3:44 PM: i’m moving slowly on u.s. open 2. here’s the current state compared with yesterday. yesterday’s version on the LEFT
DETAIL of u.s. open 2
next steps with “u.s. open 2” / my solo skoufa gallery show in 2010 /
u.s. open 2, 20x38” as it looked moments ago, following a morning’s work
1:12 PM: this morning i continued work on the painting i started yesterday: u.s. open 2, 20x38” in oil on triple primed french portrait linen. i ran out of steam moments ago, so i don’t want to continue working on it till i’m fresh, tomorrow morning, following our trail walk. thus far, i haven’t done my usual scraping; i’m too attached to the brush strokes i’ve made on this superb surface.
detail; click on image to make full page & reveal brushstrokes
6:43 AM: in 2010 i had a solo show at skoufa gallery in athens. with the exception of 3-4 paintings, it sold out.
parade: this was one of the paintings in the exhibition
6:54 AM: it’s a chilly morning here in crsetone/baca, with the temperature hovering around 43F, but forecast to go up to 80F! in a few hours, i’ll be in my studio, continuing work on the new u.s. open 2. stay tuned!
US OPEN 2 / trail walk drawings /
us open 2, 20x38” as it looked at the end of day 1
3:02 PM: i didn’t feel like continuing us open 1. instead, i felt like starting something new on a fresh, unpainted piece of 20x38” portrait linen i had cut from the roll a few weeks back. so by gosh i did! the drawing, as you can see, includes many different views of figures engaged in activities: tennis & skateboarding mainly, although my old friend, the plaid shirted good doctor is in there too, along with some flowers inspired by 18th c. japanese fabrics.
caressing the linen with fresh oil paints is a pure aesthetic and sensual delight. painting the dark bits of flesh in shadow adjacent to the areas lit by the sun is a huge turn on. only the french could create such a marvelous painting surface!
four recent trail walk drawings mounted on board this morning
12:15 PM: we took our trail walk this morning and i made a drawing i wasn’t satisfied with, so i collaged a piece of map, worked into it a bit and then decided to mount it on board with 3 others, which i then placed in a frame.
4 recent trail walk drawings framed this morning
this morning’s drawing with a collaged map fragment
starting "U.S. Open 1" /
u.s. open 1, 20x80” oil on portrait linen, at 4pm today
2:32 PM: i’ve had this 20x80” whited over canvas sitting for about a month. yesterday as we watched the u.s. open matches, i shot some stills of the players from the tv screen. this morning i printed out a few and began an experiment. we’ll see if it has legs or just gets painted over again.
adjustments to "skateboarder 3" /
3:43 PM: i was about to launch into something new today, but my gaze kept returning to skateboarder 3, and i had a persistant feeling something more was needed.
i mostly used collage to make the changes, which will become apparant if you compare the two images BELOW.
so i’ll wait till tomorrow morning to satrt something new. we took our trail walk this morning, and i made another study of the creek using my colored pencils and a small drawing book.
this morning’s creek drawing
hu 1 & jazz 13 reworks /
jazz 13 as it looked at the end of my painting day today
3:56 PM: this morning i stretched hu 1, and then discovered there’s more i wanted to do. i think my changes and additions, which were mostly around the borders, have enriched the composition.
jazz 13 seems to be an ongoing experiment in ways the entire jazz series could go to another level. if i had to use one word to characterize that, it might be fluidity. i’ve been working into, the making fluid, curviliniar movements with the palette knife, creating a subtle play of movement across the canvas as well as greater ambiguity in the human figures scattered throughout the composition.
hu 1 as it looked following todays changes
jazz 13 rework /
3:38 PM: i’ve been looking at jazz 13, 35x37” on the east studio wall for months. i brought it back to the house yesterday, which is the ultimate test of how well a painting stands up, and it failed the test.
so today, i dove back in & made some radical changes, which will likely continue tomorrow, since it needs to lighten up.
here’s the before and after.
tweaking "skateboarder 3" /
1:09 PM: i brought skateboarder 3 back to the house yesterday so that we could both look at it critically. as a result, i made the tweaks you see here. the strokes i made on the bottom 1/4 are critical to the composition. the highlighting of the skateboard, her sneakers and the outline of her dress allow the painting/collage to be seen more easily from a distance.
starting skateboarder 3 /
4:56 PM: i started skateboarder 3 this morning. i’ll post more later; gotta get back to the house.
like the other two, she’s flying high above a number of maps on her siena skateboard. her green dress and white petticoat are blowing in the wind.
compositionally, again, as with 1 & 2, the shape and colors of the maps RE ll importnt, providing structure to the curvaceous figure. however the lower quarter still needs work.
adding collaged elements to skateboarders 1 & 2 /
4:04 PM: we walked up the creek trail this morning, so i was late getting to the studio. i worked on bothe skateboarder 1 & 2, adding collaged elements, mostly from maps.