Abstraction and size

After finishing my last painting I was determined to apply greater abstraction to my next painting. Within an hour I jumped into my failed 72x96 canvas - still wanting it to be about light and colour....even a possibility of atmosphere is not out of the realm! But, most important, counter to my last painting!

I spent more time studying this canvas than painting it, looking for clues what to do next......it always shows up sooner or later...

DAY 1

899-1 Progress 72x96 oil on linen (5-26-14)

After 3 or 4 hours I knew this would be like the last Koi and Lily painting! Gurrrrr!

DAY 2

899-2a Progress 72x96 oil on linen (5-27-14)

Next morning, back with a big brush and mineral spirits, I washed and blended the entire canvas, leaving some heavy knife texture in place. I only added colour blocks to pull bits of colour back out.  I have light reflections on a water surface, a clear indication my core design element is showing up. I'm also getting some unwanted horizontal lines and colour passages that need breaking up. Tonally blended it looks better than shown here but still on the fussy side, looking a bit patchy!

899-2b Progress 72x96 oil on linen (5-27-14)

Couldn't leave it alone, I went back and increased the light reflecting on the waters surface....adding some suggestions of lily pads and.....stopped!!.....falling backwards here!!

More palette knife scraping and mineral spirits washes in the morning.......

DAY 3

 889 Mystic Light One 72x96 oil on linen (5-28-14)

A distant shot at a much lower resolution - without glare
 

This thing reads better in person - in fact, rather interesting closeup. It has all the components, I was originally after; light, colour and atmosphere with depth. Extra bonus, it reads well in diminished light. No question, counter to my last painting. I did waver by adding a faint Koi center bottom - just hopeless! I thought it was a good idea but perhaps too anemic here. Although not a lost cause because it gave me a clue on how.....good progress:=) 

I see something to explore further on a fresh canvas. Next one is #900.....love round numbers.

Later..............

A weeks worth of paint and canvas - 898

I should say a month; this month was a bust with regards to the painting front. My big canvas backfired on me and I got stuck in the "now what mud"....as always when in doubt paint a few lilies!

Last summer we had a deck pond installed and stocked with goldfish and a couple lilies....not thinking any of it would survive the winter. Well, the fish and lilies did survive! The lilies are producing a few buds and the fish are growing...even added a few. I never thought I would be painting my own lilies, but here I am doing just that!...As small as our little pond is, I'm getting some good usable material. Our goldie's are much too small to use as painting subjects, but fun to watch their antics..lots of photos there too. The pond is turning out to be an excellent study of light and moment on mirrored water surfaces and how depth changes and responds to the sun. Is this worth a little pleinair painting?.....perhaps.

I think it's mating season - in real life it looks aggressive!

 Base reference

Cropped detail;

A featured lily
PROGRESS 48X44

A few days work - 898 48x44 oil on linen

Day 3

Today, my last on this painting, will be working the entire canvas. Starting at the top working down I'll follow the light, adjusting values as I go.

FINAL 

898 Red Koi & Lilies 48x44 oil on linen (5-26-14)

DETAILS

Nice to be back!

Later....

Shades of 2009

I'm over the first wave of what turned out to be a major move. The simple decision to release my early paintings wasn't so simple in the end. It caused me to re-think my space.. how I would display and market these paintings. It then became logical to include my website and perhaps wrap it up with my AAC ad.....all things no longer effective as they once were. I had to evaluate Crossroads as a businessman not as an artist wanting good walls to paint for......a new wrinkle in my game!

2009 produced a large number of paintings and will be released in related subject groups. The first release covers local Richmond subjects, all small works, nothing larger than 20x24. In total about 40 paintings will be displayed at a time. As paintings are sold they will be replaced with like work and after two months exchanged for another subject.

Friday night we were ready and looking good, but only after a lot of scurrying around, finding frames, painting walls, adding signage, adjusting lighting...even a last minute title change. 

Shades of 2009

IN SEARCH of  LIGHT & COLOUR

2009 was a great painting year. My main goal was always about sizing up!! Starting out small, deliberately working each size up until I became comfortable with it and the subject matter. Frequently repeating the process if it was a view or an idea that worked well. My subject became important very early on. As it turned out, I don't have what you would call "studies or incomplete paintings".  Most, if not all, are finished paintings with the exception of plein air which were of the moment and never carried into the studio for additional work.

This exhibit and the slideshow illustrates that working process well. A process that worked so well I decided to produce quality Giclee's of the final paintings.....another project that will most likely take more of my valuable painting time..:=)....It never ends!

Back in 2009 I had a website, but my one and only 2009 sale was off the internet and believe it or not the buyer was 10 minutes away. Google's search engine is a very cool resource as we all know.....especially if we use important KEY WORDS in our titles!....:=)

SOLD - 2009

15 Libby Terrace Fountain 14x18 Plein air oil (4-17-09)

The full exhibit can be viewed on my website. SHADES of 2009 - In Search of Light & Colour

Later....

3am planning session - time of my own

I guess we all have 3:00am planning sessions lying in bed thinking.....2 or 3 in the morning is always good planning time for me. If I remember any of it in the morning, it's clear what I should pay attention to. Aside from my 72x96 floundering on my easel, I'm working on several other things;  securing framing for a smaller works show opening this coming Friday at my Crossroads Gallery. It will feature about 40 plus paintings from 2009. None have ever been in a frame or exhibited before. Yesterday after working on it 24/7, my first shipment arrived. All are standard small sizes up to 16x20, all sizes popular amongst artists........I found inventory seriously low out there in better framing... especially if you want multiples in a size as I did. Thanks to JFM it got done at the last minute! They were low on inventory too so a portion had to be custom. Not a problem for me because I like mixing stock and custom framing together.... it raises the framing bar over simply using stock frames.

