recent acquisitions

One of my favorite things about traveling the 'art fair circuit' is the opportunity to add to my own little art collection. I thought you might like to see who I brought home from our last outing. The pictures are not of exactly what I bought, just works by that artist.

In Atlanta I picked up a charming little watercolor of a woman mooning a penguin by Rhode Island funny man Greg Stones. Its title is 'penguin, woman, bum'. This one is 'penguin, sock monkey, death'...



In Birmingham I made two purchases and two trades. My buys were a little drawing/mono print piece by Mark Traughber (this is my actual piece)...



and a sculpture by Joan Rasmussen whose website is beautiful and won't let me steal her pictures.

My trades were a fantastic robot with a spy glass by Anthony Pack (who I couldn't find a website for). His business is called 'Urban Folk Art' if you'd like to google him.



and a large painting by my all time art crush Kathrine Allen-Coleman.



Check them out so they won't be mad at me for using their images here without their permission!

show updates...we won!

Hello everyone! Many thanks to all of our new friends and dedicated collectors that made our 'Dogwood' and 'Magic City' great shows. We were delighted to be honored with awards at both shows...best in category for the former and a merit award for the latter.

Special thanks to our friend David D. in Atlanta who took home my personal favorite from our most recent collection, "Masters of the Universe" (oil on linen, 48 x 36). David is the best.

Magic City was a challenge as Saturday's forecast called for 'strong storms with the possibility of damaging winds, large hail, and tornadoes.' Huh. Show director Eileen made the very wise decision to shut the show down for Saturday, so Friday night we packed it all up. Sat. we went to the art museum (excellent) and the movies (date night, also excellent) then Sunday we had to set everything back up again for the day, work the show, and then break down again that night.

I'm tired.

We're finishing up a project today and tomorrow that I can't tell you about yet. It's a secret...maybe next week. Then we're on the road again for a whirlwind trip...Asheville to pick up work, Kansas City for a show, Knoxville to drop off for a gallery show, home for two days, back to Knoxville for the reception, on to Jackson GA that same night to set up for a festival, then home. Holy cow...beer me stamina.

Hoping to see you all somewhere soon!

OH, OH, OH Ps. I forgot to tell you that Genna and I are headed to Sausalito CA this September for our very first west coast show. I have no idea how to do this, so if you're an artist and you've done it before, I'd love to hear any advice.

new neutrals

I know its hard to tease out from our work what is mine and what is Genna's, but if you can you realize quite quickly that my palette is actually quite restrained. Most of the cacophony of color in our pieces emanates out from the underpainting.

In a few of our newest pieces, I am employing an almost completely neutral over painting. For example, here is our new "Upright Tarpon" (48" x 24"), finished day before yesterday:


If you look closely, my layer is almost entirely grey, black, tan, and taupe.

Another new one from this week (Boy Line, Bike Tangle, 48" x 36") sports a brand new color that I don't think I've ever touched before...a soft, peat-y, bunny rabbit brown that I think everyone will be seeing more of:



Have a beautiful day everybody!

reservoir dogs

In Houston at the Bayou City show a few weeks ago, a prospective client told me that my newest piece, "Striding Plaid Foursome" (oil on linen, 36" x 60"), reminded him of Reservoir Dogs. I can't tell you how much I loved this comment as the reference for this work made me think of every cool, slow-mo 'guys walk toward the camera to an awesome song' movie scene. Those get me every single time, from R. Dogs to The Right Stuff to Swingers to my recent favorite, Paul Rudd and his rag tag groomsmen in I Love You Man.

Did I just tell too much about myself?

Anyway, I came back from Houston and had to make another. Here is "Boardwalk" (oil on linen, 36" x 60", $2800):



and here is the progression of the plaid foursome:

back in the saddle

Finally...finally today I had the stamina to get in a full day of painting. I don't know how long this is for other artists, but for me its around four hours. That sounds kind of wimpy when I say it out loud, don't tell my parents.

So, I'm pleased to report that I was able to reconnoiter my 'fig tree confidential' diptych to my satisfaction. As I mentioned in my last post, I thought I was finished with the diptych on Friday but was not happy with the results.

The layering process that Genna and I use doesn't allow for a lot of 'adjustments'. If I lay down an image and it doesn't work, I generally have to re-gesso the canvas and start over. Foggy as I was, I didn't think to photograph my 'disappointment diptych', so here's the verbal gist: I booh-boohed the composition by making up a bunch of shapes in the left hand piece to mirror the forms in the right hand corner of the right hand panel. It was super boring. The beauty of the inspiration photo was in the dramatic amorphous mass of leaves behind the couples.

I considered scrapping the left hand panel altogether and finishing off the right one as an independent work, but Genna suggested 're-underpainting' the background of the left piece and going again. So that's what I did. Here it is re-underpainted,

And here it is completely finished:

I hope I've done Mr. Buchanan's original image justice. My homage is "Fig Tree Diptych", two panels each 36" square oil on linen framed in black, $3500.

fig tree confidential, panel 2

I went to the doctor yesterday for the first time in about 12 years. It was nearly as fun as I remembered. They gave me a steroid shot and a z-pack scrip (which seems to be the treatment for just about everything anymore) and today I would say I'm back up to about 60% of myself. Such a relief after wandering around at about a 30 for a week!

But enough about me, you're here for the 'amish sexy' diptych update, right?

Here are the two underpainted panels, each 36" square linen:



That right hand panel is actually an "underpainting's underpainting". It's the acrylic wash step before Genna adds the oil wash layer. I liked it so much at this stage I snuck in and took it from his studio before he could take it any further.

