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Archive for the ‘Technique/History’ Category

Archaeology

Posted in Influences, Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , , , on November 12, 2008| Leave a Comment »

 

Under the Same Sun

 

This is a piece titled Archaeology: Under the Same Sun which is part of my Archaeology series of paintings that was new for this year.  It came about early in January when I was struggling to find the direction in which my work was headed.  By that I mean, I am always trying to find ways to expand the scope of my work, to create something new in the work that will excite me in the studio and, by extension, viewers in the galleries.

 I really felt lost this year though and every day was a battle to create anything that seemed alive.  I reverted to a exercise that my 5th grade art teacher in Chemung, NY taught me back in what must be 1969.  His name was John Baglini and he was pretty cool, especially to a 5th grader.  He drove a late 50’s Porsche, drew comic books and always had really neat projects for the class.  It was the year of the moon landing and we made a huge papier-mache lunar landscape.  He would sometimes give us a sheet of paper and would have us start at the bottom and fill the paper.  He told us to draw a junkyard, to fill the sheet with items that we knew, to stack them from bottom to top.  It was a great exercise that made me think of how one item related to the next and how small detail contributed to the whole image.  It has been something I have used for nearly forty years so when I felt blocked this time I pulled out some large sheets of paper and started doodling at the bottom.

 I did this for several days and eventually the pieces went from masses of objects to a smaller group of objects that grew upward into a landscape.  It was at this point that I began to wonder why I hadn’t painted in this fashion before.  It made such sense.  It allowed me paint my trademark landscapes but to add a new dimension.  From a distance one can tell its my work but upon closer inspection one finds a new level of detail that reveals something new with each subsequent look.  It also allowed me to paint detail in a very free flowing manner, one object leading to the next.

There was also the opportunity to create a new vocabulary with the repetition of objects within the context of my paintings.  There are a number of objects that make appearances in all or most of the paintings of this series.  Peace symbols, shoes, bottles, the letter “G”, etc.  

The response to this work has been wonderful and its been interesting to see how people study the work.  The piece above will be part of my show at the Haen Gallery in Asheville, opening November 22.

Below is a detail from another of the Archaeology series:

Archaeology Detail

 

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Every Voice Is Heard

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , on November 11, 2008| Leave a Comment »

November 2008

This is a new painting that I’m showing today to talk a bit about the use of chaotic texture under the surface of the painting.  This piece, titled Every Voice Is Heard , is a prime example of what I’m trying to achieve with my surfaces.  I want there to be a sense of underlying randomness and chaos, as well as a feeling of foreboding, that counterbalances the order and restraint of the painting itself.  I feel that the contrast of this confusion in the background to the harmony and determination in the foreground is as important as the contrast between light and dark, which this piece has as well.  I think these multiple contrasting elements create a tension in this painting which makes this a pretty dynamic piece.

Every Voice Is Heard is an 18″ X 18″ canvas and will be in my Haen Gallery show in Asheville, NC.  The opening is on Saturday, November 22 from 5:30 to 8:30.

I will also be giving a short gallery talk prior to the opening, at  5 PM.   Gallery talks give me an opportunity to give an overview of the show and point out some things that may be overlooked during the opening.  It also gives those who attend a chance to ask specific questions and learn a bit more about the work.

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One Destiny

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , on November 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »

One Destiny This is a piece titled One Destiny which is a new painting that is 8″ wide x 24″ high and is on canvas.  It is part of my show, Now…, which opens November 22 at the Haen Gallery in downtown Asheville, NC.

The use of intertwined trees growing together into what seems a single crown of leaves is a recurring icon in my work.  The way trees sometimes grow and adapt to one another has always intrigued me.  There is a grace and natural rightness in the way they move upward, almost a dance.  The symbolism of the two trees coming together as a marriage or partnership of sorts is also unavoidable.

For me this piece comes back to the natural grace of the tree form.  This is something I’m searching for in each piece.  To me, this is more important than the reality of the representation because if it’s there the painting makes sense, even though though some details may seem illogical when you take the time to consider them.  I think this piece is a prime example of this.  The fact that there is a strange red tree (or trees) perilously perched on this strange little peak should seem odd and out of place in most cases but for me, and in my mind, the flow and rightness of the elements makes me see the scene as perfectly logical and natural.  

