Monday, September 28, 2015

Progress on Current Work - "The Aftermath"

This is the progress that I have made so far on this recent painting titled "The Aftermath." Again, this painting is made up of three separate panels. The left and bottom panels are the most complete as far as painting goes. The top right panel is still very rough, but I am happy with where it is going. Once dry, I will be attaching actual objects to the bottom panel, such as crumpled tissues, toys and possibly chewed bubble gum. I also plan to have these objects spilling oven the edge of the painting and entering our actual space, therefore making this painting much more of an installation piece than any of my previous paintings.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Beginning Stages of Final Work


Wood panels are primed and ready for my final work (sketch on right). This work will all together be 4'x7', but it is cut into three sections and each section will be painted differently. This final work should bring together everything that I have been working on in my previous paintings of the same theme: The Real Motherhood Experience.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Changes to "Finished" Work

I went back into this painting and darkened the background by glazing over with black in order to have the wall appear to be further back in space. Horrible quality photos since this painting has proven to be very difficult for myself to photograph.
 
                                                                           Before 
       
                                        
After

Monday, June 29, 2015

All Completed Work - June Residency

 Oil on wood panel, 4'x4'
 
Oil on canvas, 3'x4'

Oil on wood panel, 2'x3'

Oil on canvas, 4'x7'

Sunday, June 14, 2015

More Completed Works

4'x4' Oil on Wood Panel
 

3'x4' Oil on Canvas
 
4'x7' Oil on Canvas
 

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Finally

So after many times of claiming that this painting was finished, I think this time it actually is. For the first time I am truly happy with the result. I have glazed and re-glazed, added color and taken away color, changed that thickness of the black lines numerous time and now finally I just took the palette knife to it and added some extreme highlights. I can honestly say that I have never worked on a painting for this long before. I believe that the child on the couch, although very small in the large room, has finally become the focal point of the painting.

Monday, May 4, 2015

Work in Progress - Welcome Home Mom

This painting has brought up some very interesting challenges, mostly because of its size. It is 4'x6' and oil on un-stretched canvas. It is meant to be the view up the stairs and into the entry of my house. In this scene, again based on reality, on of my children has decided to greet me by throwing many of her toys down the stairs. Because I wanted this painting to be as large as it is, wood panel did not seem like the best option. Even with canvas I am unable to have the painting vertical in my studio. Currently I have the canvas stapled to the wood floor  so that I have the hard background that I prefer to work on underneath the canvas. The large size is also making this painting very different to photograph, especially in its current position.
 





Completed Work

Both of these paintings were completed using the same process. I have just recently put what I believe to be the final layer of glaze onto each of these originally black and white paintings. While the first painting is meant to show one the chaotic moments that I have personally experienced from being a parent, the second image is meant to be more about one of the rare calm moments when the child is sleeping. 


Oil on panel
4'x4'

















Oil on panel 2'x3'

Friday, April 3, 2015

New Work in Progress


Above is an underpainting for one of my newest large-scale paintings. It is 4'x4' and on wood panel. This painting depicts an actual event that occurred recently. After my children promised that they would bring their winter toys in after playing outside in the snow, our snow-blower had a very frustrating encounter with their sled. As of now this painting is entirely black and white. However, once dry I will be glazing with color as with my previous painting. One of my goals with this painting was to make the black lines really stand out. I want the lines to be bold and clear so that the audience know that leaving the lines was fully intentional. I am planning on leaving figures out of this painting and only including my children by showing what they have left behind. 


This is a rough sketch for my next large-scale painting. It is the view up the stairs of my house, with my daughter above and her toys tossed down the stairs. I had envisioned this piece to be very large, the largest that I have done so far. Originally this painting was started on a 4'x7' wood panel. However, after realizing that it would be difficult enough to get this piece out of my studio, never mind into my car, I had to come up with a different idea. I will now be re-doing this painting on a piece of loose canvas that will be stapled onto the original wood panel. This way I will have the hard surface of the wood but will also be able to un-staple the canvas and roll it for easier transportation. More pictures of this piece will follow once I get it onto the canvas. 

One Step Further




I made the decision to push this painting one step further by glazing a third coat. By making the couch even brighter, as well as glossy, I feel that the sleeping figure finally becomes the focal point. Once this coat is dry I plan on going over the black lines one last time. Hopefully then I will finally be able to put this painting aside.  

Friday, February 27, 2015

Experimenting with Glazing

Part of my plan for this semester is to experiment with different ways to continue to use black. I have decided to first try glazing color over an entirely back and white painting. For my first attempt with this I have chosen to use a black and white painting from last semester. I enjoyed the glazing process and am pleased with the results.
 Before

After

Changes to Last Semester's Work

I have started off this semester by making some minor adjustments to some of my paintings from last semester. I decided to make these changes based on feedback received at the residency. 


For this painting I simply added more white around her eyes in order to help them stand out. Previously her eyes were lost when this painting was viewed fro a distance. 




It was suggested for this painting that since I had black outlining in many areas, it would make sense to also have the outlining on the edges of the walls in order to separate them from the rest of the space. This can be seen best in the close-up image on the left.


Wednesday, January 21, 2015

January 2015 Residency - All Work

                        





 
                                                    




Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Completed Work

One of the last of my finished pieces this semester and the only piece done entirely in black and white. The image on the right is a close-up of the child sleeping on the couch. The child was completed using a palette knife while everything else was just by brush. I feel that the fast-appearing brush strokes give the room a sense of energy that it would not have otherwise, considering the figure is meant to be sleeping. 
 


Small Works

Some of my completed smaller works - paint sketches.