Tuesday, 24 December 2013

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything but I’m gonna get started again.  I’ve added several paintings to the gallery today so be sure to visit the gallery.  I’ll add more each time I write a new post.  I wanted to point out that towards the end of the gallery of pictures today is a painting that is probably over 100 years old.  I’ve included a picture of the back of the painting where he wrote that it was painted in his younger days and includes the year 1912.  We think it was probably one that he painted during his art correspondence days since it is very small (suited for mailing?).

As you look at these paintings, I hope it’ll spark memories about some of them that relate to Grandpa Harry and I encourage you to share them with us by writing a comment on this page or by contacting Ellen W., Linda, Jean or me and we’ll add it wherever it fits in our documentation about Harry.

Merry Christmas!

Sunday, 24 November

Since ‘Thor’sday’ we moved on to Bruce and Sally’s on Friday where Linda and Jean perfected their photographing techniques then on to two homes yesterday – our marathon day – where we photographed some 21 paintings at Erik and Jacquie’s and Barb’s.

We were like an assembly line yesterday with Linda and Jean photographing which entailed eyeballing the photo composition through the camera viewer, adjusting angles, F-stops and shutter speeds. I was measuring each painting before handing them off to Linda and Jean then taking down the information about the painting such as date, title and even the f-stop and shutter speed used to photograph in a spreadsheet. Then painting would be handed back to Barb so that we wouldn’t inadvertently re-photograph it again. The room slowly began to be emptied of paintings as we worked. Finally there were two large ones on walls that Linda and Jean expertly snapped using the light in the room.

Over the past few days I’ve heard stories that have created new dimensions in the man I called Grandpa. I learned that when Harry was a house painter, paints that are, today, blended by computer had to be hand mixed. I could see how he would have to keep the color consistent from day to day. That is an amazing skill and you can see in his paintings the amazing virtuosity in his employment of color.

On a side note: you may have noticed the ‘Gallery’ in the sidebar where you can view some of Harry’s paintings. That’s where I’ve added some photographs to begin to show what we’ve documented. When I first started this blog, it was a learning experience for me and I needed to check out whether I could successfully add pictures to the Gallery which is why there was a photo of Kurt’s menorahs. It has been removed since the focus of this website is Harry’s paintings.

So folks, since getting this blog spot up and running two days ago cousin Ellen W and sister Jean flew in from out of state to work on the interviews and photographing the paintings with Linda.  Jean brought a DVD containing photographs of the paintings she and Mom have.  Linda and Jean spent Wednesday evening perfecting their photographing techniques which involved light umbrellas, getting the angles right, lining up the painting, setting the correct f-stop, shutter speed, etc. so when we come to your house, photographing will go off without a hitch.

This morning the team trekked to Thor and Audry’s to photograph and interview.  (Did we mention that Ellen W will be writing about Harry to go with the catalog of his paintings?)  While Jean and Linda photographed the paintings which included Anna’s and Raeline and Al’s Ellen W interviewed Thor.  She and I both had recorders going.  I’m going to run my recording through a transcriber I found on the internet (cross your fingers that it works) to see if that will augment the copious notes Ellen took.  (From the looks of it, I’m not sure she would need the recordings – she’s such an expert).

Take a look at the gallery of some of the photographs that have been shot as well as one with Harry in front of the paintings he showed at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis around 1970.  We’ll be adding to the gallery as we go along.

We want to thank Raeline and Al for bringing their works over to Thor’s.  It was a great help to have them in one place.  As Linda indicated in her email, please give her a call if you want to set up a time for us to visit you to photograph your paintings for the catalog.