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Archive for the ‘Painting’ Category

A New Archaeology

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , on February 10, 2010| 4 Comments »

This is a new painting from the studio that I finished yesterday.  It’s a 16″ by 20″ canvas that combines, for the first time, the elements of the Archaeology series with the painting style that I call obsessionist.  The difference is visible when comparing the finer, more detailed work in the detritus of the Archaeology section at the painting’s bottom with the way the tree and sky above are painted, with more expressive, visible brushstrokes.

Also for the first time, I show the roots of the tree above.  I had been thinking of doing this in the past and many people had inquired but I didn’t want to do it unless it maintained the rhythm of the piece for me.  I don’t know how to explain how I judge this rhythm.  It’s just a matter of looking at the piece and determining whether a sense of rightness exists.  Do the elements flow easily together?  Is there anything that makes the eye stop because of something, a line for instance,  feeling unnatural?  Just intuition, I guess.  So far, I like the roots showing and feel they maintain the rhythm of this painting but I’m still taking in the piece.

It’s the time of the year when I can hold a piece for a while and soak it in, let it live in the periphery of my vision for weeks.  This gives me a better sense of the piece’s cohesiveness.  Sometimes a painting will feel complete and ready but, with a little time to let it be, reveals a need for something more.  It may be a major change such as the addition of a whole new compositional element or just a tweak in a small bit of color in a small section of the painting.

It will be interesting to see what this piece reveals over the next few weeks…

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Finding Home– A Short Film

Posted in Biographical, Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, Video, tagged , , , on February 8, 2010| 6 Comments »

This is a short film that I put together one day last week.  It was a little project that I took on at the request of my friends at Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, OK.  They, like many galleries around the country, have taken a hard look at how they interact with their clients and are making a real effort to provide more information about the artists they represent in their gallery.  To this end they are putting together a multimedia website that will give their clients a better look at the work and thoughts of their artists.

They asked that I provide them with some film of me working in the studio with some dialogue.  It was pretty difficult deciding what I wanted to say in the film.  I wanted to give an idea of what I see in my work and to tell a little of how I came to painting but I didn’t want to say too much.  Wanted the paintings to be the focus.

As I was putting it together and I was inserting narration a theme came around.  About the idea of finding one’s home.  It’s a concept that I’ve been seeing a lot in my work as of late and one that I think can be applied to most of the work through the years.  I think it fits.

The music is from the great acoustic guitarist Martin Simpson, a longtime favorite.  I had the chance to take lessons from him many years ago when he resided in Ithaca for a while, after coming to the States from England.  Carried the little classified ad from the Ithaca Times around in my wallet for the longest time but, like so many things in life, never got around to doing it.  I’m not big on regrets but I do wish I’d taken that opportunity.

Anyway, this is the film that I came up with.  I hope it works in some way…

To see the film in higher quality please click here to go the YouTube page.

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Compromise?

Posted in Favorite Things, Painting, Technique/History, tagged on February 3, 2010| 2 Comments »

I came across this painting from seven or eight years back,  an 18″ by 26″ piece titled Call of Freedom.  It was quite a different look for my work at the time with its simple design of two two blocks of colors playing off one another.  It may not visible in this photo of the piece, but there was a hint of purple through the bottom block of color that really enhanced the piece for me.

The tree was put in at the last moment.  After I had completed the two blocks, I sat this aside for quite awhile, looking at it in the studio, trying to determine if it held together just as it was.  Was there enough there — color, texture, contrast– to hold my interest, to make me want to continue looking.

This was a tough one for me.  It met all my criteria.  It held my eye.  Had meaning for me.  But I still wasn’t sure it would hold for others.  So I hesitatingly put the tree in place, almost as a compromise.

The tree changed the dynamic somewhat, brought everything closer, but it still allowed the blocks to dominate.  To tell their part of story, so to speak.  It worked without altering my first impression of what I saw in the piece and created an “in” into the painting for others.

This might be considered a compromise.  I don’t know.  For me, it’s about coming across that space between the painting and the viewer and connecting in some way, communicating something I might not be able to define.  So long as it doesn’t alter the feeling or the message I get from the painting, it’s not a compromise but an opportunity for more engagement.  As a result, I often think of this piece as where I want my work to be in the long run.

