You can stand behind your work, or you can stand
just a little to the side of it. I think of all the selections
presented here as being both finished & unfinished in some way.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Finished/Unfinished
When is it finished? A question that
comes up often these days as I try to turn drawings & studies into full-scale oil paintings. The incomplete nature of an image can show through as visible under-painting, unedited marks, a full compliment of mistakes. To the viewer, this might appear to be a sign of laziness, or (if there's
still a positive connection to the piece) an alternate pathway to
reconstruct form.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Toward 2015
Year's end & New Year's Day both invite hyperbole. Truth is, we carry the old year into the new. But there's hope in that, in the mistakes we've made & will continue to make; hope in a line in the air that surrounds the figure.
Whether
I know you or have never met you, I wish you the best. Happy 2015.
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| "Another Way To Read The Book"-mixed media on paper, 12" X 9" |
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| "Doreen In December"-acrylic on paper, 15" X 12" |
| Study For "Figure & Agave 3"-mixed media on paper, 12" X 9" |
| "Garden Seat"-acrylic on paper, 12" X 9" |
| Study For "Figure & Agave" series-mixed media on paper, 12" X 9" |
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| "Blue Scarf & Plant"-acrylic on paper, 12" X 9" |
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| "Figure & Agave 2"-oil on canvas, 48" X 36" |
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Open Borders
Sometimes, when the world wants to do
you a favor, it stops you. Since I stalled out on the last big painting, I've returned to smaller images to fill this month's quota.
Figure drawings, landscapes, figure paintings on paper, presented in the service of an open-borders policy between the
countries of Observation & Invention.
| "Study For 'Figure & Agave'"-mixed media on paper, 12" X 9" |
| "Study For "Garden Figure (Profile) '"-mixed media on paper, 12" X 9" |
| "Wilder Foliage"-acrylic on paper, 10" X 7" |
"Two Trees At Wilder"--acrylic on paper, 9" X 9" |
| "Green Chair"-acrylic on paper. 12" X 9" |
| "At The Garden Table"-acrylic on paper, 12" X 9" |
| "Cold Morning"-acrylic on paper, 12" X 9" |
| "Figure In Ochre"-acrylic on paper, "12 X 9" |
| "Transparent Figure"-acrylic on paper, 12" X 9" |
| "Blue Garden Figure"-acrylic on paper, 13" X 8" |
| "Red Garden Figure"-acrylic on paper, 12" X 9" |
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Rough Equivalents
When your eye travels over an image without thinking,
“That’s the light on the figure and this other light indicates the background,” then you’re seeing the whole painting and not the parts.
| "Green Ground"-acrylic on linen, 14" X 11" |
| "Lilac Skirt"- acrylic on linen, 10" X 10" |
Color pulled through color can unify a painting, and so can a complex surface. How this is achieved--through heavy impasto or thin, overlapping layers of paint--is mostly a matter of
personal preference. What’s crucial is the transportation, the visual impact of
the painting itself.
| "Garden Gaze"-acrylic on paper, 12" X 9" |
In some respects, work on the smaller acrylics pointed the way
to the larger oils. Though drag and density are different from one medium to
another and problems of scale change,
the goal was the same: to build up a physicality of the overall image.
When I finished “In The Garden,” I felt as though I had opened the gate.
| "In The Garden"-oil on canvas, 60" X 48" |
The most recent oil-painting, “Figure & Agave,” tries to
challenge the distinction between color-shifts and mark-making. Here, an edge
can be anywhere there’s a break in the surface. It can mean a break in form or
value or even paint-application.
These days, I’m working closer to the canvas. I do
still step back to get perspective, but with my face nearly touching the paint,
I seem to get the longest view.
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Doreen: 6 Drawings
For a number of years, I’ve been drawing & painting regularly from a series of very talented models. All of them have been adept at deciphering my vague instructions. They’ve also been strong and skilled enough to hold a tough pose with grace. Doreen, the subject of these drawings, has been an especially dedicated and good-natured co-conspirator.
| "Contemplative"- mixed media on paper, 12" x 9" |
| "Imitating Sleep"-mixed media on paper, 9" x 12" |
People have asked about this mixed-media process. I came up with it through trial &
error, though, inevitably, others have probably gotten there before me. I lay down a layer of gray acrylic,
usually on Bristol, then draw the basic composition with black tempera in cake
form. The tempera lines can be altered with a clean wet rag or a q-tip. Highlights and value shifts
are added in white watercolor crayon, and everything is reworked with a wet
brush. Though the drawing ends up with some of the qualities of a print, it’s a fairly unstable finished
product (“fugitive” in artspeak) so I wouldn’t recommend it.
| "Regarding The Viewer"- mixed media on paper, 12" x 9" |
| "Doreen In The Quilted Skirt 2"-mixed media on paper, 12" x 9" |
For the six drawings included here, I've made good
use of a faulty road map. In life-drawing or painting sessions, I try to store up visual
information. Photographs are taken,
cropped or otherwise manipulated, then reduced to black & white. The
original drawings and paintings, the altered photographs, and my
less-than-reliable memory are all sources for the construction.
| "A Public Privacy"-mixed media on paper, 7 1/2" x 5" |
| "Doreen In The Quilted Skirt"-mixed media on paper, 12" x 9" |
Thursday, July 31, 2014
PAINT & WORDS: a journal of images & ideas
CONTINUOUS SUMMER
Summer continues. No examples of finished studio paintings this month. Large-scale oil painting remains the most challenging work for me, but I don’t deny myself the pleasures of summer. Here are some examples.
| "Garden Gaze "-acrylic on paper, 12" x 9" |
| "Red Lagoon"-acrylic on paper, 12" x 9" |
| "Garden Gaze 2"-acrylic on paper, 12" x 9" |
| "Doreen, Downward Gaze"-mixed media on paper, 10" x 7" |
| "Feet Up"-acrylic on paper, 12" x 9" |
| "Leaflin With Diagonals"-mixed media on paper, 12" x 9" |
| "The Garden In July"-acrylic on paper, 12" x 9" |
| "At The Garden Table"-mixed media on paper, 10" x 7" |
| "Red Lagoon 2"-acrylic on paper, 12" x 9" |
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Visible Privacy
In spite of our technologies, everything in this world
reserves the right to hide, to disguise the depths of its own privacy.
The variations of visible time generated by a model or a
landscape aren't limited to likeness. Painters talk about how to convey the weight of a pose or the
texture of a hill, all the elements that effect contour & mass. There is
also the force of registered passage to consider, the bodily recording of
experience across a form.
Observing these shifting pressure systems, in the line of an eyelid or the sag of a
branch, the absolutely resolved is replaced by something like a life.
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| "Leaning Forward"-acrylic on wood, 12" x 9" |
| "Mannerism"- mixed media on paper, 12" x 9" |
| "Garden In June"-acrylic on wood, 12" x 12" |
| "Pulled Ahead"-mixed media on paper, 12" x 9" |
| "Local & Distant-2"-acrylic on paper, 12" x 9" |
| "June At Neary's-2"-acrylic on paper, 12" x 9" |
| "Spiritual Texting"-mixed media on paper, 8 1/2" x 9" |
| "June At Neary's"-acrylic on paper, 12" x 9" |
| "Local & Distant"-acrylic on paper, 12" x 9" |
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