3:03 PM: i stretched tokyo drummer on the new aluminum stretcher bars today. much to my dissapointment, i discovered that they too will warp if not braced. so i did the bracing. it’s a long story, but that took most of the afternoon and was labor intensive!
desde arriba, day 3 /
3:31 PM: i did a bit more on desde arriba this afternoon, as you will see if you compare this image to the one below.
desde arriba 32x42” day 3, end of my painting day 3:30 pm
2:13 PM: taking it slow, i moved ahead today with desde arriba. it’s still early so i’ll do one more round & post when i’m done for the day.
BELOW: yesterday (left) & today
desde arriba, day 2 /
desde arriba 32x42” oil on portrait linen, day2
3:58 PM: we lost power for a few hours this morning, which is always a disruptive event, but we called the company, their guys got on it immediately & it came back at about noon. whew! our water, for one because we have our own well, is affected by any loss of power, etc.
i made significant modifications to desde arriba on day 2. the figure of the girl in the green top has been painted over and just a shadow remains. the guy from my previous painting: the new couch, has shown up at the red door, but so far the woman opening the door for him (mikela) has not appeared. the overall tone of the composition is now a pale pink leaning towards yellow, and a few faint memories of the underlying i fly painting can be seen.
i should be able to get an earlier start tomorrow, since i won’t have to deal with a power outage, so let’s see where this one goes when i get back into it.
"I FLY" BECOMES "DESDE ARRIBA" /
desde arriba 32x42” oil on portrait linen-DAY 1
3:34 PM: today when i entered my studio and took a gaze at the new couch, it seemed resolved to me. i’m going to continue looking at it every day while i work on this revision of a painting made in march. it’s titled i fly, which has to do with the image of a skateboarder, arms spread, looking as though he is, indeed, flying.
i’m no longer in that space and didn’t feel like modifying it, so i flipped it 180°, went over it with a thin wash of light sienna/ochre and launched into a new drawing, based on photos from above i shot a few years back, of school girls in a corridor. i’m giving it a new title: desde arriba, which means from above in spanish.
much like the new couch, what is now the underpainting adds richness and mystery to the composition, providing, as always, unexpected twists & turns and visual loop-de-loops. lately, i’m zeroing in on my true visual vocabulary, which is great fun.
mikela is out at school with our car, and rumblings of thunder can be heard announcing the onset, not imminent i hope, of our afternoon monsoonal thunderstorms. so i better get cleaned up & walk back to the house if i don’t want to get soaked!
more later…
i fly, ˆ32x42” was flipped 180° and is becoming desde arriba
the new couch, day 3 /
the new couch 38x40” as it looked at the end of my painting day today
3pm: still taking it very slow, i continued work on the new couch, all of which was on the bottom half of the compostion. i adjusted the red door so that it looks more like a door, filled in some of the stairs and plants on the left, lightened the violet shadow on the lower left and made some changes to the figure holding the door open.
while maintaining the mystery of the undefined shapes above, i gave more definition and solidity to the areas below. lightening the violet shadow to the left of the guy at the door made it easier for the eye to wander about the surface, and making the red door taller allows it to be read more as a door and less as some kind of mirror or painting. suggestions of a black metal railing and stairs on the lower left make the space in the composition work better. the triangular areas of light above the male figure at the door add a nice touch of geometry, playing off the lights & shadows below.
but i’m not there yet, so let’s see what tomorrow brings.
the new couch, day 2 /
the new couch 38x40” as it looked at the end of my painting day today
3:04 PM: i’m considering yesterday to be day 1 of the new couch, even though there are two previous compositions beneath, which are greatly contributing to this one especially that pinkish tone in the upper right. at this moment, it totally works as a resolved composition, so if i do more tomorrow, either i’ll screw it up or it will get even better; the latter, i’d like to think!
i’m walking that fine edge between abstraction and representation. and, as i’ve said many times, i think i’m cut out to walk this line. the suggested spaces beyond the red door can become whatever you like, wherever your imagination transports you. in my ano kato series, such as the one below, the architectural setting of the acropolis museum in athens is clearly defined, as are the relationships of the figures to that space.
whereas in the new couch, at least at this point in it’s evolution, the space in the foreground is pretty clearly laid out, while in the upper half of the composition, ghost images peak the imagination. the female figure in the lower right opens the red door for a guy delivereing the new couch…or is he looking out in awe on ill defined objects flying in space?
i guess we’ll find out more tomorrow.
ano kato 48 56x68” oil on portrait linen
"the dinner party" is now "the new couch" /1980 painting of a house in andros /
the new couch following the transformation from it’s previous existance as the dinner party
1:45 PM: after extensive work yesterday on the dinner party, i went over the whole thing with a wash of white mixed with brilliant yellow, scraped & wiped it down, flipped it 180° & started the drawing for a new painting titled the new couch. it’s inspired by photos i shot about 5 years ago from our upper floor, looking down on mikela holding the door open for 2 guys delivering our new couches & bringing them up the stairs to our living room.
as usual, the under-paintings contribute a lot to the surface i’m always after lately; mysteriously structured to peak the imagination and transporting the everyday into an event beyond our usual experience of the vast illusion we know as space/time.
what once was a pattern on the seat beneath the window has become a subtle indication of a floor. what was a dinner table now occupies the space just outside our front door, and so on. one thing these superimposed images have in common is that they are views from above looking down.
