A Figure Emerges

Something I haven't taken up in recent memory is the figure. I realized that the human figure was a fitting subject for me to try and something new. After a few large pencil drawings I grew confident I had a workable layout.

As the photo below illustrates this figure is rather geometric. It is my attempt to render the suggestion of a figural form as it mirrors my own form. First sketching the lines as gestures at the end of my arm. Then laying out some environment by dividing up the picture's rectangle. Its not a self portrait yet the canvas occurred to me to be a mirror at the end of my extended arm, hinged to my shoulder.

Winterhawk studio view at the drawing board. Sept. 3, 2013
St. Augustine, Florida

I thought there must be a head, so I included a semi-circle. It could be a hat. There should be eyes, shoulders, arms, legs, a torso. Well by that time I didn't care about a figure so much as the design of the forms and the qualities of their colors.

This is no figure. It is as always a picture with shapes, colors and hopefully a germination of some life of its own.

Awarded First Prize in Abstract Painting

My painting "Crosscut" was recently awarded first prize at the  Premier Gallery's exhibit, "Concepts-Abstract Art".
The Premier Gallery is located in downtown Jacksonville, Florida at 50 N. Laura Street, Suite 150. Hours are Tues.-Fri. from 11-3pm. The gallery is in the lobby of the Bank of America tower and the paintings are visible from the street.

This group show of 20 artists will be on view until Oct. 1, 2013. The exhibit includes four of my recent original paintings on canvas and are for sale at the gallery.

Photo courtesy of Ed Malesky

"Cool forces coming from below are growing upward through layers deposited over time. Although buried, some rare objects emanate their own energy. As this force emerges it transforms in the presence of fresh space, fed by a charged element."

OrganicTek

acrylic on canvas

36 in. x 48 in.

 

View the five stages in the painting process in 35 sec.

Each phase was painted on a new day.  Starting with ink and brush on paper this drawing came at once.  There was no planning.  The design process integrated computer graphics, photography and digital painting.

By the third step I was working on canvas with pencil and acrylics.  I began laying in the color scheme and building the forms with brush strokes.  This process went on for a second day.  There were judgements about transparency, color contrasts and the illusion of a shallow depth with overlapping planes.  Although there was a lot of geometry I wanted it to remain loose and be rendered quickly.

Lastly, I resolved the challenge of stark and vividly colored forms by uniting the composition with transparent white. I had used this solution decades before in rendering large spirals on canvas.  The painting was on the verge of failing, exploding into chaos.  I was more pleased that the picture evenually returned to the initial rendering on paper that I had begun with.

New Year Painting

Here is the digital painting of the first image of 2012.



Below is the completed painting on canvas.

Crosscut  2012
acrylic on canvas
36 in. x 48 in.

New Drawings

"Interplay 3"

18 in. x 24 in.

"Interplay 2"

detail

Here the pencil guides the mind. This is a game of construction from gestures. The pencil point is the only tool besides the sharpener. Our visual world is fascinatingly complex. The strategy is originality while subverting the urge to label visual content.

Having only a point at the end of my finger, the composition tends to lack geometry, something that design craves. So the circle, oval, horizontal and diagonal become desirable during the process. When they appear they are preserved while remaining subtle, not dominant. Both time and a certain depth add to content. It’s an interplay between the visual and mental realm.

Using a spiral bound sketch book I first tore out a square to write a note to myself. This missing section became a window to the next page. Each drawing has a little section removed to reveal the sheet beneath. In this way they are linked and the missing piece is invisible until the drawing is lifted up and the page turned.

Castleberry Studio restored

It's fun to dig out old photos, scan the print and restore it with a computer.

In 1985 I was living in Cumming, Georgia and building a painting studio. Our daughter, Katherine, was on the way and there was a rush to set up a place to work. I built it out of rough sawn pine from a small local mill. The lumber was fresh and heavy but low cost. I attached it to an old aviary shed that came with the property.

These photos were pock marked with white specs of dust and tiny hairs. One was originally a Polaroid print, which has no negative. It is remarkable how one can balance the colors, bring detail back to the shadows and sharpen the features.

I never did finish the building with glass windows. It stayed dry and was fine with a little heater in winter. There was excellent light from a clerestory above and I made some things I really liked there. I call it the Castleberry Studio.

Visit to Gainesville, Georgia

Spirals on Stage
1981
watercolor on paper

A significant amount of my art work is in the collection of The Arts Council at the Smithgall Arts Center in Gainesville, Georgia. I had not seen much of the works on paper since 1986. Among the drawings, prints and watercolors are two lithographs I did when I was 19. Gladys Wyant graciously invited me back to Gainesville for a chance to go through the print drawers. It was intriguing to see things I had made in New York , Germany and my studio on the Neely Farm in Norcross, Georgia. I made a lot of spirals in those days.

Bob Bowden had donated all of these and several large canvases that he bought from me back then. Bob's generosity was widely admired and I was fortunate to benefit from it. Sadly, Bob passed away in 2009 but I had the surprise pleasure of a visit with Shirley Bowden, his wife. Her charm and warmth gave me that rare pleasure of catching up with a friend from the past. Shirley's stories filled in the last few years of their art collecting adventures.

I was able to lay out the pictures across a large conference table and privately take the time to sort out and examine them. One day was not enough. It was the kind of work done by curators and archivists, comparing subjects and recording titles and dates. It was a good day.