Binge 7

All I can say at this point, I like my little concept drawing better!

DAY 1

DAY 2

This is a dead end....! This reminds me of the Mid Century stuff produced during the 60s and 70s and into 80s..........not a chance in hell! So, I think this is a over paint like the last one. 

DAY 3 

 Over Paint 40x36 oil on linen (10-30-17 canvas 1182)

I like everything about "Over Paint" and think it could be fun to see where it goes from here. 

On to binge 8

Binge 6

I have lots of binge paintings, favorite pieces of each....... nothing in it's entity I would go to the gallery with yet!

DAY 1

White on White 36x36 oil on linen (10-27-17 canvas 1181)

 

The paint was absolutely buttery. The way you always wish it was. So you could say, yesterday I fell off the wagon. Today it was like a bad hangover....it was never going to work!! Instead this happened!

DAY 2 - SO THERE!

So There 36x36 oil on linen (10-27-17 canvas 1181)

Back on the wagon and on to binge 7

Binge 5

I'm beginning to feel like I'm making samplers. A bunch of different candies in one box. You know, some you take a little bit and put them back until you find your favorite piece. Bingeing is a similar process.

This one reminds me of Xmas string lights, so it has a title! XMAS LIGHTS!

DAY 1

 Xmas Lights 36x40 oil on linen (10-25-17 canvas 1180)

MY FAVORITE PIECE

The cropped marginalization effect above is my favorite piece. Nice structure! Cool if it could be blown up on a 60x66 canvas and maintain energy, movement and more importantly the scale.

I guess this would be a whole body experience to pull it off......only if I were younger. Excluding that thought, to pull if off you might need paint shovels, big brushes, spatulas and lots and lots of oil paint, with a good dose of medium! Some of it would have to hold large textured forms too. Food for thought!
 

I'll pin it to the wall for future use.

On to binge 6

 

Binge 4

No question, I'm focused, and on board with this project. I missed or better said, totally forgot a lunch meeting yesterday, and last night, modifying paintings near midnight. A long time since that's happened....

DAY 1

So, why was I monkeying around  with paintings so late in the evening? Because, I study all my painting under controlled diminished light. Flaws in punctuation or composition often show up when you dim the lights..... and did! Confetti Rain below needed a pop of pink and vermilion. Not a big deal but it worked by drawing the eye to a particular spot..... especially in low light.

A LITTLE VERMILION!  

 Confetti Rain 40x36 oil on linen (10-23-17 canvas 1179)

Number 5 coming up!

Binge 3

I liked the last two canvases, the 1st, better than the 2nd. The 2nd sparked an idea I ignored after a quick ink drawing made that evening. The ink drawing was a formal mirror image design, architecturally structured..... something that appealed to me, plus, I had a colouring in mind. 

Yesterday, during Swimming-in-Paint I jumped right in on #3. The only thing I can say about DAY 1, Yikes!!!

DAY 1 - ROUGH START

"I retreated back to the studio and went to work!"

DAY 2

 Tribal 40x36 oil on linen (10-23-17 canvas 1178) 

OK! Not exactly what I had in mind. However, it did give me a better understanding of how I wanted to use colour.... different ways of breaking it down with shapes and brushwork. Time to move on... #4

UPDATE!

  Tribal 40x36 oil on linen (10-23-17 canvas 1178)
 

Binge 2

A different colour, similar composition and a two-day limit with an end of day photo. In this case, the last day, the most important day was at Swimming-in-Paint...... So it probably did affect my work process a bit.

DAY 1

DAY 2

Counter Shapes 40x36 oil on linen (10-21-17 canvas 1177)

I see a few "next morning" things to improve and maybe should, but..... Overnight I moved on to a more interesting idea that came from "JAX's Playroom" and this painting.

Anything goes, binge painting!

JAX's Playroom was a fun project. Now I'm ready for the serious stuff on my mind lately....and something I miss doing, "Binge painting"!

My stack of 40x36 canvases is ready to go! I plan to use it as exploratory, anything goes, binge paintings. My purpose is to advance an idea revolving around prism light qualities on shapes with perceived depth of field. I would eventually like it to be more abstract than representational. I did play around with some of this in "JAX's Playroom.

This could be a few canvases or dozens until I figure it out! Or better yet, until something captures my imagination and causes an avalanche of paintings!!

