Ruminating on the Profundities

Final Moments With Janey

2012-01-24T20:19:00.000-08:00

My Sweet Janey

2012-01-24T07:10:00.000-08:00

Janey graciously waited for me to kiss her and lay my hand on her sweet chest as she departed. She knew how much I wanted to be there to see her off. She looked after me until the end--I love her so. And this for all of us who loved her: Since Janey is with God, and since God is with us, can she ever be far away? Mine and Janey's love for all of you. Don

Janey Went Home Today

2012-01-21T15:23:00.000-08:00

Janella (Janey) Pimlot shortly after learning to walk.

Me and Janey

2012-01-10T07:47:00.001-08:00

Death Transforms Our Separation

2012-01-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

These words say much--but not all. I found them a little comforting, but the scriptures and my early catechism are my constant stay. Donahue is a good brother who died recently yet lives through his ministry of love in his writing.

His vocabulary is not that of Christian Theology--that is his strength and freshness. His Celtic mysticism provides a rich lens that magnifies the truth of Christ. It feels like a high jack of sorts, but he really rings my bell. My days with Janey have been transformative--largely because she embodies, by the providence of God, so much of what Donahue alludes to. As the morphine takes hold she is sometimes fuzzy headed--but the smile, the humour, and grace of a fantastic life lived in love and wonder prevails above all--thanks be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus. Always and Forever, Don and Janey

At The Cove 24by30

2011-12-31T00:46:00.001-08:00

After 25 years I still can't get the damn rocks right!

Secret Garden

2011-12-16T23:43:00.000-08:00

After 15 years a revisit. Enjoy this 36by40 oil on canvas. Don

Merry Christmas From Hatfields

2011-12-16T17:52:00.000-08:00

Hit "enjoy" to see Christmas card.

Enjoy

Me and Janey

2011-12-05T02:36:00.001-08:00

My Darling Janey

2011-11-24T17:00:00.000-08:00

Always brings the sunshine

Recent Triple Portrait Commission

2011-11-24T03:25:00.000-08:00

This was a difficult portrait. A profile, a three quarter, and dead on faces in a made up outdoor context--every figure painter's dream. The exactitude of portrait work is demanding--Sargent said portraiture is a young man's occupation, and for good reason. I always swear that I will never accept portrait work, but I find the challenge engaging, and it pays the bills. Talk to ya down the road.

O yes, and I did this beach scene quickie for a friend--familiar? O well, Van Morrison still sings Brown Eyed Girl. "I love the old stuff--new stuff is boring...." Andrew Wyeth.

Keep Janey and I in your prayers. God's presence is palpable and miracles are plentiful. Love you too, Don

Another Shot At Old Theme

2011-10-10T13:44:00.000-07:00

Sunlit Memories

I've done this before, but I like this 24by36 version. Talk to ya later, Don

Jesus Meets Dr. Suess

2011-09-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.
His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Reading the "Cat in the Hat" to grand daughter Ariel and reflecting on the words of an old hymn--this is where I am these days--see ya down the road. Don

Secretariat Teaches Oil Painters

2011-09-13T01:06:00.000-07:00

The Disney movie, Secretariat, demonstrates the collaboration of two art forms, music and film, that combine to create an irresistible artistic moment. I wish I could create these moments in oil paint, but I fall short by 32 lengths--Secretariat's wining margin at the '73 Belmont Stakes.

The crowning scene of the movie swims in Edwin Hawkins's song, O Happy Day, and adds the psychological and spiritual punch that has brought many viewers to tears. Secretariat's owner Penny Chenery, played by Diane Lane, wins over all adversity, and crosses the finish line of faith with the great horse. It's a great story and worth watching. The actual event carried tremendous weight in 1973 and needs little embellishing to have effect 40 years later.

"O happy day when Jesus washed my sins away"....."He taught me how to fight and pray"... and so on. What does a horse race have to do with Jesus washing my sins away and teaching me how to fight and pray? From a theological perspective it has to do with the answer to every prayer, the fulfillment of every hope and dream, the making plain of every good and just cause. All who watch the movie Secretariat are carried to victory in a cinematic moment--good stuff. I want Jesus to wash away all of the superficial crap that my art portrays, and I want Him to teach me how to fight and pray for what is true and good in art--to say nothing about my corrupt soul! As representational oil painters let's learn from this story and try to paint a few irresistible moments of our own. That's it in a nutshell. Watch this clip, then watch the movie, or re-watch it, and tell me what it does to you. See ya down the road--Don

http://youtu.be/0lcbcIArMW0

Fuller Seminary Remembers Don Hatfield '73 Graduate

2011-09-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

Alumni/ae in Action

Different Strokes:
Fuller Alumnus Takes Up a Call to Paint

Fuller graduates use their degrees to pursue callings as scholars, theologians, psychologists, and leaders in mission and ministry. But many have heard God calling them to other arenas. For alumnus Don Hatfield (MDiv '73), that arena has been the visual arts. Based in Napa, California, Hatfield is, as expressed by one art gallery, "one of America's greatest living impressionist artists"--with paintings displayed in galleries in several U.S. states, as well as corporate and private collections around the globe.
For Hatfield, painting is not merely a hobby or even a job; it is his God-given vocation. Moreover, it is one that he heartily enjoys: "Most of the time I am so happy I can hardly stand it!" he declares. But he is the first to point out that the path to discerning his calling was a long and difficult one.
The seeds of Hatfield's art were planted during his time at Fuller, when he befriended a local portrait painter who took him under his wing and affirmed his artistic gift. Despite this fruitful mentorship, however, Hatfield felt the need to leave art behind upon graduating from seminary, focusing instead on pastoral ministry and providing for his family.
"Art just disappeared from my life," he recalls, "but I continually went to museums and looked at art books." Then, almost 10 years after his graduation from Fuller, Hatfield experienced a life-changing moment at the Art Institute of Chicago while viewing a painting by artist Giambattista Tiepolo. The beauty of that painting evoked in him an epiphany: Art was still his central passion, and he felt called to become a full-time artist. Relocating his family from the Midwest back to his native California, Hatfield obtained more training, and diligently worked for several years to achieve the impressionistic style for which he is now known.
Reflecting on the winding road leading to his present vocation, Hatfield recalls a painful time of rejection from pastoral roles that, he says, "fueled my anger at God and man" and caused a confused sense of his calling. After a season of healing, he now identifies himself with Moses, who in his youth was "spiritual, discerning, and anxious to follow God's will. He cools down for 40 years, and then returns as an old dude to Pharaoh's court with God-given authority," describes Hatfield in his straight-talking style. "Like Moses, I have the beard--a goatee; I have the holy stick--my art; and I have God-given authority--the Holy Ghost!"
Though he acknowledges the difficulty of following God in the face of doubts and a lack of understanding from others for so many years, Hatfield says that through the challenges, he has grown in his vocational discernment. "It's a slow learning curve," he believes, "but the end is greater than the beginning in our great quest for Christian vocation."
Hatfield now sees his life through the lens of grace, acknowledging that mistakes are part of the process. "Don't let your failings disqualify you from your God-appointed vocation," he urges those who are still seeking their call. "Vocational discernment is a state of grace and may not lead to a nifty job tag. It is about keeping your mouth shut and doing the 'big obvious thing' in your life--all else will follow."
Looking back at the twists and turns in his own personal path that led him to impressionist art, Hatfield describes God as the initiator and himself as the receiver all the way. "I did not seek God in this life--he sought me," he affirms. "I did not believe in God--he believed in me. God discerns us--we don't discern God. It is God who aligns us with himself."
For this, Hatfield feels both humbled and grateful: "How God gets through to us is a mystery and a miracle, isn't it?"
To see Don Hatfield's art, visit his website at www.donhatfield.com.

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Recent Stuff

2011-08-26T21:03:00.000-07:00

Thursday Morning At Hatfield Studio

2011-08-11T09:27:00.000-07:00

Daughter Rachel, new born Alex, and Eva and Ariel. I am painting this beach scene for a friend. It's 9am and we are headed out for a new age totally organic, vegetarian, vegan, low cholesterol, no MSG, totally green breakfast--mimosas, cigars, and ice cream with some chrispy creams for desert. Gotta love it! Don

First Visiting Artists To Hatfield's New Studio

2011-08-07T18:34:00.000-07:00

Dan Munday, the great California landscape painter and friend were checking up on Don Hatfield to see if he was OK. He received them with some caution.

UPDATE FROM HATFIELD VILLAGE

2011-06-23T11:44:00.000-07:00

Eva just gave her sister, Ariel, an unsupervised hair chop--no bangs! Rachel, my beautiful daughter, is due soon, I am relaxing at the condo pool, but still feel a little squeezed, and my grand daughter, Eva, is in her diva pose. I am painting whenever I need money and hanging out with my kids and their kids. Janey is into her second round of chemo, and life is sweet. Her lack of fear or negativity freaks me out sometimes, and its strange how our love has grown through these times--these really are good days for us. I am actually getting some momentum in the oil painting arena. I love my tiny studio and all of the beautiful amenities at the Vintner's Association Condos in Yountville, CA--which is the true center of Napa Valley. I am three blocks from the golf course and practice range, 50 yards from a beautiful lap pool/hot tub complex, two blocks from downtown Yountville with its cluster of world class dining and tasting rooms. The little market supplies all of my ice cream and tobacco. I still have to drive into Napa proper for a good buy on paper towels--dammit. I am ten miles from my gym which is two gallons of gas round trip which equals $250.00/month. I can walk to a gym in Yountville so I am thinking about making the adjustment.

I get ten requests a month for art work, but I have two collectors who buy everything I can paint, so that is a blessing. Art is a great friend in your old age. If you have to make a six figure income to stay afloat, then art stops and production begins--those days are gone forever--thank you Jesus. The American representational art scene with its magazines, books, tapes, workshops, seminars, associations, paint outs, paints ins, societies, gatherings, and web articles seems very distant and unimportant now as we await the total collapse of our economy and culture. Thought I would share this feeling with you all--just in case. Most of you know by now that I am a true prophet--right? I am seldom right about anything, but a dear friend said to me the other day, ".....Don, you seem to have the ability to see around the corner." I like that guy--very perceptive! Anyway, have a nice day.

Have a nice day. I hate that phrase and all of the sub text it implies. But I am going to stop here before this rant turns really weird. So.....who still loves ya--how do ya like me now? Don

Reflections on Cancer

2011-06-05T12:06:00.000-07:00

I just read Siddhartha Mukherjee's "Emperor of All Maladies", a biography of cancer from ancient times to the present. He calls his book a biography instead of a history since cancer is this immortal thing with a personality that lives within all of us, and when this entity gets pissed off--it just goes crazy and kills you from the inside out--thank you Hollywood for all of the images! This reading was quite an effort for a hypochondriac who could not even say the word "cancer" without a queasy sence of dread. Mukerjee was no help--he is a Pulitzer Prize winning stylist who is a real phrase getter and whose literary oddities and crudities magnify cancer in all of its creepiness. Who needs sex scenes for page turners when you get to peer through the lens of medical science straight into your own mortality--or the mortality of those you love the most? Anyway, I just returned the book to the in house library at Martin-O'Nielle Cancer Center where Janey, my sweet wife, is in her second round of chemotherepy.

I have cancelled workshops and classes so that I can stay home and fulfill my assignment as a 24/7 care giver. I finally wake up each day knowing exactly what I am supposed to do--care for somebody besides myself. I call it structured giving, love in a template, or automatic holiness--anyway it has simplified my life.

Janey's fight against cancer is all about me. I am freaked out, panicked, scared shitless, and a few other things. Janey, meanwhile, has not missed a beat. She loves her cancer center with its boutique shop, beauty salon, massage therepists, volunteers, chaplins, pharmicists, chemothepists, sugeons, and patients. From her custom chemo infusion lounge chair she looks out to the mountains surrounding beautiful St. Helena ("...aren't they pretty...") or blabs with new and old friends who are likewise conjoined in the battle of the ages.

Janey has a big life and a big fan base. I get to direct traffic as phone calls, meals, gifts, and condolences pour in. I have learned that many well wishers check in on Janey to see how they are doing. She was wiped out for a few days after her first infusion because I failed to administer the correct drug protocol--my bad--my really bad. But she is doing very well--faith is alive, miracles are happening, and love is prevailing. Talk to ya later, Don

Don Hatfield Movie Producer--8 days in Florida with the Grandkids

2011-04-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

Getting used to this stuff is fun--art instruction movies to follow--

don

Thoughts of You From My New Cell

2011-03-22T01:46:00.000-07:00

...And here am I, where all things end, and undesirables are hurled--a poor old man without a friend--forgot and lost to all the world--clean out of sight and out of mind--well....maybe it is better so. We all in life our level find, and mine, I guess is pretty low.

These words from Service seem appropriate at 1:40 AM after painting all day. Yes I am back at it. I love it more than ever. Work is pouring in this month for some reason. The Hatfield brand is still alive after all these years. I made $1400.25 last month. The $1400 was from Social Security, and the 25 cents from a quarter I won on the putting green--I sunk a twenty footer! I am planning some blockbuster blogs with video attachments--so get ready! The window over my left shoulder is the first north light source I have ever had in a studio. My tiny new trash can to my right has a spring loaded lid--whoopee! The window fan is on the floor because I just removed it from the sill to yell at the neighbors below--"...shut the hell up!" Everything is perfect. Watch out! Who loves ya? Talk to ya later. l gotta go watch another three hours of TV before the sun rises over Napa Valley, CA. Don

PS--I have sworn off chew! I have been tobacco free for 2 hours, 17 minutes and 20, no 27 seconds. Thought you should know. There is some chocolate cream pie in the fridge I am going to finish off as a reward.

SELF DISCLOSURE--READ AND WEEP

2011-02-26T11:51:00.000-08:00

I am known as a colorist. Why? I don't know. But here are a few things I know for sure. Ready? Here goes.

1. The great inhibitor in great color usage is FEAR. Fear of loosing the initial drawing. Fear of creating mud, strident or inappropriate color. Fear of loosing control. Fear of not being able to change an initial color choice. Fear that one cannot achieve what one perceives to be the "correct" color that nature provides to the eye. Fear of the artists working next to you in a workshop--"OMG--look how pretty her painting is and how ugly mine is." Fear that the damn painting won't sell. Fear of so-called muddy color. Fear that my choice of color for a specific passage cannot be changed. Fear that I can never get it "right". On and on.

2. The next inhibitor is lack of understanding of value structure. Most novices have great difficulty in discerning the ABSOLUTE SEPARATION between light and dark passages--at least in set ups that have a strong light source. The developed representational painter looks immediately for the most obvious areas of separation between light and dark. The really good artists immediately group areas of light and dark into unified sections that provide good design. They look instantly for the LOGIC OF THE LIGHT as it passes over the subject at hand--whether still life, figure or landscape. Often this must be done arbitrarily. That is--create a flow of dark and light areas that provide a design, a composition, a logic that is pleasing--whether that logic is present or not. The mantra is--PAINT TRUE, BUT EXAGGERATE THE TRUTH. Find a way to connect areas of light and dark whether it is immediately obvious or not. Squinting helps, looking through a red gel helps, being near sighted also helps--just take off your glasses. When you exaggerate--generally you arrive at what is actually there--we almost always chicken out is this regard. This refusal to create separation in areas of light and dark severely weakens the form-especially in figure and portrait work.

Only after you register the great separation between light and dark can half tone, core, and reflected light come into play. The more extreme the separation you create--the greater the opportunity you have of creating saturated color in the half tone, core, and so on. It is, after all, color saturation that gives the painting the richness many of us adore.

3. Failure to observe and register in paint the logic of the light is the great failure of representational oil painting today. I believe this is the product of fascination with alla prima painting, the premier coup, the all-in-one-go approach that is in vogue. The old timers used to create monochrome under painting to study the value structure--they then added color, making sure their color choices "sat" within a particular value area. Today most paintings turn to confetti because areas in the dark are not separated from areas in the light.

4. The timid application of color in oil painting has always mystified me. Oil paint is infinitely flexible, so why not be bold and careless in the throwing down of color. This is not true in watercolor, acrylic, or pastel--where sensitivity to the ground is primary. A canvas can be scraped. The paint can be removed and the tooth recovered--the oil painting procedure is infinitely flexible. Its like a rubber punching dummy--you can beat the crap out of it and it will always come back for you--if you don't limit yourself by fear, lack of understanding, or laziness.

5. Ah laziness--we want quick fixes, instant results, short cuts, recipes. These are all enemies of great art. As my mother said as I left her on her death bed to rush off to work, "...what's the hurry?" Most of us cannot hang with a work until it is right. The mark of a great artist is how long he or she can hang with a painting and keep improving it--bringing it closer to ones initial vision or inspiration. I painted for years with one eye on the time clock and the other eye on the dollar sign. I would conclude a painting with the thought--hell, this is good enough--it will sell, I am wasting time on this, besides I will not get enough cash for this effort. These thoughts are the parents of half assed children.

A painting is complete when you have exhausted all you know, when you have lived with it for a year or so--that's right--a year or so! This is why it is preferable to have many incomplete paintings hanging around your studio. Blast away on a painting with all your guts and then let the thing sit for awhile and start another one. This is a marvelous way to work--the solutions you arrive at on one work will inform the problems you encounter on previous works. This way you can elevate your works to incredible heights before you throw them onto the market--money or not.

