Lifestyle by Design
Lately I have been working outdoors in oil paint on small panels. Often it starts with found animal imagery that I mash up and college into various new characters. Sometimes ladscape or place comes first. Other times I have the new creature and it is independent of a site and then the environment may be a lovely finished wood panel.
Elephant Girl 4″ x 4″ August 2017
For a while I have been doing figure studies in oil paint from the live model. While I appreciate this line of investigation, almost by accident I found my way of working along rolling into a new body of work.
The cherry blossoms were on the tree and I painted it from life. I had just stepped out of the session with the model and during a brake I pulled out an image of a Greek torso that seemed to fit nicely into the tree trunk as part of the spring day. It was a fun way to work and I liked how it turned out.
I started making colleges that became source for paintings during the rainy season. While it is my preference to work landscape outside it is quite soggy and cool so this is a great thing to work on right now.
See my work in progress slide show, fashion figures new backgrounds and faces for compelling compositions. Goals of the series include:
– full range of value
– limited glazing
– color dab building over blending
Halloween house party
Invites called for something eye catching so I decided to use a current landscape painting and make a double portrait out of it but with the twist of removing our skins. For years I have been bring painting materials up onto the hills were I hike, here up over Steven’s Creek in Cupertino. The painting was in color, drab but more about recording a favorite place than a final so it was fair game for expermentation.
Adding figures to a local landscape was a new direction for me. To do this I scanned the painting and then went skeleton hunting on line. The context of a specific place along with well lit snap shots turned out to be the key to making the mash up work . I plan to continue as purchased ($$$) rigged 3D skeletons to position them into scenes with greater dexterity than “grave digging” on line.
Soup House Jam
(second slide show of musical friends) It started with the figures but I found it did not come together until I situated them in a particular place. I wanted to see them in their new home but I had not seen it yet, still have not some how imagine that, what a shame.
The piece was a fragment until I committed to bringing them into my home. See the image in progress on the painting stand with my own velvet curtains that frame and ground them in the final version.
The Godfather
This piece did not go beyond the photo mash up. Because this fellow is near and dear to me and currently facing health challenges I hated to depict him as skeletal and alone. Once I saw it coming together I put it aside for now.
Today the “dogs of fashion” are barking , but it’s spring and things are feeling more hopeful.
