Blog

There is something beautiful about the process of forming of ideas, thoughts, and art.  At a gallery or museum one can sometimes see the development of a series by viewing its parts, but this process is still fairly opaque with only a showing of the final work. Thankfully artist blogs are full of studies showing their process.  Below I have a series of images showing a glimpse of my process as I created three of my recent butterfly paintings.

Inspiration in Munich

About a year ago, in the Alte Pinakothek, in Munich, Germany,I saw a series of paint sketches by Rubens.  They were quick unfinished swirls of color full of energy.  I began thinking about how some walk by the sketches and see nothing but mere studies, while others eagerly take in how they visually represent the artist working out issues of form and narrative.

Images of my process

Like so many things, my painting process changes. The process of how I paint is in constant transition and the next three in the series have been painted in a slightly different way, although the result will be similar.

Images of the stages of painting #4-6 of my Butterfly series:

While in an art museum in the Netherlands last fall I noticed a sign on a cork board  advertising a special Exhibit at The Hermitage Museum of Amsterdam.  I was excited to see that it was a show of work by an nineteenth century artist whose work I have long been drawn to, Caspar David Friedrich.  I was privileged to see 6 drawings and 9 paintings by the artist and spent a long time in front of them a few days later on my last half day in Amsterdam.

Moonrise over the sea was completed in 1821, and presents a beautiful, yet contemplative scene.  I noticed several triangles in the scene.  There is a triangle where the points include the large anchors in the front, the two women sitting on a rock, and the two men standing on a rock further into the sea.  There is also a triangle between the moon, the anchors, and the men, or the moon, men, and women.  I point out those physical triangles to set the stage to point out the triangle that I think is most important.  That is, the triangle between the one viewing the picture, in this case me, the people in the image, and the moon.  The contemplation of the ones in the picture is echoed by me as I look at the painting.

Sunset (Brothers) is a tiny painting compared to some of the larger ones in the room, yet it has a great presence.  The landscape is simple with a warm glow of dusk.  The water reflects this fading light.

On a Sailing Ship is full of youthful love.  This painting was done in 1818 and 1821.  A couple clasps hands as they peer off the bow of a ship at a distant city or port.  Is the sky golden with the morning light of their relationship?  This painting is said to be completed after Friedrich returned from his honeymoon.  Unlike a number of paintings by Friedrich, where the human figures seem alone in the presence of others, this couple appears connected in their thoughts.  The couple are linked to each other, and they are related with their surroundings.

Swans was painted before 1832 and depicts two swans encased in foliage.  There is a sliver of moon sending out light into the scene. Why swans?  Perhaps because they are known for forming ties and staying with one partner for life.

These three paintings are inspired by the painted lady butterfly.  I have entitled them temporarily (left to right): After Thistles, Fluttering Cosmopolitan, and Cynthesis.  These titles have their roots in scientific classification, common association, and/or metaphors.  Ideas and intellectual direction for the entire butterfly series are still taking shape.

What do you think? Please offer me feedback and take a look at the first three paintings in this series.  At present their potential titles are Flight of the Painted Lady, Vanessa Made Up, and Seeing Past by Present.

April 3, 2009 – Part III:  Harrison Center for the Arts

Time was running short and I went to the Harrison Center for the Arts as my last stop in the First Friday Hop.  Here I met up with fellow Yarn Burners to play Bingo and create a square for our group project.  Then I hurried up to see the show in the gallery.

Susan Hodgin has her new work entitled “Cairns”  in the Harrison Center Gallery.  I began and completed the night with artwork that progressed through careful exploration of ideas.  Susan Hodgin’s paintings are created with oil paint and charcoal.  Sometimes the charcoal showed through layers of paint, and at other times, the charcoal was applied on top of the paint.  There are many layers in the paintings, and one can see a swirl pattern of uplifted surface that lies underneath the paint and charcoal.  The oil paint is unmixed and yet this variant of color and tone is not used to increase a three dimensional look of the painting, but rather emphasizes the graphic quality and two-dimensional nature of the painting.  Susan uses geometric shapes, but instead of the shapes appearing mechanical, they appear organic.  Most of the backgrounds, although they have color and light fading softly in and out, are somewhat flat, which counterparts nicely with the foreground.  Helium, on the other hand, is a painting that jumped out to me because the background seems more alive with light.  The background of Helium interacts more completely with the foreground “circles” of color.  It is a pleasing body of work.

