Love and Possession

Two small paintings with very different energy, they come from the same inspiration~ Heathcliff and Cathy (Wuthering Heights by Emily Brönte).  One painting got snatched up right away, the other has been shown many times and is still looking for it’s forever home.  Part of a four painting series, Love and Possession are reflective ruminations into these aspects of a relationship.  Love is love. Everything has already been written about it.  It is such a sweet, unabashed, fleeting, feeling.  Possession has a twist. Who is possessed here?  This word spins around and around~ it seemed to have a lot more to say relative to the relationship I had been contemplating.
Love is oils on artboard 12in x 6in and is for sale. Possession is 6in x 6in also oils on artboard.

Currently I am grappling with the final two in this series~ Secret and Revelation.  It is taking some time, but I will post them when completed.

A Man's Soul 2nd session

Here is the progress on A Man's Soul. We worked a shorter amount of time today as I like some drying time between layers.  I am at that wonderful/horrible moment where the painting can go either way ~ success or failure.  I do not like to slow down too much as then things get labored and overworked.

We talked about that ominous precipice and Rod wondered if there were any artists at all who ever did not feel that way in the middle of creating! I am happy I can see all the things that need some tlc and where I want to pull forward with the paint.  One more session next week at TECAC, Wednesday, 9AM ~ maybe two, we'll see.

Visonary

     Visionary; John The Baptist.  Originally this painting was created upon request, but I was never satisfied enough with it to give it over. It has been kicking around the studio for almost a year now.  I don't normally think of winter as a time of renewal or opportunity, but things of that nature have been happening lately and so I find myself circling around to it once again. 
     This is one of those pieces where I feel concept has usurped composition and I do not feel there is a balance~ therefore it is not a finished piece.  I have painted other versions changing sizes of the elements,  but I am not sure what is missing in those that is present here.  I am not sure what element is not working here either, but I feel an incompleteness... 
     He is named Visionary first, as this was where my thoughts went first.  I thought of the desert~ hot, and unforgiving; and the vision quest~ many cultures share this kind of raw spiritual journey. I kept coming back to the effects of deprivation that roaming a desert would cause and yet there are cultures that live and have lived effectively in such harshness.  The heat, the sun, the divinity of the water, the miracle of survival, the answers to Life...
     I also jumped to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and the idea of the "hippie"~ the nonconformist.  Having lived near Woodstock, NY for several years, my modern (and very loose) interpretation of a hippie is someone who lives by their own vision, uninterested in the judgements of others, but very interested in the conscience of the society they choose to participate in. I felt that was similar to a prophets' fate in society; judged and unaccepted yet still wanting to convey knowledge.
     This is oil on canvas board, 11in x 14in, a modest size.  I wonder if scale is holding it back.  It is not for sale at this time.

A Man's Soul

Rod Adams is a watercolorist.  He is curmudgeonly amicable with a voice that rumbles at a pitch usually just below what I can hear clearly.  Drinks coffee all day and taxes his angelic wife to no end, but still, I felt for him when he had a terrible time of painter’s block.  Feeling ill and in a general slump, he was not interested in painting anything.  I offered to paint his portrait as a way to keep him connected to the art studios and involved in painting, even if it was in a different way, as a model.  I was so happy when he said yes.

     During the winter months I generally am not able to paint and I experience a kind of winter blues.  It is frustrating to feel like I have nothing to say and am unable to handle things through my painting because the paint flies, but it all lands badly.  Painting a portrait from life is a very rare opportunity for me, but it is something I really love to do.  Our faces are universal and unique.  I like to think about the bone foundation and how the cheek curves and how the mandible sets.  I imagine the muscles stretching over and around and I am intrigued.  Everytime it is different.  And yet, everytime it is the same.

     So Rod and I finally synchronized schedules and met up on a Thursday morning.  He sat down and settled comfortably in a plastic blue chair in front of the window, in just the right way for me.  After some time, he began to tell me his story.  His life and his family heritage; things that mattered and people he’d met.  I feel his words helped paint this first session although I still have a ways to go.  We are meeting again at The Electric Company Artist’s Co-op, on Wednesday Jan 29^th in the morning for another session and probably at least one more time after that.  But in this first round, I think I got him; I got his soul.  

