The glazing wall easel I designed.

A few years ago I built a glazing easel with my grandfather Greg.  We designed it simply to just meet my needs exactly, and then we added some flare.  

Glazing is a technique I use in oil painting where I apply a very thin layer of oil-color to the entire surface of my painting in order to change the value of the color slightly and smothly.  It is an extremely useful technique for transitioning from one color to another where the change becomes almost undetectable.  At times it can seam as if all the layers of thin oil are visible at the same time, as they give off a blended appearance.  There is a lot of blending in my work, and within each glaze, as I work mainly in opaque colors.  Traditionally its a transparent layer, but I go both ways and spice it up with an opaque set And transparent set of colors.  I start out laying small amounts of the opaque colors, then after the opaques have dried  I hit it up with the transparent pigments, and back to the opaques...

...over and over and over until I am satisfied with the results.  

I do this, I just do.  Glazing makes my work look as if it were glowing, and reduces the chances of the oil paint from cracking from age in the future.

In order for me to glaze an oil painting properly, or as I want to, I need my painting to not move an inch, not a wiggle. Glazing is a vigorous process for me. i use enough force behind the brush to move the painting if it isn't secured tightly.  So together Pop and I built this easel.  It is perfectly balanced, and solid.  Once installed, its not going anywhere and neither is the work once its fastened down.

The easel is 75" tall, and can hold a 63" tall painting edge easily.  In this picture it is bolted to a support system I framed a window with in the studio.  The support system can be replaced and adjusted if I need to, but its a lot of work to do that so I like set it up once and leave it.  The easel is made from cedar, milled aluminum, and some tightening knobs we bought from the hardware store.  Everything is made by us except the tightener knobs.

the top support is 32" long...

 the bottom support is 45" long...

This knob sits under the bottom support and is useless at the moment.  When the easel is used with the back riser it lets me raise the bottom of the easel as high as 8 feet.  That lets me move the easel up and out of the way when I am done working on it.

Back riser...

When we built this we decided that it would be great if the entire easel wold be able to adjust vertically at the same height as the total height of the easel itself.  We built a second runner beam and when mounted the entire easel so it can slide up and out of the way leaving you with the extra wall space to work with.  It helps to protect the work of art between glazes as it drys.  You need 15 feet or more to really use this feature and at the moment I only have 10 feet of wall-space.

 This is Flare, it was an unnecessary design element that made the easel look good.  The angles of the outer edges of the supports don't add the the function of the easel at all.

When I said that this easel was perfectly balanced, I meant it.  This is a picture of a large painting just resting on 1/2 of the bottom support.  As you can see the painting is a full inch away from the easel.

Top support...

Bottom support...

Even though its not tightened down with the top support, I could leave my painting there indefinitely and it would never move.  It does not lean forward or backward, the painting just rests wherever you place it.  That is perfect balance.  

Here it is with an unfinished oil painting on it.  The painting is 48" x 36" and this piece has gone through no less than 20 (more like 25, i just cant remember at this point since I have been working on this thing for months now.) separate glazes.  You can see how comfortable the work sits on the easel.

I will more than likely edit this post as it sits here over the next day or two.  There is a great deal to say about this simple easel and i didn't get to it all tonight.  I really enjoy designing my tools as i can tailor them exactly to my needs.

Artwork of the month: 5 favorite nudes at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

I admire these works for their beauty, their composition, and their important historical value.  They are also nude, which i believe we all like.  Anyway, enjoy them.


My 5 favorite Nudes at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Francois Rude

French, 1784-1855

"Hebe and the Eagle of Jupiter"

1853-1855, bronze

Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse

French, 1824-1887

"Undine"

1912, bronze

Louis Corinth

German, 1858-1925

"Nude Girl"

1886, oil on canvas

 

 

Aguste Rodin
French, 1840-1917
"The bronze age"
cast 1906, bronze 

Guess?




"I have no problem with nudity. I can look at myself. I like walking around nude. It doesn't bother me. I see all the people walking around nude; it doesn't bother me."
-Ursula Andress

Andromeda and the Sea Monster Cetus.

Once again, here is my retelling of the story of Andromeda...

BitTorrent #10 "Andromeda"

Oil on linen

24" x 36"

2011

Here is the sculpture that I studied for composition and content...

Andromeda and the Sea Monster

Marble

Domenico Guidi (1625-1701)

Italian (Rome), 1694

These are mostly my notes in my sketchbook that I took as I was learning about the character Andromeda as fully as I could.  Any conclusion as to the impact her story has on our culture today is completely conjecture and the opinions of a very eccentric man.  

The story of Andromeda is well known in our modern world, as it has been retold countless times with each retelling being slightly different.  If you are in my generation you remember the 1981 movie clash of the titans, and the unfortunate remake in 2010.  Regardless of the variations of her tale, the basics within the character and events of Andromedas myth have remained the same.

Let us first take a look at the etymology of her name to get a basic understanding of her story, as the meaning of her name does have an impact on the meaning of the tale.  The literal meaning of any name of a character of a story gives us a peek into the intention of the story.  And with a basic understanding of the weltanschauung (world view) of the time and culture where the story was first told we can then see its truth.  There is a bit of truth to all myths, and we only need understand our own myths and truths to see that of the past.  

Etymology...

Andromeda is taken from the Greek word Andromédē (Ἀνδρομέδη), which means "to think of a man," and comes from the combination of two words.  The word andrós, or anēr (ἀνδρός, or ἀνήρ)  which means "man", combined with the word mēdomai or medesthai (μήδομαι) "to think on and/or to be mindful of" and/or medea meaning "counsels, cunning, devices, and plans" depending on the context of the usage. 

