April 25, 2022

 More work on paper. Carson 12"'x14" water color paper with Cray-Pas pastels. Nuff said. Thank you for looking and seeing.

Thursday, April 21, 2022

 Have returned to working on paper. The three new images are all on 11"x14 Canson oil/acrylic paper with oil pastels.

"Psycho Killer"

"A Child's Sun"

                                                    "I Am The Walrus"

                                    

Good Friday, April, 14, 2022

Spring has presented herself here in the midwest, albeit, hesitantly but with more than an early promise. Trees are budding, bulbs are up and fruit trees are blooming. 

Part of my intent in doing this painting blog was to record my process and hopefully share the journey but based on the fact that it seems no one is viewing, it turns out to me mostly for my benefit and I embrace that.

I continue to work on raw canvas- unstretched and unprimed and keep bumping up the size. This piece is 54"x60" and required working on the floor. I do wish that I had wall space so I could just attach and work upright. Most of this was done bent over or on my knees. What follows is a peak into "the sausage factory" and the journey of "Painting Outside the Lines #5." Mediums are hand mixed inks and dyes with oil sticks on top. Two different tints of gesso were used. Very light pink for the border and a gum gray in the body of the painting. Also black oil crayon smeared.

This is what it looks like at inception. The shapes are sketched in charcoal pencil.

I lay down a drop cloth to absorb the inks and dyes as they are alcohol based. You can see the various squeeze bottles, jars and cans that the colors are stored in.

This is the first iteration of the finished piece. All the colors are in but not quite finished. I'm reminded of what Helen Frankenthahler used to ask, "Is it finished?"

And this is the finished piece. Pale pink box border and some smudging on the black oil crayon. Leaving in "the artist's hand." Titled "Painting Outside the lInes #5"- part of a series addressing color and shape and how we experience them in absence of form or context. As always, thanks for looking and seeing.

Tuesday, April 12

 Spring has always held the notion of promise, for me. This piece is on unprimed and unframed canvas. 32"x36." The mediums are inks and dyes with oil crayon. Paint like a child.

                                                     "The Promise of Spring"

Tuesday, April 5th, 2022

 Two new pieces to share. Not much to say. Waiting for Spring.

36" x48" linen with Australian Gum acrylics. No title.

18"x24" Canson multimedia paper. Ghost Gum acrylic undercoat with custom inks and dyes on top. "Birds."

 

Thursday, March 31st

 As March departs, the weather here in NE Indiana leaves much to be desired- there is always this existential threat of Winter reappearing. The body and soul yearn for Spring but must abide...on to paint.

Two new pieces-each different but united in theory and execution.

Titled, "American Gothic II"- with a nod to the original. This is on "found wood" from the basement. The wood is gessoed and then acrylic impasto sealed with acrylic medium.

18"x24"- study with Matisse acrylics over pale pink gesso. Titled "Woodstock" and I can't really explain why but that's the title that came to me when I spent time with the finished work. What unites the two pieces is the essential role that color plays in both works. Very different yet not really. Each color depends on the other for the unified vision. One in blocks, the other via movement. In the end the same theory; that color speaks.

Wed. March 23, 2022

 I believe that the "thing" that terrifies me more than anything is creating "sofa art." What I'm frightened of hearing is , "Oh, that's so pretty!" I adore beauty. I venerate it. I consume it and bow down to it. The I Ching has a a hexagram- Number 22- Grace- Confucius "felt very uncomfortable when once, on consulting the oracle, he obtained the hexagram of GRACE." It shows "tranquil beauty..." There is most certainly a place in art for beauty but I too, grow uncomfortable in it's pursuit, artistically.

It ain't all shits n giggles...sometimes it's like fucking pulling teeth- the fucking paint won't "do" what you want it to do (Like that's even a possibility!! This is on 24"x36" primed canvas. The undercoat is Matisse colored gesso with blocks of various acrylics that were gesso-ed over with a custom color. I then removed it and did gestures with crayons and rubbed everything out and went over most of it with Speedball ink on brayers and more markings.

Sometimes, (who we kidding, most of the times!) Art is messy and chaotic and it ain't pretty but it should, at the best of times, reflect the conflict- the push and pull (Thanks Hans). This is noisy. This is raw. But it is real and pure and it most def ain't fucking Sofa Art. Blessings.