Studio Stuff

What I've been up to last week - oil painting.

Abstract
monochrome
12 by 12 inches

Abstract
two colors
8 by 8 inches

12 by 12 inch underpainting

9 by 12 inch study

 

This one is currently drying.

"Nobody's Perfect"

oil paint on loose canvas

 

Current Projects - October 2021

Musing About Choices

1.  This week, focusing on using thin layers to build up form and texture.  Seems to turn out interesting effects.

2.  Paint to edges?  Leave margins?  Implications? 

3.  Pallet Colors: Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow, French Ultramarine.

4. Composition intuitive.  Need to try being more deliberate about placing shapes.  

oil paint on 12 by 16 inch canvas

The ones below are oil paint on 12 by 12 inch board

in progress

in progress

study 

in progress

finished

 

oil paint study
Work in progress

 

There is a year or so between the sketch and the painting above.  The sketch was not a study for the oil painting.  It was an attempt to scratch the art itch.  So, I am reaching back in my memory to try something in a different medium. 

This is my first exploration of this type in oils.  Glazing techniques, mainly because I need to get better at that.

Observations 

Pencils are much more intuitive for me than oils; but, not as much as I was expecting.  

I rather like the two pigment approach using raw umber and titanium white.

It has a surreal quality to it.  Why?

pencil -sketch study

Two Paintings

Title: Ghost
Oil Painting on 12 by 12 inch panel
August 2025
 

Title: Vortex
Oil Painting on 12 by 12 inch panel
August 2025

Notes

Color or no color?  

Both seem to work.  

Usually, abstraction has some roots in reality.

The cat like form is obvious.

The monochrome is not quite a wave.......a visual riddle?

Yellow Skies I
oil painting
Loose canvas 12 by 16 Inches

 

Attempt at depicting scale in the photo.

Musing on Directions

 These paintings are examples of the effects popping up in my work.

1.    These are are all suggestions of form.

2.    Pallet is limited.  Colors results from mixing.

3.    The paintings are fast, for oils.

4.    Figurative work is new ground for me.

5.    I need to paint more cats to improve.

.............................................................................................................................

Personal Notes

The one's where a single color dominates appear to have more presence.

Figures appear to add something to landscapes that make them relatable.

9 by 12 inch paper is a good size for most days.  I wonder if a larger canvas would reveal more mysteries while painting.

 

People Problems

oil painting
18 by 24 inch Stretched Canvas
Started august 2022 - in progress

I'm question everything as I work through a painting.

Who do think I am?  

What is the difference between abstraction and representation?

When do I keep going?

Where does this painting fit?

Why not let charcoal marks show?

How does one painting generate so many questions and so few answers?

 

Alex
He's looking at a squirrel.
or a ghost.
Not sure there is much difference to him.

I am jealouse.  A cat can be curious.  There is no self doubt that I can see.  No worries about someone being threatened by asking questions.  

No questions, outside of when am I going to feed him.

oil painting
9 by 12 inch paper
untitled at this point

Sometimes, not often enough, I lose myself in a painting.  No doubts, no questions, just the feel of a brush, or knife, or papertowel, as they press against the canvas.  Reacting to some internal nudge.  Those days, I forget about isolation, demands on time and money, and just live.  

  

  

Art For Art's Sake

Leroy,

Art for Art's sake?   Such a thing probably exists.

Somewhere.

Field of color painting
July 2022
Oil on loose canvas.  18 by 24 inches

I have no intention of stretching it. 
It will be hung similar to a scroll painting.
 

Generally, if someone can imagine something, then it can be created - with a lot of effort usually.  (It's easier create an image if one has access to someone who has already done it.)

However......

Most of what I have seen is art serving a purpose.  A protest, a contemplation, a meditation, or a bit of escapism, the list of purposes is endless.  

Field of color painting
July 2022
Oil on treated paper 9 by 12 inches

This painting will be mounted and framed, eventually.

I don't have a cause to champion.  I am certainly not protesting through my art.  There are spiritual elements present, which apparently is more common among painters than I realised.

So I am offering a glimpse into my soul.  It is not a particularly nice soul; but, it is the only one I have. 

Looking forward to more of these discussions.  

B Powell

OLD CANVASES ARE OPPORTUNITIES

A painting I am unhappy with.

I have a lot of canvases that I am just not happy with.  The above one was mostly an experiment in glazing.  I learned a lot from it, so it was not a waste of time.  

