Saturday, July 30, 2022

 More work highlighting the Awagami Kitakata Select paper. The size is roughly 17"x 20". Two images below with process info. Thank you for looking.

This piece, "Fruit Bowl," is mounted on Canson watercolor paper. I have an artist friend who turned me on to applying gesso on the back of paper to give it more body and prevent curling. I did that with this piece and used both alcohol and water based inks with black oil crayon. The paper is heaven...

Also 17"x 20" but no gesso on the revo and again, alcohol and water based inks. Fun/whimsical piece. Title works.

Thursday, July 28, 2022

 More paper tales...I have a friend in Israel who is a photographer and he introduced me to Awagami paper. They are a very old and honored paper company in Japan and much loved by high end photographers for their exquisite paper. It is also the paper of choice for ink wash painters. I recently received a shipment of their Kitakata Select paper which is stupid fucking ridiculous in quality.  This is my recent foray using it with inks.

The dims on the paper are roughly 17"x22" and is mounted on 20"x26" high gloss paper. Titled, "Orchids." I love orchids, don't ya know. I have one that is more than 20 years old.

When I was a very young man and in high school, I used to run Cross Country. It was 1.9 miles and it kicked my ass but I discovered something that later in life I came to understand as the "Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner." In my 40s I ran marathons in pursuit of that oneness and identity. It was my spot. It was where I found myself. My true self. Painting is my new "lonliness of a long distance runner." It is where I connect with my true self. And this blog (painting blog-i.e. plog) may just be me pissing in the wind because I suspect no one reads it but I couldn't fucking care less. I do this because  I must. Not for clicks or recogntion. But because it remains a record of one mere mortal saying, yo.... all else is maya...or rest is just a Piss Factory...so, boyo, what are you doing with your mortal coil? Me? I'm a fucking painter and bloody damn proud of it. I'm just the end of the line of cave painters...

Saturday, July 23, 2022

 Not sure if pre-school anxiety is eating my lunch, or if I'm just in that gray space of non-specific anxiety- whatever it is, it sucks but I'm sure it'll pass. 

And then again, it might just be the "let down" of having finished a series. I've taken the work for the past month and mounted them in a portfolio and they look great.

Posting a piece that's almost accidental- it's an unconscious transfer on Canson Mixed Media paper that several of the washi pieces had been on top. Looks good.

                                

                                                18"x24" Canson paper with alcohol ink transfer,

                                                "Henry Miller Returns to Big Sur"

Wed. July 20, 2022

 I've been working with a larger format of the Sumi-E washi paper (18"x24") but staying, for the most part, with the same mediums-namely, alcohol inks. As I work more and more with the "paper" I am fascinated by the feel of it becoming fabric. The product that I've been working with is created by the pulp of the paper mulberry bush (versus wood pulp). It is much stronger then wood pulp paper and transforms when wet and thin coat of gesso is added.

So, the "narrative" that I've created (out of whole cloth, as the saying goes!) is what if... The French Impressionists (and others) went to Japan and visited textile factories to create designs?  These "found artifacts" are the records left behind from this "Lost Era."

Dims are all the same- 18"x24"Shoji Gami Sumi-E paper with alcohol inks and in some cases, acrylic paint. Thanks for looking.

                                                            "Renoir in Kobe"

                                                            "Matisse in Osaka"

                                                                "Monet in Nagasaki"

"Picasso in Osaka"

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

 New images with new media. I had posted a piece ("Red Dog in the Water") which was done with raw linen-meaning not gessoed and I played around with what the effect would be on a small sample piece with gesso and decided to go with it on a large piece. The dims are 60"x65" -little over 5ft square. I put down a coat of gesso and then applied inks and dyes. Two "full images" of "Pink Moon" and then a couple of pixs showing details.

Not to be facetious but as a kind of visual shorthand, I think Pollack with pastels. This next piece is with 18"x24"  Shoki Gami Sumi-E washi paper- a bigger format then was used with the "Lost Textiles" series- more real estate to play around with. Matisse tinted gesso undercoat with inks on top. Titled, "Matisse in Osaka." Re-imagined textiles from a lost and imaginary era.

