Done!

Eric is finished. Now I can go on to Robert (Expect to see him pop in here in a week or two). I'm still surprised at how well the acrylic is going since I started using the Slow-Dri medium.

In other news, 8 of the Atlantic Ocean Series are now installed in The Green Phoenix 2 in Annapolis, MD! Feels like things are starting to come back after the recession.

Eric, © 2015

Eric, Redux

More of Eric. I've been working on him pretty steadily over the last week, and am coming down to the wire on this one. There are a few adjustments to make here and there, the crossed arm needs a bit more gradation from the light area into the shadowy edges, and the shirt folds need work. Might be done by this time next week!

Eric, © 2015

Some Good News

Found out on Wednesday that I've been awarded 2nd Place in the MFA@Gallery B show. This is a bigger deal than it looks, as it was an all-media show and out of the 450 artists who entered, only 45 were chosen. And the guy who won 1st place is a sculptor. So, between that and hanging the 2-person "Glimpses" show with Dennis Crayon at 1st Stage Tysons Theatre Gallery, I am a happy camper.

Tea is Ready

It's so great when a piece is finished, and while I'm not entirely happy with the way this experimental series has worked out, I've done my best. Here is Tea, ready to go to a show.

Tea, © 2015

The Illusion of Making a Deadline

Sigh. So much more to do, yet I really want this to be ready for my solo show in January. Here's the most recent photo of The Illusion of Reality; yesterday I worked on some of the windows at right and a little of the yellow Walk/Don't Walk boxes, which you see from the rear. I need to sharpen the contrast on them between light and shadow areas today.

The Illusion of Reality, © 2015

More Tea

Here's the latest iteration of Tea. Fingers crossed for the drying time; I still need one more painting session to finish the piece, and I have to hang it in a show next Wednesday.

Tea, © 2015

Coloring a Grisaille

Working on the Polaroid series is slow but fun. It takes a long time to paint the grisaille, or tonal underpainting. Sometimes artists do these in grey values, other times they might use browns or greens. Then they float glazes of color, thin, transparent hues over the base painting, and layer them one atop the other with adequate drying time in between.

I thought I'd like to share the process on this blog, so above are three consecutive renditions of Tea, © 2015. It's an image from a little shop in San Francisco, where I visited a few years ago. There's still a lot more to do, but you can't rush this process. If you add a glaze over a layer that's not fully dry, you'll pick up the layer of color beneath and end up with streaks.

It's a little like placing sheets of colored glass on top of each other— if you paint a blue layer over a yellow one, you'll get green. What do you think so far?