I've been working on a new series of paintings where I combine multiple images in a single painting by diving up the canvas or panel. It's given me some creative freedom due to the unlimited combinations of images. The one I worked on today is below. It's oil on panel, 18x24. I started off with a photo:
Then a sketch (adding in some film strips on the sides):
Then transferred that composition to panel using oil paint:
And here's a close-up view:
It's not quite done, so more to come...
These two paintings below (oil on canvas) are works in progress. Using oil paint is new for me and the format is also an experiment. For a long time, I've been trying to figure out how to combine my various media and subject matter in one piece. So instead of creating a full composition that combines all of those, I decided to divide up the canvas into multiple "panels/sections" to create a story or theme. By combining cityscapes and water tanks with abstracts, aerial landscapes, or figures, I can connect different series of work more closely. What I also like about this concept is that each painting is really three paintings in one.
I was inspired to create these story panels after seeing the Deborah Kass exhibit at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh recently. Artist David Salle also does a great job of creating paintings by breaking up the canvas in different sections to tell a story. My experience creating "exquisite corpse" pieces during a group drawing exercise also helped create some ideas for this series. I'd like to work toward making some pieces that are much larger and on wood panels. With panels, I could add collage and screen print images to develop mixed media pieces that further combines my media and subject matter.
In addition to the recent static abstracts, I'm working out some new ideas about rooftop water tanks and cities' relation to water. Below a very rough start to a mixed media painting that I started this afternoon.
This has been a month of abstract experiments and trying out new ideas for paintings. For the last few weeks I've been working and re-working the below paintings. I've been using different techniques such as masking, screen printing, drawing with paint markers and conte crayons to build up the many layers.
You can see through to previous layers much like what you might see on an old building with peeling paint and old signage or paste-ups. Still more to go on all of these (or maybe they'll morph into something else). There's a lot going on in these (and on my mind lately) so I'm calling them Static Abstractions.
For the last few weeks, I've been working on a series of abstract paintings. I originally started with a bunch of sketches of abstract forms and organic shapes then moved on to the paintings. Still more layers of paint to go but here's where things are at...
These are on record album covers:
This one is on wood panel:
These are on canvas panel:
The painting continues...
It's mid August and just realized I haven't made a blog post this month. Been busy helping out my wife with the Chicago Writers Conference.
Anyway, the lake/water is coming together and added some more layers to the ferris wheel and LSD this past week. Yesterday, I made some good progress on flushing out the buildings and beginning to add the details.
Next up: more building details and textures, the L train, and filling in some more Wrigley Field details...
I've had to rework the boats in this painting a few times. Still some work to do but the composition is basically there. Many more layers of paint to add but I feel like it's really starting to take shape.
I think it was the heat, because, yesterday this new commission painting took on some bright, psychedelic colors. Below are two shots - left-to-right, close-ups - along with a full view of the painting. The skyline has been filled out with shapes of buildings and parks. I shot some photos of sailboats over the weekend and need to re-work the boats using those images as reference. What's there now needs some work.
It was 101 degrees in the shade today - so too hot to work in a studio with no air conditioning. Time spent doing online research and household chores. But anyway, here's how the painting's looking...
A few weeks ago, I started a new commission painting. It's a Chicago cityscape that needs to include the lake, L train, iconic buildings, Navy Pier Ferris Wheel and Wrigley Field. A fun challenge!
I began by making sketches based on Google Earth screen captures and shooting on-site photographs while biking along the lake. Next, I made more sketches and started transferring the composition to the 30" x 60" custom wood panel surface.
Late last week I started the painting process. Some images of the work in progress are below. One is the full image and two are close-ups.
The composition is basically down and larger areas of color and shapes are starting to come together. There will definitely be a lot more details as I add more layers and flush out the cityscape. Also more details to the foreground too. Yesterday I got over a hump and was really able to add more movement and color with the additions of the boats and more details on the Ferris Wheel and Wrigley.
