let there be light

I put up some spotlights so I can see things on the back wall with fairly even lighting:

The lights are your basic clamp lamps which can take 150 watt halogen flood bulbs.  I bought some heavy-duty cupboard handles which I screwed into the ceiling studs and clamped the lamps to them.  

Then I plugged both lamps into one extension cord, and stapled all the cords to the ceiling and down the wall to the outlet so they wouldn't get in the way.  Low-tech and reasonably effective.

Another photo-based piece started.  This is one half of what will be a diptych:

laid out

 and mostly stitched in

All the lines are not stitched down yet - I need to sleep on it before I can decide exactly where to place everything.

ways of seeing

Wednesday's skype portraits

oil on gesso'd 300lb paper

11x15"

pencil on 80lb paper

9x12 sketchbook

Hmmm... this is starting to feel a little formulaic.  I have another skype session set for Sunday and then perhaps I will take a little break from these.

mind's eye

A couple of skype portraits done this afternoon:

oil on gesso'd 300lb paper

15w x 11h

I think I'm starting to get the hang of making portraits! There is something really nice about using skype: unlike a photograph, the image on the screen is not so flat - and unlike having someone actually in my studio, I find I can relax more when it's "only online".  An interesting realization.

A finished painting, from here:

to here:

Who Will Remember Our Houses?

mixed media on stitched canvas

30w x 62h

And some progress on this one:

The strong orange shape in the middle needs to be toned down quite a bit in order to arrive at a nice sense of space.  Working with acrylic can be difficult because it dries differently from how it goes on, especially when working on raw canvas.  

Ha!  "It's not my fault; it's the paint!"  Oh the classics...

At any rate, I will figure it out and make this painting work one way or another.

Several painting streams on the go these days - feels good!

finishes

varnishing paintings outside - how nice!

a little wonder

the portraits I made via skype last night

pencil on paper

9x12 red sketchbook

oil on gesso'd 300lb paper

19 x 11"

the beat goes on

skype portraits done last week:

oil on gesso'd 300lb paper

while I was painting Anne, she was drawing me:

pencil wash on paper

old small works - 10x10 and 12x12

found a skull while hiking - in it there are many faces

one thing becomes another

Happy days - I have been finishing paintings lately!  This is the part I love, when logic relaxes its grip and intuition takes over, and my brush seems to know what to do without much intervention on my part.

A piece I began in November, finished tonight:

Stained Glass

acrylic on stitched canvas

16 canvases @ 12x12" each

avec l'artiste

canvas #5

Another "raw canvas" piece finished:

Stream

mixed media on stitched canvas

2 @ 39x39" each

Second photo piece finished:

Portal

mixed media on stitched canvas

51w x 31h

And as always there are many works in progress.  Here is a sampling of 3 branches of ideas I have going at the moment.

A canvas I stitched several weeks ago, with its stretcher:

It now looks like this:

I have several paintings on the go right now which I've sealed and gesso'd prior to painting with acrylic.  I had been painting on raw canvas for the most part, but now I want to try again with acrylic on a gesso'd surface.  So far so good...

Another canvas stitched and stretched several weeks ago:

has got to this point:

This one is painted into the raw canvas, no gesso.  The middle bit will be left mostly unpainted.  I like the contrast of drawing and painting - lines and colours - on the raw canvas.

And another photo piece in progress:

The composition comes together as I move pieces around and begin stitching.

Stretched and ready for the next steps in the process!

1 hour and 56 minutes

Quite a lot of talking and a little bit of painting via skype last night

1. oil on gesso'd 300lb paper

18x12"

2. oil on gesso'd 300lb paper

12x18"

3. graphite pencil on 80lb paper

16x12"

photoshopped

this way

old paintings, new frames, evolving artist

get your kicks on route 766

The 766 is a road with consistently lovely views - one can stop pretty much anywhere along it and find something to paint!

before:

after:

   The sky was just phenomenal today, wind-whipped purple clouds and that yellowy light that sometimes infuses the atmosphere... my old camera cannot capture it.  However, I think I'm getting better at painting the skies out here.  

   I've been paying more attention to the colours, trying to get them accurately, and using a more dry-brushing type of technique which seems to be working well.

and here photographed on my studio wall:

when

Finished a painting yesterday:

When Things Happen, They Happen All Over

acrylic and mixed media on stitched canvas

72.5"w x 27"h

Eight new stretchers meditating on their future:

They are small - 9x9" - and I will prepare canvas on them for more open-air landscape painting... 

presentation

 a proper photo of today's landscape:

#25

oil on canvas, diptych

9w x 18h

After making the landscape I had paint left over, so I mixed it all together into a lovely grey and completely worked over an old painting until I got this:

River

oil on stitched canvas

10.5 x 10.5"

highway 766

another open air painting trip

 set-up: was planning to paint a horizontal landscape...

...but wound up going vertical 

Very happy I did!

Vertical format allowed me to get the layers of prairie distance, which is what really intrigues me about this country.  

What the sky behind me looked like as I was finishing up

Out the window on the way home - lovely evening skies and mountaintops obscured by cloud