Stand by your drawing
Whenever someone asks me what is the most important thing about art, my answer is unequivocal: DRAWING! Many artists don’t like this answer. It’s easy to attack straw men when it comes to drawing, or any other aspect of art. But the main reason this answer is unpopular is that drawing is hard. Drawing is
Finished “John Fishing”
This morning I finished the 40″ x 48″ oil titled John Fishing. It should be titled John Fishing–ha ha. My son John is not an avid fisherman. Dropping his pole in the water then settling down for a nice snooze is his favorite fishing method. This is one of my boat series. Unlike the other
In the studio 7/13/2014
As usual, here is a photo of recent unfinished work. I finished the background of Dinner in Trenton (large painting–44″ x 56″) yesterday. This morning I worked on Boat Hook (smaller painting. I continued working on the drawing for another large canvas–44″ x 60″. I also stretched another 44″ x 60″ canvas and put the
New cycle of 44″ x 60″ paintings
I started a new cycle of paintings yesterday. All paintings are 44″ x 60″. The only thing, really,that the paintings have in common is their size. It’s convent to buy stretchers in bulk. I build the stretchers by hand for paintings larger than 5′ x 6′. The first painting in the cycle isl in the drawing
New easel
I am extremely happy with my new easel. It’s wider than my old workhorse easel and the mast expands higher, which means it can accommodate much larger paintings. For as big as it is, it moves easily on its solid rollers. There are stops next to each roller to keep it in place. It can
Studio plans
To address my acute storage problem, I decided to convert our two-car garage into a full-time studio. Unlike my current studio, the garage has a high ceiling, which means I can work more easily on large-format paintings. Besides, I already use the garage to stretch and prepare canvases. In order to re-purpose the garage, we are installing
In the studio 6/22/2014
Besides finishing The Call, I recently worked on the paintings in this photo. Today’s session was the second painting session for the one on the right, Heated Discussion (the drawing took several sessions). The painting in the upper-left, Explain (or maybe just Plain–I haven’t decided) is almost done. I am hoping that one more session will
Study: finishing The Call
The 36″ x 48″ oil titled The Call is finished. This is the seventh and final post in the series about making this painting. Here are the links to the other posts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 I started the painting in May 2013 and finished it yesterday on the