2:24 PM: i completed work on gouache interior 6 this morning. it's not right for making a larger version in oil, so i'm preparing a surface in archival watercolor paper to beging gouache interior 7, which will likely be made larger once it's complete. i'm not ruling out #6 becoming a larger oil, i'm just looking for a quality right now that this one doesn't have....more elements, more spaces
starting fresh /
stage 2, gouache interior 6, 10x11
2:33 PM: i was able to do a bit more before my lack of sleep caught up with me.
stage 1, gouache interior 6, 10x11"
1:11 PM: once it became clear that oil interior 1 was a bad start and couldn't be salvaged, i'm moving on to a new theme, starting by making a gouache study. i'm taking it slow, and because i've been up since 3:30, am stopping here for the day. this gouache study won't necessarily become a larger oil. i'll make several, and go with the one that sings.
starting oil interior 2, 32x32" /
7:44 PM: my current feeling is that i need to cut my losses, un-stretch this canvas, toss it and start fresh. i was in too much of a rush this morning, and no matter what i do, it can't be saved. it's a good lesson. i think that making the drawing with paint rather than graphite, as i've been doing, was a mistake. the graphite allows me to find my shapes and their relationships in a way that can be easily modified and leaves painterly tracks i can later weave into the painting.
here's an example of what i'm talking about; an early stage of interior oil 1, where you can clearly see the role of my graphite drawing in the development of the painting.
2:51 PM: stopping here for the day. i know it seems a bit heavy handed and fraggity when compared with, say oil interior 1. but hang in there. it's just day one. i had to block it out to see where it wants to go, and i can refine. and, it may turn out to be a lousy painting! tomorrow will be a key day. we're going walking at 5am, so lets see what state i'm in after that....
12:13 PM: starting with this delicious red chair....pics & commentary as available...
11:11 AM: stretched a new 32x32" linen canvas yesterday afternoon & just now began the preliminary color drawing with my favorite fan brushes. about to go to the next stage...pics & commentary as available.
final tweaks to oil interior 1 /
noon: oil interior 1 may be resolved. it will move to the house, be hung on my famous east living room wall and evaluated by the two of us.
BELOW: one of the areas i worked on extensively this morning.
noon: it may be resolved; here it is on my easel at noon.
9:19 AM: today will be another hot one, so while it's still cool i'm going to make a few final tweaks to oil interior 1. this afternoon i think i'll bring it to the house for the true test of whether a painting is resolved. as well, i'm going to stretch another 32x32" canvas for the next in this series: oil interior 2. the subject will most likely be based upon a photo collage i shot in the '90's in our friend audrey's home in westchester, ny. she & top, her husband, have an exquisite collection of artifacts & paintings they acquired while living in china, and the patterns excite me.
more work on oil interior 1 /
1:35 PM: this morning after our 5am trail walk, i was able to get to work early, albeit a little bleary eyed. i made more important tweaks to the painting in many different areas, such as the face of the central figure; details on the door panels and lamps, etc. as i look at it hanging on my east studio wall, it pops more, at the same time that certain details, which drew they eye too much, have integrated more into the whole composition.
BELOW: yesterday (left) and today (right)
oil interior 1 continues /
1:11 PM: until i can cover my skylights with material that blocks some of the sunlight, i'm attempting to get to work early & stop around now to shield my face, which is still very sensitive to sunlight 5 days post-therapy.
this morning i did quite a bit of work on the figure on the right, which was too large & dominant, as well as painting into many of the remaining white spaces where blank canvas was showing through. portrait linen works best with a light touch, so there's practically no buildup of paint to be seen. it's a very musical composition, with many diagonals guiding the viewers eye back & forth across the composition, with a richness & warmth of color characteristic, i believe, of much of my work over the years.
