12:59 PM: i was able to do a bit of work on gaze 34 today, before going back to the house to complete my packing. the face, neck & scarf have begun to take form, and will have to wait for our return to progress to the next stage. i'm taking it very slow, building on the earth toned ground i applied yesterday. the bright background will be toned down, but i'd like to keep the face as simple as possible, closer to some byzantine prototypes i have in mind.
stage 2 of gaze 34 /
3:38 PM: today i had to divide my time between editing footage i shot of the kids' showcase in edwards and continuing work on gaze 34. the image for now is a young, beautiful kurdish woman who was martyred as a YPJ fighter recently.
you will notice immediately that i'm taking a very different approach with this one. i made a monochromatic underpainting, both for the face and her head scarf; something i used to do during my greek period. this technique is one used by byzantine icon painters and passed on to me by my mentor, yannis tsarouchis. i felt the need, once i saw this young woman's extraordinary visage, to return to this technique. we'll be away for a while, but when we're back i'll begin painting into these earth tones and see how it evolves. tsarouchis said that what would get him through all the various stages of making a painting was the deep feeling he had for the subject. i feel that for this woman.
preparing for gaze 34, 38x38" /
gaze 34, 38x38" stage 1
4:38 PM: i stopped for the day, but i had an interruption at 2, so i didn't take gaze 34 as far as i would have liked.
tomorrow an image will appear on top of the patterned surface you see here. although it won't remain this way, i kind of like looking at these early stages. as an abstract painting, it doesn't really hold up. as an early stage in my process, it sings.
BELOW: the initial drawing of one of the students at a school in the vail valley, where we've been piloting actionlab360.
11 am:i'm preparing to launch into gaze 34 shortly. as yet, the image i'll be creating, at least for starters, is unknown. love the unknown! my east studio wall, which usually has the most recent painting hanging, when it;s not on the easel, is bare for the moment.
more work on gaze 33 this morning /
11:31 AM: after studying gaze 33 for 24 hours, it became clear that more work was needed. so back it went to the studio and i've been working on it since i arrived, a bit earlier than usual since we have a 1 pm meeting. here's where it's at as i clean my brushes and have a bite to eat.
although the basics remain the same, extensive but light and delicate work has been done on the face, neck, teeshirt and hat. as i mentioned yesterday, when the image is of a family member or friend, it's always a challenge to let go of any investment in verisimilitude. so far, so good, although i may have held back introducing more collaged elements, which i normally might have done at this stage. this painting is based on a photo i took of mikela just after our trip to australia, where we spent 10 days with an aboriginal clan in the outback, which would place it at about 1992.
in an unusual and rather bold, for me, move, i'm putting it out to the gallery that, if there are gallery clients who think they might want to commission a portrait in the style of the gaze series, they can do so with no obligation to purchase. right now i'm feeling that the entire series thus far, which has been based mostly vermeer prototypes, has been a warm-up exercise for portraits of living subjects.
below is a before and after.
stretching canvas for gaze 34 and 35 /
DETAIL: gaze 33, 38x36" acrylic & collage on canvas
today i'm stretching 2 canvases; one 32x32" and another 38x38" for gaze 34 & 35. i had to interrupt to drop mikela off at a meeting and get our weekly fruit & veggies at the kiosk in crestone. sadly, this will be their last trip to crestone (they drive 3 hours to get here) until next spring. today they had some very tasty small dark blue grapes in addition to the plums, apples, tomatoes, corn, onions etc. they normally have.
i'm not doing any more work on gaze 33 for the moment. this afternoon i'll bring it to the house & see how it holds up with it's brothers & sisters. this painting of mikela is a departure from the vermeer & fayum based images i used for the rest of the series. i'm proposing to the sales staff at gremillion in houston that they propose to some of their clients that i make a large scale (32x32 or 38x38" or whatever dimensions they like) portrait of someone in their family, in the style of my gaze series. if, when the paintings is complete, they don't like it, they have no obligation to purchase. how can you go wrong? I'm starting to sound like donald!
