Sketches of LEAF

Oh no! My last post was in August. Sorry! I haven't even kept up with my altered calendar because I have been putting so much energy into creating a studio space and moving into a new house. Life does that sometimes, but I am here to post the sketches I did on my trip to North Carolina last week-- I went down to Asheville by way of Charlotte, met tons of wonderful dancers, many of whom offered beds and futons and rides and food and great conversations and, naturally, dancing. The main event was a music and arts festival called LEAF, which happens twice a year. It was wonderful-- I think I stepped into a magic fairy land for a little while. There was contra dancing every day, slam poetry, delicious festival food, and I sketched anything I could in spare moments.

The view from our southbound plane window. Air plane en en plein air!

Anyone who has been to LEAF probably will recognize this chair. There are hundreds like it in the main dining hall. To the left of the chair, some sketches done while people-watching. 

I spent a great deal of time on this nightscape, and I don't think this image really conveys the drawing very well but I think you get the idea! This is the view from the merch tent where I was volunteering. 

I got to see Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn perform at LEAF as well and at one point, Abigail Washburn introduced a song by asking the crowd, "so who else here likes old-timey murder ballads?" The audience responded with wild cheering, of course. It inspired this drawing:

After LEAF, we spent a day exploring Asheville, which it a lovely town full of cute local craft stores and great cafés, like this one where Neil and I ate breakfast (ok, it was probably about 2 PM, so, more like late lunch of breakfast food).

The next day we piled into a car with a bunch of other contra dancers and headed back to the airport. See ya next time, NC!

Monoprints on a Repeatable Matrix... also dandelions.

The final project in screen printing was a monoprint, which means we use the printing process to create one-of-a-kind images. There are a lot of ways to do this, but the way I chose was to create a repeatable matrix, which was basically a stencil made of a piece of clear acetate that I taped to my screen. Very high tech, people. My stencil was dandelions, because I like how other-worldly they look when they're poofy.  And I wanted to make the connection between the shapes of the poofy dandelions with the star patterns. 

Once I had this stencil set up, I drew directly onto my screen with water-soluble crayons. I changed up the background colors and the patterns to create the feeling of different times of day. I have ordered them so they can be read as a progression of end-of-day to night.

This process made a lot more sense to me than the other screen printing projects because it felt more direct. Instead of bothering with screen fill and photo emulsian, I could just draw on my screen and print that. 

I don't know if screen printing is for me-- I am a painter and I like to touch the images I am working with. It felt like a lot of extra tools and chemicals to create something that I could make faster and better by hand. I don't have a strong desire to create my own multiples of images when I can just scan them and order prints. Screen printing is great for clothing, but I don't have a strong desire to put my art on clothing. Looks like me and screen printing were not meant to be, and that is ok.

Vinceward Van Hopper! Edwincent Hop-Gogh?

Hey all,

First-- a quick update on my screen printing class last night: It was SO much better! I am finally getting it! I finished the background of my print and moved on to the ship itself. The sails are done and next I will move down to the hull and eventually the water. And all the rigging-- I'll need to throw that in somewhere. I learned a new way to register each piece of paper (line it up correctly with the screen) and it made my life a bajillion-million times easier. Still no images for you though. Sorry!!

What I am going to write about in this post is a painting that I have in the works-- a new nightscape in oil on wood panel. I am thinking of it as Van Gogh meets Edward Hopper. I'm borrowing from the color palette of Van Gogh's nightscapes and using classic New England Architecture as subject matter-- the same subject matter that Hopper is known for (my work has been compared to his before and I take it as a huge compliment... though admittedly when I first moved to Boston, I had a bit of an artist block because I realized that Edward Hopper had already made all the paintings I wanted to make, so I had to shift in new ways).

So here is what I have so far:

Eh? Eh? Cool, right? Vinceward Van Hopper! Edwincent Hop-Gogh? 

No, no, the first one is better. Vinceward Van Hopper.

So what I am debating about right now, is 1) I want to finish this painting BUT 2) it looks kind of cool unfinished, am I right? There is something appealing about the sketchy boldness of the shapes I already have. I don't think I'll actually leave it like this, but a small part of me wants to. What do y'all think?

Oh and also, this isn't just any old house in Boston. This is MY house. My room is the one on the third floor balcony.

Ula Installation

Today was exciting because I installed nine paintings at Ula Cafe in Jamaica Plain. This is the first time I have ever put work up in a cafe and I am very thankful for the opportunity. I would not have been able to put up the show without help from my friends Kat and Hel, who are both fantastic people! 

I snapped some photos of the work hanging up on the walls:

All of these paintings have appeared previously on this blog except for one. The largest one with the prominent leafy tree and the colorful fences is a piece that I started last Spring and then put on back burner. When this opportunity to show work came up, I decided it was the perfect time to finish the piece. It is based on my backyard in JP. Our neighbors have a lovely, multicolored fence that I had to get onto canvas. Here is a closer look at the painting:

And finally, I wanted to include part of my artist statement that I hung next to my self portrait:

I am primarily an observational painter and no matter where I am, my work is inspired by my immediate surroundings. I love capturing a place and then committing it to canvas or wood panel. The collection of oil paintings I am presenting is inspired by views from the windows of my house here in JP and the streets I walk every day. Because these paintings are all snapshots of my life, I have also included a self-portrait to complete the narrative.

Night scenes are particularly interesting to me because of the extreme contrasts of light and dark, the heightened importance of shape, and the way every color stands out, illuminated against the dark. Trees, houses, and clouds are some of my favorite subjects and it is fascinating to see how they change with the light at different times of day.

Thank you Ula for giving me the opportunity to show my work, thank you to my friends who have been incredibly supportive of my art, and thank you to my housemates for putting up with the smell of oil paint and my brushes taking over the bathroom sink. 

Brewery Nightscape

I just completed this painting last night, a nightscape from my front balcony. The building in the distance is an old brewery and it is a beautiful structure, very iconic of the neighborhood (at least for me).

Día de los Muertos at Uforge

I recently discovered the Uforge Gallery in Jamaica Plain, which presents gallery shows on themes that change from month to month. November's "assignment" as they call them is Day of the Dead. I was super excited to make a Day of the Dead painting and here is the completed piece:

This was one of the most challenging compositions I have ever attempted. About halfway through I was like, "what have I done?! Why didn't I just do like two people and one light source?!" But it was all worth it in the end. It came a long way from its humble beginnings:

I hope Uforge does not mind wet paint, as I just finished it this morning. Also, my camera is getting old and the quality of the photos it takes is worse every time... I know what I'm saving up for next.

If you are local to Boston and would like to come to the opening night of the show, it is Thursday, November 1st from 6 to 8 pm at 767 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain!

Nightscape: July 5th

I painted this nightscape on July 5th, but have been touching it up ever since. I'm out of practice I guess. Boo! I was having trouble figuring out what to do with the sky because there was actually a tree there but I couldn't get it to look right so I just took it out and I am pleased with it now. I have a bunch of other paintings in the works, but they are not ready to be blogged about.

The house is on the street that I walk to get home from the T.

Boston Nightscapes

I apologize for not posting for so long! I have been busily at work on many art projects but have not finished any until these two most recent paintings. Here you are! Two nightscapes from my new neighborhood in Boston: