"Stand By Me"

Oil, 20" tondo, which means in circular format - and the frame itself is circular, not square. (Did you know that a circle centered within a square canvas placed in a square frame is usually surrounded by a spandrel?) I said 'spandrel', not 'spaniel', those are English Pointers up there, not spaniels.

This is the third of my three paintings at the Women Painting Women: (R)evolution Show at Principle Gallery, opening September 20th, 2013.  (I have other paintings at the gallery, too, which you can see by going over to my website and clicking around.) And I have two other paintings at the (R)evolution show, already discussed on this blog here and down here also.

This piece was enormous fun in a technical sense. Lots and lots of layers and special paint effects. I can go into this, given the slightest encouragement.

This painting is reminding me again about how much I don't like to explain my work. This is my beautiful daughter in a vaguely woodland setting with two dogs. All three are gazing into the distance and none are gazing in the same direction, and none of them are gazing in the westerly direction, so not all the bases are covered in terms of watchfulness. (All bases can never be covered in terms of watchfulness.)

It isn't a portrait of my daughter in the sense that it's supposed show her doing what she does in the usual course of her life, except that knowing her, it's entirely possible that she does in fact wear a long cape and red gloves while surrounded by dogs in woodland settings. This is indeed more likely to take place in her case than anyone else you are likely ever to meet - except in reality, there would be at least three or four more dogs in the setting around her. But "Stand By Me" is a figurative painting, not directly about her life, it's metaphoric and narrative, and it's not an obvious narrative.

Generally, I want my paintings to be honest, sympathetic, thoughtful, powerful, sensitive... all that... but I also want to paint positive aspects of human experience, especially when it comes to painting women. Here, I wanted to show bravery and the decision to take care of others who need your help. So I put my daughter in this painting to reflect one of my own emotions; I suppose this is a somewhat autobiographical piece, from my own experience.

Remember when...
... you were a little girl and you dreamed of your future, you read all the stories about Andromeda and Perseus and Rapunzel and the Prince, and you decided that no, you didn't want to be the passive, helpless one hanging around, waiting for rescue and anyway, you wanted to be the one with the courage and bravery and guts to slay dragons and bad guys and save people, and besides, the chances were very slim that you would ever be pretty enough to inspire a dramatic rescue by a handsome princely hero, and only later in life did you figure out that the other side of the equation, the requirement for heroism, which by the way is something men have had to deal with all their lives since they rarely have the Andromeda/Rapunzel option, was to go through tremendous hardship, great risk, probable failure and a possible grisly, unappreciated death?!

So maybe you didn't have that particular dream, which is fine, also.

I like paintings that invite dialogs since it can get so tedious if a painting just ends up to be a monologue. A painting is, in a sense, a house guest that (we hope) remains interesting for at least a while and doesn't just drone on and on and on forever or get up in your face too much.

Mainly I wanted people to look at this painting and wonder, who is standing by and who is protecting whom? Is there a moment of choice involved? When you look at this painting, do you assume the dogs are standing by the woman, or is the woman standing by the dogs?

If you own an English Pointer, by the way, you will know that these dogs aren't watching out or standing guard for anybody, they are probably just looking around for birds, or maybe a dog treat.

Today is September 11th, let us remember all the brave firefighters and heroes who have chosen to protect us and given their lives for us. And let's keep praying for peace.

"Young Girl"

Oil, 12" x 10" . I used an alkyd white because I wanted this to dry quickly. Funny how different whites act differently. There's a lot of layering in this piece.

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Show Preview and Link for "(R)evolution" Catalog

Principle Gallery now has a page displaying all the work which will be up for the "(R)evolution" show this month, please visit and take a look at all the paintings that will be there. A lot of these paintings are large and so it will be fun to see how they are all displayed together!* Hope you can make it to the show, I think a lot of us will be there.

Meanwhile, I keep forgetting to post the site where you can order copies of the catalog for the show  - it's  from Madder Deep Publishing featuring the uber-talented team at Chez Terry Stickland .

The catalog image is a portion of the powerful painting "Rising Tide" by powerhouse artist Alia El-Bermani- here's the link.

*This is what you should listen to before viewing pictures at an exhibition. Turn the sound up loud!

Solvent Free

[EDIT: the dishwashing detergent shown in the photo was fine for the synthetic brushes I've been using lately but not the best thing for sables, badgers, natural bristles, etc. - see the comments to this post for other recommendations. There's a lot of bar soaps and other products out there for oil paints that are kinder on brushes.]

The condition of being "Solvent Free" is not to be confused with the rarer condition of "Solvency", which is another thing entirely, especially in the representational art community.

Going solvent free means getting rid of the solvents in your oil painting working methods. Common paint solvents such as odorless mineral spirits (OMS), turpentine, etc. can be dangerous to your health, especially when you work with it every day in close non-ventilated quarters. Several of my artist friends have also developed allergies to the stuff.

