Lemon, knife and plate, oil on linen panel, 5 x 7 inch (13 x 18 cm), 06/29/2010
Tag Archives: knife
Lemon, knife and plate
Lemon, knife and plate, oil on linen panel, 5 x 7 inch (13 x 18 cm), 06/28/2010
Apricot, knife and plate
Apricot, knife and plate, oil on linen panel, 5 x 5 inch (13 x 13 cm), 06/27/2010
Apricot and knife
Apricot and Knife, oil on linen panel, 5 x 5 inch (13 x 13 cm), 06/26/2010
Apple and apricots
Apple and apricots, gouache, 7 x 9.5 in (18 x 24 cm), 06/03/2010
Apple and apricots, ink, 7 x 9.5 in (18 x 24 cm), 06/03/2010
Sketches
Kitchen Interior, ink, 5 x 8.25 in (12.7 x 20.95 cm), 1/17/2009
Kitchen Still Life, ink, 5 x 8.25 in (12.7 x 20.95 cm), 1/17/2009
Current Work Process
Still Life, gouache, 7 x 9.25 in, (17.78 x 23.5 cm), 12/10/2008
This year I concentrated on a program of self directed study. I’ve gone back to basics to focus on color mixing, drawing, and composition. I want my work to convey the weight of history but feel modern. Often times I miss and they look old-timey. I’m asking myself how to imbue the work with meaning and emotion without crossing into illustration. The bookshelf in my childhood home had Norman Rockwell and Walt Disney right next to Michelangelo and Rembrandt. Cultural wires were crossed. Growing up in the era of mass produced reproductions meant you could consume enormous quantities of visual information but never really land anywhere for yourself. Gouache copies are a way to create a somatic experience of the art that resonates.
Progress with drawing and color is occurring, but composition continues to be a sticking point. I work with pictorial space as opposed to designs on a flat surface, meanwhile exploring varying points of view. With the current series, I’m maintaining the outside dimensions consistently across media, scaling the format to keep the ratios uniform for sketch, gouache, and oil, in order to better understand the spatial qualities of a particular size, currently 11 x 14.
Avigdor Arikha writes wisely about the relationship of objects in space to the edges of the canvas in his book ‘On Depiction.’ His work has an honest spontaneity that is deceptively hard to achieve. It’s no wonder that Manet was criticized for looking artificial compared to the Spanish realists he loved so much. Seeing Morandi’s work two weeks ago rekindled the excitement of 20th century issues: the tension between representation and abstraction being a locus of meaning; the way people look at subjects and painters look at paint; painting as a repudiation of the world’s strife and chaos. I’ll continue to post the good with the bad of what I’m doing. I am taking many small steps.
Still Life, micron pen / ink, 5 x 8.25, (12.7 x 20.95 cm), 12/3/2008
Still Life, oil on paper, 7.5 x 11 in, (19.05 x 27.94 cm), 12/1/2008
Still Life, gouache, 7 x 9.25 in, (17.78 x 23.5 cm), 11/29/2008
Posted in artists writers, books, color composition, drawing, essay writing, gouache, ink, oil, painting, still-life indoor Also tagged apple, Arikha, coconut, Manet, Morandi, wine Comments closed
Bananas and cheese
Bananas and cheese, gouache, 7 x 9.5 in (17.78 x 24.13 cm), 10/27/08
Bananas and cheese, pencil, 5 x 8.5 in (12.7 x 21.59 cm), 10/27/08
Postcard
Teapot with lemon and knife, oil on linen panel, 5 x 7 in. (12.7 x 17.78 cm), 8/19/2008
Today marks the completion of several intersecting projects that I have worked on in the last three months. My website is updated with work from this year and has a new structure, changed from being grouped by medium to being grouped by year or by genre. Two paintings for two shows are framed and donated, both to fund raisers: one for a non-profit gallery, the other for social needs. And the blog continues to be published approximately once a week with images and periodic written pieces. If you would like to be on the mailing list for a paper and ink postcard with information about these events, please send your postal address to me.
Tomato, knife and paper bag
Tomato, knife and paper bag, oil on linen panel, 8 x 10 inch (20 x 25 cm), 06/30/2010