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.

Week: 2/15–2/21

Work From the Past Few Days

Beginning a new image. 

Crossing off words, adding new ones. Paint seems to be the best writing medium, but I am not sure how well this incorporates into the body of work yet. 

Finished strip filling gap on left side of the configuration. Initially painted this green as shown here, but late last night painted it white. 

Progress on the small figure to the right, initial investigation of the stripes on the shirt. 

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.

Weekend Work

Developing shadows on the figure to the left. 

Starting some new panels.  

 The new panels with more paint added below an old panel placed on top.

Working them together.

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.