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Archive for the ‘Recent Paintings’ Category

Eyes on Time

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged on November 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This time of the year I often do a series of  small paintings to show in the galleries that represent my work.  It allows me to start moving towards new ideas that I may be working on in the upcoming year, as well as  revisiting themes from the past years in a smaller form. This gives me a chance to work on a small scale which allows for quicker alterations to the work while working out concepts as well as providing a lower priced entry point to those who might want to obtain a piece.  These are as close as I come to sketches or studies.  The difference is that unlike many studies, these are complete pieces  done in the same manner as all my paintings no matter the size. This is one such piece from this year, a small 3″ by 5″ canvas that I call Eyes on Time.

The idea of the tree piercing the large sun/moon behind it is one that I ‘ve played with in the past although having the strata beneath is new.  This has a great profile and would translate really well as a larger painting although sometimes it is hard to move a piece to a larger size without losing some of that feeling that makes it seem vital and alive.  The color relationships sometime change  over larger spaces, requiring alterations to the intensities that fundamentally change the way it is perceived. 

 Plus, committing in large scale to some of the elements that work well in a very small painting is sometimes difficult.  For instance, moving this painting to a larger scale might make the sun/moon seem too big as I hover over the canvas or paper.  I have to be fully committed to this idea, have to see it in my mind, or I might be tempted to scale it back in size which changes the whole composition.

It sounds like all of this is well thought out but actually this is a longer explanation of something that occurs in seconds, on the fly as the brush is in motion.  There are many, many decisions in the painting of a piece that are made like this, each one fundamentally changing the painting and sending it in a new direction that calls for more decsions. 

It’s a bit like driving a car.  Blind. There is constant adjustment to the steering wheel as you move forward, feeling the road and reading what it’s telling you as to how to next move.  Or not.  Whatever the case, this feeling along process produces a piece like Eyes on Time, which may be small but is very strong.

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Was That Me?

Posted in Quote, Recent Paintings, tagged on November 23, 2010| 1 Comment »

As machines become more and more efficient and perfect, so it will become clear that imperfection is the greatness of man.

 
——-Ernst Fischer 

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I’ve wondered about the concept of perfection for some time  and quite some time back came to that conclusion that perfection is not a human quality, that we are defined by our imperfections.  That’s somewhat what the quote above says.  When I read it, it struck me at once but I had never heard of the writer, Ernst Fischer.  Looking him up, I found him to be an Austrian Marxist writer who waved the banner for Stalinist policies for many years but in his later years ( he died in 1972) came to regret his past.  His memoir of his life began with a chapter that was titled Was That Me?, indicating his astonishment at looking back and seeing the phases he went through in his life.

I think most of us could start our own memoirs with that same first chapter title.  I know I could, even though I feel that I am very much the same at the core now as I was then.  My actions were not always consistent with that core, however.  I was, and am,  a walking exhibition of flaws, imperfections.  As we all are.  Maybe it’s when we begin to align our actions to who we are at the core that life begins to appear become easier to swallow and our imperfections become less evident. Not worn on our sleeves.  I’m not talking about acquiring perfection, just recognizing the flaws that make up each of us and accepting them.  Life is in toleration.  Of ourselves and others.

Please bear with me here.  One of the problems of doing a daily blog is that I often post things as though I were writing them in a journal, unedited and just as they fall out of the mind.  They are not always fully realized thoughts or ideas and will soon be questioned in my own mind,  like reading an old journal written when much younger and wondering , “What was I thinking there?” or “Was that me?”  You hope that, as we age and gain experience, that this is a less frequent happening in our lives.  But writing in this public forum, forcing out words each day, it sometimes reappears. 

One’s imperfections become apparent. 

Phew!  I don’t know what I just said here and I don’t really want to reread it so I’ll let it hang out there for now, flawed though it may be.

The piece at the top is a tiny painting, 2″ by 4″, that I call Red Eye.  For some reason unknown to me at this point, I felt it fit this post.