I don’t know if this fully explains what I mean.  I do know that One Destiny  meets my criteria for this definition and translates beyond logic.

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Now…

Posted in Technique/History, tagged , on November 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

A New Day's A-Comin'I have mentioned earlier in the week that I have an upcoming show in Asheville, NC at the Haen Gallery, opening on Saturday, November 22.  It is always a rush here in the studio as the day nears when I head out to deliver the work for the show.  I am finally done with the painting, save for a stroke here and a touch there, and it’s always interesting to step back and see how the whole body of work comes together, to see if there is a common thread that runs through the work.  It’s at this point that I start to put a statement together, a short essay that tries to capture the feel of the work, at least to me.  Usually in these statements I stay away from talking about technique and art history-type material, particularly artspeak, which I don’t think serves any purpose for anyone.  Instead I try to set the tone for the show.  This show is titled Now… and this is what I’ve come up as statement thus far:

Now…

Now is a powerful time.

 Now is a time for action, to move ahead with all intent.

We cannot stop on our chosen path now and peer back into the mist behind and try to retrace our steps– the past tells us only how we came to this point.  Now.

Nor can we pause on our way and look to some far and distant point ahead of us.  That lies too far in the future and is nothing without our action.  Now.

We have charted our course and we must focus on the path immediately before us, to make each step with all determination because now is a time for action.

This is what I see in much of this work, moments caught just as a decision is made to proceed ahead.  I see a lot of determination in this work, perhaps shaped by the time in which most of this work was created, a time of renewed political spirit among many who have decided that this was indeed a time for action, a time to stand up and be heard.

The time is now.

 

This is a first draft so maybe there will be changes but if anyone out there has any feelings on this, drop me a line.  As always, I appreciate the feedback.

 

 

 

 

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Carried By a New Wind

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on November 6, 2008| 2 Comments »

November 5, 2008

  This is a piece that I finished yesterday, while the events of November 4th settled in a bit.  It’s an 18″ high by 36″ wide canvas and has a really neat quality that I can’t quite put my finger on.  There’s a real dynamism that I think comes from the motion in the tree’s leaves along with the roll and rise of the ground behind it.  Gives it a sense of urgency.

As with much of my work, I think the underlying texture really pushes the piece forward and creates the feeling of a harmony above chaos that I want.  I think it has a real rhythm and strength.  A life of its own, which is how I determine how well I’ve done my job.

I’m still mulling a title here but the title of this post seems to fit both this piece and the time which I like a lot.  When I look at my work I am often reminded of the time in which it was created, a feeling that goes beyond the scene in the painting.  I can only hope that that feeling translates to others as well.

This piece will also be heading to Asheville, NC  for my November 22 opening at the Haen Gallery.

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Foundation: Update

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , , on November 3, 2008| 1 Comment »

 

 

    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.

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Coming to Asheville- II

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , , on November 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »

This painting is “Archaeology: Man’s Footprint”  and is part of my upcoming show at the Haen Gallery in Asheville,NC.  It is a 24″ X 30″ canvas done primarily with acrylic paints. 

I always consider paintings like this , that have a strong central figure, as iconic pieces.  By that I mean, though the red tree can simply be a tree and nothing more, in the context of the painting it becomes a symbol with possible meanings beyond the obvious.

This piece has a very striking appearance, probably more than one can ascertain from the photo shown here, that is really heightened by the mottled texture in the sky. The finger-like layers of exposed earth and stone have a real rhythm, something I’ve talked about a bit in earlier posts.  All in all, I think this is a very strong piece.

Now, when I say that this is a very strong piece I mean that is how I see the piece.  It does not mean that anyone else will see it that way.  There are often paintings that I feel strongly about that take the longest time to find new homes.  It may be, in some pieces, that my eye is a bit biased because I am remembering the process of creating the work instead of focusing on the picture itself.  Cheri has a painting hanging in our home that is a favorite of mine but could never find a new home at any gallery in which it hung.  When I look at it, I see the struggle of taking a piece that was about to be discarded, early in the process,  as a failure and sticking with it for a long time to make it ultimately work.  I have a great sense of satisfaction when I look at that piece.

The show is titled “Now…” and opens November 22, 2008.

