I saw this painting (above) by Alberto Pasini at the Chicago Art Institute and was reminded how much I admire his work. I’m not usually as attracted to landscapes and cityscapes, but I love his pallet and sense of color. upon closer inspection, those that i’ve seen in person seem to be executed with the perfect combination of detail and looseness. I’m going to continue to do research on Pasini, and have been loving the work. just thought I’d share, enjoy.
self-portrait #5, 16" x 20", oil on board
I worked on a new self-portrait study yesterday. With all the prep for Miami, driving paintings to LA, wandering around Chicago, etc. I hadn’t actually painted in three weeks – so it felt good to get back into it. I’m going to mostly focus on practice for the next few weeks at least; lots of studies, and hopefully I can flush out some ideas for the next series. I’m very much looking forward to it.
This one was fun, although not without the usual strangeness that comes along with painting my own dumb face. I’m going to possibly do a few more with restrictions on time and pallet, in an attempt to loosen up a bit, and get faster. not necessarily for any reason other than to see what happens, and hopefully learn from it.
I leave for Miami on Wednesday and will be documenting the trip as always (last year’s posts here & here). I’ll have lots to post.
I took a short trip last week to visit family in Chicago. Athough i’ve been many times, I couldn’t pass up the chance for another visit to the Chicago Art Institute. I had a few free hours and made the walk a few miles down Michigan ave in 28 degree weather to say hello. Entirely worth the chill. It isn’t a huge museum, and is probably more associated with its Impressionist exhibits, but they have a great collection of European paintings…which is of course, where I tend to spend my time. (They added a modern art wing since my last visit, which I walked briskly through until I got frustrated…I’ll spare you the complaints.)
Although I love traipsing around the European Painting wing, i’m really only concerned with visiting two paintings: Ingrés’s “Amédée-David, the Comte de Pastoret”, and Rembrandt’s “Old Man with a Gold Chain”. (I’m sure i’ve written about these in the past, but as I can obviously revisit, anybody that’s been reading this for that long…get’s to revisit with me.)
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres - Amédée-David, the Comte de Pastoret, 1823-26
Ingrés’s portrait is one of my favorite paintings…period. I love this thing. I had never heard of Ingrés when I first ran into it years ago at the same museum, and it still strikes me as it did then. It’s a fairly standard portrait, nothing close to the opulence and grandeur of his portrait of Napoleon (here, which I also love), but its the simplicity I think that draws me in. it’s subtle and grand at the same time…and the detail is unreal. [a note: there doesn't seem to be any white paint in the highlights on the sword handle, only stronger yellows -- which is totally something I would do; screwing things up by adding an inappropriate cool color and overdoing the contrast at the same time. noted... thanks Jean]. I generally find it hard to get into portraits who’s subjects I don’t find particularly attractive, but the lacking aesthetics of mr. sideburns is doubly made up for in the composition, colors, and costume. I spent 20 minutes staring at it again, and walked out entirely inspired. I see some fancy poses and silly costumes in my painting future.
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn - Old Man with a Gold Chain, 1631 (detail)
Rembrandt’s portrait of an “old man”, dressed in who-knows-what, is just a great representation of why Rembrandt, is Rembrandt. This painting was done in 1631! It fucking glows. all eloquence goes out the window when I write/think about Rembrandt…I just don’t get it. unlike with Ingrés, I pay a lot less attention to what Rembrandt actually paints (as it’s predominantly old guys), and find myself lost in how he paints…or painted. (may as well be inconsistent with my past/present tense here too). the highlight on this dudes metal bib thing is perfect. and the background — there’s nothing going on there, but I still don’t get how it looks so good…and I certainly can’t execute it in my wildest dreams. it’s that fact, and the frenzy his work puts me in, that make me love his paintings so much.
here are some others from the Museum that I really like, some of which I’ve seen numerous times, some that were brand new to me and my horrible memory. (click for more below)
but I don’t have pictures yet. soon!
