Sketch for Biba II

Sketch for Biba II. Another sketch in oil from the same night.

Next week we'll start on the formal painting.

I wonder what that will look like?

Sketch for Biba I

Sketch for Biba I. It's been a long time since I've painted a painting with a pallette knife...

And, when I'm not drawing Teddy Bears, I'm painting and drawing women I don't know.

This is a quick sketch in oil for Biba, from last night: Thursday, October 16th, 2008. We're trying to work out the right composition for her formal pose.

Sketch for Gabriela on the Couch with Pillows

Sketch for Gabriela on the Couch with Pillows. Oil. A painting. Black and white. A sketch for this painting.

Gabriela. On the couch with pillows. But this is the sketch. The real painting isn't finished yet. We just finished the sketch tonight. It's nice.

I'm allowed to say nice about this painting. I'm the artist.

It says so, right here:

Sometimes "nice" is the right choice, no matter what they say.

Painting Gabriela on the Couch with Pillows

Painting Gabriela on the Couch with Pillows.

Video. Look closely, and you can see the black and white sketch (in oil) leaning against the wall.

Ewelina in a Chair

Ewelina in a Chair.

Black and white pencil drawing on paper. Oxford Street. June, 2008.

Girl with Blue Necklaces

Girl with Blue Necklaces. The oil painting of Meral sitting on the couch. It's much easier to paint someone when you've done your homework:
Meral
A Cardboard Painting of a Woman
Meral, Discontent in Green Jacket at Brighton
Coffee and Complicated Thoughts in a Red Chair




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paintings.drawings.arithmetic.

A Cardboard Painting of a Woman

A Cardboard Painting of a Woman. Lesson #5: Preparing the Ground.

Last week, Meral painted the cardboard white. We were using time wisely while waiting for the basecoat to dry on her official portrait.

Then. We worked on the couch pose a bit more before putting a coat of blue on the cardboard for good luck.

Last night, I needed to warm-up before putting in the next stage of color on the portrait.

So, I used the cardboard to make a quick sketch of Meral. It was a nice way to reintroduce myself to my pallete. At first, she hated it. But, then I fixed the drawing. Now she likes it more than the "real" picture.

You may recognize my red chair. While painting last night, I realized how beautiful Meral's portrait was turning out. Which is when I fell through the seat....

Amy in a Chair

Amy in a Chair. As many of you know, I've been going through the pages of the Lost Summer sketchbook. Well, there's loads more of those pages left, but I'm tired of putting them up. This painting is from the Women I Don't Know series.

After Amy graciously agreed to pose for four sittings, I proposed to finish when I found the perfect yellow (see the upper-right corner). Started in October 2007, I still have yet to find that perfect yellow. Which is disappointing indeed, since Amy is patiently awaiting the delivery of this very portrait. I hate to disappoint.

Check out a drawing from the Amy sessions.

Happy Mother's Day, Here are Some Flowers

Happy Mothers Day, Here are Some Flowers. My junior year in college (1998) saw me with access to a painting studio. And what better way to say Happy Mothers Day than a beautiful painting of flowers that will never wilt? There was a shell yellow Asian vase, intended as a gift to my girlfriend, and a collection of yellow, green, and purple petals and leaves. I took this picture over the winter holidays at the tail end of 2007. Home for a few days, for the first time in 18 months, I was impressed with myself for leaving so many beautiful paintings. Many, I saw for the first time...

Portrait of Sari

Portrait of Sari. From Japan, Sari traded me two books of pictures from famous Japanese

artists for this oil painting. One of them even opens backwards... really, really cool and well worth it. She also connected me with a Japanese Manga artist who's illustrating the G.E.T.'s adventures (my current hyper dimensional music project). Actually, Sari is doing all the translating because Calvet-san doesn't really speak English. Thanks again Sari!!!!!

Day I
Day II

Sari - Day II

Sari - Day II. DayII for a painting is usually my favorite day.

Back of a Woman (Kristin)

Back of a Woman (Kristin). Painted yesterday, Sunday in Peckham (South of the Thames). Nice. A classic pose, the back of a woman is an elegant indication of her true beauty. There's an undeniable geometric foundation to her form that is both subtle and constructive...

A Vase With Three Flowers

A Vase With Three Flowers. An atari-like composition, I must admit... Superimposing a gigantic grid over the complex reality of a vase and three beautiful flowers, I still smile thinking of this painting. Now, it sits on a wall in an office, shining a cheerful light. beep. beep. and it was all according to a plan

Still Life wth Pan

Still Life with Pan. Well, I was researching the grid. It was an independent study, during which I began to develop certain ideas which have served as the fundamental basis for much of my artwork. In this painting, the plane is divided into four quadrants. Fascinated as I am with geometry, it seems that each object begins to allude to certain basic shapes.

Still Life with Guitar

Still Life with Guitar. A classic. One of my favorite paintings... no real ideas, just my guitar on a chair. Painted in the undergraduate painting studio at William & Mary in the Spring of 1999, I was taking an overload in credits so that I could continue my painting instruction while undergoing student teaching in mathematics. I'm particularly fascinated with the color of this oil painting.

Girl on Couch (Isabel): Painting

Girl on Couch (Isabel): Painting. I changed palettes for this one. Not because I wanted to, but because the colors made sense, and perhaps because it is so similar to the color of the drawings that I've been working on for the past year. Finally, a good painting...

The drawing was nice too.

Again, July transformed me. I had no idea where I would land, and suspect that I have not yet landed...

View From An Apartment in Cheshunt

View From an Apartment in Cheshunt. Finished or not, it's gone. I've moved to so many places in the past two months... This painting was finished the day I moved out of my flat in Cheshunt, for obvious reasons. It was a gift to a friend of a friend but was commandeered by the original friend. I hope to one day see it again...

Girl with Scarf

Girl with Scarf. The green couch, a two-seater, was purchased for $10 and tied to the top of my silver 1992 Toyota Camry. Mike and I rolled down the windows, each grabbing hold of a different side so that I could drive down the cobbled streets of Shockoe Slip... We had just signed the lease for our first studio and had found the perfect couch, one that would be cool enough in its' mediocrity to appear in dozens of my paintings and drawings over the next eight years. I am particularly fond of the face in this picture, though I do recall being asked to change it several times...

Vase with Three Apples

Vase with Three Apples. The first synthetic pixelization painting, completed at the end of my first semester of Painting instruction from Lucy Barber (visiting Williamsburg from New York for a year). Working from observation, I used simple geometry to define the forms: three apples, one white vase.

Still Life with Three Bottles

Still Life with Three Bottles. Aaron's favorite game to play for awhile was "Guess the Bottle," where everyone who happened to be hanging out in my studio would take turns guessing which brand of beer or soda lay hidden behind the opaque layer of paint which coated it... I later painted over the background of this picture...