Here if you click it and look closely I think you can see the drawing:



And then here is the progression of the right hand panel:








I actually finished the left hand panel today, put them together, and said 'bummer'. I think I have the solution figured out but don't want to show you until I fix it! Maybe Monday.

amish-y sexy

Hi all. After a week long struggle with a nasty chest cold, I'm kinda sorta halfway back in the studio. My energy level is around a 5, but I'm level 10 excited about my newest project.

I'm embarking on my third diptych which I'm calling 'Amish Sexy Diptych' in my mind but will actually probably be "Fig Tree Diptych". The inspiration image shown above is from the fabulous book "The Picture Man", edited by my friend and fellow artist Ann Hawthorne. Ann is a talented and much respected photographer who researched and then befriended NC itinerant photographer Paul Buchanan before his death. She obtained permission to reprint his beautiful photos from their original negatives and has put together a stunning book and several traveling exhibitions with the results. Mr. Buchanan traveled throughout rural North Carolina from the 1920's through the early '50s photographing locals for a little money or for barter. While they were not meant at the time to be art photos, their art is undeniable.

Anywho. I find this particular image wonderfully sensual. It's two embracing couples, but they're also posed in front of this mass of fig leaves, mimicing their entwined arms. I google image searched 'fig leaves' and all kinds of sexy stuff popped up...twisted branches and leaves, cut figs (ahem.), naked statue's covered up privates, and for some reason a bunch of ladies in lingerie. But these folks are dressed from head to toe, so 'amish sexy'.

If I can hold it together for a few more hours today, hopefully I'll have the progession of the right hand work for you tommorrow. I wonder why I always start with the right one?

reconcilliation

Here we are with the unified diptych. Yay! The process of bringing the two images together consisted of 2 days of wandering around the studio staring at them and maybe an hour of actually working on the canvases. I've posted the 90% finished works paired together below so that you can see the differences.

Basically, I simplied some of the shapes in the left hand bushes, carried a little of the buttery yellow over to the right hand piece and brightened the lower right shape on the right hand piece to help 'hold up' that side of the composition.


I'm tickeled with how this came out. I think it shares the spirit of the first "Main Street Diptych" while bringing its own new goodies to the table.

I forgot to mention the original inspiration for this work, which will hopefully become a new series. In collecting old pics, I often run across sets that are obviously taken one right after the other (a daughter holds the camera to shoot Mom and Dad, then Mom does the same for father and daughter). I love studying these little pairs and seeing how much the overall flow, rhythm, and spirit of a scene can change from one moment to the next. This set (image posted below) had a shift in perspective from one to the other. It's also sort of like those picture puzzles in kid's magazines where you have to find the 12 things that are different. I love that.

I know I'm talking too much and most of you have already given up, but one more quick thing...my client related reading these posts to watching a surrogate carrying her soon to be born twins. Isn't that the best?

diptych left

So, here is the progression of the left hand panel of the new diptych. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, see Saturday's post!

Today I will be 'reconcilling' the two works into their final, paired composition. Look out for the finished project Wednesday at the latest.










"Main Street Dipytch" panel one, 90% complete.

diptych dos

A lovely prospective client that met us at Brookside in Kansas City has asked that we revisit our image "301 Main Street Diptych" (shown above). I was delighted to do so as this was one of my very favorite 2009 works.

The challenge in this piece was to make a piece in two parts where each part could stand alone as a painting but together make one cohesive work. Also, I began with two extremely different underpaintings...different both in palette and in orientation. The one on the right was horizontally striped and the one on the left was vertically striped. Each piece was brought individually to 90% completion. Then they were hung together to finish the final 10% of the process, developing rhythms and harmonies and between the two. Voila.

What I like about these two as a diptych is the way the composition in the left hand painting funnels down into the right hand painting. The brick walk on the left mates up the curb on the right, creating one strong horizontal line that travels through both.

I'm documenting the building of the new piece here, probably in two or three posts as it developes. I'm beginning with the right hand panel.

Here are the two pieces drawn out and just begun:





And here is the progression of the right hand panel from beginning to 95ish% completed. (If I was more clever I could have presented it as a little slideshow...but I'm not.) ((Also, please forgive the photo quality as I shot these indoors right on the easle.)):










Stay tuned...

newly wed (couple a day #23)

I'm sorry I forgot about you guys yesterday. Genna and I left for Miami yesterday morning and you just slipped my mind! We've made it here safely and with little trouble thus far. Last night we slept at a Holiday Inn that smelled just like the inside of an ashtray. We finished our set up today just ahead of a crazy nasty storm...excellent timing!

That's not what I'm here to tell you, though, right? Tonight I am posting my last 'couple a day' painting. I thougnt it would be appropriate to make it the only wedding couple I've ever painted (and may ever paint) since it's the eve of Valentine's Eve. This piece is from our "Inspirations" show that just wrapped up at 16 Patton in Asheville. There is a lovely little story about the couple that I'll tell you when I get home and can look it up.

See the hidden heart?

Happy Valentine's Day, all.

"Newly Wed", oil on masonite, 10" x 8", $300
available from 16 Patton Gallery, Asheville NC

Emerging (couple a day #22)

Today's offering is another version of our "Emerging" image. This one is a biggun, though.

"Emerging", oil on linen, 36" x 48", $2200

We packed up the whole studio today to head to Miami for the Coconut Grove show. 61 pieces in tow! Wish us luck...