The Clock Is Running

...in more ways than one

My days to show clock is running. Most of my painting shows are scheduled a year or more in advance. A lot can happen in a year: pandemics, tyrannical megalomaniacs can get elected, economies can go sideways. But I really have no option (besides going stark raving mad) than to make a plan and move it forward.

Progress happens:

Three phases of the current WIP (with drawing for Caravaggio’s Judith copy looking on and supervising)

This is the final painting for my upcoming show this August, along with 2 other paintings that are also in progress, which I am working on intermittently when there is too much wet paint on this painting to work around. As of today, I have about 4 weeks to finish up these paintings. Definitely doable, but not much time to spare.

For several years now, I stopped doing my drawing for a painting right on the canvas or paper. There are several reasons for this. When working in a transparent medium like watercolor, it’s possible the grid that I use to engineer the drawing will show through. When doing an oil, the danger is losing the drawing in the early stages, or in trying not to lose it, becoming constricted in applying paint so that the painting becomes stiff and mechanical looking.

I draw on a piece of drafting paper, tape the paper onto the panel so I can keep it in place in case I need to reinforce part of the drawing, and use transfer paper to transfer the drawing to the painting surface. The paper gets flipped over behind the panel after I finish transferring it. In the case of this painting, I laid on some random transparent color to the panel before transferring the drawing. This is something I started doing with watercolor when I go out sketching: put a rough approximation of color down before drawing over it with fine point pens, and adding more color as needed.

Here’s my preliminary statement about the work that will be in this show (still a WIP itself):

Objects can tell a story. Their placement — proximity or estrangement, colors and lighting used, identity, and context — all have the power of narrative, as much as places or figures do. I have a lifelong love of story. I think we all crave stories; both familiar stories told over and over again, along with the stories we invent in the moment.

This group of paintings includes a series on the theme of Rock, Paper, and Scissors, along with other still life containing arrangements of rocks which may suggest a narrative to the viewer, along with more traditional still life imagery, and landscapes. I hope the viewers will consider what stories these objects and landscapes suggest to them as they look at these paintings.

I don’t know how our national story is going to play out. When I’m working in my studio or out in the garden or out with the sketchers, it recedes into the background. Sometimes I feel guilty for those moments of peace. Then I read something which reminds me that art is a core value in a culture and if there is no joy to be had, it’s easier to let the bastards win.

I am committed to not letting the bastards win.
Make Art
Find joy
Touch dirt
Dance with pandas
Be the bear

More soon…