This Looks Better In Person

Trying to keep the brushes warmed up.

Morning Light, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Next

Today I got caught up on a lot of things that had to be put on the back burner for the last couple of months. After that, I felt like picking up a brush again. This one is fun to work on!

Wigs And Shades, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

The Show Is Up, Part 2

A wall of work... There's more around the corner, but this is the main part of it.

Lots of delicious cheeses, dolma, sweets, etc.

The Show Is Up!

Of course I got so wrapped up in the logistics that I forgot to take a photo of the gallery, but I did take a shot of the apples. This is the first time I've seen it hung!

The Arrow Of Time (or, The Second Law Of Thermodynamics), © 2017 (click on image for larger view)

Art Supplies

As the result of visiting my local art supply store, I am now $90 poorer. (And they were out of two of the colors of oil paint that I need.) A roll of decent quality linen costs between $300-$400 these days, so if you're an artist planning a large painting, you have to figure in the cost of the linen and the stretcher bars (which are also going to add another $75-$100 bucks to the total) along with the paint.

On the plus side, my patron picked up the big giant hand painting and paid me for the commission, so I had something to pay the bill with. 

Grey and dismal today, and I've got prep work to do for the show.

Done And Done

A few minutes ago I put the finishing touches on Selfies, after having found several more places that needed additional work. Closing Up, likewise, was finished an hour or  two earlier. I'm trying to decompress right now; the Big Giant Hand is ready to go out the door, and as soon as the patron picks it up I'm going to take a long nap.

Selfies, © 2018 (click on image for larger view)

Closing Up, © 2018 (click on image for larger view)

Brooklyn: Finished!

At long last this one is signed and completed.

When I Woke Up I Was In Brooklyn, © 2018 (click on image for larger view)

 

Closing Up still needs work, but the layers that I have to add are on places that are still sticky! I will get back to the last few spots on Selfies, though, in an hour or two or tomorrow morning.

Coming Down To The Wire

I've actually managed to finish a couple of paintings. Three Women At The Corcoran, of course, was done recently; For Rent is done, and I posted a photo of it nearly finished yesterday, so will not repost it; today I got Selfies to within a half hour of completion, and Chrysler is done, done, done! I'll get back to Selfies later when a few areas dry.

Selfies, © 2018 (click on image for larger view)

 Selfies needs only three lines (two diagonal, one horizontal) and a little finessing of the black glass frames. I'm finally happy with the face!

Here's the Chrysler Building painting:

Chrysler Building, Dusk, © 2018 (click on image for larger view)

Now I'm moving on to Brooklyn and Closing Up.

Nearly Done

But unable to get into gear this afternoon. We met friends for dinner in DC last night and had a great time: the food was good, we laughed so hard my stomach hurt, and I took some photos of a young barmaid in a setting that referenced Manet's Bar At The Folies Bergère. Also found the waiter who posed for my painting Waiting at Le Diplomate and showed him the work in progress, which seemed to please him. So all in all, a great evening. And now today I don't feel like working!

I did a bit of painting on this one this morning, though, and there is so little left to do on it that it's not worth mentioning:

For Rent, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Two of the others are  too wet to work on today, I'll have to finish them tomorrow. Going to take a nap and then get to Chrysler and Selfies before the day is out.

And A Little More Dark

For Rent, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

The shadowy areas on the left side of the painting needed to be made darker, as did the side of the guy's face. I'm feeling better about this one now, too. And this will all be over on Friday!

Light And Dark

Today's work (so far):

Closing Up, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

I'm happy with this one now. I still need to add some more lights, work on the already existing ones, and tape off and fill in some dark areas, but it's starting to look the way I originally envisioned it.

 

On to the Chrysler building painting— 

 

Chrysler Building, Dusk, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

This is also going well. I think it has maybe 45 minutes more of work left to do on it. Excited about the little white lights that will go into the construction zone area (the orangey part in the middle of the painting).

