Being Watched

     I have met with my mentor three times now an we have talked a lot about the psychology involved in the multiple portrait, something I am also reading a lot about particularly in Richard Brilliant's book "Portraiture," recommended by Tony.  This piece is one of a couple that I want to make about my daughters watching television.  I am titling it "TV Heads" and I think that the proportion or scale reflects such a complex activity, especially when someone is watching you watch TV.  This is roughly 44 x 52 inches and un-cropped.

Winter Games

     I am temporarily titling this triptych "Schumann, Pepperoni, mini-blinds."  It is about the portrait in general, and what it entails.  I see this as a triple portrait three times, with a distinct shift in focus and intent with regard to the physical and visual dialogue.  This piece is largely about cadence and the senses as the title implies, and I am also trying to show a variety of painting sensibilities under one roof as they apply to the individual.  The paintings are a bit larger as they have been cropped in this collage and the color is more monochrome thus far...the blue in the bottom right of the third is cool but false.  I was working with a slightly wet ground which is tricky and something that I want to make sure to moderate closely.  They are drying with the windows open to my studio and sub-freezing air rushing in.

Looking Ahead

     These are the six paintings minus one that is being exhibited that I am currently working on, and they are in varied states of completion.  The two in orange are a diptych with the old man on the left and are a little more than 5 feet tall.  The paintings of the woman and the man at tables have been re-stretched, then cut down and re-stretched again.  I have done this a lot, I just decide the painting has become about one thing not two, or one person.  I left the remnants of the other person in both paintings and I like the way it looks as a partial telling of a story.  The painting in the top right was from a background of a painting brought back from Japan where I cut both foreground characters out and it went from a painting that was 4 by 5 feet to one that is 2 x 3.  The top left painting is from a series that I am picking up after a very long hiatus in a response to a recently proposed theme critique based on the word "when."  I gave up on the painting years go and decided to basically repaint it right on top, something I have never really done.  I am experimenting with tinted grounds, oil primer, linen, alternative mediums and sennelier paints that contain a safflower oil base.  I have 3 large canvases stretched and hope to do some landscape work as well as more situational narratives that continue to explore the theme of "the visit."

Getting Back

   Upon my return it was very difficult to get my head around my new schedule.  I met with my mentor Richard Raiselis, and had great talks about frescoes, Manet, psychology, materials, and so on.  It was very productive, but short of re-retching the work that I brought home in rolls from Japan and making new canvases that I had planned before I left, there were many days in September that painting took a back seat to life.  I had been here before, so I braved the storm and I now feel that I am through the other side.  In this kind of predicament, there is no replacement for experience.