Saturday, March 28, 2009

How many weeks left? I sure as hell don't know.

This piece is certainly more challenging, pushing my own perceptual concepts. The more abstract I move, the more referential these works are becoming. The painting's color palette mimics that of1880s romantic eden scenes and I feel that there is some brash old/new romantic dualism wafting up.
Fun stuff coming up while working on this. I decided after sealing the previous wood panels piece in red, this time I'd like to use the natural color of the wood. As you know however you cannot use oil paint on an unsealed surface, however I just happened to have some clear wood sealer from a previous project. I love the surface on this. It shifts from VERY thick paint at the bottom to absolutely no paint further up. The natural color of the wood works really well as a light source, so keeping the paint thin in some areas is important.

Long rant I know, just really excited!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

5 Weeks of Class Left

Sorry for the delay. These pictures are from last weeks class. I started another triptych, this time priming my canvas board with red acrylic instead of gesso. I've continued my red landscape as well as my abstract landscape. I've also been working on a postage stamp series of 2" by 2" paintings. I have no idea what to do with them at the moment, but they are good for sketching up larger works or sorting through problems without fear of ruining a good thing on a large painting.





Just a little reminder I found about what we should be looking for and what we should be offering up.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Return from Break with New Resolve

The few days Avery and I spent in DC were a much needed respite from the tenuous bustle of school. The art was wonderful, and overwhelming as I tried to pull all the education from them that I could in the short amount of time we had. Wednesday I returned to my paintings with renewed vigor, pushing and challenging myself further, as proven by my newest work above which is certainly the most removed referentially. I am really proud of this one (as I generally am with whatever I'm currently working on). I feel its more conceptually developed and certainly more mature.



Landscape in Red (Week 2)


Blah... This feels so alien. Mark Rothko, whose works I saw in DC, and whose works I was referencing while beginning this piece, layers color after color to achieve the desired effect, black under white to keep the white from feeling washed out and flat, pink under brown , yellow under blue, these dichotomous colors only very subtly reference each other in the finished work, but keep the colors from becoming flat as many color-feild paintings do. Rothko's works are more that simple color planes interacting with eachother, much more, and I've still much to learn.