Preoccupation

Finished Preoccupation, acrylic and collage on canvas, 36 x 36 inches this morning. It's nice that the last three and the painting still in progress are Phoenix based. Tomorrow evening I deliver the paintings and drawings to Modified Arts for my solo exhibit "Lost in Transition" with the opening this Friday October 17th 6-9pm.

It's been a long haul getting ready for this show. There were even two works that although nearly done that I juried out of the show. They will be great paintings when completed, but they didn't fit into the whole theme overall. 

It's odd how shows come together, really. I'm sure musical artist go through the same feelings when putting albumns together. There are just songs that don't fit and are either used for b-sides or saved for another albumn.

Kingdom Come and Went

Just completed Kingdom Come and Went. It's another super wide piece. I think this format works really well for the abandoned gas station/desert works. I think it highlights the one aspect about the desert outside of the heat: it's expansiveness. The desert has several places where it's flat with mountains in the distance that in more humid climates would be obscured by the atmosphere. There's lots and lots of sky and the land just seems to stretch out before you in every direction; forever. It's odd to write about this, because this is really quite normal for a desert kid like me. Whenever, I'm away from the Southwestern Deserts it may take a while, but I notice the lack of expansiveness and endless blue sky.

The title popped in my head right after finishing the painting. The title has some religious undertones, but I think for me personally it's my perception of how these small desert towns were once booming and now are a year or so from becoming ghost towns. I just imagine a gas station owner, perhaps a mechanic by trade who buys the a station just off the highway and runs a prosperous business. Then over time with more fuel efficient cars business just slowly slips away until he can no longer keep the doors open. It's as if all his dreams came true to own his own prosperous company, but times change and he finds it slip from his hands like grains of sand. Like his kingdom came and went before his eyes.

A Worn Out Life in Progress

About midway through the first gas station painting A Worn Out Life, from my Benson to Lordsburg I-10 trip. This piece is 36x72 inches, so it's taking just a little while. This station was in Bowie, Arizona. I almost had the feeling that the rest of the town wasn't far behind this station. I have a feeling that most the population depends on the little bit of agriculture in the area. There were groves of pecan trees from the look of it.

I've been listening to Dakota Suite & Emanuele Errante a lot while painting this one, so I named the piece after one of their tracks. Well, the track that I've listened to repeatedly while working on the painting. It's fitting really when I look at this station. There were a few incarnations evident.  I could see several layers of Texaco graphics, followed with a layer or two of when the station became independent.  I could also tell that the pumps were replaced at some point, because they don't match the architecture of the building.  I omitted the background buildings, but it looked like the owner and station mechanics lived on site, so it's very likely this station was open 24hrs or at least had later hours than most. It's  amazing how much you can deduct from simply taking some time to look around at the little details.

I also had a sense that the station and surrounding buildings have been used by transients. At one point I climbed down into a wash beside the station to capture both the Texaco sign and the station in the same shot. I discovered hundreds of foot prints in the wash with discarded clothes and water bottles. Just beyond where I was standing was a tunnel that led underneath the freeway, so my thought is this is likely part of a route into the country from Mexico. That of course explained why the building's lights were still on.

Hunkering Down for the Long Haul

Sometimes I realize with some paintings that they're just going to take time and lots of it. That there is nothing to do, but hunker down on them for the long haul. I am also reminded of the importance of working on other works while performing the long haul works to keep loose and fresh. The Color Study for Cling has helped me figure out a color scheme that will work for Cling.  I'm greying things out a little more on the actual work. This morning I realized that I really do like the current pavement's color interaction with the main figures in the foreground, so as I'm putting in more color I'm muting it back down with grey tones. It's this balancing act with a piece with this much size and detail that really slows the production process down, but I have to remind myself that being an artist is about quality over quantity. That is somehow out of sync with how the rest of the world is today, but maybe artists have always been out of sync.

Later today I plan to get back to work on a few other paintings that have been on the easel for a while as well. I'm also going to be starting the next piece in the "Lost" series that focuses in on abandoned highway structures, gas stations, diners, and like alongside desert highways. I feel like hoping in the truck and going for a drive sometime this weekend to photograph more.  Maybe after breakfast with my mentor tomorrow.

I'm preparing work for two shows this Fall. I will be part of a group showing of Arizona artists at the Lanning Gallery in September and I will have a solo show at Modified Arts in October.

New Year

Just finished up November this afternoon. The painting really does capture the feeling of that day I was walking around in Bisbee, AZ in the rain. There is definitely a bit of a foreboding/haunted feeling in this painting. It's nice to have the first painting of the new year completed. I've been working on this painting all week along with sending out portfolios. I've also have submitted this piece and two others into a juried exhibition. My fingers are crossed that my work will fit into the show. These last two works have been a lot of fun to paint. In both I've played with the idea of allowing the background to recede into the mist allowing the foreground elements to be darker and more detailed.