gaze 33 transforms /
12:54 PM: i didn't sleep too well last night, plus we have a meeting this afternoon, so this is where gaze 33 is at as i stop work for the day and prepare to clean my brushes. as you can see, the image has transformed, and is now based upon a photo of mikela in a hat and wearing a t-shirt with an aboriginal design. this would place it sometime in the late '80's, just after we returned from the australian outback, where we spent 10 days with the pitjantjatjara tribe.
as was true when i attempted to paint my 2 grandkids: philip & manio, the ever present danger is becoming too attached to a likeness. we'll see where it goes tomorrow. in terms of pure painterliness, it has some good passages.
gaze 33 resumes after a one week break /
2:25 PM: i'm stopping a bit early today. yesterday was a long one & i'm tired. here's where gaze 33 is at right now; i'll resume work in the morning.
1:33 PM: it's always a thrill returning to my studio after a week away. it took me a few hours of fooling around to jump in and begin painting. i would say the strongest visual input i've had during my break was our visit yesterday to pattern shop studio in denver yesterday. my old friend chrissi schlessinger was in town, and took us to meet her friends sharon & rex brown, owners of the gallery. in 1991 they brought an old factory in the RiNo district and, working with architect david owen tryba, transformed it into a magnificent gallery space, where they live as well. during our brief visit, all i saw on the walls were patterns; beautiful paintings by 5 artists participating in the exhibition celebrating the gallery's 25th anniversary. in one fell swoop, they shifted my thoughts on patterns in painting.
so, that said, here's gaze 33 as it looked a few minutes ago, drying on my studio floor under my big-ass ceiling fan.
vermeer bombshell /
i just read an article on vermeer by my friend gary schwartz in his schwartzlist column. in it, he presents a very convincing argument as to why vermeer did NOT use the camera obscura in creating his paintings. i won't go into detail; it's best if you go directly to the article. highlight this link & paste it into your browser::
https://garyschwartzarthistorian.com/2016/09/30/348-today-in-delft-340-years-ago/
i'm still integrating this new information, so i won't say too much more. in creating the paintings in my gaze series, many of which are inspired by details of faces from vermeer paintings, i always had in my awareness how his use of this optical device must have affected the look of the painting. i assumed, as do many, that those little dots of light we see in the details of his work were directly related to the camera obscura. not so, maintains gary.
gary, an old friend from my college years who has lived in the netherlands all of his adult life, has been commissioned to write a book, which he is currently writing, on the details of vermeer's paintings. publishing date for the book is designed to coincide with the opening of a major vermeer show at the louvre, in february, 2017. i hope to be there. BELOW: illustrations from gary's article showing how vermeer was not the only one to employ the dots of light as a compositional/textural device.
drawing i made this afternoon of mikela lying down with an ice pack to sooth her pinched nerve:
a day in edwards /
4:43 PM: tomorrow mikela is scheduled to give a presentation to some of the teachers at the school who may want to use Actionla360 but need more information.
9:01 AM: preparing to start our day at school. we leave in 30 min. we'll work with 2 classes today, listening to & documenting their project ideas. mikela generally chimes in with questions & suggestions, as do i, but less frequently, as i'm preoccupied with shooting video. since we're both in constant pain; mikela from a pinched nerve & me from inflamed arthritic spinal disks in my upper spine, we'll come back to the house to lie down before venturing out again this afternoon.
musings from edwards /
6:51 PM: clouds roll in to the edwards. colorado area. a day spent with the students at the school in edwards we're consulting to, introducing the kids to our actionlab360 product as a means to conceive and develop their projects. exposure to the innocence; intelligence; creativity of the kids. and their transparent awareenss of what awaits them and their planet. some of them may enter my gaze series. i was studying them, looking for what makes them 2016 kids, unique in human history.
BELOW: a mediocre drawing of mikela from an hour ago; a good drawing of crestone peak from 9/12; a mediocre drawing of the view in edwards done a few hours ago. haven't been drawing enough. gotta keep drawing. it's my life.
facet injections in my spine schedules for 10/10 to relieve swelling & pain in 4 artritic vertbre, made worse by my march concussion, when one of my heavy paintings fell from the easel onto my head.
