Hot Off The Griddle

Worked on Sanctuary, mostly the two large scale painting on either side of the center. Subtle suggestions of features for the faces, glory hallelujah blue on the virgin's robe, shadows under the feet. It's very nearly done, and what a pleasure it's been.


Took a final photo of Gene Pool Roulette. Time to start uploading new works to the website, but I still don't have a title for the portrait series, so for now I'm going to create a new portfolio group called 'Hot Off The Griddle.' Or maybe 'New Works.'



I have three on the drawing board - literally -  one for the portrait series (me and Emily looking at a tree that fell on our house), one that's a companion to Sanctuary and one that's Robert in Gripland.

Some days peanuts, some days shells

This morning I bought 16x18 and 24x24 canvases and gessoed them a warm, mid-value taupe. It's a task I enjoy - mixing the gesso and acrylic color, painting it on, then wiping it off with a towel until there's an even thin coat on the front and sides of the canvas. I went through my photos (which are in various sizes - 5x7, 4.5x6, 6x8 and 8x10) and tried to match the right image to the right canvas. It's a mostly intuitive process, and again, one I enjoy.
Then comes (insert sounds of shrieking and gibbering here) math.
I grid my photos and canvases to transfer the image. When photographs and canvases don't divide evenly I have to figure out whether losing or adding some inches will work with a given image. And that depends on the specific image and is not predictable. Hours of painful, fumbling use of a calculator and ruler later, I have three pairs of gridded photos and canvases, including an 18x24 canvas I already gessoed.
Now the drawing begins.