CMSA; by chance i saw these three paintings side by side; one was painted in 1973 and two others from just a few weeks ago...yet they look pretty similar to me.....i think art making is basically a lifetime of reworking just a few basic ideas; watching them grow and be changed by our life's experience...cool i think
March 12, 2016.
CMSA...I'm proud of this ever growing box of oil sketches from life...practice practice practice.
March 6th, 2016
CMSA; After 40 plus years of painting daily, i protest if someone calls me talented; It's the experience, not the "talent" that makes the painter
Febuary 13th, 2016
CMSA; drawing with paint, step one; using fast drying trans red earth alkyd for this part: lighter areas produced by wiping away wet oil...
Febuary 1st, 2016
CMSA; this guy lives under the overpass in east la...he made a little home, complete with all the necessary stuff...than one day the city took it all away...one week later he was back! and every day there's a small "improvement" to his home...i think some people who drive by have had the same idea of dropping off little items he needs so his home gets more complete.
January 29th, 2016
CMSA; Art is both the cure and the disease; all rolled into one... guys thanks for all the lovely comments..but this is still a photo, not painting yet...
January 25th, 2016
CMSA; i like to do a little ala prima between bigger paintings: stretches and exercises the art muscles in a good way..this is lovely and talented artist Ange Cox...."Portrait of ange" oil on linen, cynda valle Ange and i did a shoot all around the brewery...more paintings to come...my work is definitely taking a turn towards more urban less mendo..i'm guilty of premature posting , had to rework this one when the studio elves wrecked it while i wasn't watching...new version on the right.
January 24th, 2016
MEXICAN COKE? CHECK!, "KILL YOUR DARLINGS SIGN, CHECK! new CMSA sign DOUBLE CHECK....PLEASE JOIN ME AT THE NEWLY OPENED CYNDA MARYS SCHOOL OF ART AT THE BREWERY !!! As you can see from this photo; "IT AIN'T YOUR GRANDMAS ART SCHOOL!!!!!!!!"but it might be just right for you!
January 19th, 2016
CMSA; Where in the world is cynda mary? Here shooting my first video tutorial at local community station kmvt...where am i?
January 18th, 2016
CMSA: am i the only one who likes freeways? for me it's the perfectly beautiful meld of form and function....like silver ribbons...
January 11th, 2016
CMSA; the devine ms Andrea Cox and her amazing cat head; Dimitri( she created)....everyone who saw the head smiled...
January 6th, 2016
CMSA :the smoker here is an imaginary conglomerate of my mom and my aunt ....they did quit smoking and they do both still live though their feet look like hell from the high heels they wore and it's a wonder we didin't all die of lung cancer years ago...them from the cigs directly and all offspring from massive amounts (imagine multiple family members smoking in the car) of secondhand smoke...oh young ones , thank god you can only imagine what it was like...thanks to one of the most amazing model/artists on the planet ms Gabriela Vallejos-Permenter who at this moment, is frolickong in the waves of chile...come home soon gaby, your husband misses you!!
January 1st, 2016
CMSA jan 1, 2016...writing that date freaks me out...i spent most of my early life imagining what i'd be like at 44 in the year 2000..but never paused to consider life after 2000, it was just too unimaginable...born in 1955 i was of the first generation sold a concept of life based on disneyland. i assumed that everything would work out well in the end...like a disney story. if the last 40 years have proved anything, it is that life is NOT like a disney story. only lately do i feel like i;ve begun to develop the resources and maturity to deal with life as i've actually found it to be (VERY HARD)...GOOD THING 60 IS THE NEW 40...HOPEFULLY I'LL HAVE THE TIME TO CONTINUE TO DEVELOP THE NEW "OLDER BUT WISER" ME...HAPPY 2016, LOVE, CYNDA
December 12, 2015
hey everyone; one day workshop; "oil painting for dummies"...the entire history of western oil painting in one day with hands on practice...coming up dec 20 in the Los Angeles brewery...$50 a person...10 to 6. pm me to register
CMSA; i think every painter should take a shot at the most common painting icons in western art history; like christian religious art; i am not a christian but it was exciting to work inspired by a mountain of art historical references; here's two of mine in situ in the chapel at howard hospital in willits ca.
