Below are seventeen of my paintings that I took pictures of during various stages in the process. The series of pictures show just a few of the steps involved in creating paintings in pastel and oil.
Connections
I was a builder during my early years, from my 20's to my 40's. In my teens I lived for seven years out in the country on ranch property. I was exposed to a lot of foundational concepts that stuck with me: the pleasure to be found in making things, working with one's hands; the satisfaction at the end of a hard day in the sun digging post holes and mixing concrete; a respect for the quality of a sound piece of lumber; a certain pride as the result of serious labor involved in making a straight row of fence posts; the appreciation, even reverence for a well-made tool; a dawning awareness of an inner competence that could perhaps one day carry me forward in life.
The work I do now making art is very much informed by those early years, and the truths revealed then have continued to guide me. Doing solid work in exchange for fair payment from a customer has always felt healthy and clean to me - almost elemental, like oxygen. I'm not much of a businessman, but I do feel proud of my work and very happy that others are enjoying it. That makes me feel part of a community, that the artwork somehow connects me to all the folks who have it on their walls.
Making a painting is also a building process. A good drawing and a strong underpainting are essential, like a foundation. High-quality materials are important in the construction of a painting or a building. A well-made house or work of art has to have parts in their proper proportion, and those parts have to be connected well.
I ask myself questions about structure when evaluating an image, but the structure in this case is about design. Is there a wide enough value range (darks and lights)? Is the distribution of those values interesting? Do the various shapes and masses feel like they are in a friendly dialogue? Is the color concept cohesive? Are there some little surprises - maybe an unexpected color or an edge that loses its definition somewhere? It’s a bit more subjective than checking for plumb and true, but in either case it’s about making something lasting and sound.
I do believe that I am "crafting" my paintings. As a contractor I strove to provide a level of refinement and attention to detail for my customers that I would put in a home I built for my own family. And though there is no final arbiter of artistic merit, I try to make work that will hold up under the dispassionate eye of an unknown art lover, maybe someone alive centuries from now, if all goes extremely well.
I was a builder during my early years, from my 20's to my 40's. In my teens I lived for seven years out in the country on ranch property. I was exposed to a lot of foundational concepts that stuck with me: the pleasure to be found in making things, working with one's hands; the satisfaction at the end of a hard day in the sun digging post holes and mixing concrete; a respect for the quality of a sound piece of lumber; a certain pride as the result of serious labor involved in making a straight row of fence posts; the appreciation, even reverence for a well-made tool; a dawning awareness of an inner competence that could perhaps one day carry me forward in life.
The work I do now making art is very much informed by those early years, and the truths revealed then have continued to guide me. Doing solid work in exchange for fair payment from a customer has always felt healthy and clean to me - almost elemental, like oxygen. I'm not much of a businessman, but I do feel proud of my work and very happy that others are enjoying it. That makes me feel part of a community, that the artwork somehow connects me to all the folks who have it on their walls.
Making a painting is also a building process. A good drawing and a strong underpainting are essential, like a foundation. High-quality materials are important in the construction of a painting or a building. A well-made house or work of art has to have parts in their proper proportion, and those parts have to be connected well.
I ask myself questions about structure when evaluating an image, but the structure in this case is about design. Is there a wide enough value range (darks and lights)? Is the distribution of those values interesting? Do the various shapes and masses feel like they are in a friendly dialogue? Is the color concept cohesive? Are there some little surprises - maybe an unexpected color or an edge that loses its definition somewhere? It’s a bit more subjective than checking for plumb and true, but in either case it’s about making something lasting and sound.
I do believe that I am "crafting" my paintings. As a contractor I strove to provide a level of refinement and attention to detail for my customers that I would put in a home I built for my own family. And though there is no final arbiter of artistic merit, I try to make work that will hold up under the dispassionate eye of an unknown art lover, maybe someone alive centuries from now, if all goes extremely well.