A few months ago I was at an open studio and watched a young man paint a portrait using a jar of walnut oil to clean his brushes instead of OMS. His work looked fantastic - lush paint, expressive strokes, fresh and clean. I went back to my studio and decided to research this. Apparently you can use either safflower oil or walnut oil to clean your brushes - don't use linseed oil because of its flash point. Linseed oil soaked rags are a cause of fires since they can accidentally spontaneously combust. Don't leave oil soaked rags sitting around, dispose of them right away.

Watch this, artists!

Did you know that human beings can spontaneously combust, by the way?

A half hour after I finished writing the above, but before I posted this, I read a story about human spontaneous combustion in the Sept. 7-8 weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal. Apparently,  a case of spontaneous combustion took place in Oklahoma in February of this year, so it's nothing to joke about or to sneeze at.  Naturally, being the alarmist that I am, I researched this a little further. One theory postulates that energy patterns, the Kundalini, that run up and down your spine become misaligned, triggering a temperature spike and you ignite. ( I'm not so sure about this theory.) Another theory is that there are energy anomalies in the earth itself, since suspected cases of human spontaneous combustion are geographically clustered. Hmm. The real estate agents never tell you that, do they?

Back to our story. I wanted to try painting without solvents because I was travelling to a far away land with zero hope of getting solvents when I landed there.Meanwhile, I really like the way my paintings are turning out using safflower oil and dishwashing detergent as brush cleaners. I use small amounts of Oleogel as my medium lately, but I also use other products as mediums. The brushes are incredibly supple and responsive to varying degrees of pressure. I wipe off as much safflower oil as I can  before reusing the brush in another color and it usually works, but if I'm going from dark colors to light I change brushes. At the end of the day I wash them in the soap and shape them.

Many thanks to the marvelous Master of Maastricht, Scott Bartner for his encouragement to pursue anti-solventation, though he has much more to say about this subject than I've covered here.

"A World With Stripes"

Oil, 24" x 36"

This is the second of my three paintings which will be at the impending Women Painting Women: (R)evolution show at Principle Gallery (opens September 19th, 2013).

I love stripes, not only for their graphic design possibilities, but for their symbolic aspect. Artists have been on to this for a long time. Much as been written about the mysterious way nature incorporates spirals into her work. You don't have to look far to see this - hold out your arm and see how your muscles spiral and alternate down your bones. (What, no muscles? How do you expect to win arm wrestling contests?)

Circles are also a powerful symbol of nature and rebirth and have been used by artists for centuries to explore various concepts. I'm fascinated by them too and I frequently paint circular pieces ("tondos"). (You could also say I'm "painting in circles", which may also be true.) Circles are also a powerful symbol of time (obviously referencing the analog clockface) and eternity.

This is in a way a still life, and to my mind, a form of vanitas, a reminder that earthly things will pass, time is short, all is transient, and all those other things you don't want to hear about.

The model is the lovely Cheyenne. We spent many hours on this painting. I learned a lot about my studio and where I have to back up to put models near this window (which turned out to be me smashed against the wall). I ended up painting the spiraled hoop from a photo since the repeating stripes drove me crazy and anyway, Cheyenne ended up moving out of town. She's wearing a selection of items from my costume closet, including a 1930's silk nightgown. Playing dress up with her was great fun all on its own.

Not everybody can be a good life model. The good ones understand somehow in their bones that there's an attitude that needs to be conveyed and they give it to you. Really, it's a form of acting, where you get beyond your self-consciousness. A good life model also displays impressive amounts of proprioception and can get back into the same pose after breaks. If you think this is easy to do, just try it sometime. If you are good at this, contact me, please.

Incidentally, you probably can't see this, but there's a circle within the circle, the locket on her necklace, which has a little rodent at the center - available from the wonderful painter Marina Dieul.

Alex Tyng's Solo Show, Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, Maine

My friend Alexandra Tyng has become one of the country's most interesting representational painters and her new show of narrative figurative paintings at Dowling Walsh Gallery is a major event for anyone who cares about the direction painting is taking in this country.

I can't say enough good things about this show. I've seen a few of these works and I'm amazed by their power, imagination and depth of emotion. She has a remarkable ability to transmit universal themes while at the same time pursuing a private, deliberate journey and Alex's ability to show the quality of light in her technique is extraordinary. They're intensely personal paintings with mystery and intelligence.

I'm so very proud to have such an inspiring master as a friend. Alex is a brilliant artist, painting at the top of her game. I really wish I could be there tonight. Go, Alex!

The image above is an ad from the recent issue of American Art Collector Magazine.

Show opens up in Rockland, Maine tonight, Friday, Sept. 6th; for more information, go to Dowling Walsh Gallery

"Portrait of Jim" on display at Scottsdale Artists' School

I teach weekly classes at Scottsdale Artists' School and they often hang samples of teachers' work in the halls and lobby. The other day they put up my "Portrait of  Jim" (my brother). I really enjoyed painting him and I'm delighted to see him on the wall, so thank you, SAS!

I've got a wonderful family and it's my great good fortune to paint them - I'll get to everybody one of these days, I promise.

Family members show up in a lot of my artist friends' work. I wonder how they really feel about it. I imagine that it can't be easy, at least some of the time.

What about those crazy leaves, you ask?! More about this painting can be found in an earlier post here .