The Process: Day 5

Somewhere around the year 1995 I did an artist residency in Milledgeville Ga. This was where Flannery went after finding out she had Lupus, and lived on her mothers farm Andalusia. I lived and worked at the John C. Marlor Art Center. While I was there, a symposium of Flannery's works was held at Georgia College which drew people from all over the world. Milledgeville is also the site of the state asylum, so its fitting that Flannery would draw upon weird country people to play out her morality tales of redemption, salvation and grace. I do feel some degree of pressure to present this great author correctly and to have it be worthy of her. 

I thought I might start todays post with a shot of the studio. Its a wreck. Tomorrow I have to rearrange so that I can hang the painting on the wall. I need to look at it from a distance more now. I didn't get as much done today as I would have liked. Koby had a rough day. The dogs were restless so we played in the creek; I threw sticks for them and they chased each other until Koby ran through a yellow jacket nest. Im ashamed to say it was funny to see the moves she made; I slapped all the ones still stuck to her down. July and August are horrific here. It is buggy hot and humid.

First thing I did was dry brush the water and add the crutches. I paint them fully as if they are going to show and then as I worked on the water they became less clear. I am very happy with how they look now; not so clear but more of a suggestion.

I am not entirely happy with the water and will have to work on it yet again. Im almost embarrassed to say how much time I put into it and not be fully satisfied. Self doubt has started to creep in...typical in any piece that is a stretch. I couldve done one of my layered pieces that is bright and fun. This is a piece that is about something more than a decoration so it is harder.  But I do love being with Flannery every day!

Another awkward stage. I worked on the arms and will need to redo the peacock feather under the hands. Here you can see how the crutches look in the water. I am very happy with that. The photo doesnt show the water well - that worries me a little as I have to submit photos to get in the show. I will work on it some tomorrow. I also touched up Flannery's face a little tonight...just took down the shadow on her chin and I think it softened her face a bit.

Layered peacock feathers. I will tighten them up a bit later and make some of them bright areas of light for  contrast. I did a test near the bottom of the painting and it looks good.

This where I left it for the evening. Does it look like much happened? Not really!

Tomorrow: more water work, finish the peacock tail and wing, refine arms, and start the devils. I actually need to finish the devils. Sunday needs to be a day where I can just finesse a painting that is basically finished. Have a terrific weekend everyone. Thanks for tuning in.

creation

Uncensored, unedited stream of consciousness painting. At the show last week, many people reported this to be their favorite. Busy today; I have a very special guest arriving. Boxer! Too bad I was in the ATL last night: there was a frost at Chickory and I fear that I will return to ruined food: strawberries, blueberries, greens, and my flowers! *sniff*

Back on Monday with a detailed post on my painting process for Susan over at 29Blackstreet. Have a great weekend, everyone!

* Here's some details from the painting above:

Peep Show

SR-71 the Blackbird  13 x 18 Acrylic on board

Tonight is the opening of the Peep show, a group show with bird-themed art. I have 4 pieces in the show; all of them were painted this week. That's very rare, normally it takes weeks or months to get a few pieces I like ready, but I didnt have the time or the heart with my Mom's death and another show I had in ATL and some other little jobs. This blackbird is my favorite of the lot - its the most abstracted and has a lovely surface.

When I started making folk art to sell at the farmer's market, I didn't know that it would lead me into painting on wood for my more upscale work. But I have grown to love the quality of wood as a painting ground. That big portrait of Koby was the first "real art" I painted on wood.

As an illustrator, everything I did was to be reproduced which meant painting on paper so art could be fed into a drum scanner. I painted in gouache which is a very flat paint with no reflective properties making the colors very rich. The reflective quality of acrylic paint annoys me. Its hard to see what I am doing especially if I have to use a light. Thats why I always try and paint from 10 am to 4 pm when the natural daylight is best. But acrylic lets me do things gouache cannot, like have many layers and the ability to paint out mistakes. With gouache, you really need to get it right the first time.

Etching into the wood for surface detail

What I love best about the wood is, well its cheap. When you paint on paper, and if you paint large on  paper, then you have the expense of framing. And it is expensive to do it correctly. With wood I get a 1/2 inch thick board and finish the sides and voila, it's ready to hang. They'd look better in frames but I can now leave that to a buyer.  I also like etching into the wood for added surface texture. The imperfections and the grain shows through on the final art giving it a kind of rawness that I think is more interesting than a perfectly smooth finish.  And I like that wood is hard. I never liked painting on canvas because I didnt like the give that happened when I pushed into it with a brush.

With a busy background, a simple bird image worked best

Today I am making a strawberry trifle for the show, and planting my sweet potatoes and getting the little cabin ready for a certain visitor from the PNW. Its cold here this morning. I hope it is warmer next saturday as I plan to have us float down the river  - a trip that is chilly even in July. Happy weekend to all!

Guinea Hen

Guinea Hen. Oil Pastel on Paper 22x30"

Harvesting today: 9 baby broccoli

Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes and thanksgiving greetings!

This week I have to fly south and I have no choice but to harvest my fall crops today. I have to be here to cover them to protect from freezing temps and then open them back up so they don't bake in the sun during the day. Sad, because they really aren't mature, but they should have been by now. The sun is so low in the south the trees block a lot of the light making progress slow.

Normally, I would not choose to fly. But the trip is quick and it is the only way V will go; not being willing to spend two full days on the road. I've designed a T-shirt for my travel; I will model it later this week, but it reads TSA: Training Submissive Americans. I might add some other choice words and/or graphics. This homeland security situation is just a total joke; its meant to train us to accept an increasingly evident police state. Im not walking through their radiation booth -so I guess I will be receiving a pat down. It's insane and I am disgusted by it, but I dont for a second believe the scanner is safe. They take a picture of your tooth at the dentist and they cover you with an iron blanket for crikey's sake. What does that tell you?

The red cabbage will be left to weather the frost

Also in the garden are red cabbage, onions, herbs and asparagus. We had our first tender shoots of the asparagus on Thanksgiving day. I think the unusual warm weather may have prompted that. I think that next year we will have much better asparagus because this is their first fall and I think it takes a few years to really get the nice big shoots.

I can't pretend this doesn't hurt

I lost another bird to the studio window. I hung my older paper garlands over the studio windows thinking it would alert the birds that they weren't flying into sky. The garlands moved in the wind and reflected light and I hoped that would be enough, but it clearly was not. So I have relocated my feeder to be far from any structure and hope there will be no more accidents. 

Double Cola: the fat black lab

Lately I've been making smaller dog paintings on plywood. These are 7x10".  I call these "folk art" because of the simplicity and rawness of them, and the fact that I dont spend more than 2 hours on each. They are very different from what I would call the "A" level work. Its fun and liberating to make this kind of work. Some of them are in a show down in ATL called "Little Things Mean a Lot" which is a show of small and inexpensive work made especially for Christmas gifting.  The next two dogs are loosely based on Moi's two dogs:

Chill - the dog that looks like Maddie

Cocoa: the brindle pit-bull

Have a great day everyone. I've got to drive down to ATL in a major rainstorm with 4 fussy hens. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Eola Park: Escape from the nursing home

I dont mind pigeons. some people call them trash birds. they're okay by me.


wussup shamy? i watched this fellow take his prize, a pancake, from the dumpster.


an american coot mother rushes to a trio of chicks being harassed by an ibis.


a crazy mix of birds! it was hard not to think of the magnitude of loss in the gulf while admiring them.


This was me, many years ago. God love the child of this time - she will need more strength and fortitude than ever.


magnificent.


Grateful for this time, this chair and the proximity of this amazing park.



* Edith was killed by a hawk this morning at 7:05. V watched it on the security camera. It was a very unhappy phone call to receive. i do hate it for him, for this could have happened on anybody's watch. what to do? confine them in a pen at all times? thats no life, even for a chicken. I would never hurt a hawk, or hold a grudge on a hawk. a hawk does what he does and there isnt any meaness to it. However, I am heartsick once again, for Edith, for every creature with the sad misfortune to live in the Gulf of Mexico and for all the sorrows of the world. I hope this note finds you all well. xo chickory

The Cardinal

heard before seen
vermillion flashing
heartbreak extreme
false sky then crashing
limp but still warm
with blue milky eyes
spirit, transform
return to the skies

Winter Sparrow

sweet n cheap

my art dealer asked me to make some inexpensive work for the big fall opening at the gallery. i made four 8x8's of sweet kind of folk arty pieces. but honestly, i am thinking of not giving them to her and also taking the work i have in there, out. I just dont see how a 50% markup is justified in a gallery jam-packed with art representing 70+ artists. And i also dont think its wise to put a 50% markup on work this small. my big 40x40's? yes.

