Group 3:
Manipulation of Process and Content Continuum

The simultaneous manipulation of both process and content in the same painting yields a continuum that includes Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Expressionism, much of Early and Middle era Cubism, most Abstract Expressionism, and a variety of multiple combinations that fit the category.

**Photo of Bob at the gravesite of Vincent Van Gogh and his brother Theo**

Van Gogh's Elusive Inspiration

I was in a cafe in Berlin one night in 1993. The building had not been destroyed by war. Therefore, the original old window glass remained in place. I recall looking through that old glass to see what was going on out in the street, and I was immediately struck by what I saw. There, distorted in that old glass, was a vision that looked exactly like a mature Van Gogh painting. It was all there: the distorted lines, intensified brilliant colors and broken circles surrounding each source of light.

Of course, the glass revealed its secret only at night. It was not something you could see during the day. I am sure that Van Gogh noticed this same phenomenon somewhere in Arles. And he did the same thing I had done: he looked at the glass, not through it. With this revelation in his mind, and with the similarity of it to Impressionism, he began painting pictures at night. He did this so that he could paint exactly what he was looking at, reflected in the old glass of a window. The chemical composition of that old glass is the secret sauce that put Impressionism on steroids. It is what required Van Gogh to work at night and to use thick, heavy brush strokes to replicate the effect of light penetrating through old glass.

Van Gogh soon became known among the locals as the painter of the night. I believe that he quickly mastered this new technique and began painting pictures the same way during the day. Paintings began to pour forth in an explosion of creativity, and the result is now known world-wide as his signature style. The proof can be seen in any old glass window in the world under the right conditions and time of day.

**Still Life with Oranges** 

1968 

24 x 30

**Still Life with Vases**

 1968 

24 x 30

**Still Life with Fruit** 

1969 

20 x 24

**Fireworks Over Lake Union II**

2008

40 x 30

**Fireworks Over Gasworks Park**

2004

30 x 40

**Fireworks Spectacular** 

2009 

48 x 48

**Storm Over Arches National Park**

1989

30 x 40

**Storm Over Monument Valley** 

1990 

30 x 40

**Bryce Canyon Panorama**

2008

30 x 45

**California Live Oaks** 

1991 

20 x 24

**Pemaquid Lighthouse** 

1991 

24 x 18

**Pemaquid Lighthouse II** 

1991 

36 x 36

**The Surreal Sixties: A Party at UCLA** 

1969

 24 x 36

**Bob and Eileen Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef** 

2005 

24 x 36

**Cinque Terre at Night**

2008

30 x 40

**Charles Bridge, Prague** 

2012 

30 x 40

**Regatta (After Monet)** 

1974 

24 x 30

**Salzburg Street Market** 

1974 

34 x 36

**Europe in Magenta and Green** 

1989

 24 x 36

**Woman with a Parasol** 

2006 

36 x 24

**On the Mediterranean** 

1975 

 36 x 36

**Butchart Gardens IV** 

2009

 36 x 24

**Bob on the Napali Coast Trail**

2014

 36 x 24

**Maine's Acadia Coastline**

2019

30 x 40

**Reunion Island Coastline**

2020

24 x 36

**Fortress at Muscat, Oman**

2020

24 x 36

**Reykjanes Thermal Field,Iceland**

2019

30x40

**Exploring Reunion Island**

2020

24 x 36

**Giant Waterlilies – Upper Amazon** 

2017 

24 x 36

**Folklife Festival Dancers** 

2001 

36 x 48

**The Cauldron Doth Bubble** 

2001 

30 x 40

**Elephant with Striped Pajamas** 

 2007 

 30 x 40

**Elephant/Victoria Falls** 

2007 

24 x 36

**Pissed Off in the Rain** 

1998

 40 x 30

**Four Part Harmony (after Cezanne)**

2019

40 x 120

**Southern California Burning** 

2007

 30 x 40

**Global Thermonuclear War**

 2012 

48x48

**Seahawks Tackling a Big Job** 

2001

 48 x 48

**Barn in Blue and Purple** 

1991 

24 x 30

**Overlooking Rio de Janeiro**

2019

30 x 40

**Sunrise in Rio de Janeiro**

2017

36 x 36

**Bainbridge Gardens III** 

2005 

30 x 45

**Bainbridge Gardens IV**

 2005 

30 x 45

**White Sails and Red Sky** 

1970 

30 x 15

**Oklahoma City Tornado** 

2013 

36 x 48

The Cubist Epoch

The elusive quality of the cubist approach, especially the ovals and rectangles of the middle period, remained beyond my grasp for many years. The idea of multiple points of view seemed incomplete. One day, I decided to trace Picasso’s portrait of his agent, Henry Kahnweiler, to see what it might reveal. Half way through this exercise, I began to laugh. It was all so simple and right in front of my nose.

The methodology is not revealed by the linear fragmented lines of the composition. The secret lies in the spaces between the lines. It is here where the distinction between positive and negative space is severed, allowing color to flow freely back and forth between all areas of the painting.

In order to create this painting in the style of the middle Cubist period, one must first compose the subject and then decompose it by erasing half of the sketch in alternating sections. It is in the decomposing that the magic occurs. A new structure is created, and it can then be embellished or moved and repeated.

The Cubist Epoch — Picasso's portrait of Henry Kahnweiler

**Still Life with Book & Fruit** 

1975 

24 x 30

**New Years Eve in Times Square**

 2001 

24 x 40

**Journey of the Protoplasm** 

1994 

30 x 40

**Hands Across the Water**

2019

30 x 40

**The Kiss (thinking of Klimt)**

2021

48 x 40

**Arrangement in Water** 

2003 

40 x 30

**Red, White and Blue** 

2003 

48 x 24

**Gray Square on Gray** 

2003 

48 x 48

Group 3: Manipulation of Process and Content Continuum

Van Gogh's Elusive Inspiration

The Cubist Epoch

Group 3:
Manipulation of Process and Content Continuum