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

 

STUDIO UPDATE

Random musing

    My latest explorations of color and imagination.  I think abstraction has gone into the background of my paintings.

    Abstraction never goes away completely, not in Art.  The heart of abstract thought is perception and cognition with out narrative and memory woven in. 

    Something like that.  There is a lot of room for growth in this                                                                direction.

    

 

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

New Study Observations

title: TBD

status:  work in progress

medium:  oil paint on 12 by 12 inch panel

notes: 

1.   water reflects sky - observation

2.  color used sparingly is a very effective way of drawing attention in a painting.

3.  marathon sessions don't always produce good results.  i think my creative rhythm needs breaks.

before color added,
this photo has a better sense of scale

Roughly Presented

Roughly presented in chronological order.  

I do like to work with darker pallets.  The effect feels solid to me, focused one might say.     

9/2025 Lake of fire

9/2025 - in Progress

9/2025 - in progress

9/2025 - title pending

9/2025 - in progress

7/2025 - The Stand

7/2025 - Campfire

Untitled
potential :  river, Banks, Bridge, etc

untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Abstracted Landscapes

Title "TBD"
oil paint on 12 by 12 inch board
September 2025
In progress

"red sky III"
oil paint on 12 by 12 inch board 
September 2025
Ready for signing

POINTS IN THIS POST

1.  Not overly concerned with realistic depiction in paintings, although it's a useful skill.  

2.   Color delivers emotional impact.

3.   Tone delivers form.

4.   Still working out the structure of painting.  [Is that composition?  Do I need another word?]

Question

Why only landscapes?

 

Notes on studies - September Meditations

study
oil paint with ink
4 by 6 inches

study
oil paint with ink
4 by 6 inches

Extremely thinned layer of paint over ink patterns.  

The plan is to keep going until I lose interest.  [Personal exploration]

Fade effect result of either thicker layers or number layers - in the first picture.

Should be interesting.  The ink is applied first as doodles that I have done most of my life.

Yellow Skies I
oil painting
Loose canvas 12 by 16 Inches

 

Attempt at depicting scale in the photo.

Notes on Between Earth and Sky

title:  Between Earth and Sky

Oil Paint on 12 by 12 inch Panel

Aug 2025

Notes

Increasingly using thin layers to build up images.  [Turpinoid.  Has a hazy effect different from linseed oil]

Not particularly concerned with perspective, or even realistic depiction.  Letting the mind fill in the blanks.

Limited pallet. Four colors, primaries and a white. Forces me to understand materials like paint.

More intuitive than planned.  

How many people actually see sky?

Cat Study

Study
oil on 8 by 10 inch panel
in progress - blocking stage

I am painting cats now.  

An Interesting challenge:  a subject that never behaves predictably.  

They are easier to deal with than humans and their egos.  

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, 

Blocking, and Stuff.....Progress?

If you follow my blog, thank you very much.  The attached images are of works in progress, which in my case, is a way of saying I am not sure where to go at this point.

oil on 9 by 12 inch paper

oil on 9 by 12 inch paper

 

 

Edited Digital Image
Dallas, Texas
Oak Cliff Neighborhood 

When I walk, my eyes constantly search for images.  

Not so much when driving, as I'm more concerned with other things, such as the things that can hit me.

There is also a decrease in the angle of vision as one's speed increases; but, the mechanics of perception is a very dry subject.   

Let's just say that I miss a lot of opportunities when I'm in a rush. 

When we are still, a world opens up to us.  

Think about it.  Vacation in a place for two weeks or live in a place for a year.  It's two different worlds.   Walk through a museum, or sit and contemplate a single painting.  

I believe Mies van der Rohe was right when he asserted that time was our most important commodity in design.  That could be extended to time being the most important commodity period.     

Man vs Nature

Sketchbook entry
Photograph is not as clear as I wanted.  But, the sketch is preliminary.

 

This sketch was done on a sleepless night.  It's more contemplation than drawing. 

And, when I can't sleep, I think about questions probably beyond my abilities to answer; but, I'm a guy, and that will never stop me from trying.

Man and Nature was the subject that night.  The conclusions were something like the following.

Nature is order, the first order people knew.  

It's the basis for the geometric, platonic solids we still use today for construction, science, etc.  They are, metaphorically, distilled versions of nature's order. 

Man vs Nature is not a conflict between chaos and order.  It's a struggle between two different orders.

A losing battle for Mankind, at least in the longrun, both sides wielding weapons of distruction, removing what does not fit in thier version of order.  Man only dominates for a short while before nature retakes her ground, destroying man's creation as surely as man destroys hers.  

This simply is the struggle for survival.  Natures plan is for us to be food for someone, even if it is just the bacteria in our decomposing bodies.  Of course, being people, we have other ideas about that.

At this point my thinking changes into a question.  

How did I get there from this stupid doodle?  How can I better express this in drawing format?  I'm hungry.

I need to get more sleep.

Life

Photographic Study
digital file
not intended as a final product
Bones are not us, so they remain.

Image notes:
I don't like the warped appearance of the perspective, should adjust by backing up or using a more advanced camera.  Cell phones have limits to what can be done.  Limits that fade with each update.

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.

notes on experiments with pallette knife technique

oil on 9 by 11 inch panel
thin underpainting, black applied with knife

oil paint on 9 by 11 inch paper
same technique as first painting

oil paint on 18 by 24 inch unstretched paper
no underpainting, used scrapping technique
note:  painted over 
This is a record of the effect.

 Of the three attempts the first one has some impact.  The colors seem to evoke something.

The second one is more of getting used to the strokes.  There are some similarities to pencil drawing where pressure is key to controling line and shading.

The third painting has an interesting effect where the texture of the canvas shows through; however, it needs to dry completely before applying second layers or it will smooth out and lose the effect.

Food. Is it Art?

Diner Stuff
digital image
from Metro Diner in Oak Cliff

I have a difficult time seeing food as Art. 

A job as a professional cook is a highly skilled and difficult profession - although the average pay of a kitchen worker has not reflected  that fact.  A chef, the person running the kitchen, is one of the most stressfull positions I have seen. 

It's not the skill involved.

For me, Art is contemplated and meditated on, away from the loud noise of marketing and machines.   Food is found in the middle of a massive marketing scheme.  There is no contemplation, only consumption and desire.

Food is a part of life.  It's power is in the primal animal side of humanity, not in the intellectual pursuit of Art.   

That is why.

 

Cat Photograph

Photo of Alex my sister's cat.

 

Cats are almost a required image on the internet.  Cute little predators.  

But, in terms of what this blog is about, this sort of image would need to be broken down into basic shapes and reconstituted as a painting or drawing.

In fact, that is an exercise assigned to me a long time ago in a water color class.  I seem to remember it helping.

What is Human?

From my sketchbook.
Study for something

There are times when I draw faces that are exaggerated versions of people.  If this looks like an alien species, that is not the point.  It's a question.  

What is it that makes us look like humans?

We anthropomorphize almost everything from animals to random shapes in clouds.  How far can I push drawings before that stops?

I do consider this to be in the realm of fantasy, although you never can be absolutely certain about the line between fantasy and reality.