Painting

In his next life he will stay in the grass and not hop
six feet into the air and land in a lucky spider's web

Hey everyone.  I need to break out this bad habit of only updating every couple of weeks.  I keep meaning to post little things here and there, but I have trouble finding the right moment to sit down and actually write something.  It didn't help that I spent last week on Cape Cod, to squeeze in one last visit and a few days' of swimming before summer officially ends.  Anyway, I really want to start posting more often, so expect more frequent, shorter posts where I share whatever thoughts or updates I might have.  This doesn't mean less longer, music-centered posts -- just more posts in between them.  This will be one of those posts. Recently I started painting.

Our paint splatters on roof of the Juice Bar in Orleans MA, circa 2005.  

I am not good at visual art.  It's not just my lack of technical skill.  I am a poor visualizer.  I cannot look at my materials and piece together an image to recreate.  I hated visual projects in school because I could never make anything that looked good, and it pissed me off that I had to be evaluated that way.  (Although in 12th grade AP english, I did manage to get an A on a presentation where I used an LP sleeve as a posterboard). Thankfully, the idea of abstract art exists in part so novices like me can release our creative energy, make a piece of art, and take comfort in the fact that it doesn't have to "be" anything.  

Heather and I did a little painting a few months ago, so with the materials available, I decided to take another whack at it.  My approach for my first painting was to just to fill the canvas with whatever came to mind.  

16x20" canvas or something huge, too big!!

One thing re: the pictures in this post.  I've tried to capture the color as accurately as possible, but it's hard to take pictures of paintings.  Also, sorry about the picture formatting extended past the margin.  I promise I will learn how to fix these things.... Anyway, my technique for that painting is pretty straightforward if it's not too obvious.  Put a color here, another here, layer new color here, etc.  Most of it is the same back and forth brushstrokes.   If nothing else, it is fun to look at and I found myself imagining myself in different parts of the painting would be like.  This became my motivation for painting, to create landscapes of different colors and shapes, that invoke a new, but sometimes familiar, world.  So I kept painting:

12x12"

My second painting.  I experimented a little by leaving the circle in the middle, and I started to vary my brush strokes more.  I started by painting the whole canvas the light yellow you see up top, and that remains my approach, to quickly paint some kind of background I then build upon.  From here on, I started to do more blending:

12x12"

 I really like brushing wet paint over the drying paint, it adds a lot of texture and brings extra dimension.  I haven't nailed down my technique though, sometimes there is too much paint on the brush or my hand is too heavy.  I need to master the basics so my technique is purposeful and not incidental. Too many times I look at a finished painting and wonder how I did certain parts.   Here are the rest of my paintings, continuing in the order of when they were painted.

7x9" canvas panel

7x9" canvas panel

Collaborative painting I did with my friend Matt.  12x16" canvas or thereabouts

7x9" canvas panel

That's it so far.  Well, I did do another painting a couple days ago, but I am going to paint over it.  It went from having lots of white...to lots of light blue...add some pink... now it is a bold mess of red, white and blue that looks like a French flag from hell.  That's what happens I guess.  I will post my new paintings every so often.  Feel free to leave a comment with any suggestions or maybe an idea of something to paint. Also if it seems like I haven't updated in forever, let me know!  I could use a reminder when I might be spending my time unwisely.  I'll wrap this up with a Leatherface song, been listening to them a lot and they have been a big part of my painting soundtrack.  Till next time...

Beauty is more than skin deep and you don't have to say a word

Well I want to know what's inside of you and you don't have to say a word