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No Mail

Posted in Biographical, Recent Paintings, tagged on November 14, 2010| 4 Comments »

This is a piece that’s been bouncing around my studio for a month or so, one that I call No Mail.  It’s a smallish painting on paper, measuring about 8″ by 14″.  I haven’t decided whether I will show this one or simply hold on to it.  It’s a matter of whether I believe others will see anything in it rather than me wanting to keep it for myself.  Maybe it’s that I see a very personal meaning in the piece that is reflected in the title and I can’t decide if it will translate to others.

For me, this painting reminds me of my childhood and the house I consider my childhood home, an old farmhouse that sat by itself with no neighbors in sight.  Specifically, this painting reminds me of exact memories I have of trudging to the mailbox as an 8 or 9 year-old in the hot summer sun.  There’s a certain dry dustiness from the driveway and the heat is just building in the late morning.  It’s a lazy time for a child.  Late July and many weeks to go before school resumes.  The excitement of school ending has faded and the child finds himself spending his days trying to find ways to not be bored into submission.

The trip to the mail box is always a highlight of the day, filled with the possibility that there might be something in it for me.  Soemthing that is addressed only to and for me, a validation that I exist in the outside world and am not stranded on this dry summer island.  Usually, the tinge of excitement fades quickly as I open the old metal maibox and find nothing there for me.  But occasionally there is something different, so much so that I recognize it without even seeing the name on the label or envelope.

It’s mine, for me, directed to me.  Perhap’s it’s my Boy’s Life or the Summer Weekly Reader.  I would spend the day then reading them from front to back , reading the stories and checking out the ads in Boy’s Life for new Schwinn bikes.  Oh, those days were so good.  The smell of the newly printed pages mingling with the heat and dust of the day to create a cocktail whose aroma I can still recall.

But most days, it was nothing.  Just the normal family things– bills, advertisements and magazines.  Or nothing at all.  The short walk back to the house seemed duller and hotter on those days.

That’s what I see in this piece, even thought it doesn’t depict everything I’ve described in any detail.  There’s a mood in it that recalls those feeling from an 8 or 9 year-old, one of anticipation and one of disappointment.  Childhood days with no mail.

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Good Reviews

Posted in Opinion, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on November 12, 2010| 4 Comments »

I received a very favorable review yesterday in the Erie newspaper for my show at the Kada Gallery in Erie.  I debated over writing about mentioning it at all this morning.  There seemed to be something just a bit too self-congratulatory in saying, “Hey, look! They wrote nice things about me!”  But unfortunately, that’s part of the business, this sometimes shameless self-promotion.

I’ve written about this before here.  One of the things an artist must do to succeed is to get their work and their name in front of as many people as possible.  An artist seldom succeeds in making a decent living without stepping forward and drawing some attention to their work and themselves, which is usually a very difficult thing for many artists, given that many artists tend to be observers rather than instigators of action.  Myself, I would certainly rather stay in my studio and paint  than have to go out and promote my work.

But it is part of the package, part of the job.  So I will mention this lovely review in the Erie Times-News from writer Karen Rene Merkle.  Visual art does not get a lot of press these days and unless your show is in a major metropolitan area reviews of any sort are rare.  Just getting press coverage beyond printing the details contained in press releases from the galleries is becoming more and more difficult, given the dwindling status of the print media.  So, as an artist, you can imagine my surprise and delight when I found that someone had taken the time to spend real time looking at the work and to write substantively on it.  And in an effective and well written manner, to boot.  Ms. Merkle, who I have not met, is a very fine writer and gives the fortunate people of the Erie area a much deeper examination into her subjects than most would expect from a newspaper of that size.

To you, Ms. Merkle, I extend my thanks for taking the time to look at my work and give your opinion.  It is most appreciated.

