As I was cruising the fruit aisle looking for apples, I was taken by the shocking blue of a flat of black plums. Only after I started throwing down paint did I realize there is almost every color except black to be found in the curves and reflections. The darkness of the surface within the haze demands some focused attention to some fleeting suggestions of color. This painting is developing with a different dynamic, as I’m spiralling around each subject to push and pull the curves into depth and space.
The final show of August in Highland Park last weekend was fun and full of excitement. Several paintings found new homes, and we met with friends from all over the country throughout the weekend. We took our time getting home, taking note of how the dry end of summer was showing up in the changing colors of the countryside.
I’m enjoying a bit of house and yardwork for a few days, although a fresh new canvas is now on the easel, poised for the next adventure.
In other news, I spent some time putting together a website for an old friend from art school, Gene Gregorio. If all goes well, he’ll be exhibiting at the upcoming Rittenhouse Square Fine Art Show in a few weeks, his first venture into a major outdoor art festival. I’m sure the whole business seems pretty huge and daunting for him, but I believe he’ll find his footing easily enough. If art school taught us only one thing, it was how to land on our feet no matter what happens. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
We’re back from the show in Saratoga Springs. The weekend was great fun, meeting with old friends, eating well and getting drenched in the all day deluge on Sunday. After spending two days with David and Sue, my head is always spinning with as much about the business of art as the art itself. I had a chance to see a little more of the area on this trip, including the grounds of the Gideon Putnam Hotel to see the paintings of my friend Shawn Faust.
Upon our return home we were able to relax for a bit before I’m standing back at the easel again, carving out a small study for a small commission. As cold and wet as the weather has become, the paint feels hard and dry. Tomorrow I’ll see if I can’t build something from the darkness, as it seems it will be raining nonstop throughout the week.
I finished the commission of eleven royal gala apples today, just before the entire sky grew dark and overcast. I’ve been experimenting with jacking up my paint with drying agents ever since the formulas for some of the colors have changed. My window of opportunity to work and rework different areas has become somewhat limited, but it’s nice to have the paint setting up a bit from one session to the next. The challenge of this piece was to have it fit in a room of neutral colors with a muted bluish green carpet, and the complimentary range of muted oranges and greyed out reds will create a nice counterpoint to the existing colors of the space.
Somehow I wound up mixing giant amounts of paint for this study, so to wrap up my session I carved out a small quick study to sum up what I’ve learned in the past three days.
The weekend in SoNo was fun and productive, and I’m already back at work mixing colors for yet another study of the same gala apples. I’m working on a new size ratio I haven’t used in many years, 40 inches by 72 inches. At one time it felt oddly stretched, but now it feels like the normal 16:9 ratio of a wide movie screen.
In other news, I’m kicking around the idea of hosting a series of painting workshops here at my studio. Over the years many people have asked me if I’d consider teaching classes, and I would definitely have a good bit to offer by sharing my understanding of color theory and composition and self-critique. If anyone out there is interested, feel free to put your name on my workshop mailing list and I’ll keep you updated on what I’ll be offering.
I continued to slug out paint on this new study of eleven royal gala apples. I stopped looking at apples, and instead just blocked in color, and it quickly came together and took shape. This is suddenly a very exciting painting, with many bold and lively colors in contrast to so many of the fairly muted edge transitions and reflections. I wasn’t expecting to be almost finished with this piece after only two sessions, but everything is fairly solid and I’m more interested in capturing movement than just rendering details. I’ll tighten up a few edges and clean up a few colors in the morning and have a final look.
I started today’s session carving out a very small study of a single royal gala apple for a commission, and then moved right into slugging out paint on this large study of eleven royal gala apples. I almost forgot how fun these little paintings can be, but I’m quickly reminded of how nothing compares to the challenge of articulating large areas of mass and depth and light and atmosphere. The high gloss on these apples will provide some good lessons in reflection and edge transitions. Tomorrow will be a good day, as I continue to block in colors and build up the surface.
I spent a few more hours tweaking some areas before I decided that this new study of eleven green apples, is finally finished. The painting is too big for me to get back far enough to get an image, and I didn’t want to risk setting up a big wet painting outside on an easel just for a photograph, so I composited together a few detail views to get this final image. While standing in front of the painting, it looks like nothing more than a maelstrom of paint and brushwork, but with enough distance it winds up snapping together with an almost photographic precision. I’m happy with this piece, and I feel that it represents the apex of my abilities at this point in time.
I wasted no time getting started on mixing colors for a new study of eleven royal gala apples, so I’ll immerse myself in an exploration of dark reds and high gloss reflections for the next few days.
I continued to lay it down and carve it out on this giant study of eleven green apples. Transition colors seem to be brightening up a bit, and things seems to be leaning toward the warm side, with everything becoming more about the transition colors from green to orange. As the paint sets up and becomes more and more like chewing gum, I’m very close to being done with this piece. I’ll have a final look in the morning and see if anything jumps out as needing attention before I scratch my name in and move on. Even though I’m fairly exhausted from some long days of standing at the easel I’d have to say that overall this piece has come together quickly and smoothly.
I started a giant version of the same eleven green apples on Friday, and then took a day off to make a delivery in Bethesda and to visit an old art school buddy in Baltimore. Today I continued to build up the surface and lay down more color, and things are quickly taking shape. It seems as though this arrangement of apples is more about greenish yellow and orange than a richer green and red, but it’s providing some good lessons in transitions and light and reflection. As I block things in, I’m learning how to acknowlege the reflective transition colors earlier in the process, so they’re a more integral element of these first layers of resolution. I should start to see this piece really snapping into focus tomorrow as I continue to define the edges.
The visit with my fellow Maryland Institute alumni yesterday was full of surprises. I learned a few things about the odd turns life has taken for all of us. At one time we were all so full of promise and ambition, and almost thirty years later the wear and tear of reality has weighed upon each of my classmates in different ways. It was good to see my friend Eugene was busy painting again after some time off, and it was good to see that his eye is as sharp as it’s ever been. He was one of the more critical components of the legendary cast drawing critiques, and it’s nice to see he’s still in the game.
After a long and intense session I managed to finish the new study of eleven green apples. The final hour of the session was spent staring at the piece and second guessing myself as to whether or not I should go over the whole thing again. Late last night I made a mental punch list to decide exactly what areas needed to be addressed, and after going through the list I couldn’t find any obvious holes in the veil of reality created in the surface. I considered going in and remixing all the white countertop colors, but I knew that would wind up throwing off the balance of color development throughout the rest of the painting. It’s not just the color, but the color relationship. Developing one area to another level of sophistication requires coordinating all the surrounding areas to a similar level, and I was having a hard time believing that this piece isn’t already totally solid and substantial, bristling and sparkling with areas of drama and dynamics. No part of this gets any easier, no matter how many times I do it.
I’ve been hammering away at a large study of eleven green apples for the past two days. I’m not sure if it’s the angle of the sun, or that most of these apples are almost so dark that they’re red, but this painting seems to be a great study in darkness and saturation. As most of these more complex arrangements develop, this piece seemed to just fall into place a patch at a time. Moving smoothly over the surface and hitting a piece at a time made everything develop evenly, and I’m quickly near the end of nailing down the big shapes. Tomorrow I’ll tighten up some edges and define some of the colors a bit more before I decide to wrap this up. Right now there’s a nice looseness and freshness to this piece, so we’ll see if I can manage to preserve this through to the completion.
