Tuesday, January 29, 2008

New Year...New Painting

Greetings all. In my first entry (about myself) this year. I have recently (two days ago) finally finished my first painting of the year. Though the canvas was sitting on my wall for around 4 months. I had so many things standing in my way of finishing it. But it is now finally done.



This painting is definitely a different style for me. It is a culmination of a number of ideas that I have been having over the last year. My life has been changing, so as so...has my painting. Though it is not a complete break from my older style. I do not feel as if I have really reached my climax of the pinnacle of my painting yet, that is years to come. I decided to begin with a pic of the painting as it was in it's final painting phase and drying.



Here is a detail of the bulk of the black where you can witness the yellow underpinnings. It's a bit hard to see the blue below the black but that's just one of the things that happen when you are working with layers of color. You can really see the texture within the painting here, where you can tell that I did not use as much wood filler on this canvas as previous paintings. I decided to keep the bulk of the large wood filler to the middle of the top of the canvas as I wished the painting to look more slate-like on the lower portion of the painting.



Here is an image of the painting in a raking light where you can see the elephant skin that is the blackness of the painting, and how it dried. The blue really pops through everything here, along with the yellow to really catch your eye and lead to to the rivers traveling downward of the canvas.





Here is another view of the blackness that has wrapped itself over the yellow and blue undercoats. Showing the left side of the painting.





Another couple images of the details of the painting, mostly the downward flow of the three over colors of the painting.



"01-28-2008 (Re-Animate)" 34" X 26" Acrylic & Wood Filler on Canvas.

The final image of the fullness of the painting. Some of the thoughts behind this painting come from a few ideas brought forth by artists that have come before. A big idea of this new type of painting for me was Franz Kline. With his use of space on a canvas, the amounts of black in contrasts to the amounts of white within his canvases. I know his older canvases used more colors and more of the space that was contained within the canvas.

Another big influence behind my new ideas is Joseph Marioni. With his use of fluid color and the amounts of transparency on his paintings, they really bring me to want to learn all I can about color and it's many uses.

I'm about to begin another canvas now and will let you know how it comes along.

Thanks for reading...please do send your thoughts.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Alan Ebnother is painting red...

Just visited a favorite painters myspace page. Alan Ebnother...a radical concrete painter of roughly the same so called "school" of painting as people as Joe Marioni and DeCrignis. Alan has spent the last 22 years of his painting life making green paintings. He has probably painted in every shade and tint of green. And is now working in red. A significant change in his work and it's looking really good for him. I can't wait to see a huge red painting of his.

I met Alan through Joe, back in July of 2004 when I first visited NYC. Alan was in town after the two of them had went to Art:Basel. Alan is a very tall guy with shaved head and can be a bit on the intimidating side when you first meet him. But after sitting at breakfast with the two of them in Hells Kitchen...an actual restaurant in NYC. I got to meet the funny and incredibly intelligent person behind the facade. It did make me re-organize my thoughts on people and my first impressions, and I think even helped make my trip to NYC even better. I know this has nothing to do with art, but who cares...it's my fucking blog and i'll cry if I want to.

Alan's paintings are not just about colour, but also about surface. Which he builds up a surface of thick oil paint. Done in the same colour as the rest of the painting. Kinda like my own paintings. Only I use wood filler and do not use it in the same context of my paintings. When I first saw one of his paintings, I couldn't tell what the hell it was made from. All I could see was the info on the painting and it's title. Oil on Linen. But that was back in 1999 when my knowledge of painting was still in it's infancy compared to my knowledge of today. But i'm sure that is still incredibly small compared to me in 20 years. 20 years is a long time.....

I leave you with some images of Alan's paintings. I urge you to check out the sites below as you will learn a lot more about Alan, and about painting.

Jeffrey

Here's a wonderful interview by Chris Ashley of Alan, and is a great insight into the man and his work.

http://www.chrisashley.net/weblog/archives/week_2005_05_01.html

This is a great gallery that supports a slew of fantastic artists, also including Joseph Marioni.

http://www.wadewilsonart.com/artists/AlanEbnother/index.html

You can reach Alan through his myspace page...where you can also find a ton of great photos of his work.

http://www.myspace.com/alanebnother