up to here

First, I want to say that I'm having a show next month at AXIS gallery here in Calgary. Check out the "october 2010 exhibition" at the top of the sidebar for details.

Now on to the recent studio work.
One finished:

Every Small Thing
oil on stitched canvas
35w x 37h

And a whole whack of stuff in progress:




Cathedral


All We Need


Forget Time And Death



And here is a piece that has been reworked many, many, many times! I think this is it, now. No more reworking. It is what it is:

Heaven And Earth
oil on stitched canvas
3 @ 24w x 30h each

More goes on every minute

what I did in the studio today:

before

after
photo is too purple but

not bad in a frame
these are 12x16 each
not sure if they're finished, maybe a few tweaks?


and what I saw on my way home:

once and for all

That's it, they're finished. No more dickering about!

before:

after:
Inhabit
oil on stitched canvas
47w x 28h



before:

after:
Drifting In
oil on stitched canvas
72w x 42h

Artists For Life

and there I am with the t-shirt I painted. They raised over $5000.oo to support people living with Aids, and I'm glad to have helped!

...o...

Back to the black & white ink paintings. Added white ink and some drawing with black pen to these.











While I was working on those, I painted a t-shirt for a fundraiser for AIDS:







it's a really big t-shirt!



And with the leftover ink I started a few new ink paintings on rice paper. I'd like to have 10 or 15 of them finished for my October show.

conjured mansions

so close!
so close!

tomorrow we go camping for a few days - tonight I worked quite a bit in the studio so that I can relax & enjoy camping, hehe..

up to here

drifting in a little closer

Added some oil pastel tonight... very very close now!

Drifting In

oil on stitched canvas
72w x 42h

new starts

10x10" each
Was going to make these abstract, but already they are looking a lot like cities! The idea is to get away from recognizable imagery... I am not always successful at this. But it is just the beginning, we'll see what happens after a few layers and some oil pastel bits.

into the blue

24h x 53w
17h x 47w
So I've got these two up to here and I kinda like them like this.
Unfinished?
But if they look good now, do I need to then pile more layers on until they are all worked up and dense and... "finished"?

8 x 9"
oil paint, oil pastel on canvas. This one is definitely finished.

Waiting for the bus after a good studio day.

Inhabit

oil on stitched canvas
26h x 46w

.... better?

and then

In between gesso-ing I worked on these:

thinking somehow the colour is flat here, needs a bit of work yet.
maybe mossy greens and some more reds.... or maybe going into purples...?


this one also needs some little thing, not much now.
can't see it too well in this pic but the colour's really vibrant.

in stitches

This week I've been stitching canvases:

First came this one, nothing very different.
It's quite big at 33h x 69w

Then I thought
!!!
and began to stitch clothing tags into the next ones:

a diptych, these two measure 34h x 39w and 45w


this almost-square one measures 53h x 49w

a close-up of the tags, now all stitched up.

Today I gesso'd them all, leaving the tags uncovered.
They look interesting now, with the bits of tag colour amid the white field of gesso... how to paint? Same old same old will not do, I think. We'll see what happens.

exploring the possibilities

an empire of my own begins to take shape



setting up for further oil pastel work



and the landscape has now got to this point - a little more work on the foreground and it'll be finished, I think...

it's all in the way you look at it....

An Accumulation Of Changes

oil on stitched canvas
62w x 22h

Just finished yesterday, I really like this one. Now it's gotta dry for a few weeks before I put a protective isolation coat on it, then dry for a few more months before the final varnish.

whoopie!

Just got another art rental client, they're taking 2 paintings for 6 months ...and then Kurbatoff (my gallery in Vancouver) phoned to say they'd sold a painting! Cheque's in the mail. Funny how a little cash lends inspiration. Now I can pay my bills AND continue painting.

heehee!

art for art's sake

money for god's sake!!

Haven't sold a painting in months. Total financial nose-dive compared to this time last year. AND we just bought a house..... eek!
But I will prevail.
I will prevail with smaller paintings.

Like this one:

It's an itty-bitty little thing, part of the "Lens" series I've been working on, all 10x10", all quite abstract. I'm having a lot of fun getting back to the more abstract aesthetic.

In fact, because my work is not selling much, I am not under so much pressure from the galleries and it feels lovely to work on something a little different without thinking about the business of whether they'll sell. Heehee.

Here's another one, before & after:

This one measures about 12x22". Not sure if I like the progression here, the "before" is maybe more interesting because it's less defined...

And here's one of the big stitched ones, still in progress but liking where it's going so far:

Yes, I am still working on the big stitched pieces for my show in Vancouver. Not till February next year, but these things DO take a long time to make, so it's gotta be an ongoing thing.

Hope they sell something soon because I am about to be flat broke, in the literal sense of the term.