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I just finished Pause. Pretty much a day long project and most of the time petrified that I'd mess up many of the wonderful elements that make the piece so special to me. I really love this particular canvas and have used the energy from it to start four other works. I honestly feel it's one of my very best works. The composition and brush strokes are just spot on in my mind. It's just set the bar up that much higher for the rest of the paintings for the show and that's what it's about.
The tricky part with this painting was transitioning from full color into black and white (I say that loosely, because the juxtaposition of warm blacks/greys and cool blacks/greys are far from monochromatic). I used this color strategy to control where the eye goes in the piece as well as amplifying what is indeed in color. I'm using more color, but I like subtlety and a minimal pallet.
First up is the completed A Small Escape and below that is Shopper 1. Today's rain somewhat derailed my goal of getting outside and painting the sides and hooking and eyeing all the pieces for the Small Print show that will be in Tempe this upcoming Friday. Oh well, not the only thing on the to do list. I need to finish some of the works I've started and put a portfolio printed piece together. Besides when you have eight or so artworks in process the brain seems to get a little boggled. When I get the new studio I'll try working that way again, but for the time being I don't have the space and I end up tucking work away out of sight and then it's out of mind to boot. It's really hard to get back to working on a painting when it's been stuck in a closet out of sight. I find that I have to put it on the easel for a bit without touching it while working on other stuff.
Life is about experiments or at least life as a painter is.
As mentioned above I've been putting a portfolio together, which really is just searching through my art folders to round up the best of the best. It's always a challenge, but I'm going to resort to flipping coins if I have to. I'm planning on sending out a mess of portfolios all over the country. It's going to be my biggest push in a long time and perhaps a bit over due. Who knows?
While searching the folders I keep finding small works that really should be resurrected and put onto large canvases. A good example is Mersault which was part of a show at Modified back in 2008. It's just a fantastic painting and was only 12 x 24 inches. It's the kind of composition that could easily live on a 36x72 or even a 48x96 canvas and it well should. I'm also finding a bunch of works that have small passages that would look great on a 24x36 or larger canvas as well cropped.
Above is Pensive (working title don't know if it will stick). Keeping the same strategy of starting works and working on everything simultaneously in order to keep the body of work closely related.
With this one there is a debate about keeping a film noir color scheme. It's just feels like color would be gratuitous if added if not disturb the dynamics of the composition. I'll let time decide.
