Preliminary drawings for "FALL"

(Perliminary drawing for "Fall", pencil on strathmore paper, 20 x 30 inches)

I have grappled with the challenge of adding figures to my work for years, and only recently have I begun to do figurative work that I'm satisfied with at the level of my landscapes. The more I keep working at it, the more I admire artists that do it well... Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth are just a couple of examples. Then add to the list Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, Grant Wood, Andrew Wyeth, and more. And as I have begun to overcome some challenges of mine with the figure set in a landscape or interior, I have found that one of the most important foundations is in my drawing.

(Snake and leaves detail, from drawing for "Fall") So rather than jumping right onto canvas, I now do fairly resolved pencil drawings seperately on paper first. I have done preliminary sketches of heads, hands, and figures in my sketchbook. Then I move on to a large sheet of paper where all of my mistakes are made, erased, and fixed, until the drawing is to my satisfaction (these are the drawings you see posted here). Then I enlarge that drawing onto canvas. This way I don't have to fight the drawing so much when I approach the painting... I can focus more on color, brushwork, and painting technique. But I still make subtle changes and corrections with the drawing on the canvas as I go.

N.C. Wyeth, in his confidence, didn't seem to have much need for resolved preliminary drawings on paper. However, Rockwell executed one for nearly every painting he did, and they were nearly full-scale to the paintings. Artists have varying methods... to each his own. They're both awesome.

("Brandi" pencil drawing on strathmore paper, 14 x 28 inches.)

My finished painting of "Fall" will be a large 36 x 54 inches, oil on canvas (work in progress). It's one of the more complex and detailed paintings I've ever attempted... it includes two full figures, a big bush with more leaves than I'd ever want to count, the ground is covered with grass and leaves, and a neighborhood full of houses in the background. I'll talk more about some of the underlying meaning of the piece when I post the finished painting... but don't hold your breath, this piece will take me a while to finish!

Urban Landscape Award

As mentioned in my previous post, I attended the California Art Club's 98th Annual Gold Medal Exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. It was a very exciting evening, I got to see allot of old friends and meet some new ones. There was a bunch of great artwork in the show, and I feel very honored that my painting, "Looking Inward", won the award for Urban Landscape, sponsored by Art Ltd. Magazine.

That's Christopher Slatoff (left), myself, Peter Adams (CAC President), and David Gallup

"South Rock, Laguna" 10 x 12 inches, oil on canvas.
In contrast from my urban landscape work, and to keep the blog updated with new paintings, this is "South Rock, Laguna", 10 x 12 inches, oil on canvas. I executed it on location with my painting pal Bill Wray a while back, then finished it in the studio. I've got a handful of plein-air pieces that I'll post here in the future.

Pictured below is "Above Torrey Pines Beach", oil on board, approximately 20 x 28 inches. This is one of my favorite areas here in San Diego, I enjoy hiking along the trails at Torrey Pines State Reserve, and do a little bit of plein-air painting there when I get a chance. It's a departure from my typical studio work, but I enjoy getting out and soaking in the sun when I can. It's only a ten minute drive from my house, and a big reason why I moved to SD. Doing plein-air painting helps me keep an eye for color and forces me to work faster... and as a studio painter, I often feel cooped up, it's nice to get outside.

SOUTHWEST ART MAGAZINE and the AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR, April 2009 issues, CAC Gold Medal Exhibition

The new April issue of AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR features an article about the California Art Club's 98th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition and includes an image of my self-portrait, "Looking Inward" on page 82 with a little write-up about my art.



Also, SOUTHWEST ART MAGAZINE picked me for "Best of the West" in their April issue. There is a full page image of "Looking Inward" on page 30 along with a write up for the CAC Gold Medal Exhibition titled, "The Gold Standard".

These magazines will be on newsstands this week.


I'm excited about going to the Pasadena Museum of California Art for the CAC show, "Looking Inward" oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches, will be included in the exhibition. The dates for it are April 26 through May 17. It is one of the most prestegious and collector-friendly art events in Southern California. Here's a link... http://www.californiaartclub.org/resources/gm.shtml


I also have a half page ad in the April issue of AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR with my painting, "Looking Outward" on page 79.


"Looking Outward" oil on canvas, 32 x 48 inches

Looking Forward

With my newest paintings, as I have mentioned in previous posts, I am working on a series of figures. This one is "Looking Forward", a smaller oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches. My goal was to place a prominent figure in a landscape that felt like one of my own paintings, and to do it in the most interesting way I could think of. There is a kind of mood with this figure and it's placement that I was going for, the piece acts as somewhat of a portrait, but with a feeling of anticipation for things to come. In my mind, she wants to move on from this place in order to grow, to start the hero's journey as in mythology. The model is 19 years old, and I remember myself at that age, my greatest desire was to leave the familiarity of home to explore the possibilities that awaited me. Hence the title.

