Welcome to the the first blog, a quick update with brief commentary of the work of Hyatt and Anne Moore, artists and human beings. It was five years ago we published the first e-gallery. It’s been coming out every couple of months since, as e-mail attachment, with apparent appreciation among friends and friends of friends, and anyone else who learned of it and signed on. This blog is a technological update, easier to make, published more frequently, briefer, and intended as a quick refreshment for an otherwise art-starved day. We’ll continue to call it e-gallery, the term blog (short for “web-log”) not having much warmth. A gallery visit, on the other hand, is a rare treat that nourishes the soul.
(Above) Saddleback Window, Charcoal, 30”x44,” (could alternately called “Another Self-Portrait” what with me standing there in the shadows at a drawing easel). With all these, you can click on the picture for a larger view. (Use your return arrow to get back.)
So this first blog is really e-gallery number 31. And being another first, perhaps it’s fitting to go back to basics with a couple of drawings . . . drawing being the basis for painting generally.
A Class in Drawing
Because learning is life-long activity, a year ago I enrolled in “Introduction to Drawing” at the local community college, Saddleback. Though I’ve been drawing a long time, I’d seen work of this instructor’s first-semester students and was impressed. Professor Leng Chung got her beginnings in Asia and completed her art training in America. Besides technique and work ethic she adds all manner of philosophical opinion; each class my sketch book fills up with her words. The drawings here came out of my work in that class. Like I said, it was an introductory level, but there was none of the normal stuff of basic shapes, shadows and highlight, five kinds of perspective, and whatever else you’d think would be covered at the outset. She didn’t teach pencil, but charcoal, “basically a painting medium,” with emphasis on (the infinite aspect of) values. She pushed drawing large, using the whole body, and “structure, structure, structure,” the basis for everything else. Like that.
(Above) Fish, Flower, Mirror, Charcoal, 30″x22″
These Pieces
I also show these pieces because they’re rare for me. I normally don’t make drawings, being more of a sketcher. Drawings are more complete, more “finished.” These are big, they’re “scenes,” and they required several sessions. Drawing reflections, for example, is tricky business, and you may or may not recognize that it’s one wood fish and one flower vase but doubled by the mirror. Then there’s the distant view (below). To you it’s a view from the school, the toll road’s merge with the freeway, a ball-field fence, a wheel barrow, and mostly bare hills. But to me it was 150 variations of gray scale, finding ways to build shade over my head as the sun kept moving, trying to freeze shadows in the drawing for the same reason, indicating bushes and trees without worrying about all their detail, and a thousand other things.
(Above) View from Saddleback, Charcoal, 30”x44.” Plein air painting is rare enough for me, all the more plein air drawing, coming back to the same spot on repeated days.
Future e-galleries
That’s it for this issue. In the future we’ll share new work . . . sometimes according to some logical theme, sometimes not. Sometimes we’ll reveal how a given piece was made, a topic I find interesting and I think others will too. It’ll be an ongoing view of progress and interests, in a pursuit of beauty and meaning. As always it will include Anne’s art as well as mine. By the way, you can always look at the earlier e-galleries by clicking on the link in the column at the top right of this page.
Current Shows
As it happens, both Anne and I are having shows right now, and coincidentally both are in churches. Each of these has wide entry halls and both welcome art. The buildings are open during the week, and of course Sunday mornings. Here are the details:
20 pieces of recent work (monotypes) by Anne Moore at:
Heritage Christian Fellowship
190 Avenida La Pata
San Clemente, California
39 paintings (mostly large) by Hyatt Moore at:
Calvary Chapel Capo Beach
25975 Domigo Avenue
Capistrano Beach, California
Through June, 2008
1:40 pm
Hyatt, “View from Saddleback” stopped me in my tracks. It moves from a first impression of an industrial image to the intimacy of personal garden tools. I really love the whole composition.
1:44 pm
Hey Hyatt & Anne.
Welcome to blogging! I like the look of your blog.
Keep up the great work.
2:23 pm
Hyatt and Anne,
Enjoy your e-galleries and your comments.
Rebekah K Jones
2:30 pm
I don’t know what happened to my original message but the gist of it is that I think you are great to go back to school. You have such a natural ability and bent toward art that stretching your techniques can’t be anything but good.
More power to you,
Blessings,
mma
2:57 pm
Beautiful charcoals, especially the land/cityscape. Hey! i get to be the first to comment :o)
Love from England from us 2.
2:58 pm
Hyatt….love your new venture…..BLOG! YES, please do some ‘teaching’, ‘art tips’, ‘how-tos’, ‘demos’ etc…..GREAT IDEA!
Judi……rlfoot@aol.com
3:07 pm
Nice site Hyatt. My favorite will always be your “Last Supper”. Someday I will buy a print.