My first (below) could easily have been a one session wonder but I started midday right after Jax's Playroom. My legs pooped out......plus I actually liked it unfinished and did sign it. All the information was there. The fish where simple raw white canvas shapes, cleaned and  ready to go. The fish shadows were in because it was in the background. Wet-in-wet layering. (sadly no stage photos).

Spiral in White & Pink 36x40 oil on linen (10-18-17 canvas 1176)

The next morning I decided on "paint" for my white fish and added some rose  colour as a counter to green. Which means I'll use more counter colouring going forward. I thought it might be in rainbow sequence. "Spiral in White & Pink" is a bit stylized, but it does compliment a large canvas below executed about this time three years ago re-titled "Prism".

 THREE YEARS AGO

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

"Prism" was a 2014 attempt at the same thing I'm doing now......reinvention! I took the idea as far as I could then and moved on. Now I'm coming full circle and picking up where I left off. I suppose it could be my baseline for "anything goes" this time.

• This is a good example of moving on and coming back later with a bigger gun and taking another shot at it! Painting, making art is like that...constant reinvention.

My only hope is, my pet project, Swimming-in-Paint on weekends won't impact my progress, because this will require an extreme focus on my part to be successful. Normally I lock the cave doors until...

So team, be forewarned the coach could go MIA at anytime!

Jax's Playroom

Our grandson JAX's first birthday

 JAX, HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!

Jax's Playroom 40x36 oil on linen (10-17-17 canvas 1175)

BEACH KIDS, JUSTIN, KATIE & JAX

Taking center stage

How many paintings is enough?

One more Koi or one more Venice or whatever landscape you found exciting to mess with for years...... When does it get to be a complacent act? When painting loses inspirational freshness or energy or excitement found in earlier work.... or worse.... feels like a day job? When raising the bar or working on improving paint quality only produces a similar result?

I doubt you run out of ideas, but ultimately do get bored with the same old, same old process........ If that's the case, then what! REJECTION of the past and look to the future?

MY FAVORITE WORK & TITLE OF THE YEAR

"IT HAD ITS MOMENTS"

 "It Had its Moments" 30x30 oil on linen (10/5/2017 canvas 1172)

My only wish,  "X" had been on a larger canvas....and a better painting:=) I do like to paint, no question about that. And, I do enjoy passing it on with Swimming-in-Paint. HOWEVER!

I'm beginning to believe in this notion of the "seven year itch", and believe it has legs here.

My Serious side - Learning

I always look at a month's close as an opportunity to see if I made any progress or hopefully raised the bar a bit........ or not!

"LEARNING to leave well enough alone!"

Venice 20x24 2010

My biggest regret about this 2010 painting......too small!!! So I got the brainy idea to make a big one and see what difference time made......for the fun of it!

VENICE ON AN ALMOST SQUARE 2017
36x40

My favorite part of this painting was the starting shot.

 

COMPLETED

Vermilion Rain 36x40 oil on linen (9/23/17 canvas 1171)

 The original still rules!

Vermilion Rain 20x24 oil on linen panel (5-28-10 canvas 335)

Another moody painting was on my mind. Only this one, below, was destroyed with an unfortunate next morning move on my part and no longer exists. However it is a good comparison to my favorite small 2010 above.

 MY VENETIAN TRAGEDY! 

Lost 40x44 oil on linen (2-23-17 canvas 1123)

 AFTER

Last of the month! 

A BIG RED "X" because I planned it that way! Perhaps in another post I'll show the concept stages of deliberately changing each days results from a static baseline, studying the effects of the sun on fog until it got boringly dull! The fun part of my 11 day experimental  painting was painting the "X"!

Message to the team: Never go in expecting a masterpiece, only a best effort because good ones show up unexpectedly. Overthinking an idea will only give you an annoying headache and a crappy overcooked painting!! A cool solution to that is a BIG RED "X"

 

It Had It's Moments 30x30 oil on linen (9-24 to 11-5-17 canvas 1172)

(Experimental 11 day painting)

This was how September ended & October began!

A Sloppy Red "X"!

SOME relevant "QUOTES" heisted from Levine news letter

“The works must be conceived with fire in the soul but executed with clinical coolness.” – Joan Miro

“One who knows how to appreciate color relationships, the influence of one color with another, their contrasts and dissonances, is promised an infinite variety of images.” ~ Sonia Delaunay

“The true use of art is, first, to cultivate the artist’s own spiritual nature.” ~ George Inness

One painting at a time!

 WORKING FAST!

