Phase 4

The next step: I have finished filling out the main forms of the piece. Right now it has a lot going on; I need to think about it for a bit because something will have to be sacrificed in order to pull it off as a successful composition. I think there are way too many highlights, for one, and the light source seems a little harsh. We are very close right now, though! Time to fine-tune the piece then call it done.

Dawn

Phase 3

So now we're starting to get somewhere! Here I'm starting to flesh out the rest of the painting. I'm still underpainting this image, trying to build it up layer by layer while constantly pushing the values where they need to go. This kind of image with all its linear structure is very intriguing to me; I like to lay down lines then make them disappear then find them again and so on. The final piece should show that back-and-forth, highlighting the process involved.

I started an encaustic painting of another old building in town--will post it when it is finished as well. I think it is safe to say I am on another series, this one using old buildings as subject matter. Will elaborate on the content in another post--back to the studio!

Dawn

Phase 2

Okay, here's the second major step in the art piece. The initial layout has a lot going on: lots of lines and grid marks. I decided to lay in the sky first to give me a sense of atmosphere and help define my negative space. Sometimes the best way to begin a work is by painting the spaces you are not trying to define; "painting what isn't" as someone once told me. You can't see in the photo, but the sky has multiple layers of various shades of grey, whites, and iridescent silvers so it has a metallic sheen mixed in.

The building is up next: I am painting this (pastels are called paintings, by the way... even though it's a dry media it works more like a painting than anything) in curvilinear perspective, which is a method of linear perspective used when you want to convey a large space. I think it will add another dimension to the piece in any case.

Dawn

Ah, Summer at Last!

Yea! School is out, which means I finally have some uninterrupted studio time. I had an interesting semester teaching 2D design, which is a basic pre-req for all art majors plus a gen ed course for other majors. It comprises a bunch of little projects designed to teach basic composition, color theory, that kind of thing. It was fun but exhausting, and it's a really good thing to be back to work on my stuff!


So here's what I'm shooting for: I am going to post this particular piece step by step as it unfolds. Everyone keep their fingers crossed that this sucker turns out in the end; otherwise this will be a lesson in what not to do! The subject matter is a really cool building for Grand Junction Steel, a local plant. It is still in operation (as you will be able to see with the high-security gate they have in place!) It is a pastel on a panel I made myself using a wood panel, Kitty Wallis sanded pastel paper, black Bombay ink, and a lot of cussing. It is 48" x 18" in size.

The cussing came into play because I was using 4 sheets of 12x18" paper to cover the wood, the idea being that the seems where the paper meets will be another interesting element in the final piece. I also painted the Wallis paper first using Bombay ink: if you want a nice strong color for a background on Wallis, Bombay is the way to go. It tints it very nicely and doesn't kill the tooth of the paper. Anyway, I adhered the first 3 sheets of paper to my board successfully using Yes Paste, a great product that is a nice, thick, archival kind of paste. It's also a pain in the butt to use when you are dealing with thick, somewhat curled paper that doesn't want to be glued down, thank you very much. So I did these piece by piece, saturated the back of the paper with the paste, forced it into place, then weighed it down for 12 hours or so. I had paste covering my arms and legs by the time I got through this (so I'm not very tidy in the studio, so sue me...) I had this brilliant idea to use PVA (Poly Vinyl Adhesive) for the last piece--also a great glue known for its archival properties and its flexibility over time. Aha! Much easier application! The consistency is more like Elmer's glue, so it was easier to spread and I had a little longer working time. Oh, brilliant me! Yeah, well the other thing Yes Paste is known for is not wrinkling your papers. Yep, 3 of the sheets adhered nicely, the 4th was all lumpy. Sigh. I was able to force it into place eventually but it was a trial.

Okay, here is step one and we'll go from here, assuming that the worst is behind us now!

"Chasing Down the Sun"

So here's a new piece from the studio. This piece is 30x40" in size on stretched canvas, and I was trying to capture a certain effect of light we notice along this stretch of I70 pretty much every time we come back home from the Front Range of Colorado. We usually hit this area, no matter the season, at the peak of sun glare, yet it is beautiful. This piece of highway could be anywhere in the western United States. From this vantage I swear I can feel the continent falling away to the Pacific Ocean. As usual, I've posted both the underpainting and the finished version.

Elemental

Here are some images from "Elemental," my current show at Planet Earth & the 4 Directions Gallery located at 524 Colorado Avenue here in Grand Junction CO. The show looks great; please stop by and check it out. We're having a huge Earth Day Dance Party on April 22nd; art show opens at 7pm and the music starts at 8pm. Charles King, who also teaches at Mesa State College, and his band will be playing. It should be quite the event! Caole Lowry, owner of Planet Earth, has gone to great lengths to make my art look terrific in her space. Thanks, Caole! Dawn

Pentimento Epiphany!

Wow--so there is a series of work that has been floating around in the back of my mind for at least a year now but has never made it to the studio because I haven't found the right execution for it yet. It stems from wanting to take my drawings to another level and not being proficient enough in printmaking to make that happen yet. It also has something to do with subject matter. I've always enjoyed drawing from small natural objects and trying to abstract them somewhat in the process (bones, especially skulls, wood, etc.) So, there I was last week, home alone and channel surfing, when I came across a short documentary titled 'Pentimento' which is about an artist in New Mexico named Fran Hardy. (It's still showing now and then on PAEC, the Pacific Education Channel, as well as some PBS stations if you have a chance to catch it.) It was one of those true "AHA!" moments--her technique was exactly what I had been looking for. So here's the scoop: Fran does these amazing very tight botanical illustrations on large (4x5' or so) panels in graphite. She then layers an abstract / non-representational color field on top using oil pastels, and then scratches through to the original drawing without knowing exactly what she's going to find. This is it--it speaks of process and time and a certain spirit about the subject matter, exactly what I've been looking for.

Here are some of my first experiments with this--it's a drawing of a bevel fungus that I've applied the technique to.