sunset city

Further progression on this one...


An out-of-focus photo taken in bad light, but still, the idea is evident.

This has been the most difficult stitched canvas I've ever worked with. Experimenting with just how many pieces of canvas I could stitch together & still make a painting that works, is proving to be quite the challenge!

151 pieces. 84 main pieces + 67 small bits sewn on top.

Today I almost gave up. But I had a bit of blue paint left over from working on "a day in the city" and decided what the hell, may as well not waste paint, and this canvas certainly can't get any worse.
Now I think I'm glad I did that.
I think...

progress....

stitched



stretched



gesso'd



and begun painting



... and then I took the "stretched" photo and played round with it in photoshop:


looks a bit like under a streetlamp, doesn't it?

Opaline II

Another version of "Opaline" is underway...


Canvas sewn & pinned up on the studio wall, awaiting a stretcher

A couple of details of materials used on top of the canvas
Burlap, corduroy & bouclé fabrics:

cathedral

cathedral


oil on 2 canvasses
51 x 51cm (20 x 20") each

#6 red

#6 red


oil on sewn canvas
79 x 122cm
(48 x 31")

This is one of the early sewn canvasses - the 6th, in fact!
Lately I have altered it a bit. I am being less "safe" with them than I was at the beginning, and this lack of restraint is a good thing, I think.
This is what it looked like before:



I'm glad I hadn't varnished this one, because I think it is much improved now!

a day in the city

a day in the city

initial sketch and sewn, stretched canvasses:


39.5 x 39.5cm each, 320 x 39.5cm entire
(15.5 x 15.5" each, 126 x 15.5" entire)

You can see the different types of fabrics used for these: burlap, bouclé suiting, mesh, organza, corduroy and even a few pieces of zipper sewn on top of the canvas. I'm really having fun with these.

They are now gesso'd & I have begun painting - excitement! The zipper gives a particularly nice effect, so far.
I plan to try a similar colour method to the one used in "stack II" (a couple of posts back), though applied in a slightly different way - stay tuned!

rain

rain

oil on 3 canvasses
76 x 76cm each, 240 x 76cm entire
(30 x 30" each, 99 x 30" entire)

from there:




to here:



finally feeling the desire to work on this one again, having some idea now where it's going.... still not finished, but (at least in my own mind) clearer. Feels interesting to work on canvas that is not sewn - it's been awhile!

opaline

opaline

oil on stitched canvas
145 x 86.5cm
(57 x 34")

diffuse light showing colour


direct light showing raised texture







and a couple of close-ups:

industrial dawn

dawning industry


oil on stitched canvas
27 x 27cm
(10.5 x 10.5")

stack II

stack II


oil on 5 stitched canvasses
167 x 28cm each canvas / 167 x 160cm entire
(66 x 11" each / 66 x 63" entire)

I really like the way this one looks now - except for the patchy look of the last glaze on the second-from-bottom canvas. Perhaps it is only a minor detail, however.

A brief look at some of the colour progression...

cadmium yellow light + indian yellow, then raw sienna:



fuschia, then cad yellow middle:



some strange and very ugly colours:



complimentaries over the previous strange colours, then quinacridone red + cad red middle:

now didn't those weird colours make the nicest underpainting for the reds?
:)

(my studio mates thought I'd lost it when I put on those awful greens & blues & purples, but all along there was a plan!)

cranes

cranes


oil on stitched canvas
84 x 46cm
(18 x 33")

first use of mesh stitched on top of the canvas

city distance

city distance


oil on 3 stitched canvasses
59 x 135cm each, 186 x 135cm entire
(23 x 53" each, 78 x 53" entire)

treeline

treeline


oil on 2 stitched canvasses
approx. 33 x 102cm entire
(13 x 40")

... not finished yet, I think, perhaps, maybe...

SUNSET CITY

"When I looked again, the city had divided itself into 151 pieces..."



this is what this painting looks like now
ha - still not finished!
it's been two years in the making, so far
last night I counted them all, and was surprised to find 151 separate pieces of canvas stitched together for this work!
(I had thought 100 pieces was a generous guess)

the tower

more fun with photoshop!

graffiti city

oil on 2 canvasses
105 x 115cm each - total 220 x 115 including space between

not sure if these are finished
could be slap-dash quick, grade-school look
could be simply sophisticated
could be....

Northern Lights

oil on 3 canvasses
total 120 x 51cm including spaces between

Green Rain

My love affair with bright colours continues...

oil on 3 canvasses
44 x 40cm each - total 150 x 40cm including spaces between

The idea here was to sew the canvas minimally to create fields & fence, then create sky effects with paint only. Really like the undiluted vermillion colour on the fence.


the middle canvas - subtle colours more obvious in this photo
(top photo is a bit dark compared to actual paintings)

The Yellow Prairie

A ground view just outside my apt building - you can gauge the cold by how big the plumes of steam are - here about -17C
Brrrrrrrr! But pretty to look at.


I've been thinking of long summer evenings:






Part of the fun of making paintings is that I can create whatever environment I wish in the painting!


oil on 3 canvasses
they're about 50 x 120cm, including spaces between

Fence, field & sky

oil on 2 panels
61 x 97cm
2006