Certain paints are too opaque for the glazing techniques.

The first monochrome layer laid down should have had more time invested.

So, I scrumbled some thined titanium white over it.  Not exactly glazing but the strong primary colors were muted. as well as the ivory black at the edges.

This is the begining of a search for form in this unstructured canvas.

After a little drying, but not enough to prevent mixing, added more thin paint layers.  At this point, the concern about not wasting the canvas fades, and I can really do what I intended.   Ask what happens if I do this and find out.

I rotate the canvas and a cat emerges, more like a dream of a cat.  Not intended; but, I have two in the studio, so they will make it into stream of consciousness efforts like this one.

Anyway, I will stop the post here since the feel of the painting has seriously changed.  I will still work on it.   Funny, when you read history a lot of paintings took years to finish.  I wonder why I expect to finish in hours?

Promise and Hope

 

A blank canvas panel is so full of promise and hope.  Nothing guaranteed of course.

Shadows form their own pattern, creating a painting of sunlight, an image that goes away as the sun moves.

Everything I see is a reflection of the past, because it's already happened and my eyes are just catching up.

What we create, what images we bring forth, these are longing for moments that have passed.  Even when imagining the future, we can only use memories of things, of actions we have experienced.

A blank canvas, that is only physical, our souls are never blank, 

Searching

On the easel,
oil paint on paper
stipple exercise

Searching my soul, trying to find something.  

Where else can I look for it?

I am looking that thing which cannot be seen or held.

My voice?  Not really sure what people mean by that.. 

My time is running out.

that is not a bad thing, I'm not sure what is more important:

Sometbing or The Search? 

musing on paintings

This was from a class in oil painting
my first effort at pallette knife painting,
and in some ways, my most successful attempt.

 It is on my studio wall, not stretched or framed.  It's a reminder of where I was, and a sign post of how to move forward.   

Someone said there really is not any future, only the past and the present.  He was a designer.  I have always felt this was a fairly important statement, but I have never understood why.  

I could take a stab at it here.

I can only imagine anything in terms of what I already know.  By extension, I can only create images in terms of what I already know.

Painting starts in the mind?  I suppose that makes sense.

On the Easel

Oil on Panel

 Experiment.

Thin red layers laid down first

Black applied with pallete knife.

No mixing.  [at this stage]

The color combination seems to bring a emotional response, more than expected.

Probably sign it on back, signatures on the front need to be a part of the painting.

Currently drying

Meditation on Edges

Small Oil painting 2022
oil on 4 by 6 inch panel

Edges, images on panels, or whatever surface, are where two areas collide.  

Are they sharp and clear to the eye?

Or,

Does the line blur and spread out, creating chaos between two opposing fields?

The first is a boundary, a fence, a wall, a separation, whatever one calls the box.  

It's how we remember.  We can't help it.

The second is what was before we create boxes to contain them, a struggle sometimes, other times a bonding,  waiting for our ideas to contain them, to give them form.

A painting, it explores the edges, looking for the line.

Looking for something to remember.

  

The micromanager's Nightmare

 

This is an unfinished painting that I keep trying to come back to.  It is about light but I am not sure how to push it there. What is shown here is an underpainting, although it does suggest potential for a finished piece - once I get a feel for manipulating the paint.

Title:  The micromanager's Nightmare  
Oil on Canvas, 18 by 24 inch

The finished piece, some of the colors show through which turned out to be an interesting effect.   

Thoughts on Canvas

Abstract Style

rectangular canvas - reused (old painting peaks through)

muted colors

thick texture over thin layers

Edge painted black using roller, looks finished and can be hung without frame

 

This is a recent effort.  

I like the canvas proportions.  I not sure why.  I just like the effect, it is not as static like most canvas proportions.

It is a reused canvas.  No sense in wasting materials.

Framing is expensive, when done in a manner that preserves the painting.  It's definitely worth the cost; however, its not a option if the money is not there.

So I am looking for maximum effect (finished look) with a minimum of labor.  (Labor is almost always the biggest cost in art and presentation - well everything actually.  Materials are what they are, and can be obtained by barter.)

So the paths open to me are:

• Learn to frame
• Find alternative methods of framing
• Ignore framing

I am sure I am missing something.  Perhaps I should replace the word framing to display or presentation, both of which are more open ended.

Just today's thoughts.