New painting in progress

I have been working on this painting for nearly a year now.  I started with an academic study of the subject-matter, the artist that painted it, and then realistic details.  Over the last 6 months I have worked on the abstraction of the original composition with a heavy bias on the content of the narrative.  

I am fairly far along, but the real work starts now as I begin to truly work the composition.

Minneapolis #? "Penitent Magdelene"

This painting at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is my source material.  I have admired this work of art for many years.  I am very happy to present the subject-matter as I see it.

"Penitent Magdelene"

Bartolome Esteban Mutillo    c. 1650-1665

I hope to have this painting completed by the end of March or the beginning of April.

Thanks for reading along...

...I will post more about this painting as I work on it.

2.2.2_The pallet knife.

2.2.2_The pallet knife.

The pallet knife is naturally quick and improvisational in its abilities for laying paint on a surface.  There as many varieties as to the edge, shape, and flexibility of a palette knife; most of which mimic the paint brushes various features of each bristle type.  The palette knife has the ability to control the texture of oil paint, manipulating this painting medium into a sculpting medium.  The use of oil paint as a sculpting medium is still painting.  I use the pallet knife to sculpt three-dimensional forms out of oil paint.


     I used a set of 12 palette knives for an entire series of works.  I even found myself using a toaster, then a freezer door for their larger edge to pull paint.  

Artwork of the month: Paul Signac.

Paul Signac is a simple painter, chiseling subject matter that was popular and commonplace in his time.  As was his life and his paintings - commonplace.  He married, left her later, shacked up with a woman, painted some and died.

I have always liked this painting.   I enjoy the seemingly random color placement of his work.

Paul Signac

French, 1863-1935

"Blessing of the Tuna Fleet at Groix"

1923, oil on canvas

Go see this at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts...

...it is worth a few moments of investigation.

Artwork of the month: Piet Mondrian.

There are two artists that I look toward for their mastery of the philosophy of abstract oil painting. Wassily Kandinsky, and Piet Mondrian; Both masters of their craft and shaman philosophers of modern art.

There are four Mondrian paintings at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts that I have spent years meditating on.  I have read everything Mondrian has written, and rarely disagreed with his thesis.   His work has inspired me and pushed me to be honest with my work helping me see my visual language as my own.

Piet Mondrian

Dutch, 1872-1944

"Composition with Blue, Red, Yellow, and Black"

1922, oil on canvas

"Red Gladioli"

1906, Oil on canvas

"Irises"

1910, oil on canvas

"Composition with Blue and Red"

1932, oil on canvas

The MIA hardly ever puts this painting out on display.  I have only seen it twice.

"All painting – the painting of the past as well as of the present – shows us that its essential plastic means we are only line and color."

-Piet Mondrian

Studio #1 - 116 Oak Grove studio apartment

My first oil painting space in minneapolis was in the basement of a house in north east where I lived with people i  did not like, and they did not like me.  That was probably why they had me paint next to the washer and dryer in a crappy low ceiling basement.  So lets call that Studio #0 and just leave it at that.

Studio #1, My first real art studio in Minneapolis was a studio apartment in Loring Park that I converted into an art studio.  It was an stimulating and productive time in my life.  I was examining abstraction, working on short stories and poetry, and learning how to make it without a day job.  I was relatively new to Minneapolis, and I had only met a handful of people I would consider friends.  

I converted the bathroom into my bedroom.  I had a board cut to fit the bath tub, attached with hinges to the top of the tub.  I would flip the board up, take a shower, flip it back down then roll out a mattress to sleep on.  The rest of the bathroom was a makeshift closet.  It was crazy cramped and messy, but it worked.  Seriously, have you ever tried to live in a bathroom?  We all do what we must to have what we want, and living in the bathroom was what I had to do.

The rest of the apartment was all art studio.  In less than a year, I ruined it getting paint on everything and paid high price for my youthful sense of creativity.  I used the freezer door to paint with at one point, as the toaster i was painting with at the time did not have a large enough edge to pull the oil paint how i needed it.  It was worth every dollar.

I probably completed 200 or so works of art in this studio, and it was crazy.  Here are some pics of the studio.

I was so proud of this painting, and its okay but not nearly as good as I thought it was at the time.  I created many works that I am still happy with today.  It does not mater if my work then was good, bad, junk or masterworks, I was building the skills I would need later as a professional artist.  Besides, in our art world its all relative to the individual so as an artist I could (and can) get away with anything I wanted to.  

At any given point there were 30+ oil paintings stacked up everywhere

During this time I met an oil painter named Philip Hoffman.  I became his apprentice shortly after we met (mostly because I kept bugging him to teach me what he knew), and we continued to work together for the next 4+ years.

Philip working on "The infamous Purple lake"

 Philip Hoffman worked with me in the studio until its inevitable end.  We created an entire series of works together in there, and became good friends in the process.

It became crowded fast, no room for anything other than oil paintings.  I still have that green shirt, it is seriously my favorite shirt ever.

Even the tiny kitchen was used for some type of artwork creation.

The tape on the floor was set for where I was to stand while I looked at the stage of my still-life.  It was part of my self imposed training/study as an artist.

Catherine A. Palmer and I worked together for years.  We will work and exhibit together again.

I had a very good time in this studio, and I was a ham (excessively theatrical) so we took tons of photos.

Stefan Johnson worked in the studio with me at times.  Here he is painting with a bathtub toy wind up bear and a toilet plunger.  Look for 2.2.3_Other tools for a detailed account of that day.

The downfall of this studio was the parties, or as I liked to call them the art openings.  We threw gallery like openings with our paintings in the hallways of the apartment building.  we actually sold some work doing this, and well it was fun.  I had screwed large lug bolts into the apartment hallway walls and painted whit over them so they were not very noticeable, but easy to just hang a bunch of oil paintings for a weekend art show.  The neighbors didn't care, they thought it as fun.

Eventually the apartment managers caught on and came to one of the openings.  I saw a group of suits come in, thought that it was odd but maybe they saw the flyer and wanted to look at the art so i invited them into the studio.  We small talked and then I suggested that they take some time and look at the paintings, they told me that they had seen enough and handed me eviction papers.  That was the abrupt end of my first studio.  Worth every penny.

  I have hundreds of photos from this studio, so i will just leave you with with these.

Thanks for reading my blog...

...keep checking back, there is more to come.