Friday, January 27, 2017

Weekly Wrap-up

In the studio this week, I slowly crept closer to finishing two paintings and managed to start a new painting. Sometimes I think I am wasting too much time and being indecisive with allowing the works to be adjusted at an infinitesimal level...but I am also just painting on them until they seem done...and sometimes that takes longer than I would initially anticipate.

First is a window painting that takes place midday-to-late afternoon. Below is the very minor shift that happened this week: the right photo is where the painting is now, very minor changes on the right wall and window. I hope to adjust the interior/exterior relationships but it was very overcast so the painting session was slightly doomed from the start this week.
 

Here is that painting's history:




 last of the Summer Days
Finally, a shout-out to the painter Jan van der Kooi. This work is partially a reaction his exquisite paintings, as featured above, that endlessly record the same windows. http://www.janvanderkooi.nl/ 

The second painting I worked on is a surprise commission piece, so I will share photos of that painting once it is complete. So on to the newest painting started this week. It is a still life featuring a dead Gray Catbird, and orange and a grapefruit. The bird flew into a window several months ago. I won't deconstruct my thoughts behind the work at this point because they are still percolating.

  

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Two years later, I'm looking at windows

This spring I am teaching a senior studio thesis course, BA Portfolio, at Flagler College. As part of the class, students are asked to maintain a record of their weekly activities on a blog, uploading a minimum of three process shots a week, a reflection on the work and any influences from the week. In an effort to keep up production during the school year, I am going to follow the assignment.

As evidenced by the last post, it's been a while since I've acknowledged this platform...March 2015.....

This week I worked on two paintings that have been going for sometime, so the changes were incremental. One is of my kitchen window at night. Below is the before and after of the moves I made on Monday night, I've been slightly lost on how to resolve the bottom half of this painting for a while, I think I am getting there.
 

Here is where it started. I've abandoned the entire reason why I started the painting initially, which was looking at my sink and the window/plant. For whatever reason, it fit better in my viewfinder than on my panel.
 
  

Here is one of my other painting in the works, I have been documenting the progress of this on Instagram Stories, but apparently wasn't saving the videos. Its of two windows in the corner of a room, during 3-4 different times of day. Again, this painting has been progressing steadily...on Wednesday I found another patch of light and worked on the bookcase. I also adjusted the sewing machine stand and central chair for the 100th time.