Beginnings & Endings

Leading up to my recent show at LeBasse Projects I had been working around the clock to finish up the paintings. After coming back from LA it was straight to Altoona, Pa for Illux Con. And currently, I'm house/dog sitting in NY for a cousin of mine. I have been doing nothing for the passed few weeks but absorbing other peoples art; galleries in LA and NY, amazing work at Illux Con. Taking a lot of it in and letting it marinate.

Normally when I travel I bring all my supplies: fold up art desk, desk lamp, paints, palettes etc., and I work. These recent travels have been interesting, because I only brought pencil and paper. I wasn't even worried about art making really, mostly trying to get inspired for my next body of work. Exposing myself to as much as possible(in an artistic context). About two days ago I woke up thinking about my work and busted out ten sketches almost effortlessly. That never happens. I'm kind of excited about these so I thought I'd post a few of my early morning chicken scratches. The beginnings of what you may see fleshed out in the months to come. I'm also posting another beginning and the detail of an ending to recent previous months of work.

The next step from here. refine sketches, value/color studies, photo ref, transfer, paint. We'll see what happens.

"Descent" Detail

This one is acrylic on canvas. Some pros to working on canvas. I don't have to worry about the surface buckling or flattening the piece when I'm finished. And I don't really have any size limitations. Attributes that take time to deal with. The surface of the paper(I'm thinking more gesso to tone down the surface) and painting more opaquely with acrylic is strange. It's lighter when it's wet and dries darker. So I'm constantly testing colors, letting it dry, readjusting my colors, testing it, letting it dry. Getting the perfect color can be a....not fun. I think the more I work on it the more proficient I'll become. I also still plan on playing with oils.

"The Vanishing" detail

Here's a detail from a recent painting. I'll post up some more details from the others works soon. I'm trying to keep my blog posts here and on Muddy Colors separate so that they are both relevant and perhaps supplemental. If you haven't seen my Nov 12th post on MC yet it's a start to final process of this very image.