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.

    

 

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

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.

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.

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.  

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.  

  

  

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?

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