Grunt until you bleed when it comes to finishing a work--then let the thing go.
Show your works to your art friends, but especially to your stupid enemies--the latter will tell you instantly what is wrong with your work. I am not afraid to let novices critique my work--even children--the less experienced critic will tell you the truth faster than the expert who will praise you for what is right in the painting;

Remember--we are ultimately painting for the masses of uninformed humanity who are often poor, worn out, and care less about the machinations or art--but they do respond to images that speak to the depths--right?

Where were we? O yes--value united with color.

8. Here is something I have been trying to teach lately. Provided that your head is screwed on right regarding value and the separation of light and dark--you may try this. When you view a passage of value--whether light or dark or in between (in the half tone)--ask yourself the following question. What COLOR is this passage. The passage may be one eighth inch in size or the whole damn canvas--but ask WHAT COLOR IS IT? Wait a minute now--I want you to limit the answer to the three primaries--not the split primaries, not the secondary or tertiary colors--answers that end in ISH--greenish, blueish, grayish, are not permitted. Answers like sandal wood, mauve, sea blue, sky green--that have two words adjoining--are also not permitted.

What color is it? Start with one of the three answers--red, yellow, or blue. Throw, and I do mean throw in red, yellow, or blue into your passage as close as you can to the right value, and then let your instinct guide you to the right adjustments. If it doesn't sit right--then make it sit right. Knock the color down or make it richer, make it lighter or darker and so on. Dan Greene suggests mixing black and white to the desired value, sticking it up there, and letting the results tell you which way to go.

Altering the chroma, the saturation, the value of a color takes experience--but not very much experience. Mainly it takes a relaxation from all the rules. For example: If your stoke it is too red initially, or too light, or too dark then change the red by adding green, or black or burn sienna, or mud, or white or anything until it looks right--steal some paint from your neighbor's palette--do something--anything--call your friends, take a smoke break, or eat some cookies--keep looking and trying until some satisfaction occurs--then move on to what is directly next to your most recent success. Move from one adjacent passage in the painting to another--don't jump around too much--we make more accurate comparisons by adjusting adjacent areas for the most part. Its OK to jump around if it helps--many experienced artist do so. You see--all advice I give is relative. That is why my students leave--I can't give a definitive answer---only suggestions.

My approach has been called the "zip, boom, bah" approach, the anything goes approach, instinctive , intuitive, confused, agitating--all of these descriptions I consider complimentary. I love to make drastic changes in my paintings at the last minute--ignoring everything I have done previously--I like to keep everything floating until the last minute. This drives many of my students crazy, but they love the results--O well....

My approach is not for everybody. But it will apply sometime, somewhere, and at some moment--at some critical moment--at the make-or-break juncture--then I will be your hero. Until then, I am what I am--just another voice in the hood--like John the Baptist.

When you throw in your initial color (red, yellow or blue) you can adjust it by mixing the correction on the canvas or on your palette. Most beginners will never put enough paint up there in order to mix correcting color or value. They usually mix in to much medium on their palette thereby limiting the necessary mixing properties to make a difference--again--fear of the paint. Sargent squeezed out 50 dollar batches of color on his palette--we squeeze out 10 cent batches--no go. He also advised that the background be painted with thick paint--not with puny washes or screwball, fluffy, swats of thin paint to achieve affect.

Something else I observe--the refusal to cross artificial boundaries with broad sweeps of color. Try this next time you paint a head that is lit strongly from one side. Start in the background surrounding the head on the shadow side (if there is one) and pull paint clear through the hair, cheek, ear and nose until you hit where there is a distinct value change--usually where the shadow meets the light. Also try this from the other direction working from the background through the light side of the model to where the light meets the shadow. Use a straight primary if need be, then make adjustments. This will give you the opportunity to create a great CONVERSATION OF COLOR between THE FIGURE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS--the mark of all great representational paintings. Then you can recover your drawing by re-calligraphy or separating the shadow side of the head from the background as you observe it. Treat the background as integral to the head. Here is a great secret--there is no background! For Sargent, the background, those elements that surrounded the head or figure WAS the painting. It was not something added--some little thin crap added to create a nifty vignette. Sargent's figures always swam in the background with great atmospheric affect--like great movies swim in the musical score--all one big unified thing.

9. I want to qualify everything I have said thus far. It is possible, even desirable, in some instances to start in the traditional representational format and then move to greater and greater abstract treatment in the life of a specific painting. As you move from the traditional stuff I am spouting--you travel into the realm of ANYTHING GOES. If you want to put a blue line around everything--then put a damn blue line around everything. This is when real art occurs. You start with all of your fine attire on--you run down the long plank as fast as you can, strip off your clothes as you go--and finally dive naked into the freezing water, and swim for your life. Now we are having fun, now we are doing art. Just observe for one minute all of the "real TV " crap that is ruling the viewing ratings. Its all about danger, risk, exploration, pushing the limits, accomplishing the impossible escape, surviving the big hits, winning confidence out of fear, escape from death, hell, and the grave. This timid, paint another pretty picture stuff makes me puke. I am so sick of my own stuff that I have stopped painting altogether--except for some commissions to keep the utilities on and the car running--and green fees. My wife is pissed at me now for this, but I will win her over--I now have a lock on my tiny studio door--she thinks I am working--I am really playing endless computer chess and distributing pictures of my grand kids over the web.

10. I am out of gas on this one, but you get the point. Who loves ya--Don

Ten Bull-It Points to Remember

2011-02-25T20:56:00.000-08:00

1. You don't have to be very smart to make a lot of money at representational oil painting--I did it!

2. It helps to be smart at handling the money you make at oil painting--I wasn't!
3. It is far easier to talk about oil painting than to actually paint--I promise!
4. The collective IQ of representational oil painters today is lower than it was 125 years ago--the artistic brains in the culture have opted for feature film creation, for TV production, and for start up ventures--why not!
5. Oil painting workshops, art magazines, how-to art books, art videos, art conferences, art shows and art competitions, don't help the purpose--what purpose?
6. Ah, the purpose--that's the rub isn't it? The purpose is for individual human beings to create paintings that arrest the attention, that stir the soul, that point to the mystery-the paradox-the glory-the hiddeness of existence--that kindle the imagination. Paintings that don't preach but point to something previously unseen, unheard, untouched, unheralded in our brief journey on the planet. Paintings that shut our mouths and open our hearts and minds in ways previously unimagined. Paintings that shift the collective perception, that make us weep, or at least take off our hats in the presence of something great even if we can't talk about greatness. Paintings that endure over time because they are--well......timeless. Come on now!--you can add to this list--or maybe you just haven't thought about oil painting this way.
7. Number 6 gets to the heart of the matter--half assed purpose, motive, design--call it what you want--it's missing big time.
8. Art is in the life, not in the paint. The paint only let's others know that you were here and tried to paint your here--ness.
9. Since none of us can do the above--let's join the art as therapy movement, paint a painting a day for 50 days, sell our daubs to the rich and stupid, and call ourselves artists--might as well--it's kinda fun.

10. How do ya like me now? Who loves ya? Don

Previously Unimagined--Grandparenting!

Me and Harold 1949

2011-01-25T11:35:00.000-08:00

My niece , Cathy, just sent this to me. My bro, Harold Hatfield was a star foofballer at USC. He died a few year ago, and I miss him so.

Back In Action--But Laughable

2011-01-24T17:28:00.000-08:00

After listening to lengthy YouTube discourses on representational vs abstract oil painting I was moved to post--so here goes. To begin with--WHO CARES? Not many give a hoot in hell about the issues surrounding the differences between art movements today i.e.--abs vs figs, modernest vs traditional, abstract vs representational. The discussion is dated, boring, and has no current application. Most of the commentators I listened to are not intellectually qualified to run their mouths about such cultural phenomena. Robert Hughs' treatment in "American Visions" is the best out there on the subject, but, of course, he was not referenced in the YouTube rants. The occurrence of mediocre representational oil painters turned experts in art history is something I am familiar since I oil paint and consider myself an art history expert. My bona fides, however, are laughable--but I will admit it once in awhile! Anyway, in case you are interested--I am now set up in my new studio and back on the commission trail, dammit--but my over head is now $1200.00 rather than $12,000. I need to make enough to pay my green fees and to feed a few addictions. I now paint in a twelve square foot upstairs bedroom in a condo in beautiful downtown Yountville, Ca. I have a north facing window with a box fan on the sill for ventilation. My new Mac 10.6.5 blazes and ComCast provides me with the latest from the NFL--go Pittsburgh! My Social Security deposit is direct, the hot tub is 104 degrees, and the golf course is 500 yards away--so look out. Now these facts are verifiable, interesting, and of cultural significance. So, as Winslow Homer said......."stick to your easel and keep your mouth shut." Who loves ya, Don.

Tectonic Shifts In The Art Of Western Civilization Revealed

2010-12-18T08:04:00.000-08:00

The weak part of these quickie art lessons is the curious warning that preceeds each section. The warning should have read--WARNING: TIRED ARTIST BLABS OLD ART SAWS FOR MASS CONSUMPTION BEFORE FALLING ASLEEP ON CAMERA--or something of that nature. The major element that I need to add that is critical to understanding these 5 lessons is that I have lost 35 pounds since they were produced. The encouraging fact is that these incredible video shorts have caused an epidemic of nod-off worldwide. I am expecting a call from the Smithsonian giving me the induction date when these lessons will be permanately archieved. Anyway--enough intro. It should be clear that I am honored to be included in the avalanch of art instruction that litters Youtube. Now go drink some eggnog and take a nap. Who loves ya?

A Gift From Elenore

2010-11-14T06:38:00.000-08:00

I found this video accidently the other day and decided to share it on my blog. Thanks, Elenore.

Test Video

2010-11-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

Slow Living Radio: 11/2 - Renowned American Impressionist Don Hatfield

2010-11-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

Slow Living Radio: 11/2 - Renowned American Impressionist Don Hatfield: "Don Hatfield - Just fast forward the slider to the midway point for the Hatfield interview."

All Bull-No Beach Girls

2010-10-26T12:13:00.000-07:00

I did this for Janey who is tired of pretty women and children on the beach.

Guardian of the Vinyards

2010-10-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

I just finished this for the lobby of the Yountville Inn. It will hang behind the check in desk for all to see. This was more fun and easier than figures. I may paint a bunch of landscapes since they are so easy. But you have to arrange all of the values in order or you will suck. I think figures in landscape is on the horizon. But I will have to find a studio first.

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH--NEITHER CAN I !

2010-10-15T06:17:00.000-07:00

Now What?--Become and Apostle!

2010-10-11T05:59:00.000-07:00

The Don Hatfield method of relating to the world has always been to volunteer tons of intensity. This fact arises from an early obtained sense of missionary zeal. I figgered that since I got serious about Jesus early on--the whole damned (literally) world should get serious about Jesus. I got "saved" at 8 years of age in the Redondo Beach, California Church of God Independent Holiness in 1955. My mom and dad were not big on this event, but they did not stand in the way of little Donnie. My parents had watched my brother Dick sail off to fight the Japs in the Pacific in 1943 and had seen my other brother, Harold, make touchdowns for USC in front of 100,000 screaming fans in the LA Coliseum. If 8 year old Donnie wanted to hang out with a few weird church people--hell, that was no big deal.

It was April of 1959 when my sweet Dad dropped dead at his job on the corner of Rindge and Artesia in North Redondo, CA. It was like yesterday. The phone rang at 7:00 AM and Dad's co-worker Sandy told me that dad had a heart attack and that it was not good. I dropped the the phone, screamed at mom to get up, and ran down the street in my pajamas to Kenny Goodreau's house. Mom didn't drive, but Kenny's mother did. When we pulled into the gas station where dad worked--his lifeless body had been placed into the back of a cop car, and I began a process of grief that lasts to the present day. I was introduced to the notion of conditionally at that moment. That catastrophic change can sweep into your life at any moment became a constant bed fellow for Don Hatfield.

Only recently has "sweeping change" become a kind of dear friend. In the last 4 years both of my brothers have left the planet along with my nephew Steve, my aunt Ruth, my cousin Larry and a bunch of friends and acquaintances. Two of my closest art buddies have just said goodbye to their prostates while a few others have had the big zipper (open heart surgery). Change is happening aint' it? Its fun to know that I am in the cue. My last words to my brother Harold were, "...I'll see you in a little while....I'll be right behind ya..."

I like the ending of Cameron's Titanic where all the passengers who froze to death in the North Atlantic meet again on the ball room steps to welcome the young lovers to glory. Even Cameron had to throw in something nice and warm to offset the misery. Maybe we are all Avatars who will open our eyes someday and be 11 feet tall and have tails and blue feline faces.

Maybe you are a tough guy who knows that when you croak--its lights out. I think I believe that what you think about something does not necessarily make that something true. Anyway, the point is, I choose to believe that there is something more going on in our lives than getting high, getting laid, getting rich, getting smart, passing it all on, and then kicking the bucket.

The shifting around in our lives, the changes, the interruptions that come at us from within or from without, are confusing as hell. Change makes you hate God, makes you want to kill people, makes you want to kill yourself sometimes. You don't have to travel very far from where you sit to see that this is true.

The reason that God is so anxious to bless America, and since I speak for God,--is that our system is designed to mollify change, to ease change, to deny change, and to crap on change in general. Its hard to picture somebody crapping on change, but Od Nurdrum has done it in paint.

So instead of kissing up to Jesus whose style of absolute love and unique claims got him murdered by the church and state--we suck up to the collective (Jung) and create our own totem of values based roughly on our immediate environment and and fight like crazy to convince ourselves that everything will be alright. Good luck!

Listen--there are no unbelievers in the world. Even the most God hating SOB has cut deals with existence and believes that they are smart deals--at least as good as the next guys. "....I didn't ask to be put on this planet, so why am I now being fed this line that I had no say in creating.." What line?--that there is meaning, hope, a future, a saviour. I hear this all the time--at the gym, coffee shop--everywhere. Everybody has their own belief system, has cut their own deals, and is working it out in their own way in the brief span called a life time.

Call it getting old, getting sick, getting successful, getting something--its all change. You can give up, fight back, bitch, take a cruise, or go to Weekend With the Masters--it doesn't matter. We seem to be stuck here on this spinning ball bumping into one another and saying: "....excuse me, but I am in a hurry, and have things to do...I am on my way to embrace change..." Yeah right!

What some are doing is creating a legacy that they hope to pass on--noble indeed, but usually confined to the rich. What are they passing on?--a big fat repository of effort concretized in a will designed to give the next generation a shot at permanence. Although we all pass on something--some get to hire trustees to get it right--others, myself included, hope to pass on nothing--may it all evaporate when I die.   In other words--may the misery, suffering, treachery, hate, abuse, violence, and indifference that I have let loose in the world disappear when I die. God, I hope so. I don't give a rip about the paintings I have done. I plan to give away most of the art I do from now on, which can be disposed of in anyway collectors see fit.

I know that many of you are "concerned" about Don Hatfield--I have lost my house, studio, credit rating, credibility, honor, mojo, authority, and a few pounds--maybe even my mind. I am smiling big as I write this--I love all of ya. So......?   Please be relieved to know that I am dying and only have a little while to live, and so is everybody that I love so dearly--including you. I have no terminal ailment--I am talking about what is going on in me--not to me. I have cut my own deal with existence like everybody else. Here is a description of my deal: The thing that was planted in me when I got saved back in Redondo was dead right--the pressure cooker of change is the pressure of love absolute. Suffering, confusion--misery in general is temporary--comfort and joy are real--and the Steelers will win the Super Bowl. I have lived 64 years and have experienced a thing or two, and I have this hugh CONSTANT in my world--my television. Not really. Let me start over in a new paragraph.

I am so happy that I have gone crazy--to say nothing about all of the blessings that are being heaped on me--zero debt, zero commissions, zero whatever. Free at last to practice putting endlessly. I have all of my art supplies locked up along with everything else in storage. I am thinking seriously about quitting painting for a year or so. I am going to write a how to oil paint book on my new Power Mac and ride my $5000.00 bicycle until I drop my weight to between 164 and 173 lbs--down from 250.

The above is another way of saying that I am going to STOP until I get clear direction.   I know that I have the ability to screw everything up, and I may continue my great enterprise of going to hell in a hand basket--but I doubt it. I have never been allowed to flop around aimlessly for long. Whatever or whoever has grabbed me in the past will probably do the same this time. This is fun. I am not as filled with as much fear and anxiety as in days past. My read on life is being confirmed on the left and on the right--yet I feel that I know nothing. I am seeing Jesus, God, and the Holy Ghost under every rock and stone. I am even toying with the profound notion of terminating tobacco since it dulls my ability to be clear headed.

In short I am going to become an Apostle like Robert Duval in his movie by the same title. He walked around asking God what to do all day long. I don't plan to go to jail for murder, however. There are some old farts down at Peets Coffee who have consented to ordain me--so I am not dodging any religious bureaucracy.

So there you have it--more pithy aphorisms, more profundities, and some love for good measure--Don

Snakes Shed Their Skin Don't They?

2010-10-08T06:45:00.000-07:00

This moving out of the old Hatfield place is massively demanding--emotionally, psychically, spiritually, socially, economically and in a few other weird ways---plus, I will never again be able to pee off my second story deck toward the big redwood tree twenty feet away. When I moved here in 1988 I could reach it with ease, but my prostate has given me the old "f...you", and now I have to really push--life's a bitch!

Janey and I are already fighting about what to keep and where it should go. We are going from 4000 sq/ft to 900 sq/ft. If she has her way, and she will, the tiny upstairs bedroom in our "darling" little cottage next to the French Laundry in beautiful downtown Yountville will have the character of a walk in closet--not the spacious bedroom we now occupy. She will not give up one stitch of her precious clothing. It will be like Narnia where those kids slide around the fur coats and stuff as they move to the new world. My new world is going to include a TemperPedic California King with the electric gizmo to raise one end and a 30 inch HD TV suspended from the ceiling so I can fulfill my commitment to NFL Ticket and Dr. Phil. This is all I get--but it is enough. O yes, and new batteries for the damn channel changer.