Back in the day, when an artist would have a solo show and the gallerista was on the phone working to get buyers in to look - i can see how a 50/50 split makes sense. i dont see how a commission that large is valid now with these giant shows. The situation i have found myself in now is i have to decide to make less so when she marks it up it wont be too pricey for its size to sell. and let me tell you what -smaller pieces are just as much work as the larger ones. the only difference is the amount of materials used.
More and more i am deciding i would rather go my own way, which means cobbling a living together by selling art out of my truck or on my online shops and doing the occasional illustration gig. I dont think i need the stamp of approval of being in a space designated as a place to buy art. so these little paintings will probably end up in my studio sale where i can offer them at a decent price. and if they dont sell? merry christmas somebody! ;-)

the goldfinch (only 23 seconds!)

on painting: in the night studio

Painting is not the same as illustration. painting is more than image, it is also surface. it has the weight of object; it has presence. for me illustration is to draw something and then fill it in with color and refine details with a mind toward clarity, because it is so often intended to be reproduced. in some ways, painting is about destroying the original drawing and trying to not refine so much. i seldom make a larger acrylic painting on canvas, so i usually ruin the first one remembering how to do it. if i stay focused, by the time i start the second, i am more on my game, have some flow, and have figured out the paint again. I am about halfway finished with the fox painting.

unless you paint seriously everyday, it is difficult to make anything worthwhile. it is like you have to teach yourself how to do it again. i talk with another painter almost daily and we agree that the awkward stages paintings tend to go through are terrifying; it looks like it won't come together and you have to fight your desire to ditch.

its in the problem solving of creating a composition with a pleasing marriage of order and complexity that a path opens up. i paint flat on a table which makes it easy to get too "precious" with the visual elements because i am too close to it. a painting needs to be hung up and stood back from and looked at again and again so you see it in totality and how it looks in space. i am reminded of some photographs of mark rothko sitting before his work waiting for the painting to tell him what to do next. if anything. with the thrasher painting on the left, i went too far, though it has some cool sections where other birds morph in and out of negative space. but i over worked it and have to start a third painting now.

i have been working on these for the entire week, staying late at night alone at the warehouse. i listen to ambient chill internet radio from france or the "drone zone" and i keep my loading dock open until the bugs, drawn to the light, end up embedded in wet paint. when i go home, i am still with the painting(s) and have trouble falling asleep. i really just want to go back to work.

im writing this post because its clear im not going to have these finished by tomorrow. the first painting was the brown thrasher and it has gotten too busy and "illustratey", though there were some important discoveries that i could apply to the second painting, the fox.

I remembered how much i like controlled drips and lots of sheer layers over textured backgrounds i lay in by scraping paint dipped cardboard across the canvas. i also like to etch into wet paint and overlay that area which allows the new color to seep into the grooves.

It is difficult to make a good painting; one that really sings with vitality and is true to my vision of how it should be. It is the hardest thing i do as an artist. painting is a spiritual path in that you dont know what it is you are searching for, but when you find it you know it is right and true. and it is a moment of true contentment. its a time free of anxiety that is filled with the delight of creation.

but it cant be rushed. so if you are reading this my friend, i only have one of the two (almost) ready.

(i did manage to finally finish the two panels below)

spring bas bleu cover

click for large

circa 1962 bird illustrations

aren't these great? i have been buying some old field guides and little golden nature books whenever i can find them. the illustrations are always so charming and i love the old school coloration. i have really had it with slick illustrator (vector based) art -and though i appreciate the software, and still want to learn it, there is something about brush to water to paper that will always trump sitting before a glowing monitor to create art. I think i will always be an artist that does it the old way. c'est la vie.