I'm going to lighten the palette up a little and give this effect a try in some other works this upcoming week. Tomorrow I plan start a new work entitled After the Rain based on a sketch I started earlier this week. It will be a smaller piece. I also plan to get busy in the sketchbook to draft a series of works after it and continue on with the Crowds series.


Last night's First Friday Reception was really nice. I ran into a lot of old friends I hadn't seen in a while. I also had some great questions on the drawings. The most frequent question was regarding the lack of a background, which took me by surprise. Admittedly, when I started creating the series I went with my gut and didn't even consciously think about the fact I was omitting the background. I think I started drawing a background into the first drawing and erased it out, because it seemed to distract my eye from what was important - the figures. It really did mess with some folk's concept of what a finished drawing should look like. I also noticed many were taken by surprise that they were drawings and not a prints or photographs.

Late Afternoon

Just finished up with Late Afternoon. It's been a rather challenging piece.  Originally, I had planned to utilize a faux encaustic technique that would make the figures recede into the background in a mysterious fog like way , but my Matte Medium was littered with dry white chips and of course this wasn't discovered until after it was applied and had dried over night. The fact I was down in Herford with family and it was Thanksgiving pretty much meant I needed to change direction if this piece were going to be submitted for a group showing this week.


I decided to play with the golden daylight of the afternoon and revisit the color scheme of Minority. It's also created from crowd shots that don't focus on the faces.  The figures become completely anonymous. I feel this speaks to the reality of walking down the city streets though.  When in a large city on a particularly busy street I find that I'm not looking into people's faces I'm looking down and figuring out where to cut in between others and obstacles (sign posts, newspaper machines, and gum). Other times I'm looking up above people navigating, which street to go down. Either or my focus isn't upon making eye contact or relating with the people around me more than I have to.


It's that same anonymity that Edward Hopper captured in his work, but using a different strategy to achieve it. I have to own up though that when I was taking photos last year in Union Square area in San Francisco I was simply trying to be a little covert about snapping my photos or snapping before I'd finished framing the shot.  The main reference photo was really a mistake or at least thought to be. It was the same for Chill. It wasn't until latter when I saw the motion the fact that the absence of a face or just a partial glimpse addressed not only the anonymity of a crowd of people, but helped me the viewer become part of the crowd. Just call it a "happy accident".

Remote

Finished Remote up tonight.  Definitely a work that I want to see bigger.  Much bigger.  I think that I might be painting a few more rooftop works as well. I named the work Remote, because that's the sense I get when I look across those rooftops to the downtown shrouded by mist. It's like looking out upon a world at large, but still figuring out how it all works. I've noticed that this year's works are showing a shift in my color schemes.  It seems that I'm still mostly monochromatic, but slowly moving away from just black and white into the earth tones.  This is a case where I feel I just need to go with the flow.


I have five other works in progress right now. I'm starting to develop a really good flow in the studio.  As much as I tried to plan things I've noticed that studios really come together organically over the course of time.  I'm still working primarily on the northern wall using the western wall as a staging area more than a work area.  Hopefully, I'll learn to work on all three easels.  If I'd only known when I built the studio I might have placed the doors differently.  That way I could have set up multiple easels on the North wall.  Oh well, as they say hindsight is always 20/20.

Gather Your Thoughts - Goes Big

Up above is Gather Your Thoughts 2008 8x10 inches. Below is going to be the large version 48x60 inches with some places reworked and others explored further.

All and all a fairly productive weekend. I started three paintings and I am pretty far along with two of them. I started the big one and wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I worked through some sketches. I little bit of it was figuring out how to address the rivets and a few interesting areas of the under painting. I decided looking through my sketchbook that Gather Your Thoughts was the right direction to go. I have many smaller paintings that I have been meaning to turn into much larger works. I guess that's one of the best arguments to do small works - they're a great arena to work with ideas before going to the really big canvases. I also like the fact that they are more affordable for the general public.

I believe very strongly that art should be for everyone. I know I was told back in art school by one of my painting professors that "we are elitists and our work is for the elite by that very fact". Well, I disagree and I think it's a shame to hear people say to me that "they don't know anything about art, so they can't say if a painting is good or not". Do you like it? Can you except it as art even if you don't? Well, thats all you need to know. Trust me I'm not moved by the majority of the art out there I see and why should it be any different for anyone else?

I know many friends that express that they don't feel comfortable with going to museums and galleries. At the same time they wouldn't think twice about going to a concert. I don't know where this disconnect starts or all the causes of it. I do know there is definitely a lack of arts education within our schools and a association with social class within films and television shows. Maybe, that's the root of it and once the seed is planted it's hard to shake people's paradigms.

Trapped In

The Trapped In series is going smoothly.  I'm going to start the next three of the series tomorrow evening. Right now I'm starting as many canvases as I can and just working them all up to between half to three quarters done.  It's nice to work several canvases up together.  It's the best way I've found to produce a solid body of work that hangs really well together.  I look at painting exhibits like LPs for musicians.  A band or performer cuts a record and they try to make all the songs fit together, sometimes the whole album tells a story or at least carries a mood.  I look at painting exhibits like that.  I try to have all the paintings tie into each other. I do have a few disparate ones here and there, but I'm sure I'll tie them in before April or I'll just hold back on hanging them.

