faces
Rich Brimer October 1st, 2008
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On Beauty
Rich Brimer September 24th, 2008
We should never mistake glamor for beauty. All that glitters is not gold. Some of the most beautiful moments in life can be the most difficult to look at. Think of the messiness of birth… the broken water, the blood, the crying, the after-birth, but all is forgotten once the newborn baby is in your arms. As tears well up in your eyes and you see the face of your child first time, you have looked at a matchless beauty that is both very present and one that comes from eternity. I believe that Beauty is very much tied into the notion that when we see Beauty, we see the face of God for a few fleeting moments. If you can look into the eyes of a drunk on the side of the road with this in mind, you may be able to see beyond the skin and into his soul… into eternity. There is a deeper connection that we have with all of humanity that present within all of us. Jesus asked us to see him in those who are least amongst us. We are to look at people and even some situations, not how they are, but how they could be.
I am always on the lookout for the Beautiful. I can sometimes be very distracted by it as well - It might be a simple brushstroke on a fine Monet painting, or the indention of fingers into the nude form of a woman on a marble Bernini sculpture, or even the simple swaying of 30 foot long strands of ivy along the wall of the freeway, moving with the wind of passing traffic - until the traffic suddenly stalls in front of me, and I smash into the BMW that has stopped in traffic Luckily for me, the dark, thick amber liquid I could see pouring down her windshield was not blood from her head as I feared, it was her caramel latte. I thought of sending her a $20 Starbucks card, but decided it would be in best to leave it alone and let the insurance companies work out the details.
Beauty can be found in the oddest places. If you have seen the movie American Beauty, you may remember the scene where the girl-next-door is warming up to the voyeuristic tendencies of the boy neighbor-next-door. As they are looking at each other through second-floor bedroom windows, she begins to remove her shirt, as he films her on his hand-held video camera. As she proceeds to take of her bra, the viewer can see what he sees in the viewfinder of the camera… a close-up of her face. He was much more interested in the subtle nuances of her face, and her welcoming smile as she disrobed for him, than getting a shot of her boobs, which is what she (and I) was expecting.
What are YOUR thoughts? leave a comment below.
Remembering Munich
Rich Brimer September 22nd, 2008
I recently completed another movie called Remembering Munich which takes a look at the era between the two World wars. I learned quite a lot about history while developing this and it is a good idea to know your history lest you repeat it. Click the following link to download the 160 MB WMV file.
Remembering Munich
The water of life
Rich Brimer September 19th, 2008
Ah water! I love the sea. There is something superbly wonderful and beautiful about water. Not only is it relaxing and peaceful to be near, it also symbolizes the spirit moving in us and through us. My favorite place to paint is when I am standing at the edge of the ocean. It is a moving experience to gaze into the far horizon - beyond the waves - knowing that the love of God reaches far beyond that… and in the darkest hours, we can rest assured that there are harbors of safety to enter when we find ourselves on troubled water.
I am glad to be near the ocean when I can. It is when we take our first steps into the ocean that we begin our move into deeper waters. Walking along that edge is a metaphor for that threshold-of our-outer-life that we experience with others, and the inner-spiritual-life — one that is harder to perceive, but has a depth and mystery and a reality that is pure and unavoidable none-the-less.
Last weekend, while my wife watched from the distant shore, I swam free in the waves of San Onofre Beach and in that freedom, I felt the love of God’s gentle hand holding me. It is there that I love to paint.. and to be… and to heal.
Huntington Beach Plein Air Review
Rich Brimer September 15th, 2008
The Huntington Beach Plein Air art show is hanging and I got a really fantastic spot in the gallery … on the back wall across from the main entry, so my three paintings were the first pieces you see as you walk into the main room of the gallery. Although I did not win any awards, it was great to know that the curator of the gallery felt that my paintings were of the caliber to be the main focus of the main gallery. Once they hung the show, a single individual (Michael Obermyer) came in to judge the artwork. That can be pretty much a crap shoot sometimes because the preferences of a single judge can go all over the board. I really respect Obermyer’s paintings and have admired his work for many years.
I will be back next year. They announced that as a part of Hunting Beach’s Centennial celebration, they will have a requirement to include at least one painting with a historical building as the subject. That will be fun.
Solitude
Rich Brimer September 7th, 2008
So the Huntington Beach Plein Air Festival is coming to an end this week and today I delivered the three paintings that I felt were my best efforts. The first two I have already posted, and below is my third effort that was entered into competition. Being nearly alone on the beach, away form the day-to-day life with a book and the sun, I call this “Solitude“. Thanks to Teresa for being a good sport and enduring the sun and a good book for over three hours while I worked this all out. I added the pattern on her bikini after the white underpainting had dried which did not take long because of the Cobalt Dryer I used. That was nice because I was able to rag out the lines in the brown patch on the right hip.
Announcing Art Show…
Rich Brimer September 3rd, 2008
“Faces” Solo Art Show
at the Cafe on A Gallery in Oxnard, CA
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday October 3rd, 2008 6:30 to 9:30
New biz cards
Rich Brimer September 3rd, 2008
My new fold-over business cards are on the way. This time full-color on both sides. They will be ready to pass out at the Huntington Beach Plein Air Festival on Friday night Sept 12th. Hope to see you there.
Huntington Beach Festival II
Rich Brimer September 2nd, 2008
Back from another weekend. I did not get much painting done, but I had a wonderful time at the beach. It started out at San Onofre on Friday. I left work at 1pm to make my drive down to the camp site, and it ended up that I did not get there until nearly 6:00. I changed into my swimming trunks and went straight to the shore and dropped my things and went into the water. After a 5-hour (190 mile) drive I was so ready for a good swim. There were very few people on the beach at this time of night which was fine my me. I stayed there in solitude watching the sky and the birds and and the sea. The sun went down around 7:30, so just after the big red orb lost its last flicker on the horizon, I made my way back to the cliffs to make the climb back to camp. Oh, what a night it was. I decided to not put the tent up, choosing to sleep in the bed of my Ford F-150. With a tarp over half of the bed to catch the evening dew, I put three sleeping bags down for the base coat and used only a sheet for a cover. The night was a balmy 70 degrees.
I got up with the sun and packed up and found a Starbucks in San Clemente and continued my drive north to Huntington Harbor where I painted this … “Harbor View” which is a few of the harbor from the end of Edinger. As you can see, I was able to save the tree from the potentially disastrous stripe of phthalo blue. <whew!>
