Just couldn't settle into another analytical piece

I know I should be working on the portrait that I've decided is the next piece, but I just couldn't do it. It just wasn't feeling right. So I'm off on a tangent (as my mother would say) and just playing with paint. I've decided that I'll just play on this one piece first, then go back to the portrait. It'll be alright then.

So this is the start, not the finish. Everything starts somewhere. So this is part one ... got some lovely textures. The initial thought was to add elements thereafter with a brush, but I'm hesitating now. Maybe I'll start another one and then decide on two together. I still have daylight.

Dabbling in Studio Again

I lovely sunny day outside today, so light was good in the studio. Decided to finish off another little study started it seems ages ago. More for something for my hands to do while I was thinking, actually. I'm in a planning stage for another larger piece, this one will be a portrait of an old friend of mine. I have a blank canvas in front of me, 30x40", still naked. And I'm of a mind to coat it again in its entirety, although I'm not sure of the last success of this. But this little canvas just finished does remind me again how much I hate the rough canvas texture. Sigh. So.

What to do, what to do.

Just finishing things lying around the studio

Not really achieving much, just exercising the brush. Sort of clearing out a corner of the brain in addition to that of the studio, testing fledgling challenges of analytical versus spontaneous.

Second Cover Option

So here is the basic second cover option, which i believe we both have decided not to use. But my brother will put both forward to the publisher, and we'll see what their experts come back with as far as ideas go for. I also gave him a layout with text and several views/options for the back and front covers. Who knows! In the end, I just hope he is happy with the final book.

"Self-Portrait in a Drawer" on display at NPCC Main Gallery

EAG Group Show, on now until March 4th at Neilson Park. I just have the one piece, my recent 'Self-Portrait in a Drawer' on display. Something different again, a mixed media piece.

My otherwise two favourite pieces from this show are both Sue Archibald's and Linda Semple's (below). Both small pieces, but I really like them. Both are quite different.

Admitting the pics were taken with the iPhone, so quality is not the best!

Back Cover Illustration

So I'm finished with the back cover illustration, or at least with the options. This one started out oil on linen, and has finished on the computer, so it's definitely mixed media. The final image is, of course, strictly digital. Now he just has to choose which one he prefers.

Cause I created the image, I like them all.

 

EAG 47th Annual Juried Art Show

I was accepted this year into the EAG Annual Juried Art Show; very happy about this. I managed a few photos at last nights Opening, which was well attended.

The show itself is terrific; 66 works in primarily painting and some sculpture (mine are two chessboards with players).

I noticed that in general painters who paint together for some time (years?), seem to grow to look like each others works. I'm thinking of a particular group, whose paintings all seem to look alike now, and I miss the individuality of their works. I'm not sure anyone else notices, or are particularily concerned about such a thing. They win awards this way, that part works. Maybe that's why I stay somewhat removed from artist groups, because I fear this myself.

One helmet semi-complete, one helmet to go ....

Just uploading some pics of the "practically finished" helmet. Of course, since I have a couple of weeks I will niggle here and there for final touch ups. Especially when adding paint to clay, it is never really finished; everytime you look at it, you can see where you've either missed a spot or there's a spot that really should be cleaner. But it's basically complete.

I'm working on the helmets on a glass head that you can buy at Pier 1 store. Normally it just keeps regular hats looking good, but the helmets look great on it (and it so much easier to work on them this way). Mine was gifted to me several years ago, so it wasn't an extra purchase and very convenient.

The idea for the second one is already finished in  my head, so all I have to do now is paint it. This next one will be a painting on the helmet, with an ode to the company I work for and the military. It's fitting.

Little 6x6 oil from Camping Vacation

Am just getting now to posting some of my painting from my vacation. I had decided in the outset that during this couple of weeks I would paint only that which was around me, which would allow me to not spend undue time and worry on whether or not I was painting "the right subject" etc. Hence I worked primarily in my little sketchbook, with several canvases ongoing. I plan to work on some new pieces from my sketches in the coming weeks, while also working on the two helmets for True Patriot Love auction.

