Saturday, February 28, 2015

Visible Thoughts



The private language we speak to ourselves is also written in form. The fields fan out to the water and express themselves. The back of a figure says something that can't be understood head-on. A man struggles to walk. A woman sprawled across a table dreams a landscape. On a larger canvas, visible thoughts find a pathway across a wide forehead. They let the body and the garden it occupies become something like a stained glass window.  






"Coast Road (West View)"- acrylic on paper, 9 1/2" x 13"




"Woman With A Halo"- acrylic on wood, 10" x 10"






"Man With A Cane"- colored pencil on paper, 8 1/2" x 5"






study for "In The Garden" series-mixed media on paper, 12" x 9"





"Figure & Agave 3"-oil on canvas, 60" x 48"







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.

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.   





"Figure & Agave Study"-acrylic on paper, 13" X 9 1/2"






"Laguna Road 2"-acrylic on wood, 8" X 8"










"In Thought"- mixed media on paper, 10" X 7"





"Laguna Road"-acrylic on paper, 13" X 9 1/2"






"Leaning Figure"-acrylic on paper,  13" X 9 1/2"





"Figure With A Headband"-mixed media on paper, 12" X 9"



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.






"Another Way To Read The Book"-mixed media on paper, 12" X 9"


"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"




"Blue Scarf & Plant"-acrylic on paper, 12" X 9"





"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.





"Figure & Agave"-oil on canvas,  48" x 36"

































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.

To get to the final image, the model interprets the role, the artist misreads it, and the mood of the pose becomes a collective invention.






"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"