DETAIL of the new couch
in about 1980 i made this small painting of a house on the island of andros, greece. having lived in greece for 15 consecutive years, and spent every easter & summer on andros, i’m deeply familiar with the landscape & architecture of the island. this house is characteristic of the stone architecture of the island.
working into "the dinner party", 38x40" /
the dinner party, 38x40” as it looked moments ago, at the end of my painting day
2:18 PM: interesting, painting during a series of thunderstorms. if the predictions are correct, they should continue, starting back up about 5 pm and going through the night into tomorrow morning, which may squish or trail walk plans. but now it’s about time for mikela and i to start doing some of the exercises we were shown yesterday by our physical therapists in denver. mikela for hwe knee & me for my shoulder. then comes another delicious dinner of fresh caught salmon, which we brought home from costco. mikela is doing a different style of making the salmon each night.
so i took my modifications to the dinner party to the next level this afternoon, although there’s still more to do. before i started working this morning, i was foinding it too predictably detailed and descriptive. now the reverse is true; it’s too dispersed, with no points of focus. no worries, all that should change tomorrow morning. i can’t really predict how right now, but it’s likely that a dominant figure will appear, allowing all that’s beneath it to play the role of supporting cast. i’m loving layering more & more!
12:18 PM: i’ve been gazing at the dinner party since it was, i thought, resolved on july 15th. it seemed far to descriptive, with no breathing room or places for the eye to rest and relax. it sorely needed to be broken up somehow.
it seems i had to clean my fridge yesterday for me to get into the right space for that to happen! so this morning i dove in, and am continuing to play with it for as long as i’m in the right mood. BELOW: the before on the left and on the right, how it looked moments ago.
at work on revisions to the dinner party earlier this afternoon
fridge/freezer clean-up day /
my studio fridge following cleanup & reorg
3:44 PM: i was still kind of tired this morning after our marathon crestone-denver-crestone round trip yesterday. so i decided it would be a good day to bite the bullet and finally clean out my studio fridge & freezer, which was way overdue. i took everything out, placed it on a makeshift table, went through it and tossed over 3/4 of it. some of it may have still been ok, but you don’t want to take chances with food that’s been hanging around for a year or more.
that created room for the fruit we got at costco yesterday, as well as the smoked slamon i love eating for breakfast. it always feels good to get rid of accumulated stuff you no longer need but have been avoidiung taking action on. we’ll see tomorrow what, if any, effect this has on my painting.
we made a brief stop at space gallery on the way home, where we took 9 small framed works & 2 oils that were in the gallery & took them home. some will be included in my aspen show and i’ll re-purpose some of the white wood frames for recent gouache/watercolor/collages. i’ll post some pics tomorrow; i’m too tired right now.
we both had physical therapy appointments in denver, and i got a bunch of new exercises for my right shoulder. i’m going to break them up into 3-4 a day, otherwise they become overwhelming. there are videos accompanying each exercise, making it less likely you’ll do them incorrectly.
my studio freezer following cleanup & reorg
revisiting "dwell" / stretching “tokyo drummer” on a new aluminum stretcher bar /
4:28 PM: today i stretched tokyo drummer on one of my new aluminum stretcher bars.it’s very gratifying to stretch larger paintings like this one on such stable, unwarpable stretcher bars. you’ll notice a ripple in the lower left corner. that will be dealt with sa soon as i get the corner keys tomorrow in denver. they allow you to slightly open the corners so that the canvas is pulled straight.
once we’er back, i’ll stretch the other 72x28” painting inspired by the 2020 tokyo olympics. they will both be hung in my aspen exhibition opening september 29.
dwell following today’s modifications
dwell before today’s modifications
3:04 PM: once i stretched dwell, 17x80” and hung it on the studio wall, i realized it needed work. but what exactly? so i started out with one of my favorite blues in the upper left. that immediately made a difference & livened it up. something still needs to happen on the lower right, but i’ll address that on wednesday morning, when we’re back from our quick-turnaround drive up to denver tomorrow.