The Frankenstein Palette Table I designed

I like to design things that I need for my studio.  I think it is a waste of money to go out and buy something that you can make yourself.  Besides, when you create your tools for a direct purpose they are exactly how you need them to be.  I would rather use a tool that functions as I intended and need it, rather than buying something that almost meets my needs and has to be altered later and will never be what I really needed.

I call this Frankenstein furniture because I cannibalized older useless dead furniture, bringing it back to life.

I needed a larger painting table, and a larger palette surface to work on so I decided to Frankenstein a painting table together with some furniture I dug up.

The base is from a kitchen table I rescued from a street corner.
I adjusted it to the perfect height.

 

The top is two parts glued and wood screwed together for strength.

The palette is a 3-inch thick bar table top that I stripped and recoated with linseed oil rubbed into the wood with a rag.  A circular palette makes it easy for me to organize and mix my color selections.  I like to lay my colors out in a circle like the color wheel and this oak table top was perfect. Wood is the absolute best surface for an oil painting palette.

The wide top is 48 inches x  36 inches.  It is a piece of 3/4-inch thick oak plywood.  I shaped the corners with a round to just give it a bit of style.  I can lay my brushes and paint tubes out on this larger surface.

I then drilled holes the same size as the tops of mason jars into the wood with a circle maker.

Then I epoxied the lids into the holes, using 4 grooved braid nails on the inside of each top to add the their stability to compensate for the torque when turning the jars out.  You can see the braids from the underside of the table.

Canning jars are the best for oil painting.  The lids are two part, the rim that screws onto the jar, and a disk lid that fits between the two to seal it when you need to keep solvents or pigments fresh.  The canning jars I used are common and easily replaceable.  There are 6 jars (I found a box of them needing resurrection in my garage), each had its propose.

A little sanding, a splash of paint, and its a perfect painting table. I used it for a time, and then I passed it on to my buddy Philip while we shared a studio.  We both liked working on it.

In retrospect there is one thing I would have engineered differently.  The circular palette top- I would have liked it to spin so access to each oil color would be easier.

There you have it, my Frankenstein painting table.

Too bad this can't come to Maui with me...

...but I will be painting there.

My grandfather's drafting table

My grandfather Greg was an engineer, a problem solver for Honeywell.  In his spare time he did fine woodworking.  Pop built clocks, most of the furniture in his house, tools to do things he needed, and he designed it all.

This drafting table is one of his designs and it has been mine for the last 15 years.  

I use it for everything.

Its height is adjustable from 36 inches and it can extend to 60 inches tall.  Making it comfortable to work on sitting in a chair, a tall stool, or standing.  I do most of my work on it these days standing.

The bottom of the legs are held by peg braces so it is easy to disassemble.

The adjustments are made by simple bolts and fly nuts.

                

The top can rotate its angle almost 180% and adjust to be flipped completely for working on complicated and tight compositions.  

His brother Rodney passed on a few years ago and I got his drafting tools.  This drafting arm is perfect for design and basic drafting.  I used it mainly for laying out tricky compositional elements when I wanted forms to coincide with one another.

I love this drafting table...

...I will use it until I die.

Minneapolis 8 "Flashlight"

Another oil painting completed and ready to varnish.  This one was a complicated composition that hopefully has a simple appearance.  This work will be on exhibit in NYC in the spring.

Minneapolis 8 "Flashlight"

18 x 36, oil on linen

Thanks for thumbing through my blog.

Minneapolis #7 "Milk Bubbles"

Slightly behind schedule, I finished another painting in the Minneapolis series.  The Minneapolis series of paintings is really just a chance for me to explore color-form ideas and relax.  There is no real artist statement other than I am testing out some of my ideas before I move on to my next major series.

I was not able to resolve the minimal composition of this piece; and for some time it sat in the corner of the studio waiting for me to understand it.

Minneapolis # 7 "MIlk Bubbles" 

oil on linen

12" x 24"

Thanks for checking in...

...I hope to complete another painting soon.

