The legs bothered me because they were too dark and roughly painted, so I worked on an additional layer of Ceramic White and a flesh mix of Cadmium Orange and Viridian with Foundation White to raise the value a little, then adding a touch of Ceramic here and there to highlight the dress and arms. [...]
We took a break from Thousand Oaks to visit LACMA, which has turned into a magnificent art museum since the building of two huge new buildings showing touring exhibits and standing collections. I loved visiting the Olmec sculpture exhibit, where I was instantly transformed into an awestruck schoolboy gazing in wonder at two gigantic basalt [...]
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England has announced that it is putting together an exhibit of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. This isn’t particularly earth-shattering news in itself, but their plan is to bring the show to San Francisco, which is an enjoyable six hour drive North through vineyards and amazing coastal scenery from my home, [...]
Photos from yesterday’s talk, which was enjoyable. I spoke about alchemical nigredo, the grail flints found in Neolithic tombs and the nature of inner transformation discovered in the search for the purified and re-integrated prima materia, embarked upon by all alchemists.
I’ll be at Bert Green Fine Art for an artists talk on Saturday at four o’clock. My installations Grails and As the Crow Flies have been there this month. Do join me at the gallery if you’re in the Los Angeles area. Downtown has changed a lot in the last ten years – there are [...]
I don’t know how to stretch the day to be even more productive. This day was taken by some very pleasant events that were thoroughly enjoyable and laid groundwork for the future, but meant that I simply couldn’t get any painting done at all, except to snatch a few ten minute breaks to figure out [...]
Good times in down town Los Angeles. There was a good turnout for the opening reception tonight, and with Artwalk tomorrow we’ll see a really big crowd at the gallery. The crows were very popular, and a couple of them sold already, so I hope to see several more flying from the walls in the [...]
Installing the exhibit down in Bert Green’s gallery in Los Angeles went smoothly, and the dilapidated truck I borrowed to transport the paintings and the grail piece held up very well indeed, zipping along the California freeways quite nicely, and reminding me of how fortunate I am to live here. (I’m remembering again that Talking [...]
I spent a pleasant morning driving to Santa Barbara to meet up with everyone involved in the Beckett production that I’m designing for John Blondell. It looks as though the consensus of opinion is that everything should be as stripped down as possible, as simple as can be, with the theatre cleaned out of all [...]
Another one down. This skull work is becoming a meditation on death. But curiously I haven’t really had a morbid thought since I began the piece. I think of this angel of death in terms of renewal – like spring coming after winter. Here exultant death presents inevitable transformation, a shift from the old to [...]
