Breaking the Rules

Tina Steele Lindsey wrote in her blog not too long ago that she would at times "bend the rules" by using supports that she had been told would not work. Woo Hoo! You go girl! Give me an art rule and I am either going to figure how to break it successfully or confirm it just can't be done. Take this painting for example. It is oil and acrylic on canvas - only I painted the acrylic after the oil. It worked perfectly - the panes between the images are painted in acrylic and appear almost (but imperfectly) adhered on. Just what the doctor ordered.
"Attraction" 2006, 30"x40", acrylic and oil on canvas.

Ronnie

Ronnie was in the waiting room at my office whiling away the time (as we all do) when he happen to see this painting on the wall. He inquired of the receptionist whether Dr. Bell had "done that painting." She informed, yes, that it was someone Dr. Bell knew. Ronnie replied, " I know who it is. It's me!"
In fact many years earlier Ronnie had done some house painting for me during which time I made a photo of him. Several years passed, however, before I actually painted this. Happily he was pleased that I had "painted him" and I was pleased his likeness was so recognizable.
Ronnie's face has a lot of character which interested me as a potential subject for an art work (he's also quite an interesting guy). This has become a favorite of mine and now hangs permanently in my studio. Created in 2007, it is encaustic on canvas measuring 24 inches square. As always, click on the image for a larger view.

Artist's Block

I, like many artists, find myself in situations where I don't know what to paint - artist's block. But sometimes the work defines itself. This 48"x48" acrylic on canvas, I estimate, will be comprised of over 5000 colored triangles. So when I walk into my studio I know I what to do - paint triangles. Not always the most fun thing to do, but I am liking where this is going. I'll post the finished painting when done.

Wax Fruit

Interesting to me was that my grandmother always had bowls of wax fruit used as decoration. This painting is based on a bowl of real fruit, but is painted with wax.
Encaustic paintings are created with pigmented wax applied in layers. Top layers are fused to underlying layers with heat; usually a heat gun, propane torch or iron. Check out Joanne Mattera's blog. She is a quite well known encaustic painter.
This painting, "Wax Fruit (Nectarines)" is 30" x 40". Click on the image for an enlarged view.

Yum!

I really like encaustic paintings!
I really like pizza!

Sometimes painting is just plain fun!


Click on the image to enlarge.
("Pizza", 2007, encaustic on canvas, 30"x40")

Artist as Viewer

If you'll read down a couple of posts, you'll see that I use an infant as a metaphor for a work of art. Of course I was relating this to the experiences of a diverse viewership with an art piece. But that metaphor works another way for the artist. We are glad when a piece sells. But this oil on canvas painting of our local Methodist Church (2008, 24"x 20") sold before the paint was good and dry. And as such the photo I have of it is kind of blurry (my camera was on the blitz). Sometimes I like to experience a painting I've done for a while before I let it go. Maybe, after being the artist, I need to impart meaning to the painting as a viewer.

Good Ol' Barney

I rarely paint celebrities. Too often the focus becomes the subject of the painting rather than the painting. When I say the focus of a painting should be the painting, I don't necessarily mean technique, but in a sort of Clemente Greenberg way I mean its formal properties - you know, surface, support, paint, size, texture - all that sort of stuff. (Yea, I know, Greenberg would have hated this painting.)

Don Knotts was a master. For all his inanities, he was able to switch and pull off an emotional and melodramatic moment. John Candy could do this also. I, personally, have never seen Jim Carrey do it convincingly.

This oil on canvas is 20"x16" and painted in 2005.