Here we go. I thought it would be interesting to show the layers of paint going down on the skulls as they are built, so here we have two pictures of the same three skulls side by side. The black layer is he underpainting of gesso, then there’s a white layer of sketched bones over [...]
I’ve been so busy with the gallery that it’s been hard to get into the studio until today. At last I found a few hours this evening to work on fixing the spine, which had been bothering me for a long time. Now it has some highlights and some tighter definition that sets it forward [...]
Here he is with two wings worth of third layer work! Highlights to follow to pop the feathers from each other.
Things are moving fast now, and I’m on a roll that is letting me paint fluidly and well. The wing’s third layer is complete, so I’m moving over to the right hand side. Using a half inch flat hog bristle to slap on the Van Dyke brown, then a towel to bring in texture, a [...]
I was chatting with Nathan Tierney last night as we sat around the dinner table with Paul Lucchesi and Janet Amiri, when he pointed out that there is a difference between complication and complexity. He mentioned that the following comes from writer Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. If we take a mess of paint and spread it about on [...]
What a great morning of painting. I really enjoyed myself today, getting the left side wing halfway complete with some lovely variations from dark to light in a very satisfying third layer that develops the detail of the painting. I love the feeling of being completely immersed in the practice of making the painting, [...]
There’s an academic holiday today which meant that after I had taken care of the administrative stuff I had to do in preparation for the next couple of weeks I was able to spend some serious time in the studio. I fixed the ribs that were not quite in the right place, so now the [...]
Tommy Flanagan, who plays Chibs in the biker gang television show Sons of Anarchy came over to the studio yesterday. I really enjoyed hanging out with him and our mutual friend Paul Lucchesi at my house, where we talked about making movies, the worst cities in Britain, and art. Good times!
Foundational Truths for studio artists. Transcendence In discussions of studio practice we hear our fellow-artists describe an unusual state that comes upon us as we work, in which we experience “being in the flow” or “in another world” or that time no longer seems to function properly as we become immersed in creativity. Our consciousness [...]
Today I went to Ventura for the set-up of the interview I’m doing tomorrow for the “Focus on the Masters” project. Once they post it onto the net I’ll provide a link to their site. If you’d like to attend it, visit this link, where you’ll find the address and more information. Focus on the Masters [...]
