The Gift

Just finished Beer & Wine.  I kept the title simple since the building in the foreground is Best Market Beer and Wine. I opted not to make the sign completely legible. I worked some color in, but still kept a fairly monochromatic pallet throughout.


It always amazes me how the beginning of a new body of work is filled with an awkward sense of uncertainty about direction.  I sit and stare at the canvases and question the color pallet of the work and internally debate on which techniques I'm going to employ and how the works will relate to each other and to the previous body of work.  With the last body of work I departed from my architectural focus on urbanity and was a great deal more figurative. With my collected fodder of photos from my vacation I'm returning with full force to the architectural bias, but I'm not sure if that's the focus I really want.  I've been very busy putting my photos together.  I have several pieces that will be very tall that start at the top with the sky directly above the viewers head and proceed downward to the street.  There will be a sort of fisheye effect to the perspective and this really excites me.  I also have some compositions I'm working on that will have the same effect only on a horizontal axis for freeway interchanges and bridges.  I'm struggling with the question if to continue with the heavily collaged abstract backdrops or to opt for more textural rendering.


There's always so much to think about, thankfully.  I guess it is a luxury to have "the gift" of having these dilemmas considering I could simply have no ideas at all.  Currently, I just have to figure out which roads I'm taking. Oh, and deal with the fact Phoenix is having an extended summer and my paints are drying on the brush before they even touch the canvas.  


Once I have the new studio I'm going to experiment with air filtration and or exhaust systems to see if working with oils during the hot and dry months will allow me continue working during that part of the year.  I love working with both oil and acrylics.  I have to say that many of my collage techniques would have to go to the wayside when working with oils due to the fact that oils are very acidic to raw papers and fabrics. I might opt to collage materials and then seal the surface really well with varnish then work with oils on top of the acrylic surfaces. The huge advantage of working with oils over acrylics when working with the figure is drying time.  Just the greater window of being able to blend and smooth areas is a huge asset when working with the human form.