April 30, 2008

Because I was not formally trained as a painter, I used my training as a graphic designer to teach myself to paint. One of my favorite classes was with Jane Sterrit who had us spend hours drawing negative space and pasting colored paper in the negative spaces. This was an important lesson and one that I have used in painting extensively. Once the gesture is drawn (painted) on the canvas I then fill in the negative spaces. This is when I begin to formulate the color palette for the painting. I will work on filling in these negative spaces layer upon layer until I feel the color is correct and can then move on to painting positive spaces and then finally adding details and type. While painting in this manner is unusual it gives my painting a more "Graphic-stylized" look which suits my painting style better.

April 29, 2008

Once the canvas is stretched tight but not too tight I put on the first of acrylic primer. After the first coat is dry (a few hours) I put on a second coat of primer. Now I can assess how taut the canvas is. If the stretchers are bending or there is too much give in the canvas I will take apart and restapple until it has a nice tight bounce to it without torque the stretchers. The next step I do is to do a gesture drawing from the pencil thumbnail that I have created. I can use any color but mostly I choose black, blues or browns, occasionally greens or reds. Once the gesture drawing is dried I start to fill in the solid areas starting with the background spaces then filling in the inside.

Next post I will discuss how I work the negative space and why I chose to work on it first.

April 28, 2008

Before I explain the second two parts of the painting untitled i wanted to see if I could sensibly describe the painting process. When I'm ready to start a new painting I leave my mind to the possibility of an idea. I don't try to force it and as soon as I understand what the idea will be I can start visualize things in a way. Now I've met painters who were able to see a painting in its completion the moment they locked it in. This in no way the case for me. First I lock in the thought and then dissect it a bit to see if it is
1)Truth
2) A universal issue-Not meaning that everybody will have experienced this issue but at least a fair amount
3) How do I translate this thought into a drawing, or painting, or sculpture

I WILL CONTINUE THIS THREAD TOMORROW.,

April 27, 2008

It seems I missed a couple of days posting-must blame it on this spring cold I have. I would like to go back the "Untitled" piece, this time talking about the upper right quadrant. This was the first section I painted before I had almost a year break in finishing the rest of the painting. I painting the right top during the Thanksgiving season. I am usually stuck with all the preparation and clean-up for the Thanksgiving meal so I painted this to express how I felt about the daunting task of holiday meal preparation. The 3 women floating over me are women of the past. The one with the pants is my grandmother, one is the grandmother of one of the guest who was coming to eat with us and the third is my deceased mother-in-law. I feel that when you cook a traditional meal you don't cook alone but carry the influence of those who have done this task before. I also like to believe that the women of our past are still with us especially when we are doing something that is about the family. The colors in this quadrant are noticeable different from the others which is because my palette had changed slightly from one year to the next.

April 24, 2008

Well today's post is going to be short and sweet as I am battling a cold and do not have much energy for thinking and writing any thoughts. There are many days of the year that I am unable to paint (today being one of those days). Usually after finishing two or three paintings I take a small break to catch up on life responsibilities, try to earn some non-art income and move some dust around the house. Right before I start a new painting after such a break, I'll do a thorough cleaning of my studio. Two days ago it rained all day and I decided it was a perfect day to set the studio right. Besides the usual empty paint jars and hardened brushes I found gold paint from Japan, silk screen ink and some old rough drawings. It was interesting to uncover these items as it caused me to wonder where my mind was at when I used these supplies and/or drew these drawings and how I have evolved or changed since them.

April 23, 2008

In this post I would like to explain about some of the symbolism in the top left quadrant of the painting titled. "Untitled" At the time of painting this section I was helping a friend spackle an large room that he had just attached to his home. The woman below him is his wife who has her arms folded as if to say "What are you up to?" Between the man on the scaffolding and the woman with crossed arms is a window which shows my backyard which is visible in my painting studio. The eye over the roof and the lips represent paranoid. The person who is under the lamp is my daughter who was about to undergo heart surgery. At the time I imagined after her surgery she would lay outside on a blanket and lay under the sun to heal. The woman who is falling from the sky is a friend who's live was upside down. Lastly the pink triangle with the rainbow is a combination of the triangle from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, which I was listening to at the time and the traditional symbol that is used by gays.

April 22, 2008

I have been thinking about doing an Earth Day post today for the past week or so. As an environmental, vegan, animal rights, localvore, back-to-nature person this day is a celebration of many things that I believe in. Normally for me Earth Day is spent either gardening, cleaning a local state park, or attending Penn State's Earth Day celebration. However.....
Today was the most un-Earth Day I have spent in a long long time.
My day was spent accompanying my friend while he fished (while I photographed the process), me and my daughter watched the unloading of the Ringling Brother's circus train, and I drove more than I normally do in an entire week. My dinner was packaged cereal with a banana and I bought meat to feed my dog and two cats. Although this was truly a non-Earth Day experience I did have very Earth Day thoughts. First while my friend was fishing (no fish were caught) I noticed a yellow flower that I have not seen before. While my daughter and I waited two hours for the circus train to unload, we sat outside on a beautiful sunny day discussing how uncomfortable the elephants must be in the train cars as the train cars were obviously too small for the elephants to stand. We imagined the elephants chained down in the cars and how uncomfortable and cruel that was. Although I drove more than normal, I took my daughter's VW bug which is considerable more fuel efficient than my older Volvo x-country. Yes I ate a packaged food but it was organic cereal with a organic banana and organic soy milk. Tomorrow I will be back to making much of my food from basic organic vegetables and grains, will walk in the woods with my dog, cultivate my organic garden and try not to use the car. But every day can't be perfect. This earth day I did not follow my prescribed lifestyle of living simple and with minimal impact. Some days this just can't be done. Instead today as I did things I normally don't I thought about the impact my decisions have on the planet as well as its inhabitants human and non human and how a single person can minimize a negative effect even when things do not going as planned.