New Improvisations

I have completed 5 improvisations for the kickstarter rewards this week.  I should be able to keep up with the work load and complete the rest of the kickstarter rewards by the third or fourth week in december.  I will mail them all out as soon as the wok is dry.

Minneapolis 9 "Improvisation a"

12 x 24, oil on canvas

Minneapolis 10 "Improvisation b"

12 x 24, oil on canvas

Minneapolis 11 "Improvisation c"

12 x 24, oil on canvas

Minneapolis 12 "Improvisation d"

12 x 24, oil on canvas

Minneapolis 12 "Improvisation e"

12 x 24, oil on canvas

I better get back into the studio and off the computer if intend to finish my work.

Thanks for thumbing through my blog...

...More to come soon.

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 artists 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.

Artwork of the month: Wassily Kandinsky.

Kandinsky is and always has been my biggest influence (aside from Caravaggio) in abstract art. I have read everything he wrote attentively.  I have traveled to museums simply to view his works of art.  I have visited the Guggenheim in New York 17 times only To spend a few hours in front of "Composition #8" his finest work. I studied his life, his works, and his impact so completely I feel as if i kew him personally.

I can conclude that I truly admire his work, and I would never have liked him as a person. Kandinsky was a spoiled rich kid infused with the misguided plight of privilege. Albeit, his works of art, his thesis, is more insightful than any artist in our recorded history. Bold statement, yes it is and I stand by it.

I have been studying this painting periodically since 1996 at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Wassily Kandinsky

Russian, 1866-1944

"Study for Improvisation V"

1910, oil on pulp board

Kandinsky painted on both sides of the work.  It was a common practice artists of early 1900s to paint on both sides of fiber board, and then split them up and sell them as separate pieces.  I have painted on both sides of a canvas several times. 

The sibling to this painting is in a private collection as far as I know.  I have only seen it in person once in 2005 when the two paintings were exhibited together for the first time.

"Two Riders and Reclining Figure"

1910, oil on pulp board

So the original "Two Riders and Reclining Figure/Study for improvisation V" oil on pulp board was separated until 2005 when exhibited as "Kandinsky: A Relationship Revealed" at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  The $ tier made a huge international deal about how amazing this was and how great to have the two works reunited again, even if for only a moment.  The reality is that Kandinsky was poor at the time he painted these works and it wasn't because he wanted the extra money from a double sale for the cost of one...

...it was because he had to paint no matter what the consequences.  historians, curators, directors and investors love the tales but lack the understanding that an artist has about another artist.  

"The artist must have something to say, for mastery over form is not his goal but rather the adapting of form to its inner meaning." 

-Wassily Kandinsky

Hand study in pencil and poetry.

Falling back into poetry again.  I was working on my book "Iodized Salt" and i just wandered off and came up with this quick study.  

Hand study

pencil on paper

2006

Iodized Salt will eventually be completed...

...as soon as my composition is chosen.

"Word Compositions" series of paintings

Taking another look at my past as an artist in Minneapolis we come to my poetry works on canvas...


These paintings were created in 1999 somewhere during the time when I was experimenting with poetry, and they were fun.  I will explore this idea again.  I wrote three full books of poetry between 1996 and 2000.  
Sooner or later I will publish them here on this blog.  For now just enjoy this abstraction of words.  

Artist Statement

These compositions are based on a single improvisational repeated word scratched into the surface of the oil painting.  Surface and composition are the focus of this work.

Adam M. Considine  1999

Word Composition a 

oil on canvas

22" x 18"

Word Composition b 

oil on canvas

18" x 22"

Word Composition c 

oil on canvas

48" x 24"

Word Composition d 

oil on canvas

22" x 18"

Word Composition e 

oil on canvas

36" x 24"

Word Composition f 

oil on canvas

24" x 36"

Word Composition g 

oil on canvas

22" x 12"

Word Composition h 

oil on canvas

48" x 24"

I love compositional poetry...

...I use it as I do oil paint.

Improvisation studies

I was going through my portfolio and I found these old oil pastel studies from 1998/99.

They were fun.  I have chosen a direction with my current work that is completely abstract from concept to composition.  These remind me of how fun a bit of allegory can be.

Enjoy them...

...I may work this direction again someday.

Improvisation 33 "Loring park sky" 80x60

These photos were created over the span of 5 days.  

This painting, Improvisation 33 "Loring park sky" 80x60, was one of my major works during my Improvisation series.  It took me several days of constant work to complete this painting.  I barely slept or ate.  Being too into the moment of this work (and not wanting any of the paint to start to dry so I could continuously change it as needed), I just drank coffee and smoked cigarettes for 4 or 5 days until I completed the painting.

I used to just squeeze the paint out onto the canvas, then spread it around like frosting.

Philip Hoffman was painting with me durring a few of those days.  As his apprentice he guided my decision at times toward a good composition.  Albeit, he always allowed me to make my own compositional choices.

