Looking At Plasma

After months of pause-and-go work on this painting I am coming near the end. I've had plenty of time to think up a title. It marks an end and beginning of seeing, my "post-cataract" period.

There has been an engaging kind of conflict finding forms that had an association to a real object and could be labeled. Should I continue to morph them and see what else they could become? Should I paint them more like what my mind labels them as? Should I paint them away as too obvious?

What I would like most is to design an original form and paint it in such a way that it is perceived as interesting, subtle and as complex as reality yet clearly artificial, but not stylized.

"Plasma" 2014
72 in. x 72 in.
acrylic on canvas

Progress In January

This painting has been testing my new vision.  My artificial body parts (lenses) installed in December to remedy my cataracts have created visual anomalies. My depth and peripheral vision are altered. I am also adjusting to new prescription glasses. I took this project on as a fair challenge to see what seeing would be like from now on.

The six foot square dimensions were another challenge. Unless you work large sometimes you never experience the need to move around the piece. Consider the corners, the edges. What side is up? I feel I must maintain interest all over the picture. It looks chaotic now but there is a balance and I want to maintain it.

There certainly is a lot to find in this one. Things keep appearing. Should I keep this head, this fish, these bones? Should I paint them away or cultivate the thing? Consider that the original design was entirely free form and spontaneous. What will this turn into?

Old Painting, New Start

Nearing the year end, I am looking for a new challenge, project and painting subject to take into 2014. I have some paintings on canvas that have been rolled up for decades. They weren't improving in condition having been stored and moved so many times. This one was an attempt to work on a larger than usual scale. Its dated 1984 on the back. That puts it in my Neely Farm Studio days in Norcross, Georgia. I could see that I only worked on it for a day and then never picked up on it again for 30 years!
Back then I was freely waving my airbrush around from all four sides. There was no preconceived design or subject. I just liked taking my sketching method directly to large canvas and seeing what I could make of it. So here I go. Let's see what I can do with it.

Five Blades - New Version

Working from a digital painting I created a newer version on canvas. The process of planning and designing a picture on computer using a stylus and paint simulation application has intrigued me since the days of Deluxe Paint and the Amiga computer in the 1980's.
This painting was originally done on my iMac using ArtRage. I have written about this on my blog in the past. This time I wanted to try out the concept and see if I would be satisfied with the process and result.
I sketched out the forms freehand. The scale is much larger than the giclee print I used as a reference and the canvas is not exactly proportional. I did attempt to reproduce the same colors, blending and brush stroke qualities. It went quickly, avoiding the often long pauses deciding what to do next. I found some new features to improve the complexity while preserving the original intention, whatever that was.
So I can say that digital painting for me is a useful tool that facilitates painting of hand made pictures.
Its fun!

Visit to the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Pete

While in St. Petersburg, Florida I visited the Museum of Fine Arts. Its an cubic styled building on the waterfront. Best thing was the accessibility. We found a parking spot at the front door, which is actually in the back.They permit photos without flash so I was able to capture some details of paintings which attracted me. I wasn't familiar with these paintings before so I'm glad I went and saw something new for me.

This is a detail from Squire J. Vickers from 1927 titled "Cityscape With Sun". Its done on burlap giving it a rich texture of fabric. He was the chief designing architect of the NY City subway system until 1942 and was included in the 1913 Armory Show.

I also became interested in how hands were depicted in several paintings. This is a detail from George Luks, "The Musician" that's undated.

This is painted by Randall Davey circa 1920-25 titled "Portrait of Paul Robeson". Davey was a contemporary of John Sloan, Edward Hopper and George Bellows.

A Totem Completed

I've stopped working on this latest picture so it may just be finished. It once was a figure. Since then so much has happened. Colors have built up, forms filled and filled again. Thin paint runs down and later is surrounded by its thicker cousins. It was fun to paint. Nothing too serious. Just keep putting things in the corners and around the sides. It is gallery wrap canvas. Find little nuances. Make mini pictures inside the big picture. But keep the balance that a totem must have to keep standing.

Totem 2013
36in. x 48in.
acrylic on canvas

See how it looks from the side including the painting's edge.

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.