Minneapolis 5 "Contrast of Temperature"

Hi all,

I just finished another painting in the Minneapolis series.  It's a fun piece based on warm colors and the contrast between them.  This work will be on exhibit at Regla De Oro Gallery in the spring of 2012.

I have been having fun with simple ideas on smaller canvases in preparation for my last BitTorrent oil painting.  I hope you enjoy this.

Minneapolis 5 "Contrast of Temperature"

12 x 24, Oil on linen

Thanks for thumbing through my blog...

...More to come soon.

The paint palette I designed

Continuing with my series of posts about my studio equipment...

Sometime in 2005, when I had decided to take on the study of my new ideas within compositional oil painting, I found that having a dedicated paint table as my all in one palette, brush cleaner, and tool holder was essential to doing what I wanted to.

My grandfather and I threw together a few designs, and finally we found this one (he was an engineer whose speciality was designing machines to solve problems for the creation of  products and meet needs of those working on the products, and he was good).  

To make this we cannibalized and combined several different pieces of furniture together.  I would like to call this type of furniture building "Frankenstein Furniture"

It is made from cut oak, a piece of my great grandmother's kitchen table, cvc pipe, canning jars, epoxy, braid nails, a piece of a lamp table, and some hardware from home depot.  Then some oil based brush-on paint (which changes from series of works to series of works but I'll talk about that later on) and some linseed oil rubbed into the top...and we have a good solid palette table for the oil painter.

It is a simple design, at the height that matches my easel chair.  I can reach it with ease while sitting in front of my easel.  As you can see here, it's not really that tall, standing at 24" tall.

It has a 3/4 inch-thick Oak top.  I keep my paint colors separated and organized just as the color wheel.  It allows me to mix my oil colors quickly and without mistakes, which leads us to the color of the table itself.  Right now the table is painted black.  I need my mind to be trained toward darks below lights and the kind of depth that cartoons or screen prints have, solid colors of varying grades of color to elude to depth and light source.  Before the repainting of black, the table was neon green because I was working with colors in complement to neon green.  I have had this table painted so many colors its surface is getting pretty thick, but its necessary for me to unconsciously work my oil color.  I believe that the color I surround myself with influences my work, just as the color of my palette table influences my work.

After a session of painting, I clean up the top some and put all my brushes used that day into one of the canning jars.

The canning jars are perfect for this because the top is open, and threaded for the glass.  I used epoxy to get the top rings in place.  Then I used 4 braid nails on the inside lip of each top to secure it further and avoid it from ever popping out of place from use.

The canning jars just twist up into the table and stay there firmly.  There are 6 jars, one for each basic color of the color wheel. (Blue, red, yellow, orange, violet, and green)  Each jar is evenly spaced from one another.

I can remove them and take them up to the house to clean my brushes in the sink.  That very simple feature makes it so I can clean my brushes with ease.  Let's be honest, we all hate cleaning brushes and having to transport them around is a pain and messy.  Really oil paint is like leprosy, once it's on one thing its on everything.  So this idea helped me keep my brushes clean.

I have some cvc pipes that I cut up to match my palette knives, scrapers, and other random tools that I use.  Sometimes, when I am working on something complicated and using an extra large amount of brushes at once, I'll use these for keeping my brushes separate from one another as I am working.  

A small hook for my tube roller.

From these picture you can see that there is paint all over the sides.  After a session of painting, when I have to clean my brushes off, I just start wiping them on stuff.  I just do that, I always have, and I'm not really sure why.  I guess its like marking your territory or something primitive, either way there is paint on everything...its kinda annoying.  

So to stop from ruining my things, I only wipe my brushes on my palette tables or painting chair, or painting couch. (yes, I have a painting couch and it rules.  Seriously ever painted in the comfort of a couch, you should, its like going to a spa with out the smug -opulence and art all in one.)

I wipe them off in a very specific pattern on my palette table, following the color wheel and matching the layout of color on the palette top.  I find it useful to always be surrounded by the color wheel in as many different ways as possible.

When I have finished a set of paintings, normally three works, I will sand the top off, then repaint the rest of it to whatever color I am trying to put into my subconscious to work with.  

