Kimono, 2009, acrylic on wood, 48 3/4 x 36 3/4 inches
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Catalyst, 2009, acrylic on wood, 48 3/4 x 36 3/4 inches
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Trystero, 2009, acrylic on wood, 59 7/8 x 48 3/4 inches
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Tangier, 2009, acrylic on wood, 59 7/8 x 48 3/4 inches
David,
I hear music in these paintings
David, these are great fun to look at! They have greater continuity with earlier work from a couple series (I’m thinking especially of Tibet from forever almost falling, and Good China from subcultures) than I was expecting (not sure why), though they’re more consistently light in palette, as well as open and airy in composition. That probably contributes to the musical feeling Birgit gets.
I think this is the first time you’ve incorporated real-world elements, like the gears/sawblades and the plant silhouettes in your abstracts. That’s an interesting direction, one I’ve started to explore from the opposite direction (abstract intrusions on a realistic photograph). I personally like the plants; not so sure yet about the manufactured items. The famous smoke plume in Trystero is a different sort of very specific, emotional reference. Quite dramatic with the contrasting black thistle.
These are all big! Had you been wanting to work larger, or does this also involve market considerations?
I really like the dot trails, they lead you on meandering paths through the picture, encouraging a more local look at the parts. The journey quality puts me in mind of aboriginal songlines.
David:
I too hear music – but I think it may be the Pandora. But Birgit’s comment is something to pick up on. I’m listening to an ambient classic category right now and it fits your paintings very well. An exception might be the items in the paintings that resemble gears. Their shapes, however, do not seem to be made to transfer power, as one might expect of a gear, but rather to create intervals of time. The inferred staccato is not present in what’s playing, but in your paintings creates a beat somewhat like that of a drummer backing an improvisational band. They are so exact in their rendering and the effect complements the sharp and considered silhouettes which unfold in their own good time.
To be frank, knowing these to be paintings relieves a source of pressure in me that arose from knowing that earlier work was in cut linoleum. I would get a sympathetic case of cramped fingers looking at them.
Steve:
Great comments as usual.
Birgit, that’s one of the best things you could have said about these paintings. In fact, years ago someone asked me how I know when a painting is finished, and I told them it’s when I hear it singing. Which of course isn’t literally true, but it’s the best way I can describe the sensation. Thank you.
Steve, glad you’re enjoying looking at these. I’ve been wanting to start incorporating real-world elements back into my work for awhile, and my journals over the past few years are full of sketches exploring that. Except for the quite obvious plant forms, my (somewhat loose) rule of thumb is that the forms should feel familiar, but pulled out of their original context, not necessarily be immediately recognizable to everyone. I did actually include the Challenger trail in one of the linoleums from my last show (Babel), and decided to reuse it in Trystero. I’ve always done a lot of recycling, in that sense.
The manufactured-looking items are all motifs taken from an old one dollar bill. Good call on the dot trails – Aboriginal painting has been a big influence on my work for years. The smaller dots are actually physical depressions in the wood surface, created w/ a hole punch. They correspond to the drilled holes in my last group of linoleums, which were inspired by the marble-inlaid floors in front of the Duomo in Siena, where the artists had created dotted line drawings by drilling into the marble.
Regarding the size, these feel sort of medium-scale to me (Major Motion Picture is 12 feet long). I had done a bunch of smaller works in the past few series, to more quickly work out some ideas, but I generally like working much larger even than this group. The next batch will probably include some large multi-panel pieces. I have a rule that no single panel can be over 4 x 6 feet, as that’s what will fit in the back of my Explorer, but by combining panels you can make something really big.
I’m experimenting w/ a new process in these works, in that I generated the motifs on the computer before transferring them to the wood panels and painting them. The next one I have planned will be a linoleum piece, also designed on the computer. It’s all a learning process for me. This new series will include both paintings and linoleums, and hopefully they’ll talk to each other. Or maybe even sing together.
Jay, very interesting that you pick up rhythms and intervals. I’ve found it extremely useful to use the vocabulary of one form to work in another. Kind of creates an overlap of worlds, which for me is where the real action is. I guess the fact that I’ve always painted and written songs makes this sort of a natural convergence for me.
What classic ambient stuff are you listening to?
David,
Terrific! Thank you.
David:
To tell the truth, aside from Tangerine Dream and someone named Eno and the theme of Spirited Away, ambient doesn’t stick in my memory. It has to be metronomic to be mnemonic with me.
Overlap of worlds…that works for me.
Could you show us some of the songs that you have painted? But then that may be what we’ve already seen.
Jay, I think the very category of Ambient Music was born w/ Brian Eno’s “Music for Airports”, which is on high rotation in my studio. Can’t say that I’ve ever painted a song or sung a painting. But I find the vocabularies of those two worlds to be very transferable between them.
David,
Obsessed as I am by landscape these days, I couldn’t help but think of Fox’s way of describing the Australian (and indeed all) landscape in terms of your paintings: “To travel with people who know their country is to encounter landscape as an entity, animated, inhabited, and continually renewing itself. Perhaps it is this that the traveler is unconsciously seeking.”
