Rothko has a bad day

Rothko has a bad day. 2011. 

Oil on wood. 

80 x 60 cm (31.5" x 23.6").

Red and Blue Layers

Red and Blue Layers. 2011.
Oil on linen.
120 x 100 cm (47.2" x 39.3")

Yellow and Green Layers

Yellow and Green Layers. 2011.
Oil on Panel.
106 x 50 cm (41.7" x 19.7").

Green and blue layers

Green and Blue Layers. 2011. 
Oil on Panel. 
106 x 50 cm (41.7" x 19.7")


I showed a partial image of this painting a while back but finally had good studio light for a decent picture. 

Purple, green and orange layers

oil on linen

30 x 24 cm

Another painting from the 'unfinished edge' series.  This little painting is small, really just a sketch.  It is fun to work through some of the ideas in smaller paintings.  

Blue, green, and yellow layers

oil on linen

30 x 24 cm

Details showing the sides of several recent canvases

A friend writes that my threshold for entertainment is low.  Perhaps you will agree after reading this post.  Nonetheless, I find myself fascinated by the edge of the canvas and how to finish a painting. Convention dictates that one scrape off the residual paint to make a nice finished edge for framing.  Instead, I am leaving each mark on the canvas as it is made, including any paint that spills over the edge.  There is no "erasure:"  these latest works are all about the process.  So, the resulting canvas edge shows something of the different layers in the paintings and how it is made.  Interestingly, the paintings become much more three dimensional, almost like sculpture.

Blue and yellow make green

60 by 40 cm

This painting was worked entirely 'wet on wet,' i.e., with wet paint on wet paint.  The horizontal stripe was the last step in this painting: it was made with a big palette knive, the kind used for drywall work.  This was painted over an older painting, I think it was a landscape.

Detail: Red and blue layers

This is a detail from a large painting called "Red and blue layers."  The original is 120 by 100 cm.

Green and blue layers

I have been busy in the studio, but there hasn't been good natural light for photos: hence the lack of weekly posts.  Finally I broke down and took photos using studio lights.  Criminy, when will spring get here? 

This small painting, 30 by 24 cms, is a good representation of what I've been up to lately.  It combines the use of pallete knives, scrapers, brushes, resulting in layers of new and old paint.  Mostly, the paint is worked wet on wet.