And now….Back to Painting
Been a minute, as I have been working on Illustration, teaching and taking care of life. Finally getting back to painting full-time, excited to paint our land and the surrounding area.
Logo and Brand Design Company
Utilizing my skill as a painter, I started a company this last year, called Green Pine Tree Studio. I hope to grow with this, as I have as a painter – and create interesting hand-drawn old school logos.
New Painting
18″/24″, Oil on Masonite Board.
This is on my easel. I am also working on a graphic novel as well as teaching Life Drawing ( figure Study) at Parsons, so I am pretty busy!
Self Portrait – 2015, June
I’m not sure what happened to my love of drawing people, but I primarily use this skill to help conceive my landscape paintings. Some of my students tell me they like the portraits better – but I am not as social as I should be to render people – and so I call on the mountains. If I had more artist friends, perhaps I would paint them?
I like when someone tells me the work I am doing is ‘done’. I enjoy giving myself over to criticism and understanding I am not the artist if I listen to people who cannot paint – I am the worker working for their pleasure, stopping when their vision is congealed.
Another thing I love is when someone gets on the train, while I’m typing – and talks lousy and annoyingly about nonsense – and smiles when distracted passengers look her way, out of a selfish narcissistic urge to repel the others space and thought pattern.
The person is talking about the police academy and becoming a cop. Her daughter is glaring at me sad.
I’m not interested in others patterns of self interest – I have my own to contend with.
Painting Catskill Rapids behind my studio…
I have been working at this painting for about four 4 hour sessions. The build up was deliberate and slow, giving me time to enjoy the process and examine the gray and umber undertones in this otherwise fleeting moment in a rivers life.
Painting all the time
I’ve been working hard – got a nice gallery upstate, found my voice as a painter – daily. I am getting somewhere – and my single minded approach to getting back to painting landscapes, have kept me out of trouble.
I am of an avant-garde ideal — though I paint very placid paintings of places (somewhat) untouched by man. I have no need to paint like Chuck Close or De Kooning, though I feel they are my brothers. I can’t explain why I keep on with painting these landscapes, but will try.
I paint the scenes I come into contact with. I do not make up my environs, nor do I try to place myself within the context of the painting. I am using the paint, to create an alternate version of this reality, based on vision, and love. I love the places I paint. I find them worthy of pushing my intellect, subtracting judgment and creating through action.
Catskill Stream – in progress
I started this 18″/24″ oil on Masonite (triple gessoed, sanded). I began with a mix of umber and blue – in this case cobalt and a red raw umber. I block it in – not caring as much about color as line and direction, composition.
After this initial rough blocked in sketch / I start to add color and some sort of theory to the palette I’m using – which key is warmer and which is cooler.. I don’t care much about detail at this point..
I want this to have very subtle light within the snow so -I form my relationships based on this high key.’ My darkest darks are under the ice and the trees – lighted mass is the sky and the water is dark all. It some reflections of the snow and sky which are ver light – but tinted with an umber or mars Orange.
Refining and blocking in color, redrawing and analyzing the gamut of color and value..
Progress….
Hard to know when to stop – I don’t want to! I enjoy painting when I get into the flow – or find some joy in it when I push on. Sometimes I’ll overwork it, beat myself up as If I don’t know how to paint. I am clear on what I do but still have moments of doubt – I attribute it to not drinking enough to water, not eating, I try to keep up with my needs throughout the day – but day three on a painting can go terribly wrong if you get angry, or think the painting looked better in an earlier stage.
I saved this one but it was close to destruction. I still need to do some work around the mouth and temple area / but I think it’s coming along.
I don’t consider portraiture something to get right- or create a formula to impress. Sure I want good images, I want to put integrity into the work – but don’t find much reason to fret over a self portrait. I live to paint and find painting my portrait beneficial to crating decent landscapes.
