Canvas cartwheels

Energized by Crossroads opening last Friday night, I dove back into AIR with 925 a 60x72 canvas wrap.

It's amazing how some fresh energy can move remarkably fast and on top of it, this puppy was finished upside down.......mmmmm! I wonder how you sign that one? I guess the question that does come to mind, is there a right side other than my original intent?

A Photoshop cartwheel might shed some light on that possibility.....

925 AIR 60x72 oil on linen (9-23-14)

Traffic and rain comes to mind:=)

Kinda works..... it shows options and versatility. However, I have a critical decision to make which could impact its future as a painting..........where to sign it - if at all!

It's a canvas wrap so I'm thinking any return edge will do just fine......next up, an underwater approach with sunlight reflecting off the bottom....a different kind of air.

Stepping over the line to endless possibilities

If I didn't know it before, I know it now, I'm on the other side......that mysterious area of art, where "obvious" leaves the room and "endless possibilities" becomes reality.

Friday nights opening festivities were not exciting because of  red wine, beer or the vast numbers of visitors who attended the various exhibits and activities typical of a Crossroads openings but because of the few and what they said or how they reacted as they passed through my little piece of the Crossroads pie.

The obvious star was my final version of pesky canvas 899 , the Chihuly Red Reeds......or was it? As the center piece absolutely! You could hardly miss it!

To my delight visitors were drawn across the board, the whole collection not exclusive to the obvious but the endless possibilities of art as in the AIR paintings below. I may have intended it one way but they frequently saw it differently. Did I scratch the surface of something unexpected with the AIR paintings, something I didn't consider before?  Seeing possibilities beyond my own interpretation or intent..... certainly sounded like it.

Endless possibilities in painting......how is that achieved on demand? 

I can say with certainty, other than change, endless possibilities was not or is not an objective while painting. I do think of paint quality, movement, mood and subject sensitivity tho......but, possibilities for others?  A good question, I can't answer for myself.

Something to ponder going forward but not while painting! In the real world my easel is lonely but not out of sight! It's only company over the last 11 days is a visibly nagging white canvas of size.

The one thing I am sure of getting right, is SIZE!!

I know size rules because without the impact of scale nothing would have held them in place more than a moment as they flew by to the next.

Gallery season - getting it right!

We're in the Fall Art Season, Galas and art openings beyond reason......not much time for painting. It is an opportunity to see how new work will be received. Well....most will never tell you what they really think so body language rules:=)

I'm looking for the jump factor. This time it requires the designer to emerge a bit for  presentation purposes. We only have 3 or 4 days to pull off repainting walls, graphics and narrative if it's appropriate. It started with moving yards of painted canvas to my Crossroads gallery....chaotic comes to mind because the old is leaving and the new is scattered about.  

DEPARTURES & ARRIVALS

I'm already getting some idea who the stars will be; but those are early returns.

 DAY 2 - SELECTION & PLACEMENT

I wanted to find out how the two sides of the ping-pong table looked together. Would they be compatible as in good partners or fight each other and stay in separate camps. I already knew with some editing they worked well together as thumbnails. However, scale is important to some of these paintings and not something that comes across on a computer image without references... like the gallery photos here. The first setup did not have the other side, perhaps because of traditional framing, but I didn't have a problem there so much. In the end I was more interested in showing the process..... the back and forth of how it worked or came about. 

DAY 3 - ALMOST READY

Once on the walls, it showed an overall cohesive look and the impact of size on the viewer is enormous.

All that's left is some fluffing, labeling and a new slideshow for my wall monitor.

DAY 4 - DONE!

Gallery is all set and ready to go for this evenings festivities - a bit of nibbles, a few flowers and visitors is all that's needed to complete the picture.

Later.....

Stepping back

2014 is to be my breakaway year from my norm. We're in the 4th quarter.... might be a good idea to step back and review my progress.....if any! The truth of the matter, I need some indication I'm on the right track. My last painting, 924 (not a repaint), did reach a mark and I would say a departure point.

924 AIR 72x56 oil on linen (9-6-14)

The last few days find me varnishing and framing 3 months work... 26 paintings done over the summer. Nice thing about varnishing, it gives you a fresh look.

• I started the year with the idea of adding figures, as in nudes, to my playbook that ended with 899 and a jar of gesso!
• February thru March was interrupted by some commission work plus back to norm paintings
• April and May, Migration, a large 3-panel representational painting about size. However representational + size = mural....perhaps!
• End of May, back on track with gessoed canvas 899 and less is more thinking - simple compositions and some gold leaf and a little Photoshop help for other works.
• July 2nd, modification canvas 899 and retreated back to safe haven, my norm....but was it? I think it was better than norm, because less-is-more was applied?
• August 3rd, and last modification of canvas 899 and my retreat ended with a Lily painting... 919...all about light.
•  Canvas 899 was, as it turned out, experimental and a pivotal painting. I knew after the 3rd modification of 899, the 2nd modification had something that worked....just had to remove a silly Koi which messed it up....thank my stars for good record keeping with images, it was not totally lost.
• End of August, the start of AIR; the idea formed with 899 and my retreats which I think produced some very strong works. 
• September, within 2 weeks I produced (7) AIR paintings; (2) were studies and (2) repaints (not necessarily AIR paintings) - what this suggested to me.......I had a plan!