YESTERDAY TODAY
working on a white ground, rather than the tinted ground i've used for many of my oils in the past, has freed me up and allowed for that luminous quality you can only get when the bright white canvas informs the thinly painted colors. sometimes i miss that hectic flimflam and the constant surprises of my collaged gaze series. i may make more.
i think it's worth checking out the details of oil interior 1, which you see below.
little sister / oil interior 1 continued /
oil interior 1 32x32" oil on portrait linen, as it looked at the end of my painting day today
3 PM: here's where i'm stopping for the day. it's been a little disjointed, because at about 1pm it dawned on me that i was standing directly under my 2 skylights, and at this time of year, that means getting direct sunlight, with only a thin piece of draped material protecting me. that is exactly what my dermatologist warned against in the days following my PDT (photo dynamic therapy) for my face. i noticed the burning, redness & swelling increasing as the day wore on, so i had to stop & move my easel to the east side of my studio, away form the skylights, in a spot where it's impossible to get back more than 10 feet to look at the painting.
following a burst of color this morning, when i impulsively made oil interior 1's little sister, 16x16", i continued work, eliminating some of the previously sketched in white spaces & bringing the composition more into focus.
BELOW: 3 stages of oil interior 1 over the past 3 days
little sister's influence immediately was felt
12:17 PM: as i continued work on oil interior 1 this morning, i was prompted to take a stretched 16x16" blank canvas. within about 20 minutes i had painted oil interior 1's little sister. she has brighter colors and is far sketchier. her influence, bossy girl that she is, was immediately felt by her big sister, whose lower left regions began to look a lot like little sister. strange stuff happens in families. little sister says: you're too predictable! i hate predictable!
looking back: gaze 27-32x32" / continuing oil interior 1 /
2:06 PM: i'm stopping here for the day. my face is very red & swollen form the blue light treatment, and it's hard to keep my focus today. the painting has evolved and is, i feel, in a good place. my direction and vision are to maintain the lightness of touch and painterliness that sets it apart from the version i did 20 years ago. see yesterday's blog post for that image and to read my comments on that. i'm hoping to get a good nights sleep & be in better form tomorrow.
BELOW: yesterdays version on the left; todays on the right.
10:49 AM: i'm about to prepare my colors for continued work on oil interior 1. pics when available.
after my morning meditation i lie down in the living room and am face to face with gaze 27. having had repeated opportunities to review this painting in what could bbe called ideal conditions, i have a deeper appreciation for it's assets, which in all modesty, i think are many.
DAY 1, oil interior 1, 32x32"/81.3x81.3 cm. /
3:39 PM: here's where i'm stopping for the day. if you compare with the image from the gremillion invitation below, you'll see what i meant in my 1:48 pm comments. the brush strokes in the painting thus far are much looser and the composition more abstract; in the sense that the whole picture plane is seen as a play of shapes and colors. they are given specificity and meaning by the context: a living room with 3 figures interacting. but the painting is no longer about this subject matter. rather, it's in a kind of dance. working straight onto the white primed portrait linen is making a huge difference. it's as if all those years of painting in oil on a tinted ground were foreplay, and now i'm having real sex.
1:48 PM: ABOVE is the current state of oil interior 1. i made a series of interiors in 1996, which were shown at the time in a solo show at gremillion & co. in houston. so why am i revisiting this subject, and interiors in general? first of all, i'm in the mood to paint interiors. and i'm curious to see what if anything has changed during those 20 years. i'm in the midst of working, so i'll say more later, but to begin with, the earlier versions were painted on a tinted ground, which is a hold over from byzantine art, as introduced to me during my 15 years in greece, by my mentor & dear friend, yannis tsarouchis.i stuck to that method of working in oil until recently, when i began making plein air paintings in oil on 16x16" canvasses. those were all painted on a white ground, which i found freeing. even daring! having the white canvas show through rather than the tan-ish ground i used ups the luminosity, as well as giving me the feeling of immediacy i experience with watercolor or gouache.
but i want to do a second round my fresh morning energy lasts, and i'll say more about this later.
11 am: i just completed the drawing for oil interior 1, which will be in oil on linen, 32x32" it's a larger version of gouache interior 1. below are 3 stages of the drawing. i'm about to squeeze my paints onto the palette, and will post pics as available.
the day after /
7:42 PM: this afternoon i made a small collage and watercolor in preparation for making about 300 small drawings, watercolors & collages for mikela to include in our educational product, with a september deadline.
11:39 AM: i had the Blue Light treatment on my face yesterday, so my face is red, swollen & painful. just found this 1988 drawing of mikela in an old sketchbook. as i was adjusting it, i accidently inverted it, and i think it looks kind of cool!