Tag Archives: painting

Retrospective Revelations

In preparing for an upcoming retrospective exhibit I’ve looked through almost all of my work, finding old slides, illustration samples, and digital files. It’s been a ton of fun and taken me by surprise.

The show will be alongside work by Chica, Kate Darnell and Doug DeLind at Struk Studio. Reception on November 13 at 5:30.

The big AHA moment was that I’ve basically been doing the same paintings my whole life. Figures in empty space, whether the figures be plants, people, landscape elements, or still lives. The above two pieces were done 40 years apart, but clearly come from the same way of looking at things.

Of course there has been variety along the way, but here are the elements that have held my interest throughout:

  1. Focus on the subject. I’m not interested in backgrounds, so I often leave them plain with maybe a hint of something or a shadow to create environment. Sometimes I wonder if I’m lazy, but don’t I get to do things in a way that comes naturally?
  2. Gesture. How does something move or hold itself and what is the story behind the gesture?
  3. Area of clarity. If everything is loose, I might add a dewdrop, a crisp mark, or luscious lips…one spot that says I could do tighter work with more detail, but am choosing not to – it’s intentional.
  4. Tight crop. I move in on my subjects. I want to see the little details and let the imagination make up the rest.
  5. Complex surface. I like painting in layers or working over other paintings. It seems to say there’s more to the story without giving anything away.
  6. Marks. I can fall in love with a good mark. It’s hard when I have to sacrifice a beautiful one for the sake of the overall piece.
  7. Drawing. I draw on my paintings and paint on my drawings, despite a college professor who wondered why. Why not?

I have been beyond lucky to have made my living as an artist for over 50 years. Between the illustration and fine art, there’s a big body of work.

For the exhibit I’ll show a bit of each era, including painting and ceramics. I hope you will visit David Such’s distinctive and cool gallery just north of Old Town on Turner street.

Five by Seven Project

Image

I’m ready to just have some fun making art. The Icarus exhibit came and went and was gratifying on many levels. There’s usually a down period after an exhibit, a burbling and experimentation time before another large idea falls into place or the desire for another exhibit.

This week the 5×7 concept hit me and I’m quite excited. I’m going to do whatever I damned well please in painting and drawing…not consistency necessary, no holds barred in style and subject matter. Whatever comes out on a given day will be what’s supposed to come out. I like the idea of having small pieces, but with perfectly serious art on them. I want original art to be accessible to anyone.

Finished pieces will be available only from my Etsy shop. All will be prices at $57 with $5.70 from the sale of each getting donated to the Firecracker Foundation, a local and important group reaching young victims of sexual abuse.

This pondering rabbit is the first piece.

Taking images farther in Photoshop

Last fall I decided to take some old images and rework them in Photoshop. Creating something directly in Photoshop doesn’t appeal to me, but seeing what happens to an image that’s been painted, with all the complexities of surface and color does. Here’s one that was posterized, among other things, and another that I inverted.

Image Image

Then I was doing an image for the holidays…a Father Christmas. I finished the painting, but it was just lacking something for me. I brought it into Photoshop and started adding arbitrary textures, like cement and closeups of leaves and fabrics, tweaking screen levels and cutting away where not needed. I had a terrific time doing it and fell in love with the complexity of the surface. Cement into snow…what fun! This piece has been winning awards, so I might be on to something.

Image

The latest piece was this cardinal. There was so much going on already in the original I had to be pretty descriminating about where to enhance, but put in textures here and there along with a couple of real berry photo images. There’s a richness that’s hard to explain with this system.

Image

This is definitely a direction worth pursuing further. It brings a fresh tool to the studio, but lets me keep what I love about painting. Time flies when I’m working on these…fully engaged and excited. Feeling lucky.

 

Evolution of an Illustration

I thought it might be interesting to post the various stages of an image while I’m working on it. I hope it is.

This piece was done for the MSU School of Music’s upcoming production of La Boheme. The impetus for style is the historical time-frame for the production and elements were pulled from the set design.

Once the sketch was approved I drew the image on 140# Arches hotpress paper, soaked and stretched it. You can still see the mottling from the water. This is the time to put in a background wash.

Image

At first I want to establish the key values and cool/warm range. We were aiming for a Toulouse L’autrec palette.

Image

Next I wanted to get a feel for how much washy paint I wanted and what flat areas. I also needed to test how to handle outlining. I was looking at old prints, but did not want to copy style, just pull some of the feel.

Image

Since the roses play such a big role, getting their color in place was important and would drive the rest of the piece.

Image

With such a light-touch on the wash, doing the face was scary…no room for error!

Image

This is the finished art I submitted.

Image

It was asked to make the woman prettier and smiling. I could not make the changes on the original art without changing the entire look of the face. It would have had to become opaque to allow coverage of the old features and adjustments. So, I went to PhotoShop. I felt like a plastic surgeon…nip and tuck.

This is the final image which will appear on the poster. I have to admit I prefer the original, but if my client’s happy, I’m happy.

Image