Birds of a Feather

ihet september 2017 issue 229

Ribbons of card stock and beet remnants on a paper towel. A consideration born of idle hands and fiddling what’s in reach. Patterns on the towel, the partitioning of the beets and their stains, a modest diversion from monochrome now carrying over into paint.

The back and forth, muted ethereal to bright and strong, the question . . . return to muted?  At the moment I’m staying on the brighter stronger side .

Objects of desire. An assemblage. An intimate vignette all in on bright. The backdrop is from the garden, a loose pile of Bougainvillea petals digitally captured and mounted. A wood block, pieces of steel, and the five ball. Monument Five – Memorial to a Prime.

Meanwhile, back in the studio, the middle of a long beginning. The outline of future endeavors with plenty of room to move.

Thanks for reading.

Charles

So This Is It

#117 – Tuesday,  June 11th

So this is it. Another beginning. And now rather than my once typical raw canvas, it’s a triple primed canvas with a ground of troweled Titan Buff, and two applications of Zinc White.  The move to working on primed canvasses and developing a ground to host my endeavors, hasn’t come easily.  I use a variety of media in my work . . . acrylics are the mainstay,  but also dry pigment, graphite, and pastel, each requiring something to hold them in place. The problem being, the fixative altering the color of the raw canvas.  After Blair reformulated my fave #105 “No Odor Spray Fix”  (to my mind the perfect fixative, other than the potential of cognitive dysfunction and the environmental damage its use might promote) the experimentation has been on . . . sprays, brushed on varnishes, and aerosols. Each in their own way, altering the very properties of the canvas “au naturel” I desired. So this is it.  Titan Buff mimics the hue of raw canvas. The transparent layers of Zinc White allow the warmth of canvas to peek through, and my current fixative of choice, a milk based protein in grain alcohol, has no noxious orders or unhealthy fumes.

Thanks for reading.

Charles

Meanwhile, Back In The Studio, It’s Bang Bang

# 115 – Tuesday May 28th

I don’t think about what kind of painter I am, until I’m asked “Now what IS IT you do”? I’ve a simple answer, “Intimate organic abstraction. No straight lines or right angles, movement, form, and palette, nature based” and while woefully inadequate, it performs a vital function . . . opening the door to further discourse.

But something is happening, and I’m reconsidering.  I blame it on my point-and shoot. Out and about, bang bang, on the fly, one-handed, in stride, snapshots of the long view. In or out of focus, no matter, just raw material for the paintings. It’s the openness and fluidity of these random landscapes I’m finding very seductive, and I’m incorporating those attributes into the new work.  So I’m trying out, when asked the ubiquitous “what do you” question . . . responding . . . I paint landscape. And while woefully inadequate, it performs that vital function, opening the door to further discourse.

I like generating my source material, but every now and again I find an image(s) that lights up my creative engine.  Tree Abroad #2, from the Tree Series  by South Korean photographer Myoung Ho Lee, is such an image, and the inspiration for this painting.

To see just how it went from inspiration to visualization click → go

Art Intersection (in the gallery’s words) “Is a motivation, inspiration, education, reaching, and showing space”. While the focus of AI is photography, once a year they present a juried survey exhibition of all forms of visual art, by Arizona artists. The exhibition All Art Arizona 2013 includes two of my paintings. This will be the first time both canvasses are shown in Arizona. The All Art Arizona 2013 exhibition opens Saturday, June 1, 2013 from 6pm – 8pm, and all are welcome. The exhibition runs from June 1, 2013 until July 27, 2013. Art Intersection is at: 207 North Gilbert Road, Suite 201 (upstairs), Gilbert, AZ 85234

Thanks for reading.

Charles