Playing the Artistic License card

Evidence for why I am having too much fun.
Exhibit A
Here's the "Prediction: Endangered" painting with the headlines and copy. The headlines are accurate; 'Major Markets Hit Lowest Since 1997', and 'Ex-officers apologize for deadly raid' on the left, 'Obama Turns to Budget' on the right.


Exhibit B
Here's a detail of a a subhead that I made up.


Exhibit C
The real cover story lead was 'Neal Street Shooting'. My cover story lead refers to the headline, 'Obama turns to budget'

Publishing's Bleak House

That's the working title of this new painting.
Week before last, I started by blocking in the background (wallpaper in my den) then the drape. I love the drapery, but I have to be patient. Alizarin crimson is transparent and it will be many layers before the darks begin to properly deepen. The background pattern will get hazier and closer in value.


It went in the drying room while I concentrated on Didus and Omen so they'd be done in time for the "Points of View" show at Huff Harrington Fine Art this Friday.

Today I blocked in the books, key, hourglass and the beginning of the oriental rug pattern. Those blank rectangles are falling cards. Working on the tarot cards that make up the house will be like painting little portraits. No doubt it will be painstaking work, and one of my favorite things.
This is the companion - in size and theme - of Prediction: Endangered. I hope to have them both done by June so I can enter them in a juried show.

Drawing

Three paintings are still wet, so today I drew the next in the Metamorphoses series, a still life of metal printing plates, movable type, wooden printing blocks, two old leather books and a candle. One of the metal plates is an illustration of a medieval butcher in his shop and is titled 'Blood and Knavery.'
I did a fairly detailed drawing on a toned canvas, gridded with chalk. There is something so calming about drawing.

Swept away by the process. Again.

I had all kinds of errands and gardening planned for the morning, or at least on a list, but the studio won. I am still dressed in my running clothes (that I never ran in). How did it happen? Well, here's where I started; around 8 am I was just going to clean up my palette and paint a couple of the magazines - the darkest and lightest.
That led to -
reworking all the wood of the chest - top and front
added highlights to the lock and handles
all of the twine and added some bristles
top plastic of the bags on the center newspapers
the stack of newspapers - darks and light
a couple of the magazines - the darkest and lightest
a few diagonals on the letters the magazine name
the lightest streaks on the crystal ball
the yellow haze on the curtain behind and to the left of the crystal
every feather from the neck down
widened the neck and left wing

Here's a detail:

The next thing I knew, it was 4pm. Now I am drinking a pot of tea and thinking about doing a little bit on Didus Ineptus.

feather and domino spots

Feathers and domino spots and some more detail in the folded newspaper.



I'm feeling the momentum. Sometimes painting is like stepping into the edge of the ocean and being smacked down by a wave. Other times, it's like being pulled out to sea by a riptide. The thing is, you go willingly. At the end of the day, you paddle wearily back to the shore of your other life. The one with dinner to cook and laundry to fold. It's a good life.

Omens and Prediction

Worked on the newspapers. When it's really really really dry, I'll take on the lettering.


Blocked in the bird. Resisted the strong temptation to delineate each feather's rows of brown bands. It would just turn the under painting into murk. Who knew you needed as much patience as skill or ability?


I wonder if I can make the April 30 (dry, signed and wired) deadline for the May 8th show?

Great day at the easel

Some days I paint. Some days I kick painting butt and take names. This was the latter.
After a sweet morning working in the yard (adding a new arbor and skating shrubs around to better places) I came inside and set to work, hoping to get the upright newspapers started.

I have just set down my brush and have the newspapers, the twirls of plastic bags, the dominoes, the crystal ball on its silver stand, the lock, the handles and the twine all laid in. They will all need more layers and much refining, especially the top of the plastic bags, but I rejoice. It was a great day at the easel.

Selected for the Decatur Arts Festival Fine Art Show

Trastevere, Espresso Finito was accepted for the Decatur Art Festival's Fine Art juried show.

It will hang in the Dalton Gallery, May 19-31.
I need to get busy writing my artist's statement for them. It will be a heartfelt one. This particular painting from my Table For One series commemorates a last meal at Trattoria da Lucia, across the Tiber in Trastevere, after I had knelt before a St. Francis in the church of Santa Maria and prayed for my daughter who was lost to be found.
And she was.

