Sunday, September 26, 2010

Television


This is a little 8 x 10 painting, oil on canvas, called "Television". Some of the other paintings I'm working on right now are fairly large, so it's gratifying to execute something quickly for a change.

My wife's little sister, Cortney, posed for this in her parents' living room. I like the color harmony of the image, and it's mood.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

"Freeway Exit"


I wanted to either call this new painting "Houses by a Freeway" or "Freeway Exit", it's 15 x 30 inches, oil on canvas. This one involved a lot of imagination, I made up much of the landscape. But it's based on my travels through Detroit.

I laid down some fairly thick impasto on this piece, scraping the paint around with my palette knife, and smearing color around with a rag. I love the surface of this piece in particular, the manipulation of light, and the quiet color. I enjoyed playing with the composition and design too, with the houses on the right, and the lone solitary figure on the bridge to the left. Together, all these things hit on the overall mood I was going for.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Graffiti Bridge


This is "Graffiti Bridge", oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches. With this piece, I invented these young characters making art on the walls of the bridge, like modern hyroglifics. I have wanted to include graffiti in one of my paintings for a long time, since so many of the places that I paint are often old, and usually have graffiti on them anyway. But it then becomes an important part of the image. So my graffiti tells a story.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Waiting


"Waiting" oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches. This is a continuation on my theme from a previous painting, called "Looking Outward". It's inspiration comes from a quote by the famous psychologist and author, Carl Jung... "Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens."

In this piece, I used a turn of the century building as my location, a female model, and more of a focus on the light hitting the building's exterior. "Waiting" is available through K. Nathan Gallery in La Jolla.