Los Amarillos (Nickel Azo Yellow)

Started today: Los Amarillos, 2013, 24" x 30, acrylic on canvas

Palette:  Nickel Azo Yellow, Paynes Grey, Alizarin Crimson, Unbleached Titanium White and Naples Yellow.

I have had a productive run of studio work since returning from finishing the large mural in Costa Rica in July.  This one makes the 15th painted work plus other drawings (see below), including the very large blue Cadence piece documented below as well.   This yellow one is the smallest of the group.  Not sure why the work is going so smoothly right now but I want to push it further.  I have two 4' x 7' pieces grounded on my studio floor that will likely develop after I return from NYC in a few days.  Until then I will draw and perhaps do a few watercolors.

The recent artist statement (link) at the right still pertains.

Los Amarillos, 2013, 24" x 30, acrylic on canvas

Manganese Blue-Esmeralda

Resuming work on Manganese Blue (working title) this morning in my office.  I hightened the contrast, glazed the middle area with Golden green-cold and zinc white (which tends toward beautiful thin blue films when mixed with medium).  It is rather mellow as is.  May leave it alone for a while and work on something else in the time I have before needing to prep for classes.

Esmeralda, 2013, acrylic on canvas.  36" x 36"

Finished. Cadence, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 180"

Finished. 

Cadence, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 180" 

Cadence, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 180" (Detail)

Cadence, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 180" (Detail)

Cadence, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 180" (Detail) 

Cadence, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 180" (Detail)

Cadence, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 180" (Detail)

"Cadence", 2013, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 180". Working on my birthday...

A canvas started a couple of weeks ago.  I feel it is aging well with added accumulations of marks and passages.  Seems like some sort of a map.  Still in process.  It works better as an entirety right now than in details, though I post three below.

Technical note: I am using a rather restricted palette: (Golden Acrylic) paynes grey, manganese blue, teal, unbleached titanium white, titanium white, ultramarine blue violet, ultramarine blue, green-gold plus lots of matte acrylic medium.  May do the final glaze with a touch of gloss to wet the color a bit.

"Cadence", 2013, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 180". A work in process

Esmeralda

May vivify it a bit here and there.  I do like the overall composition and will likely not change it drastically.  We'll see.

Esmeralda, 2013, acrylic on canvas.  36" x 36".

Yamhill County Art Harvest tour 2013

Thanks to my dear friend Totem Shriver, I will have some pieces on display ( and for sale) at his home in McMinnville at  on Sat. Oct 5,6 and Oct 12, 13.  Prices on request.

Gamboge I, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 41" x 53" 

Valle, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 40" x 54".

Aperture, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 36" x 48"

Retitled and finished: Aperture, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 36" x 48"

Retitled and finished today:  Aperture, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 36" x 48".  The "Pez" title (fish in Spanish) was a bit too literal and as the work progressed seemed less and less appropriate.  It is more about glimpses through openings...broadly defined.  I added glazes along the top and middle, and a few higher highlights here and there mid-range. 

Aperture, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 36" x 48"

Just swimming by...on a gloomy fall day.  It might be transformed a bit tomorrow.

Pez, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 36" x 48"

Valle

Just a little panel I have been doing in my office to relax during off moments.  It seemed to come together today.

Valle, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 40" x 54".

"Cadence", 2013, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 180". A work in process

It feels a bit raw just yet but there is plenty of vitality and promise.  And expanse!  More to do.  The folds in this very heavy canvas provide an interesting rectilinear grid of sorts, serving as an armature for the organic forms to drape, hang, fill and defy.

Cadence, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 180" 

Detail (in process) 

Detail, in process

Detail, in process

Cadence (4' x 15')

Just the first few passes, though I am excited by the possibilities.  At 15' wide, it is pretty expansive.  The notion is that the vertical intervals might provide some cadence, syncopation for the eye as it scans.

The base layer is a recycling of a collaborative brush exercise with my painting class a couple of years ago on heavy drop cloth canvas, though there is little of that layer remaining at this point and will be even less as I progress.  Still, I owe some of the vitality of the impastos and lines of force to that group of art students. Emphasis is on the calligraphy of the brush, the push and pull of values, the play of the analogous color scheme.

Most recent on top:

Sketchbook update. Doodling again...

All journal pages are 11 x 14", watercolor paper, drawn with .03 drawing pens.

Gamboge I and II

This is about it on Gamboge I.  Here is the base layer of Gamboge II.

Gamboge I, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 41" x 53"

Gamboge II (base layer only, incomplete), 2013, acrylic on canvas, 41" x 53"

Gamboge

May have played up the inner rectangle too much and have to backtrack a bit next session.  The image beneath this one is perhaps better, though I worked up the luminous passages a bit more in this state, changes that I will keep.

Gamboge is a very transparent indian yellow that makes wonderful glazes.

gam·boge  (gm-bj, -bzh)

n.

1. A brownish or orange resin obtained from several trees of the genus Garcinia of south-central Asia and yielding a golden-yellow pigment.

2. A strong reddish yellow.

Gamboge, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 41" x 53"

Gamboge, a more perfect yellow, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 41" x 53"

Midway

This panel is a bit hot for my tastes.  Needs some neutrality as a foil for the intensity.  Next pass...

A yellow-ochre panel

And so it begins.  This one is on my office-studio wall @ about 40" x 48".   I have a matching panel that I will start along with this one next week.

I like to keep something going there to work on during off moments.  I have found that I can accomplish a surprising amount of work in this fashion.  Counter-intutitive, I know, since I really have little privacy there unless I close the door, and I do so value the solitude in my studio, but it seems to work this way for me too.  Will post progress shots as available.  This one is very young, little more than a beginning...but I like the palette and the flow.  I am sure shapes and forms will be asserted in due course.

Palette: naples yellow, yellow ochre, raw sienna, hits of paynes grey, transparent burnt sienna, green-gold, unbleached titanium white.

Recent Drawings

These are but a few of the drawings I have been doing during the last few weeks. This is the sort of automatic doodle-drawing that I do during lectures, meetings, on the plane, etc.

The first two are 11" x 14", the rest are smaller at about 8" x 10".  They are an accompaniment to my paintings.  As such, a recent artist statement (posted below) serves as a general description of what is going on here.  The only difference is that rather than responding to a prepared (decalced) surface, the jitter of my hand sets-up the "given" layer I then mould and intensify, growing forms as I go, little by little, aware of a general flow of visual force but open to incidentals along the way. They are not drawings for any later purpose, not models for paintings, etc.

All were drawn on watercolor paper with .03 drawing pens.