Seeing your paintings made me think of this blog (ie your paintings) as a way of traveling with people who know their country and who continually renew it for me. Art can be another profound landscape that needs “watched at.”
June, that’s really beautiful. Thank you.
David,
What kind of wood did you use and how did you prepare its surface?
June:
There are those among us here who know their country, and then others who see their country in mirrors darkly. Without naming others I would place myself in the second group with the understanding that everybody on this site seems to be path finding in izzer own beautiful wilderness.
_ 1/4″ Baltic birch plywood
_ braced on back to avoid warping and to allow it to be hung on wall
_ sanded front surface, and gessoed w/ several coats Utrecht acrylic gesso, sanding between coats
_ sealed bracing and back w/ clear polyurethane wood sealer from Home Depot
_ painted picture w/ various acrylic paints
_ varnished w/ 2 coats Golden picture varnish (satin), thinned 60% varnish to 40% water, applied w/ brush, picture lying face up on saw horses
David,
I have a really ignorant question: how to you affix the back braces to the plywood (the braces that avoid warping etc.?) Or is that a trade secret?
I would like to work a bit larger on board (limited by the Honda Civic’s capacity) but don’t know how to avoid the inevitable warping. Hanging on the wall would be an extra benefit. Obviously screws wouldn’t work, but what does?
June, definitely not an ignorant question, a smart one actually. One way or another, the thing that really attaches the braces to the back is carpenter’s glue, either white or yellow (even basic Elmer’s works great). But the braces need to be in firm contact w/ the plywood while the glue dries.
If the plywood is thick enough, you can nail the braces into the back of the plywood w/ finishing nails, which have to be just long enough to go through the brace and into, but not through, the plywood. You put the glue on first, and then just nail the braces on. Another method, and the only way to brace thinner plywood (which is what I’m working on now) is to use carpenter’s clamps to hold everything securely in place while the glue dries.
Once the panels are braced, it’s important to seal all surfaces of the panel and the braces from atmospheric moisture. The front will probably have gesso on it, so that’s taken care of. You could also gesso the sides and back, or, if you want the wood to show, use any clear wood sealer.
Now, here is the trade secret:
It’s a lot easier, and sometimes even cheaper, to have someone else build your panels for you than it is to do it yourself. I used to build all my own panels, and stretch my own canvasses, and was pretty good at it, but it took up a lot of my time. Then I had to do a large (15 x 12 feet) painting commission, that needed to be made up of 4 canvasses which bolted together, came apart for shipping, and lined up perfectly. I hired a place called Fine Art Stretcher Bars here in Los Angeles to make them for me, and they came out great. I noticed they had a price list for various sizes of stretched canvasses, and figured out that I could get them from them for less than it would cost me to buy the canvas and the wood. And instead of spending my time building and stretching I could be painting! So now I get all my canvasses and panels from them, and so do a lot of professional artists here in Southern California. They sell a bunch of standard sizes, pre-made, but I generally have them custom build what I need.
There’s probably a place up in Portland that does something similar, but if not, call Sydney at Fine Art Stretcher Bars and ask her for a price list and shipping estimate. (323) 733-5945
Beautiful work.
Many thanks, David. I like the idea of buying rather than spending time on my very steep learning curve — and then actually doing the work. I’ll check around Portland for a similar kind of place — don’t know of any at the moment, but I bet there’s some enterprising soul around…..
June:
Maybe the conservation department at the art museum will know.
David:
Went back for another dose and found “Channel”. It’s a strong image – is there a story behind it?
David this is such a change of style from previous paintings, what made you go this way?
This work is very contemporary and stunning! I also like your older work too. Glad to see others artists havinf sifferent styles as well.
Jay, I tell people that I painted that Channel from life, and that Judith almost fell off a few times.
Angela, I don’t know, to me it seems a natural next step from my last group, but I tend to develop things in my journals for awhile, so by the time the paintings are finished they feel familiar to me. Glad you like them!
David:
Can you put up a painting in its ambience? I would like to see how one works on a wall.
Jay, I’m afraid the best I can do is provide this link to a photo of Major Motion Picture in my old studio. Don’t have time to shoot more photos of the new paintings. I’m out of the studio for the next couple of weeks while I’m working out the next batch on the computer.
David:
Just what I was hoping to see. Very interesting articulation of the surface. Now I can see the scale and how it relates to things.
Jay, keep in mind that Major Motion Picture is 12 feet across, and composed of inlaid linoleum. These new works are acrylic paintings, and the largest ones are each 5 feet wide.
David:
Linoleum fancy work is it’s own highly skilled craft. Did you draw from that, or did you make it up as you went along? I would imagine that you used mastic.
No, like everything I do, I did it the hard way and figured it out as I went along. Went through a lot of exacto blades and band aids.
Not sure how to answer your question about mastic. The linoleum is adhered to the wood support using flooring adhesive. When it’s finished and cleaned up, I wipe down the surface w/ Armor All to protect it and even out the sheen.