More apples

Here it is again after a little more work. I'm still very excited.

Apples on a plate 9" x 12"

I'm very excited about this piece. This picture is after the first session only, and the paint appears fairly transparent. I'm working some more on it right now and have been able to deepen the colors and opacity.

Ewer again

Well, I reshot this painting and am deleting the previous entry. This photo more closely represents the colors in the painting. And I have finished this piece. I got a good build up of paint on the surface of the piece and am beginning to work differently. I am excited about laying colors down without blending them together...I can't really be more articulate than that right now. Take a close up look and you'll see what I mean.

Ewer 2

Here is the new still life after a little work. There's not much of a change, except that more of the canvas is filled in with the first layer of paint.

Here too are a couple pictures of where I work on all these paintings.

Ewer 18" x 14"

I took a break from the portrait for a little white on white still life. I'll probably keep working on both at the same time.

I think it's going really well today. I loosened up and reintroduced the "mark" into the surface of the face. I also stopped worrying about the background (and the composition). Who cares?..

Earlier today I walked to the library and checked out their only book on painter Lucian Freud where I read a good quote. "If I'm putting someone in a picture, I like to feel that they've fallen asleep there or they've elbowed their way in. That way, they are there not to make the picture easy on the eye or more pleasant, but they are occupying the space of the picture and I am recording them.' Composition, in other words, is never more important to a painting than the subject. 'In my case the sort of odd ease and calm of a composed picture could take some of the life out of it...One of the things in Stanley Spencer I'm so conscious of is his composition'('Shall we put this there?')...I felt that the way I put things looked awkward, in the way that life looks awkward."

Just an updated photo of my painting. It's proving challenging, and I'm a little frustrated; but I am going to keep going.

Beginning of a self portrait 20" x 16"

I like a painting when it is in this stage of emerging. Today I started a new self portrait over an old piece that I never finished. After recently adding a few links of artists I enjoy to the blog I remembered how much I admire juicy oil portraiture. It inspired me to get back to the figure myself (for the first time EVER in oils). I was so surprised by the result as I have never been able to achieve the same sort of subtly with acrylic paints. I think this is going to be a fun painting.

12" x 24" Patterned background

This painting was started before Christmas and was then put on hold. I have just spent the last few hours hashing it out - teeny tiny brushes, lots of yellow and purple paint. I am still considering sorting out some of the irregularities in the pattern, but at the moment my mind is spinning. The plan is to use this as a background for a few animals, perhaps birds or bugs. We shall see. I am obsessed by ornately patterned vintage wallpaper. This particular design comes from a photo taken in a bar I like downtown, Chez Nouz. Yes, the wallpaper is that obnoxious gold, and the actual design is enhanced with flocking!

Pigeon 5" x 7"

Blogger updated to a new format?...These things boggle the mind, but I noticed the last two paintings I posted have fantastic "detail viewing potential". Just click on the image on the screen to get a better look at the pieces.

Abstract 4' x 5'

This blog is looking a little stagnant, yes? I have been working albeit only a little. Christmas was very busy, but I found time to finish a piece my parents want hung in their living room. Here is a photo of it. It was painted to their specifictions - abstract and using certain colors - so it isn't really in the same vein as my other work. Enjoy.

Pinecone

I am still finishing this piece. There is a green pinecone on the upper corner of the dish; but I like the way the pattern has turned out. It's been refreshing to work with such a different pallette.

Egg

Admittedly the subject matter was ripped straight from Duane Keiser's Painting a Day Blog; but the idea intrigued me. It is such a seemingly ordinary image that is really beautiful; and very technically challenging. In the end, I am simply moving on to the next painting.

Well, I painted over the previous egg painting. It bugged me. I didn't think it had turned out very well. The above image isn't a finished piece yet, but I think I am constructing a much more believable and concrete bowl. I didn't crack the egg in the still life this time because I was trying to make things a little easier on myself. We'll tackle the raw egg another time...

Another 4" x 3"

I am just trying to get going again after my recent two or three week absence from painting.

There is another small painting that I can't load onto Blogger right now. I have been trying all day to get this picture posted.

