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Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
Jone’s Falls, near Thousand Islands, Southern Ontario 11 x 11 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas, finished. April 11, finished: I scratched some barely noticable lines here and there, and they break up the space into sections now, if you compare the 3rd thumbnail and the finished piece. This is exactly why paintings need to sit off to the side for a while. With new eyes a few weeks or months later the finishing touches will suddenly be obvious, or there will at least be renewed confidence about what else to try that might work..
Left, February 28: mapping out composition by washing off damp paint with a wet cloth. Central and right, March 1: experimenting with limited palette, work in progress.
St. Catherine’s Sunset
Friday, February 27th, 2009
St. Catherine’s Sunset Ontario, Canada just north of Niagara Falls, 11 x 11 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas, sides painted. The signature is on the side, so one has been superimposed here on the front.
There is no one method for starting a painting. When faced with a blank white surface, often our mind can go blank too. When that happens I use a base color that inspires energy… Hansa Yellow Deep painted on the entire surface then dripped water and paint down the wet surface. Drawing with a wide raggedy old brush, I used the fraying bristles to advantage.
This painting is dedicated to my Mom, born in St. Catherine’s, whose birthday was two days ago.
Reflections
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Reflections, winter in Coppell, TX, 11 x 11 x 3 inches, acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted. Most of the Magic Square series paintings are signed on the side, so the images on the blog show a superimposed signature.
Jack Pine
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Jack Pine, 11 x 11 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas and detail of right side; all sides painted. Signature is on the side, so one is superimposed on the front.
Redbuds
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
Redbuds finished April 11, 2009, took off all remaining masking fluid. 11 x 11 x 3 inches, Acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted.
Redbuds is the first of sixteen 11 x 11 x 3″ paintings of various aspects of trees, to hang together as a group or flanking other paintings. This one uses masking medium to block out areas of white. The first layer of dried medium was removed in the above thumbnails. Afternoon post, left: Adding another layer of masking fluid, seen as yellow.
Feb. 25th: below left, looks better turned on its side but it could be hung either direction, mask was removed then the painting was overworked unintentionally – all the marks that were the whole point of using masking fluid are hardly visible. So on Feb. 26th: below right, more mask was applied, then white painted between branches. The intention was to remove the mask again and reapply over the white areas, but it looks so interesting I’m going to wait a while ..may just leave it as is now.
Later Feb 26th below: may be finished - thinking of a compromise - I tore away a few select areas of the dried mask and left the rest on as texture.
Tulip Season
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
1) 2006 2) 2009 in progress 3) finished today
Finished today: added some life to Tulip Season, 14 x 11 Oil Pastels on paper. Except for the fact that paper has a limit to how much it can be reworked before it starts stretching, I could keep revising these drawings in the Paper Places series continually. Some of them are finished in a day, and truly finished. Some drawings seem OK when they are finished, but have areas that are not quite “there” yet, so I’ll leave them for a month or a year or two then take them out and rework the whole piece. It’s great exercise playing with color and composition. Some are taken too far, which is kind of a shame as far as not having a result for the labor, but with regard to learning: effort is never wasted. Change characterizes this series; change of place, change of time, change of styles, changing what’s already been changed…
Approaching Winter
Sunday, December 7th, 2008
Dec. 13th note: On exhibit at Oxide Gallery in Denton TX until February 28th, 2009.
Dec. 7th: Approaching Winter, 60 x 40 x 3 inches Acrylics, wrapped canvas. More contemporary than my usual work, thought I’d try a new approach to painting…with more attention to editing rather than overworking. Shown in two detail images above, full view: right thumbnail. Large paintings don’t show as well on computer screen, so there are two detail images that were sharpened 2X to reveal the actual texture as it is close up.
Dec. 6th: Colors mixed with matte medium: Ultramarine, Pthalos Blue, Prussian Blue, Cobalt Blue, Pthalos Green, Sap Green, Unbleached Titatium, Alizarin Crimson and Cadmium Red Deep, Mars Black (rarely use black). This morning I scrubbed and washed away a lot of paint in areas then reapplied more. Trying to stay with the less is more principle. Hope to wrap this one up by the end of the weekend if not before.
Dec. 5th: Stage 1, first coat of Ultramarine Blue and matte medium, very watered down, then applied thick in places. Inspired by photos taken by my good friend Ray Muskego in my home town, Cold Lake, Alberta during sunrise December 4th as misty fog drifted off the lake.
Seeing spots
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
The sun is so strong today, I was outside for only about ten minutes then came indoors and this is all I could see in front of me. (12 x 12 inches Oil pastels on paper scanned and reworked with a digital pen)
Zen, Day and Night
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
Pebbles / Zen Garden #8 - Day interest and night drama! 24 x 24 x 1 inches Acrylics on woven canvas strips over a layer of wrapped canvas, hangs about 1″ from the wall surface. The wrapped sides are painted; frame unnecessary. The tiny openings between woven strips are brightly colored orange and reds, and to ensure they’d be noticeable a string of small clear lights are woven into more canvas strips behind the frame. It’s quite attractive in the dark and also hung diagonally, optionally hung as a square. There are numerous ways to hang and view this painting.
I still like the idea of enhancing and receding larger geometric patterns, as in the central square as seen in the May 13th post, but maybe this will be reserved for Zen Garden #9. View the piece from start to finish April 27th, May 12th and May 13th.
Zen Garden #8 – work in progress
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Crackle glaze was applied at one stage, but the humidity is too high so it didn’t take, may apply again later at some point. Today playing with the patterns, colors, refining the pebbles, splattering to give them more realistic texture.
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