Redtree Times

    A while back I had a post titled “Foundation” (October 13, 2008) that showed a prepared canvas and briefly explained how I prepared the surface for painting.  I promised to show the piece when it was finished and here it is:

This is a 24″ high by 48″ wide canvas.  You can see the texture I talked about earlier in the sky, even on this small image.  This piece doesn’t have a title yet.  Sometimes it takes a while to arrive at a title and other times it pops out.  This is a pretty large painting and I’m holding off on naming it as I think it deserves something special, something fitting the time in which it was created.

I have a method for naming work that requires that I pretend that the work is not mine and I’ve stumbled across the painting at garage sale, maybe fifty years in the future.  I look quickly at it and try to assess it and determine if it has something of value in it, something that separates it and gives it some type of life of its own.  Then I try to grab a first impression of what feeling it conveys and go from there with a title.  It sounds kind of goofy but I find it works for me.

This piece (with a title!) will be at the Haen Gallery show in Asheville.

Quick Update:  I am leaning toward a title –  ” Toward Possibility”.  I’ll live with this piece for a few weeks in the studio and make a final determination.  If anyone has any feelings on this, let me know.  I think this is a really dynamic piece and deserves a fitting name.