Velocity (phase I)

oil on stitched canvas
32 x 42"

(I'm calling it done before I get really carried away and make it even more complex...!)

from here to where?

Well I think I went too far with this cold green-yellow.... maybe tone it down some. Also there is a kind of diagonal line near bottom right that bugs me.



hope I can pull it back!

revisitations

Face #8
small change with big effect:




Face #13
reworking the entire thing, almost:

I think I will call her "Nurse Betty" hee hee

Facing It

I had done this a little while ago and was never really quite happy with it but not knowing exctly why.



My friend said, "the face is too flat, the shoulder cut off too sharply"
She said, "why not work back into it?"
I said, "naw...."

Later I thought about what she said, and gave it a second thought.
And then today I had some leftover paint...







There is a little glare so the colour looks a bit faded towards the top, but I think this is quite an improvement.

The best kind of friend is one who can open to you a new way of seeing. Suddenly now I see a greater possibility with these faces.
Thanks, Seka!
:)

patiently working away

so many things on the go right now
photographed these earlier today - none finished
(though some are getting close)


they look more impressive all together this way, haha!

1000 Furnished Rooms

Two new little paintings



These began as acrylic works, but I got frustrated with acrylic paint's lack of maleability and turned back to oil...



oil on stitched canvas
16 x 17" each

17 Faces

The last few I've done are not so great, it seems. Maybe I'm losing steam. Originally wanted to make 20 paintings of faces, but now thinking why make 20 just for the sake of doing that, if the work is not so good because I am losing interest? Or maybe I am just too impatient.




I've made simple shadow-box style frames for the ones painted on store-bought canvases, which have very shallow profiles and rough-looking edges compared to the canvases I build myself. So I think the frame is an improvement:




And then I took a photo with yours truly the artist standing beside the work to give an indication of scale:

The World is Full of Mostly Invisible Things

oil on stitched canvas
45"w x 51"h




This painting has been many things before it became what it is now...

the work continues...

Night Life

oil on stitched canvas
16 x 17"

The Other Side of the Tracks

oil on stitched canvas
35 x 35"

Beyond City Limits

oil on 2 stitched canvases
35"h x 37"w each - total 35"h x 72"w

Building Blocks

both of these are oil on canvas
40 x 42"

progressions

"The World is Full of Mostly Invisible Things"








"Surface Tension"

A Day in the City

brilliant aren't I



oh so proud of myself for having got this far.
now if I can just figure out how to fine-tune certain things, and how to post on youtube...!
yeah, I know, it's supposed to be very straightforward but for some reason it isn't.

oh, look, I can do it now, cool:


:)

and again...

Stayed up all night again!
Just before a 9-hour road trip so I figured I could sleep in the car, driving always makes me sleepy anyway.



I like this one best:

a hard day's night

Went to the studio around 10.30pm on friday night and stayed until 7.30am, and this is what I have to show for it:


In order of appearance - top right was first, top left second, then top middle. They are 30 X 30".

Have been feeling sort of anguished the last few weeks, for various reasons. Not wanting to very calmly paint with more tranparent layers, cityscapes in stop-motion, beautiful and serene.
Thought I'd try a little pure colour application, see if I can still do faces after so long, wanting to pour out some of this emotion...

Then I took a break. Made a thermos of black tea & drank it with a little cognac added. Gesso'd a couple of canvases.
Looked at what I'd done with the first 3 faces - not bad but not great, trying for a sense of movement but not sure how successful in that respect.

So. Had some old paintings lying around and decided to just work over them, try a couple of different approaches, and came up with another 5 faces. They are 16 x 17'.

First:


The possibly beautiful acid-yellow woman.
Check out that hair and how about the lipstick - this is obviously a woman of the world, jaded and stylish but somehow not entirely without hope.

Next:


Still trying for that motion thing.
Ok, maybe I was getting tired - she really looks as though she's yawning, doesn't she?

And then these three - all started as very different faces, but I didn't like them & just poured on a little linseed oil, smeared with a big brush, then worked back in until I got to here:


Emerging from a half-light, or a half-life...?




The insecure girl - a holiday picture badly framed, taken by surprise.




Eyes nearly closed, the morning sky is now fully light and my body almost floats.

I suppose in a way these are all self-portaits - didn't refer to photos, drawings or images whatever. Not even the mirror, they are all just imaginary faces, and what a feeling of release in making them!

This last one with its little almost-smile, uh-huh.

A Street Divided

oil on 2 stitched canvases
30 x 84"

... not sure which way looks better!

Whatever Leads To Joy

...played around with the background just a touch, then added those hot hot reds - still a very busy painting, but now resolved, I think!


oil on stitched canvas
23 x 46"

work in progress