Last week I had a date to do a very quick demo....hour and a half tops! I didn't quite finish. I didn't expect too, but hope! I upped the challenge with a 30x30 and answering some very interesting questions at the same time. When the bell rang I did sign the painting....my out!

So, because it was still fresh and wet, I had a choice back in the studio, move on or jump back in. That's what I did because I rather liked the painting and more importantly,  it still had my attention!

"FAST & FURIOUS or SLOW & DELIBERATE 

There is one rule I won't break, ONE PAINTING AT A TIME! Good or bad, when I can't take a painting any further, I sign off and move on. If I'm not happy with a particular issue, I work on it or remove it until I am. I find the next painting or the next, will improve and eventually resolve all issues.

• Sometimes it's simple as clearing the room and changing subjects 

If I want to learn how to paint horses or waterfalls I paint horses or waterfalls until I can. When I get a good one, I change subjects. Painting is about problem solving, preferably fast, not over thinking it to frustration.

• Working on a single subject, getting to understanding a subject with different views or quick studies over and over helps develop confidence.

Rendering intuitively takes time to gain an understanding and confidence to painting it. Painting a horse one time won't do that. Painting lots of horses in quick succession will!

• Finish an idea before moving to the next. A horse can be center stage or simply support to a larger idea.

The good ones happen when they happen, often when you're not trying. The chances are better when you're comfortable with the subject, your materials and surroundings.

• Learn how to paint the jesters and nuances intuitively, with lots of painting. 

  

Setting paintings aside, means you also set aside an idea you'll probably never find again. Surrounded by unfinished or unresolved paintings stacked around is not conducive to our creative energy.  It only reminds us of our failures..... unresolved issues.

NOTE:

I don't reuse old canvases for new paintings......ever. Attention to detail as an oil painter  also extends to a fresh surface. Up close I don't like to see any unrelated brushwork or texture not relevant to my painting. And gesso goes only so far and takes more time to come back to a pristine white surface than a fresh canvas.

• Light travels through oil paint and is brighter and clearer when bouncing off white. If you're a tonal painter it wont matter as much, painting luminous light, it does!

If you wanna have fun painting, work fast & furious but deliberate! Don't think about it! Paint what you really want to see, follow the light with colour marks. Don't go in expecting a master piece.

• The good ones show up unexpectedly. Overthinking an idea will only give you an annoying headache and a crappy overcooked painting!!

IF YOU DON'T LIKE SOMETHING ON A CANVAS REMOVE IT WITH SOFT COTTON CLOTH & MINERAL SPIRITS BEFORE IT DRIES....... MISTAKES ARE HARD TO COVER UP!

FINAL

The Costume 30x30 oil on linen (10-7-17 canvas 1173) 

Owning our time..

The Formality of it!

 Matador 48x44 oil on linen - private collection

I found as a recent painting coach, there are a lot of like minded self-driven career "adults or seniors", whatever label that works, that simply want a career change. Some are timid at first, all have the same drive...... not to fade away. That can mean a lot of different things, but, in the end, as someone said to me the other evening. "It feels "GREAT" to wake up in the morning, knowing I control what happens. Knowing I can do anything I want!" The freedom to choose. Owning my time!  Odd to hear someone else say it. I'm wired to own it, perhaps to the exclusion of everything. Perhaps everyone is but they never act on it or an opportunity never knocks. I think the difference is, if you are entrepreneurial, you create opportunity.

I think if you link a talent with an entrepreneurial nature in one body.... a stronger force happens and they will own their time or at least have more control over it by the choices made. Life beyond our control can easily mask our true callings.

When we eventually do gain control of our time....perhaps for the first time in our lives.... do we drift into retirement mode, find a rocking chair on the veranda to watch life pass by..... Or.......pursue the dormant talent waiting to be poked a bit. Perhaps a little itch to scratch passing time, supplement an income or a full blown career push.

One thing is very true, an art career requires an all-in commitment - essentially owning your time is a necessary requirement to success!

I also wonder if 10 or 15 years is enough of one thing, one job or one career. Maybe we need change to stay fresh. Maybe subtle or a total 180 all-in approach. Art can be that 180 shift. Making art is basically a solo act. Success and failure rest totally on the artist own shoulders... not employees or any outside forces. We either get up in the morning and make good art or not!

Coaching, passing it on; I enjoy adding a  push, a  challenge to an emerging talent. As an artist, a designer, a product developer and  a manufacturer I look at art from a different point of view... a view an artist might not see. The formality of a "Best Wall Painting"!

 

Koi & Lilies 40x44 oil on linen - private collection