Currently I am working on another palette table for Phillip Hoffman.  He has very special needs as an oil painter just as I do, so we designed a palette table for his needs.  I will put up a post about that when we are finished with it.

The Rabbititus series

Well, after three years, I have completed my series of works on color.  It was a great study tool for me.  Before I had started this work, I came to understand what I want to paint, but I did not know how to paint them yet.  I decided to study each color in the varieties of oil paint that I enjoy working with.  With each oil painting, there are no less than 15 variations of each color.

Artist Statement

This series is an exploration of the compositional elements inherent in a literal interpretation of each color.  Each of the works in this series is a study of all the aspects of a single color, such as the spatial relationship of its own structure and its relationship to other colors and forms.  I am also exploring the possibilities of color through the use of the fundamentals of classical oil painting.  A search for deeper meaning in my work will likely confuse and distract the viewer from its simplicity.

The use of title in this series is formed from the archetypal character model of Elmer Fudd.  His understanding is basic, without nuance.  He grasps all ideas and situations presented to him at face value, and subsequently is easily confused and victimized by guile.  In “Hare Tonic,” Elmer's character is effortlessly influenced, even by his enemies, and is more than willing to believe anything he is told.  Individuals relying on the immediacy of absolutes are willing to devoutly believe anything their social structure tells them, and their decisions can be likened to that of the naive mannerisms of Elmer Fudds behavioral patterns.

Adam M. Considine 2008

Rabbititus 1 "Cadmium Green Light"
oil on canvas
60" x 36" 

Rabbititus 2 "Cobalt Blue Deep"
oil on canvas
60" x 36"

Rabbititus 3 "Cobalt Violet"
oil on canvas
60" x 36" 

Rabbititus 4 "Cadmium Orange"
oil on canvas
60" x 36"

Rabbititus 5 "Cadmium Red Light"
oil on canvas
60" x 36"

Rabbititus 6 "Cadmium Lemon Yellow"
oil on canvas
60" x 36"

Rabbititus 7 "Mars Brown"
oil on canvas
60" x 36"

Rabbititus 8 "Mars Black"
oil on canvas
60" x 36"

Rabbititus 9 "Flake White"
oil on canvas
60" x 36"

Rabbititus 10 "Primary Colors"
oil on canvas
60" x 36"

Rabbititus 11 "Secondary Colors"
oil on canvas
60" x 36"

Rabbititus 12 "Zinc White"
oil on canvas
60" x 36"

Rabbititus 13 "Radiant Violet"
oil on canvas
60" x 36" 

Rabbititus 14 "Napels Yellow"
oil on canvas
60" x 36"

Rabbititus 15 "Neutral Colors"
oil on canvas
60" x 36"

Rabbititus 16 "Radiant Turquoise"
oil on canvas
60" x 36" 

I have already started my new series of oil paintings...

...so check back soon for updates on what I am creating!

Minneapolis Institute of Arts Exhibit

I got the chance to exhibit two of my newest works at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  It is just a staff show and not open the the general public, but it is still cool.  I love my job.

thanks for reading...

...more to come soon.

Studio #7 - 1915 2nd Avenue South #13

To continue on with the series of posts about my studios, here is where I am working now.  My 7th studio in Minneapolis is a top floor, 800 square-foot, 1 bedroom corner apartment in Stevens Square.  It is pretty nice, so I will kept it nice.  

I have been able to really dig into my series of works titled BitTorent, but no telling how soon I will have them Finished.  

Just finished this, yep its cool.

Its funny

Chris and I looking at my new work, he likes it.

I am talking about the painting... 

...I talk a lot.

I completed one of my major compositions at this studio.  BitTorrent #2 "Marinuis Van der Lubbe as Icarus."  To me this painting was a crowning achievement in what I wanted to paint next.

Laugh all you want, this painting was and is a major accomplishment for me.  I do take it that seriously, and then I tend to giggle about it later.

Thanks for reading...

...I will keep you up to date about my antics in this new studio.