Therefore the name "Andromeda" means “to think of a man” and as strange as that seams it gives us a decent idea of Andromeda as descriptive word in the story and not just a name as a context for understanding.  Say it this way; “to think of a man was chained to a rock as a sacrifice for her mothers sins.”  Regardless of what we think we know of the mind of the ancients that told this story, we can reason that the etymology of Andromeda was basic understanding at the time as it was a common name. 

The basic story...

Within the story of Andromeda, we can see the etymology of her name take its center stage.  Andromeda was the princess of Ethiopia, daughter of king Cepheus and queen Cassiopeia.  She was chained to a rock on the coast as a sacrifice to a sea monster after her mother committed hubris by saying she was more attractive than, the Nereids, who were a portion of the family line of the sea god Poseidon (There were many of nereids and they were all beautiful as goddess should be.).  To punish her mother for thinking she was greater than the gods, Poseidon sent Cetus the sea monster (and not the kraken you child of the 80’s, which is just a legendary classification of sea monsters made famous by Alfred Tennyson, 1830) to destroy the kingdom of Ethiopia.  The only way to stop the Cetus was to sacrifice her virgin daughter to him.

Andromeda was saved by Perseus who slew Cetus with the head of the gorgon medusa which turned him to stone, and then married her.  Keep in mind that Perseus was simply flying by and saw Andromeda chained to the rock, he found her attractive and went to her parents and asked if he could have her if he saved the city.  He was already in possession of a weapon, the gorgon medusas head, that could save the day so Perseus offer to save Andromeda and the city from the sea monster is purely was more for the reputation he would gain.  As an audience in ancient greece or rome hearing this play, we know Andromeda was already promised to wed Phineus.  Starting a fight over her and her wealth, Phineus and his followers were killed at the wedding of Perseus and Andromeda by Perseus use of the gorgons head.  Andromeda moved to Tiryns in Argos with Perseus and they became the ancestors of the Persians.  

When she died Andromeda was given the gift of immortality by the goddess Athena and turned into a constellation next to Perseus and Cassiopeia.  

Archetype...

The whole damsel in distress archetype can be seen over and over again as one of the most common archetypes in myth.  The damsel is always young, attractive, and incapable of saving herself regardless of what her distress is.  For a large portion of history we could simply see this as the differences between the genders and subsequently how gender is applied socially, as stories are a social affair.  As the era of the helpless woman is long gone, we see the role of hero and helpless switch genders, but the concepts of each remain the same.  If myths are an interpretation of our selves and how we see our identity, our place socially, and our potential, then we are always in need of saviors.  I could go on and on about the human condition and our need to fulfill certain roles regardless of gender, but I will simply state that we, mankind that is, has alway been as we are.

For the most part, this is just a great soap opera that pleases everyone.  Although it has a bit of who we were and possibly still are in its telling and retelling over the last 2000 years.  Even if this is a trite and meaningless discussion, we gain an understanding of ourselves by understanding what we fantasize of as myths are our fantasies.  Or at least I gain another piece to the puzzle (that I have been creating for myself) that mankind is.  

"Andromeda" painting step by step.

Last month Athena and I went to New York for a week on business and pleasure.  We had the chance to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (among other places) and spend a few hours just wandering. 

While we were getting lost we saw this...

Andromeda and the Sea Monster

Marble

Domenico Guidi (1625-1701)

Italian (Rome), 1694

 I spent some time observing the piece and was inspired to recreate the idea of "Andromeda" as I saw it presented through the sculpture.  This is it...

"BiTorrent #10 Andromeda" 

oil on linen, 24in x 36in 

2011

Here is a step by step progression of how i created it.

I work in light glaze after glaze of color, slowly transforming the work until I am satisfied with its appearance.  A thin to thick approach to oil painting is both classical and lasting in that the color quality that i can produce as I work is amazing.  At least to me it is.

Each glaze of oil color is a complete reworking of the entire painting.  Its all or nothing as each layer of oil color must be uniformed and transition from color to color as I see it in my mind.  It takes time and patience.  with this piece i went over it 11 times but i only recorded the stages that would show how each new layer 

As always i start my work with the academic study of my subject matter, and in this case the character Andromeda.  I will dedicate a post to that literature when I have taken a professional picture of the new work after it has been varnished.  You will find it interesting enough.

here we go...

 as you can see the entire piece changes slightly with each complete glaze of oil color...

Here we have it...

The finished oil painting, my retelling of the story of "Andromeda"

New pics of Caravaggio in the studio

I thought these were pretty cool pictures of my dog Caravaggio in the studio.  he spends as much time in the studio as I do.  We shot a video for my kickstarter project and he was tired and lazy afterward.  

Studio #8 - 2509 Pleasant Avenue South

Since 1997 I have always lived in my studio.  Now that I live with my fiance Athena, and we intend to have a baby someday I cant live in the toxic chemical environment of an art studio.

So I converted our garage into my new Art studio!!!

My 8th studio in Minneapolis is a garage, yep people my wife to be needs something better than living in a studio, so we are renting a house (the roommates downstairs suck).  It was pretty cool the two of us, our two dogs and 1 cat all living in a working art studio that was only 800 or so square feet.  

here are some of my old studios over the years...

...you have seen all of these in my past posts on my studios.

This is my new studio...

...right to left panorama.

I have already been fairly productive here, except for the time I needed to recover from the accident.  I finished the final touches to the studio a few weeks ago.  Funny as it is, I will be moving on in three months to a new larger house with a larger and better studio.

Thanks for reading...

...check back with me soon; I promise there are interesting things to come.