Studio Session March 6, 2009

Todays session is a continuation of yesterdays image.  I started by mixing a wash pigment to coat the entire canvas.  The wash is made up of 90% water and a teaspoon of orange paint.  I tinted the paint to lower the intensity with purple. 

Next I apply the stain to the canvas.  The image carved into the canvas yesterdaya begins to reveal itself.

After applying the stain I dab at the canvas and remove excess paint in areas I want to accent the image.

This gives you an idea of the subtle markings that the stain has lifted out of the ground.

Next I applied the acrylic gel with the same scraper I used yesterday to apply the gesso.  I apply it only in the area of the canvas I am carving into.  This is a second layer of carving.  It is a carving on top of a carving giving this image a multi layer effect.  The gel will dry clear and I will then wipe paint into the grooves to begin the unearthing process.

I must let this dry for about 24 hours.

I move on to another canvas I began last year.  Today is the day to finish it or at least bring it up to another level.  Again this canvas is calling me to work on it.  I have been looking at it for weeks and finally made a decision to work into it again.  I decided to use an acrid green color which is a fancy term for green mixed with yellow.  I like the contrast of the lime green and the purple. 

The image is a high contrast of yellow and purple before I work into it.

I decide to sand it down to make it more giving to the paint.  I also like the white highlights that the sanding brings back into the image.

I work into it with a very simple palette.

After working into it with the lime green the image has now complete transformed.  It is not done and needs a few more thin layers of paint in other colors that are in the same family. 

And finally we have the end of todays studio session.  The image is completely transformed.  I have a few more layers of color to add.  These will very light red purples and bright yellows.

Image Archaeologist™

Today I wrote a new artist statement to depict my current work. The writing lead me into changing the look of my whole blog and also changing the name. I am still "a painter who blogs but my new statement will explain why I changed my blog title.

My New Artist Statement
I describe my self as an Image Archaeologist™.
My images evolve out of the surface of the canvas by carving into the wet gesso with the butt of a paintbrush. I dig into the surface to carve out the image and then brush layers of paint over the dried gesso imprint to unveil the etched surface ground. The carving is uncovered by rubbing paint into the surface grooves. Multiple layers of paint are brushed lightly over the beveled edges unearthing the image. Each layer adds an illusion of depth and is brushed and wiped away as the image unfolds. The image is found within the surface ground thus making it “image archaeology. This is my approach to the process of painting.
Today's painting is called Two Ipods. Painted last week it seemed appropriate to post as the original "Ipod" painting was a part of the "Mid Atlantic Painting Exhibition" last January at Mary Washington University. Ipod is the first in my series of images I call "earth objects".

Studio Session March 5, 2009

Todays session begins with canvas preparation. This is the raw canvas I work with. It is actually a large canvas drop cloth I purchase from the Home Depot. I cut it into quarters and then apply gesso with a plastic scraper. Applying the gesso is a lot like icing a cake.



I place blobs of gesso onto the canvas and then smooth out the gesso with the plastic scraper. After the gesso is applied I then staple my wet gessoed image onto my studio wall.

Now I carve into the gesso an imprint with the butt of my paintbrush. This imprint has organic shapes and it will become the backdrop to my earth object that is being unveiled.

Todays session shows how I mix paint to come up with the right earth tone. By mixing orange with its complimentary color purple, I get just the right tone. Mixing complimentary colors will de-intensify a color without making it muddy.

It’s called the Munsell system of color mixing. I have been using Munsell color theory in my work for over 15 years. Munsell believed that additive color, or color from pigments should be as close to what the brain perceives as possible. He scientifically proved that the opposite of red is not green but blue green. If you stare at a red piece of paper for 40 seconds and then quickly move your eye to a white piece of paper you will see blue green. The brain automatically mixes the opposite color for you.

You can do this with any pigment color. The color wheel then becomes what your brain sees in nature rather than a theory that has been manufactured. I will talk more about Munsell and color mixing in the future as Munsell is very important to the development of my work.

Green Nut, 40 x 40 acrylic on canvas

This image is another of the nut series images. It has a bright green surface with many layers of green and organic textures underneath. This image was carved out of the butt of my paintbrush and then painted and erased away many times before the final image resulted. It has been "unearthed" from the surface. Like an "image archaeologist", I dig away at the surface and layers until the right textures remain highlighted and uncovered. It is this adding of pigment and rubbing away that gives it a fine patina look in the end.

New Work, Old Work

There is a cycle in my studio efforts. New work becomes old work and old work becomes new. It is all intertwined and interrelated. These images are saying something to me. They are mirrors of the subterrain of my mind. I feel like I am unearthing these objects. The objects are manufactured from a place within and without. I am an archaeologist digging out an image from the surface of my mind and the surface of the canvas.

Cone Storm, 12 x 8

Todays image came from complete and total struggle.  This image was painted and wiped away 3 times before I could get to what I was trying to invoke.  And now that I look at it I find myself thinking it is two cones in a snow storm.   I love the way this looks now that I have some time away from it.  But I was genuinely frustrated this afternoon after it was over.  I had a few problems with the paint.  I definitlely am not feeling well after breathing in the turpentine.  I need to get more ventilation in my studio. 

Images before I landed on this one...

Purple Pine Pods, 48" x 65", oil on canvas

Today's painting session was spent finishing a piece started last year. It just seemed like the right time. Sometimes a painting will hang out in the studio for a long while before I am up to the task of finishing it. Some artists say the work is speaking to them. You could say that about this piece today. It was demanding my attention. I knew how I wanted it to look today. As I was painting the two cones on the branch I felt like I was painting faded old blue jeans.

