30 April 2018

working on it

Sometimes painting is easy, other times it is difficult.  

A year ago I began a new series of paintings.  The first stages involved layering several blind colour sketches on each of about a dozen stretched canvases.  I'd been making blind drawings in a sketchbook and had decided to try translating the technique on a larger scale.

augury no.15 progression, oil painting, abstract, work in progress
Here is one of the "beginnings"

augury no.15 progression, oil painting, abstract, work in progress
it languished for some months
but then I worked on it again

augury no.15 progression, oil painting, abstract, work in progress
and now it looks like this.

I am not sure whether it is now a better painting; it is certainly a different painting than it was.  Sometimes after I work over a painting I feel a sort of nostalgia for its youth, so to speak, but it is never possible to go back.

augury no.14 progression, oil painting, abstract, work in progress
I also worked on this painting a tiny bit

whose orientation is still unclear
augury no.14 progression, oil painting, abstract, work in progress
and I'm calling it finished for now.

Please feel free to use your imagination to see various tonalities of reds & oranges... which my camera unfortunately does not differentiate between very well!  :)

29 April 2018

sometimes you have to be ruthless

Sometimes you just have to be ruthless in order to get to the good stuff.

portrait, oil painting, ruthless, keep trying
first incarnation

portrait, oil painting, ruthless, keep trying
wiped, begin again

portrait, oil painting, ruthless, keep trying
finally, the good stuff

I really like like the way this portrait turned out, despite some anatomical imperfections.  Very glad I wiped it halfway through.

To my amazement, the whole endeavour took only 1h 15m.  I get that my drawings are done very fast, usually about 20-30 minutes in my 9x12 sketchbook with watermedia...  but this was an oil portrait, and the first I'd done in a very long time.

Must've been an exceptionally good model.

:)

22 April 2018

portraits and portraits

Today I spent the day in Black Diamond, AB, hanging out at Bluerock Gallery and exploring various parts of the town and environs.  During my travels I made some portraits.  
Here they are, more-or-less in the order they appeared:

bluerock gallery art church portrait of shelly

Diamond Valley Singers, portraits of choir members & audience

Diamond Valley Singers, portraits of choir members & audience

vernavogel portrait bluerock gallery black diamond ab

And in the newest sketchbook, 300gsm toned grey paper which was very smooth and did not take the watermedia too easily but nevertheless was enjoyable to work in:

sketchbook toned grey black & white image circles

It was nice to get out of the city for the day.