Wednesday, March 24, 2010

To be continued...

A friend of mine recorded like, uh, 80 million hours of "Indian Chill" music for me, and the combination of its continual dreamy rhythmic soundtrack, and suddenly having almost three whole days to simply paint and take walks to think about painting, has left me feeling very fortunate, and a tiny bit other-worldly.
Ok, more than a tiny bit...


Here are two small weather studies (8" x 12") using earth with the addition of phthalo blue, and an itty-bitty, I don't think this is cheating, portion of unbleached titanium white. Its great how posting these studies helps me to see them differently and gives me ideas. For instance, I saw the study below cropped accidentally by this preview box that I am typing in, and got an idea for it. How does technology influence your work? In unexpected ways.



Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Saturation

...just a quick diptych sketch to share my excitement over the "earth" palette. I really like this beginning vertically too.


The new slide show at the top of my blog is from an "art walk" that I took last night - what I see, and want to see.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Fitting life around painting

Funnel Study 1
oil and cold wax on canvas
16" x 10"
in process


It has been really hard to get a good photo of this wet little painting, but I wanted to show this stage. I had a fabulous meeting with Carol yesterday, and one of the zillion things that she suggested is that I push the pigment more, and repaint the lights in several of my studies and studio exercises without white. Although this picture has some glare, it gives an idea of what is happening. It is super hard not to use white, but I am discovering and using colors I would never have approached before, and feel good about the struggle.

I think you will find that the difference is that before you were fitting in the painting around your life and now you will be fitting in your life around your painting. You will love it once you get your head and body around it. - Carol

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Wind

Funnel Study 1
oil and cold wax on canvas
10" x 16"


Carol asked me to do these little color study experiments and I am basing them on the large polytych that I have going on. This one is simply the primaries + white.
















Funnel Study 2
oil and cold wax on canvas
10" x 16"


This one is the primaries + yellow ochre with no white. Ugh. Not a great photo - got some glare going on - but still not my fave. I used cad yellow, cad red, ult blue. May try again with different versions of those primaries.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Forests

Trees
acrylic, oil, cold wax on paper
36" x 96"
in process

Carol has been encouraging me to examine how I use my time in an effort to squeeze more studio hours into my jam-packed schedule. During our last meeting in response to my claim that there were just not any more hours to be had, she asked me “Well, what else do you do? Do you cook? Clean? See friends?”, to which I replied, something like, if I am lucky I see friends, cuz I probably won’t have any friends left after this program (ha ha!). Despite this interchange, I have been trying to be Carol-esque in my view of time, and have been going even further outside of my comfort zone concerning when I will paint. Pre-Carol, I would not consider painting if I only had one hour. Now I just get in there anyway. Get up early and read theory or organize notes before breakfast? Doing it. I am feeling all hard-core, and noticing that while I am getting more done, I am having some anxiety and trouble sleeping – mainly because I am not giving myself those down-moments that I used to grant myself at the beginning and in-between parts of my day. I think I will adjust to this. I think it is good for me. There may be a half step back that is better for me, but for now the constant motion and school continually in clear view behind my eyes, is just what I need. Thanks Carol. By the way, I can not stop thinking of the other Carol that I love – but he has horns.

Snow

Funnel 4
oil, cold wax, spray paint, on canvas
30" x 44"
in process


Waking up in the very silent darkness and scribbling furiously on the pad I keep beside my bed - strings of words, such important words - falling, storms, snow, snow snow, traces, floating, swimming, cycles, gravity, space... What?

Ok, I admit it, I have been reading Edmund Burke before going to sleep and soaking myself in all ideas sublime, terrifying and beautiful during the day. Perhaps I need to start watching tv again.

Funnels

Funnel 1,2
oil, cold wax, spray paint on canvas
30" x 44", 30" x 26"

in process