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.

Mid-Week Work

The bright stripes at the bottom of the composition were knocked back into with some background color. A little more refinement to the large portrait was made as well. 

As a result of the irregular panel widths on the left side there is this slight gap that remains even after the 1" spacers were put into position. 

A pine strip was ran through the table saw to match the gap, after which an aspen panel was ran through and then the two were wood glued and clamped together. 

A little work here and there on this piece. Mostly roughing in the couch values and position.  

I have been considering for some time incorporating handwriting into the work. Artists like Basquiat, Twombly and Dine have done this well amongst others. This notion came up in critique this past week with Victor and I began to ponder in the impact it may have on the work. As a warm-up to the concept I took two of my least favorite panels and attempted to jot down various phrases that were on my mind in a variety of media to see how it altered to work. Finding the correct media/technique to use for rendering the letters as well as not over thinking the words and phrases is something that may take practice and time if it is to be an effective element in this slowly developing body of work.

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.

Panel Formats Expand

This is the current collection of panel formats. The large square and rectangle of course being where everything started from and the triangle was added this past spring. The 1x1 and 1x2 formats were created as a way to add to the mix although I do not see them being too prevalent in the work at this point but rather included as a way to add some physical interest and focus in certain arrangements. I really need to stop with the fabrication and get to the painting.

Look Mom No Clamps

It felt like time to investigate getting one of these 72" x 72" configurations on the wall. Wall Buddies W-3300 hangers were used as the hardware, although I am somewhat skeptical  on their claim that their product can support up to 80 lbs, these large pieces weigh in at just under 40 with the bolts in the back. I left his on the wall for an hour before running it back down to the basement, but would like to do a longer "test-hang" to see how comfortable I am with this hanging method. Originally I thought screws and D-hooks, but cleats may be another option. Some more investigation and exploring needs to be done but the Wall Buddies may prove to be a good final solution.

Sorry, bad photos, but an attempt to show how the bolts on the back of the panels holding it together. I over tightened them on the first pass and threw a bottom square out of alignment, so I learned my lesson and backed off on the torque of each and for the most part is is fairly square. Not too worried about it being perfect, it is nice to see the panels as individuals, emphasized by edges not lining up perfectly. 

In other news:

Counter sunk a few nails and puttied up the holes, will try and do sets of 6 rather than than all of the panels at once. I am anxious to get back to painting some new material.

Looking at something different, that left eye is still not right . . .  Kind of just want to paint over it.

Slowly

Used a nail punch to score lines into the surface of the panels which were then used as guides for a cube pattern.

Random combination just to see what the new pattern looks like next to image.

Initial fabrication is now done on the 15 2x4's and 18 2x2's. 

Now it's time to set the nails, putty the holes, sand, prime and sand again. Hopefully two more weeks and these will be done. 

Week of 6/13

The panel configurations get worked as flat configurations then broken apart, reassembled and worked again. Looking at the stacks against the wall it became apparent this weekend that the stacks were configurations as well, so in a way to work them as an entire unit or configuration a blue line was painted that meandered across all of them. The edges of the panels really could be more of an important element in my final work than previously thought.

Current in-progress configurations.

Progress on Man with Stripped Shirt image, bottom shot being the most current.

14 of the 15 2x4 panels were built over the past week. Hopefully I can crank through the 18 2x2 this week and next, then rip a few of those squares into triangles, counter sink the nails, putty the holes, prime and sand everything in the next month. I really view the panel fabrication as part of the painting process.

Work 6/11 — 6/12

Beginning to fabricate more panels. The current plan is to build 15 2x4 and 18 2x2. Which would be more than enough for 5 72"x72" configurations. I figure I'd spend an hour each night working a a few before or after I go to the studio.

I gave Caleb a small stretched canvas and a few brushes, he hung out for an hour just fine while I worked Sunday.

This image has been giving me fits, the colors from the source image are skewed warm and red, plus I waffle on the temperature differences between the forehead and the lower portion of the mouth. Currently there is not enough distinction in terms of temperature between the various portions of the facial structures to separate them enough resulting in an image that is flat. Started this one back in early January, it still feels a long way off as either a finished image in and of itself or as parts to be worked into different configurations.