Monday, March 24, 2014

Five & Six



I haven't not been doing art....

Painting is still not flowing off my brushes, but I've been photographing.





Sunday Morning, China Camp, California.






Fan II, acrylic on canvas, 20"x 20"


Went back to the image of my grandfather's fan. 

Started with the idea of making a black and white painting but some warm tones snuck in. 

I might have another go at this next week.







Scissors II, acrylic on paper

Also worked with an old image of scissors.

First repainted a canvas version I did years ago that was a little still, it stayed a little stiff, 
I think it'll be a bag soon... and then did this version on paper, which I like better.



Speaking of bags:








Twin Peaks bag, front and back. I like what's happening in the back!



I spend a lot of time teaching photography to young students, mostly 3rd through 5th graders.

I don't tell them what to photograph, I figure it's their world, they can show me what they see. 

We work a lot on how to take photographs in focus, 
and then sometimes that rule gets broken brilliantly:






















Saturday, March 8, 2014

Week Four




Is it really week four? I don't even know anymore. 

For the past few weeks I have had to pull back and regroup. Painting has not been going very well, painful in fact, and repainting wasn't working either. Both of which put me in a funk. 

This was a new painting.... after trying to figure out what I really would paint if I could paint anything, I thought BIG black and white paintings... went to the basement and pulled out a large gessoed piece of un-stretched canvas and painted a crow. It was terrible.
 The next morning it was still terrible.
So I made into this bag. 

It works as a bag! 




I started to pull old work off stretcher bars and sew. 

A couple I thought needed repainting to make a better bag, 
but then after repainting, I think I now like them as paintings.

 I'll have to live with them for a while before I decide what they'll end up as.





Can't let go of the process of painting, so I am limping along for now. 


This is a transistor radio I bought at a flea market just to paint:






Transistor Radio, acrylic on board, 8" x 10"


I don't know why I am being drawn to objects with a lot of detail, but that's how it is right now.







I was talking about this project the other day with a parent 
and we were both remarking on how these are often our favorite kid's art projects,
 simple objects drawn with charcoal and white pastel, mounted together.