My drawing “Santa Rita” is based on a photograph that I took of an elderly woman selling flowers and plants in an outdoor market on a street in Guanajuato City,Mexico. I was visiting with friends in June of 2015. I began this drawing several months ago and finished it today, December 16, 2018.
End of a Season by John Dyess
My mixed media painting “End of a Season” was in my one man show “to Everything there is a Season” which was in the Gallery Within – Webster Groves Christian Church. The opening was on May 20, 2018 and ran through July 8, 2018. My daughter Christy purchased this painting ,which is hanging in her home. There were 77 paintings and drawings hanging in this show and this was one of the paintings she purchased. For her it had value.
This painting is based on several photographs that I took. I found a dead bird in the backyard of a home I lived in about 10 years ago. For me this dead bird still had value as a subject matter and metaphor for life ,death, and change. The time of year was Fall and there were fallen leaves on the ground. I placed the bird on a yard glove and laid the glove on the ground on top of mushrooms and leaves, and took a photograph. I placed the photograph in Photoshop and added texture to the photo. I printed a black and white print of the digital image, on bond paper and mounted the print on illustration board. I hand painted it with liquid acrylic paint.
Prints of my paintings and drawings can be purchased at johndyessart.com
This week I have been creating a drawing of a Red Tailed Hawk, which is based on photographs that I took. My Red Tailed Hawk photos were taken at the World Bird Sanctuary that is located in St.Louis County, Missouri. The background is based on a photo that either my wife or myself took while visiting a friend in Colorado. The branch I made up, with no reference.
This is one of the photos that I took of the Red Tailed hawk, at the World Bird Sanctuary.
This is a photo of a close up of the Red Tailed Hawk’s head.
I placed the photo I took of the body into Photoshop and created a digital drawing.
I created the branch drawing in pencil on tracing paper and made a scan of it.
I decided to change the head angle and combined it with my body drawing of the Hawk.
This is the photo that my landscape is based on.
I made a pencil drawing on tracing paper and after making a scan of it I combined it in Photoshop with my branch drawing.I then combined this drawing with the Red Tailed Hawk drawing
I made a print on Epson heavyweight Matte paper of the completed digital drawing and mounted it on heavy weight drawing paper. Today I have begun painting over the print with transparent liquid acrylic paint. I am going to post the step by step painting process soon.
I just completed my drawing “Red Flower” on Monday August 20, 2018. This will be included in my body of drawings that I call “A Walk in the Woods” It is based on a photograph that I took at the St. Louis Botanical Garden. I created a black ink drawing on bond paper using a 000 Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph pen. I added the color using liquid acrylic ink.The size is 11″ x 17″ I have been a professional illustrator for over 55 years and have always created personnel art when I am not working on illustration assignments. I am currently adjunct faculty at St.Louis Community College at Meramec, and have taught there since 1997. I have also taught at the School of Art at Washington University, and Jefferson College. I begin teaching an illustration class on Friday August 24 at St. Louis Community College at Meramec. John Foster Dyess
This is a photo of my mother at about 16 years old.This is one of my favorite photos of her. I like the hand colored look and the lace collar.
My mother and father on their wedding day, August 1933. My mother would have been 17 years old. My father would have been 23 years old. This is another hand colored photo.
1933 was the worst year of the depression with unemployment peaking at 25.2% with ( 1 in 4 people unemployed ) this year . Adolf Hitler became the chancellor of Germany and opened the first concentration camp at Dachau. 10’s of thousands travelled the road and rail in America looking for work , and the US banking system which was under great strain was propped up by the US government ( US banking act of 1933 )to try and stop the panic of people withdrawing their money from the banks. the continuing drought in the Midwest made even more of the land into dust bowls
thepeoplehistory.com
This is my mother Adele Kestler around age 10
My mother Adele kestler age 16
My mother Adele is sitting on my father’s automobile in 1932, when they were dating. Her father john Kestler died when she was 13 years old. She went to work sewing after she finished 8th grade and didn’t attend high school. This photo may have been taken in Dittmer, Missouri. I believe the auto is a Model A Ford ,around 1930, probably black in color.
Dittmer is an unincorporated community in western Jefferson County, Missouri, United States.[1] It is located about 14 miles northwest of Hillsboro on Route 30. This is shown on an early railroad map published in 1891 as “Dittmer’s Store.”
A post office called Dittmer’s Store was established in 1870, and the name was changed to Dittmer in 1899.[2] William Dittmer, an early postmaster, gave the community his last name.[3][4]
1n 1932 the United States was in a financial depression. I not sure if this was the reason my mother had to work in a factory and not attend high school.
