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Oil on board, 19" x 24"
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These recent paintings explore the nature of dreams and memory. Images, like random thoughts, drift into focus or recede into amorphous fields of color and tone.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Traveling Harvest
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Oil on board, 19" x 24"
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These recent paintings explore the nature of dreams and memory. Images, like random thoughts, drift into focus or recede into amorphous fields of color and tone.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Etching Fever
Here's an update on my week spent making etchings at Goathead Press, in Tieton, Washington. I'm grateful to the distinguished Seattle artists Bob and Fay Jones for giving me the opportunity to work at their print studio. I had never made an etching. They devoted the entire week to assisting me in learning the ropes. Their generosity, patience and sense of humor made it a relaxing, pressure-free time of "playing" with the media.
Fay and Bob Jones
In simplest terms, hard-ground etchings are created by scratching away a coating that has been applied to a metal plate (copper, in this case). The image is drawn on the plate with virtually any kind of sharp or semi-sharp tool. I ended up using a pencil most of the time. It's only necessary to scratch through the coating, not into the plate. Once the drawing is complete, the plate is submerged in a bath of Ferric Chloride (a corrosive salt) for 40 minutes or more to etch the drawn lines into the plate. After cleaning the coating off, a layer of ink is applied, then carefully wiped away, leaving most of the ink in the recessed lines.
Bob with freshly inked plate.
The plate is placed on the press bed and covered with a sheet of dampened paper. As the plate moves through the press the ink is transferred to the paper. The exciting part is that you never know exactly what it will look like until the printed piece is turned over.
An etching plate by my longtime friend Karen Quint, inked and ready to go through the press.
I completed two etchings dealing with themes I've been exploring recently. The stones for me speak of unimaginable periods of time--meditations on duration. I think of them as representatives of the living earth. While appearing solid and unchanging, their reality--like everything on this planet--is one of ceaseless change. Like us, they'll someday be dust. It will just take longer.
The tumbling figure is borrowed from the pioneering work of the 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Muybridge created the first human and animal motion studies--a precursor of the motion picture. I began creating drawings and paintings based on his photos over twenty years ago and they still retain a poetic hold on my imagination. The sequential images are of course narratives of time. I think of the specific figure as a stand-in for self and, in a larger sense, a metaphor for humankind. The acrobat speaks of the risks and joys of life. He appears to have a measure of control, but the outcome is anything but certain. There's also a kind of ludicrous aspect to these prints--a nod to the "human comedy". Let's face it, they're kind of funny.
The edition size of each print will be limited to only 10, with a small number of Artist's and Printer's Proofs.
Tricky Times I
Etching, artist's proof
Image size approx. 12" x 14"
Email for purchase info
Tricky Times II
Etching, artist's proof
Image size approx. 14" x 12"
Email for purchase info
Fay and Bob Jones
In simplest terms, hard-ground etchings are created by scratching away a coating that has been applied to a metal plate (copper, in this case). The image is drawn on the plate with virtually any kind of sharp or semi-sharp tool. I ended up using a pencil most of the time. It's only necessary to scratch through the coating, not into the plate. Once the drawing is complete, the plate is submerged in a bath of Ferric Chloride (a corrosive salt) for 40 minutes or more to etch the drawn lines into the plate. After cleaning the coating off, a layer of ink is applied, then carefully wiped away, leaving most of the ink in the recessed lines.
Bob with freshly inked plate.
The plate is placed on the press bed and covered with a sheet of dampened paper. As the plate moves through the press the ink is transferred to the paper. The exciting part is that you never know exactly what it will look like until the printed piece is turned over.
An etching plate by my longtime friend Karen Quint, inked and ready to go through the press.
I completed two etchings dealing with themes I've been exploring recently. The stones for me speak of unimaginable periods of time--meditations on duration. I think of them as representatives of the living earth. While appearing solid and unchanging, their reality--like everything on this planet--is one of ceaseless change. Like us, they'll someday be dust. It will just take longer.
The tumbling figure is borrowed from the pioneering work of the 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Muybridge created the first human and animal motion studies--a precursor of the motion picture. I began creating drawings and paintings based on his photos over twenty years ago and they still retain a poetic hold on my imagination. The sequential images are of course narratives of time. I think of the specific figure as a stand-in for self and, in a larger sense, a metaphor for humankind. The acrobat speaks of the risks and joys of life. He appears to have a measure of control, but the outcome is anything but certain. There's also a kind of ludicrous aspect to these prints--a nod to the "human comedy". Let's face it, they're kind of funny.
The edition size of each print will be limited to only 10, with a small number of Artist's and Printer's Proofs.
Tricky Times I
Etching, artist's proof
Image size approx. 12" x 14"
Email for purchase info
Tricky Times II
Etching, artist's proof
Image size approx. 14" x 12"
Email for purchase info
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Some recent mixed-media drawings
Tuscan Red
acrylic and charcoal on paper, 6.75" x 5.75"
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Winterscape
Acrylic and charcoal on paper, 8.5" x 5"
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Horse Heaven
Acrylic and charcoal on paper, 7" x 9"
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Longscape 3
Acrylic and charcoal on paper, 4.5" x 11"
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Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Between (revised)
Between
Oil over acrylic, 23" x 23"
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A rework from this painting's earlier state (see April 4 post below.) Also, a couple of drawing studies working out the gesture I wanted for the figure.
Study #1 for "Between"
Pencil and charcoal on bristol, 14" x 9"
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Study #2 for "Between"
Pencil and charcoal on bristol, 14" x 9"
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Monday, April 4, 2011
Two New Paintings
Afoot in the Garden
Acrylic on board, 23" x 23"
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Between
Acrylic on board, 23" x 23"
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These paintings may be complete, but will need some getting acquainted time before it's decided for sure.
I try to begin at square one with each blank canvas--to empty out preconceived ideas and just start applying paint as randomly as possible. Paintings will live a life of their own, if you will let them. In the midst of this process I try to listen to the painting instead of bossing it around. A give and take evolves between my intuitive nature--where I really want to stay--and the analytical side, which inevitably starts asserting itself as I make decisions on which leads to follow.
I've been wanting for a long time to re-introduce figures into the paintings, so with these two works I'm jumping in the water.
Artists and writers - like ritual magicians - know that the ego, the conscious self, does not really create anything. Instead, all our training and preparation serves to allow us to get out of the way. Something moves through us. Something wants to be created. This is what it means to experience magic, to open yourself to the power of life.
~ From Tarot Reversals, by Mary K. Greer
Monday, March 21, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Volkan
Acrylic on 4 sheets paper, each sheet 13" x 11", 2011
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I've been playing with manipulating the paint using trowels and scraping tools. Each piece is done independently, then later I start putting them in arrangements like this. The search is for a visual narrative--a point where each segment starts rhythmically "speaking" to the others.
I plan to mount these sheets on cradled supports and then varnish, so they won't require framing under glass.
Forecast (Heaven and Earth)
Oil on canvas, 54" x 96", 2011
Click image to enlarge
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This large painting in the Heaven and Earth series was begun in early December 2010. The painting process was documented with a photo after each day's work. When I thought the painting was complete, I made a video. Later I decided it needed more work, so I ended up making a second video. As you see below, there are now three videos. I'm still not sure I'm through with it, or--more accurately--whether it's through with me.
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