snapshots

After spending 6 months focussed on making purely abstract work, I needed a change.  So here is an about-face: working with photographic imagery again.  The "Snapshots" series continues!  

About a year ago I had some photos printed with the intention of working them into paintings, but then I lost steam on the urban stuff.  Everything just seemed to deflate and there I was, floating in a creative void.  What an anxious feeling!  I wondered if that was it; it was a good run but urban work was a thing of the past for me.  

Not so, apparently.  A new piece:

drawing

layout

Intersection
acrylic and mixed-media stitching on canvas
56w x 39h inches

There are things I like and things I don't like about "Intersection", but I'm setting it aside for now.

A piece begun months ago, finished this week.  This is the only photo I have of it at the moment, skewed, taken at an angle:

Hmm, not a bad composition with the strong angled lines; perhaps this will inform the next painting.

And a piece made half-heartedly last year:

Reworked:

East Meets West
acrylic and mixed-media stitching on canvas
64w x 39h inches

I'm liking "East Meets West" a lot better now.  The re-working veered away from my original intent, which is good - keeps me on my toes.  It may be finished... set aside for now.

Working in the studio this week, I realize it's been a couple of years since I felt this excited about making urban-themed paintings.  Now I am feeling eager and curious as to where these "snapshots" will lead!

And, interestingly, I also want to continue with some of the pure-abstraction ideas I worked up over the last 6 months.  First, however, this other exploration.  I think that by moving back and forth in this way the two directions will inform and expand one another.