Our Lord and God--the lending company--is giving us $8000.00 to get our asses out of here by Nov.1. I could have done the "loan modification"--but I would have had to harvest our 200 redwood trees for $25,000.00 and make a $7500.00 monthly nut to boot. After PGE, propane, upkeep, taxes, insurance, mouse traps, and dog food (Janey over feeds the dogs)--the monthly nut is up to $10,000.00. I am nearly 65 and have had enough of this shit. I am a walking dead man now and am asking God what He wants to do with what is left. So far He has said clearly, "...my son, continue to hit fairways, greens, and putts..and never stop watching 7 hours of TV daily, and don't stop using my wonderful new gift to you--Scoal Winteregreen chew!" This new Long Gut Wintergreen is so much better than Copenhagen which used to make my feet and hands numb. Wintergreen just shuts down your brain, gives you gum cancer, creates addiction, and makes you stink--but nothing else of harm. It is the perfect antidote for over-excitement about painting.

I thought I was over all of this moving stuff until yesterday when I broke down and cried like a baby. The thought of leaving our pet cemetary under the 300 year oak made me weep. The population there is five--three cats and two dogs--and I had planned to be sprinkled there among my only true friends--maybe somebody can sneak up here and get the job done when the time comes--any volunteers?

I have rented a storage space in a Vallejo ghetto. The homies--Crips, Bloods, Nortenos, Surdenos, and Al Queda will watch over all of my crap with great love I am sure. I will have to hire the Navy Seals and Swat Team to escort me to my new toy bin if I want to use my chain saw or recover an art book. Let's see--what will I be doing with a chain saw at the new digs? I know--I can trim the wisteria!

We are taking Sarah, our 19 year old cat, to the new place. Molly, our big fat golden female lab, is being returned to her original owner from whom Janey stole her. Molly thought prime rib scraps were better than Kibbles and Bits and migrated from our south forty neighbor to our place 5 years ago--blame Janey! Janey is currently angry at Sarah who squirted all over the bedding the other day as a statement for Janey's terminating the tuna diet. Wow! I just saw Sarah take off after a mouse outside on the deck! Something I thought she quit doing years ago. Is this a sign?

Where were we? O yes--moving is massive. My old friend and art student, Bill Dyer, graciously showed up yesterday to help me move--a complete surprise. Bill has become a wonderful artist--visit wdowneydyer.com This is his thank you to me for giving him an art life. Actually, Bill and I go way back. He was my first collector. In 1980 he bought some Remington knock offs I had done during my cowboy phase. He then owned a thriving frame shop in Long Beach, CA and was a source of constant encouragement to me. He now lives nearby so....

I thought I had a studio rented yesterday, but the rent was a little stiff. I don't want to feel any economic pressure again for as long as I live. I am thinking about terminating my gym membership and cell phone contract to save a few pennies. I have fantasized about quitting painting altogether to save money. After this last commission I have no one to please with paint. I can then live off Social Security and Janey's paycheck. She is a big shot at a 5 star resort in Yountville--walking distance from the new house, and has a 25 year following of clients that she has guided through wine country, and their needs literally fill her life with love--why does she need me anyway? I guess it's my good looks and great sex! If you believe that--God help ya.

Back to the move. The bank wants this place "broom clean" before they issue the $8000.00. I initially thought that clean up around here was a piece of cake--wrong! I have two out buildings filled with a 25 year accumulation of tools, toys, gadgets, supplies, and God knows what. I now see where the 1.5 mil I sucked out of this place went. I have 7 sets of golf clubs, 5 road bikes, a $10,000.00 ride along mower (any takers?), electrical gear, plumbing gear, 1500 classic magazines from the 40's, garden and farm supplies, and stuff I don't remember buying. Bill and I are organizing this junk for a mega Craig's List sale this weekend. There is also a classic Willies Jeep, A Jeep Wrangler, and a boat for sale if anybody is interested.

We will make about 15 dump runs. Janey wants to donate all of my old cloths to the Salvation Army. I have lost 30 lbs. and could fit back into the old rags, but since I now wear sweats and a tee shirt only--this will never happen. Yes--tee shirts and sweats only--neutral colors and functional draw strings. I sleep, work, exercise, and take communion in this attire and change once a week...so...get a life! I would go bare footed, but those California goat head stickers create horrible puncture wounds. I am indeed a cloths horse now--a six piece wardrobe--two sweat pants, three tee shirts, and two shoes--that makes 7 pieces I guess. And don't tell Janey, but all of those old cloths are going to the dump in trash bags--if I don't get caught!

Anyway that's about it for now. On a final little note. I see this move as a paradigm for my final big move--my personal passage out of my body to Jesus when I die--the Father, Son, Holy Ghost, and the Virgin Mary notwithstanding--is that selfish enough for ya? I see all change as an education in what is really going on at the Spiritual level--on second thought--I don't really think there is a "spiritual level"--I believe that our whole life swims in the love of God and that there is only one level--a kingdom, an economy, and existence, that provides the possibility of constant communion with our Creator who sent His only Little Boy to die the death of a criminal so we would get the point. The move of the ages is not from one kennel to another, it is not getting married, having grand kids, giving away 60 billion for the greater good of humanity, or becoming an artist or following your bliss, or least of all achieving "higher consciousness"--it is moving from a death to life in Christ at the point of faith. Everything else is paradigmatic, symbolic, or indicative, or instructional of this great move. So....."have a nice day" as my foreclosure officer said.

Snakes shed their skin don't they?

Who loves ya?--see ya down the road--Don

Couldn't Sleep So......

2010-10-01T04:27:00.000-07:00

As you may know by now, the famous artist, Don Hatfield, has gone bankrupt and foreclosed on about two million dollars of debt. In 1988 I payed $200,000 for my beautiful 15 acre estate in the hills above Napa Valley and leveraged the thing to 1.5 mil over 22 years. When the economy went in the dumper I got caught in the California real estate collapse, and my house went upside down. The art market began to slide as well, and the snow ball effect was in play. I began paying house payments with my credit cards hoping I could stay even long enough to catch up--well, as you smart ones know--that doesn't work. I thought bankruptcy was immoral, and that the Christian thing to do was fight the wolf to the death. I began to reflect on my age, energy, mojo, spirit and all that, and concluded that dying for my debt was not as noble as dying for my dog and cat.

Its all behind me now, and I am debt free--except for a car payment and gym fees. Once I got over the stigma, the guilt, and the name calling (looser)--I settled into the bliss of debt freeness. I could have kept fighting, but I said, what to hell--literally. I am an old guy now with one foot in the grave and the other on a tube of paint, and I decided it was time to be available to something else besides my creditors. Can you understand and forgive me? If you can't now--you may later. If you go through this crap--remember that your Big Brother Don went before and said that it was OK--deal?

One thing you must promise--don't call me for financial advice! I just sold all of my gold at $1275 thinking I had kicked butt only to watch it soar to $1310. I even began tithing my income to the Episcopalian Church where I sneak in for communion each Sunday hoping for a miracle. I did get my miracle--the Big Okey Dokey from Jesus to just go ahead and admit that the big nut was too much, and that it was OK to fail--so I went into financial chemo therapy. I have lost all of my hair, and I am thin now, but I am still ambulatory--I think. My leg just went to sleep, and I need a hair cut.

Had enough? There is more.

I have been decompressing from Weekend With The Masters. A kind of depression has set it. I did not find any secret formulas or world shaking insights that might make my oil painting easier. There were no masters--only a weekend. I just find myself sitting in my old studio--the whole upstairs of my forest home--trying to figure out the design of the next big commission--a 36by48 oak three/vineyard request for a hotel lobby in beautiful Yountville. The house/studio has gone back to the bank and we are waiting to be kicked out. We have a beautiful rental that is being prepared, but I need a studio space for all of my stuff. We could squat here for months or for days--who knows? A few trips to the dump, and I can avoid storage fees. But back to my funk.

I kept Janey, my sweet wife, awake with my chain saw snoring, so I decided to sleep in the downstairs bedroom where we found a rattle snake two weeks ago--the thing ran off and is still around here somewhere--he is probably watching me right now waiting for his big chance! The fantasy of having a rattler crawl into bed with you can tweak with your sleep. What do you do if you take a strike in the eyeball?--see what I mean? After crawling around on my knees checking under all of the furniture--I laid down on my Thermapeutic and stared at the ceiling in the dark.

Things can become very clear alone in the dark. I heard bird noises, cattle mooing, the dogs moving around--but no snakes--only the stuff slithering in my head.

What do I do with the little remaining time I have left on the planet? My world class bike riding buddy, Richard, just died of lung cancer. This guy was in perfect shape and only 53. He was a real sweet heart, and I am such a turd--why not me?

I told you I was in a funk. I did what I always do when I feel like I am being swallowed in darkness. I began to pray. I know--some of you think that its just auto-suggestion, or self-hypnosis, or some form of verbal ejaculation. I am not making recommendations here or preaching or even advocating religion--I am just telling you what's been happening, dammit! So calm down. No--you calm down, Hatfield!

Where was I ? Anyway--things get clear in the wee hours. The search for values, color, edges, design, narrative, expression seem dim right now. My mind turns to the persons in my sphere of influence, beginning with my wife, children, grand children, and all the rest.

So here sits Mr. Artist. And since I just dipped some chew, I may be sitting here til sunrise. Maybe I should go to a 24 hour Denny's for an early breakfast--the kind I used to eat before weight loss mania--bacon, pancakes, hash browns, juice, coffee, and milk. So wad do ya do? My old brother Dick used to say...."just do the next right thing." Its more fun to do the next wrong thing, but since I have done that for years, I think I will give it a rest for a minute.

Yeah Bath

I think I will just shut up and try listening for some message from somewhere that will give me some you know what so I can do you know what--ya know what I mean? Find out who really loves ya and be nice to 'em. Its later than you think. I'm headed for Dennys--its 4:30AM PST. Baby Eva, my grand daughter, has it figgered--a bubble bath! Don

Week End With the Masters Full Report and Then Some

2010-09-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

All the stars were there, Schmid, Lipking, Gerhartz, Gusik, Burdick, Munday, Christensen, Pinkham, Weistling, Graves, Frantzen, Anderson and a bunch of others I can't recall. It was spiritually, artistically, socially, and funkally wonderful. I came away with one great impression that will satisfy me forever: I AM REALLY GOOD!

I had no business being there. I know all of that stuff already. I attended a three day thing with Ray Roberts last week and came away with the same feeling. It's just that I have been isolated for so long that I thought it was time to crawl out of my kennel and see what the other dogs are doing. O yes, I did learn a few tid bits like: 1. Use mongoose brushes for my figure work. 2. Use big words like chroma and tertiary to sound smart. 3. Never attend art events staged at expensive resorts. 4. Painting from life is OK, but not necessary for the massively experienced. One can paint with knowledge from past experience, but that knowledge may be enhansed through life studies--a little bit. 5. Great painters are not necessarily great teachers. 6. Most art students are 60 years of age and above. 7. More women than men are painting. 8. Photoshop is God's gift to representational oil painters. 9. Everybody is a formula painter--some formulas are better than others, however--improve yours! 10. The representational painting world is tiny, ingrown, and linked to a dead past and will probably stay that way. 11. Publishers, agents, suppliers, and galleries now need artists more than artists need them--at least good artists. 12. My economic future is secure--I just learned that one! O yes, one more thing. CW Munday has not quit smoking cigars, but his wife does not know it!

I spent most of my time schmoozing Jeremy Lipking, Carolyn Anderson, Tony Pro, Alexy Steele, Rose Frantzen and the portrait painter from Atlanta, Thomas Nash. They are all angels--humble, focused on their work, ready to share, and they know their stuff pretty good.

The workshop was divided between two venues--Laguna Art Center and the Laguna Cliffs Resort in Dana Point. The Art Center was a great venue--the Resort was crap. Expensive resorts are no place to stage these things--parking was expensive, drinks were exorbitantly costly (sneak in your own bottle), the lights failed (Weistling finished a domo with a flashlight), a pool side lounge cost $50.00, the in-house music, while great, was too damn loud, and other things I have blocked out in frustration.

These events are no place to chew tobacco. I was poorly dressed and had to carry my own spitoon. I refused to wear my name tag and some attendees thought I was a pan handler. After a scuffel with a security guard, I was arrested by local police, cuffed, and stuffed into the back seat of a cop car and booked at the police station until Richard Schmid paid my bail--I will always respect him for that.

I invented this last thing, but I did get your attention. Richard Schmid does not know me and could care less. I did get to shake his hand when he came to pick up his beautiful daughter at the bar, but he was understandably preoccupied.

Anyway, I drove back to Napa up Highway One through Big Sur (I'll never do that again) and chewed the fat on my cell with Dan McCaw who set me straight on a few things. Namely that representational art is tied to the past and that one would do well to watch what the Abstract Movement is offering. Wisdom indeed. Let's all paint from a place that is uniquely our own, not Sargent's, Sorolla's, or Zorn's. My problem is that in these times I have lost my interior mojo, and now that I don't need much money, I have to search for a new motive--do you follow me? I am married and don't need pretty girls (I am getting fit because I am afraid to die), I am completely unfit for any spiritual ministry, I am aging fast, and I am addicted to nicotene, sugar, and golf--I am all f....ed up! All that's left is to crawl away and die.

That's all for now--happy painting!

Yaaaw right! The next person who says to me "happy painting" can go to you know where. "Happy living" is a false exortation as well--so is "have a nice day"--I just heard that one from a forclosure officer. He was just being "nice".

In conclusion: All seems well, and I am really motivated to paint lights out. The first big change for me will be to paint all of those subjects that I have wanted to paint over the years but avoided because I was uncertain if they would sell. But there is one abiding question that I must answer before I can move forward--a question that has haunted me like a demon since the Weekend With the Masters--the question? Is the plural of mongoose--mongeese or mongooses? I will be paralyzed until sombody give me the answer!

Who loves ya? See ya down the road. Always, Don

PAINTING FROM LIFE IS NOT THE ANSWER!

2010-09-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

I could not wait to tell you this! I discovered that field studies, those little on sight paintings you do to gather color notes for a big studio painting--these are a hugh waste of time for an experienced painter. So is painting from the live model. Here is what I do. I copy my digital photograph onto my canvas using grids--then I paint the thing using the info on my flat sceen. If I need color info--I just go to a copy of a master work by Sargent, Zorn, Sorolla, Levitan or one of their buddies that I have archived over the years in posters, books, or photos I shot at museums. I then study their color harmonies, and import them into my painting! This really works, and don't tell me that you can't get EVERYTHING you need this way. One can develop tremendous color knowledge this way. This boloney that you have to study nature for the truth is dead wrong. The great masters knew this. Let me explain.

Chase once said to a student who was complaining: "...if I could only see it (nature), then, I could paint it..." Chase wisely replied: "No! If you can see what you paint, then you will solve your problems..." THE TRUTH IS IN THE PAINT--NOT IN OBSERVATION OF NATURE!

Embedded in Chases' reply is my point. We are not copying nature. We are putting what we know about painting on the canvas. In other words--we are letting nature trigger our painting smarts so that we may display them on canvas. Do you see the difference? Experienced painters always use their little tricks, formulas, recipies, methods, templates that they have gathered over the years to explain what they want the viewer to see. Nature is a POINT OF DEPARTURE--not the "truth"! The truth is what you know and can put down on your canvas. Great artists NEVER paint nature. They instead spill out their experience on canvas to convice us of THEIR reality, to show us their skill, to capture our imagination, to take us on a journey to their goal.

I have always suspected this, but now I am convinced of it. The reason contemporary artists can't approach the works of 100 years ago is that they spend their careers reinventing the wheel--in looking for little nuances that they think are out there under the open sky or in the arm pit of their studio model. Sargent did not learn a damn thing after he left Duran. In forty years of work he really never surpassed El Jaleo or his graduation portrait of Duran--he just went about painting this and that using the certainties that he acquuired. He got everything in Paris by 20 years of age and just went on to become rich and famous by flattering the elite. The knowledge he needed had been systematized, codified, organized and served to him and his contemporaries on a platter by Duran. He distingushed himself by his design sense, his ability to edit the form, and by great ideas and selection. He was just smarter and loved the process more than the rest. Today we are misled by so called master teachers whose can't paint worth a lick and who are not the smartest people on the block. So--we go from workshop to workshop seeking help knowing all the time that something is missing.

Publishers, galleries, gurus, agents, and wealthy artists exist today for sure--not because they are any good--but because of the proliferation of wealth throughout the culture and the robust economy that feeds the suckers--you and me! The phrase: "..more bucks that brains.." applies here. You may want to read Robert Hughs' essay "Art and Money" in his book "Nothing if Not Critical".

O yes painting from life is fun. It helps some to add new tid bits to their lexicon of color for future use. But what usually happens is that every difficult problem on the canvas is solved by some formula acquired from the past that is half assed. Therefore the body of work we produce looks the same--repititions of past "successes".

OK--so what, Hatfield? What's your point? The point is what you make it. If your work sucks--and we all know that it does if we are honest--then shift your paradigm. Feed on the great legacy of paintings that is available to you. Relax, think, put two and two together--read Henri, Hawthorne, McCaw, Loomis, Nicholaides--but most of all stare at great work. Don't give me the "devirative" crap! Our whole existence is derivative--what do you have that was not given to you by God through all of the means of His grace?

