New paintings.

First up, a few months back, I did a tape painting party with friends, and it was lots of fun. I was so busy consulting on other people's paintings, I didn't end up making the one I had in mind to work on, so I did it later in the studio. This is it below. My inspiration is the sort of painting that would render nicely into a poster in a thin gold frame in an early 1990s retirement community in Florida.

Turned out rather nicely, if I say so myself.

And that tape painting was so fun I've just kept on going. I'm very much in love with pinks and yellows and angles and abstraction right now, which is a bit off the path of black and white paper cutting, but so it goes, paper cutting isn't gone, its just hanging out while I go through a color phase. So the next painting...will be something abstracty plus I think some wild blue clouds. I love the pink and blues in these works by Julian Meagher, and I am staring at his stuff while I work, but clearly all the yellow in mine is going to skew this palette a lot more cheery. 

So this is nowhere near done, but it is coming along.

Still around.

I'm around and making stuff. I've found instagram so that's where most of my updates end up. Lately I'm working on crystals. I'll be making a painting of crystals once I get a sketch I'm happy with but crystals are hard!Carly Waito is my new power inspiration, but I won't be painting anything nearly so realistic (and complex!). 

Here's a crystal stipple sketch:

Also on deck is the Circlescape from a post a while ago. This one is fun and messy. I've been thinking a lot about non-obedient perspective- landscapes from David Hockney and his inspiration in old Japanese and Chinese prints and ink painting, and this is a freehand exercise, a chance to try some thoughts out on a piece. I didn't complete the drawing before I just started cutting, and I have adjusted the sketch several times. It's turning out great and interesting and it's keeping me thinking which I appreciate- I knew from the start that there would be mistakes and being less invested in those has freed me up. Also the deeply weird nature of seeing something large and landscape in pieces. Anyway, its coming along nicely. I did 6 or 7 circles this weekend. 

Some favorite details- My pond has a turtle now. He and the rabbit are about it for creatures in the picture, although I might add some bugs and things to the little detail circles. I like that this little snapshot got the shadow from the house in it.

And a little field with a house. There are some buildings in my landscape and boats and a road. There will be a little city on the right soon.  People do live in this circle world, they're just not that pushy about it. 

Waterlilies

 

This one is a present which is nearly finished. It's in a frame now, and is merely waiting on me to choose a background color scheme (if any?!), but in the meantime here are some progress shots. 

I always think its amazing what gets left out of a visual work. There are infinite possible paths to take in a given piece, even when you start from a simple concept. I had a set of design parameters- the size, the material, the motif for the center, the overall tastes of the person I was making this for. The choice that I got held up on for this one was the border. I spent a lot of time tracing a quarter inside a square and making tiny little 1.5" sketches.  The challenge with a cut paper circle is how to attach it to the outer edges, while retaining the intrinsic circleness. 

In the two concept sketches I thought I'd narrowed in on, I was feeling a  Frank Lloyd Wright, William Morris thing and ended up with a faux-Asian hand cuts look and something that was pretty, but distracting and also not at all like the (male) person I was giving this to.  Since the design was botanical, with flowers it felt better to go more geometric and simple with the edges. But I got stuck for a while, just turning over ideas and not getting very far. 

Finally inspiration struck when i walked past a favorite hanging lamp in my neighborhood, and I was able to get to work. Here are process shots:

 My solution:

hexagons. 

In progress

Detail shot

 

Final piece. 

Now all that's left is the question of background. Colors or no? 

March Studio Visit 2

Here are a few more shots from my recent works:

This is the completed painting from the paint splatters. I enjoy the cheery colors it adds to the studio hanging next to my plant, and there's something strange and optical about the diamonds. Turned out better than I expected for sure.

And this is a landscape made of circles I'm working on bit by bit. I'm proudest of my rabbit, but I'm excited to see what happens with the whole thing- I'm doing this as I go with the master sketch on the back, and experimenting a lot, so how it ends up will be a surprise even to me.

Cloud detail

Detail of the pond

Detail of the rabbit

Studio Visit

Sidewalk cracks is finished and installed at my house. Here's a shot of it. 

Meanwhile, back at the studio, theres's plenty going on. There are probably 5 or 6 ongoing projects in this panorama, but here are a few I'm willing to talk about.

This is a finished piece- The blots of paint from the sidewalk crack painting are now living as their own painting. I have this guy hanging up in the corner for now.  

I bought some neat landscapes at a flea market last summer and they had frames in need of some serious love. One frame I tossed altogether, the other I re-glued used some wood putty on. They've been gessoed a trillion times and now I'm waiting on imitation gold leaf. This will be my first gold leafing project- I'm hoping to learn from this so it can be applied to some papercuts down the line.

There are two pieces inside this photo- on top the painting- it has a faux gold edge (Going through a phase clearly) and will be sort of linked with all my rainbows in the side walk crack, and the diamond piece. Under the cardboard is a paper cut in progress. I have a few other papercuts going on right now, and one piece that will be a gift so I can't show any photos of that, until it's done. 

I've been managing to get inside the studio for a good chunk each weekend- at least one day per weekend, so I'm doing well and it feels grand. And on that note, I am off to my studio now. Just wanted to let the blog know I'm still alive.