new paintings suck

Well, they don't really suck. But some days it sure feels that way. I am returning to two new/old things at once: back to the big paintings after 3 years of small ones, AND relearning acrylic.
I am trying all sorts of mediums including 409 cleaner recommended by a friend on flickr. They work some what.

If I were working on panel and small, it would be a dream. The problem is working on large roughish canvas (primed, but not sanded). I like the texture and the incomplete marks you get when dragging a brush along that kind of surface. But it is slow going, refilling the brush very very often. And a little more difficult mixing the paint right on the canvas the way I was used to. I guess I'm used to working very quickly and immediately.

I know the watch word that I need to put over my door: ADAPTATION.
Adapt to the new situation, whatever it is, or sink. Period.

really really old paintings

I've been looking through the old files.....a time wasting thing to do. I see that I have been pretty good about listing paintings, size, year, price, sold to whom (except in the cases of pieces sold by galleries who didn't give me names and addresses....another subject). But I see that my slides are a bit spotty in that I just don't have photos of all the pieces I have done. Sad for me. Back when you are just slinging paint and busy with all that life to be led, you just don't get to every detail.

Oh well. I am putting up some large old old paintings on flickr.com for the fun of seeing them along with later pieces. Having all these paintings/drawings on flickr has been excellent for trying to understand what the thread was and still is through all the work I have done.

It's almost always about some sort of relationship. Often people, but even in a still life, the objects are having some sort of conversation. It's interesting for me to look back on.

the eve of a blow

I hope I am not wrong. The media here in Houston is huffing and puffing about a possible hurricane arriving on our doorstep. Edouard. They speak of the "cone of uncertainty" hovering above us in a yellow spread of color on the screen. It doesn't look very likely to me......but that's just my intuition.

The mass panic at the grocery store is palpable. Empty shelves where bottled water, some canned goods and party snacks were piled up yesterday. Not to mention ice.

I certainly don't make light of this....we received many Katrina victims here. And although it is very long ago, we did our share of waterless, electricityless, camping during Alicia in 1983. And my spousal unit stared out the window of a Galveston hospital watching Carla advance while his father tried to get over a heart attack.

I'm just not a fan of panic. The constant drumming of the press hypes the drive towards panic. If we all got on the freeway out of here, we would all still be on the freeway next week. This is a city of five million people. Come on. The press loves drama, let's be honest.

OK, so sue me if we get hit with a big one. I figure, have a few pieces of plywood around (in advance...not the day of), some bottled water (fill up milk cartons and stick them in the closet), have the odd flashlight and candle and be respectful of nature. Maybe don't build right on the beach.

Oh, and the rats seem to have left the studio. Hummmm, what was that about a sinking ship?

killing rats in the studio wall

OK. I can deal with heat, cold, mosquitoes and old age but I can not deal with #%&**%##** RATS.
They are in my studio wall right next to the painting I'm working on. I try to ignore them....it is impossible. So I got out my big rubber mallet and harassed them by banging on the wall.

Never mind.......it sounds like a party in there !!

So I've called a nice sounding pest guy and he is coming out to see what we can do. I had white rats and black and white rats as pets when I was a kid and I loved them. However a couple of years ago, I saw 8-10 big big rats running along our trellis and jumping into the plum tree. That did it.
We had them in our attic once and it was a misery but they all left feet first. I don't believe in killing any thing.........except rats.

So the pest guy is coming tomorrow and I've told him I will stay out of the studio....just DO something. Cheers.

the painter's progress

Amazing. I actually got quite far with this painting in just a couple of days. Not the fleetness of brush of youth, but right back in it. After a lot of smaller paintings, I had trepidations about this larger one. It is about 1/4 done so I am posting a few pictures of the painter's progress.

creaking bones, pitiful muscles

I am putting together stretchers and stretching canvas. Nothing to remark on except that for the past 2 or 3 years I have been working relatively small. Easel work. Now I'm going back to the 60" x 50" size. Unless someone else builds them for me, I think my 76" x 84" canvases are in the past.

Crikey, you know you are getting old when you can't heft the heft you hefted before. My old stretchers are especially heavy. Sometimes stripping off an old not so successful painting and putting on new canvas is an easier way to go. Except then.......you have to deal with millions of old stubborn staples on the old painting.

But there is no saying "aw, forget it". There are some ideas that need more space. So, now I work a while til my back is screaming at me and then sit for a bit. Then jump back up and sneak in a little more work before my back notices.

Another solution would be to work unstretched....which is do-able with acrylic (now that I'm using the damn stuff). There are too many ideas galloping in my head not to go big again.

wicked acrylic in progress

This is a brave week for me art wise. Braving the slinging of the acrylic paint and leaving oil behind. I have to admit that the acrylic is fighting me. We struggle, brush and canvas, to put on there what used to flow and now jerks.

I mean, I know there are actual serious problems out there and even here in this abode. But this is my thrashing struggle of the moment.

I am posting on flickr.com a group of in progress paintings, bravely showing the pitiful skeleton and underwear of the painting as it goes. It is not finished as of this date. I will put up a few more when it is. And I offer a few here. Alas.