Don't stop painting from life, don't stop going to descent workshops. But go about it critically. Don't worship any of the cotemporary masters so-called--just understand that you are watching their tricks and formulas. Develop your own sense of things based on your own great taste. If you have no taste then join the club. But what's to stop you and I from trusting our instincts and using our brains. The same brains that have made us successful in other life endeavors--parenting, working, sports, existing, loving in realms other than painting. Don't go blank when it comes to oil painting--know that all of the answers are out there, or in here--knowledge has never been so available--so go get some.

How do ya like me now? Who loves ya--Don

Hatfied on Recon

2010-09-21T06:13:00.000-07:00

Last week it was three days with Ray Roberts. This week end I am in Jeremy Lipking's one day workshop and will attend evening demos by Dan Gerharts and Lipking. I am attending these events to rob their collector base, steal their ideas, knock off their successes, copy their technique, and to be a general pain in the ass--should be fun!

I will attempt to divert their attention from their work with dirty jokes, stupid questions, weird noises and by just being myself. I was always a bad boy in my school days, and things haven't changed much in six decades.

Questions I will be asking: 1. How much has your net worth decreased in the last 18 months?
2. Are you looking around for other work?
3. Do you think I can make it as an artist?

I will report the answers to these and other questions.

I would give anything to be on this celebrity list, but I am thrilled to just breath the same air as these greats. I plan to suck up to the vendors for free art supplies--I often steal paint, brushes, and all of the samples I can stuff in that bag they supply you. Tom Lynch once got a Rolex from Raphael Art as a gift for endorsing their products. Maybe I can get on a "free" list. Its just that nobody remembers me. O well. Its kinda fun to creep around un-noticed. I wear my dark glasses so that the security folks can't see what I am really staring at.

Who loves ya? Don

Yo Wud Up? Back At It, But Can't Cut It!

2010-09-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

This long overdue portrait was delivered this week. I am finally caught up. I am attending a Ray Roberts workshop this week in Bodega Bay. I am looking to expand my plein air knowledge, and Ray is experienced in plein air. I have bad mouthed plein air painting in the past, but that is because I am full of crap--so there! Next weekend I am attending the American Artist painting with the masters thing in Dana Point, Ca. I want to see if Lipking, Gerhartz, Weistling et. al. know something that I don't already know--I will let you know what I found out that they knew before I knew that they did now.

I am going through a massive financial re-organization designed to free me from the mountain of debt that I have serviced for 20 years. How I acheived this position is none of your damn business--unless you really want to know--but you must ask nicely--as Nicholson said to Cruz in a "Few Good Men". In short--I got there the same way you did! If you are not there yet--then you will be there soon. This is another way of saying that bankruptacy and forclosure are my bed fellows. Yes I am a failure, I could not cut it, I am now stigmatized, a looser, can't even spell, I suck, I am cast out, thrown in the pile where all things end. God--it feels soooo good! Only in America! Chapter 7 and forclosure are so sweet. You should try them. You will feel better--I promise.

It helps to be 64, on Social Security, close to Medicare, and not giver a damn about your f....ing credit score. After a year or so of study about the banking system in America, about credit card ethics, about government bailouts, about my out of control spending and self-indulgence--I decided it was time to act so........

I can make six figures at will so money is not the problem. The problem is how I will handle all of this new found freedom from debt--this deliverance from the norms, morees, and aceptances that drive the American Dream. Should I just play golf, watch TV and die? I have always wanted to live on the streets--so this may be my chance. Maybe I should pass out bibles in Iran--that's it!

OK, OK--I am OK!--OK?

What I do know is that many of you are in the same crapper. So follow your leader as he goes green, goes local, goes organic, goes slim--as he paints masterpieces and gives them away--as he moons the system and tumbles into the sunset never to be seen or heard or thought of again by the collective. Come on! Who loves ya? I'm back? Ya missed me didn't ya? Always, Don

WHY DON'T HE WRITE

2010-08-03T04:46:00.000-07:00

I have been on the road and am currently finishing paintings that are over due and trying to prepare for a show in Napa Ca. I have so much to blog that the excitement and anticipaton are wrecking my life--I won't feel normal again until I am spilling my interior all over the blogshpere for the entertainment of those who are bored with Dr. Phil and Opera.

My workshops in La Jolla, California and Lewiston, Maine were joyous, and I have thoughts and photos to throw at you--so be patient--I will never leave you (permanately)or forsake you--your art hero and guru--Don

HATFIELD WORKSHOP ON THE LOBSTER COAST

2010-07-26T20:44:00.000-07:00

PAINT THE FOREST BEFORE THE TREES, THE DOG BEFORE THE FLEAS

MASS, VALUE, COLOR, TEMPERATURE--NOT LINES!

2010-06-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

This is a painting I did in Sacramento a few months ago. I thought I would stick it in this post to give my friends in the up coming workshops a look. I love painting from life--it's so easy compared to painting from reference materials like Photoshop or straight projection. It takes real brains and talent to paint from photos--painting from life feels like cheating--its all right there in front of you--you don't have to use your imagination very much---boring! If you really want to improve your drawing skills--then project and trace very carefully right onto your canvas or learn to manupulate Photoshop and a digital projector--why sweat drawing! If you do this a few thousand times--I promise you will learn to draw as accurately as needed for representational oil painting. Or you may want to just draw out of your head and forget this step--but that takes REAL talent. I always have to look at something before I can paint it--I have limited visual imagination--I am stuck!

The real determinate in drawing skill is taste--not drawing from life. If you know how something SHOULD look in its painted form--then you will draw or paint it WITH THE POSSIBILITIES THAT PAINT OFFERS--according to your personal artistic vision. How do you learn how something should look in its painted form?--stare at great paintings for two thousand hours, then love the creation, then cover three football fields worth of canvas--bingo--YOU HAVE IT! Staring at others solutions may even be a hinderance--I just love doing it since I am so limited--I just try to knock off others who have gone before.

All of this academic stuff about drawing is a bunch of horse dung--except for those who own these academies that discourage creativity. Over emphasis on drawing is designed to distance humans from artistic expression--drawing or rendering is the enemy. Lines, or marks as I prefer to call them, are only temporary designations that indicate where masses should be initially laid in. The bringing together of colorful masses in the correct value and temperature is the ticket--lines separate masses artificially and prevent the merging of shape, value, and color--avoid over rendering and develop your personal sense of how something can be expressed in paint using your imaginaton--maybe paint from your dreams and memories like the Nabis. They are perceived by some critics as the greatest colorists--their approach was unrestricted by the academics of their time.

You may choose to render the hell out of everything, but don't tell me that you have to draw well before you can paint well--if you have a sense of how something looks to you--then you will put the shapes, values, color and mass in the right place--but this takes conviction and a fearlessness that is rare indeed--Dan McCaw is the only one out there I know of who practices this approach.

If the value, color and shape of the mass are on target--then a general placement of them will suffice--it is value and color that give the painting the snap and the authority not accurate rendering--always leave room for the viewer's imagination to wander--don't insult the viewer by giving too much information--by rendering every detail to death.

The logic of value and color in a painting equals the EFFECT OF LIGHT. Painting value and light with distinction and taste will make you rich and famous--I promise. Only two or three every half century achieve this-- so have fun! All of nature provides a point of departure for painting light--LIGHT EXPRESSED BY COLOR AND VALUE --this is what I am chasing in my own work and what I try to teach when given the opportunity. See ya down the road--Don

Pithy Aphorisms

2010-06-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

Gotta tell ya the following:

1. I checked my mouse traps this morning and found two new victims. This after a three week delay because my wife, Janey, loves animals so much that she couldn't stand the thought of killing the little things. I tried to convince her that sharing our forest home with these critters is a loosing proposition. She finally caved in after one of these guys started eating her fine wicker chair--you could hear the thing crunching all night long. We have a pet semitary under the redwoods where two dogs and three cats are memorialized with home made custom monuments--yes we love animals. Albert Einstein would not kill mosquitos because of his profound respect for all living--I AM NO EINTSTEIN !

2. I drive so slow that I create back ups on our country roads. I always pull over and let those in a hurry pass--but I get pissed when I don't get the "thank you" wave. Most men will acknowledge my kindness, but women seldom do--this morning a women gave me the big "thank you"--A FIRST IN MY LIFE!

3. When I want to fall asleep I read the book of Leviticus in the Bible--its boring as hell and puts me to sleep every time. This habit has changed at long last. I now read how to paint books by famous authors like Richard Schmid. IT REALLY WORKS!

4. I find that if I postpone commissions I get guilty. If I get guilty I paint better. The more behind the work--the better the result. Conclusion: put off commission work so that you produce a better result. THE CLIENT WILL LOVE YOU FOR THE EFFORT!

5. If your paintings don't sell--then give the damn things away. It helps to be on social security when you do this. We have all made too much money for our efforts over the years anyway. IT IS TIME TO GIVE BACK!

6. Why is representational painting in the modern era so inferior to that of 130 years ago? We know more about the science of oil painting, about the physics of light, about design, about technique--we have better equipment, better materials, more information about everything--what's up? Here comes the answer: In 1880 the brightest and best were still seeking careers in oil painting. Today the brightest and best seek careers in film, in cyber technnology, in science and industry. Its a matter of demographics--THE REALLY SMART ONES DON'T PAINT ANYMORE--SORRY! OK--I know you are smart, but you are the exception.

7. Why then do people still paint at all? The answer: ITS THERAPUTIC!

8. Why do some still make big bucks selling representational oil paintings. The answer: Because they are rendered to the knats ass, and there is a boat load of bucks out there for paintings that look like photographs. This is an expression of taste that you may or may not think is lacking in oil painting purchases today. You have to read Robert Hughs for a fuller answer--see "Nothing if Not Critical"--the final essay on Art and Money. It has to do with the amount of money flying around in the modern era--especially F....you money as we call it in California--mostly gas and oil money. O BOY, YOU'VE DONE IT NOW!

9. Why did I say the above--BECAUSE I AM JEALOUS OF THOSE MAKING BIG BUCKS!

10. And Finally (thank God)--what would I do if I made 5 million on one painting? I would stop painting altogether, hire a golf coach, hire a masseuse, hire an organic cook, move to Majorca and study Bobby Fisher on how to beat the computer at chess. FOR SURE !

See You In Maine on July 16 through 18

2010-06-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

Napa Valley Artist Don Hatfield to Hold Painting Workshop in Lewiston

Artist, Don Hatfield, will teach a 3-day oil painting workshop at L/A Arts' DownStage on July 16-17-18. It will involve two days of figure painting and one day of portraiture, with optional still life studies set up. Cost for all three days is $330, but 2-day and 1-day slots are also available.

Many consider Hatfield one of the most innovative impressionists of our time, whose style of painting softly blends the figures of realism with the gentle touch of classic impressionism. His masterful use of color and light draw the viewer to his intimate serene scenes. Although his work is traditional in concept and technique, his works portray strong quiet emotions through subtle but rich textures, and with warm and inviting hues.

Having first been a pastel artist, Hatfield’s painting technique involves sculpting form with gray tones and adding pronounced color over. His ability and results are amazing. It is no wonder that he has collectors from Asia, Europe and the US. His works have been on covers of magazines and some have even appeared in films.

As an individual, Hatfield is comical and animated. He is an experienced teacher, holding ongoing classes in and near his Napa Valley home. He works with students at whatever level they are at and gives individual attention as needed. Though laid back in his teaching method, he is very serious about painting. He has a wealth of knowledge and is committed to sharing it. Video clips of his teaching, from his newest DVD Fantasy Portraits In the Garden, can be viewed on his website: www.donhatfield.com Images of his artwork and an on-going blog that reveals a sense of his personality and style are on Don’s website as well.

Hatfield will be visiting Maine for the first time this summer, creating a unique opportunity for local artists and students of art to study and paint with a talented West Coast artist who has over 40 years of experiences to share. The workshop will be held at The Downstage at L/A Arts, # 5 Canal St. Alley, Lewiston (just off the first block of Pine Street). Friday and Sunday will focus on portraiture and Saturday will focus on figure in a costume. Register on line at www.laarts.org . For more information contact L/A Arts, (207) 782-7228.

# # #

contact info:
Cheri Donahue, Marketing Director cheri@laarts.org
L/A Arts 221 Lisbon Street Lewiston, Maine 04240 ph. (207) 782-7228 fax (207) 782-8192

Portrait Refurbishment

2010-06-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

This is a redo of the portrait I posted formerly (see May 16, Only One Spirit below). I knew the old one was not right, but I tried to convince myself that it was--the result--three extra weeks of misery before I finally destroyed it--stretcher bars and all--in the dumpster. This can happen when we get in a hurry, are careless, and are not present in the process--so be mindful. It really felt good to take the razor blade to the first attempt. Please don't tell me you like the first one better--or course you don't know the client, so--you have nothing to compare it to--but trust me--the second one is far superior. Now I can ship it off two months past due. My wife actually hates Bob, the client, and will be glad to see him go--I exhausted her with critique requests, and she doesn't like to hear her christian holy man turn the air blue with his extended cuss word vocubulary. I was so out of practice with portraiture--but not now! I'll have to wait for the old farts from New York to retire before I make my big national push. What's that company, Portraits Inc. or something? There are even these big parties where all the portrait painters gather to check out the competition and agents try to gain control of the willing --sounds like art hell to me. I do enjoy the exactitude that portraits require. If you are out of touch with values it will really show up in the effort. Anyway, if I can paint your house cat or your ex-wife's attorney--let me know. Sergei Bongart used to call portraiture the second oldest profession--I wonder what he meant.

Oil Painting, Art, and Presence

2010-05-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

Should I paint today or take the car to be serviced? Maybe I should empty the cat box, or pay my bills, or answer emails, or play computer chess, or check the price of gold, or go to the gym, or have the doctor check the mole on my ass, or maybe just make my wife happy for once--maybe just stay in bed all day watching classic movies? I know! I'll just put in some chew and pee off my second story studio deck! I love the simple things most anyway--I can paint later. What did happened that is interesting and profound is that I discovered today, 6/1/2010, that it makes absolutely no difference what I do next--with a few tiny exceptions.

Have you ever been doing one thing and wishing you were doing something else? Have you ever been with somebody while thinking of another? How about being in one place wishing like crazy you were somewhere else? Most of my life is spent being three places at one time--pretending to be listening, hoping she would just shut up--painting while wishing I was on the golf course, being on the golf course wishing I was painting--saying one thing while meaning something else. I could make this list a mile long!

Do you know what I am describing? I am describing your life my dear fellow artist! O yes I am! Now come on--who loves ya? Hell--you probably don't even know--you're so distracted!

I have just painted a picture of living in hell. I know about this because I have spent decades in a semi--no complete--State of Non. Did you know that Non is a state?--its capitol is Everywhere, and its zip code is 12345--ready, set, go--non-hearing, non-presence, non-passion, non-art, non-life.

I have lost fortune, family, friends, fame, face, fraternity, and other things beginning with "f" from fleeing focus and friendly forces and following instead fiendish fettishes feigning friendship--finished?--foowey! Well fine! Yeah, right--you didn't do this because you read the book and went to therepy and became a Buddist--not so fast, Bucko! If I think I am imperfect and have not lived a perfect life--then think how much I believe you are not perfect and have not lived the perfect life--are we still friends?--hope so.

Several things come to mind here. Sorolla said he was doing art all the time--even while in conversation with an interviewer. Robert Henri said that the person, not the painting, is the art. Oral Hershiser said he was singing Amazing Grace while on the mound pitching for the Dodgers in the world series--which they won. Sergei Bongart said--"...don't think, just paint." What do these things suggest?

I am not sure what they suggest--sorry. They may suggest that more is happening than meets the eye--something very profound and wonderful may be happening that is multi-layered--I don't know. One thing is fairly clear to me, however--time, aging, events, Jesus, the Holy Ghost, and the Virgin Mary are converging in my life--showing me that my time is short and that the Second Coming is in the present--that it has already occured---that I have already been included in the rapture and, most of all, that the time is now for this stuff--what stuff?

Well I don't know all about the "stuff", but I do know where it happens for me--it happens in my existence--in my real life here and now, in the moment second by second--in an existence interrupted, nudged, whispered to, invaded by something that is mysterious and faint (yet screaming)--intersected by something that interrupts the train of all that is selfish, self absorbed, self indulgent, self destructive, and dangerous--this something I did NOT create, can't control, can't exploit, can't begin a start-up with or make money off of or hand to you free of charge.

It seems that an intersection occurs in the moment, and can be grasped internally by any man, any time, in any circumstance. An "intersection"--that's as good as I can come up with. Is that oblique enough for you? You took Philosopy 101--right? You read the book, took the class, went to the ashram, heard the sermon, watched Dr. Phil, Oprah, Tony Robbins, and that other asshole whose name slips me at the moment. OK--then why hasn't anything changed? Why are you so absent? I am not begging the question here--I am just being rude! It comes naturally for me--remember?

Well, this "stuff", this "intersection" happens to me--in my life, my time, my heart beat, my bones, my art, and my soul--while I still have breath. I know that this sounds very Californian--more like Southern Californian--where preoccupation with the self is a cultural trait. But what I am suggesting here is that art, success, meaning, satisfaction, healing, pleasure--even glory confront every man. Presence, not transcendence, is every man's heritage--no matter what his circumstances. Presence mingled with irony, mystery, and confusion--this is the ticket to heaven.

