"Heirlooms"

 

20x20x1.5", oil on gallery-wrapped canvas

So, I'm really lucky: I have three painting spaces.  Upstairs in my study I have a box on a platform I can raise and lower and light any way I want, so I do my small still lifes. In the basement I have a huge table and tall easel and it's OK to be messy, so I do my abstracts. And I have space at Gallery 2611. I've been casting about for the right kind of work to do there, and I think it's the right environment for doing the more thoughtful work that develops slowly.

This was one example. I had done a small 8x8 version of this, and liked it, and I still had the source image. So I started it at the gallery. One fun thing is that, when I enter, I come in a doorway where I see what's on my easel from some twenty feet. It's always a surprise, and can be quite illuminating. I'm making big changes to my current painting based on that element of surprise.

And speaking of source images (I did, you know), I guess I'm still a doofus with the camera. I can't seem to take pictures of things I set up with perfect lighting. I have a lot more luck taking pictures of things in natural light, as in this example. When I set things up, the colors are burnt out and overexposed, and the shapes have gone fisheye.

I'm also still working on the 25 paintings due on March 26. It's coming up quickly! More later.