I started the over-painting on The News this morning. The News is 44″ x 60.” I haven’t put brush to it for several weeks while I waited for it to dry. I do a lot of layers and bad things happen if new layers are put over still-wet ones. This is one reason I work on a…
This is the first time I’ve shown this painting, titled Three Girls. Today’s painting session was the fourth. The underpainting is finished and this morning I started the over-painting. The stretcher is 40″ x 50″ and old; it’s not heavy duty, it’s like the thinner ones you see on smaller paintings. But waste not, want…
I didn’t get much painting done today but I did work on Heated Museum Discussion. I wiped the entire surface with denatured alcohol before stating and the paint went on like butter. I spent most of the day getting my boat, the Betty Jane, ready for winter. This is an annual event I don’t relish.…
I worked on this small painting this morning. I am still working on the underpainting but it’s far enough along to show. I used to be phobic about people commenting on unfinished work. I used to hate–I mean hate–it when people visited my studio unannounced. They would inevitably comment about the unfinished work piled everywhere. Even…
Today’s session was the third painting session for The Photographer (32″ x 48″). The under-painting is nearly finished–one more session. Because it’s a single female figure, it reminds me of the recently finished The Explainer. I didn’t get much done this week. The flu shot I got on Monday–DO NOT get a flu shot when you’re…
I’ve been working on this painting, Washington Square, for some time. The underpainting is far enough along to show it. It’s 44″ x 56″. I’m 6’2,” so you can get a sense of the painting’s size. There are 12 figures and 7 pigeons in the work. There was a 13th but I’m painting it out.…
Crap, somehow I managed to do it again. Without noticing, I dragged by shirt sleeve through the cadmium red on the palette. The red oil paint got all over my shirt and arms before I noticed. Luckily, I didn’t get any in my mouth. No matter how hard I try, this happens with distressing regularity. Whenever it happens, my wife scolds me like I’m eight-years old. Sigh, another piece of clothing relegated–like half of the clothes in my closet–to the ‘cannot wear outside the studio’ category.
I will remind her of the time she sat too close to the palette and dragged her long auburn hair through every color, and painted several pieces of furniture with her hair-brush before we realized it.
I am wrapping up one of my really big paintings. This bad boy, The Offensive, is 74″ x 96″–roughly 6 by 8 feet. It comes from a series of paintings with subjects that are more topical than my recent work. At different times, I become engrossed by such topics. If you peruse my gallery, you’ll seem some of them there. I’ll have The Offensive in my gallery soon. Its size alone presents challenges, both in making it and in photographing it