Many believe that your life is what you make it, and that the great game of chance leaves some in and some out. Make hay while the sun shines, keep your hand on the plow, your ear to the ground, your head up and your mouth shut--try to play golf in that position--hell with'em!

What about that little boy or girl playing in the garbage heap in the third world, what about the stroke patient that requires three aids for a butt wipe, what about the baby born with no cranium to protect his precious little new born brain? We are better off than they--maybe. Maybe not. Since you are so sensitive, so smart--you tell me. Since I am writing this--I will venture a few closing (thank God) thoughts or ruminations on the above profundities.

I'll make is simple. If you are profoundly present in your own life, in the moment--a moment that is open to intersection with mystery, irony, and confusion--then you are an artist. It doesn't matter if you paint, sculpt, change transmissions, farm, shovel manure, teach school, are a nanny or the president--or live on a pile of dung that is your life at the moment--art is happening. You see--art is not what you do--its what happens to you--you don't do it--it does you--you don't create it--it creates you--you are the art, silly.

So, then, whatever you do for the rest of the day--art is going on. If you get to paint a little--then you get to leave a record that others may see and think--another human was here and left us this nice record of her journey--wow!

Only One Spirit

2010-05-16T22:28:00.000-07:00

There are many spirits so-called in the world. I like to think that there is only one spirit, and that is the Holy Spirit. Spirit of this--spirit of that--especially art spirit--what a waste!--the Holy Spirit is the only one I trust, and I think She is a beautiful woman who carries a flaming, razor sharp, two edged sword ready to cut down anything that would hurt Her babies. I have heard that prayer changes things--foowy! Prayer changes the prayee--the world only changes secondarily. Half--no, more than half--of the things we pray for would kill us if they were granted. I think God only answers prayers that keep us safe and whole. I am becoming an old guy now (63 today), and all I really want to do is to die in peace and unafraid. The problem is--I won't get the grace to do that until the time comes. I wouldn't miss dying--the notion of a sudden exit from the ground to meet Jesus in the air, as some believe, is scary as hell itself--like Freddie Krugar, the chainsaw killer. I have had sex, learned to drive a car, flown an airplane, had grandkids, been married three times, gone bankrupt, been forclosed (rather modified), hit one home run in Little League, and made touchdowns on the football field--what's left? I have been so happy lately that I can hardly stand it. My art career is in full gear at long last. I feel that great things are about to happen to me--like finding a chewing tobacco that won't make me sick--I can't wait. I am trying to cut some deals with the Holy Spirit as I write that will help me sink 4 foot putts--keep me in your prayers.

Here is portrait I did for a friend. It is kind of tight, but what can I say--I am not perfect--Don

For All You World Weary Bastards

2010-05-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

God's Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs --
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Faithful Ponder As......

2010-05-11T20:11:00.000-07:00

Hatfield Wanders

2010-05-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

My Demo At S-12 Still Life Workshop

2010-05-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

I thought it was time to establish or to re-establish some bit of credibility with my students so that they would be inclined to listen to what I say. I have taught as a sub from K through 12th grade during graduate school in Pasadena, and have taught college level History, Sociology, and Philosophy of Religion at Allen Hancock Junior College in Santa Maria, California. I am aware of just about all of the blockages that occur when students are summoned to sit and listen to a teacher, and I try to override these blockages with dirty jokes, hugs, prayers, enlightened content, entertaining antidotes, candy, soft rock....

Anyway I wanted to illustrate some points relating to the "big mass" approach to oil painting. Specifically the technique of holding off on the final color, final notes and accents, final rendering, and final anything else you can throw in--until the big masses within a painting are correctly placed, unified, and adjusted for color/value. Paint the forest before the trees--the dog before the fleas. Don't shoot too early for final effects, develop the whole canvas at one time, keep the initial vision alive til the end--so on and so on.....

I don't employ books, charts, templates, recipes, or anything related to abstract answers to the question--"...so, how do you paint." I point students to sources of oil painting instruction that are universally available. I admonish those who look to me for artistic advice to seek God, take serious vows of poverty, let goods and kindred go, get into rehab, and buy good brushes and paints. I also show them how I do it through live demonstrations accompanied by all of the above knowledge and techniques--except one!--at least so far.

HATFIELD STILL LIFE WORKSHOP BEGINS MAY 3

2010-04-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

I am posting this for any of my blog followers who may live in the Sacremento area and who may want to attend a four week block of still life workshops presented by Yours Truly. Call Patris Miller at 916-397-8958 for location, what to bring, time, price, how to act, what to wear, and how to make Don happy.

Each student will have his/her own still life booth and set up and will be able to control the light to facilitate design. We provide all of the props--just show up with your paints, brushes, canvas, and portable easel--if you have one. We provide easels if need be.

If you are a beginner--that is best! Often beginners are less resistant to real instruction than the experienced who can be stuck in cement.

If you are experienced--then get ready to hate me--because you are going to see close up and personal the guts of real representational painting as it is was classically taught and understood by the big boys--who are the big boys?--they are all dead and their work can be viewed in museums only.

If you want to bring your aunt Sophie's Crystal, your sparkling jewelry, your mink boa, and your Ester Williams swim cap to paint--in the hope that you can paint them with my help and sell them to make a contribution to AARP--then, by all means, please don't attend. This is not a paint and sell class--it is a paint and improve class!

Please visit my website at >donhatfield.com< or visit my blog >Ruminating on the Profundities <. You may view video trailers of my teaching on my website.

I am a nice guy, I am a Christian, but I work hard at not acting like one, I only tell dirty jokes upon request and in private, I brush my teeth 6 times a day to make up for not showering, I am a health food fanatic but I smoke cigars and eat a lot of chocoate just in case. So don't worry-- just show up and expect to have some fun, meet some artists you may not know, drink some of Patris' 12 day old coffee, and have a general good time.

I make a big point of hands on, mind engaged, heart involved instruction--this is my gift to the art world. See you next Tuesday.

Yours in the Oil Paint--Don Hatfield

Hatfield Critiques His Own Video

2010-04-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

I am throwing in this post because I have just viewed the new Jerry's Artarama release, "Fantasy Portraits in the Garden", by Yours Truly. I have watched dozens of "how to" videos over the years just like you have, and they fall into the category of...."let's watch the grass grow." My first video "Fantasy Portraits at Sea" falls into this general category. After the filming of that video, I remember thinking--this is not goint to cut it. I am surprized that they have sold hundreds. Anyway, this latest video is a winner! That's right I am tooting my own accordian! The superb editing by the Burning Oaks staff--especially April Tolliver--saved the day.

I was doing a workshop in Raleigh and hit upon the idea to bring the whole bunch over to the studio to work with the same model as I was during filming. Michael Goldstein consented, and away we went. About 10 or so artists painting along with the great Don Hatfield, asking questions and receiving instruction and critique on the fly. Not even that slick outfit Lillyadahl has presented a format like that (I think).

It is too nerve racking to try to paint, teach, critique, and blab simultaneously. But guess what?--I was created to do just that. It is a mirror of my crazy art life style which is one interruption after another--non-stop. I feed off of it. I have recently discovered that I am ADD, dislexic, and WSS all at once--all three ailaments are in my DNA, and I have spent a life time creating compensations--(WSS means won't sit still). Hell, my whole art career is one big compensation for my diffused consciousness.

The video has no lag, no dead space, and no Hatfield looking really stupid. The integration of the instruction and class interaction is perfectly timed to avoid viewer bordom. The film swims in some pretty good music too. In short-- it is seamless. I expect an avalanch of sales and workshop offers. I have purchased 2000 copies and have hired a staff of twenty Cal business students and an IT guy to meet the demand.

In short, you need this video--and so do your art buddies. Now give me your opinion after you view it with the church group, the vet home, the bunko crowd, the Ladies Aid, and the Daughters of the American Revolution--and don't forget the Rotary and Full Gospel Business Ass. I'll be waiting for your input--Always, Your Humble Don.

Commission Work

2010-04-23T17:07:00.000-07:00

This is a piece I just finished for a collector who wanted four boys on the beach. He has four grand sons so it seemed fitting. I am often asked to do works like this by those who want a personal touch, but they resist "dead-on" portraits. Sometimes there are requests for certain color harmonies, designs, and sizes to fit a space--all of which can be difficult, yet satisfying to do. The challenge is to listen to the requirements, and to keep your artistic mojo in high gear when executing the work. The best results seem to come forth when the client says,"....do whatever feels right--you are the artist." This work came easily since the trust factor was set in place early on. I feel pretty good about this one--I hope the client does to. Actually he has not received the original, but he has given approval based on the jpeg I sent.

I Love Painting In My Studio

2010-04-21T18:09:00.000-07:00

Now this is a situation made in heaven. I'm in my studio surrounded by big windows and insulation--I'm Cozy.....the ice box is full of ice cream, the cigars are in the humidor, the TV and channel changer are nearby--I don't have to pee behind a bush and get arrested for semi-public urination--I can plant my fat ass in a comfy chair with wheels and play roller derby with the cat and dogs nearby as they try to sleep--advantage all mine!

I Hate Plein Air Painting

2010-04-21T17:37:00.000-07:00

Bugs fly around your head, people stop and stare, the light changes, the wind blows your easel over, dirt gets in your eyes and paint, confusion rules. Yet the plein air craze continues for thousands around the country. They are everywhere--they even came to Napa Valley last week. Imagine--in my own back yard--I'm surrounded--they are coming after me! I even caught Kevin MacPhearson at the bottom of my drive way a few years ago with his wife Wanda painting a vinyard scene--I managed to pull him away from his easel to go do something important--hit golf balls at a nearby driving range. I thought I had escaped to my controlled, photoshopped enviorenment where I can trace an image and then color it in like a little boy with coloring book--to use Sergei's phrase (see my February post "My Great Moment With Sergei)--but it looks like I'm doomed. If you can't avoid'em--then join'em.

Terry Miura and his crew made it easy. I was invited as a guest to his wonderful plein air workshop at a local winery. I had to borrow Silvio Silvestry's portable easel since I destroyed all of my plein air equipment a few years ago as a result of a bee attack while painting outside in a rose garden not 20 yards from my studio. I taught those damn bees--I broke my $600.00 easel with a shovel and threw all of the gismos into the dumper. It felt sooo good! It feels good to break golf clubs too, but I always replace the broken clubs immediately with upgraded clubs to keep my set complete.

Anyway--I wanted to see if I could do it. So.....I plunked Silvio's Russian easel down in front of what seemed like the only paintable thing around--this wierd Daliesque looking dome surrounder by hills and bushes--something I long to paint--hills and bushes. I really needed a weed-whacker not an easel and brushes!

After 3 hours--I was out of gas. I signed the thing and gave it to Terry. He told me he liked it and was going to frame it--yeah right. I think he is going to donate it to Habitat for Humanity for hurricane victims who need to plug holes in the garage wall. Anyway--I felt better for having made the effort. I see how people can get addicted to plein air--the bugs, the people, the changing light........Don

How to Obtain New Hatfield Video Cheap

2010-04-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

Make your request via email at >hatfieldfineart@earthlink.net<. Give me your ship to address, and send a check to : Don Hatfield
P.O. Box 2855
Napa, California94558

I don't have PayPal hooked up, sorry. Also no credit card function as yet. The amount is $10.00.. If you are broke, just say so, and I will send you a freebee on me. I want your feedback on this video--your honest, uncensored input--I am counting on it! I have not seen it yet, so I am taking a big risk here, but I know that I am among friends.

Don

Premier of Don Hatfield's Video Masterpiece!

2010-04-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

Here, at last, is the companion video to "Fantasy Portraits at Sea" entitled "Fantasy Portraits in a Garden". April Tolliver, from Burning Oaks Studio, did the post production and the trailers. Her stuff is edgy--adding delight and humor to the otherwise difficult and confusing process of teaching the art of oil painting. The first video did surprisingly well--considering its impromptu presentation. The "Garden" video demonstrates my teaching in a real time class situation and is expected to change the art world forever. Destined to become a cult classic--it is a must view for anyone wanting to kill a few hours watching Yours Truly stumble around in an art workshop. It is competing directly with Dr.Phil and Opra for major time slots nationwide. It is also recommended viewing for couples who want to enjoy an evening of snuggling while ingesting artistic truth--an irrestible combination. The video is available through Jerry's Artarama--order several copies and give one to a friend--I need the money. Always (well sometimes) there to help, Don

I AM SO HAPPY--SUCCESS AT LAST!

2010-04-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

Today I found out that Jerry's Artarama is releasing my new teaching video entitled "Fantasy Portraits in the Garden"--or something like that. This is a two hour video of me chasing my tail around Burning Oaks Studio in Raleigh, NC--teaching twelve unsuspecting victims how to paint a garden scene using a live indoor model. If it is like the first one (Fantasy Portraits at Sea) it will feature Yours Truly with big gut, food on shirt, and lots of heavy breathing--and, O yes, styled out hair derived from sleeping on the floor the night before. I am comforted by the fact that April Tolliver, a world class video editor, did the trailer and most of the post production--should be interesting--destined to be another cult classic! Twelve million copies were pre-ordered by the People's Republic as an example of what can happen in the capitalistic West if you attend art classes with Don Hatfield--BOY THAT'LL TEACH'EM! Obama will comment on the video tonight on C-Spam. WOW I just got call from Dr. Phil's people asking me to appear in person and explain why the trailer is causing mass histaria in Times Square! Woa! Tiger Wood's agent wants to hire me as a putting guru--what have I done! What in hell does Warren Buffet want--I have to answer his call--just a minute--Guess what?--he wants me to appear with him at the next G8 summit! These people are such a bother. It's not easy being a representational artist these days--O well.... Hope you are smiling--most of the above is true--I'll let you decide. Don

UNDERSTAND THIS AND SELL A PAINTING FOR A CHANGE

2010-04-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

I tried to explain earlier my understanding of creating a unified painting. I came up with the phrase.."put a little of everything into everything else." This sounds simplistic and needs a little clarification--so here goes. Paintings should be unified in color, value, design, line, light source, idea and several other things I can't think of now. If they are not unified then they fall apart. The painting becomes a conglomeration of confusing shapes, colors, and values that lead nowhere. It becomes difficult to look at. The eye--the great organ that determines the look-ability of a painting (duh!)-- becomes frustrated and quickly fatigues. If the eye can't make sense of a representational work then it goes elsewhere.

I have had the experience of unveiling my work to collectors (potential or otherwise) that took a quick glance at my work and then began yapping about the weather or the bad wine or Suzie Smith--BAD SIGN! The painting could not hold their attention. Its dis-jointed character, whether in color, design, value, etc--made it impossible for the buyer to "keep with it". This kind of painting usually won't sell--not immediately anyway. It's a mystery why so many of our bad paintings sell isn't it?--but I have noticed that the best paintings I present amost always sell quickly, and they are the ones that have the unity I am talking about.

If you see someone staring quietly at your painting, hanging around it for a long time, returning to it again and again at the show, bringing their friend to see it, opening their purse or wallet, then your collector is on the hook--GOOD SIGN! Your painting has captured them. It probably has the unity we are seeking. Often an over anxious sales person will come along at this point and blow the sale--so keep them away from those enjoying your work for as long as possible!

As far as color unity--something absent in almost all representational paintings today--find a way to spread a touch of every color into its neighboring color. Color spots can become too separated if they are allowed to stand alone in the painting. Put some of that green into the neighboring red, put some of that muted blue into the neighboring yellow, put some of that pathetic purple of yours into the black next to it and so on--in other words--PUT A LITTLE OF EVEREYTHING INTO EVERYTHING ELSE.

There are many elaborate theories as to how to create color unity using families of colors, limited pallets, magic brushes, lost edges and your grand mother's old nighty--but it is far easier and quicker to create unity the way I am suggesting. I know for a fact that the "big boys" did it this way.

Yes I know how hard it is to do this, but it can be learned. I learned color with pastels. The grey Strathmore pastel paper I used provided instant unity if I let a little of the grey paper show throughout the work--the grey, or tan or whatever paper color, when allowed to show through everywhere, gave the work automatic color unity. It created the instant "getting a little of everything......" This is why my current technique is to work from grey to rich--from grey color to rich color. I instinctively create a grey ground, and then add richer color. The rich color sets down nicely having found a home in grey surroundings. This rich to grey dialectic drives my work always. Some work with bright color, then grey it down as they go. Either way can create unity. This process can occur in a tiny area or in a large area, but it is essential in the color unifying process.

I want to mention here that color unity--not rendering--is the main reason why paintings are attractive to the discerning eye. It is unified color that carries the greatest emotional content, the most "snap", the most authority, the most sympathetic contract between viewer and artist. Do you think the Nabis are considered the greatest colorists because of they rendered in detail? Do Potthast's beach scenes bring millions because of their anatomical correctness? Potthast's painting are meticulously rendered--but with color unity in mind.

Yes there are works that sell because of subject matter alone or because everything is rendered to the nat's ass, but I am not talking about these kinds of paintings--I AM TALKING ABOUT REAL ART DAMMIT!--paintings that weave a color tapastry, that consider every stroke, that move the viewer with magic, that have no strident color, no eye-catchers, no isolated spots. In strong work--everything holds together and provides that mystical, now-you-see-it-now-you-don't quality that characterizes the inflamed imagination of the beholder--an imagination that is given room to wander, to invent, to discover, because the artist's very soul was actively creating that opportunity, knowingly. If you can paint as I am suggesting, then you are blessed. This is what we all strive for--right? You bet!