For the painting's execution, I started with a quick sketch of the figure. I had taken my model (Michelle) to a neighborhood around Banker's Hill and Hillcrest in San Diego for a photo shoot. The light was particularly bright that day, with the sun scorching down on us. As I worked up my sketches later, I manipulated the figure drawing around in photoshop with the landscape sketch. I labored the precise compositional placement I wanted, with the figure at the end of the driveway, then enlarged my drawing to canvas. The whole underpainting was laid in with raw umber on a gray gessoed canvas, then I painted the figure. I even lit a plaster cast of a Roman sculpture to paint from, just to get the light on the head just right. I wanted a crispness with the form, a sense of reality, but slightly stylized in the manner of my sketch. The color harmony worked out well with the landscape behind her, there is a sense of a slightly hazy atmosphere going back into the distant hills, and the house at the end of the driveway is in sharp contrast. There is allot of foliage behind her, and I tried to treat it with the stylization of my own. I love the way the Renaissance painters would paint trees and foliage, or the manner in which more recent painters like Grant Wood treated plant life, I want to play around more with these kind of natural and organic forms in subsequent paintings. Over the years, I have painted many architectural forms. Including the figure forces me to add not just an organic and more naturalistic element to my work, but a more psychological element as well.

The Los Angeles Sky 2

This new painting is "The Los Angeles Sky 2", oil on canvas, 20 x 20 inches. It's based on another piece that I did a couple of years ago on a larger scale. The landscape is set in an area just east of downtown by the L.A. River, just after the rain. Los Angeles City Hall is the building on the left side of the skyline. Paintings by Maynard Dixon and N.C. Wyeth inspired the stylization of the big cloudy sky. I enjoy the juxtaposition of the geometric city buildings below with the organic sky above in this piece.

I had originally started this canvas with a prominent portrait painted in the foreground, and intended to use the landscape of the bridge and downtown buildings as the "mise-en scene". Although I liked the idea very much, as the figure developed, I felt that it was too tight and photographic. I like to let a piece mature organically with a life of it's own, and although I use photos as reference for work at times, I hate for an image to appear mechanical and without a soul. So as the piece evolved, the clouds covered the portrait. I love how the finished product turned out here, although it covers up a failed attempt at another idea.

This failed attempt, however, proved to be an important step in several of my new figurative works. The current paintings I'm working on now all include figures, it's a whole new level of executing a painting. It involves allot more planning, working with models, preliminary drawings, compositional sketches, and technical challenges with paint. Entire days and weeks before even getting to canvas. Getting a harmony of flesh tones with the landscape can actually be a daunting task, I feel like it's the ultimate challenge to a painter to place a well painted figure in a space that's interesting and relates well to the setting.

Arroyo Seco Freeway

"Arroyo Seco Freeway" is an historic engineering landmark (the CA110) between downtown LA and Pasadena. Constructed between 1938 and 1940, the parkway was designed for people to slowly drive along at 35mph and take in the view, considered to be leisurely and scenic. The old bridges on this stretch of road are amazing, I first saw them as I headed up to Pasadena to start college at the Art Center, they forever remained etched in my memory. I particularly like the morning light that was captured in this piece, along with the long blue shadows stretched across the foreground. "Arroyo Seco Freeway" is 18 x 24 inches, oil on canvas.

Four LA River Trains

"Four L.A. River Trains" is 18 x 24 inches, oil on canvas. This area of Los Angeles, just east of downtown, is a world of continuous inspiration for my work. I made an effort to keep the color quiet in this piece, using a limited palette. The foreground trains are rich in darker/warmer contrast to the milky haze of the atmosphere in the receding cooler background. I like the way that those trains are all converging together at this point to make it under the bridge, those tracks they follow help make for a rather interesting composition.

Picnic Tables

This is "Michelle and Rocky", 16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas. I've been experimenting more with adding new meaning to my work, I want to be more diverse in my story telling abilities. After my trip to the Louvre in 2006, I felt a deeper need to paint the figure, so I've worked with a few models since then. This picnic table is in a park close to where I live, and I'd often wanted to paint it.

This is a smaller painting that I started on location, or "plein-air". It's called "Picnic For Crows", 12 x 16 inches, oil on canvas. My painting on location started with the picnic table on the sand, I set up my easel at a beach in Encinitas and got a good start on it. Later in the studio, I added the crows eating my picnic... the image reminded me of a couple of crotchety old art dealers I used to know in Pasadena.

Wreckage

A while back, I purchased a WWII era model airplane, a Lockheed P-38 Lightning. I've been out to airfields before and worked up paintings from what I saw, but I wanted to experiment and do something different, taking it to the next level. So I took my model airplane and put it in a beach setting for a more imaginative interpretation. I added the small figure sitting under the propeller to give the aircraft a sense of scale and add to the peaceful mood of the sunset over the horizon. And the quiet color harmony of the piece adds to that as well. Often, I've admired old paintings of shipwrecks, and this is my own modern take on the old subject (but obviously with a plane). It's called "Wreckage" 18 x 24 inches, oil on canvas.

