The music in this video is by one of my favorite composers, Vangelis. He is who I listen to when I am painting. His music is breathtaking/hypnotizing/mesmerizing and so are the visuals in this video.
The results of this process are very enjoyable to me, however, to continue, I would have to have a small press which can be very expensive. The one at the school was about $4000. There are smaller, table top presses and they run about $500. I could also continue this by rubbing w/ a special tool but the results are not exactly what I want. I can't press hard enough it seems.
Thursday evening, July 10, we had a deluge. It started around 7:30pm. Luckily we didn't have the usual dust storm first. You can see them coming from miles away.....a giant rolling cloud. There was some movie w/ The Rock acting in it that had a giant rolling cloud of dust similar to what you see in Arizona.
Was very saddened to read a post written by my friend's GF last night on the chat room I used to go to. I still go to read stuff but never post anymore. There were a few nice people on there who I met and Fatboy was one of them. He was a huge man and a member of the Hell's Angels. He drove for four hours from ShowLow, Arizona to meet me at a coffee shop one day. We talked for a couple of hours and he treated me with great kindness and respect. We chatted on the phone and emailed back and forth a few times, then met him w/ his girlfriend and a bunch of other people at a restaurant for dinner a couple months later. It was a very diverse group, but we had great fun.
The Cookie Chair, Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30. This is for Noah Counte after reading his hilarious little story of the wayward kitchen chair in his blog. I still have this chair only it has so much stuff piled on it, you cannot see it......as are most surfaces in my home....something I have been working on all of my life.
(if, for any reason, you object to nudity, please do not look)
This is a detail of the finished painting that is a 30 x 36 oil on canvas, framed in faux black snakeskin. It started out as a graphite drawing on canvas then I started filling in base colors. Base colors are what I try to make sure show through the rest of the layers of paint. Basically, I paint in layers which is why oil paintings take a considerable amount of time to finish because you should wait till it is somewhat dry (or tacky to the touch) before adding another layer. There are driers some painters use and sometimes I use them and sometimes not.
I have many graphite drawings of nudes on paper and canvas. This one, in particular, was drawn on a 22x30 size of Arches cold press watercolor paper. After the drawing is finished, I will often wet down the sheet of paper, then splash a few different watercolor pigments all over. After the paper dries, I may do the same process a second and third time.
This painting is very special to me in many ways. It was done with oil stick...sort of like a large crayon of oil paint. They do not have the same toxicity as tube paint does. That is a good thing because when I use them, I first have to scrape off the hard shell each time and I get it all over my hands and under my fingernails. The oil stick comes in a multitude of colors plus there is a clear stick which is great for blending colors. You can also use a bit of turp or paint thinner to move the paint around once it's on the board.
1. Artistically speaking, for the next few years or so, I refuse to buy any more paint, paper or canvas for my artwork. I have enough in my studio/house to last quite a number of years. There are plenty of paintings I don’t like so will paint over those or will rip them up to make a canvas collage. Any drawings or paintings on paper I don’t like will be torn up and also used in a collage. The textured surface of ripped or cut canvas or paper is exceedingly fun to paint on.