I often hear the following..."well so and so is making big bucks..."--as if "big bucks" means that their work is art. Well, if big bucks is your goal then open a brothel next to a military base and enjoy your riches--and leave honest painting to the poor bastard who is honestly sweating out a creative act with nothing but his guts, his soul, his materials, and his nagging wife.

O--before I forget--if the nagging wife, or girl friend, suddenly becomes your greatest advocate when you bring in the big money--then you know what to do--buy her some chocolate and roses, and then introduce her to your true support system and tell her to shut the hell up--then heartily repent to the God whose character is to forgive great sin. I am getting off the subject--or maybe not! Who loves ya?--now don't judge me--I'm just spiff balling here!

In summary: The color spots you see in great paintings--Sargents, Sorollas, Potthasts, et al. are unified--they are held together color wise by bringing otherwise separated areas together--by relating them with knocked down color or by adding richer color over grey. I will find other ways to clarify this in future essays. I will discuss the unity created by light, design, value and rendering in the near future. Gotta go finish a commission. Your pal, Don

Why Is Representational Oil Painting So Difficult--Revised Version

2010-04-09T06:24:00.000-07:00

Painting is difficult because it requires that you see everything in relation to everything else and paint it so. There it is-- pure and simple. Those who paint everything in relation to everything else paint well--those who can't or refuse to paint everything in relation to everything else paint pieces of things. They paint the trees, but not the forest--they paint the fleas, but not the dog. They are interested in eye lashes, but not the structure of the boney prominences that surround the eye cavity and create beautiful light planes. They jump to painting highlights before establishing the large shapes and planes that lead up to the brightest light planes or "highlights".

In short, they seldom connect the dots, they never see the big picture, they can only take in what is immediately in front of them--they have no peripheral vision that allows them to see how things are interrelated. Their canvas has no harmony of shape, no conversation of color, no direction that grips the soul. They express no faith. They have no story to tell. They are satisfied with selling pathetic little postcards with their name on it. They almost never get it--they don't see, they don't hear, they don't even smell the ink on the morning newspaper! They don't serve art--their art serves them. OK...so I am projecting my own confession--this is the mood that has possessed me lately. I need a big picture, I need to connect the dots, and so on and so forth, and so what! Thought you should know. Who loves ya?--how do ya like me now?--come on!! Don

Piazza Senorina--Major Grunt

2010-03-14T16:50:00.000-07:00

I did this a few years ago and sold it out of the back of my truck after it was rejected by the gallery representing me at the time--it didn't look like a Hatfield. There is a lesson here somewhere--artist take heed!

I tried to carry my interest in the "inter-relationship of people" into a crowd scene. I attempted to portray the moment when the business man was trying to sell something to a two year old--in this case a ride in a carriage at Piazza Senorina, Florence, Italy. I worked off photographs I took at the site. I was directing (yelling at) the carriage drivers to position themselves for my photos--it didn't work--I wonder why! I used 16 different references for this painting. I see in my FASO stats that this painting is number one in interest on my website. I think the pigeons are the reason.

All Smiles--Don and Janey Hatfield

2010-03-11T16:48:00.000-08:00

Ain't love grand?--we just sold a half dozen paintings, and felt good for a few minutes--I was still adding up the numbers and figuring my cut when my wife and the camera man conspired to portray joy as it really is--I know you understand.

Paint Like Anne Lamott Writes!

2010-03-11T16:37:00.000-08:00

Great writers have the ability to be absorbed in the details of the world they write about. They present colorful detailed descriptions, portray moods and nuances of human personality, entertain us by bending phrases and words in ways we have never read, inject oddities and crudities into their text to keep us interested, shock us with unexpected twists and turns of narrative, and in general high jack our lives--at least for a few hours--with a delivery system (a book) that we can't escape. In short, great writers cause us to read.

Anne Lamott is working on my brain at the moment. I am absorbed in the life-particulars of some chic from the Bay Area whose autodidactic solypsistic crap is now splattered all over my soul. I am jealous of her success, and I am slightly angered that I can't put her scribblings down--she has captured me--she is taking hours of my life now, and she doesn't even know me. I have read 80 pages of "Traveling Mercies" and have even squirted a few tears when she introduced her Jesus at the end of chapter one. What's next?--who knows?--but with 200 more pages to read, I may have to skip American Idol tonight--do ya think!

OK--so what? The "so what" is--we gotta paint like this babe writes! Paint landscapes that may have your thrown in jail--Levitan did. Paint figures whose humanity in palpable--Velasquez did. Paint the ocean so that one can smell the salt air--Guy Rose did. Paint something-- anything!--except that god forsaken, money making, pot boiling thing you are now working on--you know-- the one you have done a hundred times--the one all of your collectors expect you to paint--the one that brought you money and notoriety!

I facticize about an art show where the artist gives his work away to the onlooker whose heart is right--who wants artwork for the right reasons--the one whose soul will consume the food our paintings serve up. If you or I, dear fellow artist, were to stage a show like that--would anybody come? Would anybody go home with our free gift? Let's find out. You go first, and tell me what happens--I'm going back to my book--Don

Conversation of Color--Warm and Cool

2010-03-08T06:52:00.000-08:00

I wish I had painted this, but no--this is Vadim Zanginian--another Russian who has hit the American scene with a bang. This nude demonstrates wonderfully the conversation between warm and cool colors that I try to teach and that I try to make happen in my own work. Look how the cool notes on the lower right provide a perfect foil for the beautiful reds on the cheek and below the chin. The warm tones in the arms and belly are held down--it would have been easy to over heat the reds there with cadmium, but the artist used nice tans and greyed out warm tones to do the job. He did not smooth out all of the passages with his sable brush--he left the transitions rough so that our eyes could have fun making the connections. Nothing is over rendered--there is plenty of room for the imagination to wander. This is the key--don't make me feel stupid by rendering the life out of every inch of the canvas--I have a brain, and I can take a hint--so don't scream at me with all of your damn details--save the details for the main story--don't throw them in everywhere. This is a consistent weakness in those who have had heavy illustration backgrounds--no subordination of detail or color--too much detail and color everywhere. It is also a weakness for those of us who render detail when our painting hits default mode--we give up the big initial vision hoping that if we render detail--then we can bail out the painting--guess what--no can do! The old timers like Dean Cornwell, Pyle, Frank Brangwyn and their buddies understood subordinate detail and color--that is, they would cause your eye to "run up" to colorful passages by not putting too much color or detail everywhere. This "run up" notion is true with line, shape, detail, color and other things I can't think of. Warm me up to your painting, give me a little "now you see it, now you don't", give my eye a little "lead in" to your main theme--starve my eye a little, then feed my eye--play with my eye and brain--let me have a little fun with your canvas--how about some nice fore play? I promise you that if your canvas does these things to me--I will have to buy the damn thing even if I am broke.

Extacy Has A Face

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

Eva's expression during bath at two months says it all!

"Brothers" 1980

2010-03-07T08:03:00.000-08:00

When I look at this today--I think, Hatfield you used to be good--what happened?

"Dad...you suck"

2010-03-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

"Hatfield"--"I can't follow your line of teaching because your are an instinctual painter, whilst I need structure in order to paint--goodby, I don't need this crap anymore!"--or something like that. I get this from artists who have had heavy illustration backgrounds and who come to me to "loosen up" or because they love my use of color. They come, they see, they adore, they leave. When they see how muddy I work in the early stages of the painting--they are confused. When they see how sloppy my drawing is--they are befuddled. When I preach the big mass approach--they are lost. When I suggest that they hold off on the details--the final notes, accents, and color--until the very end of the process--they ignore me. I am hearing echos from the past--from my years of parenting--"Dad, you suck."

I used to fanticize that I could take anybody with an IQ of 36-- who had at least one hand, one eye, and one ear--and make them a great oil painter. I am told that I suffer from megalomania. Maybe I am just too reductionistic or naive--or maybe I just have BO. I seem to suffer from some stinking, incurable malady when it comes to things artistic. One thing is certain--I have always believed that if I can get it, then anybody can get it--it is never a matter of talent--only a matter of love intersecting opportunity. I am hearing what Anthony Hopkins said to Alec Baldwin--"...what one man can do--another can do." Guess what--I believe this statement to be absolutely right! O yes, this art thing is open to every man. Lets hear it gang!--WHAT ONE MAN CAN DO--ANOTHER CAN DO! This is true in oil painting more than we will ever admit.

I am not saying that anybody can be another John Singer Sargent or another Tiger Woods--what I am saying is that it is possible for every man to reach the height of potential that is granted him--if one does reach for that potential with great love for the process, for the journey--then he is a man (woman) to be admired for sure. As a teacher it is my job to provide the opportunity--it is the student's job to provide the love. What distinguishes Tiger Woods ?--he loved it (golf) more than the rest. Why did Sargent rise to such heights amongst his peers?--he loved it more that the rest. I can prove this to anyone who wants to argue, but I don't have the energy to debate the obvious--so I will just beg the question and go on.

Moment in the Sun

2010-03-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

I have to compete in the reproduction market with all of the old Hatfield paper dumped in the 90's that was a result of giclees replacing silk screens. Even so, I am getting good giclee sales from my site. Many collectors like dealing directly with artists. This occasions new friendships, and I believe it will be a common scenario as the economic slide continues. I have never liked the marketing aspect of the art life, but one on one on the telephone is not so bad--I hate shows where you must schmooze with booze or a sale you will loose.

Hatfield Slogs On

2010-03-05T06:35:00.000-08:00

Since I haven't painted in three weeks, I thought it was time to upload a pic of me painting a pretty picture of past performances preferring positivity over pressure to provide--I know you understand.

Get Them Started Early

2010-03-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

I agreed with my daughter Rachel and her husband Todd that their Eva Marie should get a jump on the kids in the hood by dawning some tats early in her life. The Bible says ".... train a child in the way he (she) should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." It has been so important to raise Eva perfectly. If you enter "Blue Screen Bubby" in "Google" a ten minute short film will pop up that Todd and Rachel created at the Old Swinnie Film Academy in Melbourne, Australia that illustrates this point perfectly--it has become a cult classic among prefectionistic parents--give it a look--you will thank me. Don

Your Big Okie Dokie Appreciated

2010-03-02T05:40:00.000-08:00

I've been blogging seriously now for a few weeks and am grateful for the sense of community it is creating. I have been teaching at S-12 in Sacremento for almost a year and am glad to be a part of that scene too. Blogging and teaching, then, have broken the spell of isolation that has characterized my art life since 1988 when I signed my soul away to an art publishing company in exchange for a big, fat, certain income. That all shut down in 2004, and I have been chasing my tail ever since--and coming from me, that is saying alot. Family, friends, agents, gurus, well wishers and art pushers have offered well meaning advice on what I should do to keep my work "out there." I have learned one thing for sure--talk is cheap, and money buys whiskey.

There is a substantial crowd "out there" that has seen or purchased Hatfield graphics and oil paintings for a few decades now. The thing is--they are all aged. They are living in retirement villages, pushing walkers, carrying little white dogs in their purses--they have hearing aids, pace makers, and titanium knees and hips. The wonderful thing is--these are my peers, this is my age group, I am one on them! At 63 I have tried and failed at 100 stay young, eat right, and look good programs. I give up! Give me my bacon, my tobacco, my sugar and channel changer and leave me alone! My fantasy body has cut abs, tight protruding buttocks, a small waist, and a "V" shaped torso--it just hasn't shown up in the mirror yet. What has shown up in my life is a group of people who actually read what I write, and who tolerate my oil painting tid bits.

So then, I feel surrounded by a cloud of spectators who are waiting to see what I paint or hear what I say--or at least it seems so for the moment. This may be a fantasy, but it is energizing none the less. I seem to need it. This cyber world was made for me. I have not felt so at home since my third Christmas in 1950 when my family all gathered around the Christmas tree in Lake Elsinore, California. I now know how Jesus is going to return to the earth! It has been revealed to me. He is going to show up in Facebook, create a blog, go viral, then virtual, and then stream into every hand held device. Those who have Blackberrys will ascend to heaven--those who only have lap tops will burn in hell. The Macs will gather on the right hand of the Father--the PC's will gather on the left--I better stop here. The coffee has just kicked in, and my imagination is going off.

Anyway, I sarted this post just wanting to say thanks for the encouragement and thoughtful responses and I got lost along the way--but I am back to center now. I gotta get ready to drive over to Sac for my class--o yes, I gotta empty the cat box first. Always, Don

Recent Painting at S-12

2010-03-01T13:46:00.000-08:00

This represents my recent effort--I'm not wild about it, but it was all I had that day--I was worn out before I started from too much blogging. I even tried to improve it on Photoshop after I received the jpeg.

My Great Moment with Sergei Bongart

2010-02-28T19:05:00.000-08:00

I first heard of Sergei from my great teacher and mentor, Charles Cross, in 1970. I think Sergei was teaching in Santa Monica at the time, but what interested me was Charles' designation--"the great Sergei Bongart." Charlie did not throw praise around much, so I was curious about this Russian teacher who struck fear and awe in everyone who encountered him. In 1980, after returning to California from Indianapolis to seek additional art training, I was directed by Don Putman to Sergei's classes in Los Angeles. I sought admittance with great anticipation. Sergei was teaching at the Business Men's Art Club in an old building that was once the Los Angeles School of Artistic Whistling. It was a victorian with two stories. Downstairs Sergei's proven devotees painted the figure, while novitiates were consigned to the upstair regions to sweat out the still life. Upon arrival at Sergei's dojo I was immediately ushered upstairs by his loyal assistant, Sonny (like Sony television) Apichapong. I was left alone with twenty or so still life set ups of plastic flowers, green bottles, copper pots, and stuffed fowl. After an hour of painting misery, I heard these clomping footsteps coming up the wooden stair case--it was Sergei! "Hower ju?" "Vut ju doink?" "Steel life es goot packtice." I had prepared myself for this initial encounter by memorizing the name and basic biography of every great Russian artist of the previous 100 years--Serov, Repin, Maliavan, Ivan Shiskin, Levitan, Constantinen, and all the rest. Sergei was really impressed if I must say so--not with my painting, but with my hastily acquired knowledge of Russin art history. So it began. From that day forward Sergei would clomp up the stairs about twenty minutes after class began, and we would discuss Russian art amid a few comments about my still life painting. "Too much color--paintink luk like monkey's behind." "Red is trouble--luk like Red Sea" "Too many wiggle schmigle brush strook." "Don't tink jus paint." "Put down strook and leave alone." Sergei would often paint right over the top of your efforts and do what amounted to a Sergei work over. He did this a number of times for me , and I would sell them to other students to pay my tuition.

Sergei was a typical professorial type who took every question as an cue for a ten minute lecture that would often vere off into personal anectdotes. The stories of drinking bouts with fellow artists, his hatred for the communists, stories of his life in Russia, his comments about artists living and dead just poured out in response to my poignant queries. I figured out how to push his Russian buttons. He hated the movie "Reds", but he loved Ronald Reagan who he felt was the first American President to stand up to the Soviets. It was easy to see his love and frustration with the Mother Country. He was certain that if he ever returned to the homeland he would be imprisioned in Siberia for good.

After a few months of study, Sergei gave me my first homework assignment. "Go home, paint white paintink, bring back, I critique." I gathered every white object I could find--eggs, paper towels, napkins, plastic spoons--whatever. I painted a 40by4o canvas and plunked it down in front of the whole class--and Sergei. "Dis is goot paintink--now.. go home paint red paintink." That was all he said--but, he did say that it was "goot." I had scored, I was an artist!--Sergei told me so with the word "goot." So the next week I returned with a painting of every red object I could find. Same program--only this time Sergei placed my 40by40 painting on a easel in front of what seemed a much larger class. I felt this effort was superior to the last, and I awaited to be knighted, to be elevated to the level of the gods, to receive a great big okie dokie from the master himself--in front of the home crowd! Well.....you guessed it. "Dis is not art" was the opening salvo--followed by--"Dis is like baby wit coolorink buk--draw circle, color in circle." "Is like little boy wit crayon." By this time Sonny was doubled over in restrained laughter, the rest of the class was dead silent. Sergei turned and marched off into his office leaving me alone, stripped to the bone, in front of 40 devotees and Sonny. I felt that my guts had been looted clean of all my artistic hopes. So I went on the attack-- "F.....you, and F...you, and F...you too." I then retreated upstairs burning with rage and embarrasment. Ten minutes later Sonny came up and said, "Sergei wants to speak with you privately in his office."

As I made my way downstairs, I was certain that I would be asked to leave the school. I had gone off like a mad man verbally attacking innocent bystanders. I had completely blown my shot at study with the great one--what could I do, where could I go, how would I live this down? I thought about just heading out to my car and driving off--leaving his F..ing school and its dummies--I was really undone. But I decided to face the music. Sonny ushered me past the 40 students in the life class who seemed to give me the evil eye. Down the hall to the left was Sergei's office. This was off limits to students, but this day I was invited in. Sonny opened the door, and there sat Sergei behind his desk waiting for me.