What it tells me tho is the art business must be booming out there......how cool is that! I actually thought the framing would be the least problematic of everything in front of me. Boy was I wrong!

 SOME FIRST PLEIN AIR PAINTINGS

Some works being released Friday evening at Crossroads

2 Libby Terrace 10x10 oil on panel (3-18-09)

(my first ever plein air painting)

Frames make a difference

11 James at Libby Terrace 11x14 oil on panel (4-14-09)

826 Libby Sunrise 11x14 oil on linen (6-12-13)

(Most recent plein air from the same location)

12 Libby Terrace on Easter Sunday 14x18 oil on panel (4-12-09)

The other thing my 3am planning session stirred up was quality art prints. Every once in awhile I churn that idea around a bit. I always thought it would be an end game move but now it seems to make some "cents". Perhaps my decision to release work from 2009 marks the end game. Plus, prints could fill a gap my work doesn't fit anymore.....the affordable market.

Recently I decided to release older works to give me painting time and not have to worry about keeping fresh work available. It gave my inventory or collection a value I never considered before......the value of time, time to call my own and still stay in the game. I had that in the beginning, but it started to slip away with gallery needs, commissions and untold numbers of events all taking my time away from what I do well.....we all face it. The question is how to get it back! The next five years are important... I can paint, but it's what I paint that's important now. I don't need more inventory nor do I want to paint for it! I'm sure in the future there will be works added to it, but not because I need it.

Effectively, with the opening of the Crossroads "In Search of Light and Colour" Friday evening, I will have reclaimed my time as my own again!

However, the real reason I was having my 3am session was about the canvas on my easel.....after some hard core evaluation, it's fairly clear to me my canvas is too big for this particular idea. Aside from all the distractions, I need better reference material and more work on a smaller scale before bouncing up to a billboard. If I were ready, it would have worked out of the gate.....in time it will!! I decided to move on, change subjects to something I'm comfortable with sizing up and get on with it!

Later.....

A weeks worth of paint and canvas

My 72x96 sizing up canvas is OFF TO A ROUGH START....I deviated from my original drawing straight off.......dumb! I chose a closer view as opposed to my original interior room concept, plus I'm not using a model. I was curious if it were possible to develop my figure only from a drawing based on shapes that felt right, a light source, and simply follow the light.

However, my main focus got positioned wrong within my composition!!! I had solutions, but when it's off, it's off. So after two days I decided not to waste another moment on it! Scraping and some mineral spirits and a bit of gesso will give me and my canvas a fresh start.....one of the pitfalls of sizing up.

 REGROUPING!

72x96  is a nice shape - my mistake here is the straight lineup (red line) I created with my composition, perhaps OK for a landscape but not here. Also, because it was late in the day, I played in my background and inadvertently shut the painting down! I really needed to work from my figure out......wont make that mistake again!

I didn't want to start a fresh canvas so I let it dry and my gesso didn't cover all that well....second coat tomorrow.......gurrrr!  

Later that day I went to LeGrand's May Gathering Reception for a much needed drink!

 Time to relax and enjoy the art and conversation

First stop....Best bartender ever!

 Art is in the air

 Always a good grazing table at LeGrand's

Wonderful company in a beautiful setting for art, Sue LeGrand is on right chatting with friends

My favorite spot over the mantle - one of these days my fellow exhibitors will figure it out and push me off it...:=)

Perhaps new artist and water colourist Susan Ludwig-Peyron (left with white scarf) will..:=)

Guess who's admiring a really stunning Brian Blood Sunset.....more competition for my other favorite mantle spot! Theirs! However Brian would be a very good fit for this lovely couples collection.

Happy camper!! Shelly Fullerborn proudly showing off her and husbands newest painting acquisition....that little guy looks familiar!

SOLD!

 201 English Landscape 8x10 oil on panel (12-30-09)

Congratulations LeGrand Fine Art!

COMMISSION APPROVED!

897 A Day at the Beach - Hollands 16x36 oil on linen (4-30-14)

Congratulations Richard Stravitz Fine Art Gallery!

Later....

Sizing Up

While doing my little commission, I stretched up a 72x96 canvas, thinking of it as a solo exhibit center piece. Yesterday I placed it on my easels 17 foot wall...about the wall size required for a painting this large. I thought staring at it for awhile something brilliant would surface and perhaps it will.

One of the problems I found sizing up as a representational painter was or is subject......historically, figures do it well as many artists proved. I can readily put figures in waves and of course I already know my Koi work large. It works well for the same reasons Monet belted size out of the park with his water lilies....acceptable creative control, a close kin to abstraction. I just finished a painting called Migration on (3) panels, sizing up my wild ponies. Many will perhaps see it more as a mural, at least I did......not my intent, but certainly a sizing up pitfall.

Figures are easier for me when it comes to painting action, as in sports. I seem to prefer that to static figures. When I started the year out with nudes, it was with the intent of building up to a large figurative painting using a ballet theme in private moments. I did make some pencil drawings with that in mind during the Rubens Experiment. The Rubens Experiment itself was also a lead into this same idea. Since I am an interior renderer, it could be fun playing with it in a another more dramatic level than if I were simply creating an environment for a client, as in the past.

Looking back now, I actually did a lot of preparatory work leading to this 72x96 canvas. Looks like I'm ready to do it! First, I'll review my concepts history....many times my first move is the right move.....back to those drawings!

SUCCESSIVE CONCEPT DRAWINGS

Drawing 1

Drawing 2

Drawing 3

Like I said, the first move is typically the right one!

At the beginning of this post, I had absolutely no idea what would go on this canvas. Gives credence that talking to yourself has some benefits.... but more importantly, writing some of it down somewhere.....:=)

Later....