Looking at my last few paintings I think my approach was effected by an article I read. Check it out, it's entitled "On Finding the Right Mark"

Kizmet

How does it happen?...

The pear picture took me two days of work - maybe four hours. The Braeburn apple - twenty minutes. Where do these things come from? I have been slaving away all summer to nail that loose, effortless aesthetic of the apple painting. And lo and behold, there is no slaving involved in the execution. It is indeed effortless. Of course, I realize that all these images build upon one another and I wouldn't be here without that whole summer of painting. Blah dee blah dee blah...It's like being told to eat your vegetables because they're good for you. In this case, however, the reward is more gratifying.

I finally got some good images of my paintings not the deep dark murky pictures that I continually post. The image of the pear painting hasn't been photoshopped at all! I am forever fooled by the illuminated screen of my digital camera, thinking the picture is correctly exposed. Now I am on the path of overexposure.

Both pieces are 4" x 3" or 3" x 4", as it were.

Practice Scales

Here is the painting I began a while back. You haven't seen it before perse, but I have mentioned it. This is my first venture on a wood panel with oil paints. It is a poplar board and I built a cradle for it (a wooden backing to prevent the panel from warping). I then gessoed the surface to protect it from the oils and sized the gesso to prevent it from overabsorbing the paint. Then I got completely frustrated. The sizing didn't resist the oil paints the way a canvas can and my paint was drying upon application.

After building up the layers and beginning to use linseed oil in my paints, I am back to the normal absorbtion and drying rate of oil paints. And I am very pleased by the smooth surface the panel affords me. Painting tiny detail is much easier on a flat board than a knobbly canvas. So I am finding I am able to paint teeny tiny objects in this composition. I am also getting some nice passages - well one so far. It is the detail I provided. I think the paint application became very nice and wet - soupy. The paint has a sense of flow, accident, or life to it.

I don't have many thoughts on this piece as to what it is about. I suppose I am not really trying to do something like that with this work. It's perhaps just a simple exercise again in still life. So that I can have a place to rest while I am in the studio. This painting is practice - like scales would be to a musician.

The Annunciation

In the hopes of illiciting some opinions I am posting photos of The Annunciation, again. The colors have become more vibrant as the painting continues to be worked. I am wondering now if maybe I have collapsed the space because the hues in the background are too saturated or the surfaces aren't modelled enough on the rear cabinets, refrigerator, and stove. I added some red tulips to the foreground, a new and last minute addition that is still in progress. The purplish flowers are myrtle, but I am not happy with how they are turning out. I am working primarily with illustration in this painting - using images based on what they symbolize, constructing a scene in my head and executing it on the canvas rather than merely observing light and form. This is something that I never thought I could do; but I am happy with the results in this piece.

Untitled

Here is another photo of the New Painting after a little more work.

New painting 16" x 12"

Well, I unexpectedly had the day off work today. And maybe that's the best time to paint. I haven't had a chance to cook up a myriad of excuses to keep myself out of the studio. The following is the first stages of a painting that I am very excited about. It's something I have been thinking about painting (in a way) for a long time now. It may be a little hard to see because it is very lean - the paint is cut by a lot of turpentine; but I am just trying to rough everything in at the moment.

Two more quick paintings

I should really be a bit more disciplined about the photos I take of my work. These are both pretty dark. But then I seem to be shooting things ineptly to get them on the site and going back later to either reshoot or edit the image. So keep checking back. I sneak updated images into old posts without ever mentioning it. (Bet you didn't notice I did that.)

Theses two paintings are small and in the same vein as the last two - get something down, do it in one sitting, it doesn't matter what, just how. And well, I think I loosened up and approached that juicy looking paint which is seemingly alive in its application and effortless in rendering the subject. Keep in mind I did say approaching...It's a flicker right there in the image of the garlic. The clove in the foreground happened first and happened quickly, and while it happened I was working out a new way of articulating what I was seeing. I was becoming a little more facile with my oil paint. (Quick, widen the doors! Her head is enlarging!) I will try and keep this in perspective. But it is refreshing. One more rusty painting bolt shaken loose!

(And I'm rediscovering my brown paints right now too.)