October 12, 2015

This gallery documents the process behind the painting studies I am doing prior to, and probably during, the creation of what will be the body of work for my MFA thesis project Self Portrayal. This gallery is about the process, and not the finished works, therefore the images are snapshots and not 'clean images'. The first 155 images in this gallery begin with studies I began shortly after completing my first year project in May 2015 and continue through to October 6, 2015.  The studies are primarily water-based paints, enamel paint pens and acrylic paint markers, ink, charcoal and some oil-based colored pencils. I have used various types and sizes of papers as well as a couple of stretched canvases. The sizes range from 9 inches x 12 inches, to 24 inches square, and one much larger work on paper, the exact size unknown. Most, if not all, of the studies have their origins in the self portrait Twinning and to varying degrees reference the other self portraits of my first year project. The Painting Studies also relate to the Photographic Paintings Studies, however I have decided to keep them in separate galleries as I feel they are two paths, parallel, yet traveling at different speeds. At times they do, and will continue to converge, and separate again. Although there might come the time when they no longer separate, but this remains for the time being unknown.

October 23, 2015

Opening that can of worms

No, that wasn't Lucifer you saw buying winter woolens the other day, but  something I thought nearly as unlikely did happen. I have rejoined the realm of those who work with oil paints.

For a number of reasons it has been almost 18 years since I last worked in oil. In the five years before I gave away my wooden box filled with tubes and jars of paints and self-mixed medium I had floated back and forth between oil and acrylic [as well as wall paper and candy...but that's another story].

Prior to beginning work on my MFA a good friend who remembers my days of mixing the oily substances, and who poses a few of the works resulting from such ventures, said to me "it would be nice if you tried your brush at oils again". But I really did not want to go there, yet I kept feeling a tug at my heart...and a Proustian memory of the smell, the look, the feel....

So I decided this year I would take a little trip down memory lane and see where it takes me. 

Back from Berlin I broke out my old notes and 'cookbook', setting about to mix up some of my favorite recipes. First a trip to the Salvation Army to set myself up with the necessary cooking utensils. Then off to the various supply stores for the ingredients...only to find along with the decline in choice among supply providers there has been a marked decline in the choice of oil painting 'ingredients'...at least on the shelves of the art supply stores in my area...and I live in a city that has the oldest art school in the US and the ratio of BFAs to other degrees is 2:1!. 

WTF! On the other hand the ingredients are available 'online'...and the variety of acrylic paints and media has exploded. When I 'left' oil for acrylic it was the other way around...aside from Liquitex and Golden there wasn't much on the shelves in the way of acrylics. Anyway. I mixed up what I could, bought some 'convenience' paint and Liquin...and plan to order my Venetian Turp soon.

On the heels of the Photographic Paintings Studies I set about my explorations in oil. 

First I taped some Arches for Oil [a positive development, but miss the choice on papers...another decline] to a thinner sheet of smooth plywood, along with some smaller sheets of paper of an unknown variety I inherited from a friend who moved to Seattle a few years ago.

Then I pulled my keyring of colors from its hook, laid out my paints and medium, poured some turp in a jar and dusted off my new-old oil brushes. 

Looking to the images I had played with the day before on my new wall I 'analyzed' the colors, searching for a middle range tone as a starting point. Mixed it up and headed to the easel in the greenhouse.

Ah! That smell! That feel!

More mixing and smearing.

Clean up and come back tomorrow.

Next day....

What? It's still wet!

Ok....must remember my resolution to 'slow down' this year. 

Two days later....

It's still to 'soft' to work over. 

New resolution:  order that Venetian Turp ASAP and mix up some 9-2-1 and Rapid Drying medium!

And break out the acrylics, watercolors and gouache...

Does increasing the number of things your working on count as slowing down?

We'll see....

October 30, 2015

Added some more images of the oil on paper paintings I'm doing in response to the Photographic Painting Studies along with a return to the acrylic on canvas painting begun in late September in response to one of the Twinning images that was worked over using mirror and kaleidoscope filters.