oil interior 6 32x32" as it looked at the end of my painting day today
3 PM: stopping here for the day, as the skies darken and our daily monsoonal treat arrives. this particular interior, it's colors and patterns, is like a gift.
1:21 PM: i've been continuing work on oil interior 6 this morning & am taking my lunch break. it's an extremely enjoyable painting to work on, and i'm taking it slow in part to savor each brush stroke. i'll resume & post more pics after lunch.
3:19 PM: oil interior 6 at the end of my painting day. i'm very excited about this one, especially now thjat my grandkids' eyes are following it in greece. they inspire me to go further.
2:15 PM: here's stage 1; i'm still painting & i have about another hour of juice. more pics soon!
1:26 PM: i'm just completing the drawing for oil interior 6, 32x32" and will start painting shortly.
the image is drawn from a photo collage i made in the 90's of the interior of the home of 2 friends who lived in crestone at the time: d&z.
3:07 PM: today i started a small gouache as a study for oil interior 6. i'll complete it tomorrow, and perhaps make a second one to work out the composition which, in this one, is starting to look too busy. it will be more lively coloristically than the last few, and cropped more tightly than the earlier oil interiors. less descriptive, more patterned. i'm tempted to jump right into the already stretched 32x32' canvas tomorrow. but i know in my kishkes that i need to work out the color relationships, shapes and overall composition first.
12:34 PM: to tweak: to make usually small adjustments in or to.
in a painting, as with a race car engine, these small adjustments can make all the difference. in the case of oil interior 5, the tweak involved my realization that 80% of the composition consists of objects and bodies seen in a mirror. whereas the flower patterned paper on the bottom, the barber's arm on the left & the bottle on the left are "real," the rest of the composition is seen in a large barber shop mirror; it's a reflection. no matter how clear the mirror image, it is always more or less dimmer and hazier than the original, depending on the quality of the mirror and how dust & smudge free it is. once i adjusted for that, the painting became far easier to read. the mirror images got slightly pushed back. now, if you compare yesterdays version on the left with todays on the right, the eye immediately and automatically reads the mirrored images as exactly what they are; reflections.
i have always loved mirrors and have been wanting one in my studio for 20 years! one day, we'll visit an antique store in denver, find the right tall mirror & bring it back to crestone. and you, my friends, will have played a role in making that happen!
2:15 PM: i'm done for the day, and the painting may be resolved, depending on how it looks when i take it to the house & we both peruse.
noon: i've had a good morning so far, making critical tweaks to oil interior 5 that are pushing it to the edge of singing.
the addition of horizontal white stripes and accompanying offsetting of the cup, the arm, the shaving brush are all contributing to this painting gaining a sense of it's identity
i'm going to get back to work. the skies are darkening early today, and a monsoonal storm may put an end to my painting day....
we went for a 5am trail walk, hoping not to get soaked, but we did, glad we went, though.
2:14 PM: end of my painting day.it may need some tweaks, but it's pretty far along i think. the tight cropping may be a direction i take in future interiors.
tomorrow will be critical in making the image pop as well as resolving a few ambiguous spaces. it's interesting that it's taken this long for me to rediscover and begin mining these photo collages. the one this is based on was shot in india in '89-90 and later mounted as a collage in my studio.
for a painter, visiting rajistan is probably akin to what some 19th c. artists like matisse experienced upon visiting morocco; brilliant color and patterns everywhere.
12:35 PM: oil interior 5 at 12:30 PM
11:15 AM: oil interior 5 at 11:15 am.
10:06 AM: this is one of two collages in oil on linen i made towards the end of my ano kato series. because it's tricky to use collage in an oil painting, i stopped after doing two. as you can see, they are based on photos i shot from above at a denver mall. which explains the baby carriage seen from above & the other figures strolling through the mall. unlike the rest of the ano kato series however, there are abstract elements coexisting with the realist figures. in the lower right is a fragment of a watch. watches were prominent in the series of abstract collages i made, such as the one you see below, 12x5"/31x12cm. 1/29/14
i'm about to resume work on oil interior 5, and will post pics as they become available.
