I did a self portrait sometime in June.  About 80% of this is done w/ my fingers.  You can see the finger prints in the beard.  I’m pretty happy with this.  I learned a lot about blending.  I also did this in one night which was pretty fast for me.

I was low on motivation so I started painting storm troopers.  I’ve played w/ them a few times.  This is the best I’ve ever arrived at.  I’m still working in the layers and colors.  This was a fun painting.

I wanted to follow up my portrait by doing another one.  On this however, i opted not to use any browns.  I was hoping I’d learn something about color.  It was challenging.  In the end the top and the bottom seem like two different parts.  This is where I really started using purple.

I took this photo to compare where I was in the first part of August over the last two years.  Overall the work has changed drastically.

This is a paint over of an early piece.  I did it all in fan brushes.  I really like the presents of the brush strokes.

This too is pretty much all fan brushes.

this was interesting because I painted the background last.  It was sort of a strange process that cost the legs and some of the detail.  Again, I’m trying to bring these elements together into something coherent.  I really like the white lines.

Also, for September, I have 12 pieces up at Kettleman Bagel Company on SE 11th.  Some of this new stuff, is up along with older pieces.  I’m also working on a word project.  I don’t know if I’ll post it here…

This is the order by which I completed these.  The fox I did a couple weeks ago.  I painted w/ brushes an actual fox then decided I’d rather have it free and chaotic and added water into the equation.  The other two are canvases I painted over.  The first is the Hawthorne Bridge.  My mom says she likes the bridges the best so I went ahead with this.  I don’t find this bridge that appealing.  I selected it based upon length.  Of the three, this turned out the best though.  And lastly, I finished this gun.  These are all medium sized pieces.

I’ve been experimenting with color and layering these very thin watered down acrylics.  None of them other than the image that comes forth is planned so I’m still painting as I go.  I think the next step will be to work multiple images in and keep the chaos going on around them.

I had the latest female figure, an old cup piece, and an gray piece (in the top left).  I ended up selling the small gray one in the top left.  This was a very laid back affair.  I had a good time, a few beers, and a chat w/ a bunch of other artists.

Shortly thereafter, I was turned on to the idea of having work in the Tribute Gallery for April.  I launched into quite a few new pieces at a time.  I think at one time I was working on 7 different pieces.  Initially I was following a much loser painting method:

This required the paint to be very thin, and I was just letting it go where it wanted.  At the time this seemed pretty cool, but I quickly learned a couple of things: this method requires a lot of drying time, especially between colors.  This will warp the canvas.  I continued to play with this, with mixed results.  It was probably a bad idea to launch into this new style right with the intent of having interesting pieces come out.  But, the one good thing of working like a wild man, is something is bound to give.  I ended up with quite a few piece.  The show for April, which open April 1st, is a large group show.  I think there will only be two pieces from each artist.  So, I aimed for smaller pieces. Initially, I planned on bringing these down:

I ended however, ended up dropping off 3 others:

In the end, i have no idea as to what will actually be up.  I’m not worried either way.  I’m just glad to have found a path to finish some pieces.  I’m most attached to the red one w/ a wine bottle.  Interesting thing about all these though, is that they are done mostly with tape, and dropping liquid paint on the canvas.  The most actual brush work went into the ’7′ of the last picture above.  Overall, it’s been a very chaotic couple weeks of painting all the time.  I don’t have nearly as much to show compared to what I was painting.  I paid all this time for learning new stuff about the paint and applying it.  I’m going to regroup after this show and launch into some new pieces trying to maximize the methods I really ruined in the last couple weeks.  I also need to re-visit my tape and paint supplies; plus I’m out of canvases.

I want to start with this one for a couple reason: First this was the first thing I’ve finished of the new stuff.  Second, I put the most time into this and I’m really happy with its direction.  This is on the smaller side 12×18 I believe.  For what is, this took a lot of time and energy.  I had to let these lines dry before I could paint over them.  I’m happy with the direction I was able to get out by just using white and black.  The background is very plain.

So for this, I tried to imitate the piece above it.  But, as it was unfolding, it looked terrible, so I had to cover it w/ black and move on.  Where this black splatter is, I had some lines moving attempting to generate motion.  It was a big failure, but I got over it quickly, threw some paint at it, called it a day.  This canvas is nearly 6 months, with something rather dear to me under it, that I couldn’t quite execute.  But now, it’s just another piece of sofa art waiting to find a place in my living room.  this guy is big, 36 by 24.

Finally, this.  I wanted this to be a portrait and worked on it as such, but I was having a hard time w/ it so I just painted over and moved on.  I tried some new stuff w/ a decorative stencil I built to give it a wall paper feel deep in the background.  This was also a chance to play with curves and my french curves.  It’s 24×18.

Hopefully I’ll have some new stuff in a couple weeks.  I’m going to try to use what I’ve learned on these two, to push forward.

I look at my past life as at a field lit up by the sun when it breaks through the clouds, and I note with metaphysical astonishment how my most deliberate acts, my clearest ideas and my most logical intentions were after all no more than congenital drunkenness, inherent madness and huge ignorance. –Fernando Pessoa

It’s almost been a month since I’ve posted–two since I last posted a painting.  I’ve been struggling with producing anything of note this new year.  I did, a few weeks ago complete my shirt project with something around 14 shirts, 9 of which were shipped around the states.  I think I got a better sense as to how to make shirts and stencils.  I was hoping for this to be a spring board to painting, but it hasn’t.  I’ve mostly painted, repainted, and ultimately, been unsatisfied with my work.  But, I think in keeping with this blog, I’ll post what I’ve actually finished:

This is the most recent work I’ve completed.  It’s actually a canvas I never finished working on last year, and I decided to paint over it and start over.  Out of everything I’ve done so far, I think this holds together the best.

