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February 14, 2015
Work in Progress
A Polaroid SX-70 Alpha 1.
Great design. Fun to transform in to a painting. This will be hanging on the walls of the Elliott Fouts Gallery in the summer.
Great design. Fun to transform in to a painting. This will be hanging on the walls of the Elliott Fouts Gallery in the summer.
A work in progress. Polaroid SX-70 Alpha 1. |
February 5, 2015
Work in Progress
More vintage film projector in the works.
Today I'm going to work on refining details, surface texture and laying down more shadows to give depth.
I bought this projector years ago. It was in a case, and I completely forgot about it. It ended up mixed up with all the other vintage luggage that I've collected over the years. During my recent move, I picked up the case and could not figure out why it was so heavy. Opening up the case was like that experience when you find cash in your spring jacket pocket after a year.
Now is the right time to explore these new subjects. Now is the right time to transform this projector in to a painting.
Today I'm going to work on refining details, surface texture and laying down more shadows to give depth.
I bought this projector years ago. It was in a case, and I completely forgot about it. It ended up mixed up with all the other vintage luggage that I've collected over the years. During my recent move, I picked up the case and could not figure out why it was so heavy. Opening up the case was like that experience when you find cash in your spring jacket pocket after a year.
Now is the right time to explore these new subjects. Now is the right time to transform this projector in to a painting.
Vintage film projector, in progress. |
February 4, 2015
Work in Progress
January 23, 2015
It's Story Time – Why I Paint Books
The first time I started painting books, they were simply used as props. I had very traditional still life subjects (fruit and the like). Books were simply there to add some new dimension to the paintings.
Then I began collecting children's primary readers. I'd pop in to antique and vintage shops and pick up the odd primary school book. Slowly adding to my collection. Using them to tell the stories in my paintings. Using the books to add colour, ideas, structure to my work.
Having the actual books makes the work authentic.
Authenticity is something people can feel and understand in an artists work. The few times I've been asked to invent or fudge book titles, it felt wrong. It's not what I want to do as an artist.
Above we have #5 in the It's Story Time series. I've done many book paintings and I'll continue. They really do feel like my own unique offering to the vast world of painting and art.
I put details in to the books that make the paintings more autobiographical. My children's names in place of publishers imprints, anniversary dates, all these bring your work to a different level. In a way, these details breath life in to painting.
When you paint in a realist style and most people are looking at your work via a computer, iPad or smartphone screen, I always here "wow, that's so realistic! I can't believe it's not a photo!"
When I'm standing with someone looking at the actual painting in my studio or in a gallery, they see my work is far more painterly and looser than they first thought.
I often use Roman Numerals to date and number my paintings. V — it's the fifth one in the It's Story Time series.
I first started by using my own hard cover books with the sleeves taken off. You can see some of my early book paintings here, here, and here.
My own library of books had no character. They were clean, crisp and new. My mother-in-law has an amazing collection of books in her library. I borrowed some of her antique books and started using them — check the early ones out here, here and here.
Then it dawned on me. Some of the books from my MIL's collection had these fantastic titles. The books once belonged to a young law student who was studying in 1905. These ethics and philosophy books took my work in an all new direction. The books were not just props. They were the context, the narrative, the reason to paint.
I made my way to one of the antique shops I frequent and stumbled upon a children's primary reader It's Story Time. Felt like magic. I was able to juxtapose the book with the lofty legal tomes. An interesting dichotomy. You wait for something like this to come your way when you paint for years. Something that you know is yours, and becomes direction that you can follow for years.
The first four paintings using It's Story Time were with my MILs antique legal books.
The first four paintings using It's Story Time were with my MILs antique legal books.
It's Story Time I, II, III, IV |
Then I began collecting children's primary readers. I'd pop in to antique and vintage shops and pick up the odd primary school book. Slowly adding to my collection. Using them to tell the stories in my paintings. Using the books to add colour, ideas, structure to my work.
Having the actual books makes the work authentic.
Authenticity is something people can feel and understand in an artists work. The few times I've been asked to invent or fudge book titles, it felt wrong. It's not what I want to do as an artist.
It's Story Time V 24 x 48 / Oil on Canvas / February 2013 |
Above we have #5 in the It's Story Time series. I've done many book paintings and I'll continue. They really do feel like my own unique offering to the vast world of painting and art.
Detail I sneak in my kids names when I can, Sophia & Simon |
I put details in to the books that make the paintings more autobiographical. My children's names in place of publishers imprints, anniversary dates, all these bring your work to a different level. In a way, these details breath life in to painting.
