Wall of Sounds Meets Wall of Color

For those of you of a certain age...

remember Phil Specter the music producer who created the "wall of sound"  with his revolutionary way of sound mixing?

Well, I do not think my "wall of color" is anything revolutionary, but I really enjoyed listening to his work while creating this piece in my studio.

 

Like the kid with the new box of 64 crayolas (the box with the sharpener), I just got a box of 48 paint tubes from Liquitex and had to experiment!

The swatches will come in handy when making palette selections for future paintings...

Vis Arts Studio

My (somewhat new) Studio Space at the Visual Arts Center

1812 W Main Street

Richmond, Virginia

Heating!! Air Conditioning!!!  Oh MY !!!!!

To be near other artists, other art classes, galleries...   WONDERFUL!!!


A great supportive community for teaching,  learning, and creating....


I am one very lucky artist!

One of the creative challenges of my new space? 


How to hand my work on this brick wall...

done with hooks in the ceiling joists and lots of wire and eye hooks... 

Summertime Sketches

There is absolutely nothing like the lazy days of summer to brush up on some laid back drawing....

and some note taking...

and some olympic watching...

and some grocery shopping...

and traveling...

and snacking...

Recent En Plein Air Work

Fire Hydrant

2012

Acrylic Paint on Board, 12”x12"

Hoops Up

Sold: Private Collection

2012

Acrylic Paint on Board, 12”x12"

Plate with Rocks and Bowls: Study

2012

Oil on Board, 10”x10"

En Plein Air, En Heat Wave

What nut decides to paint outside in 105 degree weather?  

Me, of course!

           As part of my last graduate class, I decided to take the bull by the horns and do a series of paintings en plein air or outside from real life.*  I had fun figuring out how to make this work, what to bring, what to leave behind in the studio.  It was actually much easier to pack it in and set it up then I imagined.  Now if only the weather would cooperate...

One of my first area to set up in was the Old Virginia Power Plant next to Troutman Saunders, downtown by the river.  This is also the site of some amazing professional work from the G40 Mural Project Richmond.  Definitely worth the drive in for you local RVA folks.  The murals will be there until 2014.

Old Light

2012 

Acrylic Paint on Board 12”x12”

With hot weather and acrylic paints, fast work and and even faster decision making were the rule of the day.  My open time was about 45 seconds on this piece.

close up of Old Light

*Full disclosure, due to the extreme heat, some of the painting was done pre and post visit to the site.  So maybe that could be called “en hybrid air”  what do you think?

Drawings: Spring 2012

I finally had the opportunity to work with the figure again this spring.  These are close ups of larger work.  They were created by using a pastel transfer technique.  All are large scale pieces rendered across several sheets of paper.

Power Play 

2012 

Chalk Pastel on Paper, 66”x28”

Compadres

 2012 

Chalk Pastel on Paper 56”x66” (dimensions vary)

Pensive

2012 

Chalk Pastel on Paper 50”x28"

I also worked a bit in mixed media.  In this assignment for my class, I had to render my work in the Vanitas theme.  There is a figure in this but it may be next to impossible to find.  

Creepy

 2012 

Gesso, Charcoal, Pastel, Pencil, Gouache, and Collage  22”x28"

Graduation! (Well pretty close to it...)

Found out at the last minute that I got to wear the funny gown and hat (courtesy of Teresa Keefe) this past Friday.  It was a weird thought to realize that the last time I had worn one of these get ups most of my fellow graduates did not exist!

Only one more class to go this summer and it will be official in August...