This painting has been hanging out in the studio for a year or so--unfinished.

Up Close and Personal, Core Series 3, 15 x 45"

Today I finished the second painting started on Monday. I am calling it up close and personal because I feel like I have an intimate relationship with this object now. I have explored it through directly painting it and then seeking out its underlying structure in today's session seemed so natural a process. What does this mean to seek out the underlying structure and become intimately related to this object? Its in the process of painting itself. When you become one with the paint and the object you are painting. Some people call this being in the zone, I call this a connection that is unlike any other. Some call this a spiritual connection. Perhaps it is. It feels like it when I am doing this. And this goes back to my post on Monday when I hung up my halo. No I don't feel like Gandhi, but I do feel connected to this object I am painting and its unlike any other connection when the paint is flowing and I can intuitively chose color and brushstroke and the in and out of transitions between brushstrokes of color and stroke and feeling and color and stroke and feeling and then I am transported to a place of ecstasy when it all comes together.

Best friend and studio Pal...my girl... Vera

Core Series 2, 15 x 30, oil on canvas

 

This is the end result of direct painting for two days.  I like the way the images are floating on the surface of texture long ago established for another painting.  These are markings into gesso.  The color choice was delegated by the background but also depicts my mood these days.  I go from extreme clarity to muddiness and back again.  Below are the steps I took today to get to this image.

Painters are color mixologists.  I mixed this color today for my mid-tones.  I knew I could lighten it for my brightest area and darken it as needed.  I already had my darkest value established which was a mixture of burnt umber and purple.  This is a mixture of orange and purple.  I like to use color compliments to tone a color down.  I usually only use 2 or three colors on a painting.  I like the simplicity of a limited color palette.  My color palette was devised many years ago when I studied Munsell.

 

I painted in the mi-tones over yesterdays underlying structure.
 

Next I added some darker values back into all three cores.

 

The painting will sit in the studio and simmer for a while where I will tweak it here and there.  

Approaching the Process

My graduate school thesis was titled "Approaching the Process". I was very involved in understanding my process of processing this thing called art. I still am. I am always trying to see the under lying structure of things, even in my imagery and that is why I have decided to show this to you. For the next three months I am committed to blogging about my process.
What this means is that you will be privy to some very private workings in my studio and in my head. I didn't come to this magical moment all alone. I have been thinking about this since I have seen other painters do this on their blogs and recently, when I asked fellow blogger http://thebloggersource.com/ a question about the best way to go about marketing my artwork on the Internet he suggested it as well.
And you thought I was doing this because It was good for my soul? Lets just say that I have long ago given up the novel idea that art is a spiritual practice. I realized along the way that I am not that "holy" and I seem to have left my halo somewhere back in 1968. Art for me is a business. I do it today because I am in the business of making art. I am an image maker and as such I am promoting my images. Art does not feed my ego. Art does not fulfill my longing to be somebody. I am somebody. I am an artist and I am in the business of making art to sell art. So there you have it. My desire is to bring to you my process so that you can understand how I make the art that I LOVE to sell. Preferably on the Internet and most preferably on this blog.

Oh yeah...aside from all this did I mention I am working on a Doctorate in Higher Education. Its a fancy degree so that I can become a better teacher. I teach Design at the local community college. And have been working on my doctorate for 3.5 years now. I have to take 24 hours in my knowledge area--ART--and this semester, I am working on an independent study. What this means is that I am under contract to perform a great deal of art. I have to finish two of these paintings a week over a period of twelve weeks which means I will conjure up 24 images. I have been instructed to seek out this direction which has been labeled "scrolls" by my instructor. No pressure here for this artist.....

At the present time, I am working on two paintings in my studio. Both are derivatives from a previous painting posted on this blog. Both show the two ways I like to approach the process. Both show how I am very interested in the underlying structure of things. Both reveal my process and my words will further guide my readers on "my approach to the process"

Today's images reflect the first two sessions of both paintings.

The underlying structure...these are my explorations into the underlying structure of objects collected on my hikes. I like to refer to these objects as "earth objects"

This is what my canvas looks like on the wall before I add any images on either canvas.
I like to take old canvases that are unsuccessful and overlay new images. This give lots of spacial texture and depth.

Next is the gesso and carving into process. This is where I slather the canvas with gesso and carve the image back into it with the butt of a paintbrush.

I add some purple color after the gesso is dry. The gesso has to dry for 24 hours before I can do this. This is a staining process so the paint gets down inside the grooves of the markings.

After adding color I like to sand back the image with sand paper to uncover the texture on the surface again. This is pure painting archeology.

And finally to end today's session I tone the painting down again with an orange overlay. This is where I leave off to think about what is next. As I am walking into the computer room I decide that the next session will start out with some specific color areas of paint. I will begin to focus into the painting and get some detail on the surface with more mid-tones and then some high lighting.

Painting number two is the other way I like to approach the process. Instead of carving and sanding and staining the canvas and then re staining and doing the multi layered approach. This is straight painting. I simply am blocking in the dark areas of my color onto a stained background.

As you can see these are two very different approaches to the painting process. The first approach which I like to call the "underlying structure" approach requires a lot of steps to get the image where I want it to be before I begin painting any detail. This approach is one that I use to produce my experimental work.

The second approach, which is more of a direct approach to painting is more traditional. I painted the underground and then I block in the dark areas of the image. This approach is what I use to produce my naturalistic imagery. You can see this approach in most of the paintings on this blog.