Previous issues: Summer 1999 Spring 1999 Winter 1999
See the Gallery for some exciting detailed images of the artist's work.
Sunday, December 5, 1999Once more I continued on the painting of the yellow flowers. What I once thought would be easy has proved to be all but impossible. I found some subtle cues that helped the flowers attain their round shape, but altogether I feel that the composition of this painting is weak. There were just too many elements that did not help to articulate an overall balance to the shapes of objects and the spaces between them. Although this was a good exercise, I feel that it is a bit less than totally successful.
The finished painting will be posted in the gallery in the next few days.
Read on...to Winter of 2000
Saturday, December 4, 1999I continued on the painting of the yellow flowers.
I will easily resolve this piece tomorrow.
Friday, December 3, 1999I started on a large canvas, once more approaching the yellow flowers against the dark violet background. I struggled greatly today; I wiped out the entire painting and turned the canvas sideways for a horizontal composition. Only after covering the canvas with paint again I wiped it out one more time and turned it back upright for a vertical composition. Part of the reason for these struggles is the larger format, but also because I am seeking out some variation from the setup I executed in the beginning of this week. I can justify approaching the same subject through my desire to have a little more awareness of the layering of such saturated yellow. I feel that my earlier attempt was not totally the product of insight and study, as I worked until the sky had faded to darkness. Although I started this painting in the brightest part of the day, these indecisions have set me back on the completion of what was supposed to only be a two-day piece. Tomorrow I will attempt to make some serious strides forward, hopefully committing to this latest vertical format and following through to a timely resolution in time to start yet another painting on Sunday. We shall see.
Monday, November 29, 1999I finished yesterday's painting, although I struggled right up into very last of the fading light. It is questionable how accurate many of my color decisions could have been, although I do believe that the intent of this particular painting was achieved. I think I've learned a few valuable lessons about yellow. I may attempt a similar painting again soon, as time allows.
Sunday, November 28, 1999I finished yesterday's painting
Click on the image to see a larger version and
use the back button on your browser to returnI immediately started another study, this time using flowers I purchased yesterday at the local florist. I have once again embraced the difficulty in rendering shape and form in petals of vivid yellow. I will be attempting to resolve this piece tomorrow afternoon.
Saturday, November 27, 1999Today I took a departure from my standard approach of setting up a still-life which revolves around a lesson in space and depth. Inspired by some of the detailed images of the floral arrangement paintings I wondered about the ability of such a composition to stand on its own. The pivotal element which will be different is the approach of rendering the canvas as a designed surface, the rendering of space will be secondary to the balanced breakup of the severely cropped still-life. Cropping has a tendency to flatten an image, as in a photograph; we use cues of surrounding objects to support the illusion of depth within a composition. Monet's water lillies may have been detailed views of certain areas of the pond, but the pattern of reflections in the water are the source of the magical interplay of space seen in the mirror of the surface of the pond. I am hoping to capture an intimate view of the hollows and spaces inside this closeup view of the small flower arrangement while still preserving the simplicity of the almost abstract quality of the composition.
The very last of the flowers from the biergarten served as subjects for study. I may do a little more work to this piece tomorrow, although I'm looking forward to pursuing this new direction with a fresh painting.
Friday, November 19, 1999One of my new projects here in the studio is to mount picture lights around the room so I can always be in some state of a silent critique of the work that is displayed. So far I have one light mounted on the back wall of my bar, and while my good friend Mike Ellinger was visiting I couldn't help but to fixate on the shortcomings of the painting that was finished 2 weeks before, on November 4th. Today I did something I have never done. I put a completely dry painting back on the easel and reworked a few problem areas. It could be a neverending course of study learning to paint a blue glass vase, complete with the clarity of the cobalt blue glass and the refraction of the colors around it from the water inside. I feel a little better about the painting, although I still feel that the weakest element is still the glass vase. Now I feel that I have successfully simplified the articulation enough to sufficiently realize my goal for this painting.