There were four great moments in my student years that I felt shaped my destiny as an artist. 'They are written on the fleshly tablets of my heart, and I can talk about the time, the place, and the psychological context of each one of them. What occurred in Sergei's office that day in the summer of 1980 was one of these moments. At that point in my life, I felt I had nothing going for me except a beautiful wife and four beautiful children--no certain career, no money earning capacity--no mojo! My wife, Diana, had gone back to nursing so I could pursue my art--we were living in voluntary poverty in those years so I could study and paint all day with the outside chance that I would eventually amount to something and make a living at it. And now this! It was a great privilidge to study with Sergei, but you had better be serious--from time to time he would stage back door revivals to run off the deadwood--those who were there for looks or on a whim. And now I was about to join the ranks of the discarded. Well to make it short--Sergei stood up and began, "Why you doo dis?" "You could be great artist, but you scare people--you like Bolshovik." "Now... go--upstairs--go paint--shut up--just work--go."--and that was it. I was not kicked out as I had feared, and he seemd to let me off the hook with minimum scolding and a few exhortations. I felt the blood, the mojo, the soul return to my body. I was going to live after all! Things seemed to accelerate from then on--I had been given the grace I needed at the right time--I moved downstairs with the devotees--a year later I said goodby to The School of Artistic Whistling, to Sonny, and to the great one. The rest is just more process--and grace. Don Hatfield

Readable Version of Earlier Post

2010-02-27T15:56:00.000-08:00

The post, "The Color of Your Artistic Soul Revealed", was written in one long grunt and is bulky and hard to follow, so I thought I would create a condenced version. This re-write is worth it to me because I have slaved over this stuff for 40 years, and I believe that I have arrived at some important conclusions that apply to all practicing artists--conclusions that I have hacked out on the front lines of art production, in the mud, so to speak. I want to say four things about color that I believe actually help practicing oil painters. If you are not "in the paint", what I say or what anybody says will be to no avail--duh! I am assuming a basic knowledge of color use on your part and have no interest in discouraging your continued study of color from every angle possible. My own ideas are constantly evolving because of new knowledge, but my new knowledge has to do with my interior, my mind and soul--not my wrist or the acquisition of tricks. I don't give a hoot in hell about so and so's tid bits, methods, or recipies unless his paintings knock me flat on my big ass and make me want to cry "mercy!" What I am about to say applies to those who really are interested in taking their art to the next level--it does not apply to those who are satisfied with what they have accomplished so far--in point of fact, those who are lost, confused, frustrated, disoriented and desparate in their art journey are the ones who are most likely to hear this stuff. I have observed that self satisfaction is death in this business--I know from experience that when the money pours in and the legions of men are applauding, growth usually stops. And finally--the great inhibitors to improvement in painting are spiritual, social, and psychological--they have absolutely nothing to do with talent--so here goes.

1. Color apprehension and use in oil painting are instinctual--it is a disposition of the heart, and as such it is a matter of the soul, the gut, the feelings, the spirit, the interior. Accumulating technical information about color may not lead to the ability to use color brilliantly in oil painting. To improve, one must work on his artistic mojo. How do you work on your mojo? This leads to my second point:

2. The oil painter must develop taste--or call is discernment or consciosness. Taste is developed by looking at the great work of great artists living and dead (mostly dead), and by trusting your God given instincts that arise when viewing color in paintings and in nature or maybe even in your dreams. You will know that your taste is developing when you find your self responding from the gut to what you are looking at. You may say "..that color is hard to look at", "that color is beautiful", "that painting has the snap of reality and grabs my senses", "that color harmonizes, it holds together, it sings"--the artist must own these responses and trust them to inform his own artistic journey. You cannot import color taste--though many try--you see this in magazines and on televesion all the time--you see, many who would rather pay for someone else to do their thinking for them rather than listen to their own voice. So then--your own internal responses are the bed rock, the foundation, the core out of which your taste emerges--they are the fuel of your own fire--the fire that drives you as an artist. The limits of your taste mark the limits of your development in use of color.

3. You must hold on to your initial color scheme, your motive, your inspiration, your direction throughout your painting. If you are unsure what moves you or where you are headed when you start your color masterpiece, then stop until you are decided. It helps to ask--is this going to be a red, a blue, or a yellow painting? Is this going to be a warm or a cool color scheme? Is the color going to be rich or grey? If you can answer these questions early in your project, then you may be able to hold on to your initial interest to the end. If your motive, your initial inspiration is not clear to you, then it will not show up in your finished work. Color creates great sympathetic contract with the viewer and is possibly more important than accuracy of drawing or subject matter. If you can attach great color to great design or great story, then that's as good as it gets in paint. I have wobbled through many paintings--drifting from one vague idea to the next, trying to bail out the canvas by rendering the hell out of this or that--not having a clear vision or direction and finally just giving up and submitting to that voice from hell that says...."it will sell--why worry about it!" The terrible truth here is--that voice is often accurate.

4. All answers to color problems are on the canvas--not in nature. While inspiration can come from nature--solutions are arrived at in the paint. Nature provides a point of departure--a temporary reference point for your project. Depiction of nature is not the aim--your sense of nature, your interpretation, your bending of nature is the goal. How I respond to the subject at hand in paint will be the record of my effort for the ages--not that flower, that pretty girl, that landscape out there. So then, we have to make the canvas work. It is the canvas that will finally say: "Hatfield was here, he lived, he recorded, for better or worse he left a record." So be nice to your canvas and let it hold forth on your behalf. Don Hatfield

Facing Responsibility, but First Things First!

2010-02-26T05:25:00.000-08:00

What is the right thing to do? I know...whatever feels good!
I am behind in taxes, commisssions, and household chores--time to go paint all day in Sac with my friends! Yup--go "cavort with the gods!"

"...and let us rejoice in it!"

2010-02-26T04:22:00.000-08:00

morning light looking out from where I paint in my Napa studio
As I sit here at three in the morning in my forrest studio above Napa Valley, I am reminded of Service's lines,".....and here am I where all things end, and undesirables are hurled, a poor old man without a friend, forgot and lost to all the world; clean our of sight and out of mind...well, maybe it is better so; we all in life our level find, and mine, I guess, is pretty low." In a few hours it will be dawn, and perhaps I can say "...this is the day the Lord hath made...let us be glad and rejoice in it!"

Origins of the Universe l

2010-02-26T04:15:00.000-08:00

click on image to enlarge
Eva tries desparately to convince her uncle, Caleb Hatfield, that the universe indeed has meaning.

Origins of the Universe ll

2010-02-26T04:12:00.000-08:00

click on image to enlarge
Eva ponders whether her explaination to Caleb was sufficient.

Just After World War Two

2010-02-24T18:04:00.000-08:00

My dad (right) had migrated to So Cal to work the oil fields in Long Beach (Signal Hill). My brother , Harold (left) had been a star at USC and was now playing pro ball for the Edmonton Eskimos in Canada, my brother Dick (tee shirt) was just home from the war in the Pacific, and my mother was just proud of her boys. The little guy is me. They are all gone now: God, I miss them so!

The Color Of Your Artistic Soul Revealed

2010-02-24T10:28:00.000-08:00

Color is elusive, highly personal, mercurial, and the least quantifiable of all the branches of oil painting. It is nearly impossible to teach color, but it is very easy to blab about it--I know. You can be color blind and still be a great colorist. Color is wedded inextricibly to value if form painting of any kind is the goal. Those who want to argue this point with me will find no adversary. Do what you want, and show me what you can do, but don't bug me with half baked color theories, books on color, articles on color, so and so's school of color, workshops on color, trips to Europe looking for color, great thoughts on color and so forth--I have heard and seen them all, and I have a built in crap detector that is highly tuned. I have no patience with non-painter theorists who try to explain to me why blue and yellow don't make green--they sure as hell do on my palette! If you think I am great at color, then you are in agreement with many others. If you think my color is half ass--then you are in agreement with me. It doesn't matter. I have, however, arrived at one certainty regarding the successful use of color in oil painting that fits all men in all places without exception, and which divides the men from the boys in the color game--it is this. The artist's color sense must emerge from his own interior, and the artist must grow in his knowledge that the canvas is a mirror of that interior. This interior or soul or spirit develops in relation to the world over time. It helps if the artist can articulate that development in terms of likes and dislikes--in terms of yes and no. To say, " I like this, and I don't like that" is the beginning of taste--taste that will be expressed on the canvas. Once the rudiments of color mixing is in hand, the journey begins. After a few acres of canvas are covered, the oil painter reveals who he is in color for all the see. Scary isn't it? The good news in our time is that almost nobody cares what oil painters are doing. It takes courage to develop taste--to say I don't like that or I really dig this. It takes time to articulate taste--to hold forth with the whys and wherefores of one's tastes and preferences in color.

I believe that this taste thing is at the core of the use of color--the lack of conviction, of clarity, and taste cause artists to stumble with color--not technology. It is personal conviction that preceeds growth in the painting process. Put another way--inspiration preceeds technology. If I strongly desire to achieve certain color effects, I will find a way to do it--I may have to invent a way--now I am finding answers, now I am creating. Develop your color palett around your own taste and not around anyone else's. Be able to say--I don't like this or I hate that, or I really dig the other, and feel comfortable with your feelings. Trust that voice that is coming to you from a place of your own--it won't lie to you. That's all there is to it. Sounds easy, but it is a life time process. Some people short circuit the process by hiring others to define their color taste for them--they fear not being hip or they don't trust themselves in a matter that is rarely life threatening. Why not develop the ability to talk to yourself (not others) about what appeals to you and why--and act on it--at least on the canvas where it is safe.

If you are an oil painter, you probabley have developed the ability to critique museum paintings as well as Aunt Sophie's weekend darling. Try to articulate to yourself what moves you and why in every piece of art you behold. Those who have struggled in the past with color have left a perfect record in paint of their efforts to be tasteful, and you may learn well from them. If you have purchased thousands of dollars of art monographs, visited nearly every museum at home and abroad, spent months with your nose six inches from every beautiful painting that you can find--you are probably developing color taste, and that taste will find its way onto your canvas. You surely don't have to paint to love color, but painting gives you the opportunity to see if you can put down harmonies that please yourself--you may even create conversations of color that collectors will pay for. Harmonies and conversations--that is what great colorists fill their canvases with. We know from expereience that some things don't seem to harmonize very well and some conversations are really uninteresting.

I am exhorting you to develope, nuture, sustain, discover and project (in paint) great taste--your taste. Taste is not opinion, it does not inhere in somebody's else's mind or spirit, it cannot be purchased--recipes of other people's taste are for sale, however--be sure you don't buy! Your personal taste can only be developed over time and with some conscious effort. We are told that studying from life and copying old masters teaches color. I often study old master paintings and ask myself --now, how did he do that? Staring at and attempting to render nature, however, will not necessarily teach you how to paint with great color. Painting from life is often no better than painting from photographs when it comes to improving color skills. Assuming some familiarity with oil painting fundmentals, the most direct route to improving color skills is to learn how to asses your own work honestly by comparing what you have acheived with your initial goal. If your initial goal was not informed by great taste, then you may be limited temporarily, until your taste develops further. Some sticking points that art instructors feel with certain students are due to simple lack of taste. Chase made a comment to one of his students that is revealing here. The student came with canvas in hand and said, "...if I could see it (nature) , then I could paint it." Chase corrected him, "...no!..when you can see what you have painted, then you will improve."

The answers, then, are on the canvas, not in nature. There is a difference. Nature is only a starting point. The finishing point, the most important point, the point that determines the final disposition of the canvas--is in your head, in your heart, in your soul, in your spirit, or maybe even in your toe--it's someplace in you--not out there! Your painting is finished when you can say."..I left nothing of myself out of this project--I put everything I had into it today." "I painted it the way I saw it, not the way Joe Blow saw it." It is possible, maybe preferable, to piddle around with your piles of color on your pallett with your knife and experiment by putting some of it up there on the canvas in ways never before imagined--as Dan McCaw once said,"..if you want to put a blue line around it...then, put a blue line around it." Who knows? Yes we observe live models, still life, and landscapes to build our skill sets. You have to learn how to open the car door, set your big fanny in the seat, put on the safety belt, shut the door, put it in neutral, turn the key and get the car going--but these steps are only part of the story. The trip, the journey, the destination is the important story. Your taste--what you like and don't like, who you are--will determine your color journey in every painting. When you know who you are and what you like, it becomes easier to communicte that to others--in paint, print, or on stage. If you are confused about your direction or are creating from someplace outside of your own values, how can others make sense of your song, your dance, your canvas? Don Hatfield

Painting and Wasting

2010-02-22T13:47:00.000-08:00

Charles Hawthorne said one should never paint when sick. I think he understood that the mental, psysical, and spiritual energy it takes to paint is finite and fragile. It takes tremendous force to over come inertia--it takes a hugh booster rocket to get the payload into the heavens. When you are sick the necessary feul is lacking--I think. I can't even chew tobacco anymore when I work--the dis-equalibriation tweeks with my sensitive mojo and fouls the work. Painting invites us to be fully present with the mind, body, and spirit so that we can break into new work or new treatments--or maybe even find our way back into an old painting that needs improving. Getting started under any circumstances is a fight because the mind, body, and spirit often say--what in the hell are you doing?! Then come the million voices, then comes the financial pressure, then comes the self criticism and doubt--not to mention the ennui that can set in like black smoke. Many artists hate structure--they want to be free--but you are better off with a dead line, a commission, any obligation--anything to ignite your will to paint--right now!, immediately!, est momento! ahora mismo!-- Sargent would give himself half an hour walking about with his easel in the countryside--if he could not find a subject--he would stop immediately and paint what was dead infront of him. Sergei used to say,"...don't think, just paint." Mccaw would say, "..if not now, when?" Don Hatfield says--if you can find anything to do but paint--do that instead. My old Jungian therapist Niel Russack used to say to me."...you have no right to piss away the gift that God has given you!" As I grow older the term "waste" carries weight. When I am not available to what I love the most, I am wasting--what I am wasting, I am not sure--but something--you get the idea. Think I'll go take nap.

This is my first natural grandaughter so forgive me.

2010-02-20T21:39:00.000-08:00

The child is the teacher of the man.

Melting Grandpa

2010-02-20T21:35:00.001-08:00

Eva Means Mother Of All Living

2010-02-20T21:31:00.000-08:00

Avoid Easy Answers--Rotate Still Life, Figure, and Landscape

2010-02-19T09:29:00.000-08:00

Can they paint figures, landscapes, and still life?--That is the question I ask when introduced to a new representational artist. Very few paint all three on a rotating basis for public view. Dan Gerhartz and John Treynor are exceptions--there must be others, but few. Still lifes sell, so all you see is still life-- landscapes sell, so all you see from the artist is landscapes-- figures sell so...blah, blah,-- beach scenes sell too--I know about that! Your groove can become your rut in a hurry if money comes into play--that old enemy money! Mannerisms protrude immediately when all you paint is one of these three basic categories to the exclusion of the others. The head is so damn easy to paint that it bored the hell out of Sargent who, being the supreme mannerist, tricked out his sitters in attire befitting the rich, noble, and powerful--so the inter play of the figure in costume with the enviorenment became his playground--even Sargent had to challenge himself to a little honest searching! There is not a portrait painter today who imposes this kind of trouble on himself . It is simple to rig the sitting so that the light plays off the model in all of the standard ways--ways we have painted a hundred times. Repetition breeds easy solutions--familiar solutions become stale tricks--performing old stunts becomes a way of life, and God help you, may even lead to riches. We all know artists who paint still life exclusively--after seeing 20 of these by the same artist we have had enough. There are thousands of lanscape paintings out there that look amazingly alike--separated only by region and not by creativity or treatment. To graduate from the old ateliers you had to produce a piece that had all of the elements, still life, figure, landscape--into one painting that often had some historical story line--now that's a test! So let's rotate the subject matter--shall we. Let's occasionally throw our great painting talent at the unfamiliar. Let's wade into an unknown where anthing can be an answer. After YOU have done this--call me and tell me what you learned so I don't have to do it! Anyway--enough. Mannerisms (easy solutions) are a way of life now in representational oil painting--you can buy how to books on figure painting, landscape painting, still life painting, eyes, ears, nose, throat and mouth painting--painting horses, cats, dogs, fish, birds, how to paint children, teens, old folks, clouds, water, buildings, cars, trees and barns. Art schools have faculty that will show you exactly how to do it. Henri suggested that paintings often don't sell because the motive, the idea, the vision, the mojo is lacking--it may not be the economy--it may be that we are not painting anything worth buying because our work is just a pile of old answers to questions nobody is asking anymore--right? Don Hatfield

Withdrawal From Commercialism

2010-02-18T09:40:00.000-08:00

I am convinced that we only do good or right things when we are forced to. The right and good things are not always clear; however. I think we learn good and right when our own life teaches us what is good and right. These two things are hard to export and hard to import externally--anyone who has raised kids knows this. What's right for the other guy may be dead wrong for you etc.--so I believe in the relativity of all values! Now--here is where I am going with this. It has been good for me that the economy is in the crapper. It has smoked out demons of competition, envy, pride and so forth--the list is long for me, but too colorful to print. My oil painting has emerged as the true friend that it has always been now that it fits my life as an expession of interiority rather than as a vehicle of money making so that I can party. I still party, but they are boring parties--you know, pop corn and a channel changer etc. I hope this is growing up and not just growing old--I'll have to think about it a bit more......Don Hatfield

Still Life With Tangerines

2010-02-15T02:24:00.000-08:00

I just found this old slide of a still life I did in 1982--done in my garage shortly after arriving in Napa, CA--I had just finished my studies with Don Puttman, Sergei Bongart, and Dan Mccaw in SoCal and did not know what to paint--so I just painted what interested me--the thing is--I have not painted anything better in 28 years!--scary! Dan Pinkham and his cronies were having an exhibit in the Monterey Museum of art sponsered by American Artist magazine, when they saw this painting hanging in the entrance of Gallatin's restaurant accross from the museum. How it arrived there I don't know--I had sold it two years earlier to some art agent for $500.00. The comment from the exhibiting artists was: "...what old master painted this beauty?" When they saw my signature, they all laughed in astonishment--"...it's Hatfield!" This was the greatest response I have ever received from real art critics. Kinda makes you wonder what art progess really is. In those days I was chasing value and color rather stupidly--I was just throwing the paint around, hoping it would land in the right place--anything seemed like a possible answer. My passion was way ahead of my technique, and some good things were happening--until I hit on the beach scenes and became a money making robot for two decades. Ah, but there it time! I'm not done yet!