Is it compromise?  I don’t know.  I don’t care.

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Raise Your Eyes

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on January 11, 2010| 3 Comments »

This is my first complete piece of 2010,  a 30″ wide by 40″ high painting that is tentatively titled Raise Your Eyes.  It’s a continuation, of sorts, of my Red Roof series.  Instead of focusing on doorless and windowless structures, like many of the other pieces in this series, this painting is actually centered around the multitude of windows and doors present.

It creates very much the same feeling, for me, as the earlier doorless pieces, of solitude and maybe even a bit of alienation within an inhabited space.  However, there’s more of a busy feeling as though the windows were actually eyes.  It’s that feeling of being on a busy street yet feeling completely anonymous.  That’s what I wanted to make the lone tree stand out a bit more as the central voice in this painting, as it stands in relation to the sun.

I painted this with  larger brushes than I normally use for this type of painting.  It gives the structures and their doors and windows a little rougher, less precise and fussy appearance.  It creates a rhythm and motion of its own within the picture.

The central tree is also a bit against type for my work.  It’s not the red tree you might normally see.  I chose to go with a green leafed tree for this piece, to counter the reds of the roofs.  Again, it makes it stand out a bit more

I’ve spent a lot of time looking at this and there are a lot of things that I like about this piece.  The size and the warmth of the colors makes it  a pretty dynamic piece to view.  Hopefully, this is a good start to a good year of painting…

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Back in Rhythm

Posted in Influences, Painting, Technique/History, tagged on January 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’m back to painting after a hiatus of about five weeks, one of the longest periods I’ve went without lifting a brush in the past fifteen years.  I really felt it was necessary at this point to just step back and take a pause.  Take a deep breath and let things build back up inside.

The last few days I’ve been working on a new piece that is a continuation of the Red Roof series.  It felt pretty odd, at first, to step before the easel again after such a long period.  In fact, I kept delaying it for the days before I finally started.  There was a slight fear that it would be a struggle to find anything there and it was easy to let myself be distracted by any and everything.

But I was finally there.  I had a knot in my gut and was really unsure but, as I do with the Red Roof pieces, I started with a block of color in the bottom left corner and suddenly the anxiety began to lift.  This first block started a chain of actions that began to spread, even before I painted them, across the canvas.  All the distractions receded to a point far in the distance and I was completely in the moment there in front of the easel.

Man, it felt good.  Felt right.

There are still distractions that pull time away from this feeling.  It still is going to take several days to be in full rhythm which is, as I’ve described before, a very important aspect in my process.  The rhythm I’m talking of involves total immersion in the surface, free of all distraction.  Every action is effortless and immediate.  There’s a freeing of something in the mind that allows color and form to flow easily out.

That’s still some time away but that first hour or so with the brush in hand let me know it was there to be attained.

It felt good.

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First Time

Posted in Favorite Things, Painting, tagged on January 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I received an e-mail this morning from a person who was looking to obtain her first painting and was asking for some advice on where and how to buy.  This is an e-mail I receive quite often and I’m always particularly interested in the first-time collector.  There is something very exciting in that first acquisition, for them and for me as well.

For the would-be collector, there is that first flush of excitement in finding something original that really strikes a chord within them, that triggers some emotional response in them unlike any time before.  A response strong enough to make them willing to make a leap of faith based on their own subjective view of a piece of art and spend more money than they normally would on something for just themselves. With this excitement there’s also a bit of fear mixed in.  They’re doing something they’ve never done before and they afraid of making a mistake, afraid of turning this initial giddiness of discovery into an event of regret.  It’s a big, scary step into a world that seems foreign to them.

I understand that all too well.  Maybe that’s why I find first-time collectors so appealing.  I really like the idea of de-mystifying the process of art buying and letting people know they have nothing to fear in most galleries.  They see the art galleries as dens of snobs and elitists, a place where their choices will be belittled or mocked for a lack of knowledge.  In fact, there is truly no right or wrong in choosing a piece of art nor is there any secret knowledge required.  If you like something, you like it.  If you don’t, you don’t.  My response to people who say, embarrassed,  that they don’t know anything about art is to say , “Well, you know what you like and what you don’t.  What more do you need to know?”

All that’s needed is the courage to take that small leap.

