It’s been a long time since I posted anything on this blog. I’ve been involved with a lot of things since the last post, but just never got around to getting it online. Blogging is not one of my strong points. I intend to post a bit more. I’ve read that artists should blog more. People like to hear what we have to say, as well as what we create.

I have been making art using myself as a model for the last decade or so. I’ve created pieces in acrylic, oil, pastel and color pencil, on various substrates in various sizes. Here is the latest that I made. It’s a small piece, about 5 by 7 inches. I have a lot of this paper that I got some decades ago, when still in art school. Someone contacted our art teacher and said we could have all he had. I don’t know where he got it, but thought donating it to an art class was a good idea. I’m glad he did. I use it periodically to create drawings of various sizes.

This is a fairly quick study that made sometime last summer, I believe. I had taken a few selfies while I was sitting at my desk/work area. There’s window on the north wall, which is behind me as I work on my computer, or to the left of my drawing table. I like the way the light was hitting the side of my face in the original images. I chose this one because it’s a sort of three quarter facial view, and I liked the skeptical look I had. I used minimal marks to indicate facial features, as they are mostly in shadow.

I’ve been playing around with creating art digitally on a computer. I created some digital art years ago, and felt the urge to do some more. I liked the immediacy of the mark making, and the worry-free and unlimited ‘erasures that working on a computer provides’. I use the computer as another tool when I create art in traditional media, for layout or experimenting with color. One of my most grueling hinderances is that I don’t like to waste materials. I don’t want to ruin a surface by not making “just the right mark”. With a computer, I don’t have to waste pencil or paper, or paint and canvas. I can just erase any mark I don’t like and am free to experiment.

This is a piece I’m working on that I’m in the process of developing in digital format using Adobe Photoshop and a Wacom tablet and pen. It is inspired by an image of actor in fantasy tv series that I saw online. I created a pencil drawing based on that image, then scanned it to upload it to a computer. I flipped the image horizontally, because I felt it looked better in that position.

I’ve suggested form by adding values of gray. I like it at this stage, and can be considered a finished piece, but will continue to work on it and finalize it in color. One of the benefits of doing this digitally, is that I can output the art at any stage if I choose to, and changes can be saved to be used later. I can also change the layout, size or position of the figure, or anything on the canvas. I’ll post later on when I get to a more finished phase.

I’ve been doing some abstract non-representational art lately. This direction fits in with the theme of the latest show at Raices Taller Gallery and Workshop show, Creative Solutions. Artists were invited to show work that exemplifies new directions for art and life. So this was a timely show for me, as I’ve been trying out new things in my artwork.

I created two pieces from old canvases that with which I was no longer happy. I often paint over art that has been sitting around for years, and that I’ve lost a connection with. So many of my current pieces have been painted over once or twice. So, if you ever see a piece of mine that you like, better say so and buy it before it gets painted over.

With this direction, I’m more interested in exploring the color, line, shape and feeling of the artwork. This frees me up from the notion of trying to depict something in particular, like a portrait or landscape. It’s all about the elements of design and painting, rather than trying to capture what I see. I’m still capturing the “moment”, it’s just being captured in a more expressing, rather than a realistic, way.

By Your Command. Oil on canvas. 2018. Original is 20 x 24 inches.

Bitter Ineptitude. Oil on canvas. 2018. Original is 14 x 18 inches.