 

And there's maybe half an hour left on this. The brownstones are nearly done:

 

When I Woke Up I Was In Brooklyn, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

 

Running Out Of Supplies

The bottle of Gamsol is getting really low— Gamsol is the mineral spirit used for thinning out paint and cleaning brushes. I'm also running out of retouch varnish, which I'm going to need once the paintings are dry. Meanwhile, everything is wet, so wet in so many places that I can't work on areas that need another layer until the paint dries.

Maybe I should get a drying medium; I bought some once, years ago, but never used it and now it's all gummed up in the bottle, and brown, besides. This is why I hate to use anything other than plain, pure mineral spirits, a reliable glaze medium, and a dependable painting medium: I want the work to be up to a high archival standard. I don't want the painting to darken or change color.

More work today: touching up a few places here and there. Added some horizontal lines on the back wall, standardized the tables, taped off the extreme right side and painted the vertical frame there in preparation for doing the more detailed work in a couple of days.

Selfies, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

The mysterious construction areas (they are the orangey spots in the center of the painting) are pretty much all that's left on the one below, and those will be fun to work on because unlike the rest of the piece, they are indistinct and don't involve too many straight lines.

Chrysler Building, Dusk, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Closing In On Closing Up

Made some strides on this one last night. Drying time is the big problem!

Closing Up, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

The one below is also very close to being finished. I have to paint in a couple of trees, refine the air conditioning units and the pipes, and do a little more to the trim on the brownstones.

When I Woke Up I Was In Brooklyn, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

After a break, it's on to Selfies! Soon I will get my life back.

The Weeklong Slog

So much work, so little time. Everything needs to be finished on Friday. Today:

For Rent, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Selfies, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

When I Woke Up I Was In Brooklyn, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Anticipation

I am excited about the prospect of doing two things on this painting: putting in the little lights that define the mood of the scene, and laying on that thin layer of varnish that's going to bring out the colors and give the whole painting depth. This is how boring my life is: I'm excited about a varnish layer, for crying out loud.

Closing Up, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

 I'm really pushing hard. I worked on all five paintings yesterday, and four of them today. The one below should be done by Friday. Well, they should ALL be done by Friday.

When I Woke Up I Was In Brooklyn, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

This still has a lot of work to go: those black window frames take forever to dry, so that's been slowing me down. I keep smearing them.

Selfies, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

Did not remember to photograph For Rent while there was still daylight. Tomorrow.

The Big Giant Hand Is Nearly Finished!

I have approximately 15 minutes' worth of work left to do on this.

The Hand Of The Artist, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Out Of Adrenaline

Yesterday I put in a decent amount of time on Closing Up, then went off to a birthday lunch celebration. The lunch was fun, and it was good to see friends and share some stories and laughs, but as it always is when I leave the house, I came home and just sank into a chair. It's been weeks since I took a nap; I've just been painting, painting, painting, all on adrenaline; but yesterday I fell asleep while watching the news and couldn't get into gear after that.

Today, though, I feel restored and recharged. The good news is that there's only about 3-4 hours left on everything except Selfies, which I estimate at 8, so it looks like it will all be done in time. And the hurricane is headed south, not north, so (despite the fact that I spent 40 bucks on a backup battery yesterday— or maybe because) a power outage is far less likely.

So far today:

Selfies, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

Chrysler Building, Dusk, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

I decided to do just one "Bus Only" on the street. More than that would have looked too cluttered, and it did look too naked without any verbiage.

Yesterday:

Closing Up, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

I'm going to do some more on this one right now, so there will be an update soon.

 

More Brownstones

When I Woke Up I Was In Brooklyn, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

Dead tired. I washed the brushes and put them down for the night.

Plugging Away, Bit By Bit

The latest work on four:

For Rent, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Note the cars in the background, also some work on the shop fronts.

Closing Up, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Darkened the back wall and amped up the color on the hanging lights.

