Allegory of the Cave

Socrates describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Socrates, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.

Material List

Often times I see the work of other artists and I wonder what materials they used. I'm posting this to share what works for me:


Oils Painting
paints:
rembrandt, utrecht, windsor newton, dan smith, hans holbein

colors:
titanium white
cad yellow light
cad yellow dark
cad red
alizarin crimson
ultramarine blue
burnt sienna
+ gray made from opposite colors
b.sienna + u.blue
cad orange + u.blue


These are colors that I put on my palette occasionally:
cad orange
naples yellow
burnt umber
cobalt blue

Brushes
Monarchs - flats, rounds,
Bristles - princeton, blick,

Mediums
Sometimes use terp at the start, but not much afterwards

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Watercolors

Paints:Daniel Smith, Windsor Newton, M. Graham, Holbein,

Brushes
Raphaël Kolinsky Red Sable Extra Pointed Round: 8
Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Pointed Round: 2
Escoda Optimo Kolinsky Sable Watercolor Brushes: 8, 6

Paper
Arches for highend - I've been using cold press, but I may start trying out hot pressed
Canson for sketches

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Monotypes
ink: CHARBONNL ETCHNG INK
paper: RIVES PAPER/BFK 22X30 WHT 280G
press: 9 x 12" Press by Polymetaal

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Sketching
Bee Paper Aquabee Super Deluxe Sketchbook
Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens

Relocating

Currently, I'm in the midst of changes and will not be updating this site for a bit. If you're interested in seeing art instead of reading about it, you can click here.
Maddrey.net

Grand Re-Opening of the Historic Mono Inn

If you're traveling along the legendary 395 highway be sure to stop at the Historic Mono Inn. I'm currently assembling a exhibition there. The date will be announced as soon as I pick one.

Historic Mono Inn

Update on Maddrey.Net

It seems that the changing of the seasons equates with another updating of Maddrey.net. and another series of paintings to appreciate. Apparently it's the year of change for many people I speak with and for me it's no different.  The exciting change out here is that this will be the first summer in a long time where I won't be living in Yosemite National Park. Instead, I'll be staying here in Tahoe to paint at Sand Harbor  and in my studio. For those of you who were looking forward to seeing my work in the Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, please stay in touch as I will be visiting the area very often and I will be continuing to work on my water series in Tuolumne. Impromptu exhibitions will still be available for the families that have come to expect it as a part of their Tuolumne experience. I'll just need a little advance notice.  Also stay in touch to find out the dates of my exhibition at the newly reopened Mono Inn which will be held this summer. For those of you visiting Tuolumne, the Mono Inn should be a definite stop not only to see the paintings but also to appreciate a little bit history and the hard work that, legendary pianist Jim O'Meally has put into this endeavor.  This past winter has been a great success in terms of painting. I've focused my energies on still life and particularly the reflective quality of silver. The highlight of the series is inspired by the dutch masters and is slightly unusual for my painting style. Other highlights of the current update include a superb example of plein air painting done at Sand Harbor as well as an interesting still life based off stuffed animals. For those of you who have supported me and my work throughout the years in Yosemite, I thank you tremendously. You all have added to my time spent living there and I hope I was able to add to your time spent there as well. I will miss the outdoor exhibitions showcasing art on the bear boxes and dead trees. It seems less pretentious that way. For those of you who need to take a little bit of Yosemite home with them, my book is still available from my website. As much fun as it was living there, my mind is already consumed with other projects for the summer. Currently I'm writing and illustrating my first childrens book that will be finished before the summer. The second one will be finished at the end of the summer. Also in the works for the next update is a rather large canvas that measures in at 5' x 4'. The subject is of course water and this piece has been occupying my mind and energy for weeks now.  Please take a moment out of your day to enjoy the gallery and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you. http://www.maddrey.net/paintingsof_still.html

Teaching Art

One time I decided to take a life drawing class at the local art league. The class was filled with about ten or twelve people with most of them being interesting. The teacher was a woman who painted ultra realistically. Her paintings were nice, but her teaching style was atrocious. I had asked her a question about something or other and her response to me was, I can't help you, I don't paint the way you do. I thought that was the lamest stupidest answer I've ever heard and I almost left the class right then and there, but I paid for use of the models so I was going to use them regardless of how useless the teacher is.

It just annoyed me that a teacher would say something that ignorant. It made me remember that not all teachers are good. In fact, most are not really that good and it's so annoying. A good teacher can elevate a student to their potential, this lady was just killing time on a Tuesday night.

Watching Programs

On Netflix, you can watch certain TV programs that you might see on Discovery Channel or PBS. I've tried to watch a view, but they remind me of why I don't like watching television.

This one program I tried to watch was about the Middle Ages. It sounded like it could have shown some interesting information. Unfortunately it was produced in that same old boring way all TV shows are produced. With an emphasis on theatrics and violence, the show plodded along without giving the viewer any useful information.

I should have known better, because the intro to the show was done with lightning fast edits between clips of dungeon torture scenes, muddy war battles and some so called 'expert' droning on about how horrible the times were. All these types of shows are the same. There's a system that works for shows about Vietnam, Ancient Egypt, or the Middle Ages. Show some dumb reenactment, show some 'expert', back to the dumb reenactment with a voice over, pan over some photos, roll credits.

That Ken Burns guy does an alright job with documentaries like Jazz and the Civil War, but overall this format for presentating information is pretty boring. So needless to say I wasted about ten minutes of my life watching this horrible show before I realized it wasn't going to get any better.