4:09 PM: R was here today, framing one of the oils for the exhibition. he’ll try and complete the rest on saturday. the show is beginning to take shape, & we had a very productive zoom this morning with mikela, mike (space gallery director) & Ellen, who is the liaison for the benefit aspect of the exhibition. a good percentage of the proceeds will be donated to the UCHealth Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center, where I had my eye surgery.
stretching 5 canvases for the exhibition /
8:42 AM: after a full day of stretching 5 canvases with recent paintingsn for my april 22 exhibition in denver, i was too wiped out to post this. stretching canvases, especially paintings done on extra fine portrait linen with areas of collaged paper, is more complicated than simply pulling them taut & stapling them. so i finished about the same time mikela returned from school, 4pm.
i ahve 2 more left, so i’ll continue this morning & then r will come over & help me to frame them with the wood stripping he cut a few days ago, from pieces of lumber left over from the construction of my storage space.
BELOW: some shots of the newly stretched paintings, which look so much better now that the excess white linen is no longer surrounding them.
watercolor/collage 7 & 8 /
5:54 PM: i reworked watercolor/collage #8 before leaving the studio. it’s on the RIGHT, BELOW.
2:54 PM: today I worked on watercolor/colages 7 & 8 .
the dancing figure on the left is a little harder to discern than the biker falling from his bike on the right. not yet sure if they work; i’ll know in the morning. right now, I think #7 is resolved, #8, not so much.
mounting 3 more polyptych oil/collages / starting 2 new watercolor/collages / exhibition title /
6:04 PM this morning i mounted 3 more of the 19 15x17” polyptych canvases on the masonite that r cut up for me yesterday. they are the 3 square canvases in the center.
i also started 2 drawings for watercolor/collage 7 & 8 out of a total of 9.
this afternoon, i came up with a title for my upcoming exhibition, opening april 22 at space gallery, denver:
petAow or ΠΕΤΑΩ in modern greek, which means “i fly.”
mounting the polyptych canvases / starting watercolor/collage 6 /
1:57 PM: as I said 2 hours ago, “maybe i’ll do a bit more…” and I did. here she is.
I certainly did not intend for this guy to have the look of a modern day hero. a few collaged bits from a minoan vase did the trick, however. and just like that, it went from the prosaic to the poetic. could this have something to do with the face that, for the past week or so, before falling asleep i’ve been reading a couple of pages from joyce’s ulysses? and if so, might this be bloom? could be, since joyce set it up so that bloom is whoever you the reader think he is. at the moment, I can’t think of a more ideal way to fall asleep! give it a try, and don’t let the languaging or the syncopation get in your way; just read and engage.
1:04 PM: as r was cutting the wood for the simple frames i’m going to put around my oils, I worked on watercolor/collage 6 in this series of 9 i’m doing. I may stop for the day, since it’s already been a long, complex day & I actually wasn’t expecting to get any painting done! we’ll be walking up the trail at 3, and I do have a bit more time to paint, so maybe i’ll do a bit more to this one.
interestingly, this guy’s face looks almost exactly like me in my early teens! what’s that all about?
10:51 AM: this morning as scheduled, a construction friend came over to my studio to cut down the 4x8 ft. masonite boards as supports for the 18 canvases in the polyptych series . I mounted one to see how it looks and it’s pretty cool. the collaging had created ripples in the portrait linen, so it was hard to get a sense of how they’d look if they were laying flat. so here’s the first one. he went to fetch a roller, which will make the other 18 easier to mount & roll out the air bubbles, which in this first one I had to do by hand.
I think if I glue 3-4 a day, i’ll get through them.
making the drawing for watercolor/collage #6 /
12:34 PM: today is a short day & we’re leaving in a bit, so I started the drawing for watercolor/collage #6 and will begin painting tomorrow morning.
watercolor/collage 5 continued /
4:12 PM: it was too much, so I removed the blue collaged bit on the right & the map fragment next to his right hand. better, methinks. the latest version is ABOVE.
watercolor/collages 1-5 with today’s #5 on the far left
3:37 PM: I added an orange bit of collage & I think i’ll stop for the day. I have a short day tomorrow, so i’ll see when I come in tomorrow morning how I feel about the work I did today. BELOW is the whole series thus far, with today’s work on the left
watercolor/collages 1-5 with today’s #5 on the far left
2:07 PM: I added some collaged areas to watercolor/collage #5, which I started yesterday. the before & after is BELOW. while I did like the spare simplicity of yesterday’s version, the collaged elements I added today and the richer colors on his upper garment bring it more into alignment with the previous 4 in this series.
modification to 3/5/2022 oil/collage / starting watercolor/collage 5 /
3:40 PM: I started adding to my watercolor/collage series of tokyo olympics celebration dancers/acrobats today. this will be #5 out of a total of 10 I plan on painting, which will all be part of my exhibition opening next month in denver.
stage 1 of watercolor/collage #5
watercolor/collages #1-4
1:51 PM: a dear friend in NYC who has a truly great eye for painting & was on the selection committee for MOMA, loved the painting but found the dark outline surrounding the skateboard too dominant.
when I came into the studio this morning, one glance proved her right.
BELOW: the before (left) and after.
continued work on 3/5/2022 oil/collage /
3/5/2022 oil/collage as it looked at the end of my painting day today
2:15 PM: today, a cloudy, intermittently snowy day, I took 3/5/2022 oil/collage to the next level.
a lot happened today, and so far i’ve been able to maintain those important white spaces. a painting’s gotta breathe ya know! the checkerboard patterning running through many of the paintings in this series has again shown up, this time on a warm grey background. that mysterious lady hiding behind a tree, who was naked yesterday is now clothed in yellow with stripes of pink. rivulets of blue water appear beneath the transparent skateboard and a pair of dolphins frolic.
the orange of the skateboarder’s collar have unexpectedly become a coloristic anchor, without which the composition would be a lot poorer.
a 2 day break and then i’ll pick it back up on wednesday.
today’s palette
at work earlier today on 3/5/2022 oil/collage
2 newly stretched & framed paintings for my April show / starting 3/5/2022 oil/collage /
day one of 3/5/2022 oil/collage, 32x42” on triple primed extra fine portrait linen
3:22 PM: this is day 1 of my new painting: 3/5/2022 oil/collage. there are a few figures from previous paintings in this series, for now set in a creek-scape sketched out in siena. the jumping skateboarder, is partially painted in amongst the trees, and a sense of mystery is pervasive.
i’ll continue tomorrow morning; going to pick up our freshly baked loaf now.
12/10/2021 watercolor/collage
a newly stretched canvas and a newly framed watercolor/collage on my east studio wall
12:36 PM: this morning I stretched one of the canvases for my April exhibition at space gallery in denver. i’m waiting for more stretcher bars to arrive so that I can stretch the rest. it makes a huge difference , getting rid of the wrinkles and allowing you to see the painting without the extra white canvas surrounding it.
as well, I found a frame that’s the correct size for one of my watercolor/collages, which will also be included in the exhibition. here they are on my east studio wall. later i’ll bring them to the house to see how they look there, which is always the true test.
now that i’ve completed that, I may start a new painting on oil & collage on portrait linen. updates when available.