Monday, September 14, 2009

Island Houses September Light-12x16

To purchase contact me for price and availability
I'm having a problem!
since i got back from cape cod and saw all those knife paintings they do up there (and Cape School technique is in my blood too) it has brought back my desire to paint with the knife like i did when i first got back from key west last year. i made several DVD's for Jerrys Artarama on how to paint with knives and i enjoy doing knife paintings. Sales say some folks like them too. the gallery in cape cod took every knife painting i did when i was up there. Fountainside gallery in wilmington nc just sold two this month.
then i have a few people say "i dont particularly like your knife paintings. i like your brushed stuff!" To which i say "different strokes for different folks". but then i've had gallery owners tell me that they were sometimes told this...."it doesnt look like a Rooney" and when theyre hung with my brushed work, it does look like someone else did them.
Now THAT can be a problem.... i think???
but until it causes irreperable damage or galleries refuse to take brushed AND knifed, i'll continue to do what pleases me the most. if that means having two different looks, so be it!
What do you think? leave me a comment below!

12 comments:

Douglas Hoover said...

Looks like a "Rooney" to me. Brushed or Knifed, the same hand and eyes did both. If you painted with a pointed stick, it would still be a "Rooney" painting.

Really enjoyed your Cape Cod tour. You came away with some really inspired work.

mike rooney studios said...

doug- thanks for that. glad to hear the knifed and brushed dont look that dissimilar.
enjoyed the cape and came away with a gallery and an auction house wanting to carry them for me, so it looks like i'll be going back again soon!
cant wait till we're traipsing all over ocracoke island in october with our plein air gear! later my friend

Anonymous said...

"paint what you like not what they want" quote from favorite kids' book "Morgan and the Artist". I do think the heart knows. Really liked Cape things....houses,boats,sparkling water....grazie. My new address: francescapizzinopaintings.blogspot.com f

Justin Holdren said...

Looks like a "Rooney" to me too. I don't know what they're talking about. It has the same styling and color sense that your other work has. Anyway, I know local artist here, David Nance, who shows in some of the same galleries you do, and he works in a few different styles and subject matter, and all his work is popular with collectors. Do what you love man! The collectors will follow your great work!

mike rooney studios said...

francesca and justin- grazie to you all too! we that make 100% of our bill money from our paintings always obsess over issues like this and tho' it makes total sense to do "what we love" we cant help but worry that it will have a detrimental effect on our spending power (ie. our gallery sales), you know?
my thinking is that long as it wasnt going from representational to abstract or something equally distant in style, that it probably wont matter. time will tell. thanks for you guys comments!

Anonymous said...

If you ARE Mike Rooney, then your paintings are in fact, Mike Rooneys.

When you paint to please another persons whim, then who are you really?

To thine own self.........

No matter the method, your thought process and criteria remain as yours. Brush, knife, or as Douglas said " pointed stick ", it's all you.

And wonderful.

mike rooney studios said...

bonnie
youre right indeed. i think even tho the texture of the surface is different when its knifed and details are probably even more edited than the brushed stuff, that it still looks like i did it. i really enjoy doing it with a knife AND a brush. a shapes a shapes, a shape. tomahhhtoes, toemate o's LOL

Roxanne Steed said...

I had struggled with the same question myself!(the business part of life demands the questioning) I really love working with a knife and usually use that - especially for plein air (it sure cuts down on clean up! :-) )
But every once in a while, there is just something that demands a brush... or I just simply feel like it. For the most part- the real joy comes from painting with a knife...and of course "different strokes, etc"
Paint on, regardless! :-)

mike rooney studios said...

roxanne- how right you are. there are some things i just "feel" like ought to be knifed. the colors so clean too! sometimes i'm going to just draw the shapes with a brush and knife it and end up staying with the brush! crazy!

Roxanne Steed said...

crazy? maybe....but I like to call it "intuitive" :-)

joyce zavorskas said...

Hi Mike,
I looked at both palette and brushwork paintings and for me the brushwork wins out, because those paitnings show more luminosity and variety of marks...I like the juxtaposition of smooth and textured paint and the diversity of brush handling that conforms to the shapes and patterns and character of what you are painting. You are a masterful painter, the images flow effortlessly from your brush. I enjoyed so much watching you paint on the dunes of Cape Cod.
Joyce Zavorskas

anne h ward said...

Be true to YOURSELF.