Long Time No Post

Things got busy with transporting work for a show as well as a crit on campus last week. With that being the case time in the studio was a little less than normal, below are shots of the images that were worked with over the past week+.

 Oil paint was used to begin to tighten in some detail on portions of the green lamp piece. I think the contrast of some more in focus detail may be a needed balance to some of panels that are mark making focused.

Spent a majority of time working with this piece. The last photo here really shows how the image got away from me, but the opportunity to salvage it should make the image more interesting than where it was going earlier in the week.  

There was a good deal of paint left over on a palette and rather than saving it, the paint was dumped onto these panels along with some of the water from the cleaning bucket. Panels and palette were stacked on top of each other to dry, hopefully they will stick together and when pulled apart something interesting will happen.

Preparing For a Show

I was invited to participate in an MFA show at a community college in St. Charles which will run through the month of October. This is a shot of two of the pieces being "test hung" in the garage. I thought it was a good opportunity to work through the logistics of getting these things on the walls. I am considering the six pieces in the show to be complete at this point, but will have no reservations about working on them more after they are back in the studio. Considering alternate ways of displaying them such as stacks or structures is something I want to explore more. 

A little painting was eked out in between bolting and fashioning the work together for the show. 

Work 8/27-8/29

Something needed to happen to this portrait which was started in May of 2010. The last time I looked at it here it just was too straight forward and matter of fact. The stripes help push it back some, but now I wonder if I need to knock back into the stripes with some flesh tone a bit. Stripping pictures below.

New piece, starting off with a trapezoid format, image based on a photo of my brother looking over the armrest of a couch with Caleb in the background.

Removed the two 12" squares from the bottom left, replaced with 12x24 and began tightening the portrait further.

Work 8/22–8/25

Starting to add some color to the underpainting. Oil.

I did a bad job of documenting this. Here is a brief explanation: working with 2 12" squares and a 12"x24 rectangle it was my intention to replace the bottom left corner of one of the red portrait started this past spring as I want the original for another composition.  The panels were given a green coat of acrylic and than some tape patterning and rotating of the panels occurred. The ultimate result of these efforts was than incorporated into the bottom corner as depicted below.

This is not working well at the moment, really it looked better before the portrait was reworked back onto the new panels. Not sure if there is too much pattern happening throughout  the piece or if it is an issue of the revised corner of the portrait being underdeveloped, but something feels very straight forward and lacking of interest. 

Work 8/4 - 8/10

Finally wrapped up the new panels: 15 24"x48" Rectangles, 15 24"x24" Squares, 4 24"x24" Triangles, 10 12"x12" Squares and 8 12" x 24" Rectangles. It was starting to feel a bit obsessive with the fabrication and the urge to make a great deal more small panels was there, but it was time to stop and get to painting.

Trying to get back into the painting.

New panels, 2 small squares, 1 small rectangle, 1 large rectangle and 1 large square. The panels were worked together and once they dry will be broken apart and rearranged and than something else applied on top.

Beginning of an oil painting of a hanging fern and American flag on our front porch over this past Memorial Day.