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Portraits

In addition to the flowers and the more strictly still life paintings, I am making portraits. I am not sure what I will do with these paintings as far as public display. In a certain sense, such subject are far from in vogue. And specific to my work, it has been devoid of people—which I’ve been told is preferred. Having said that, I am fully engaged in these works.

My interest in the portraiture is mostly in completing the “traditional” subjects of the academy and before. I am going to try and avoid history/allegory painting. Heroic subjects, to me, have the same problems as heroically scaled paintings for which the U.S. is know. They are symbols of excess in all senses. Sticking to a economy of scale, subject and means has been the driving concerns of my painting since 1995. And while I am making some “easel” size paintings, they are still on the smaller size (22 X 39 inches).

Tomato, Tomato

I bought a tomato plant a week ago, and the first little tomatoes are forming. I can see the flowers from where I sit when I am not painting and/or looking at the paintings, but only noticed the fruits today. There will probably be another post about this when I pick one; then I’ll let it go.

Still Life

I’ve been thinking about traditional subject matter—specifically that which was popular in Northern Europe—as recent post have revealed. I went to my local grocery and bought some fruit. Despite this being almost summer, the orange was very flavorful.

Security?

There have been a few articles in the recent weeks about the security guards at museums. The most recent is that a guard at the Carnegie (another article) damaged a Vija Celmins’ painting to a degree that it might be beyond repair, and the fact that some LACMA guards carry pistols (another article). Well, on a recent visit to LACMA, I witnessed one guard napping in a chair as I walked down stairs from the European collection to the Modern, and another guard sitting on a bench making a personal phone call inside the Philip-Lorca DiCorcia exhibition. To me, this is more of a concern than guards with guns. Their job is to remind “adults” not to touch the art and to step back, step away from the Art, and not nap in plush chairs.

Sink Hole

I came across this somewhat slight sink hole the other night. To whatever the manholes allowed access, must have failed, or maybe it is unrelated and the structure of the manhole helped hold up the surrounding ground. Either way, it was a nice photo op for me. I had been thinking about safety cones which is how I noticed it in the first place. It was a nice stumble upon.

In good safety fashion, someone put a trash can in part of the hole.

Skull 2

I have been slowly taking pictures of the skull I borrowed. Today, I digitally removed the attached hardware from the skull: the spring that holds the jaw closed, the latch that holds the skull to the top of the skull, allowing one to view the inside as well as, the seam created by that cut. I also remembered I have some black foam on which to prop it up—which was very easy to edit out of the picture.

I edited the previous image too.

I’ve Borrowed a Skull

Painting by of Candle Light

While simultaneously painting black and white paintings of gas stations and sodium vapor illuminated flowers, I have started some paintings of candles and other more historical subjects (well photographing, but forthcoming).

Painters like Georges de La Tour (1593-1652), from the Duchy of Lorraine—to be absorbed into France during his life time—and the Dutch still life painter Jan Davidszoon de Heem (1606-1684), have been instrumental in directing these paintings, as well as the unavoidable Oeuvres of Gerhard Richter’s.

These paintings are still very much in progress.

each painting – oil on panel, 9 X 16 inches

For Leland Stanford

I went to Hollywood Park today for the simulcast running of the 133rd Preakness. As Muybridge proved some years ago, the horse is off the ground. This was taken during one of the live races.

Gessoing Stand

I recently changed the front image on my website. It is an image of my work table with a lazy susan I built for gessoing. It has been working really well, and is allowing me to be that much more lazy. It depicts the back of a panel with a cleat for hanging, two insets for shipping (only one visible) and the beginnings of the rabbet i have cut around the perimeter being gessoed.