u.s. open 1, 20x80” oil on portrait linen, at 4pm today
2:32 PM: i’ve had this 20x80” whited over canvas sitting for about a month. yesterday as we watched the u.s. open matches, i shot some stills of the players from the tv screen. this morning i printed out a few and began an experiment. we’ll see if it has legs or just gets painted over again.
3:43 PM: i was about to launch into something new today, but my gaze kept returning to skateboarder 3, and i had a persistant feeling something more was needed.
i mostly used collage to make the changes, which will become apparant if you compare the two images BELOW.
so i’ll wait till tomorrow morning to satrt something new. we took our trail walk this morning, and i made another study of the creek using my colored pencils and a small drawing book.
this morning’s creek drawing
jazz 13 as it looked at the end of my painting day today
3:56 PM: this morning i stretched hu 1, and then discovered there’s more i wanted to do. i think my changes and additions, which were mostly around the borders, have enriched the composition.
jazz 13 seems to be an ongoing experiment in ways the entire jazz series could go to another level. if i had to use one word to characterize that, it might be fluidity. i’ve been working into, the making fluid, curviliniar movements with the palette knife, creating a subtle play of movement across the canvas as well as greater ambiguity in the human figures scattered throughout the composition.
hu 1 as it looked following todays changes
3:38 PM: i’ve been looking at jazz 13, 35x37” on the east studio wall for months. i brought it back to the house yesterday, which is the ultimate test of how well a painting stands up, and it failed the test.
so today, i dove back in & made some radical changes, which will likely continue tomorrow, since it needs to lighten up.
here’s the before and after.
1:09 PM: i brought skateboarder 3 back to the house yesterday so that we could both look at it critically. as a result, i made the tweaks you see here. the strokes i made on the bottom 1/4 are critical to the composition. the highlighting of the skateboard, her sneakers and the outline of her dress allow the painting/collage to be seen more easily from a distance.
4:56 PM: i started skateboarder 3 this morning. i’ll post more later; gotta get back to the house.
like the other two, she’s flying high above a number of maps on her siena skateboard. her green dress and white petticoat are blowing in the wind.
compositionally, again, as with 1 & 2, the shape and colors of the maps RE ll importnt, providing structure to the curvaceous figure. however the lower quarter still needs work.
4:04 PM: we walked up the creek trail this morning, so i was late getting to the studio. i worked on bothe skateboarder 1 & 2, adding collaged elements, mostly from maps.
3:46 PM: i continued work on skateboarder 1, which may be complete, and started skateboarder 2, a guy with a red shirt & cap & a red striped skateboard. i like them both…i’ll know better in the morning.ing
it’s interesting going from painting in oil to gouache. especially since, in my evolving style of working in oil, i routinely scrape just painted passages or white over them and then paint into the ghost image.
all of a sudden, i have to stay with the brush marks i make. going over something you’ve painted in gouache is not advisable and, as with watercolor, the marks you make are permanant.
on the other hand, it’s always good to switch it up, whatever you’re doing: cooking, reading, making love or just walking up the trail. i’m using different parts of my brain when i switch mediums as i did today, and that too is beneficial.
plus, i’m noticing things about skateboarders i never knew or paid attention to. one could say this is about as close as we can get to flying. i love how their arms create balance, and how every part of the body is engaged. it could be perceived as a form of dance.
skateboarder 1 16x6” gouache on paper
skateboarder 2 16x6” gouache on paper
3:28 PM: i’m interrupting my recent series of 38x20” oils to make a few paintings of skateboarders this weekend, for a prospective client who expressed interest. i’m about 70% through the first one, titled simply: skateboarder 1. they will all be 16x6” gouache on arches paper.
skateboarder 1 16x6” at the end of my painting day
11:56 AM: i whited over the upper half of the last supper this morning: dressed the bare breasted dinner guest, yellow and blue stripes surrounding the composition and added a patterned area of squares beneath the figure in green.
i see a significant improvement in the overall composition, and my eye is no longer confused by the pink hue of the upper half, as well as the architectural elements , which are now just ghost images. the richness and vibrancy of what’s going on in the lower half now bursts forth in a way that, frankly, overshadows it’s neighbors tacked to my east studio wall.
DETAIL- the last supper
the last supper 38X20”/96.5X51 cm as it looked moments ago