April 3, 2009 – Part I:  Circle Center Industrial Complex

This month had a pleasing array of good art shows in the downtown gallery scene of Indianapolis, Indiana.  I started off my evening by visiting wUG LAKU’s STUDIO & gARAGE.  The current show is a representation from Wug’s earlier work, and is entitled “Raw.”  The developments of his ideas concerning his investigation into nature and language are shown through several unfinished sketches and early paintings. The early paintings are different from the digitally manipulated photographs of his more recent work, and yet somehow they seemed the same.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) a First Friday is also a time of socialization, and I did not delve into the art show as much as it deserved.  There are deep questions, thoughts, and art making going on in the garage.

From there I ran into a show by another artist I know, Dave Voelpel.  Dave does abstract landscape paintings and had his show in the Five Seasons Studio Gallery.  Lately he has incorporated the palate knife into his work giving long soft strokes in his thick paint.  I have seen paintings of his where he has used a variety of things to thicken the paint…even coffee grinds!  Dave Voelpel also had a few collages on display.  It was interesting to see the designs he made with his patchwork of recognizable images.

The final stop in the circle city complex was at Matthew Davey’s new studio.  The studio was sparse, but had a few nice figurative works in it.  There were two drawings of female nudes on one wall, a huge (10 feet? by 6 feet?) painting against one wall, another drawing on a third wall and a medium sized sculpture set up in an adjoining room.  This little adjoining room was set up reminiscent to me, as a shrine.  The sculpture (Lily, Lily, Rose) was sharply lit from the front (which was disappointing to someone who wanted to study it from all angles, but provided excellent, sharp lighting for the front of the sculpture), and there was soft music playing in the background.  It was a wonderful, detailed bronze sculpture of a nude woman with her arms above her head and her face cast upward.  It was set upon a pedestal that is reminiscent of a nail.  Around the foot of the pedestal was a pile of smooth rocks.  It was beautiful.

Recently, I finished the first three experimental paintings of Butterflies.  Last autumn, I raised 12 Painted Lady Butterflies.  I studied these beautiful little creatures as they developed from larvae, to caterpillars, to cocoons, to butterflies. Unfortunately I missed their emergence from their cocoons because they came out over a holiday weekend when I happened to be visiting relatives.  Please look at the first three paintings and let me know which one(s) you like the best!

Oil painting with animation showing motion over time.

oil painting with animation of the wings

watercolor where you can see through the top layer of time/ The view of the present is obscured by the views of the past

Currently, my recent work is displayed close to home for all my Kentucky friends and fans.  During the season of Lent (February 25, 2009 through April 6, 2009) the series Action Unification and the mini series, Morning Promise, will be on display at the Asbury Theological Seminary in the gallery and in the foyer of McKenna Chapel.  This includes 18 paintings (14 bone joint paintings and 4 Egg shell paintings).  The gallery is open 8:00 a.m.-11:00pm M-Th, 8:00 a.m.-8:00 pm Fri, 9:00-6pm on Sat.  Please refer to the artwork as an aid in reflection on the season.

I was  in Kentucky the evening of Wednesday March 4 through the evening of Thursday  March 5 , 2009.  On Thursday, from noon to one, I gave a talk about my art and answered questions.   Here are some images from the galleries and the art talk.

I am posting three new eggshell paintings in series, Morning Promise.  Although the majority of the painting was done last fall I have recently added the final layers to three new eggshell paintings.  These paintings are similar to the eggshell painting that was posted in November.  They create a mini series where I investigated the beauty of contrived patterns of broken shells.

This is an interesting time to introduce this mini-series as the time corresponds to the Easter season.  However, instead of intricate designs upon eggs, I have placed brown eggshells in a pattern with an emphasis on their present emptiness.  They are the remnants or shells of what was once there.  The eggshell is broken. To me the shell is something that has been overcome.  Think about times when you have grown and developed and broken out of a shell and left the pieces leading up to the empty shell.  The shell has been conquered and lies overcome.  The pieces point to the emptiness and defeat of what the shell stood for.