Catching up after catching the flu

Yes, just checking in and updating some pics as I'm getting over the flu. Really, it's been quite some time since I've been this sick. And I know that six days is nothing compared to the 3 weeks most people have been out with this one, but for me to be sick this long is weird. And I don't likes it. Still can't sleep though; spent last night sleeping in the chair in my studio because it's the most comfortable spot I could find. Lying down is dismal - just impossible to breathe.

But I got new medicine yesterday evening and today was better. Look, it's 8:00pm and I'm still semi-vertical. I can even read still. Back in the studio plotting again. Definitely on the mend. Looking forward to going to NYC next weekend to visit friends and wander the art shows.

What does one wear at art shows? Do you think anyone cares really?

Another little square for the new "candies and sweets" chessboard in progress ... and

... and the finished clay chessboard. This ones a little different. Haven't really sorted out what I think yet. Still have to take some photos with the pieces on it, that might help sort out thoughts.



New Year, New Project

Working on a couple new chessboards, just because. Actually the sculptural aspect was completed earlier this year (I guess last year now), but I'm just getting to painting it now. And also have started to paint my next one, and am designing the pieces separately in one of my sketchbooks. This one will be based on candy, many different kinds and meanings of candy.

Playing with Oil Sticks Tonight

ecided tonight that just because I don't know what to paint, doesn't mean I shouldn't be working on something, so then started playing with my oil sticks. They are an unusual medium for me, and I rapidly put them aside after purchasing them. Tonight seemed optimal to play with them. Oil on paper.

The film that covers the sticks is kinda annoying, and the medium is blocky and rather hard to control, something which may or may not appeal to one. Suits my mood at the moment. Not sure that this is painting, but then what is anyway. Just playing around at the moment, trying to feel anything other than what I really feel. On paper.

Impact Juried Artshow, NPCC

Very excited to haved received an Award of Merit at this afternoons Opening. It's a terrific show, curated by Lee Petrie and Astrid Ho. Two of my pieces were selected, with the chessboard and players singled out for merit. Very nice afternoon and some fabulous work on display. These are pics snapped at the show with my iPhone (love this little gadget). Go check it out!

Painting and Musing

The sun is shining brightly today as the wind whistles eerily around the building. The news is full of reports of wind damage from yesterday into today, which we turned off early this morning. Georgie isn't feeling well again today, and we may have to take a trip to the vet as it appears more serious than the previous bout of infection. Where to find the money is always a question.

Another important question is where I am going to help my friends at La Muse Artist & Writers Retreat raise that $50K Euros they need to stay in business past 2010. This is a serious issue as they desperately need a benefactor; I want to help.

I'm painting this afternoon, although giving it some standing time for the moment. I'm undecided about brushstrokes and the importance of traditional focus. And then there is the issue of detail: when, where and ultimately why. It's not that I can't paint traditionally, as I did seriously consider painting that muskoka chair into a portrait of famous persons just so that it sells quickly - that is what NPCC would truly appreciate. Is that selling out? Alas, the chair still sits unpainted as personally I need this piece completed by the end of May as well (my self-imposed deadline).

If only I painted a piece a day like Kim. Always something to aspire too!

Working Again

I am having a bit of a love affair with texture it seems, perhaps that is part of my current painting quest. Artists of old painted to create the perfect image, and in turn created objects of great beauty for others to admire, acquire and aspire. I live in an age where one image is not enough, normacy is many images, moving images. Former generations call it information overload.

I am at home with this. How could I possibly paint anything else? I just need to express it.

Noting the absence of light

Small and fast was this one, working in oil, done last night. (4"x6") Series is loosely based on the ravine setting I've moved into and life in general at the moment.


