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Posts Tagged ‘Red Roof Series’

New Obsession

Posted in Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged , on January 12, 2009| 5 Comments »

red-roof-2009-smaller2

Yesterday, I wrote about obsessionism, about immersing yourself in the work and feeling as though you’ve become part of the surface.  Everything moves in a natural, rhythmic fashion.  Intuitive, not thought out.  There’s a feeling of giddiness that goes along with this that I’ve described  before as a kind of intoxication.  This painting, I think, fits into this category as obsessionist.

This is the painting I wrote of last week when I wrote about my new work for this new year  (Differing Technique– January 5 post) and the similarities of it to my Red Roof series from several years back.  This is the larger piece I was working on at the time, a 24″ by 48″ birch panel.

I always feel exhilarated when I paint in this style, excited by the pop of color and the building of brushstrokes.  I spend a lot of time just looking at these pieces and feel really drawn into them. There is a great balance I feel in these paintings between stillness and power as though I were at the absolute center, the middle line dividing the two opposing poles that make up everything.  They are strong yet calm.

Again, I struggle with the words…

As with much of my work, the title for this piece has not yet come around and I want something bold and unique for this painting.  I think it deserves it.

I am open to suggestions or even an opinion on the painting…

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Differing Technique

Posted in Early Paintings, Painting, Recent Paintings, Technique/History, tagged on January 5, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The New Day BreaksAnother year, another first painting of that year…

This is tentatively titled  The Coming Light  and is a continuation of the Red Roof series from several years ago that I mentioned in an earlier post.  It’s a 16″ by 20″ canvas and  is painted in a more traditional, additive way than my typical work.  By that, I mean that the paint is continually added to build up the surface.  Typically, my work consists of adding layers of paint then removing much of it until I reach a level of coverage that suits my eye.  Kind of like carving away the paint to reveal what is hidden in it.

Forest Floor-early experimentThe piece to the right is an early experiment in my normal technique and a good example of what I’m trying to describe.  The paper was originally covered with a layer of dark blue-violet paint.  I then went back in and began to lift the paint to create layers of differing coverage to reveal the forest floor and tree trunks.  This became the basis for the technique that  is used in the bulk of my work.

When I do paint in a different fashion, such as in The Coming Light above, the important thing for me is to maintain my style throughout the work.  I want someone who has only seen my typical work to immediately recognize this as mine and to feel the same emotions that I hope are raised.  This continuum is vital and I think this piece achieves the desired goal well.  

I’m working on a larger piece in this manner that I will show in the next week or so.  Stay tuned…

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Setting a Course

Posted in Influences, Painting, Technique/History, tagged on December 29, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Waiting on the SunThis is the part of my year where I step back and take a good look at the past year, how my work developed over the year and what I felt really came across and expressed what I wanted in the paintings that I executed.  It’s also the time when I start to set my course for the upcoming year.  I start to think about possible tweaks in my work.  I try to decide what aspects of my work were exposed this past year and how I can increase the strengths and minimize the weaknesses that emerged.

I think about possible new projects.  For instance, I want to do a large detailed canvas, something much larger than I normally paint, that I will work on for the better part of the year and will document its progress on this blog.  I think there will a continuation of the Archaeology series, on a smaller basis than this past year.  I also look at work from past years to see points where my work has changed and try to determine if it might be interesting to revisit that earlier style armed with a more evolved vision and technique.Dark Gives Way

The pieces shown here are a good example of a style that I may well examine once more.  They are painted in a different way than I typically paint and, as a result, have a different look.  I only did them for a short while but I always find my eye being attracted to them whenever I look back at past work.  I see that style now and see things that would be exciting to revisit  with some new ideas.

So in the next few days I will continue to look back on the path I’ve traveled and maybe go back for a short while and find inspiration and a spark that will ignite into a new fire for the new year.Just Passing Through

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