Still here. Visited Seattle.

I am still painting. There is a juried competition soon. I'm working on completing (fingers crossed) three pieces for submission. I'm almost done with one and I've mentally completed about 75% of another. I'll post pictures as soon as they're finished. All three involve burlap and my methods of layering paint. I'm enjoying planning them in my head. Now it's a matter of finding the time...

On a side note, I visited Seattle recently and toured a few of the galleries near the Pioneer Square area. I started with the Punch gallery and made my way through about four others. In each gallery sat the artist whose pictures hung on the walls. In each gallery it was me, the artist and their work. There were no other people visiting the galleries this Saturday. It was like each artist was waiting to have a conversation with me about their work, their background, their process, and my work as well. In fact, four of the five took the time to really converse with me. I can see myself in these rooms, my work on these walls.

Self-portrait

For awhile I've been interested in multi-color prints created from multiple screens or stencils to create a printed image with greater depth. Thanks again to Ed Roth's book Stencil 101 not for the stencils or stencil ideas in the book but for the materials lists including mylar and a stencil burner/cutter. I took the idea of mylar stencils to create my own multi-color prints. I chose a self-portrait based on a photograph. I played with the contrast, brightness, etc., of my photograph to create an image with four distinct values (translated as black, red, yellow and white). I used these color 'contours' to create my stencils in mylar. They were successively used to print images onto the black background. Opacity of the paint was critical in this process.

Self-portrait in four colors 1.  25cm x 19xm (image size). Acrylic on cold-press watercolor paper.

(Exposure digitally adjusted.)

Self-portrait in four colors 2.  25cm x 19xm (image size). Acrylic on cold-press watercolor paper.

(Exposure digitally adjusted.)

Lincoln, Part II

I've spent the last couple weeks working on my first Lincoln picture. I opted for a light background with a dark Lincoln in the foreground. I'll reverse this with my next Lincoln picture.

One more time. ~72" x ~44" (smaller dimensions shown). Mixed media. Feb 2012. Digital adjustment: increased exposure due to poor lighting at time of snapshot.

I had other plans for the Lincoln stencil but after application of the paint, I think I'm happier with this. I may change it later and I'll post an update if I do. Below is a detail to give a better idea of the texture of the painting itself, which, I think, is difficult to see in the image above.

Detail of One more time. Detail is of area between Lincoln's eyes (Lincoln's left eye visible).

Mixed Media

Having spent time tediously, but rewardingly, working on my Lincoln and other projects, I decided to take some time to work out a non-stencil-based painting. The result is what follows.

into. 34" x 34". Mixed media.

The mixed media include spray, acrylic and household acrylic latex paints. Going into this painting I've been listening to The Antlers albums Burst Apart and Hospice. When I connect deeply with something I try to take notice. I sometimes wonder if it's my obsessive side showing and that time will render my current crushing interest passe, or is there something about hearing or seeing something right now, where I'm at that's important. It might not stay with me forever, but right now it connects. Either way, the honesty and vulnerability (in a good way) of the lyrics are refreshing and powerfully communicate loss, frustration, fear, and knowing yourself but making certain choices anyway. I think I'm at a point where I no longer see these things as good or bad but as experience. As I gain experience I feel richer, more grounded, more alive, more sad, more awake, more excited to be happy, to be hurt, to be flexible, to be mature, to have fun, to set high expectations, to fail in trying, to succeed exceptionally, to build a body of experience new, deep, and diverse.

Lincoln

I've been working the last few weeks (off and on) to develop an idea for a painting. One of the critical elements of which is Lincoln's head. I have Lincoln's head ready to go. In the next week I should get a background prepared as well as the other elements of the picture that I have planned.

One more time: occupy. Approximately 42" high and 32" wide. Spray paint, touched up with acrylic.

Portraits

I've started to study faces. I've read about proportions, arrangement and variation. The best practice, beyond the theory of proportion, is to draw actual faces. So, I've started drawing portraits based on photos in art magazines. The three pictured below are posted in the order in which they were drawn over successive days. Care is taken to select images in different settings with different lighting and moods.

Adapted from cover of Let the Right One In.

Based on Gus van Sant portrait of Heather Graham.

Harmony Korine featured in Juxtapoz magazine.

I'll continue to practice faces and post new portraits every few weeks. Maybe one of these days I'll have someone sit while I sketch.

On Burlap 3, Part 6

Work continues slowly. After cutting the stencil for the fan of feathers and placing it on the background, I found the Contact paper stencil was not adhering well to the acrylic (much of it had residual paper stuck to it). I left the picture alone for about 6 weeks while I tried to resolve the issue. Last week I was in a bookstore and came across Stencil 101 by Ed Roth. I was not interested in the included stencil. I was interested in a section describing the production of your own stencils. This hit me like a lightning bolt and I wondered, "Why has no one told me about this method before!?!" I read about Mylar sheets, stencil burners, pouncer brushes and spray-on, re-positionable adhesive! My answer was found. On the same trip I picked up all the supplies listed for future projects (Lincoln's head is on its way...), including the spray-on adhesive for use in this project. I carefully removed my stencil from the background, sprayed it with the adhesive, let it dry for sixty seconds (minimum) and replaced it on the background before applying the white spray paint. There were issues of the stencil not sticking in some places and the stencil curling in high-detail areas after the application of spray paint. This provided a nice amount of tolerable and interesting variation between feathers of the fan. After three coats of white paint I removed the stencil and the picture below is the result.

Have To (working title). 4'x7'.  Mixed media (acrylic, spray paint).

The next part will include the application of color, design and prints to the individual feathers. The final piece will be the character displaying the fan of feathers.