I finally finished the large painting for Corey Helford Gallery that will be heading to Art Basel Miami later this month. It’s 40″ x 68″ and I’ve spent countless hours this last week figuring out how to transport the thing to the framers in SF, and then onto LA for shipping to Miami. I love painting big, but logistically, it’s kind of impractical. Nothing beats the way huge pieces look in a gallery though, something i’m even further convinced of after seeing Gottfried Helnweins’s show in San Francisco last week [images below]. holy shit those were some big pieces…and fantastic. These pieces were listed as “oil and acrylic”, although I have heard that he sometimes paints directly onto photos printed onto canvas. I couldn’t tell in person, which should count for something — although I have to admit it would be totally disappointing to hear that that’s how these in particular were created. Looking at his body of work (and there is a ton of it), it’s clear he’s an amazing painter and could totally pull off this kind of painting without a direct printout onto the canvas…and surely he has. I can’t help it being a factor when I look at his work though…I feel like it shouldn’t be. anybody have thoughts on this?
Anyway, I will be renting an SUV from the Oakland Airport Thursday morning (it won’t fit in my car), picking up the new painting from the framers in SF, then driving it straight down to Corey Helford Gallery in LA. I plan on hitting some art shows in LA, and I’ll do my best to get into some interesting activities so I have something good to write about. Until then, here are some more shots from a varnishing session in September…I love how these look all shiny and saturated for a few hours.
And once again I’m lagging with posts. I’ve been working non-stop the last month on one big piece that will be going to Miami for Art Basel w/ Corey Helford Gallery. Not only is this one extra big, but i’m playing with some new elements that are taking quite a while to execute in the way I want to, both due to the new territory, and to lots of detail. I think i’m happy with it though now finally…good thing too because a 68″ tall canvas is real hard to work on in my tiny studio, I had to stand on a tool box to work on it tonight in fact. It’s fun though, and now i’ll stop talking about a painting I can’t post yet, I realize how annoying that probably is.
anyway, I expect things to slow way down after the prep for Miami. I’ve had three photoshoots in the last 2 weeks so I have a lot of new faces and material to play around with. (a very big thank you to Brittany, Elena, and Juliana for modeling). I’ll also likely do a bunch of simple portrait studies and possibly another ‘step-by-step’ painting chronicle this Winter.
I’m getting together a ton of pictures to post on the blog in lieu of new ramblings, so check back for those entries soon.
A good friend of mine had some business to take care of at Skywalker Ranch this week, and I jumped at the chance to tag along. It was a great visit, and I was lucky enough to see some of George Lucas’ art collection, including a bunch of fantastic Norman Rockwell pieces, and two Mucha’s! (I had no idea he owned them — why would I really… but man, I have now seen 3 original Alphonse Mucha paintings, and they always floor me). There were very few artifacts from Lucas movies actually, which I found kind of cool, and the ones I did see…made my day. (no, the other trilogy).
In final preparation for my show last month, I found myself totally exhausted and really needing a break. So a day after I got back from LA, I flew to Massachusetts and spent a week at my dads house laying low. Farmland, runs to the beach, working out in a scary inland gym…and no painting at all. I did however spend a bunch of time thinking about the next series, something which I find just as important as painting itself –but an easy thing to neglect, and the hardest aspect of painting for a deadline. I have some time now though, and have very little booked for the future (which I’m finding both comforting and stressful at the same time. I am sending three brand new pieces w/ Corey Helford Gallery to Art Basel in December, so I’ll be hard at work on those for the next 2 months.
I’m back in the swing of things and having a really good time with the first of the new pieces (started below). more soon!
starting a new paintin, it's a big one.
Thinkspace has posted their pictures from the opening last weekend. here are a few, and you can see the rest here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkspace/sets/72157627542211029/
I’m just back from LA and the Thinkspace Show and wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to everybody that made it out Saturday night. I’ll post pictures from the show as soon as they start popping up, but until then, I’ve added all the new work to the Portfolio page. enjoy!
"elements I", 28" x 56", oil on canvas, 2011
Prepping paints for the trip South. I love how saturated colors get when the temp varnish is wet. too bad anything this glossy would be impossible to look at in a gallery. ah well. more soon!
Working on the last piece for Thinkspace (Sep 10th). This is the companion piece to a similar one (seen peeking through down there on the floor) and is about 6 or 7 hours in here. I was able to get the background done and do enough on this first pass so that I can start glazing right away once this initial layer is dry. It took about 8 or 9 hours in total, which means I’m getting a lot faster at this type of basic portrait-style pose – it also means that I have quite the painting hangover today.
Here’s the show card for my date next month with Jennifer Nehrbass and Jeff Ramirez. This will be my second small group show at Thinkspace and I will have 5-6 new pieces up, including “Drift” (posted last week). The reception will be Sep. 10th from 5pm-8pm…if you’re in the area, I hope you can make it down! come say hi.
Elsewhere