Detail Eric and Antoinette - 1952 My mother's parents and the year they married. |
When you paint in a realist style and most people are looking at your work via a computer, iPad or smartphone screen, I always here "wow, that's so realistic! I can't believe it's not a photo!"
When I'm standing with someone looking at the actual painting in my studio or in a gallery, they see my work is far more painterly and looser than they first thought.
Detail |
I often use Roman Numerals to date and number my paintings. V — it's the fifth one in the It's Story Time series.
Work in progress November 2012 |
Nearly complete February 14, 2013 |
The books have become familiar friends with optimistic messages |
American Art Collector / June 2013 It feels good when your efforts get recognised in print |
January 10, 2015
George Billis Gallery LA / January 2015
I have several recent paintings showing at the George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles from January 10 through February 14, 2015.
I find it remarkable that I was able to make any new work at all, considering how insane the last 8 months of my life has been.
It all started when we prepared our house for sale. We decided we were going to move 1,000 miles to a warmer climate. It's no small undertaking to downsize your belongings after a decade of life in a house. With kids. While you're still trying to make paintings. But we did it. We sold our house in a mere 3 days and then had to prepare to move. Another massive undertaking with more downsizing.
We hunted for a home, under the impression that we'd simply sell our beloved home and find its equivalent 1,000 miles away in a city we knew little about. Instead we ended up hunting for a suitable place to rent. Finding a place to rent wasn't as hard as we thought and renting meant we could learn about our new city, make friends, relax and casually look for a home to call our own.
It didn't happen that smoothly. Although the house we rented was great, the other tenant who lived in the ground floor suite was one of the worst possible tenants anyone could ever imagine living near. It shocked us. I'll spare the gory details, but if there's one thing I learned with the experience, it's that you never, ever want to get on the bad side of an activist call girl ("luxury companion" as she referred to herself as) and her drug dealer boyfriend. It was bad. And my innocent, wonderfully naïve family had some major life lessons we didn't ever expect would come our way.
And then we found a home. In a quiet, safe, wonderful neighbourhood. With a great big studio. And everything turned around. And we've made wonderful friends and found out things can be just as good as you once imagined.
So we packed up and moved from our interesting rental. Again, upending everything in our lives. Yet I managed to find time to do what I do best. Time to sit in my studio and quietly work on my quiet paintings.
I find it remarkable that I was able to make any new work at all, considering how insane the last 8 months of my life has been.
It all started when we prepared our house for sale. We decided we were going to move 1,000 miles to a warmer climate. It's no small undertaking to downsize your belongings after a decade of life in a house. With kids. While you're still trying to make paintings. But we did it. We sold our house in a mere 3 days and then had to prepare to move. Another massive undertaking with more downsizing.
We hunted for a home, under the impression that we'd simply sell our beloved home and find its equivalent 1,000 miles away in a city we knew little about. Instead we ended up hunting for a suitable place to rent. Finding a place to rent wasn't as hard as we thought and renting meant we could learn about our new city, make friends, relax and casually look for a home to call our own.
It didn't happen that smoothly. Although the house we rented was great, the other tenant who lived in the ground floor suite was one of the worst possible tenants anyone could ever imagine living near. It shocked us. I'll spare the gory details, but if there's one thing I learned with the experience, it's that you never, ever want to get on the bad side of an activist call girl ("luxury companion" as she referred to herself as) and her drug dealer boyfriend. It was bad. And my innocent, wonderfully naïve family had some major life lessons we didn't ever expect would come our way.
And then we found a home. In a quiet, safe, wonderful neighbourhood. With a great big studio. And everything turned around. And we've made wonderful friends and found out things can be just as good as you once imagined.
So we packed up and moved from our interesting rental. Again, upending everything in our lives. Yet I managed to find time to do what I do best. Time to sit in my studio and quietly work on my quiet paintings.
Friends Far and Near 30 x 30 / Oil on Canvas |
The World Around Us 48 x 30 / Oil on Canvas |
Three Kodaks 18 x 36 / Oil on Canvas |
Six Kodaks 18 x 36 / Oil on Canvas |
Baggage IX 30 x 30 / Oil on Canvas |
October 2, 2014
Dead. Simple. Technology.
There was a time when these old cameras were so prevalent and pervasive in our culture. They were all the rage.
Kodak used slick advertising promising happiness and fulfilment — just take a look at these 100 year old advertisements.
I'm not going to state the obvious, I'll let you piece together the connections with our own modern consumer culture, all promising the exact same thing Kodak offered a century ago.