 As always, thank you for looking. Hope you "saw" something.

Saturday, July 16th

 Good, productive day at the studio. I completed the series, "Lost Textiles-Found Artifacts" with the 8th and final piece titled "Juniper." 

I received two things today that I've been waiting for. One is an 18" roll of the Shoji-Gumi washi paper which will open specs and dims for me. The other was a roll of unprimed linen that I was anxious to attack. Below, are the images from todays work.

                            "Juniper" #8 in a series entitled "Lost Textiles- Found Artifacts'

"Red Dogs In The Water"  36"x60" raw linen, unstretched and unprimed with acrylics diluted with water.

Friday, July 15th 2022

 Two more additions to the series, "Lost Textiles" bringing total to 7. I think I'll stop at 10. Method and mediums remain the same. Enjoy...

"Cherries"

                                                                        "Lilacs"

Thurs. July 14th

 "La Fête Nationale Française"- Or as we Yanks would say (not sure who to) "Happy Bastille Day..".I wonder if other painters/artist suffer from the same, "Dog with a bone" syndrome...but I've "locked" into this vision working with the Shoji Gami washi paper. When I've finished with the various washes and inks, I can't help but shake the notion that these pieces are fragments of "Lost Textiles"- Obviously Japanese in origins and they seem (to me) to echo remnants of a kimono or other clothing...here's the latest with Matisse acrylic (Australian  Ghost Gum)undercoat and with alcohol inks on top.

The undercoat essentially coats the paper and and soaks it creating instability (crumbling and tearing apart) but when it dries it reverts to it's cotton state and stiffens. My thought process as I'm working is that I'm dealing with fragile fabric versus the mundane notion of "paper."

And here's yer lot for today. Same specs as the earlier pieces. Titled "Old Roses."

Wed. July 13, 2022 part deux

 More work on paper. Same dims and mediums as below.

"Bluebells"

                                                            "Marigolds"

Wed. July 13th, 2022

 Staying with the theme of Japanese paper. Two new pieces using Shoji Gami Sumi-e art paper. The dims are 11"x18"- the paper comes on a roll. It's not as strong as the Murakumo Kozo washi paper but I love the distressed textile feel of it. There is something of a "lost textile" feel to the final pieces.

The process is the same-undercoats of Matisse gesso with various inks on top. The background mats are 18"24" Canson multimedia sheets.

                                                                          "Wisteria"

                

                                                                    "Poppies"

One more recent piece.. 22"x30" Arches watercolor paper with multiple layers of gesso, acrylic ink, oil sticks, oil crayons and markers. "Monkey Noise." Lord knows, I have a ton of it...thanks for looking!

Tuesday July 12, 2022

 One of the things (among others, obviously) about living and teaching (albeit, part-time) in Indiana that I hate is that school starts up again the 2nd week of August and it's around this time of summer that I start to feel that Monday Morning anxiety creep in. Hard to lose that school shouldn't start up again until after Labor Day memory and vibe. Lulu reminds me that it's my last year...moving on to the main course... I was reading a book about the great American artist, Sam Gilliam and was blown away by some work he did using acrylics on washi paper- enter rabbit hole this way, please... I am obsessed with different kinds of paper...here is an early sample of work using Murakumo Kozo fine art & professional ink jet printer washi paper.

The undercoat is alcohol washed talc crayon with acrylic ink on top and then crumpled. Dims are approximate 8"x12" and is matted on 12"x15" Sennelier  pastel card and titled "Maple Leaves Crumpled." 

Wed. July 5th, 2022

 Today would have been my father's 103rd birthday. I think of him, often. New work continuing with recent mediums- namely, Arnhem printing paper and Speedball block printing ink. This time using their fluorescent inks. 22"x30" titled, "Warm San Francisco Nights."