Monday Musings

This has been one of those mundane weeks with nothing exciting to talk about. I've been working on my drypoint prints in the studio. I pulled an edition of 10 prints of the farm buildings and was pretty happy with how well they came out. I was able to keep the line softness and also the richness of the blacks in all the prints. This is unusual for me - normally they lose both those characteristics very quickly, but this time I researched some better techniques and they worked well. So well that I went back to the gargoyle plate, used the same techniques there, and immediately pulled a beautiful print. So then I pulled a complete edition of 10 prints of the gargoyles as well. Now I'm pressing them flat and tomorrow they should be done.

I've really enjoyed making these prints. Making the plates has been more of a meditative experience for me than painting is, maybe because they're so small and require a focus and attention to tiny detail. Not that these prints are "detailed" like a photograph. Far from it - but the plates are small, the drawing is necessarily smaller, and I have to take off my glasses and get close in order to see what's happening. The drawings are not about capturing everything; rather, they're about finding interesting shapes, patterns, and textures, and using those characteristics to evoke a mood or feeling. With two editions completed, I need to come up with another three or four good images and get them printed within the next month.

The artists of the Cotton Mill Studios building, along with those in the Curve Studios just down the road, are going to have an Open House next weekend (the 24th to 26th, Friday through Sunday). It'll be a mini-Studio Stroll, with painters, potters, ceramic artists, fiber artists, a flute maker, and steel artists opening their doors to the public. I'll be there on Saturday and Sunday (not Friday) and will be pulling more drypoint prints those two days. If you're in Asheville and at all interested in the process, come on down and have a look. We're at 122 Riverside Drive, in the River Arts District.

Marty and Eileen, the owners of the Cotton Mill Studios, are having a mural painted on the side of the building. Actually, Marty asked if I'd do it, but I had to turn the offer down. The site is on a century-old brick wall that has been painted, burned, and weathered over many years. It also faces southwest, meaning it gets a heavy dose of sunlight, which will fade most paints in nothing flat. I just didn't have the skills to do a proper job. The guy who is doing it, though, knows his stuff. Ian Wilkinson and his brother Robbie submitted a knockout design and got the commission. Today, they were putting the first coat of stucco on the wall. They're going to be using special mural paint. I didn't know there was such stuff, nor did I know anything about putting a proper coat of stucco on a building. Ian and Robbie do, though, and should have the mural done well before the Open House. I think it's going to be quite an attraction for the River Arts District.

As mentioned in one of my previous posts, I've been planning an Introduction to Oil Painting class in my studio. It'll run on four Saturdays, starting October 9th and ending October 30th, from 10 am to 1 pm. We'll cover a lot of ground: painting surfaces, paint, brushes, mediums, different techniques, color theory, and color mixing, to name just a few. Cost will be $100 for the course with students providing their own materials. If you're interested, let me know soon, as there is very limited space.

Studio Stuff

Ugandan Guard

Oil on panel, 16"x12"

I've been working in the studio this week on three projects. One is the series of paintings based on my experiences in Iraq. I've decided to do more of the small 16"x12" portraits, the newest of which is shown above. They're enjoyable to do, but they're also very meaningful. In my Old Times series of paintings, half were narrative paintings (paintings with some sort of story behind them) and half were portraits. I found that the two types complemented each other. The narratives told stories or explored concepts about aging while the portraits gave you real people who were living the stories. In this series, I started doing the small portraits as a way to get back into the painting rhythm again, but have really liked this growing collection. So this week I got ten more panels. I also painted over a couple of the small paintings I've done since returning to the studio. They really weren't any good and I want to use the panels for more portraits. I feel like I'm on an interesting path with my paintings now and it's a good feeling.

Another project that I've got going is the preparation of a series of new intaglio prints for a show at Bella Vista Gallery in November. It's been a few years since I pulled any prints. The process is very technical and very different from painting. Instead of working in large areas of color, I'm working with lines on a small metal plate. The subject matter is very different, too: Asheville scenes instead of war stories. I've got two drypoint plates pretty much ready to go, I think ... won't know for certain until I pull the first prints. There will be some etchings as well and I've got a couple of plates ready. For the past couple of days, I've been studying James McNeill Whistler's intaglio prints to help me get my thought processes oriented. To me, Whistler's prints are magic, beautifully done and very evocative. Hopefully, some tiny portion of those characteristics will transfer into my plates.

The third project involves art classes. Over the years, I've occasionally had people ask me if I teach. The answer has always been "no", since I never saw much demand for it. Recently, however, I've had quite a few people asking. So I'm putting together a Painting 101 course that will provide a foundation in oil painting, including oil paint, brushes, canvases and panels, safety, color theory, composition, various kinds of paint application techniques, and so on. It'll be a 6-week course right here in my studio, and cost will be $150, with students providing their own materials. It'll probably go from early October to mid November. Anybody out there interested?

In late September, two sets of studios here in the River Arts District are going to have Open House Weekend. I'll be a part of that here in the Cotton Mill Studios building, along with five of our artists; the others are in the Curve Studios just up the road. The dates are Friday, Sep 24th, through Sunday, Sep 26th, from 11-5 each day. Additionally, there will be "twilight hours" on Friday from 5-8 pm. I'm probably going to spend that weekend pulling the prints for the intaglio show at Bella Vista. If you're in Asheville that weekend, come on out and visit!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have two little dogs that are telling me that I've been ignoring them long enough and that I'm in for some serious playtime.