A full day in the studio

This was my first long, full day in my studio since I moved into it. It was an absolutely beautiful day out. Sunny and a bit warm. My studio has no heat so I was able to warm it up nicely due to the temperature outside. I'm almost done with the untitled painting with the clock I just posted. This painting is quite a jump for me. It's very sparse and clean. I'm use to being a lot messier with things. But that is one thing I wanted to evolve in my work-skill. I wanted to work on craftsmanship and skill within the process. Somehow that has translated into a very crisp image. I can tell you, not everyone is a fan of it. I think that is because they just aren't use to it. Anyway, the working title for this piece was Shaman/Priest but it may end up being Monument To Thieves. I just like the not-so-pointed nature of the second title. I feel the first one gives away too much. I also prepped 13, 12"x12" ampersand panels for the encaustic pieces I'm ready to start. You can check out that blog at waxybuildup.blogspot.com. I posted a photo of the panels here. They have such a quiet beauty to them in the late afternoon light. Enjoy!

Aquisition of new technology and other goings on

I replaced my camera! This one is much more "involved" than the old point-n-shoot I had so I haven't mastered the settings yet. But we'll get there. I did finish the fig but I can't seem to find those pictures for some reasons. So I went ahead and posted the newest painting in progress. It's working title is "Shaman/Priest" or maybe"Shiver/Warm". Who knows at this point in this painting's young life. I also started another painting that will be two horizontal canvases stacked on top of each other. This is odd for me in two ways. I started another painting while a current one is only just beginning and I never work vertically; usually these paintings read horizontally like sentences. But this is really not such a suprise. These paintings are coming to me almost faster than I can get them out and they are evolving in both idea and method as I go through them. I have never experienced such an evolution in a body of work in my entire career as a painter. This is a most wonderful experience. The smaller, encaustic works you see were done in an encaustic painting workshop. I have always used bees wax in my work but never in the correct, traditional way. So I decided to learn how to do it the right way. These are the three paintings I did in the workshop. I'm going to be in a show with fellow artist and good friend Deanna Wood this summer. The show is called Waxy Buildup: Cleaning House and it is a collection of encaustic paintings that have to do with cleaning "house". You can check out that blog also. There is a link listed on the left of this blog. Enjoy some more pics from Rome!