More Toil and Humdrum

Toil and Humdrum is complete.  I'm on to working on to a triptych and the diptych. I'll post the progress on those tomorrow.  The triptych is going to have a similar feel to Toil and Humdrum, but the diptych is going a completely different direction.

Toil and Humdrum

Toil and Humdrum continues.  Tonight I worked on the figures on the left side and splashed a little color in here and there.  Most notably in the couple in the center of the canvas.  I will be putting a little more color in the older gentleman's face as well.

Coming to a couch near you

Title of the post comes from a newspaper Ad I found in Wall Street Journal. Amongst painters it is a bit of a cliche.  We're often told at openings, "Oh, I so love this painting, but it will simply not match my couch".  At that point I smile and say "I understand". Honestly, I do I have a couch and a color scheme. In my case it would be "your painting wouldn't look good on my bright grasshopper green wall". Well, this little sentence "Coming to a couch..." is going to find itself collaged into a painting soon.  I can't resist a little humor relief once in a while.

A very busy and productive weekend.  I started five new canvases Saturday, so now I have seven paintings going at once. The one on the easel Toil and Humdrum though is going extremely fast and will be done before the rest.  I'm really happy with this canvas and I can't say why.  I mean I'm happy with all of them, but there's something great going on with this canvas.  I love the texture and the painterly brush strokes.  I think I'm going to make a series out of it. I'm not putting buildings in this one and a few others.  I want to focus in on the actual movement of the people in the composition.  I'm also going to put a little more color into some of these works. It will be subtle though. There actually is a fair amount of Payne's Grey in this painting.

Oh, the two photos above are the under-painting and fabric collage stage of a triptych I started Saturday.  It's going to be along the same lines of Toil and Humdrum.

Unexpected Evening

Tonight was a bit unexpected. I painted a little, but was just feeling too tired. Called the evening early, but couldn't get to sleep and listened to music.  After drinking some tea I started inking a little here and there and soon I had inked out most of what I needed to get done. I'm keeping the illustrative quality of this one in place. Originally, I thought of this as a diptych.  I have a feeling it will become a series of works.  I've flirted with the idea of following a building's life as it becomes haunted. I think in a few works I've touched upon it, but haven't set out to show the entire progression. I think I will.

Portland Here We Come!!

Alicia asked our friends if Andrea and Shawn if they were up for another visit this Summer and they are.  Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!!  I can't wait to take on Mt. Hood again Mountain Biking with Shawn.  I also can't wait to ride around Portland again.  I think that I'm going to see if Shawn is up for spending a day on the bike just riding around the city with me to take source photos for my paintings.  If he's not maybe I can borrow a bike from him to do it.  I love the scale of Portland and the atmosphere.  It's the only West Coast city that matches my cityscapes within my work.  I think I need to plan a week in Chicago or New York to shoot photos as well.  I've been threatening to and just haven't, but I really need to.

About tonight's offering.  Here's the painting that was leaning against the wall from Saturday's post.  I'm quickly working in the paint and roughing out the areas.  Tomorrow evening I will work in some details with my fine brushes and ink pens.  Probably end the evening with some glazes.  I think I'm going to actually apply some varnish tonight when it's dry enough before I go to bed.  I like to apply the varnish as I go.  This is based on two photos I took of Andrea, Shawn, Alicia and I walking the streets of Baltimore, Maryland when they lived there (the figures in the foreground are left to right Alicia, Andrea, and Shawn).  It was so frickin cold since they were having a Noreaster that year.  That was the title for the first version of this painting.  I just really loved the composition and had some ideas as I was painting that version.  I tend to follow the sage advice of my mentor David Sklar, which was to stay the course on a piece and paint different versions with the ideas you come up with while painting it.  

More Rainy Evening

Decided to post twice considering the earlier post was where I left off last night. Quickly, drawing this piece to a close as the lights flicker from the storm outside.  I think I'm going to take the little scene behind the two dominant figures and use them in another painting.  I really like that old guy.  There's something about his character that seems important in times like these.

I'm getting to the point where I think I'm just going to stop listening to the news, but I know it's a lie and I will have to muddle through the columns any how.

Rainy Evening

Pretty much done with the smoker.  She gave me a bit of a fight.  I think it was her big hair, but I'm not sure.  I plan to start into the other figures and simply go back to her.  Sometimes it's the best to just put aside the part that's giving you trouble and continue on even if that means jumping to another canvas.  It's raining outside and sounds so beautiful.                                                                          

Introduction

The purpose of this blog is to keep the fans of my work updated to what's going on in the studio as well as document the creation of the works in my studio.  I've always enjoyed seeing other artists work.  I also really enjoyed seeing what classmates did over the weekend while in art school.

This blog will work as a visual artist's diary of sorts.  I'll explain a little bit about the thinking process behind works as they're being done.  I will also share the preliminary work that goes on as well.