Week: 2/22–2/28

Painting:

Show Preparation:

Test hanging a painting in the garage.

Bolting panels together, building extra mount for cleat.

New table saw, (in background) - its already been put to good use getting these paintings ready for the April show at Art St. Louis. New panels have been getting built periodically, they are stacked along the wall on the left side of the photo. I am using birch plywood for these vs. the aspen. The birch seems to warp more than the aspen so I think once I get all of the reaming birch panels built I will revert back to the aspen.

More White Paint

Admittedly there is a lot more to work out with pushing back imagery whether it's using white paint or any other method. But the experiments and results from the past evening were engaging enough to encourage me to try this on something larger with an image rather than just texture.

The panels were originally set with binder clips on the floor to apply the paint as illustrated in the first image in the post. However, it was difficult to apply the paint well working hunched over so the entire configuration was lifted into an upright position to continue.

Unlike the experiments this panel did not end up with a  relative all encompassing coat of paint. It started off that way, but as the paint began to set I could tell that not much of the original image would show through if any. So out came a few old t-shirts and water to remove some of the paint. The evening was spent adding, removing and diluting the paint to allow some of the past work to remain while still toning back the majority of the configuration.

Here is an illustration of the potential of this sort of activity, a stronger contrast between panels when rearranged. There will be a lot to consider with this moving forward. I want to be aggressive with my painting at times, but currently I hold on too tightly to the work that I have done to cover much up of anything. Moving beyond this will take more time and panels, but in seems clear that in order to make the work more engaging something has to happen. 

Moving Things Around

Part of the studio time this past weekend was spent rearranging the basement so that I would have more open floor space next to the working area to layout more possible panel configurations.

Further develpment on the portrait using the flow release. Really lost the likeness and the color values muddied up quite a bit with this round. Not sure how much build up I will be able to get out the this new medium, or if I simply need more time with it.

Possible panel combination using four 2x2's. Hard to see as a thumbnail but the top right panel as gray stripes that match up with the light green to it's left and the gray below. That continuation, while quite suble held the compostion together. Not sure if I dig this as a subtle thing or if something on top of it all is needed.

Since I felt as though this one had been lost the day before I excuslivy used release and raw sienna to try and bring it back. I like how the prior "failded" painting shows thorough and adds a real indication of what happened before.

Looking at how the underpainting looks next to something more modeled. Not loving this at the moment, but perhaps that is because the modeled face has a lot of burnt sienna in it so the two elements do not seperate as much if there was additional color in the modeled element. Things to play with. Things to think about. That what it's all about right?

Back In The Studio

Back from FL, back in the studio.

This piece was begun in early January, I feel as though the balance of the original background panels, image and texture provide the level of interest that was indended.

Had to start something new tonight. The lamp underpainting from before FL got me thinking about how when the panels are combined the variety of color and rendered elements often compete with each other. In this piece I intend to leave the rendered element primarily as an umber drawing and see how that will affect future panel combinations.

About 1 hour of drawing, using the Acrylic Flow Release and Burnt Umber.

You can see the effects of the Flow Release in this detail from the mouth area. The medium makes the paint sloppy and a little gummy, small bubbles appear when worked on the panel vigorously. Although the product didn't mention lenghtening the drying time it certainly does just that which is great as it works a little more like oil and turp allowing you to wipe paint away to create a highlight long after it was applied to the surface.