Another one down a dozen to go

Finished Could've last night.  Trying to figure out what I'm going to work on next.  I have lots of painting to do, but heck what's new?  I'm not sure the photo does the piece justice really.  The intensity of some colors and subtly of others seems a bit lost.  It will look fantastic hanging in a gallery on opening night though.

Back to Pensive

Pensive has been languishing on and off the easel as I was figuring out what to do with the background behind the main figures.  The building just weren't cutting it for me.  As much as I was wanting to bring buildings back into the mix of these long horizontal figure pieces - it just wasn't quite right. Also, the bringing color into the piece is settled as well.  It stays film noir.  I think color would simply be gratuitous.

The goal this weekend is to complete Pensive and Could've and get started on a few new works.  I have three canvases to stretch, so that will be the bulk of the work done on the new works.  I still have more work to do on the preliminary sketches anyway.

I have two shows in the works. I will be at Modified Arts in Downtown Phoenix with the opening reception May 21st and the second reception June 4th.  I am tentatively set to be at the Lanning Gallery in Sedona, AZ with the opening reception July 2nd.   I'm going to be working like a demon to get everything painted.

Could've Continues

Could've continues.  I'm adding color and reworking elements as I go.  I'm figuring out how I'm going to resolve the background behind the two female figures.  I feel the mail figure on the far left is just astoundingly resolved.  It was one of those cases where I paused for just a moment long enough to stop myself from ruining a good thing.  Sometimes it's not always about what I do, but what I don't do.  That's why I'm calling it a night early on figuring out what to do for the background.  I might very well see my query to resolve the background to tie the two female figures into each other as a bad idea.

I have a feeling that it's really about the male figure far left and the female far right.  I think the central figure despite her compositional dominance is merely the subplot of the story.  Now I need to figure out if the female character on the far right is in flight or merely recognizing an old friend.  Maybe I'm not supposed to know and just enjoy the tension.

I remember a long time ago my High School Art Teacher Sid Travis pointed out a painting in a magazine that depicted the dangling feet of a  hung man with men on horseback looking like they just road up or committed the hanging.  He pointed out the psychological created by the composition and the ambiguity of the scene. He told me that was what good art was about - making the viewer write the story in their head.

Later David Sklar my painting professor at SCC and mentor differentiated the difference between propaganda and art.  "Propaganda tells you what to believe, art asks you to believe", David Sklar.

I guess that's really a big part of my definition of what making good art is about.

Could've...

Working away on Could've.  I seem to be into the horizontal figurative works right now.  I think it's strange how dynamic these compositions are despite the fact that horizontal compositions usually don't have the inherent compositional dynamics of vertical compositions.  Maybe it's just the implied movement that creates visual tension and thus dynamics.  I'm planning to finish Could've and Pensive up this weekend if possible.  I might start a new work or two as well.

I guess right now I'm just working and letting the work take me where it will.  I've been derailed a little by life stuff for the last two weeks, so I'm just trying to get back into the groove.  Could've is a great start.

I'm tempted to jump the light rail and go crazy with my camera down on Mill Avenue tomorrow.  Maybe my wife and I could eat at Pita Jungle just a few stops down on Apache or heck just go to Athenian Express on Central (our favorite Greek Place for over five years now).  I guess it will depend on how the work in the studio is shaping up tomorrow and how restless we are.  I'm just feeling that the answer to what to paint for the next canvases lies in getting out and about with a camera.  I've been flirting with the idea of doing a series of carnival pieces.  Just popped in my head the rides and the fact it would be fun to paint night lights.  I also have a series of night city paintings brewing in the back of my mind.  I think the Modified and the Lanning Gallery Shows are going to be a bit different.

Rainy Day

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.

Finishing what I've started

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.

Pensive (working title)

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.