Three day weekend

Here's a shot of where Allegiance is at.  It's based on a photo I took in Portland, OR. I've spent the week for the most part sketching out the next batch of paintings.  I have a 4 to 6 more canvases to complete for the show.  I think the 6 is a stretch.  I'll try though.

Something on the Windowsill

Just finished the Something on the Windowsill series along with Go Home yesterday morning.  There was only a little touch up and painting the sides after an almost all Friday night painting session.  I then loaded up the new work along with what remained from the Modified show and headed up to Sedona to the Lanning Gallery. They loved the work, which was a big relief.  

Now it's the final stretch for the Sedona show.  I have two weeks really, so painting six to eight canvases might not be the best use of my time.  I think I'm going to focus in on painting four medium large paintings and hitting them out of the ballpark.

I started working on my sketch for Allegiance which will be a 24x48" canvas. I've used a photo I took in Downtown Portland, OR of the front of some embassy or hotel.  I can't really tell from the photo.  It just has the hanging flags off the building that makes me think of ticker tape parades.  I know some are going to read political leanings one way or another.  The flag is, well a politically charged symbol after all.  In this case I'm using it, because it's an incredibly strong image and will make a fantastic painting.  I leave the viewer to decide where my politics lay and maybe just maybe, the painting will be about where their politics lay rather than where mine do.

Go Home

Go Home is almost finished.  Nothing but the fine details left to do and a few glazes. I started two other works to finish the Lines (working title) triptych up. I need to finish these works up before I make the first delivery up to Sedona this upcoming Saturday.  I'm building canvases Sunday for the completion of the Sedona show.  They have a lot of space, so I'm wanting to add at least four if not six large paintings 3'x6' to the show.

Getting ready for a trip to Seattle, WA and Portland, OR the week after the show. I plan to take a lot of urban photos while I'm there for source material.  I also feel like I need to get serious about a trip to New York to take street photos.  Frankly, I will not have the money to stay long, but even a day of taking photos and a couple days visiting museums and other sites would be worth it. 

Production time

Not sure of the title for this painting yet.  The working title is Lines or Entanglement.  I guess I should wait and see how the rest of the series goes.  I also performed more work on Go Home from the previous post.  Oh, that's a working title as well.  If you haven't guessed from reading previous posts the working title isn't always the title a painting ends up with.  It takes a while to figure out the title for some paintings especially if they go really quick.

The second reception at Modified went really well.  I've sold ten works so far in that exhibit which is really good.  It's pretty much a fifty/fifty of small and large works, which surprised me with this economy just a little.  I still have the ghost of "paintings are dark" haunting me.  I guess I should be used to it, but it still bugs me from time to time. It's not the intent really.  I simply paint what comes to me to paint and it's not worth the creative block to edit myself.

Missing Time

Missing a bit of a space of time there.  Just the final rush to get everything done for the Modified show.  I thought I'd taken a few photos along the way, but couldn't find them on the camera, opps.

This is a new piece that I started before the rush to get things done for the Modified show.  I'm figuring out what I'm doing for the figures now.  I'm going to put a little bit more color into the next batch of work.  I have roughly twelve to sixteen paintings to complete for the Lanning Gallery in Sedona.  They will be mixed in with work from the Modified show.  Once I had everything up on the wall I realized that it was a little more intense than I meant to be.  Honestly, I've done these works in such a thought stream that considerations of the pallet weren't considered, which is how it should be.  Nonetheless, I don't think it would be a bad idea to throw in a few works with some strong color to lighten the mood a little. The humor relief within a Greek or Shakespeare play.

I do think the almost monochromatic body of work currently at Modified is stunning.  I've heard a few remarks that it's a bit dark.  I can only nod and not think too much about it.  The work was created very quickly within a pure thought stream.  I really left the subject matter to my subconscious mind and consciously just painted like there was no tomorrow.  There's a lot of interesting stories within these paintings.  I can't wait until I can stop and decipher what my subconscious is telling me.  Usually, the work is prophetic in some sense and is telling me things about what I'm thinking and feeling that's buried beneath the surface.  Don't worry I'm not going Freudian on you guys.  I do believe the mind does bury things on us at times and it might even just be a result of being so busy rushing around doing things that we don't have much time to sit, be alone, and reflect on our feelings about what's happening in our worlds.

Contemplate Your State

Back to work and updating.  New painting on the easel entitled Contemplate Your State.  It's not too far from being finished and that's a good thing.  Really just trying to finish as much work as I can before it's time to hang the show at Modified.

The new Open Acrylics from Golden are really coming in handy with this last batch of works.  Being able to have a little of the blending time and ability of oils has helped nail down things faster.  It's not perfect though.  A little to transparent and too anxious to turn to mud.  Hey, I should just be thankful for what I have!

Crazy few weeks

Time to Call it a Night is finished.  I actually finished it last weekend, but life has just been so hectic that I haven't had the chance until now to post it.  I was thrown off a bit by a huge job at work that required a lot of overtime and working without a day off for two weeks.  It was a 166 page book including cover and divider.  It was the Greater Phoenix Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce - Arizona Relocation Guide and Business Directory.  It was a really fun project and I was able to work with a lot of color and abstract compositions (background elements) within it.  As a designer I prefer publication work to all else.

This week was spent at the hospital with my grandmother's surgery and subsequent problems that the surgery caused, but she's at home and resting now.

This weekend will be about getting back on track and finishing up the Modified show that hangs during the week.  The opening being Friday, April 17th.