Painter in Studio of Light

Last month we were given the opportunity to move the studio to one with windows. No one who'd spent a summer in our windowless room would turn down such a chance, so even though it costs a little more per month, we all hauled our crap to the other end of the floor to our new space. This is a view of my corner here. It looks a little cramped, but it's not. I'm under the loft helpfully built by the previous occupant; given the twelve-foot ceilings, putting a floor over your head is an excellent way to use space more efficiently. Also, it gives me a place to clamp some lights.

In the second photo you can see the indefatigable Reilly Brown beavering away at some upcoming Hercules comic he's been working on. The bastard, he stole the good spot next to the window. Something about his name being on the lease and whatnot. Hey, I brought the minifridge!

Anyway, I haven't lost any time getting to work in the new space. I've been trying to make it in at least twice a week, although life keeps getting in the way. Also, I need to make some new panels. But still I've gotten some things done, as you can see here. The first painting is pretty much along the lines of what I've been doing.

The second painting, Cover Up, is a little odd because I painted it over another painting, one of the abstract squiggle things I'd done that I didn't like. I really ladled the paint on with a knife, and then painted back into it very quickly. I expect this will most likely fall right off the panel one day.

Then things got odd. I had this panel I'd started a figure painting on, but something had gone wrong with it. So while I was in a mood of slathering paint over things, I knifed up some paints I had lying around from some other things and put it down, expecting to make a background I could paint over. Then I got carried away with how the paint looked. I like something about this. I guess Steve LaRose has gotten into my head with his brilliant, beautiful, amazing abstracts; I'm not up to his level, but I kind of like this anyway. My wife really really liked it, and I think she has a good eye -- I trust her, anyway -- so maybe it actually is okay.

Since I'm out of panels, I bought some big paper and did some sumi inks.

And finally, this is what's been consuming my time lately. This is a big panel, about four feet wide. I had this idea for a painting about...I'm not sure, but maybe 15 years ago. I have painting ideas that hang around a long time. Over the past few years I've gotten away from painting that way -- of starting with an idea that clear and trying to realize it. That was kind of a Surrealist style I had, very sort of illustration. I've moved away from that but recently I thought again of these friends Dawn and I have in Florida, and I was thinking I've been meaning to send them a painting for years, and this was one I thought they'd like, so I just decided, you know, now's the time. So I've been working on it. The background went through three revisions. It's darker now than it was in my head, but I like it and think it gets the idea across. Now I'm doing the pennies. Do you know how hard it is to figure out what color a new penny really is? It's very hard. This here is about two layers of underpainting into the pennies. I'm going to see where it goes.