     He is now fired up to paint my portrait and I love that.  Maybe we have started something… 

el Presidente

Senor Mottie.  Bucko. Handsome Devil. The Little Man of the House. Loverboy.  Lunchbox. Porkchop. Puccini. Motchka. Mucho Macho. Sexiest Cat Alive. Ooh la la. Keepin’ the Pimp Hand Strong.  One White Cheek. One Black Cheek. Gorgeous and Sexy. Your Lips Say No, but Your Eyes Say Yes. On the Good Side of Lookin’! 

My Little Man knows how to flirt. As a birthday gift almost eleven years ago, Mottie captured my heart with that one white cheek and little pink lip.  He has been charming me ever since with “paw paws” and feline conversation.  Just look into those demanding eyes and tell me you haven’t fallen for him too.

This is a smaller (9in x 12in) painting in oils with a galkyd medium to make it shine (and difficult for me to photograph).  Galkyd gives oil an almost acrylic feel in that it is slick and dries fast, but maintains the “buttery” oil feel.  The purpose is to utilize glazing techniques in a speedier manner.  Small amounts of mineral spirits can be added, but do not dilute too much as galkyd has a nice glossy sheen.  I have also used it for drips and splatters with interesting results.  It also needs major ventilation so use with care and some common sense.  I painted on artboard, which is essentially a nicely gessoed masonite type board~ very slick with no texture.  I paint differently on this surface than on canvases. It is a nice change.

This painting is for sale. Please contact me for details.

The Photo Shoot

Yeah, so I am very excited to announce that my studio is an official site on  Artisans Center for Virginia Artisan Trail Network in Bedford County! So we had to take our picture for the Facebook congrats...

 

Sometimes the model gets so distracted...

but I think we have a winner!

 

http://www.artisanscenterofvirginia.org/  

Studio tours are available by appointment. Come see what we've been up to.

Profound and Ridiculous

There is a fine line between profound and ridiculous.  This painting explores just that.

       Jezebel is surrounded by all these tiny houses. Tiny little homes; ideas of home; do you ever really feel at home? If you’ve lost your home, can you actually find it again? Her wary attention is both comical and deeply reflective.  We had just moved to our new home in rural Virginia when I took this picture of her in our new kitchen.  It struck me that the linoleum was the exact same classic pattern as in our kitchen in the old house hundreds of miles away.  She grew up in our kitchen playing catch down the subsequent hallway~ charging up and  down it as a pup and eventually making it each way in three easy strides as a beautiful full grown dog. I wondered if seeing this exact same floor pattern in our new place, did Jezebel recognize it? Did it reflect home to her?  Does she even experience such notions?  Her expression just got me thinking…and laughing…

      I turned the diamond pattern into a house pattern and traced the history of homes and houses (for there is a true difference) back to my own first home as a child.  That kitchen floor was dark slate stones which my parents had patterned and cemented down themselves. It held no mercy for any dropped glass or plate, but it was a cool relief on small bare feet during summertime. That first house was somehow a home, and perhaps because of my Jezebel, so is this one now.

I am grateful to say that this painting is on view through to the end of January, at 2nd Helpings in Roanoke, VA.   www.2ndhelpings.org This art gallery is part of a rescue mission and a portion of all sales are used to help the homeless in the local area.

     Studio 319 was my first dedicated art studio space in a small town in upstate New York. On the third floor of an old  brick factory building, it stood a block away from the railway .  The factory floors were compartmentalized into quarters for living and for working.  The entire exterior wall  of my corner rental was windows and I had amazing natural light simply because the factory was built before electricity was commonplace.  My black lab, Jezebel, and I would forsake the ancient elevator and trek up the stairs to our sanctuary. She would relax and I would paint in oils on the largest canvases I could find or make.

     Though I no longer live in that town and I no longer live in that state, in my mind I still enter Studio 319 when I settle into my present workspace and paint.  For me, it is a place of creativity,  freedom, and sometimes escape.  I once described to a friend the way it felt entering Studio 319 was like an idea from a novel I had read by +Marion Zimmer Bradley, titled "Mists of Avalon" (a rendition of the King Arthur legend through all of the female characters ~it's a brilliant read!)  Avalon was a sacred place surrounded by fog and could only be reached by boat by those few who knew the way.  Allegorically, it was a spiritual place that could only be found through contemplation and honest self reflection.  Painting for me is a necessity. It is a vehicle for expression and healing.  To do it well takes a lot of searching.  Jezebel snoozes through most of it.

   

  This blog welcomes you to Studio 319.  Come in and relax. Come in and share your creative adventures, dreams, thoughts, fears, and hopes.