Selfies, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Late last night, standardized the window bars. Or, most of them, anyway.

Chrysler Building, Dusk, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Added more lights in the distance. Today I lightened the front of one of the buildings on the left, but didn't get a chance to photographed it.

Oops, Forgot To Post This One

Getting closer to finishing this one! Those brownstones are tough to get right, though, for some reason.

When I Woke Up I Was In Brooklyn, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Trying To Be Smart About Layers

So if the storm knocks out power and cuts my working time by as much as two or three days, I have to make some good decisions about which areas to paint now, so they'll dry in time for the next color to be layered over them. Also: the really critical parts of Selfies are the black frames on the windows. The vertical ones are only a half inch wide, while the horizontals are thicker. I got a little sloppy when I first put them in, and now I have to go back and fix them.

I darkened— slightly— the white bag in the lower right hand corner.

Early this afternoon:

Selfies, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Since I need strong daylight to determine whether a color is working correctly or not, I painted the road surface of the avenue. Now, in the actual real world, there are three places on the right side where the words "Bus Only" appear. I have to make a decision: paint them all in? Leave them out entirely? I think all three makes the right side look a little cluttered. I like it the way it is now, with no words at all, but is it too empty?

Chrysler Building, Dusk, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Approaching Storm

With things being as tight as they are regarding the upcoming deadline, I'm concerned about the impact of the hurricane that's on its way to the east coast. Trees will fall, the lights will go out, and I'll be unable to paint in the dark and without access to the reference photos for my paintings on the computer. So I'm going to try to do as much as possible before Thursday night.

Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon working on this piece, and yet there's very little to show for it. You might notice the fragments of the words "Cabernet" and "Malbec" on the right side, but everything else I did is less visible.

Selfies, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

In the evening, I darkened some areas on the painting below, most notably the mural on the right side, in an effort to make the hanging lights more prominent. 

Closing Up, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

And this morning I did a lot on the little Brooklyn painting:

When I Woke Up I Was In Brooklyn, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Now, back to work.

Good Morning

Looking at the work for the show this morning, I'm feeling a little more positive about the idea of getting it all finished in time. Here's last night's work:

Closing Up, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

More Leaps Forward

Much work on the tall buildings on the skyline, the church steeple, and a few other spots here and there. After a break, I'm going to get back to the trim on the brownstones.

When I Woke Up I Was In Brooklyn, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

And more of the far distant street and some building detail:

 

Chrysler Building, Dusk, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

More Tonight

I'm planning to do more on this tonight, but wanted to get a photo of it before it gets dark.

For Rent, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

Pushing Hard

I really wanted to see some progress today, so I concentrated on a couple of areas on the two below.

Here's the Chrysler building painting. I put in a few more cars and refined the ones already there, plus added some of the road surface and buildings around them. And that's the Empire State Building way off in the distance:

Chrysler Building, Dusk, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

And on this, I put all of the effort into the left hand third of the picture:

 

Closing Up, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

Seven More Hours To Finish This One?

That's what I figure. Drying time is necessary in between sessions, of course, so that stretches the finishing date off to two weeks from today. It's gonna be tight.

Selfies, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

The Tiny Windows Are Driving Me Nuts

Sixteen painting days left before I have to stop working and varnish the paintings, clean up their edges, wire them, and deliver them to the gallery! Today I concentrated on windows on the two pieces below, and I can tell you that using a fine pointed brush to make tiny rectangles and squares is no fun.

When I Woke Up I Was In Brooklyn, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

Chrysler Building, Dusk, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)

 

Dark Corners

More night work; I've never done so much painting after sunset in my entire life. Did the ceiling panels on the right side last night, and the mood of the piece is beginning to appear. What will really give it a sense of time and place will be the hanging lights in red and white; the red ones are already in place, but the tiny white ones will really make a difference.

Closing Up, © 2018, work in progress (click on image for larger view)