Nine months of history was available for study and it revealed (again) a natural process working, chipping away at an idea that had no defined boundaries other than change itself. Imagine yourself a ping pong ball bouncing from side to side by the same player....you! Taking new information to the other side each time and applying it and returning new information back. This could be a fast game or slow game. I was looking at the ball as a retreat play and the return, just that, another swing at change. I now believe it was the wrong way to look at it. It was actually inter-related positive moves on each side. In the past it was always about raising the bar, getting better.... not literally a direction change I had in mind. My mechanism was always changing subjects....stopping only when I got a good one. I had no idea this would also happen with "change", nor that it would also improve each side in the process... but it did. It was obvious in my review bullets above and my thumbnail history. I was progressing on two fronts. There seems to be a correlation here to quantum physics or something like it. All I have to do going forward is stop when I hit a good one! That simply means I took it as far as I could and I needed a break and more energy on the return ball.

I want to know how all this looks on walls.... how they visually work together as a group......that's what I'm doing now at my Crossroads gallery; putting it all together for a little look see...:=)       
 

Our process can be the game changer

How we process a painting and effects achieved with different tools really is one of the more fascinating aspects of art. Our tools can take an ordinary subject and make it extraordinary. No question we can stay with a single process or art movement, improve and make good art all of our lives, but will it ever become extraordinary?

For me, this year is about change, moving off the line from my norm....perhaps looking for extraordinary. Nine months in, my output has dropped from previous years, partly due to experimentation and enormous canvases. My curiosity wants to know the outcome. In the meantime, as my course becomes more defined, it's easy to know what didn't workout.

I've also come to realize moving off the line is changing my process, including some of my tools.... and carrying over into my representational style. Can I or should I keep them separated? Change has implication because Artist/Designers have a tendency to create and destroy... also part of the process......

900 Trafalgar Fountain 60x48 oil on linen (6-2-14)

Trafalgar Fountain was one of my attempts at "moving off the line" and another one going no where! I like the subject and think staying with a "less-is-more" painting approach is the way to go. No question this thing needs less of everything! My first step will be to remove the chaos.

PROGRESS - EXTREME MAKEOVER

Well, that was drastic!

900 Trafalgar 60x48 oil on linen (9-9-14)

I don't know if this painting has a better future or not, but I do like the feeling or suggestion of rain and how it responds to light - especially diminished light.

Later......

When a painting has no future!

This one-off painting always reminded me of green eggs and ham or whatever that was! It was a fun colour experiment that in my mind had no future other than deep storage.....seemed a waste of 56x48 gallery wrap canvas.

902 Green Koi 56x48 oil on linen (6-11-14)

My intent was another AIR painting. Well, that idea didn't fly very far. Instead, I used some of the thinking and process behind the AIR series. This is what I got!

902 Moonlight Waltz 56x48 oil on linen (9-7-14)

A face lift, a new title and it's good to go another round...:=)

Later....

Canvas 924

My plan is to continue along the same line of thought as my last AIR paintings. Only now, I'm looking for more expressive brushwork, stylized with closer colour harmony. Canvas 924 will be another large one at 72x56 using the other AIR BIT study 921 (below) as my colour chip.

921 AIR 20x20 oil on linen ( 8-30-14)

One of the things I always want in my work is touchable depth... not flat looking, but depth of field as in a 3d feel. When achieved, it's a very cool effect in a painting but powerful at scale.

PROGRESS 924

My first move in cadmium yellow quickly established my light pattern and a basic design movement throughout the canvas.

Easel view - I mixed up small pots of colour in a diluted medium. It allowed me the freedom to move very fast and not change my brush size (1" wide bright or filbert). Using the pot system I can load it with paint allowing much more background interest to happen quickly.

The cleaned up image presents a stronger design from the start and it only took a few hours to establish as opposed to days.

I started with a bold look; but as in my small study I'm interested in exploring more subtle combinations of textured colour against scrubbed down neutral surfaces.....a process of refinement. It's a continual give and take. Some parts are working and others still need attention. Sometimes it looks like a lot of colour scribbling which it actually is. In the end it has to be strong enough to entice and then captivate.

I think it looks better in the flesh and size does make a difference in how it's perceived......but it's not done.

924 AIR 72x56 oil on linen (9-6-14)

Do I have a process or something that might work as transitional middle ground to the commentary art world? Fun to speculate a bit;=)

Later.....

AIR 923

I'm always the last to know where I'm heading! First, I'm generally surprised, that is until I follow the dust trail.....then DUH!

When I look at the bigger picture, AIR most likely has it's roots in those first 15-minute sunrise paintings back in 2009. Then it was about the sun, but now about what I was really seeing those early mornings and how it affected the air. Chilled or humid air.... sometimes so heavy with saturated colour going well beyond what could ever be produced from a paint tube......the quest!

STUDY

921 AIR 20x20 oil on linen (8-30-14)

PROGRESS 923

 

Like my AIR BITS study above, I'm in the fluid blockout stage. I mixed large piles of paint making this process more efficient than normal. During this stage I use up tubes of scrap paint as fillers. So far, I'm not changing my tools or making my brushes larger....could be why these are working well close up and personal.

In today's session I completed the blockout which allowed me to start adding the textural and scrub layers. Currently, because of the paintings strong colour banding it holds up at a distance.

923 AIR 66x72 oil on linen (9-2-14)

The landscape and cropping is allowing me greater freedom to explore.....liked it so much I signed it!

Later....