My return to oil painting

In the summer of 2009 I was hit by a car that ran a red light (while on a cell phone).  I was hurt pretty badly, and I was out of work on medical leave for a year and three months.  During this time, I was unable to paint, but I was able to study, to listen to lectures, and learn about the subjects I wanted to paint in depth.  The year + of recovery after the accident was the longest time I had gone without painting, and that alone was agony.

I had just finished this painting before I was hit by the car.

BitTorrent #2 "Marinuis Vanderlubbe as Icarus" 

36x48 

oil on canvas

I was working on these ideas before I was hit...

Study for- BitTorrent #6 "Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist" ink on paper 36x24

I took my study from this oil painting...

"Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist" oil on canvas

Onorio Marinari - 1680 CE

Study for- BitTorrent 5 "The Building of the Trojan Horse" 36x48 ink on paper 24x36

I took my study from this painting...

"The building of the trojan horse" oil on canvas

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo - about 1760 CE

Over the last few months I was able to complete my work where I left off...

BitTorrent 6 "Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist" 

48x36 

oil on linen

2011

BitTorrent 5 "The Building of the Trojan Horse" 

36x48 

oil on canvas

2010

Now that these two ideas are complete, I have moved on to something completely new to me, as far as composition and color go.  Both of these paintings were inspired by works of art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  I am currently working on more of my own abstract thoughts from works of art in the permanent collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  So far, I have been sticking to works from 1800 CE or earlier, where the subject-matter is of Greek, Roman, or Christian mythology.  

I will post more as I finish them, but after the accident I am unable to work as fast as I used to, so these take a great deal of time to complete (they took quite a bit of time to complete before the accident too).

Artwork of the month: Subodh Gupta

At the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, on the second floor, there is a new "Modern" art gallery.  It is a great exhibit, and a fantastic set of works.  This one is my favorite.  The medium is bronze, made to look like gold and spray painted cardboard.  The context of the work is a philosophy that I can connect with, and after looking over Gupta's portfolio I can see where his ideas are coming from.

Subodh Gupta

Indian, born 1964

"Dubai to Calcutta #9"

2006, bronze with gold patina and aluminum, in parts.


This work is quite a tease...
...I will have to create something very cool now.

Caravaggio my Studio dog

I rescued a puppy at a shelter in Hayward, Wisconsin.  I fell in love with my girlfriend's dog, Nikita, so I just had to have one.  Three years of training and I now have the type of dog I wanted.  He is now three years old and I couldn't be without him.  I love my boy Caravaggio.
Check out some pics.

 Here he is in his first studio...

 Here he is in his first cone of shame...

 He still does this, if a window is open he will stand there and look out...

 2 years old

Here he is with his second cone of shame...

His special Carhartt hoodie for winter.  

He is a fantastic dog and we love to spend time together.

New Chair design

This winter my friend Aaron Conner, from Paraselenic Studio, designed and built a set of chairs for "Roller Revolution," a roller girls store here in Minneapolis.  

We decided to build another set for ourselves.  We did a good job with these, and we do plan on tweaking the design some.  As they are, we can make them with cushioned seats or decorative slats that have any direction to them.  

We designed these from scratch, taking some influence from a living room chair from the 50's.

Aaron and I after we finally completed our first set of chairs. They are very comfortable.

Painted, polished, and ready to sit in.

Thanks for visiting my blog...

...check back soon, there is more to come.

A New painting: Step by step

This is a new piece I completed a few months ago.  It is an older idea that I started in 2008 that had to be delayed because of my accident.  I was unable to complete this until now.

It is titled...

BitTorrent #7 "Interventio, The story of Calypso" 

48x36 oil on linen

2010

With each work of art that I create, I start with an academic study of my subject matter.  In this case, the story of Calypso from Greek mythology.  I tried to read everything I could about her, the people that wrote about her and why, what was going on in the area the writers were living in, and what was the social view of life in general, or the "weltanschau" at the time.  

For this piece, I studied the painting "Calypso," oil on canvas 1869, by Karl Ernest Rodolphe Heinrich Salem Lehmann.  I work at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts as a gallery guard part time.  Over the past 5 years, I have had the chance to truly observe this painting.  

After I feel satisfied with my study work (which I do because i just enjoy it), I then start to sketch out the composition.  Abstracting my study drawings until I find a composition that represents the subject-matter and in this case, the oil painting I was taking my inspiration from. 

Here are a few Iphone pictures of the process on canvas...

To the finished oil painting...

Mahalo.