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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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 

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.

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

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.

The Olivetti Valentine

The Olivetti Valentine typewriter – for the romantic.

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

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.

Four Vintage Cameras
16" x 24" / Oil/Canvas

Four Kodaks
20" x 20" / Oil/Canvas

Argus
24" x 16" / Oil/Canvas

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.

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

Fifteen Years at the EFG

I have a painting in the Elliott Fouts Gallery's 15th Anniversary group exhibition — January 4 - February 6, 2014.

Elliott invited me to show my work at his gallery six years ago — and the past six years have been productive and fantastic. After several group and solo exhibitions, it is exciting to have my work at the best gallery in Sacramento.

Stories We Like
20" x 20"  /  Oil/Canvas

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.

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.

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.

More Work in Progress

I'm still working away for my June show at the Elliott Fouts Gallery. Here are a few more images of what I'm working on. I'll share color photos later in May, closer to when the paintings are hanging in the gallery. But I still have work to do before then. Happy spring!

Work in Progress

I've been busy for the last several weeks working toward my next exhibition, at the Elliott Fouts Gallery, in June. Over the years I've documented my progress in the studio in black and white photography.

At one point in my life, I spent a tremendous amount of time in a traditional wet dark room, with an enlarger and rolls and rolls of black and white film. I love the aesthetic of a black and white image. I think they tell a story in a different way, unlike colour images.

I'm deep in the details of painting and love and appreciate every minute I get to do it. Over the coming weeks, you can expect more progress images.

If you're viewing this on a computer browser, check out these images of B&W photos from the past few years.

Anna Enquist Book Cover

A painting that I did a few years ago is being used for the cover of a new book published in the Netherlands. The book is an anthology of poetry from Anna Enquist.

A while back I also I had some images used by an Italian book publisher. It's an honour having the images used. I just wish I was able to read the books as they're never in English.

Also, it's been a long while since I have published anything on this blog. I settled in for my long winter painting session. Soon I'll share some progress images of what I've been up to.