Please Stand By...

I'm still here, still drawing and painting--though Ive had a couple "side projects" that have kept me away the studio a bit more than I would prefer.

I've built a couple frames for a local artist, which really helped me develop my woodworking chops--a good thing, because there is another woodworking project coming up that is even more complicated, demanding even moe precision than the frames. And, I have four or five more frames to make...

I have been thinking about the new work, of course, and I've been out taking reference photos, and working on the drawing of the second "child" for "The Presentation of Spiders". (And the third child has begun, as well.)

I'm hoping to start painting the second figure this week, weekend at the latest, and I'll post pictures as soon as there's something new to see.

The painting is being done in black and white--the technical term is "Grisaille"--for the Gamblin Paint Company's Torrit Grey Contest's October deadline. Once I have a high quality photo of the finished Grisaille to submit to the contest, I will "colorized" the painting using glazes of (mostly) transparent oil paint.

A lot of work still to go.

Thank you for your patience!

Ghostly Children are Forming...

I'm working on a new version of an old, never-finished painting: The Presentation of Spiders. (Oils on shop-made panel, 20x40 inches). I'm sure I've mentioned this piece here before. (I have; see the photo accompanying my blog entry from January, 2011) I began working on this painting at the beginning of my first semester as a seniour at the Kansas City Art Institute, in the Fall of 2007.

I'm changing quite a few things in the new version, with the most obvious change being that this new version is being painted in layers. This first layer is a black-and-white grisaille (grey-toned underpainting), which will be "colourized" with transparent oil paints once the grisaille is complete. There is actually going to be a background to this version, too, instead of the rather flat blue "sky" beh8ind the figures in the earlier attempt.

I have several freelance projects in ths works right now, so it may be a couple weeks before I can make any substantial progress on this, but I don't mind taking my time, and "doing it right", this time.

Stay tuned...

First Carved Spider Begins...

I drew out the basic shape for the "front part" of what will become the first carved spider, and traced it onto a block of basswood last night. This afternoon, I cut the shape out with the bandsaw, and now it's ready for the actual carving. This is bigger than I originally planned it to be, so the finished spider will be larger, as well. I do plan to make some spiders using exitic woods, and I'll leave them ufinished so that the wood-grain will show. But, given that the basswood isn't terribly interesting to look at, this one will be primed and painted (probably using airbrushed acrylics!) I have no idea how long this is going to take, as I have several other projects that need to get done (including building several frames for one customer, and building a couple wooden displays for a local shoe store) as well-- --but this is a start!

Welcome to the 21C...

Last Wednesday I bought an iPad 2. I'm in the garage typing this blog entry using it, right now. It's quite a useful little device, and does most of the things I wanted from a touch-screen device. It has a much better notebook feature than my cell phone (I'm a compulsive list maker), and the calendar feature is also much larger and more versatile than the very limited calendar on my cell phone. It stores music, books (I downloaded the Kindle app along with several books already) and its really cool to be able to surf the 'Net at a restaurant or the DMV (which I had the dubious pleasure of experiencing this afternoon!)

But, its music I wanted to talk about, tonight. I own around three thousand music CDs. (I'll post a photo soon...). Theres no way the iPad can hold even a fraction of my entire collection. My computer is nearly full, and I haven't copied all of my CDs onto its drives, yet. I am going to buy a terabyte of external storage next month, but even if that's enough memory to hold "everything", I'm still not going to be getting rid of the actual CDs, for the foreseeable future.

I have some friends who sold fairly large CD collections after buying really large hard drives for their desktops, and I suppose that's not a horrible thing-- if you aren't too attached to some (or most) of the music you've purchased over the years. Or, maybe there isn't much music in your collection at all.

I still listen to damn near everything in my collection. Most of my favourites come from the 80s: Peter Gabriel, OMD, Simple Minds, XTC, Kate Bush, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Thomas Dolby, Cocteau Twins, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode...but there's music I love from the 60s, 70s, 90s, and the 00s (along with classical stuff going back to the 14C.) Cause, sooner or later, the hard drive will crash, and all that carefully collected music will be lost. I simply cannot bear the thought of that, so I'm keeping my CDs, all 3000 of them!

Down Time

The May show came down last Wednesday. It feels good to have my paintings back home and safe; the spece where I had exhibited since April is coming under new ownership, and I was not sure if the space would remain secure during the transition. Anyway, the artist who invited me to exhibit in this show would like to exhibit again right away, but I'm really not feeling it. I am looking forward focusing for a few months on several new paintings and carvings without the pressure of a looming deadline. I have two paintings under way, and they are somewhat larger and more complex than most of my other recent pieces. Several artists I know are going in "the other direction"; because things are tough right now, they feel that it is more prudent to concentrate on smaller paintings--which, for them, seem to sell well. For me, though, while I have sold some of the small spiders, they haven't sold any better than some of my medium-sized pieces, either. I think it's a good idea to create pieces in a variety of prices, so nearly evebryone can afford to buy something. Some artists offer prints; I have the small spider pieces priced just over $100.00. So, if I'm not selling tons of paintings in any case, I can't see it much difference whether I am not selling three thousand dollar paintings, or not selling thee hundred dollar paintings. So, there will be some new paintings, but it may be a little while. Please don't go away...

The Walk...

I found this image the other day as I was removing some old images from my computer. This was a piece I installed at the Kansas City Art Institute, along the ceiling of a hallway in one of the lecture buildings, probably somwhere in 2006. I started with one spider on Monday, and added another spider every day for the rest of the week. Several times, I watched students walking down the hallway, only to jump noticibly as they realized that there were several large spiders above them. I think all five of these spiders have been lost. Oh, well. There will be more...!

Another Month, Another Show...

This has been an absolutely crazy year, but I think the craziness may be coming to (a bit of) a close.

I really need a chance to rest!

Over the past few weeks, I've been busy with some "side" (freelance) projects. I was asked to build a 48x48-inch panel for an old painting by a friend of mine; the canvas had been rolled up in her garage for years. Mounting the canvas onto a panel will help keep in in better shape--and if she wants to do some restoration (re-painting some of the most-cracked areas) it'll be easier to do on a rigid support.

I'm also working on refinishing an old frame for another client, and two weeks ago I helped another client hang some paintings before a bridal shower she was hosting in her home that evening.

And I'm also doing some airbrushing on a painting that's being restored by a conservationist I've worked with on several projects, already.

All this has meant some (much-appreciated/much needed) extra money--but it has also meant that I won't have any "new" work at tomorrow night's opening of the April group show.

Oddly enough, I'm not terribly bothered with that; I think I probably made more money from the side projects, than I would have from any paintings I might have been able to complete, if I hadn't been working on the side projects instead. (In the short term, at least. Eventually, those paintings would have sold, and brought in more money, but there's no guargantee they would have sold at this particular time, this particular show...).



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I'm re-doing the preliminary drawings for The Presentation of Spiders, as I'm starting the painting over--from "scratch".

I'm doing this piece "right" this time; starting with a full (tonal, as well as compositional) drawing, which will be followed by a full (probably airbrushed, possibly in oils!) grisaille, then finished with an overpainting in transparent and opaque layers of oil paint.

Stip-by-step photos coming soon.