Thursday

 Another layer of spray paint. A bit of sanding back into the surface. Below are some details.

This is another image transfer in the Ford sketchbook. It is part of the "fighter" series.

Two Days of Work

The two images above show the current state of the double portrait on the lamp piece.

This pic shows where it was prior to last night.

white painting

Here's where the white painting stands right now, if you want to see how it got to this point I posted a bunch of shots over on my other blog. 

ford sketchbook

Here's a recent transfer that has an interesting feel to it. 

a little work

With the Easter holiday thrown in the mix only a little work, a very small amount of work got done this weekend.

Still trying to let go on the lamp piece.

Broke the lamp piece apart, not to rearrange it but to paint a small double portrait on the bottom. This is just the initial first pass.

This one was leaning against the wall and the left eye looked crossed so I moved the pupil to the left. It doesn't feel crossed any more, but then it appeared that the upper lid is/was too light. With a few more strokes of darker tone the eye should set back correctly, it's not right now. . .

Hopefuly more time can be spent in the studio this week.

other projects

In an effort to dig the mower out of the under stairs storage I ended up hanging some insulation and drywall. Before we hook up the water (which I still need to plumb) I need to get the walls enclosed and a door on that small room, so it can be heated next winter to keep the pipes from freezing. I am planning for another sliding door like at the top of the stairs.

I got the motorcycle out of storage a week or two ago. It started after four or five kicks. Eventually I will get the 'chop' finished and get an actual seat on it. You'll notice the insulation next to the bike, that is for the "floor" of the studio. The wheel might get cleaned up and put on craigslist . . . 

white painting

 some blue

 some green

 some detail

 some cans

some work to do. So, in preparation for warmer weather, we got the ceiling fan up in the center. There is about an inch of clearance between the blades and the beams. I am looking forward to getting the drywall done eventually. 

Work: April 13–18

Viewing these dots as little paintings within a larger painting.

Attempting to commit myself to solving a composition without rearranging the panels . . . we'll see how long that lasts. Lately there seems to be some desire to "get it right" when I am in the studio. Perhaps doing something to these images that I think is not beautiful, something that I don't like will provide me with more of a visual problem to solve, thus making them more dynamic. The image above is evidence of this new effort.

The pink panel is a new attempt at this arrangement. The facial values need to be lightened, but what else should I do? Disregard and disrespect any notion of preserving this image, abandon my sense of keeping it precious? I know that will make these images better, but finding the guts to do it has been a long long process. 

One sobering thought that occurred when looking at the Sower article - has my work even moved forward since that 2002 show? It would be logical to think that in some way, yes, it has evolved, but the correlations are very strong to those works on paper from "Drawing Out". Good or bad, not sure, but what I do know is that there is something missing from these new works, some reservation that holds them back from being what it is that I want them to be. 

Sower Pics - Nov. 2002

Found the Sower article discussing our 2002 senior show, wow, we defined awesomeness. I read the article, I sounded like an idiot.

Oh, and the pages really are this old and yellowed, not a lighting issue when photographed. Not sure if you want a copy Seth, but I have something like 10 copies. I must have thought that I was going to be famous and that they'd be worth something. Let me know if you want one . . . or 10.

Work: April 9 – 12

Work from the last few days:

Got the warm value of the baby's sweatshirt blocked in as well as further details to both figures.

Brought some detail back to the iron rendering on the bottom right to help balance out the yellow graphic element above it. Not sure if I like this now. The iron seems more like an illustration than a painting. 

I want to work a single large image on these last untouched panels. Not sure what I want to paint. More time behind the camera is needed to find some new imagery to work from. Or maybe searching for objects of interest may be in store.

This portion of the studio is thought of as the staging area, a place where panels can be arranged  and looked at. I still like the idea of at some point presenting all of the panels in a gallery stacked up against the wall and than rearranged everyday to show new images on the front of the stacks. Maybe even some of the panels would be binder clipped together. 

ruddy duck

Here's another transfer of the ruddy duck. The way the spray paint is working with this one is kind of interesting.

Transfer Paintings

I have been using scrap pieces of Luan as palettes when mixing up paint for the tape patterns. If there happens to be any paint left on them which is usually the case I take it and press it onto one of the 2x2 or 2x4 panels transferring/stamping the left over paint onto the surface.

Last night the idea to try and paint heavily onto the Luan and then try to transfer the image crossed my mind and I gave it a try. Luan panel with paint after transfer attempts to the left, transferred image to the right. Not to clear at all.

Thinking that perhaps the Luan was too porous to transfer the paint well so this evening I tried again this time using a sheet of plexi as the base material to apply the heavy paint to. Plexi after three transfers on left, three transfered images to right.

Plexi detail after the transfers.

Transferred image. Using the inital painting multiple times appeals to me, there is something here that is very fun to experiment with. Perhaps oil on velum would be a better combination to use when trying this again. I can see how this may potentially work into my current body of work.

Iron Painting

So much of the subject matter in this body of work is figure or portrait based that pushing past that in some instances is a challenge. This piece is the first time where I have incorporated a simple sketch in conjunction with a more rendered panel and the balance was a nice discovery.

Working a pattern on top of it all to establish a sense of order and control, I think that perhaps I will go into the iron painting on the bottom panel and pull some more detail out by painting on top of it again. It had been more fully rendered at one point and then when it was being considered for another panel configuration it was pushed back with the yellow-green paint.

Progress - Man With Stripped Shirt

Worked on the stripped shirt, trying not to paint each stripe one by one but working the whole thing at once.

Detail

ford sketchbook

 Here's a close up of the 'over worked' piece . . . 

A few variations of toner transfer of the ruddy duck using spray paint.  

Working with the transfer again, using images from one of the current wars with the questions: 'who could love you more' and 'how could you love more.'  I have been thinking of the soldiers who are willing to sacrifice their own lives for others, while fighting individuals who believe the exact same thing, but from the opposite perspective . . . 

 Same question paired with imagery from the Vietnam War. 

 A complete set of letters cut from masonite.