Thursday, November 18, 1999I somehow found another few hours to get back into this painting. I feel that I've successfully captured the translucence of the white vase. As always, simplicity seems to be the secret to embracing the air and space of the arrangement. I could have pushed these few extra hours of resolution toward a more defined focus, instead I narrowed my study down to finding the areas of color that can best carve out the shapes. Once again, I am fascinated by the varying saturation of colors in the dark side of the white petals and the yellow centers of the flowers.
Wednesday, November 17, 1999
Click on the image to see a larger versionI had barely 3 hours to paint today. Rather than waste the afternoon by doing all of the other things that I should be doing, I decided to slam out another painting. I worked until it was dark, and I will ascertain tomorrow if this painting is finished or not.
Sometimes the act of keeping myself busy does nothing to drown out the noise in my head. My personal life has gained its own voice, an ongoing commentary that runs the gamut from the indecipherable babble of a distant conversation to discernable voices that seem to come from my own mouth. It feels like the psychotic state induced by sleep deprivation, where I can almost hear what I believe other people are thinking. Is this how artists go mad? Typically my thoughts are a lowkey murmur, almost comical in their indifference to the matters at hand. Today I felt my brain writhing like a live animal in my head.
I'm sure I won't go insane just yet, and I will definitely keep painting whenever I can.
We'll see what shall be spawned from this unique state of agitation.
Tuesday, November 16, 1999I started and finished a smaller piece, due to the limited time I had available. I managed to find yet another glass vase, this one is a deep shade of green. Although this painting appears to comprise ground I've already covered, it has been an excellent chance to perform a quick execution of all that I've learned from an arrangement of white flowers in a vase.
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Tuesday, November 9, 1999Finished, although just barely. I can't imagine how I would progress any further with this piece, although I still would have liked to have portrayed the translucence of the vase a little better. Also, the neck of the vase has consistently evaded my abilities to carve the depth and space necessary to make it turn. The stems and leaves in the neck of the vase make it slightly more opaque than the bottom, although it was very difficult to find the cues that would suggest that variation. I feel that I succeeded in rendering the lost and found edges of the flower petals, and I also enjoyed articulating the varying intensity of yellow in the centers of each flower. Some of my color decisions are becoming more accurate, although I still struggle with juggling the great expanse of paint and color simultaneously with the focus of the composition.
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Monday, November 8, 1999I started a new painting of white flowers in a white vase, on a white board up against and off-white background. It is safe to say that I will learn many things about white. I will attempt to finish this painting tomorrow, although the window of opportunity of prime light has narrowed down considerably. It will be a challenge to carve out definition within the subtlety of this arrangement.
Thursday, November 4, 1999Finished.
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Wednesday, November 3, 1999
Tuesday was dark, windy and rainy, so I waited a day before I resumed my work on the floral arrangement. As the sun faded in and out from behind clouds, I juggled the different areas of color. I enjoyed some lively exploration amid the changing light. At this point, certain areas of the painting have some exciting elements of light and color, but I still feel that the glass vase is lacking the depth of the rest of the painting. I will focus my efforts on this area in the morning for only an hour or so before I commit to calling this painting finished.
Monday, November 1, 1999Part of my plan for the upcoming weeks and months is to work larger and larger. This will require not only more paint, but a more aggressive attitude toward the canvas (I will also depart from working on paper, as much as my budget will allow). I am warming up with a modest 16 by 20 canvas, once again focusing on a simple flower arrangement in the blue glass carafe. Working larger than life provides me with a new and exciting platform for the exploration of details and colors.
I will attempt to resolve this piece tomorrow.
Sunday, October 17, 1999I finished the pear and grapes. It was a good painting experience, very challenging and educational. I discovered some shortcomings in my capacity to see depth within certain colors. This is in reference specifically to the dark red pear. In reality, the pear was leaning slightly toward me. Yet when I would squint to see the general shapes of the colors, there were virtually no cues that could be translated to convey this. A creative approach would have been to paint the actual contours of the shape to suggest the forward lean of the pear, although I don't believe that would have been consistent with my existing approach of rendering the space through articulated strokes of color. This is a shortcoming of my approach, although in reality the painting does look as the fruit appeared, and I am committed to conveying the impression of the actual visual appearance of the subject, rather than a fanciful rendering of tricks to sculpt the shapes and spaces (I realize this comment could raise the hackles of some artists).