3:43 PM: i erased yesterday's drawing for oil interior 5, 22x22"/56x56cm. & made a new one, based upon a photo collage i made in the late '80's of a partially outdoor barber shop in rajistan, india, known for it's vibrant use of color everywhere you look. i spent a long time deciding upon a composition, after realizing this has been a weak point in the past. not that my compositions are bad, but they are sometimes kind of hit or miss. so i decided to spend more time than usual determining the exact boundaries of my composition, putting form, pattern and color first in importance.
work will resume in the morning, following our 5am trail walk.
9:02 AM: i'm considering a new plein air series, now that mosquito season is over. i may try making some larger oils, which is more of a logistical challenge. here's a plein air gouache painted back in march.
3/19/17 plein air gouache
in the mean time, i plan on starting oil interior 5, once the drawing is completed.
4:28: after spending all day yesterday completing the oil on canvas: aspen art fair, 20x18," i stretched a new canvas today and began the drawing for oil interior 5, 22x22." during my breaks, i looked through an old portfolio of drawings and watercolors from 1980. below is a selection.
6:25 PM: ater hanging the painting in our entryway, i decided it's complete. we'll see how i feel in the morning. the photograph you see here was shot with my iphone, of the painting hanginhe one you see below, which was shot in my studio with my expensive nikon.g in our house. i think it's actually more accurate than than the one you see below, which was shot in my studio with my expensive nikon.
3:10 PM: here's the painting at the end of my painting day. i have to spend time with it to integrate & digest what i've done. it's rather different than past paintings, and right now it seems the colors are a bit strong.it'sthe juxtaposition of the dramatic landscape rising above the city streets with the figures viewing the art fair below that attracted me....
aspen art fair, 20x18" on the easel
11:35 AM: getting a late start today; about to resume work on aspen art fair. this represents an unexpected departure from the interior series. i love switching it up!
a few days ago, I visited the aspen art museum's current exhibition: wade guyton, peter fischli, david weiss, running through november 26th.
when i walked into the first room, i did a double take, thinking the exhibition was not yet up and instead was in the process of being hung.
within minutes, and with the help of the very knowledgable guide standing in the center of the first space, i understood this was not the case.
i have always been in love with process, regardless of whether it's the process of making coffee or making paintings. frequently when i'm in my studio i experience some corner of the space, say my work table with it's trays of colors & mason jars filled with brushes, or canvasses stacked against the wall, as treasured artifacts in my process of making art, things of beauty in this moment in this light, never to be repeated.
in this exhibition we see odd pieces of paint-splattered wood surfaces stacked against the wall, with a pair of paint stained shoes nearby. some tools lying on a scrap of wood. a radio was playing the same song over and over in an adjoining room.
but is this art?
I say YES… a resounding yes!
why do 3 groupings of paintings stacked against the wall qualify as art? the very fact you may be prompted to ask this question is significant. you could, as i'm sure happens on a regular basis, just turn around and walk out of the museum, feeling you're wasting your time or being toyed with.
by exposing the process of making art and sharing it with the world, we are at the same time de-mystifying art and making it even more meaningful and moving for the viewer, providing a path for him or her to begin experiencing art as something that goes beyond the confines of the gallery or the museum and is, in fact, ever present in our daily lives.
i shot this photograph of some forks on our friend dan's kitchen counter. these forks lying on the wood counter, so beautiful in their shapes and the shadows they create, will never again be together in this particular configuration and in this particular light. it was a fleeting window into the unsuspected richness of the vast beauty surrounding us. I don’t think I would have noticed and photographed these forks without being inspired by this exhibition. Is that not the purpose of art?
if you decide to visit this show: it’s best if you can forget everything I’ve said, and enter the museum with no preconceived notion of what you’re about to experience.
I give this show 2 thumbs up!!!
