City Hall

Acrylic on Panel - 5 x 7 inches - sold

I've had a photo of City Hall that's been in my "on deck" pile for ages. I spent a while trying to figure out how to crop it, because I was struggling with a horizontal view. Then I thought why no focus in on the most interesting part, and change the crop to portrait? Turned out to be the right question.

My dad noticed I tend toward vertical compositions, and I'd never noticed it before. His thought was that I had heard that verticals sell better. I assured him this was not the case. I think it's because I've spent so much time designing magazines. We may never know.

I picking up my rhythm again. I stayed nice and loose for this, but was still a bit stingy with the paint. These heavily textured cotton canvas panels really show through. I think that's why I like the smoother panels. Even with a thin application, there's no ground texture to poke through and distract. I'm really just using up a whole bunch of little panels I bought a year ago, while I get back into the swing of things. I'm supposed to be working bigger now anyway!

Tangerine Tango – Bonus Post

Acrylic on Panel - Dimensions to be determined

This is a sketch for a larger installation I'm planning for some large and important museum. I tried not to over think the piece. In fact I tried to not use any part of my brain other than the parts that regulate breathing and basic motor skills.

For the benefit of the museum director, and the public at large, I will write up some heavy treatise on what this piece means and it's significance in the history of modern art. Then again, I may just "borrow" a treatise from some other catalog, or clip something out of Art News.

This is how I'm imaging the final piece, though I may make it a bit larger if I get more funding than I'm counting on. I'm hoping this show is a hit, because I think I could bash out a hundred or so of these a week, in different colors too. Then I can finally retire and quit all this struggling.

Oh, and be sure to tell me if someone's already done something like this. I can just "borrow" their statement.

(by now you've hopefully guessed that my only new year's resolution was to celebrate April Fools day on January 17th this year. If you still don't think this is a joke, you can contribute any amount to my paypal account).

Kyoto Gateway

Acrylic on Panel - 5 x 7 inches - Sold

The latest Daily Paintworks Challenge was issued Sunday, and I had completed mine by Monday night. I've got the whole week to slack off now. I mean paint other things. Ahem.

This week's challenge is "the Color of the Year" based on Pantone's choice of Tangerine Tango. I was a little off, because the swatch below is a little off, and my other monitor is way off for reds and oranges. In any case, I knew I had this photo from my last trip to Japan, and I was about to prime some panels with a wash or orange anyway. I tried to let the orange show through in spots, but except for the arch itself, I compulsively filled in every other spot.

You can read more about Pantone here.

Breakfast

Acrylic on Panel - 7 x 5 inches - n/a

More playing catchup with the Daily Paintworks Challenges. This past week's assignment was to paint your breakfast. I had just finished preparing my breakfast when I read about the challenge, so before I could think of some clever spin on breakfast (pizza) I just snapped a shot of what was before me and painted it later in the week.

The ugly triangle is actually a slice of frittata, and the other things are strawberry slices and a fork. I can't decide which is the worst side effect of taking too much time off from painting, remembering how to paint, or remembering how to see. I felt totally lost doing this, and you can tell how unsure I was, because the paint is really thin (you can see the texture of the canvas poking through everywhere).

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions, but that's still no excuse for slacking off. I will try to post more regularly, just as soon as I ...

Baby Blues

Acrylic on Canvas - 18 x 18 inches - Click Here to Bid

Still playing catchup with the Daily Paintworks Challenges. This week's assignment is to  Change the Colors in a painting. I'm not sure I kept completely with the theme, now that I've gone back and re-read the instructions, but I think I met the spirit of the challenge. I painted directly over my last entry of the red shoes, which I didn't really like anyway.

I decided to change to a pair of blue suede shoes in honor of the King's birthday on Sunday. I actually have a pair like this, but I tried to just use my imagination for coming up with the color change and style change (no laces). I was hoping to let a little of the red show through for a bit of sparkle, but I have some sort of compunction to fill everything in!

I also picked some random colors for my palette that Santa had brought me; green gold, hansa yellow, medium violet, transparent yellow iron oxide, and good old ultramarine blue.