Eventually Kodak became irrelevant, unable to move fast enough with the speed of technology. I'm left to ponder the future of the companies that now feed us our technology and gadgets. What will become of them over the next 70 to 100 years?
Vintage shops are now full of these cameras. Intricate designs, all iterations on the same simple process. They make for great compositions — the square cameras, the multiple round lenses and textures of the surfaces.
These paintings are currently showing at Art Essex Gallery in Essex, Connecticut from October 1 - 25, 2014.
Kodak used slick advertising promising happiness and fulfilment — just take a look at these 100 year old advertisements.
I'm not going to state the obvious, I'll let you piece together the connections with our own modern consumer culture, all promising the exact same thing Kodak offered a century ago.
Eventually Kodak became irrelevant, unable to move fast enough with the speed of technology. I'm left to ponder the future of the companies that now feed us our technology and gadgets. What will become of them over the next 70 to 100 years?
Vintage shops are now full of these cameras. Intricate designs, all iterations on the same simple process. They make for great compositions — the square cameras, the multiple round lenses and textures of the surfaces.
These paintings are currently showing at Art Essex Gallery in Essex, Connecticut from October 1 - 25, 2014.
Twelve Vintage Cameras 18" x 24" – Oil/Canvas – 2014 |
Eight Vintage Cameras 24" x 24" – Oil/Canvas – 2014 |
Seven Vintage Cameras 20" x 20" – Oil/Canvas – 2014 |
July 1, 2014
On We Go
And so the adventure begins. After nearly four decades of being a prairie kid, I have undertaken the colossal task (along with my wife and kids!) of packing up and selling our house and arraigning a trek to the West Coast where we will live like gobsmacked tourists for the next few years.
These are the last four paintings I have completed in the studio where I've been working for the last decade. The studio where I taught myself to paint. Where I began figuring things out. It served me well, but it really has felt like it's time to pick up and seek adventure the last few years.
These paintings are available at the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, California.
These are the last four paintings I have completed in the studio where I've been working for the last decade. The studio where I taught myself to paint. Where I began figuring things out. It served me well, but it really has felt like it's time to pick up and seek adventure the last few years.
These paintings are available at the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, California.
Two Kodaks 16" x 16" / Oil on Canvas |
More Friends and Neighbors, On We Go 16" x 16" / Oil on Canvas |
On The Way To Storyland 16" x 16" / Oil on Canvas |
Young Explorers, Beckoning Trails 16" x 16" / Oil on Canvas |
June 1, 2014
New Work at the Elliott Fouts Gallery
Here is some new work available through the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, California.
These are among the last paintings I'll be doing in the studio where I've been for the last ten years. The studio where I really learned what I was doing, where I was able to focus and get work done.
This room has served me well, but I'm excited to find a new studio, something with more space. It's been a nerve racking experience. I run the studio with routine and predictability. For a few years, my wife and I have been talking about relocating. I'm treating it like a great big adventure. It'll be fun.
Antique Bottles II, Study 16" x 24" / Oil on Canvas |
Antique Bottles III, Study 18" x 18" / Oil on Canvas |
Antique Bottles IV, Study 18" x 18" / Oil on Canvas |
Antique Bottles V, Study 16" x 24" / Oil on Canvas |
Antique Bottles & Pears 18" x 18" / Oil on Canvas |
Antique Bottles & Pears 18" x 18" / Oil on Canvas |
May 15, 2014
Bottles & Pears
Even though the last few months (and the coming months) will be consumed largely by my crazy plan to move half way across the country, I still have managed paint.
A return to a subject I haven't worked with for a few years. Contact the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento for more info.
A return to a subject I haven't worked with for a few years. Contact the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento for more info.
Six Bottles & Six Pears 20" x 24" / Oil on Canvas |
Four Bottles & Three Pears 20" x 24" / Oil on Canvas |
Perfect Ten 18" x 36" / Oil on Canvas |
Sweet Sixteen 18" x 36" / Oil on Canvas |
May 8, 2014
1,000 Miles
For the past few years, my wife and I have been toying with the idea of relocating. With young kids and keeping so busy with painting, scheduling back-to-back exhibitions, the task of selling a house, packing, moving, finding a new home and setting up a new life – it seemed impossible. But this spring we put in motion a plan to relocate 1,000 miles away.
I've always known that moving would mean I'd have to take several weeks away from the studio. I have managed to be able to paint a few smaller paintings, but not nearly what I'm used to as far as output and ideas go. Preparing a house to sell and packing is a major distraction.
It will still be a couple months before I'm able to sit myself firmly in my new North West Coast studio and let the paint flow. But I'm looking forward to it. I have to keep my eye on the prize.