For me, I am drawn to this leap they’re willing to make.  I know when they take that first piece into their home, it will mean something very special to them even if they go on to obtain more art in the future, especially if it takes a sacrifice of sorts to get that first painting.   And if it is the only piece they ever buy, it will maintain a place of honor in their home.

And that’s all an artist can ask for his work- an audience that will continue to enjoy their work for years to come.

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A New History

Posted in Favorite Things, Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , , on December 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

This is a painting that is currently being displayed at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA.  It’s a 36″ by 48″ piece on masonite that is part of my Archaeology series, titled Archaeology: A New History.

It has a real aged, sepia-tone feel that is different than most of the pieces in the series, a feel which is central to my own feelings on the group.  I see the items under the surface as a type of old family photos, evidence of time here on this earth.

The fairly large size of the painting gives it a bit of oomph and emphasizes the simplicity of the overall composition, letting the tree do all the speaking from across the room.  But as you close in the subterranean objects begin to take shape and tell their own stories.  The whole idea is to present a variety of items and let the reactions of the viewer form a narrative for the underground part of the painting.  Hopefully this jibes with the overall feel of the piece for the viewer.

Well, that’s the idea…

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Unafraid

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, tagged , on December 17, 2009| 4 Comments »

This is a painting titled Unafraid, that has been showing at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.  I was looking through some recent work and this smaller piece ( it’s a 6″ by 12″ canvas)  caught my eye.

Maybe it was the fact that I had been looking at older work earlier as I was scanning some older slides to my computer and this reminded me of some of that earlier work.  It had the simplicity of much of that work and the brushwork in the sky harkens back to earlier pieces, as well.

It’s a fine line to walk when you’re dealing with extremely simple compositions, trying to pull out emotion and feel from a minimal number of elements.  If it’s not done right, the piece ends up bland, saying little.  It might have an appealing appearance but it lacks depth and staying power.  It’s like a writer finishing a chapter that is well written but ultimately says nothing that moves the narrative or the reader.  Unsatisfying.  But when a simple piece works, meaning that it is full of feeling and a sense of completeness, it is strikingly dynamic.  The message and meaning is just right there to be seen without filtering through layers of obscuring detail.

I think that’s why I like this little piece so much.  It is what it is.  Unafraid.  It says what it has to say to the viewer quickly and boldly.  Those who feel it will read it  and understand it immediately.  And if the viewer didn’t connect, this painting has the feeling that it doesn’t care.  It’s not trying to make people like it.  It is what it is and it’s not afraid to be such.

Unafraid…

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Revving Up

Posted in Painting, Technique/History, tagged on December 7, 2009| Leave a Comment »

It’s a slow, cool Monday and I’m still trying to get my bearings.  I’m getting ready to get back to painting in the near future with some determination.  I have some ideas, some thoughts on what I want to see and feel on the surfaces.  A building excitement.

I try to to let this excitement grow to a point where I am rearing to get back at it.  It’s a little like those toy cars that have dynamos that you rev up by moving it back and forth on the ground then let go and the car dashes off on its own.  That’s how it usually works for me.  I build the excitement then let it go and hope it fires ahead on its own volition.

So excuse me, I have some revving up to tend to…

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Time of Change

Posted in Biographical, Painting, Technique/History, tagged on November 29, 2009| 2 Comments »

It happens every year.

There’s a period in my year where I’m sort of on hiatus from my painting.  I’m in the studio still,  doing small tasks and tidying up.  Looking at older work.  Thinking.

Thinking about what my next cycle of work will bring.  This is a natural point for me every year, when I’m sort of  mentally spent, from a painting perspective.  I’m in need, at this point, of new energy, new inspiration.  Something that set me off in a new direction or at least a new aspect.

I always look at this point with both a little trepidation and a little excitement.  The trepidation comes from the possibility that I may be a dry well, that I’ve drained off all my creative energy and it’s not replenishing itself.  The excitement comes from knowing that this isn’t the case and soon the change I’m anticipating will be at hand.  Something new will be here that will focus my energy, drive me into the new year with new direction.

How do I know this?

Because I am still trying.  The effort put forth will bring at least a few new thoughts and these new thoughts will spark other new ideas.  New possibilities.

And the well is flowing once more.

So, while I may not be painting at the moment, I am assembling the base on which new work will be built…

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