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Answer Given

Posted in Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged on November 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This is a painting, an 18″ square canvas,  I just completed yesterday that I’m calling  Answer Given.  I did it at the request of a collector who wanted a companion piece for an existing painting of mine.  It’s always tricky taking on this kind of request because I can never be quite sure how the person sees this painting matching up with the one they already possess.  I was given some parameters but you just never know for sure if they want something different than what you see as a companion.  The existing piece was composed very much like this painting, with a blowing tree and a watery horizon, except with a foreboding deep purple sky with tinges of red through it. 

I chose to make the color field of this piece different, going with very warm reds and yellows that give the sky a real presence.  This piece is very much about the sky and the interaction between it and the tree, as though there was a running dialogue between them.  This interplay is where I found the title, Answer Given.   Though the paintings are similar in composition there are differences in feel with this piece feeling more at ease with its world and its place in it, giving it more a sense of optimism than the piece with the ominous purple sky. 

I think the two pieces will sit well with one another, as though they are two sides of a coin- part of the same but with a different face.

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All Is Said…

Posted in Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged on November 5, 2010| 4 Comments »

Well, it’s the day before my opening tomorrow night at the Kada Gallery in Erie.  This time before the show is one that I’ve written about a number of times in this blog.  All the work is done, everything delivered and hung in the gallery and I’m left to sit and wait until I go and stand before my work.

As always, it’s a time for anxiety even though it’s much less than in earlier shows.  This something like my 29th solo exhibit and I suppose that  this experience teaches that things seldom reach the lower depths of our fears or the highest peaks of our hopes.  That’s sort of the mindset that I take in modulating my expectations for a show.

I really like this group of work.  I guess that is not a startling statement.  What kind of a moron would come out and publicly trash their own work the day before a show?  But I really do like this collection and for some time  have been eagerly waiting to see this group hanging together.  I’ve had them assembled together in the studio but it’s different than seeing them on the wall with space between to reset the eye as you look.  On the wall, they have a chnace to fully express themselves.

So today I will putter around the studio and get ready to get back to work in earnest after this opening.  I have commissions to finish in the next week that I want to get out of the way so that I can jump into some new things with both feet.  I will try to think about those things today so that I don’t dwell on my anxieties or hopes for this show.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

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The painting a the top is from this show, a small (4″ by 6.5″) piece on paper that is titled All Is Said… 

I’ll say no more.

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Show Statement/ Kada 2010

Posted in Opinion, Recent Paintings, tagged , on November 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

There is an opening Saturday night from 6-9 PM at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA.    It is for start of my new show which is currently hanging there.  Below is the statement that accompanies that show:

 

Toward Possibility

Kada Gallery, November 2010

 

For this show, I decided to use the title of the painting above, Toward Possibility, to act also as the title for the exhibit. I felt that the tenor and tone of this painting very much represented what I was trying to get across with much of this show, that being a sense of self-revelation and self-acceptance we sometimes find on our journey through this life.

The possibility mentioned in the title is the pure possibility offered in our simple existence and our imagination, the chance to evolve and grow individually and as a people. The possibility of moving beyond the obstacles put before us by our own shortcomings and prejudices to find a place where we can fully express our better selves.

The possibility to simply be better.

That’s not an easy task to accomplish or even attempt in this world. Perhaps that is why my paintings often deal with a landscape that is not solely of this world. One can step back and analyze them with a cool eye and say that this or that element in the painting doesn’t or couldn’t exist in the real world. An orange field or a bright red tree. But my goal and hope is to make them seem possible in the eyes and minds of the viewers, to create a harmony in the colors, textures and forms of the painting that allows them to comfortably assume the reality of the landscape I’m putting before them. To create a world that opens the mind to this and other possibilities.

Just having the knowledge that there is a possibility for a better place and a better self makes the journey that much easier to endure. And that is what I hope my work does in the long run– makes the journey easier.

 

 

 

 

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The Guardian Seat

Posted in Influences, Recent Paintings, tagged on November 2, 2010| 5 Comments »

This is a small painting that is part of my show, Toward Possibility, which opens at the Kada Gallery this coming Saturday, November 6.   I call this painting The Guardian Seat and it is a small piece  that measures about 6″ by 6″.