I just wanted to leave a note here on my blog letting people know what's up.
I've always known that moving would mean I'd have to take several weeks away from the studio. I have managed to be able to paint a few smaller paintings, but not nearly what I'm used to as far as output and ideas go. Preparing a house to sell and packing is a major distraction.
It will still be a couple months before I'm able to sit myself firmly in my new North West Coast studio and let the paint flow. But I'm looking forward to it. I have to keep my eye on the prize.
I just wanted to leave a note here on my blog letting people know what's up.
February 14, 2014
The Olivetti Valentine
My neighbour asked me if I'd be interested in painting the typewriter she used as a student in the 1960s. She had it hidden in her basement and just recalled it when she was looking at some other work of mine. When she showed it to me I was startled. I'm not sure she knew she had such a desirable collectable hidden in a box.
The painting is available at the George Billis Gallery in New York City. Click on the image for more details.
Valentine 18" x 24" / Oil/Canvas |
January 19, 2014
Camera Obsession
When I was an art history student, I studied early photography and the emergence of the "snapshot" and candid photography — made possible by the proliferation of Kodak box cameras and Brownies.
I was studying this just as digital point-and-shoot cameras started to show up for regular consumers to use. Long before camera phones, iPhones, Instagram, Flickr, Facebook. Long before we had to apply filters to give our photographs a sense of time and narrative. Photographs used to come to us days, weeks, months after we took them. And they already had a "patina" of sorts applied to them. Mega pixel count, image stabilisation and rapid, precise autofocus weren't available. We weren't reviewing and editing our images moments after we took them. We weren't sharing them within minutes with huge networks friends colleagues. Instead they were placed in an album or shoebox and found decades later.
I like painting these old cameras. I find them in antique shops — they're all over the place and easy to come by. Sometimes they still have film in them.
I like the idea that these cameras once captured all these moments and family history.
I was studying this just as digital point-and-shoot cameras started to show up for regular consumers to use. Long before camera phones, iPhones, Instagram, Flickr, Facebook. Long before we had to apply filters to give our photographs a sense of time and narrative. Photographs used to come to us days, weeks, months after we took them. And they already had a "patina" of sorts applied to them. Mega pixel count, image stabilisation and rapid, precise autofocus weren't available. We weren't reviewing and editing our images moments after we took them. We weren't sharing them within minutes with huge networks friends colleagues. Instead they were placed in an album or shoebox and found decades later.
I like painting these old cameras. I find them in antique shops — they're all over the place and easy to come by. Sometimes they still have film in them.
I like the idea that these cameras once captured all these moments and family history.
Four Vintage Cameras 16" x 24" / Oil/Canvas |
Four Kodaks 20" x 20" / Oil/Canvas |
Argus 24" x 16" / Oil/Canvas |
January 15, 2014
George Billis Gallery NY
I'll be having my first exhibition in New York City at the George Billis Gallery (521 West 26th Street) from January 21 - February 15, 2014.
The show will have 13 paintings, and the reception is on Thursday, January 23, from 6-8pm.
I'll share more of the images over the next few days.
The show will have 13 paintings, and the reception is on Thursday, January 23, from 6-8pm.
I'll share more of the images over the next few days.
Mint Rotary Telephone 18" x 24" / Oil/Canvas / 2013 Sold |
Threes 18" x 24" / Oil/Canvas / 2013 Sold |
On We Go 18" x 18" / Oil/Canvas / 2013 Sold |
December 30, 2013
Fifteen Years at the EFG
I have a painting in the Elliott Fouts Gallery's 15th Anniversary group exhibition — January 4 - February 6, 2014.
August 12, 2013
Work in Progress
I have an exhibition coming up in September in Yountville, California. I've been working on it throughout the summer. Which is usually difficult, considering it's summer. There's a strong force pulling me out of the studio and in to the outdoors.
But I'm happy with the work I've been able to produce. Here's a glimpse at some of the pieces I've been making.
But I'm happy with the work I've been able to produce. Here's a glimpse at some of the pieces I've been making.
June 6, 2013
New Paintings 2013 / Catalog
The show catalog, featuring all twenty of the paintings at my current exhibition at the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento is available. You can email the gallery (elliottfoutsgallery@gmail.com) if you're interested in seeing it in person.
May 29, 2013
American Art Collector Magazine / June 2013
There's a great feature article on the June 2013 issue of American Art Collector Magazine. Just around the corner now, only a few days for my fourth consecutive show at the Elliott Fouts Gallery. Check it out.
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