Two Pairs

      The past few weeks I have been working on two pairs of paintings, which has been the perfect balance.  I anticipate returning home with six paintings in total, and since two will be mostly finished soon (the two direct studies of the woman working) I am making sure that there is no lull in the action by stretching two large canvases to match the large double portraits in the series I am temporarily calling "The Visit."  Another friend of my subject whom I have known for many years came by recently and I had been waiting to get some good photos of a visit between the two.  While i am making these new canvases, I am working up some drawings for what will be a second diptych, each panel roughly 44 x 52 if my metric conversion is correct.  This is a size that I have been using for a year and it is simply working so I want to continue the linear progression, plus they fit perfectly in the back of my pickup between the wheel wells.  Because I am going to take the canvases apart to roll them up and bring them home before I depart at the end of the summer, I am excited that these beefy stretchers I made will provide ample painting support for years to come.  I think I will have 3 more paintings sessions on each canvas before leaving, leaving them more than 3/4 finished, and I will touch them up and add some minor changes to them once re-stretched in my studio at home.
     I have been working in this garage at night, and although I have had to dispose of some spiders that could walk away hammers, I have had some pleasant company too as you can see in the bottom right hand corner of the collage above.  The K-truck has sides that fold down and it has made a great work table keeping with the Japanese tradition of maximizing my space.  Oil painting is easy to overwork in my opinion, so this seemingly excessive building has always been a way for me to counteract this challenge.