December 2nd, 2015
CMSA; today's topic, (and it seems appropriate right before the holidays), is girls and women (and some boys/men) who love bling; things that sparkle!!!!!!!!! before you discount it , you crunchy gluten free, PC, hippie friends of mine!! consider it from an evolutionary point of view; if you were a cave person and saw sparkling sun diamonds in the distance you rejoiced cuz water was near...if you stayed out too late chasing that saber tooth tiger and got lost in the dark, and than you saw sparkle on a distant cliff face, you head right for it; the hearth fire beacon...and once you got there your cave mate looked better in the sparkling flames of the fire...sort of like prehistoric "beer googles"...so go ahead friends; BUY YOUR BLINGED OUT FRIENDS MORE FOR CHRISTMAS; THEY'RE JUST RESPONDING TO THE BIOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 29th, 2017
CMSA; I HAVn't heard this spoken of much by other artists but i don't think i'm the only one who spends about an hour a day in "active thinking" mode...sort of like a meditation in that i try to eliminate my conscious minds' intentions and preconceptions. Into the void that produces flows inspiration. my own personal inspirations usually in the area of oil painting and teaching oil painting. I use whatever painting i'm working on as the focus of my meditation. In case you're not an artist and want to try it here in LA check out Peter Clothier's "one hour , one painting" where you'll be guided in the technique. i think a new one is coming up. here's the link;http://lagunaartmuseum.org/one-hour-one-painting-2/
November 29th, 2017
CMSA; I HAVn't heard this spoken of much by other artists but i don't think i'm the only one who spends about an hour a day in "active thinking" mode...sort of like a meditation in that i try to eliminate my conscious minds' intentions and preconceptions. Into the void that produces flows inspiration. my own personal inspirations usually in the area of oil painting and teaching oil painting. I use whatever painting i'm working on as the focus of my meditation. In case you're not an artist and want to try it here in LA check out Peter Clothier's "one hour , one painting" where you'll be guided in the technique. i think a new one is coming up. here's the link;http://lagunaartmuseum.org/one-hour-one-painting-2/
November 26th, 2015
CMSA; out of all the voices in my head (!)there's one i call "Art" who i listen to while i paint...she's a whispering muse, and the "I" has to be careful and listen well in order to hear her; she only expresses two emotions...when something i'm painting is right i feel a little click of things falling into place and a little sigh of satisfaction from her. all is well. When things are not right she whispers that fact to me...she doesn't know how to fix it herself, but she wants "me " to attend to it; and if i don't listen (and who wants to hear bad news?") she'll play the petty tyrant and annoy me til i do...I HATE IT WHEN SHE'S RIGHT! here's a pic of me (having nothing to do with previous comment; youre just supposed to post a pic) and my painting pal marta alonso; she's getting a prize and a kiss for being the coolest
November 21st, 2015
CMSA; I've been hangin with a 102 year old this week and she is finally having the short term memory loss that she has avoided til now; She's just like my mac when the harddrive is almost full: she'll run too glitchy if she tries to add the new files, so her mind just has to delete them. And she's already glitchy enough! here's a photo of her with the face cropped out because she's doesn't like the way she looks...it's been such a miserable week; she feels too weak to walk without the walker in front and a human walker (this week it's me) behind whenever she moves; which is dictated by trips to bathroom at remarkaby short intervals...snd if i walk with anything other than the snail shuffle that characterizes her walk i step on her heels..think of us , just the two of us; a sort of geriatric choo choo train following the track between bathroom and chair...toot toot
November 20th,2015
CMSA; i never expected this, but i learned something interesting and relevant to art from the google human resources dept!!! via my son Casey Rogers,; he was talking to me about what google looks for in the people it hires, and how it selects the ones most likely to succeed; More significant than a high gpa, for instance, is the presence of "proof of passion" ; they look for people who are interested in whatever they're hiring for sooner than all their peers...demonstrated early interest in a subject constitutes "proof -of- passion" ...and those are the people they hire. Wow, sort of explains me to a T; i was never the most talented and never outstanding among my peers; yet i'm one of the very small percentage of my peers still completely devoted to daily painting. My passion was clear to me from a very early age (like the night i first read "harold and the purple crayon"); that being the night i realized that i could craft a world of my own control, feeling as i did and do: that i was mostly living in a world i had/have NO control over.....i don't have any pics of myself as a little girl so posting this one: when i played with my squirrels i felt like a little girl!