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Coming to Asheville

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on November 2, 2008| 2 Comments »

 

I am currently working (when I can pull myself from the presidential race) on my next show which is a solo exhibition of new work titled “Now…” which opens November 22, 2008 at the Haen Gallery in downtown Asheville, NC.  The Haen is a beautiful gallery space  that has expanded in the past year, nearly doubling its size.  It’s always exciting to see the work hanging in the Haen as it really shows off the work well.

The piece above is titled “HeartLand” and is 16″ wide by 18″ high.  It is a mixed media piece done with primarily acrylics and acrylic inks on paper.  The style and simplicity in this piece really appeals to me.  Much of the feeling is carried by the color and texture in the sky as well as the contrast at the horizon between the light in the sky and the dark of the ground.

To me, there is a great sense of security in this painting, a safe haven from the turbulence of the outside world.  It’s a theme that seems to come up often in my work.

This is just one of the new pieces for this show.  I’ve started posted new work on my website for those interested and for those of you in the Asheville area, please stop in and see the show and if possible, come to the opening on the 22nd and say hello.

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Work Ethic

Posted in Influences, Technique/History, tagged , , on October 25, 2008| 1 Comment »

This is a piece called “Labor to Light”, a smaller piece that is at the West End Gallery in Corning.  It features one of what I call my icons, the field rows running back to the horizon.  To me, they represent the act of labor and its fruits- the work ethic which has been very important to me in this career and something I stress to kids whenever I get to talk to them.  

I remember years ago reading an interview with author John Irving (of “Garp” fame) where he talked about his work routine.  He talks quite a bit about wrestling in his writing as he was a high school and college grappler and he used a wrestling analogy to describe how he approached his writing.  He said that if he wanted to go to the highest level as a wrestler, which would be an Olympic or world  champion, he would have to train harder and longer than the men he would be competing against.  He felt that he was basically competing against every wrestler in the world.  He then turned this to writing.  

He turned his writing into a competitive effort of Olympic proportion, where he was competing with every other writer in the world for each reader that came into a bookstore.  If you were buying someone else’s book, you weren’t buying his and in his mind, he had lost.  So he began to train himself as a writer with the same effort as though he were an Olympic athlete, writing 7-8 hours per day, forcing himself to forge ahead even on days when it would be easy to just blow it off and do anything else.

When I read this it struck a chord.  I realized that in order to reach my highest level I would have to be willing to devote myself to working harder and longer than other artists, be willing to spend more time alone, away from distraction.  It would require sacrifice and hard labor.  But Irving’s example gave me a path to follow, a starting point.

I have since realized that there is a multitude of talented people out there, many with abilities far beyond mine.  But to communicate successfully with one’s art one needs to push that ability fully, in order to go beyond what your mind sees as an endpoint. I see this as my goal everyday in the studio.  Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I come up short but I’m out there competing everyday.

Thanks, John Irving.

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Where I Work(ed)

Posted in Influences, Technique/History, tagged , on October 18, 2008| Leave a Comment »

  This is a photo from a book, In Their Studios: Artists & Their Environment  from the photographer, Barbara Hall Blumer.  It was a project that she carried out in 2007 documenting the studios of visual artists in the general area of the southern Finger Lakes, centering on Corning, NY, which has a vibrant artistic community.  The result was a beautiful book that gives insight into the workspaces and habits of many artists.  For me it was interesting to be able to peek into a bit of other artists’ lives.  I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in the process of art.

This is my first studio, one that I built in 1997 and worked in until January of this year, when I moved into a much larger and slightly better appointed studio.  This first studio was located in the woods that above my home and gave me what I called the best commute around, a short walk each morning up the hill through dense, fairly young forest.  Sometimes I would stop and wonder at my good fortune to have the luxury and pleasure of this walk each day.

It was a very rustic space without running water or a lot of heat for that matter but it served me well for ten years and its setting had a presence in much of my work.  It was very tranquil and from its windows I had great views of the woods and wildlife–  deer, gray and red fox, coyotes, raccoons (who at one point made their way into my roof) and even a weasel chasing after a rabbit. In the winter it would be spectacular as the snow would cling to the white pine branches almost to the ground.   Again, I wondered how I was so lucky…

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