"Behind Building C, Nov. 18, 2016, Plein Air" is 36x48", acrylic on canvas.  This piece was painted almost entirely in an outdoor, or "plein air," session behind a building on the company's beautiful campus.  The colors of trees are so brilliant right now, the other artist in residence and I decided to take our easels outside.  This piece took about 5 hours at the scene.  I spent another 3 today tweaking it in my studio.  It is always interesting working outside.  The light changed drastically from 9 in the morning (left) to high noon (right).

The sun moved from my right to directly behind me, thus shining across or on my canvas the whole time.  This made my colors look very saturated; I was surprised to see how soft the piece was when I got it inside.  I also struggled a bit with the size of my canvas, which was large for an outdoor piece.  Being left-handed, I'd set up to the left of my canvas.  When I wanted to work on the far right portion of my scene, I had to peek around the right side of my canvas.  

It was a beautiful day, low 70's, no clouds, and lots of curious and pleasant walkers by.  I would definitely do it again!  

8 years ago on Election Day I was hit by inspiration.  Last Tuesday I was hit again.  I had no plans to do an Election Day piece 11/8 but when I got to work that morning I was overwhelmed with what needed to happen for me, on canvas, right then.  It was going to be entirely about process and the experience was loaded with democratic symbolism for me.  I had no clue what the end product would be. 

I wanted to do a drip piece.  Working with drips is... both a controlled and chaotic technique.  You can start a drip in a certain direction and maybe even manipulate it by tilting or flattening your substrate or adding/subtracting water.  Still it will surprise you and go where you don't expect it to go, jump to the side suddenly, sometimes join another drip.  Running my drips was just as much about me applying them as me waiting to see what they would do, an interactive process.  My initial approach was elementary, running a range of blue drips from one end and red drips from the other.  Some of them went all the way to the end; some stopped short.  Some crossed over to the drips coming from the other side.

Day 2 was a day of adding more lines, more voices, more noise…

On day 3, I needed to start finding a pattern, a larger picture, making sense from the overwhelming input.  The contrast and visual activity was so high that it actually made my eyes and head hurt to work on it this day.  I needed it to settle, to find cohesion. 

Day 4 was when I decided to pull all the white to a middle gray so it would stop fighting with the colors.  As I did this, the colors began to take on more importance and a linear pattern of larger shapes emerged. 

Day 5 was the day it quieted down to just the right volume.  There is still a broad range of color, line, and depth… but the piece feels pulled together.  The layered grid structure elicits an array of familiar symbols for people: a circuit board, stained glassed, architecture, and urban skylines, to name a few.  For me, however, it was personal and cathartic, my 2016 Election Day piece.  I call it “Crossing Party Lines” and it’s 36x36”, acrylic on canvas. 

"Tranquility" is 48x60", acrylic on canvas, and it came out of nowhere.  I was not expecting it.  I was under-painting a canvas in green to do a forest scene.  I thought it might be interesting to experiment with texture so I used a tool typically used to do faux-wood imagery (like a comb).  I applied the base coat thickly and pulled the comb through.  In places the paint had dried enough to kind of pill up, resulting in a surface that looks almost like linen.  This effect was so appealing to me that I followed the painting in a completely different direction, minimal, textural, and for me, very tranquil.  I get pleasantly lost in this and it brings me peace.  

"Nostalgia I-IV" is a small pastel on sanded paper series, 13x9.5" each.  The other project I'm working on is new territory, mentally engaging and tiring.  I wanted to come up with a simple and fun fidelity exercise to let my brain rest for a bit, a basic eye-to-hand assignment.  When I researched imagery, I was drawn to these classic archetypal marbles.  Several times while working on the series, my coworkers would reminisce with me about playing with these marbles as kids... hence the title.  One colleague noted it was interesting to see me apply my approach to reflections to a subject other than water.  Okay, I do paint a lot of water.  :)

"Autumn Matrix" is 48x36", acrylic on canvas.  This is a reworked abstract I originally painted in 2005 for a satellite office.  That artwork returned to us recently and when I saw the piece again, I wasn't happy with it.  It did not feel finished.  I changed the orientation from horizontal to vertical and that freed me from the bottom-heavy sense of landscape.  I used glazes to quiet down areas and feature others.  I also pulled forward a smaller element of light that falls down the surface in a pleasant, rainy way for me.

"Heck-Lee House, Raleigh," "Tucker House, Raleigh," and "Heck-Andrews House, Raleigh", 24x24" acrylic on canvas, are three more pieces from the recent architectural series.  These subjects are in Historic Oakwood and the architecture and painting style I think pull them together as a grouping.  There's a graphic quality to the silhouettes of the trees and the structures themselves are only partially rendered, giving them a sketched feel, almost like a conte chalk and charcoal drawing.

 

"Capitol Building, Raleigh" and "City Market, Raleigh", both 24x24" acrylics on canvas, are part of a larger architectural project I started a while ago.  I chose 6 recognizable buildings from the downtown Raleigh area.  I started these pieces in an unusual way, creating a very textured background, then cutting in the sky around the silhouette of each building and its surrounding trees (see below, the Capitol is on the left, City Market on the right).  

These two were the first two I completed.  The next four have gone in a somewhat different direction stylistically so they'll be their own series.  

