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Works in progress.

Here are a few paintings I'm currently working on. They are mostly completed. I took the pics with my phone, so, the quality is not the best.

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It started with Derrick punching me in the face.

All of these pictures were taken with my phone. Not the best quality.

I was thinking about using some video screen grabs from my backyard wrestling days as backgrounds for my paintings. First up, a picture of Derrick (AKA The Militiaman) punching me in the face. The leg in the picture is the referee. I started the painting somewhat literal.

The painting sat in my studio for a few months. I felt like the idea was a failure. I couldn't not see the original photo.

Eventually, I turned the painting sideways and began painting new elements.

Today, I started adding a figure to the painting. I still see Derrick punching me in the face, and now, you probably do as well, but I like the direction the painting is going.

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A trip to the city.

I make my own oil paint. I buy the grounds and mix them with linseed oil. The grounds come from a business in San Francisco named Sinopia.

A few years ago I attended a Windsor Newton demo and the woman giving the demonstration mentioned how great Windsor Newton paint was, highest grade, blah, blah, unless you want to go to Sinopia and make your own paint, blah, Windsor, blah, Newton. I use a lot of Windsor Newton paint and really like the product, but, her statement about making your own paint really hit me.

I visited Sinopia for the first time about three years ago. The shop looked like a Frankenstein laboratory with plastic bags full of color all around. The owner's name is Alex and I was so excited to meet him and talk about pigments that I rushed home and ordered a copy of Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay for him. It was a little creepy, but whatever.

Sinopia's pigments come from all over the world and can vary dramatically from area to area. An ochre yellow from France and an ochre yellow from England look quite different. The pigments are also usually quite colorful when in ground form, which always tricks me. Most darken considerably when mixed with oil. Each one also absorbs the oil a little differently and mixing takes some experimenting.

Buying dry pigments seems to be considerably cheaper than buying commercial paint. I always love looking at the little five gram jar of $170 lapis lazuli. Sinopia's new line of milk paint is soft and beautiful. But, it is meant for furniture and walls, so, I haven't used it yet.

The shop has since closed. The website is going strong. Alex let my wife and I come up to check out his warehouse this week. It is still inspiring and wonderful to me. Alex has made the mail ordering on his website so easy, I will be doing that from now on, but I had to see the new digs.

I really like mixing my own paint, there is something base and primal about it. You need to wear a mask, mix it in a ventilated area, and it takes some practice. But the colors you can get are simply amazing.

You can visit Sinopia's site HERE.


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Almost Open Studios 2016

The family has been amazing, helping me get ready for Open Studios the last couple of weeks.

I will be open on Sat. and Sun. October 3rd, 4th, 17th, and 18th from 11:00 to 5:00. Come on by.

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Faces
Princess, 18x24" acrylic on canvas and Wedding Day, 24x24" acrylic on canvas.

Princess, 18x24" acrylic on canvas and Wedding Day, 24x24" acrylic on canvas.

Lately, I have dipped into painting a few faces. Please consider these works in progress or very rough drafts. This series is probably going to stay in my hands or be painted over.

After purposefully neglecting the human face for the last few years, these paintings are a lot of fun to do.

I started out thinking I could ignore light and shadow with these, but that foolish notion was thrown out almost immediately. Highlighting keeps slipping in there and if you want to paint any kind of detail, the shadows are your primary tools. 

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The Story of a Painting: One Year Early
One Year Early. Oil on canvas. 30"x48"

One Year Early. Oil on canvas. 30"x48"

I don't know if this is interesting to other folks, but I'm thinking about making this a series of blog posts. Writing about one painting in detail. Let's see how this works.

One Year Early is one of my first oil paintings. The photograph was taken with the model standing on a kitchen counter and me on my knees below her. I love the presence of the pose. The angle is classically domineering and powerful but there is something about the position of her arms that tempers the angle and feels very casual. These contradictory elements in the pose would dictate the color and mood of the painting for me.

I love experimenting and I was fascinated with the way my new oil paints blended. This painting started as a whirlwind of blended colors. It's very rare that I use a brush to paint and One Year Early is no exception. It's all palette knife. Once the thin layer of colors cured, I thinned some red (I don't remember which red) and spread that on top. I let that cure and got started on the figure.

I use chalk to draw in my figures, that way I can easily wipe off mistakes and draw over and over until it is just right. Then I mask the figure with painter's tape. With this painting, the red was so loud, that I thought it might be interesting to counter the red, not by clashing with it, using loud greens or blues, but by cancelling it as the contradictions in the pose had tempered one another. I had a thought that I could paint a painting that you would walk right past. It would be quiet and perfect for a library or hotel. I know I should probably be trying to get attention, "LOOK AT ME!" But, I was going for something else with this painting. To deal with that loud red, I chose a deep plum wine color, it almost looks black in thicker areas. Around that time I was reading the amazing David Park biography by Nancy Boas and I grew an appreciation and love for ochre yellow. I had never been a big fan of yellow, but ochre yellow just sings to me now. I think there is some brown in there as well.

The blue dots. I don't know. The painting needed some kind of spark. I went for quiet, but it was WAY too quiet. I wish I had a clever or intellectual reason for the blue dots, but I don't. They come from the guts.

The name of the painting, One Year Early, came at the very end. I signed the painting and when I dated it, I got it wrong. I wrote 1-13 instead of 1-14. So, while the painting has the wrong year on it, the title pretty much advertises that fact. I kind of hate telling you that story about the title, you probably have a better story or idea in your head. Maybe the idea for this "The Story of a Painting" series is a bad idea. I'm not sure.

If there is anything else you would like to know about One Year Early, or any other paintings, let me know by heading on over to the 'Contact' page.

Thanks.

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Finishing up a commission
We Live in a Cave II. Mixed media on canvas. 48"x36"

We Live in a Cave II. Mixed media on canvas. 48"x36"

Just finished up a commission of We Live in a Cave II. This one is varnished, wired, and ready for delivery. Yes, I will do commissions. Ask me.

This painting was done a little backwards. Normally, I paint a background, let it dry, and then paint the figure over the top. With this painting I painted the black background last. Below are some phone camera pics of the process. I did the fire ladies first, painting about fifty layers of reds and oranges and yellows with paint and a glazing medium to keep the layers semi-transparent. Then, I chalked in the figures, and painted the dark background in thin brown and black layers.

The pics below are not really a step-by-step but give a bit of a glimpse of the early process.

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