San Pedro Rail Bridge

This is "San Pedro Rail Bridge", another large new painting, 36 x 48 inches, oil on canvas. There's alot of thick impasto on there, as well as thin washy areas in the shadows. I troweled down some thick paint on the areas of the concrete bridge supports, I really like the effect. And I'm especially pleased about how the palette and overall color harmony of the painting turned out, sometimes less is more. The simple, yet bold graphic effect of the composition really worked on the large scale of the piece, it makes for a looming and weighty feel over the viewer's vantage point.

Looking Inward

"Looking Inward" is a large 36 x 48 inches, oil on canvas. It took months to finish. My inspiration for this piece is from something Carl Jung once said, "Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." And a quote from Gary Parent, "To see your Dream you must stop looking outward at everyone else's Dream, and look inward to see and discover your own Dream."

This painting, "Looking Inward", as well as the post below of "Looking Outward" feel like the culmination of my efforts as an artist to this point in my life. My points of view, looking inward for thoughts and feelings, looking out at the world in longing and awe. Seeing potential. Both paintings include my favorite subject, architecture, and both make use of the figure.

The figure in this piece, "Looking Inward" is an obvious self-portrait. I started with a little sketch of this diner interior, it's "Cindy's" in Eagle Rock, close to where I used to live in Pasadena. But I wanted to include a figure in an interesting way, so I challenged myself to sketch one in the scene. After I doodled the guy outside, looking into the brilliantly lit diner through the window, I felt it had a symbolic dream like quality, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to do a self portrait. Lately, I have been developing an interest in psychology, read allot on dreams, the writings of Carl Jung, as well as Victor Frankel's "Man's Search For Meaning". And I believe that the greatest thing an artwork can do is to develop and carry some personal meaning for my life, and pass some on to the viewer, to discover significant meaning in his or her own life as well.

Looking Outward

This is a large painting, 32 x 48 inches, and probably one of my favorites I've painted yet. I'm calling it "Looking Outward". One of two large new paintings of mine, both inspired by 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."

The setting is a building facade in downtown Los Angeles. When I first saw it, I imagined that it might be the old Chouinard art school's building on 3rd Street, the school that eventually became Art Center where I attended college. But this was just an assumption due to the bas-relief sculpture and decorative elements seen on the beautiful old building, on closer examination they're obviously symbolic representations of history, education, and the arts.

I found it to be an ironic scene that this beautiful old building, appearing to have once been erected to somehow glorify the arts, was now a textile manufacturing plant in the garment district... some people might refer to it as a "sweat shop". The worker looking out the window is a kind of psychological self portrait. As I worked on the piece, it became evident that the image was full of alot of personal meaning to me, this will be one of those paintings that I'll especially hate to part with.

City Train

Another painting that I did a while ago, but recently re-worked. "City Train" is 24 x 36 inches, oil on canvas. I piled alot more paint onto this one, threw a shadow across the foreground to add a level of depth, cleaned up the bridge, and edited out a few other things. Made the cityscape in the background a little more smokey, I always love an atmospheric haze in the air of a painting. The scene reminded me of one of Monet's paintings at the D'Orsay in Paris.

Stockton Trains South and North

This painting is called "Stockton Trains South", it's oil on masonite, 16 x 24 inches. I intended to do these pieces as a pair, this one is with a cooler and more tonal palette. I loved how the concrete was so beat up and crumbling, and how it pulls the viewer into the painting. And the subtle mud puddles reflecting the telephone pole and railroad crossing sign.

This accompanying piece is called "Stockton Trains North", oil on masonite, 16 x 24 inches. Painting on masonite is a different challenge from painting on canvas, the surface is much more slick and makes for great transparency in the paint. I'll definitely try it again. I had fun with the warmer color in this one, had to do lots of glazing, and I did have to paint that sky three times to get it just right. But the clouds do add to the underlying zig-zag composition of the overall piece.

Chavez Ravine

This is my newest painting "Chavez Ravine", 18 x 18 inches, oil on canvas. The location is close to Dodger Stadium, that's downtown LA in the background. I painted on location here with my pal William Wray a couple of years ago, I used my plein-air study as color reference for this more finished studio piece. I was going for a more impressionistic palette with subtle color and a hazy atmospheric feel. As I worked, it helped me to keep in mind... warm foreground receding to a cooler background.

Recently I acquired a couple of drawings by Sam Hyde Harris. I was inspired by some paintings he did back in the 1930's and 40's, some of which were done around Chavez Ravine. One such piece is reproduced in a book I have, called "Plein-Air Painters of California, the Southland" by Ruth Westphal.