"By the Way" is 30x40", acrylic on canvas.  Unlike my last few projects, the creative process for this painting was completely unplanned and instinctive.  When I mix liquid acrylics, I often end up with excess paint and it seems such a waste to just let it dry out.  A couple of months ago I grabbed a blank canvas and laid it to the side in my studio and every time I had surplus paint, I'd brush it out randomly on the canvas.  Folks would stop by my studio to see what I was working on and walk over to this and say but what's this?  We like this!  This piece developed on its own off in the perimeter of my thoughts while I focused on other things.  The result is loose, atmospheric, emotional... almost the opposite of the concurrent works.  When I was ready last week to tilt it upright on my easel, there was very little to do for it to feel complete and whole as a painting.  I blurred my eyes to focus (or unfocus) only on color, surface, and balance.  I do that often to check for broad-stroke compositional issues.  With a piece like this, it's hard to know when it's complete... but I do know when it feels right, when it feels good.  Happy Tuesday!

We installed the completed mural panels today.  Each one measures 5x5' and they cover a lengthy stretch of wall leading to a collaboration and design space.  I had much help with painting from my coworker, Bill Rodgers, since the flat and clean nature of the images required multiple layers of paint.  This was a really fun project, quite a departure from my usual assignments!  I love doing faces but it's rarely applicable in a corporate environment.  I have a few other works/series in progress in the studio to which I will now turn my attention.  Happy Friday!  

And now for something totally different... a coworker and I have been tasked with creating a mural for a very long wall that integrates images of five specific inventors  (Leonardo, Ada Lovelace, Sir Isaac Newton, Madam Curie, and Galileo).  They wanted something hard-edged and graphic, mostly black and white.  I've also used a set of five colors I was given that relate to other aspects of the project.  I created these images in Photoshop.  The next step will be to paint them on five large separate panels, probably about 5x5' each, which will be mounted to the wall.  To be continued!

"Windward, 2016" is 32x48", acrylic on layered 1/2" gaterboard.  This piece is significant for me.  I was recently in a design meeting with one of our interior designers and she flooded my brain with new trending concepts, the blending of art and architecture, the exploration of new materials and moving toward installation art or interactive works, particularly in a technology environment.  It made me realize I've been in a creative rut.  Yes, I believe there will always be a place for traditional painting and I will continue to push myself in that work.  However, it's been a long time since I tried something totally and completely new and it's exciting.

I was working on this abstract, just a clean sweeping graphic image.  Then it occurred to me I wanted to break out of the two-dimensional plane, if even just a little bit.  I decided to add a layer of strips to the surface and run the image over them.  The strips intentionally do not relate to the content; they are not tapered or curved.  I wanted something different to integrate into the surface.  The result is a stimulating sense of movement.  I really like this approach and will continue finding ways to employ it, perhaps with varying materials or at a grand scale.  I have about ten ideas cooking right now that involve pulling away from the flat surface and/or playing with nontraditional media and substrates.

I had a couple of different folks tell me this piece felt nautical to them so when I was looking for a title, I researched sailing terms.  I quickly found the term, "windward," and when I read the definition, I knew it was perfect not only for the piece but for what I am experiencing right now as an artist: to move with the wind or in the direction the wind is blowing.

"Awash, 2016" is acrylic on canvas, 24x39.5".  This canvas was custom built for another project and then didn't end up being used.  We had also primed the canvas in a rich raw sienna tone for the other project so I had a lot of warmth to lead my content.  The piece started out as an abstract but then I had the need to paint this particular scene right now so this is where I took it.  Something unusual happened with this one because of the way the paint was going on to the primer.  Typically the water in the acrylic doesn't allow for a lot of soft blending unless you add a medium.  In this case, the paint was going on sort of like oil, very buttery to the point that I was able to do a lot of blending with my finger.  In fact, I'd say a quarter of this painting was done with my fingers instead of a brush.  Happy Wednesday!

"Santa Maria del Fiore, 2016" is 48x60", acrylic on canvas.  This was a specific assignment for an individual for whom this cathedral and the story of its construction has significant metaphorical meaning.  I enjoyed working on it at a personal level as well because I lived and studied in Florence for a semester in college.  The history behind this building is remarkable and well worth a little research.  This particular painting is not perfectly architecturally accurate.  I wanted to focus on shape and light-play more than detail.  There was no projecting or grid-work or sketching.  I used a large flat brush from beginning to end to force myself to stay loose with the brushwork.  The palette is rich but limited to the warm sienna and umber tones that prevail in Tuscany and the slate blues of the late afternoon sky.  This is only the second painting to come out of my studio this year, although I have several in progress.  It feels good to complete something!  Happy Cinco de Mayo!

"Lily Impression, 2016," is 22x15", acrylic on paper.  I started this one along with the previous botanical series and just have needed to put on the finishing touches.  This light and loose approach reminds me of Japanese ink drawings.

"Fall Vista, 2016" is a personal piece I created for my home.  It's 24x60", acrylic on gatorboard, and is the perfect size and content for a high wall I have over my front door and below a large window.  I wanted a colorful and lively nature scene.  I've had this piece of gatorboard for years and hadn't used it due to its odd shape.  The image is not detailed since it will be hanging high and seen from afar.  My two-year-old saw it in process and said, "Mommy, that's a big mess."  Everyone's a critic.  :)