No worries!

2010-02-12T21:39:00.000-08:00

Three web addresses, 14 passwords, 20 usernames, and no memory--distracted!

2010-02-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

I am in jail in blog ville. I fell into the blog sump, and I can't get back onto the blog highway. I'll get it......get what? I've already forgotten. What were we talking about? I forgot that too! Should I write down this stuff as I go? What stuff? I don't function well in command specific environments--especially with two second retention. In the 50's my brother, Richard, used to hit the top of the TV with his fist and it would often fix the problem--the picture would magically reappear. I smash my keyboard in a cyber spasm of rage and nothing happens. Another episode of cyber block gone wild--but....you can hit your canvas hard with paint and a miracle might happen. Remember that TV ad where the girl just heaves the bucket of color at the canvas and the paint seeps down on the guys downstairs?--IBM color printing if I remember. Only in America and only among artists!

One of my art friends said to me the other day--"....Hatfield you paint intuitively, but I need structure." Boy, I understand that! Its just that I can't provide structure (recipes) for anybody. The good thing about oil painting is that it provides everyone the opportunity to find their own way and at their own pace. My mother said to me on her death bed when I thought I had to shorten my visit because of work--"...what's the hurry?" You don't hear that question much anymore. It's hard to slow down in this culture. As a professional artist have you ever been asked--"...how long does it take you to do one of those (paintings)?" Then the following--"..how much do you get paid for one?" "How many can you do in a week?" So there you have it--productivity. Capitalism and the Art Spirit. I've been reading a little Robert Henri lately--both he and Nicolaides agree on the necessity of emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and physical identification with the object if it is to be painted or sculpted. When we embrace nature this way it is possible to understand St. Thomas Aquinas's arguement that existence itself is the greatest proof of God's being-- Art, then, invites one to live fully in one's own skin so as not to miss anything with the senses. If we are stoned, distracted, or in a damn hurry we miss it all--and we will sure as hell never paint it with any real authority. Guess how I know this.

Early Riser

2010-02-12T03:03:00.000-08:00

Things are clear at 2:00 AM. I ripped my right hand and arm trying to start my chain saw to get some firewood so I don't freeze up here among the redwoods. Now I can't golf. So now I am stuck painting--life's a bitch! I feel the Holy Ghost closing in on me and warming me up to embrace Jesus and God. I know this sounds strange, but remember its 2:00 AM here. I really can't wait to start painting--I will start in about 20 minutes after the coffee is ready. There are two big old dogs sleeping in front of my studio fireplace, but guess what--no wood! So they can shiver too! I have been running my mouth in the blog sphere lately and I am feeling that I better paint to see if I am as good as I want everybody to think I am. One thing is for sure--painting heals the dislexic, focuses the soul, quiets the spirit, raises hope, and helps you go broke! As my Jungian therapist said to me years ago--"....Don, when you are working (painting) you are untouchable....you are cavorting with the gods...you are fulfilling your destiny...all worries disappear..." Yeah right! Whatever! But...guess what? He may be right! So here I go!

The Form Principle

2010-02-11T06:27:00.000-08:00

Howard Pile said it took two years of study for the art student to understand the Form Principle. I thought I had grasped it immediately the first time I was exposed to it--wrong! I have painted 40 years and I am still discovering it. "Form Principle" refers to the separation of light and shadow that ocurrs when light falls on an object in nature. We observe light, shadow, half tone, core, reflected light and so on, and then we record those observations in paint. We combine this notion with the concept of Light Planes, and now we have some way of analyzing what we are looking at when an apple sits in front of us in a still life or the model is perched under a light on the stand. When we think about color it is the Form Principle that is in the background of our painting processes. What is the color/value we discern with the eye as we notice a beautiful core running down the shadow side of the face or down a jug--or across a group of grapes or flowers? I ask students--"...do you see that reflected light on the jaw that is bouncing up from the model's dress below? Can you see the planes that exist on the light side of the face that seem so washed out by strong light? On and on......! As if all of this were not confusing enough--I add my notion of Large Mass Painting that I have dug up from my own research into the techniques of past masters. I carry forward Serge Bongart's dictum, "...paint the forest before the trees, and the dog before the flees." Those new to the oil painting process--that would be anybody who has painted less that 10 years full time--want to paint eye balls, ears, noses, smiles, ear rings, buttons, zippers--anything except the big shapes of light and shadow that are created when light hits the subject. Before painting an eyeball, it helps to see the light planes that make up the eye socket into which the eyeball will be placed. Sargent used the phrase "the classification of values" instead of Form Principle, but its the exact same thing. Sargent sought out the big masses first, then the large planes that define shape, then the smaller planes--all of this while keeping light and shadow areas separate and being aware of color. It is the precise control of color/values that we see in Sargent, Sorolla and their buddies. They observed all of the elements of the Form Principle, but tweeked them as they would. John Asaro is a modern example of one who paints cores, highlights, reflected lights etc. with any color that seems right to him at the moment. But you have to see them first before you can tweek them. Over time one develops the ability to classify the values according to intensity and color--Ray Kinstler combines these elements into one phrase color/value--I think this is helpful. Dan Mccaw used to exhort his students to "compare, compare, compare" to get them to discern color/value. If you want to sound intelligent when asked to critique a painting, you can say--"Well....the values and color are slightly out...", and you will be correct almost every time. You will then be asked by the local art league if you are available to teach oil painting to the ladies group on Saturday morning. You will jump at this because your paintings are not selling and you are broke. But if your own color/values were right, and your ideas we good, then you could avoid the misery and just paint in your studio and sell your own stuff for the money--instead of teaching to others what you really don't understand yourself. What then is going on in the representational oil painting workshop culture? Not much--plenty of fun trips abroad, plenty of recipes, plenty of advise on marketing, plenty of parties, plenty of blow in, blow off, and blow out on the part of the teachers. How do I know about this?--you figger it out. Anyway, enough old man noises. Talk to ya later--Don Hatfield

Original Article Not Fit for Public Consumption in Down Times

2010-02-10T19:46:00.000-08:00

As a young man I was twice fired from pastoring churches--once by a Nazarene District Superintendent who condemned my practice of turning over public worship to the pentecostals--the other by a tea totaler at an independent community church who didn't want me to drink beer with the local rugby team. These rejections fueled my anger at God and man and provided the excuses I needed for 30 years of self indulgence. Three decades that included international art celebrity, three wives, 4 children, and 5 grandchildren--interesting mix. Divorce, custody battles, and many strange relationships tweek with one's sense of godly vocation. At 62, having just applied for social security, I am asked to write about vocational discernment. The timing is perfect. I am now old enough to have a "ministry" and forgiving enough not to want to kill a few people. The good news is that I recently experienced an exorcism that expurgated the demons of judgement, womanizing, and idolatry--idolatry defined as jealously toward those more successful than I. It was a slow exorcism consisting of 10 years of Jungian Therepy and fairly unconditional acceptance from a few weird, long time, christian buddies. I have to re-boot my deliverance weekly by attending communion at the local Episcopalian Church. Dining on the bread and wine is for me a non-intellectual act of worship filled with massive grace. I get so blessed that I often ditch the rest of the proceedings just to test my renewed faith on the golf course.

Moses comes to mind--youthful, religious, spiritual, discerning, anxious to follow God's will--murders the wrong guy, cools down for 40 years, and then returns as an old dude to Pharo's court with a beard, a holy stick, and great God given authority--come on!--I saw The Ten Commandments! I have the beard (goat-tee), the holy stick (my art), and the God given authority (the Holy Ghost). I have finally entered " the ministry"--and the congregation said...what the hell?

Most of the time I am so happy I can hardly stand it. I have prayed that God help me see all men as He sees them and that He guide me in everything I say and do--sometimes I think He has answered this prayer. If I had been this discerning thiry years ago, I would be pastoring a mega-church in Texas, going to book signings, and offering prayers at inaugurations--right? Maybe not. I may not have lasted this long. Anyway I really believe the end is greater than the beginning in our great quest for christian vocation and that we live in an economy of grace that has little to do with the rhythm of existence portrayed my media, by well meaning christian cogitators, and by our innate greed. What I am saying is that you will probably not discern your vacation until you are sixty years old--no sooner. It's a slow learning curve--like golf. It took Moses fourty years to learn to putt!

O yes, I am a serious Christian--but I try not to act like it, and I have found my vocation --better, my vocation found me. I did not seek God in this life--He sought me. I did not believe in God--He believed in me. I did not obey God in life--rather I ran out of options that were not suicidal and found God waiting. Is that Calvinistic enough? Sometimes I think I have thrown conditionality out the window, and, worse yet, I think I am slipping into the doctrine of universal salvation.

Keeping your vocational discernment operative has to do with surviving your first 10,000 mistakes so that you can make 10,000 more. Anybody who thinks he will not repeat errors many times is a fool. You resist temptation today, but tomorrow the countours have changed, and the devil comes in a different form--remind you of anybody? I think we are designed by God to fail. How do we survive our errors, mitakes, sins against man and God? I am not sure. But, you have!-- or you wouldn't be reading this. The Book Of Common Prayer says that we serve a God whose property it is to forgive sins--we don't believe this. That is why we constantly take judgement into our own hands. But it is judgement that keeps us from our vocation--we judge ourselves and others constantly--and wrongly--because we are summoned to leave all judgement to God alone. I know this is difficult to hear: but judgement leads to fear, fear leads to hate, hate restricts vocation.

Vocational discernment is the path and the goal. The discernment part is the hard thing. What is discernment? Again, God discerns us--we don't discern God. I believe that it is God Himself who aligns us with Himself. What you do with your day, then, is between you and God--nobody else. How God gets through to us is a mystery and a miracle isn't it? It is difficult to endure the doubts that God can direct your steps at times--no, nearly all the time. Just for fun try telling anyone that you are following God in this or that. The weight of judgement is immediately apparent--you don't have to tell enemies to feel this--your friends will do! Don't talk about your faith much , pray a ton, and don't let your failings disqualify you from your God appointed vocation--and you will be well on your way to some joy--maybe a lot. Who knows?--you may end up a happy man with a descent job..but then again...? I was wondering recently what the graduating picture of the 2009 Vocational Discernment class would look like-- probably not very pretty. The first class of Vocational Discernment picture is embedded in Hebrew chapter 11--those guys that were sawn in two are really ugly! So don't expect a continuous run of successes leading you to a position at the Seminary teaching eager youth.

Well I think this is about 900 words, and weren't they full of discernment? In conclusion vocational discernment is what is left after you have tried everything else and failed. It is what Moses had walking back to Egypt for a visit with old friends, its what Paul got laying flat on his back after a fall, its what you have this day in Christ. Vocational discernment is a state of grace and may not lead to a nifty job tag. It is what remains after trying everything else and failing. Its what we do, and have when we don't have to ask what it is anymore. Its about keeping our mouth shut and doing the big obvious thing--all else will definitely follow--that's a promise. Isn't our one and only creaturely vocation to love God and to enjoy his presence forever--that is our final vocation. There are no golden boys in God's kingdon--only somewhat ordinary humans.... and golfers. See ya down the road--Don Hatfield

Watered Down Version of the Searing Article I wrote

2010-02-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

Different Strokes: Fuller Alumnus Takes Up a Call to Paint

Vocational Discernment on a Winding Road

For Hatfield, painting is not merely a hobby or even a job; it is his God-given vocation. Moreover, it is one that he heartily enjoys: “Most of the time I am so happy I can hardly stand it!” he declares. But he is the first to point out that the path to discerning his calling was a long and difficult one.

The seeds of Hatfield’s art were planted during his time at Fuller, when he befriended a local portrait painter who took him under his wing and affirmed his artistic gift. Despite this fruitful mentorship, however, Hatfield felt the need to leave art behind upon graduating from seminary, focusing instead on pastoral ministry and providing for his family.

“Art just disappeared from my life,” he recalls, “but I continually went to museums and looked at art books.” Then, almost 10 years after his graduation from Fuller, Hatfield experienced a life-changing moment at the Art Institute of Chicago while viewing a painting by artist Giambattista Tiepolo. The beauty of that painting evoked in him an epiphany: Art was still his central passion, and he felt called to become a full-time artist. Relocating his family from the Midwest back to his native California, Hatfield obtained more training, and diligently worked for several years to achieve the impressionistic style for which he is now known.

Reflecting on the winding road leading to his present vocation, Hatfield recalls a painful time of rejection from pastoral roles that, he says, “fueled my anger at God and man” and caused a confused sense of his calling. After a season of healing, he now identifies himself with Moses, who in his youth was “spiritual, discerning, and anxious to follow God’s will. He cools down for 40 years, and then returns as an old dude to Pharaoh’s court with God-given authority,” describes Hatfield in his straight-talking style. “Like Moses, I have the beard—a goatee; I have the holy stick—my art; and I have God-given authority—the Holy Ghost!”

Though he acknowledges the difficulty of following God in the face of doubts and a lack of understanding from others for so many years, Hatfield says that through the challenges, he has grown in his vocational discernment. “It’s a slow learning curve,” he believes, “but the end is greater than the beginning in our great quest for Christian vocation.”

Hatfield now sees his life through the lens of grace, acknowledging that mistakes are part of the process. “Don’t let your failings disqualify you from your God-appointed vocation,” he urges those who are still seeking their call. “Vocational discernment is a state of grace and may not lead to a nifty job tag. It is about keeping your mouth shut and doing the ‘big obvious thing’ in your life—all else will follow.”

Reflecting on the twists and turns in his own personal path that led him to impressionist art, Hatfield describes God as the initiator and himself as the receiver all the way. “I did not seek God in this life—he sought me,” he affirms. “I did not believe in God—he believed in me. God discerns us—we don’t discern God. It is God who aligns us with himself.”

For this, Hatfield feels both humbled and grateful: “How God gets through to us is a mystery and a miracle, isn’t it?”

To see Don Hatfield’s art, visit his website at www.donhatfield.com.

Salon International Selections

2010-02-08T08:55:00.000-08:00

These images were submitted Greenhouse Gallery's annual Salon show and made the cut. The second cut is in a month or so. I hope the confetti rains down on me like it did Drew Breeze.

Sommelier

2009-11-26T22:13:00.000-08:00

Ruminating on the Profundities

Final Moments With Janey

My Sweet Janey

Janey Went Home Today

Me and Janey

Death Transforms Our Separation

At The Cove 24by30

Secret Garden

Merry Christmas From Hatfields

Me and Janey

My Darling Janey

Recent Triple Portrait Commission

Another Shot At Old Theme

Jesus Meets Dr. Suess

Secretariat Teaches Oil Painters

Fuller Seminary Remembers Don Hatfield '73 Graduate

Alumni/ae in Action

Different Strokes:Fuller Alumnus Takes Up a Call to Paint

Recent Stuff

Thursday Morning At Hatfield Studio

First Visiting Artists To Hatfield's New Studio

UPDATE FROM HATFIELD VILLAGE

Reflections on Cancer

Don Hatfield Movie Producer--8 days in Florida with the Grandkids

Thoughts of You From My New Cell

SELF DISCLOSURE--READ AND WEEP

Ten Bull-It Points to Remember

Me and Harold 1949

Back In Action--But Laughable

Tectonic Shifts In The Art Of Western Civilization Revealed

A Gift From Elenore

Test Video

Slow Living Radio: 11/2 - Renowned American Impressionist Don Hatfield

All Bull-No Beach Girls

Guardian of the Vinyards

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH--NEITHER CAN I !

Now What?--Become and Apostle!

Snakes Shed Their Skin Don't They?

Couldn't Sleep So......

Week End With the Masters Full Report and Then Some

PAINTING FROM LIFE IS NOT THE ANSWER!

Hatfied on Recon

Yo Wud Up? Back At It, But Can't Cut It!

WHY DON'T HE WRITE

HATFIELD WORKSHOP ON THE LOBSTER COAST

MASS, VALUE, COLOR, TEMPERATURE--NOT LINES!

Pithy Aphorisms

See You In Maine on July 16 through 18

Portrait Refurbishment

Oil Painting, Art, and Presence

Only One Spirit

For All You World Weary Bastards

The Faithful Ponder As......

Hatfield Wanders

My Demo At S-12 Still Life Workshop

HATFIELD STILL LIFE WORKSHOP BEGINS MAY 3

Hatfield Critiques His Own Video

Commission Work

I Love Painting In My Studio

I Hate Plein Air Painting

How to Obtain New Hatfield Video Cheap

Premier of Don Hatfield's Video Masterpiece!

I AM SO HAPPY--SUCCESS AT LAST!

UNDERSTAND THIS AND SELL A PAINTING FOR A CHANGE

Why Is Representational Oil Painting So Difficult--Revised Version

Piazza Senorina--Major Grunt

All Smiles--Don and Janey Hatfield

Paint Like Anne Lamott Writes!

Conversation of Color--Warm and Cool

Extacy Has A Face

"Brothers" 1980

"Dad...you suck"

Moment in the Sun

Hatfield Slogs On

Get Them Started Early

Your Big Okie Dokie Appreciated

Recent Painting at S-12

My Great Moment with Sergei Bongart

Readable Version of Earlier Post

Facing Responsibility, but First Things First!

Different Strokes:
Fuller Alumnus Takes Up a Call to Paint