That must have been exciting.

Almost complete.

The painting is finished.  I love working on a large surface as it is truly liberating.  

Here it is completed.

"Improvisations" series of paintings

Lets start of this blog with a look at my past in the arts. 

This series of paintings were created between 1997 - 1998, I am really unsure as to the actual dates.  These works were my first real attempt to study abstraction.  

In 1997 I was working at Starbucks on 50th and france.  I would paint some landscapes or still-lives and bring them to work and show them off to all the costumers, who might I add were older wealthy house wives who love impressionistic works of art (of course they do, Van Gogh works of art are on coffee cups everywhere).  I actually loved that job, my coworkers were cool, fun to be with and honest, and its coffee man seriously do I need to explain that.  So one day I just up and quit.  A costumer came in and asked for some cardboard boxes to move with.  I checked, but we didn't have any, and wow was she mad.  She threw her latte on the floor screamed at me about how she called the day before and asked us to hold the old boxes for her... bla bla bla what a entitled little cunt.  I wasn't mad, I just wanted something different so i handed the store keys to my GM and left. 

I went home that day and stared at my paintings I was working on at the time.  I was using acrylic paint then, and I was almost out.  I did have a box of old oil paints that my grandmother Virginia gave me years before, but no solvent and no brushes.  I did have a few palette knives I could work with. 

So after looking at the oil colors, three large blank canvases, and the palette knives, I just simply started putting oil paint on the canvas.  I worked for several days straight, until I had finished all of the paintings.  I worked on this series for the next year+ straight, completing 60+ canvases.  I only have records of 50 of them.

There is really no artist statement here.

Improvisation 1 "Minneapolis" 

oil on canvas

80" x 50"

Improvisation 2 "Beach" 

oil on canvas

50" x 80"

Improvisation 3 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

70" x 30"

Improvisation 4 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

12" x 12"

Improvisation 5 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

18" x 22"

Improvisation 7 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

12" x 12"

Improvisation 8 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas 

12" x 12"

Improvisation 9 "Orange Stripes" 

oil on canvas

12" x 12"

Improvisation 10 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

12" x 12"

Improvisation 11 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

12" x 12"

Improvisation 12 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

12" x 22"

Improvisation 13 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

12" x 12"

Improvisation 14 "White Stripes" 

oil on canvas

12" x 40"

Improvisation 15 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

18" x 22"

Improvisation 16 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

18" x 22"

Improvisation 17 "Gold Stripes" 

oil on canvas

22" x 18"

Improvisation 18 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

12"x 24"

Improvisation 20 "Wine Label" 

oil on canvas

60" x 36"

Improvisation 21 "with Scratches" 

oil on canvas

50" x 50"

Improvisation 22 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

48" x 60"

Improvisation 23 "At the Opera" 

oil on canvas

50"x 50"

Improvisation 24 "Studio" 

oil on canvas

50" x 50"

Improvisation 25 "Squid City" 

oil on canvas

36" x 36"

Improvisation 26 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

18" x 22"

Improvisation 27 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

18" x 22"

Improvisation 28 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

48" x 24"

Improvisation 29 "Honkey Tonk" 

oil on canvas

40" x 70"

Improvisation 30 "Lighthouse a" 

oil on canvas

24" x 30"

Improvisation 31 "Lighthouse b" 

oil on canvas

24" x 48"

Improvisation 32 "Lighthouse c" 

oil on canvas

30" x 70"

Improvisation 33 "Loring park sky" 

oil on canvas

80" x 60"

Improvisation 34 "Northern Lights" 

oil on canvas

80" x 50"

Improvisation 35 "On the Other side of the Hill" 

oil on canvas

48" x 60"

Improvisation 36 "Lightning" 

oil on canvas

36" x 24"

Improvisation 37 "7 Sailboats" 

oil on canvas

18" x 22"

Improvisation 38 "Hut study" 

oil on canvas

22" x 18"

Improvisation 39 "Tree study a" 

oil on canvas

22" x 18"

Improvisation 40 "Tree study b" 

oil on canvas

12" x 12"

Improvisation 41 "Tree study c" 

oil on canvas

22" x 18"

Improvisation 42 "Tree study d" 

oil on canvas

18" x 22"

Improvisation 43 "The Tree in the park where the hore sleeps sometimes" 

oil on canvas

18" x 22"

Improvisation 44 "Beach at Night" 

oil on canvas

50" x 80"

Improvisation 45 "Thomas Cromwell and the King" 

oil on canvas

48" x 24"

Improvisation 46 "Saint George and the Dragon" 

oil on canvas

36" x 40"

Improvisation 47 "Waterspout" 

oil on canvas

20" x 60"

Improvisation 48 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

48" x 24"

Improvisation 49 "Untitled" 

oil on canvas

18" x 22"

Thanks for checking out my blog...

...keep checking in, more to come soon.