The initial economic collapse which resulted in the Great Depression can be divided into two parts: 1929 to mid-1931, and then mid-1931 to 1933. The initial decline lasted from mid-1929 to mid-1931. During this time, most people believed that the decline was merely a bad recession, worse than the recessions that occurred in 1923 and 1927, but not as bad as the Depression of 1920-21. Economic forecasters throughout 1930 cheerily predicted an economic rebound come 1931.
Wikipedia
Adele Mildred Kestler Dyess is my mother . She was born in St.Louis on January 17, 1916 and died on June 22, 1991. I will be sharing photos of her for about a week. My daughter Christine gave me a gift certificate to Ancestry DNA for Fathers Day and I received the results several days ago.Next Tuesday Christy is going to record an interview of me, asking me questions about my life. She is interested in learning about the history of the Dyess and Kestler families. For a couple of months I will be sharing photos of of various members of these families along with information about historical events that occurred during their lifetime.This is a photo of my mother in 1916. I would like to find out more information about the photographer Alan Wuensche.
St.Louis Post Dispatch
My mixed media drawing called 34 27 is based on a photograph that I took of a train car parked on a train siding near a rural Missouri highway.
My mixed media drawing called railbox is based on a photograph of another train car parked with the train car in my drawing 34 27.
I had an art gallery opening “to Everything there is a Season ” of my paintings and drawings on May 20,2018 at the Gallery Within- Webster Groves Christian Church.
I arranged the 77 images of my art into 14 categories to explore themes of freedom, wonder, nature, and more ,accompanied by complimentary lyrics, poetry, literature and scripture. These train car drawings were in a category called wanderer.
Next to the train boxcar drawings was a sign with the word wanderer and words from the song I got a name and the song Railroad Bum Song. and words from You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe
I Got a Name
I’ve got a dream
I’ve got a dream
I know I could share it if you want me to
If your going my way I’ll go with you
Moving me down the highway
Rolling me down the highway
Moving ahead so life won’t pass me by
— lyrics by Norman Gimbel, music by Charles Fox, sung by Jim Croce
Railroad Bum Song
All around the water tank, waiting for a train
A thousand miles away from home, sleeping in the rain
I walked up to a brakeman just to give him a line of talk
He said “ If you got money, boy, I’ll see that you don’t walk”
I haven’t got a nickel, not a penny can I show“
Get off, get off, you railroad bum”
And slammed the boxcar door
He put me off in Texas, a state I dearly love
The wide open spaces all around me
The moon and stars up above
Nobody seems to want me, or lend me a helping hand
I’m on my way from Frisco, going back to Dixieland
My pocket book is empty and my heart is full of pain
I’m a thousand miles away from home just waiting for a train —Anonymous
“Perhaps this is our strange and haunting paradox here in America — that we are fixed and certain only when we are in movement. At any rate, that is how it seemed to young George Webber, who was never so assured of his purpose as when he was going somewhere on a train. And he never had the sense of home so much as when he felt that he was going there. It was only when he got there that his homelessness began.”
-Thomas Wolfe, You Can’t Go Home Again
The show will be open until July 8, 2018, Tuesday through Friday 9:00 am until 3:00 pm.
Webster Groves Christian Church is located at 1320 W. Lockwood Ave. St. Louis, MO 63122. More information about this show can be found at http://www.wgcc.org
This image I created will be included in a gallery show of my visual art in the Gallery Within Webster Groves Christian Church. It is based on photographs that I took of various clocks.This digital image was created at least five years ago. I recently printed this image on a canvas wrap print and today I started to paint over the print with oil paint. The print is 24″ x 24″. My show opening will be Sunday May 20 4:00 to 6:30pm. I will place quotes and verses from songs on the galley walls next to my painting. I want to create a narrative about life, social justice, diversity and preserving our planet, by the arrangement of my art and the words of others and myself.
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verses 2-8 Old Testament
This painting “New York City Bridge “is based on a photograph that I took while visiting New York City. It started with the photo that I placed in Photoshop and then I made a high contrast black and white image. I placed this image over a texture layer that I created using a photo of a painters drop cloth. I had the digital image printed on a canvas wrap print and painted over this print with oil, and enamel paint. The size is 24″ high x 30” wide and is in a wood frame. It is for sale for $1200.00
This painting was accepted in a juried show at Art St.Louis. This exhibit it will be hanging in is called “Maturity and Its Muse: Celebrating Artistic Experience”The show opens on April 14-May 24, 2018. Free reception Saturday, April 21,2018, 5-7 pm.
I have created a series in this style of art.
