Whip Out: "Texas Rangers Ride The River"

"I told him I thought he would be a good man to ride the river with"

—True West founder Joe Small, referring to Johnny Cash

The Eternal Lesson of The Dead Mesquite Tree Branch

December 24, 2015
   Weston and I got out early this morning for our first adventure. As we hit Old Stage Road we were treated to this sunrise over Ratcliff Ridge:

Christmas Eve Sunrise On Ratcliff Ridge

   Last night I told a bedtime story to Weston about a kid who rode a wild mustang named "Shamrock" and so, as we walked up Old Stage Road this morning Weston asked me if we could visit Shamrock and I said sure, so we veered off the road to look at the Ratcliff Horses, and lo and behold, there was Shamrock. Weston picked up a couple twigs and holding them out, said:

"Wanna eat a stick, Shamrock?"

   Of course, Shamrock (not his real name) being a horse, and always interested in a handout, stopped eating and came over to take a sniff:

"Okay, so you don't want to eat a stick"

  Shamrock was the name of one of my grandfather's horses, according to my mother, and I have always loved the name. And so, here is another kid who will probably be partial to the name as well.

   From the Ratcliff corrals, we meandered over to the Cactusland Trail (as grandpa named it on the spur of the moment) and there we found a weird little cactus:

"Are his arms like this, grandpa?"

   Funny how a little kid can be so entertained by a plant! We must have spent five minutes enjoying this little desert shrub which I have driven by daily, for at least three decades, and never once noticed.

Will that arm poke me, grandpa?"

"I'm a cactus too, grandpa!"

   But, the real gift came a few feet farther on when we were going through thick underbrush and I broke off a dead mesquite branch and handed it to him and, as it turns out, that was the greatest gift anybody could give that boy:

Weston dragging his favorite dead mesquite tree branch.

Somehow that tree branch was the best thing you could ever give a kid and he carried it all morning. We had to deliver a Christmas gift to the Augherton dog down on the creek and Weston had his faithful branch with him the entire time:

"Come on Grandpa, I've got my branch."

Tom Augherton took us out to his chicken coop and Weston even took his branch in there:

You never know when you're going to need a dead tree branch.

"Sometimes the greatest gifts are the ones you didn't even know were gifts."

—Old Grandpa Saying

Weston In Cactusland

December 23, 2015
   A certain little boy from Pasadena finally made it to Cactusland. We hiked over this afternoon, and here we are halfway up Ratcliff Ridge:

Weston: "I'm in Cactusland!"

Grandpa spent a lot of time saying, "Don't get near that, it will poke you," to which Weston replied, "Is that gonna poke my head, grandpa?" Well, no, not really, but just stay away from it, okay. After some huffing and puffing from me, not him, we made it to the top.

Weston: "I love Cactusland!"

   Welcome to the club my grandson. We all love Cactusland.

"Many a child is spoiled because you can't spank his grandfather."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Hardly Leaving Well Enough Alone

December 22, 2015
   So Kathy calls me yesterday and asks me if i can meet the plumber at the house between one and three to fix a leak in the sink and so I got my work done at the office and took a long lunch. As I was waiting for the plumber to arrive I was looking in my morgue for a piece of artwork that the U.S. Air Force wants to use in a brochure, and, of course, as I'm going through the folders of finished art, I pull out five pieces I think need a little improvement. I guess you could call these The Plumber Crack Series:

Daily Whip Out: "Stud Stance 3.5"

Daily Whip Out: "Billy In Dust"

Daily Whip Out: "Black Jack Ketchum"

Daily Whip Out: "Sadie Earp Remonstrates"

Daily Whip Out: "Rene Secretan #13.5"



   Oh, and the painting the Air Force wants?

 

Daily Whip Out: "Arizona Flagscape"

"Nothing is ever finished. We only run out of time."

—Old Vaquero Saying