Being sick is no fun. Here is what I’ve been working on after about a three week hiatus. I battled pneumonia for most of February, and although I wanted to get back to painting, my body screamed NO. But I’m back on an abbreviated schedule, hoping to ramp up my time as I continue to mend.
I’ve been working on about 27 boards ranging in size from 8×8 inches up to 36×48 inches, all in plaster, oil, and cold wax. During each painting session, I work on several boards (not all 27!), adding swaths of paint, scraping it away, scratching into the paint with my awl, blotting paint from one board to another, adding marks using graphite pencils. and drawing with oil paint sticks.
Slowly my boards are beginning to take on a personality, a unique identity. As I wrote in my journal this morning, my hope is that each painting will evoke a feeling of intrigue, mystery, and curiosity. They aren’t there yet, but as I often tell my students: It’s just a layer.
This series of paintings is for my June show at Guardino Gallery on NE Alberta in Portland. My work will be in the Main Gallery, so I have a fairly sophisticated schematic in place to fill the many walls. This afternoon, my big paintings got some attention.
I recently acquired this three-tier, light weight cart. I painted it red and put it to use as a place to put my palette; it is easily maneuverable so I can take my palette to the boards all around my studio.
I also worked on my smallest boards. Here is a peek at sections from six in various stages of layers and completion.
Tomorrow, I’ll be adding more layers and marks. At the end of my painting session today, this is how one of my 30×30 inch boards looked; it started out as something entirely different.
And then it was time to end. A final look into the studio from two different doors.