I spent most of my time recently working on this.  I had the hardest time trying to pull all the elements together and to get a coherent piece.  To me, this is really fragmented.  I did the face first with a head dress taking up most of the background.  I reworked everything, including repainting the face.  I sort of came to terms with this, knowing I was only making things worse the more I worked, so I left it.  At least I used brushes for almost of all of it…

This was the first thing I’ve done on hard board.  This is all hand painted–I’ve been playing with Chinese brushes to help clean the edges.  It’s super glossy and I haven’t done the work to piece together scanned parts…

I took an old canvas and covered it with polymer while the paint was still wet and let it bleed underneath.  The top didn’t stay even.  I don’t know if a blow torch is the secret to a smooth layer or not…

This is another old canvas that I was playing around with.

So this is it.  It’s not much.  I had thought after two months I’d have more to speak of, but things just haven’t worked out that way.   Push ahead, I guess…

I’ve been working on shirts lately along with some other work that I haven’t finished.  Quite a few people want shirts, so I’ve found myself a bit overcome with the quantity I’ve promised.  Here are a few I’ve gotten through.

I’ve used three different and new to me stencil methods on these.  I bought some cheap plastic folders and used that for a stencil.  Over the holidays I saw a number of plastic stencils for sale.  I thought I’d just make my own.  What I learned:  They’re harder to cut out.  The do, however hold up better over multiple use than thick paper stencils.  So, you get durability, but you lose detail.  I also tried parchment paper stencils (the bottle and glasses).  These were super quick, super easy, and I just tossed them after use.  You give up all the detail of other stencils, but this is really fast to get some lines you want.  And lastly, on the storm troopers, I used layered stencils.  I made four stencils that sit on top of each other.  I really enjoyed this last method.  Lining them up is the hardest part,  but I like the end product.

I’ve got a bunch more shirts to do.  I think they’re getting better.  I’m still working on other pieces but nothing has found itself to completion, yet.

The plan was to put as much into developing the background as I could before doing anything crazy.   I built this background up using sponge rollers, gray, white, and burnt umber.

The next day I dropped a very thin white onto the canvas and let it dry–these wet drops take about 12 hours to dry, sometimes 20 depending on the thickness.

So for the foreground, I got this idea from the New Yorker, of a Cowboy.  In terms of putting it together on the canvas, I was really not sure as to what I was going to do.  So, while I thought about it, I started working on the very foreground, the grass.   And the, I just started going at this cowboy image–I decided to go very thin, super thin burnt umber.  I had never painted like this and I didn’t know what I was doing (I was fortunate I didn’t craze, or saturate the paint under it, which I’m now discovering happens…).  So I just painted from one dark spot to light using water, and letting the paint bleed where it wanted:

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, but I don’t really credit myself with knowing what I was doing.  Basically, I just rolled with what was going on.  Once I saw it was starting to look good, I tried to be very conservative about ruining the piece by doing too much.  I added a horizon line with this watered down paint I used on the cowboy.  I added a little texture to the top of the painting with molding paste to add a little to the painting–That was about it.

In scope of my goal to paint 40 pieces this year, I think this is a good piece to arrive at–namely, I utilized a lot of what I did this year, while kept up my experimenting and willingness to try something new.  I still have a couple pieces in the works, but they are presents, so I won’t post them until I’ve given them away.  Also, I’ll have to think of new goals for next year and probably update this blog… let me know if you have any questions, or whatever…

These are in order in accordance to when I worked on them.  I finished each, before going on to the next.  On all three I built the background first using non-brush techniques (sponges, brayers, pressing paint from paper onto the canvas).  The backgrounds are regular acrylics.  On the first two, I then applied the fluid acrylics with a brush.

The fluid acrylics are the light green.  I started from the bottom and moved up the canvas.  After I had painted the first fourth, I realized how to work with these paints, and had to go back down and over the bottom.  Initially, it was much more rigid and circular.   Up close you can notice a difference between the beginning (the bottom) and the end of painting (the top).  This was good for me to play with these paints.  Overall, I’m pretty happy with this piece.

First I laid the trunk out, and rather loosely–I wasn’t quite sure how this one was going to turn out.  I then started painting a number of random circles.  I let each color dry and then just added more on top.  One thing I don’t like about this painting is the placement of the tree.  I built the background not knowing what I was going to paint on here.  As it took shape I realized it was skewed too far up and left.  This was really simple, though, as a whole.  It just required patience to make small dots.

On this, I decided to go super loose with the paint.  This piece is only 6”x8”, so very small.   I made this with the flower looking piece I had done before.  I wanted to go small and let the acrylics paint themselves.  The depth in the background is created by pressing, picking up and repressing a sheet of paper with paint on it.  This is about as simple as it gets.

These put me at 39 pieces on the year, one out for my goal for the entire year.  I’m sort of working on a couple pieces not in keeping with this blog.   I have other ideas in the wings, but I haven’t started on anything quite yet.  I’m also working on something radically different from anything I’ve done–to which I have no idea as to how to start or find my way to something aesthetic…. I’ll post my failures of that, as they take form and evolve.

The background was built with a brayer, starting from a dark red and moving lighter.   The circles were all done by hand.  Normally I map out where these circles are going to be.  This time I just free handed the whole piece.  This fits into the last two pieces–I sort of combined the methods into one.