Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 262 (Benicia)

I spent the entire months of June and July 2022 studio-sitting at the home of a friend in Benicia, California. That allowed me a great deal of freedom from distractions in a space ideally suited to getting work done. During my eight-week stay, I completed 13 new collages. This is the last of those. Untitled Collage No. 262 (Benicia), July 28, 2022. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monotype, collage. Image size: 30.4 x 39.9cm (12.0 x 15.7 inches). Matted to 20 x 24 inches. Signed on the mat. Signed and dated on the reverse. 

Click on the image for a larger view. For more of my abstract monotype collages, visit my website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/

Books I'm reading: History of the Violin

I recently read this 2006 Dover reprint of a book by William Sandys and Simon Andrew Forster originally published in 1864 about the history of the violin and other stringed instruments. It was not exactly what I was expecting. While it covers early precursors of the violin, it does so in a rather haphazard way and there are so many overlapping terms for the earliest instruments that I was not left knowing a great deal more than I already knew. In addition, the book frequently gets bogged down in lists of instruments made by individual luthiers or genealogies of families of luthiers, some of which I skipped through. No attempt is made to define technical terms used and the text is liberally seasoned with Latin and French quotes with no translations.

While the book discusses the famous Amati, Stradivarius, Guarneri, and Stainer families, it also devotes a great deal of time to recent (at the time of writing – that is, 150 years ago) families of violin makers with a special emphasis on English violin makers. These last are hard to keep straight because of the English habit of naming everyone James, Thomas, John, or Charles, sometimes for multiple generations. I came out of my reading more confused than anything. That said, there was enough of interest between the covers that I DID actually finish the book, my skipping of lists here and there not withstanding. Interesting, but I think most modern readers would expect a more organized and objective treatment of the subject than the title suggests.

Rain: It just keeps coming....

Since last reporting, we've had another 2.75 inches of new rain. Our total as of the afternoon of March 21 stands at 40.85 inches at my location in northeast Santa Rosa, which is well above the historical annual average for the city of about 36 inches. I suspect we've had most of the rain we're going to get this season now, but it's still drizzling out there and is a chance of rain forecast for early next week.

[It rained the night of the 21st again, adding an additional 0.90 inches, bringing the total at my location to 41.75 inches as of the evening of March 22.]

Art I'm Making: Untitled Collage No. 261 (Benicia)

Still posting work that I did during my summer sojourn last year in Benicia, CA. This is Untitled Collage No. 261 (Benicia). July 25, 2022. Acrylic on paper, acrylic monotype, collage. Image sie: 17.6 x 17.4cm (6.9 x 6.8 inches). Matted to 20 x 16 inches. Singed on the mat. Signed and dated on the reverse.

Click on the image for a larger view. 

 

For more of my abstract monotype collages, see my website at: https://ctalcroft.wixsite.com/collage-site