Dec 29, 2011

Commission piece



Titled by the client, "The Last Fall", documents a view looking north towards the North Carolina / South Carolina border. 15 x 48 oil on wood panel. Completed with Williamsburg Oils.

Jun 24, 2011

Near complete, just as studio is damaged.



Well, I was nearly finished with the still life when a heavy wind storm blew two large pine trees onto my studio roof and nearly demolished it. Had it not been a Wednesday evening, I might have been inside working on the painting, just under one of the large cross ties supporting the roof. These are now all down and all of the objects on the table were swept away. Lucky me! Insurance should cover most or all of this, I hope.

Weather is OK now, so looks like I'll be working out doors for awhile. I added the Hohner harmonica in an old style case, which they no longer make. This is the type of small cardboard box the harmonicas came in when I was much younger.

This piece was a particularly difficult exercise in exact realism, using personally significant objects from my youth. The tandem forces of music and painting, and the reference to religious indoctrination hang in the balance here. My fascination with light effects, particularly ultraviolet light, and my experimentation with DayGlo tempera paints are recorded in this autobiographical still life painting. I have submitted this to the Oil Painters of America Eastern Regional Juried Exhibit. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Feb 5, 2011

Progress on Black Light Confirmation.


Current state of "Black Light Confirmation". I have been working on this auto-ethnographic still life for a little over 2 years, off and on. I intend to finish it up in the next couple of weeks in time for submission to the Oil Painters of America national show. I am balancing natural light, artificial light from outside the picture and the glow of the UV lamp I used when I was 12 or 13 and started painting with Day-Glo tempera paints. The lamp glowing under the reflection in the dark purple/red glass lens came out pretty well. I still have the remainder of the cornet, small jars of paints and the lamp base, bracket and bulb cover to bring to a finished state.

Jan 15, 2011

Back in the studio.


Back to work on the still life oil (16x20) on panel in the studio. The heater I installed last winter works like a charm, and will do so even better when I finish insulating the remaining 2/3 of the walls and ceiling. This is a picture of the studio interior. Making good progress on the painting itself and will feature that when I am done. I also have several notes about the process and will share those.