It’s a very quiet scene and a simple composition that depends on the spaces between the objects seen here to carry the emotion and feel of the piece.  When I look at this piece I am instantly reminded of a small story relayed to me recently that fits this piece very well.

I was told of a farmer who worked the fields near where the person who was telling the story grew up.  He worked a group of fields that spread for quite a distance and out among them sat a chair where, at the end of many days, he would sit and just take in his domain, his guardianship.  I can clearly imagine that image of a man sitting on a straight-backed chair with plowed fields spreading out from him in all directions as the sun lowers to the distant horizon across them.

Anyway, after many years of doing this the farmer eventually passed away.  However, the chair remains in the fields.  His family maintains the chair as a small memorial to the farmer.  The person who told me the story said they always look for the chair when they go home.

A more lovely and fitting memorial for a man of the soil, I cannot imagine.

I suppose that is where the title for this piece emerged.  This story gives me the feeling of a man who had a sense of guardianship and love for the land he worked, who felt himself as both keeper and part of the earth.  There is a peaceful dignity to the tale that I hope shows in this little painting.

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The Question

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged , on October 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

There are times in the lives of many when they find  themselves at a particular point and they move beyond what the everyday has to offer and they begin to question what they are and why they exist.  It may be a question of the spiritual or it may be some internal yearning to be more than they see in themselves.  Whatever the case, they find themselves on the brink of what seems like eternity,  seeking to comprehend the answers that swirl around them.

 A time of questioning.  A time of definition.

That’s the feeling I pull from this painting, a 7″ by 7″ piece on paper that is part of my show, Toward Possibility, which opens November 6 at the Kada Gallery in Erie.  This painting is titled The Question.

There’s a brightness in the colors of this piece that give it, at first glance, a deceptively happy feel.  But the merging lines of the field moving  into the swirls in the blue of the sky tell a more serious story.  Even the tree has this same appearance of simple joy in the way it is shaped but when placed against the light that burns through the blue, it takes on a more somber look.

It appears to be one thing but can be something quite different, depending on how one views it.

I think that’s what I like about this piece, the fact that if one wants to see it simply as a pleasant composition with nice colrs and contrast, it is just that.  But if one desires to see a layer of depth beyond that, one that might echo their own questioning, it serves that purpose as well.

Hopefully, The Question does either of these for someone besides me.

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Above Cynicism

Posted in Recent Paintings, tagged on October 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

It’s less than a week before I deliver my show to the Kada Gallery in Erie and it’s also the last week leading up to the 2010 elections so I am filled with dread on two fronts.  The dread that comes with finishing my works and being ready to show is easy to deal with by simply putting down my head and shutting out distractions from the outside world.  It’s also how I’ll try to get through this last week of politicking in the media, with all the mostly negative campaign ads, partisan analysis and unending polling.

It was with this in mind that I titled this painting from the upcoming show.  A 12″ by 24″ canvas with a calm and confident air about it, I titled this piece Above Cynicism.  This piece reminded me in tone of a small painting that I did many years ago that I entered in a regional show.  It took one of the top prizes and gave me the first glimpse that I could succeed with my work.  It was titled The Sky Doesn’t Pity.  The idea behind the title was that the natural elements simply exist and are not subject to human qualities, good or bad.  There is no pity, no shame, no hatred in the sun, the wind or the rain.  They simply are.

Oh, there are times when they seem to punish us, when floods wash us away or snow buries us, but it is only our own selfish trait of defining everything as it pertains to our existence.  The elements only do what they do.  The rain and snow falls, the winds blow and the sun shines.  Without emotion or bias.

That is pure truth.

That’s what I see in this piece.  The central figure is high above the surrounding landscape, exposed to the elements but free from the tentacles of human traits such as envy, hatred and anger.  It is peace in that it is simply what it is. 

 No argument.  No hyperbole.  No politics.

Light fills the sky and clouds trail across it, carried by a cool breeze. It is a moment that is what it can only be.  Perfect.

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