I’ve been continuing with the leaves, which remind me of Chinese and Japanese watercolours. I understand that in China the acacia is interpreted as a plant of rejuvenation and long life, which is not dissimilar to the meaning we have for it in the West. As I noted yesterday, the work is smooth but tiring because [...]
I have totally lost my voice! It’s alarming to try to speak to visitors only to hear a croaking noise come out, although there’s something strangely pleasant about not being able to talk that I can’t quite put my finger on. All my conversation is at the level of a whisper, making the most mundane [...]
Here’s what she looked like before today’s work. Much better now. See how the forest drops back in the picture below this one, allowing the figure to become the focus of the painting?
I had a busy, busy day today. I picked up Amelia from the High Studio a few days ago, where she had been waiting for me for a month or so and finally got to do some work to her. Looking at her in person reminded me how much I wanted to drop back the [...]
I delivered two paintings, Prophet of the Apocalypse, and Amelia Beheads the Alchemical King, to the High Studio in Moorpark where they’re going to be part of the Warrior exhibit there. There’s to be an opening reception at the studio to which I warmly invite you, particularly students from my new classes at CLU. “Warriors” [...]
Applying a blue glaze over the stones has isolated Amelia, the head (with blood) and the orb as the brightest things in the painting. I’m pretty satisfied with this today, and can’t do much more to it because on Monday it has to travel to Moorpark in preparation for the Warriors exhibit.
Derek did a fantastic job today shooting the video for the Ancestors project. I liked the results we got very much, and enjoyed the pleasant company of six friends who came over to sit as our eye models. We had a great time getting super close shots of their eyes making slight movements in the [...]
I’ve painted trees for several hours, working on the small branches on the left side of the painting then deciding that I didn’t like the angular gesture they brought to the piece, and repainting the darkness between the trees. In this piece I prefer the large birch shapes with the simpler outlines and opportunity for [...]
I’m building the next layer onto the trees using a mixture of Titanium and Zinc white, rubbed in with my fingers and scumbled onto the canvas with a bristle brush, occasionally softening the marks with an old t-shirt. Although the whiteness of the trees makes them appear spectral and I like their appearance, it’s [...]
I couldn’t face doing any more to the skeleton today, so I turned my attention to Amelia, because I really like the idea of putting her in a forest clearing instead of hanging in the void. I laid down simple grey silhouettes of tall birch trees, lacking their small branches at present, but with the [...]
