black and white world

Some experimenting with materials has led to these.








First I used black India ink on rice paper. Then with acrylic medium I adhered the paper to wood panels. Then I painted over a bit with white acrylic ink. Lastly, a thin coat of spray varnish.

Acrylic ink is very nice! Thin like ink, highly pigmented and lightfast. However it is not waterproof and will smear if brushed over, therefore the spray varnish.

something old, something new

just started:

41x43"


just finished:

Mezzanine
oil on canvas
12x18"

Threshold

oil on stitched canvas
69h x 29w

Nope, it's done. The imperfect thing does deserve to live, after all, I am no abortionist.

...wings unfolding

This is what I mean:

Looser, more energy feeling, less precise thinking.

It's this: The thing not said, but implied.


Then with leftover paint I got a start on these:




Lots of little 10x10" hints going on here!

First your legs get heavy and tired.

Then comes the floating feeling of wings unfolding.

So I've been looking at some of the work I was doing a couple of years ago and I'm thinking when did I start doing all those little windows? all thuk-thuk-thuk plinkety plink in neat little well-articulated rows? I wasn't doing that 2 years ago. there's some free quality in those earlier paintings that really appeals to me. hmmmm.

...waiting for those wings to unfold.

you've got to give up what you don't want

to get what you do.

before:


after:

Spanner
oil on stitched canvas
78 x 56"

Memory

Remember these?







Now they look like this.



A new canvas stitiched. This one already has a name: Cathedral.



The continuing spinning infinity:

tradition

"In my last letter I spoke of tradition. ...what tradition seems to have meant lately - an historical patchwork (...) which is used to cover up the nakedness of the bare word. Tradition means much more than that. It means generations of different poets in different countries patiently telling the same story, writing the same poem, gaining and losing something with each transformation - but, of course, never really losing anything."

I've been avidly reading the poems and letters of Jack Spicer.
Working a lot in the studio.
Finally got the internet connection up in our new old house.
Now here is another blog post, made possible by the infinite www.

underpainting

a few glazes later
64w x 28h


in progress
69w x 29h


before burnt umber

after burnt umber
was that an improvement? hmmm....
3@ 26.5w x various heights


41h x ...96w approx
Can you see the holes in these? An intentional defiling of the painting surface.


24w x 68h
underpainting & first glazes


A Clear Stratosphere - re-worked yet again! The final incarnation, I think. Though I've said that before haven't I....


Dusking
oil on canvas
8 x 8"

an ongoing chaos

Feels like too much on the go!
I put nails in the beams to hang works, they need light for the oil to cure properly... what am I doing? There are 21 paintings in various states of completion all over the studio. This is crazy.
But I am preparing to have a solo show - yippee!! - so I need to produce the work, and the work needs to cure before I can varnish it for the show.

Ah, I am overwhelmed lately.
We bought a house and have been renovating for the last few months. Feels like we've been camping for months on end. My head is busy, busy, I can't sleep. At this moment the house is an albatross but soon it will emerge a swan! However, living in the present as I do it's hard to see past the albatross sometimes.

Yesterday I went into the studio very early and worked on flower paintings. How nice. No pressure with those. Met a friend for lunch. Ran some errands. Went back to our albatross and continued with the slow process of transformation. Took some photos at various times of the day.

looking west and east down the alley behind the studio, 7:45am





just around the corner from the bus stop, 3:30pm

melancholy

"...
To find a specific interest in a common reality -
To create universal beauty in a specific reality -
This is the mission given to artist
..."

part of a quote I found on this website:
www.phsoo.com

A Clear Stratosphere

oil on stitched canvas
62 x 34"

This one has been a real struggle! I don't think I can make it any better than it is now. Just leave it...

Re-enter And Re-enter

oil on stitched canvas
71 x 41"

swoosh!

Had a great day in the studio today - a day of finishing paintings! Yay!!! Sometimes I go for months making lots of new starts but not finishing anything. Then, all of a sudden it seems, everything comes together. A lovely "swoosh" of euphoric happiness!

Following are images of the stitched canvas, initial underpaintings, and finished works.




Magic Makers
oil on stitched canvas
64 x 34"






Glittering Threads
oil on stitched canvas
40 x 54"






A Memory Of People Before Us
oil on stitched canvas
54 x 56"


A couple of pretty pics of sunlight falling on the paintings &c.

All We Need

These paintings have been accepted into a group exhibition at the Triangle Gallery, a non-profit public gallery here in town. Yay!!
And there I am hanging them.

For more info about the gallery, visit http://trianglegallery.com

2 hours

was all I had to work in the studio today, and this is what I did:

Actually this is an older painting that never sold so I decided to rework it. Deepen the colour, increase the contrast a bit.
Can't find any pics of the former incarnation, though - maybe when I cleaned out my files I accidentally got rid of it? So much for organization. Anyway there you have it, what I did today.