Progress and a new start

Worked on the papers, the twine, and the dominoes of Omen yesterday.


Today I started on Prediction: Endangered, the painting with the Peregrine falcon - just the background drape and the top of the chest, but I felt like I was covering a lot of ground fast. One of the good things about doing a series is that your hand and eye get more experienced. Your muscles learn.

the twins

Worked on everything except the drape and the feather on Didus Ineptus. The skull and illuminated image took most of the morning, and the bottom book made a great leap forward. The skull is fairly subtle, which I like.

Yesterday I worked on the crystal ball and the dominoes of Omens and Portents (not all the domino spots are in place - they turned out to be slippery little buggers. I'll be getting back to them). I also laid in specific color for the newspapers.
They are both coming into focus at about the same rate. I'm starting to think of them as the twins. The best thing is I've been able to go for a run in the morning, work a bit in the garden, spend the best part of the day painting, and read. It's my ideal life.

I took up my pencil yesterday and worked on the 24x30 Prediction: Endangered canvas. I am trying a darker value of gesso, and it's challenging to draw on because it's much harder to see the pencil lines.
On the other hand, it's the big version of Omens & Portents, with the now familiar elements of newspapers, magazines, dominoes and the crystal ball. My experience starting to paint the smaller version Monday confirmed the importance of a careful underdrawing, so I am not rushing it.
The new elements I am looking forward to attempting are the feathers of the Peregrine falcon and the clear plastic bags some of the papers are in. And this big still life is lit by strong early morning natural light, instead of by studio lighting, so all the colors are subtly different.

This morning I worked on the individual pages of stacked newspapers, while listening to TED talks on the nature of creativity by writers Amy Tan and Elizabeth Gilbert, and artist Vik Muniz. It was a good marriage of left and right brain activity.

Omens & Portents

Another good day in the studio. It's a steady drizzle here, so the light is soft and there is no temptation to go outside.

Didus is too wet to fool with - more likely to smear what I have than make progress - so I turned to the other canvas, Omens & Portents.
Before lunch I mixed paint, then laid in the back ground.


After lunch got the magazines, the top of the chest, the twine and some of the newspapers indicated. You can see the dominoes and crystal ball through the magic of painting negative space, but they are still raw canvas.

Didus Ineptus

I started on the Metamorphosis series this morning, a small (12x16) painting called Didus Ineptus. Here's what I did between breakfast and lunch.


Worked until five and got the books, dodo skull and a bit of the brocade drape roughed in.


Really looking forward to doing the illuminated manuscript page, which is a knight kneeling in prayer to the Virgin.

Finishing up, beginning again

Thanks all. I think I am ready to varnish the Palais Liechtenstein Library and the Jordaan Market. I actually was heading downstairs to varnish the Library yesterday, but couldn't resist tweaking the highlights.

I did the bike spokes and the leaves and all manner of dappling on the rug of the Jordaan.


If I don't see anything that needs doing, I'll be hauling these to the basement (Robert's shop) to varnish them at the end of the week.

I also gessoed two canvases a mid-value ochre/umber and worked out the maths for the grids that I'll use to draw images on the canvas. I thought I'd dip my toe into the new Metamorphosis series by starting with one of the small ones; a 1930 Royal typewriter and ribbon.

General art-related update

A devoted acolyte of the gallery wrap, I saw my painting 'The Interval' framed today at Huff Harrington Fine Arts and I'm a convert.

General art-related update
Worked on the Jordaan painting, mostly adding texture to the rug and bolt of velvet. It felt like weaving with paint. Boosted a few highlight areas and deepened some darks. I'm down to the fringe on the rug, the spokes on the bicycle wheel, and the two loose strings on the viola. It seems to be coming to an end very quickly all of a sudden.


I've painted the Rembrant sketch on the Kunsthistoriche sofa, worked a lot on the window view and red sketchbook. More to do on the wooden foot of the sofa and the top half of the marble column.

Robert wired the Palais Lichtenstein library painting for me today and I think I'll be varnishing it this weekend.
I bought a small (10x10) canvas to do a sliced tomato. There is something about painting with multiple vibrant reds and adding the glisten I just have not tired of.
I also took a walk yesterday, that ended up being 3.5 miles round trip, to the photo developing store, to print the initial candidates for my Metamorphosis series. I am spoiled for choice there. It's exciting and a little daunting for me to have so much work in hand.