Sorry. Have been skiing for a week with the oldest son, then visiting the in-laws and working hard on a book about petroglyphs and pictographs from the Four Corners area, for friends Garry and Ming Adams at the Canyon of the Ancients Guest Ranch in McElmo Creek, Colorado. Back in the studio, doing some fun stuff. This is a small study, 12 x 20 cm only.
Not so much new to show, even though I spend my days in the studio. I have been experimenting with some frame ideas for the small landscape paintings, but that was not a success. Also working on the sides of the painting of the girl with the red finger nail. Have also spent time fine tuning my work area in the studio. Started on a few new little paintings of faces. Here is one, also 12 x 20 cm:
And below is a close up of the painting I have been working on for a while.
I have never been overly interested in painting landscapes, even though some of my favorite landscape painters (Maynard Dixon is one) have been a great inspiration. But I had an idea to make some small paintings on pine plywood and let the grain do a great part of the work for me. What I found out was that I had to keep it very simple, if I started doing too much “landscape” painting with clouds and stuff I was not pleased (one such example below). But if I kept it real simple it was better. The idea to make these came to me while driving toward Tuba City in the Navajo Nation at sunset recently. So most of these paintings are really Navajo landscapes to me – very desolate and vast. All these paintings are 12 x 20 cm (4″3/4 x 8″).
Receding Mesa at dusk. (above)
The alluring Henry Mountains.
Winter in the desert.
My uncle lives there.
Leaving Monument Valley.
Canyons and mesas.
Sacred Mountain.
Monumental vastness.
Today I saw a documentary on Rembrant and it gave me a lot of inspiration. So I have made a bunch of improvements and changes. And I think I have decided to simply call the piece “Girl with red finger nail”. Still some work to do and then I need to do some “framing”… more about that later. This photo taken with photo studio lights so the colors are more correct, at least on my screen.
My sister-in-law sent a poor picture with a clear message: “I need a painting of this on plywood”. When I started I was seriously doubting if I would be able to pull it off, but when my brother received his painting, everyone, including him, immediately knew it was him in the painting, so I guess I did pull it off. The piece has a two-sided “frame” made of partially stripped THHN wires and I call the work “Super Charged” because that is what my brother is! He has seemingly endless stores of energy and everything he does is done “all out”. Size 70 x 69 cm.
The result of today’s work. The photo taken with the regular studio light. I need to take better photos when I am getting closer to being done.
The first day of 2017, lots of social stuff, but a nice quiet evening to paint, while listening to great piano music by Edward Grieg. I need to listen to classical music while working on this piece. I have added thin, transparent layers of magenta and cobalt blue.
It is New Years Eve and I’ve been working on a piece I started a few days ago. It is a triptych (so I can fit it in my suitcase), 58 x 72 cm. My intension is to keep working on it for a while. I am inspired by the old paintings which were done with the primary colors and I am thinking of doing a contemporary twist… will see what happens.
