We sold our home and I lost my long-time studio of the last 9.5 years. This was the studio I converted from a storage room, insulated it, hung plywood and painted everything, added light fixtures, and designed storage for inventory and wet paintings. The ultimate plan now is to find a new place with more space and a potential for a bigger studio. My work has progressed well and deserves a bigger space (Oh, and more space for the kids). So, my family has moved to a small apartment for the interim where I am using a loft as my studio. It has a lot going for it, but it is different. The light is beautiful most of the day, a nice even lighting from high windows facing south. The actual space isn’t much smaller than my old studio, yet I have less storage because of the lower ceiling. Needless to say, my first painting wasn’t going well; I wasn’t feeling it. Reality check! Sometimes, things don’t go smoothly. Most artist’s have developed a process that works for them over the years, a process that anchors their creativity. Well, even sometimes, those don’t hold up. After an hour of moneky-ing around on a painting, I scraped the paint off, turned the panel a different direction and I decided to paint something from memory. The beauty of putting a photo or sketch away is I can just paint from my heart, or from my memory bank. Robert Knudson, an artist whom I mentored with for two years, called this painting through your inner grid. This inner grid is me, what I have inside to visually communicate. This kind of approach make the painting unique to my individual style. This is how it went, I saw basic shapes taking on forms and becoming trees and rocks, for example. Next, I worked on making those forms real by tightening up the painting. What I really enjoy about this kind of painting is leaving areas loose and impressionistic. I love letting the paint look like paint, juicey and textural. The results is a vibrant fall colors oil painting of aspen trees, inspired from a day hiking above Lockett Meadow of the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff. Enjoy the first new oil painting from the new studio with promises of more to come. Look out!
“Initiation”
12×18 oil