I was surprised to see the pear turning black within the hour after the painting was completed and signed. The finished painting will be displayed in The Gallery in the next few days.
Saturday, October 16, 1999Today I am attempting a subject I have been avoiding since I began the "fruits of summer" series. This subject is the bunch of grapes. The secret is to view the mass of grapes as a shape unto itself, and only then do you start articulating the individual grapes. I repeatedly step back to see the whole bunch, as the light and translucence of the grapes is integral to them being perceived as grapes. The surface is another trick altogether. Some have them have a hazy sheen, others have a sharp shine. Some light up from light passing through, while other parts of the bunch seem to be show a range of light such as what one would see in a vessel of liquid, such as heavily contrasting light and dark. And of course, the d'anjou pear is no easy trick either. I didn't expect such a range of saturated reds when I picked the subject. It is a real challenge to make a shape turn when the colors are so pure and bright. This painting will prove to be an important step in my eduction.
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Friday, October 8, 1999I finished the painting of the small floral arrangement with the little blue glass vase. I feel that I'm coming closer to resolving the spacial aspects of a composition without making the finish overly homogenous. Essentially it seems as though by isolating each area decision as a complete yet cleanly separated judgement I can manuever across the field of the piece with a series of deliberate, articulated strokes. It allows me to free up the one part of my mind that keeps seeing the painting as whole, while allowing me to focus another part on very specific judgements of color and space.
Here is the painting as seen side by side with the subject.
The resolution of this screen capture doesn't do justice to the brushwork I've been refining in these last few paintings. I'm looking forward to getting higher quality pictures of these last two paintings for the gallery section of the website.
Click on the image to see a larger version
Thursday, October 7, 1999Once more I explored a small floral arrangement with the little blue glass vase. I found some reddish mums in the garden, and placed the vase closer to the wall in an effort to strive to understand the transition of colors in the shadows a little better. I find that one of my shortcomings is finding a believable vignette of shadows on a flat wall. I will continue on this painting tomorrow.
I am putting special focus on "deconstructing" the polished resolution towards which I usually gravitate. As my teacher always said, "look more, paint less". I've been falling into the common rut of polishing a piece until it seems I've only been painting on the painting, not painting the subject as a course of study. It could be considered the safe and buffered approach of a student, but I believe that it is something that should be kept alive through all stages of one's artistic development.
Sunday, October 3, 1999I had the good fortune to spend some more time with this painting, as a result, I have learned some exciting things. At yesterday's art show in Harrisburg I was approached concerning a position teaching oil painting at a local organization. I started recalling my foundation in still-life painting, and tried to remember some of those first lessons. Peter Collier would constantly recite all of the cues and rules and formulas, we would constantly make notes as they always applied to a situation at hand. Today I reminded myself to see the big generalities, to take a step back in resolution before I merely focus on details. I pushed and pulled this painting for the past few hours. I believe I have successfully balanced some lively exploration with some acute observations without losing the zest and flair of the original sketch.
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Friday, October 1, 1999By the time I was able to return to the still-life from last Sunday, the flowers were dropping off onto the tablecloth and the leaves were wilting badly. I gave one of the flowers to Dr. Jeckyl (who promptly dissected it with reckless abandon), and threw the rest into the trash. I freshened the flower arrangement with a cutting from a flowerpot in the garden and made a late start on the refurbished still-life. I was not prepared for how quickly the sun was setting; as a result I merely roughed in a quick sketch with a few bold strokes of paint. I will be exhibiting at Penn State in Harrisburg tomorrow (Saturday, October 2nd), if I am able to resume this piece on Sunday, I shall.
Sunday, September 26, 1999I kicked off the fall season with another painting of the blue glass carafe, this time with a small bunch of flowers I picked from a vine growing up the back wall of the Bottling Works kitchen. I started this painting knowing I would not be able to resolve it today, I will attempt to carve out a finish in the next day or two depending on my work schedule. I will be starting a trend of working somewhat larger in the upcoming weeks in preparation for the possibility of an upcoming winter exhibition.
We shall see.
If you find yourself hungering for yet more dramatization of the angst of a painter, see Summer 1999 for the previous season's struggles.