No matter what i do, I cannot photograph this painting satisfactorly. I've given up by now. You simply must see this one in person to fully appreciate it. (30"x40")


Again, difficult to photograph, but here is the whole piece pretty much completed. As good a photo as I can take myself (which is not saying much). (20"x24")

Have made particular note of the essensial need for better lighting in my studio. As an artist who works predominantly in the evening or afterdark hours, when my works are taken out into the daylight this is noticabley evident. I have to find a way to either paint outside, at a minium surrounded by natural daylight, or drastically improve the interior situation at my easel. This will become a focus in the following week(s).

Have been continuing to paint without drawing with some success. Needless to say, I really miss drawing. Am not too sure that the directional flow created by the hand underpainting is really beneficial or detrimental to the essence of the final piece; I'm of two minds about this and thoroughly undecided. Perhaps this needs to be merged more in thought and practice with the presently unknown resulting image, to ensure a unity of both. This beyond a doubt would limit the organization of colours over form to something that is meticulously preplanned, which concurrently denies the freshness or spirit that needs to be captured in order to have a successful painting.

Working in both mediums for years, I can say that acheivement of this in practice would perhaps be easiest in acrylic, but that freshness and lustfulness of colour would come for using oils; and I want to use oils. It might not photograph well, but one needs to feel that lust when looking upon a painting.

Painting or Something Like It

So this is what I'm working on at the moment, not quite finished but almost and in only one afternoon at that. That is a land speed record for anyone that knows me, and is because of the way I'm working at the moment, or at the very least the way I'm working towards.

It's been a long time since I posted anything really, so it is something that is needed. Life is busy, too full of things that are not as important or satisfying as painting, and yet they seem to usurp my time until it seems I will explode. Actually started hiding from the world this Saturday past, perhaps not a good sign but a much needed space for my sanity.

Now that I've finally had some time in the studio, of course I'm still not satisfied, or at least not directly. I shouldn't really be typing this now, as I'm tired and my eyes are not the best. I've been trying out different things with my painting, specifically along the lines of working with little or no preparation to paint: a complete separation of drawing and painting. This is a new way of working for me. In the end, it seems to be a bit of a step backwards to go forwards, for lack of a better explanation. I'm not where I was, per say, and not exactly sure where I'm going to be, but then that was the point in the first place. I'm searching for something, some feeling in the paint that I feel was missing before, and I'm just feeling around for it right now.

Its interesting, at least to me. Difficult to describe. An example ... and don't you HATE it when this dumb program sticks the image at the top instead of where you want it?!? Bloody hell. Whatever. Painting this way allows me to paint thicker and faster, something I've always admired in other persons works. Loved Van Gogh's cypress trees. But you loose out on the control of having your vision planned out before you, which allows a different set of freedoms as well.

I'm very tired now and off to bed. I'd like to stay up and finish more than anything, but I know what happens at six am, and its that same piles of rocks only they'll be rolling towards me.

Still Painting

Still working on my recent painting, initially a sortof portrait of MRS. His fascination with the artist Man Ray was something I wanted corporated into the piece, which singles this painting out from the rest of my pieces as it pulls imagery from one of his most famous pieces and merges them into this piece.

As it turns out, the main quandry is the portrait treatment itself. At this moment, it can't help but stand apart in the piece, both in treatment and feeling. I now have the destinct feeling that the painting will move further away from a portrait, perhaps my definition thereof, by virtue of the problem of my own making: the allowance of colour to define dimension and depth within each shape, while uniting them into a whole. How to do this while still maintaining character within a facial 'portrait'? Of course, i've been experimenting with a loosening of the dependence on lines, which is only adding to my current questioning.

I need to feel my way forward on this one, as my next piece is already in mind and will face the same challenge, compounded by numbers of persons and water. Hmmm. Gotta think for a night. Will do some more drawings in the meantime.

Quick pic of my Painting at the ARTA Gallery, Distillery District Toronto

"Hell Holes" Stone Sentry, Left View, 12x16", Oil on Linen

Spent a wonderful day in the studio with George, just painting. Finished but not finished, you know how it is. I need it to dry for a bit before playing with the sunbeams some more, but the idea is there. Some practical limitations of the media must be knelt too sometimes.