Wishing you & your family the best.
Richard
4:20 pm
Hyatt:
So good to see you in a different medium.
You have taken it on well and it fits.
Keeping learning!
It is very exciting!
Your friend from the North.
George Folz
4:27 pm
Your first blog, and this being the first time I have ever blogged…. so congratulations to all first-timers and to all bloggers. May this blog be the best blog, and may the community of bloggers that participate in it all benefit from interacting with such fine people, great artists, and inspiring individuals as Anne and Hyatt Moore.
4:50 pm
I love the charcoal large drawings. They are stunning!
They are all so pleasing. Thank -you for showing them on the new blog.
6:08 pm
Hyatt, Nice webpage!!! I too enjoy your commentary.
Blessings from the right coast.
6:24 pm
Congratulations Dad on your first Blog. You never cease to inspire us with your diligence and wisdom, oh yeah, and art.
love,
-hyatt iv
7:52 pm
The landscape drawing captured me. It’s very striking. Love how you always trying new things. I enjoy the thought process just as much as the end product. Looking forward to more of it.
Speaking of the Last Supper, I saw the real one last week. It was an awesome experience.
8:26 pm
The charcoal pieces are incredible Hyatt! I would love to see the work on the underpass up close; I am truely amazed at the support pillars! Now I want a lesson in charcoal…maybe you’d like to teach a summer course…at let’s say…Cuesta College?
By the way, your Masai Red Splatters piece could not have complemented Anne’s Watermarks if the two of you had done them with that in mind. They are both hanging in my living room on opposing walls, and the colors call to eachother! Thanks for the Blog!
Fair winds,
Modeana
9:01 pm
Hyatt & Anne,
I do enjoy and appreciate your work. Now a blog to keep up on what’s new. Thanks so much for sharing and yes,as one blogger suggested, “tips,” “techniques” and “how-tos,” it may draw lots of attention to your sight.
G Howatt
10:02 pm
Hyatt, Amazingly beautiful and as always, inspirational. Miss the two of you, Jeanette
10:23 pm
The drawings are exquisite! I’m pretty new to blogs but enjoyed reading yours and will be back. Anne, I’m writing this in the office and am looking at your prints. I love looking at the beauty and grace of your work! Jane
10:57 pm
Hyatt,
This is the first blog I’ve ever blogged. You know that I am a fan of yours. Your passion of art and never staying stale, and exploring and seeing life through your artistic eyes shows in your work. Your art graced Capo Calvary’s walls. You always speak with wisdom when you are a guest speaker. God bless you Hyatt and Ann.
Carmen:)
11:56 pm
Many thanks for the latest e-gallery/blog. I love how you desribe yourselves as artists and human beings!
It is such a pleasant thing to recieve, and reading them is like taking a cool drink on a hot day. Please keep them coming; you’re an inspiration to me.
11:35 am
Your e-galleries are always such a neat treat. Thanks again for letting an ambitious art student (that’d be me)interview you over the phone a few years back. God bless you guys!
12:02 pm
Hyatt… THE VIEW FROM SADDLEBACK is a huge jump ahead ion your continual development. Congratulations. Shows that you’re really absorbing Ling’s teaching. After structure she challenged me on energy…and then spirituality. Then she kicked me out! She’s the best teacher I ever had. Say hi to her for me. In Christ, Our Lord,
Wayne
2:20 pm
hi dad… i really love the sketches. i think one and three are my favorites. wonder if you have shown anyone the painting you made of that church square in reading. i like your architectural drawings, can I call them that?
2:52 pm
Allison, they’re drawings. And yes, the 1st and 3rd are the best. I don’t remember making a sketch of the old church square while visiting you in England. Maybe you’re referring to the painting done later. It’s Old Church Tour and currently in the Calvary Chapel show. Love to you.
4:24 pm
Hyatt & Ann,
Creativity and adventure oozes out of you. I am blown away by your drawings. You are an inspiration! Great blog!
3:02 am
Hyatt
Thank you for continuing to send along you work, thoughts and letting me share in your life, albeit from quite far away. Hopefully sometime after July 1 I will be closer for a year and can look at these up close. Why am I not surprised you found a teacher who is extraordinary!
Blessings to you and Ann as you continue to bless us with your work. Who would have thought that slash of concrete across the mountains would appear attractive to my eye?
Francis
8:53 am
Hyatt – welcome to the blog world! I’m so glad you’ve done this, I think you’re going to love it. Just speaks to me of one more way you are always willing to learn new things…
Looking forward to more! And my compliments to your ‘website guy’ – very nice design here.
11:54 am
Hyatt,
Great looking blog!
Your artwork that is presently at Capo Beach Calvary inspires me to remember how wonderfully made each of us are! Every person brings something of the face of God….
Grace and Peace, friend.