Red Door - Another self-portraist

I bought the wax painting medium. I am using self portrait trying to learn how to use the new medium. I paint in the garage. This is my painting corner.

Another version of Self Portrait

Just want to be more painterly. When I paint on paper, it seems to free me from tightness. It is all psychological. When I am not as serious, I am freer.

Improved?

Did not like what I did. Here is the rework. When can I get close to Lucian Freud?

Self Portrait

Many artist did their self portrait. Partly because it is the most available model. Many artists also record their "maturing" process in their lives. Rembrandt is the most noticeable example in art history from his playful youthfulness to the melancholic old age portrait. In the modern time, Lucian Freud is absolutely my favorite. His bare it all portraits, sometime in literary sense, are both courageous and admirable, in addition to his trademark artistry in figure painting.

The weather is cold around here at upper F30s and low F40s. It is hard to go out and do things. So, I spend 2-3 hours a day in the past two days to some drawing. I am quite surprised how little I know about my face. I do try to be honest as Freud. I will do an oil painting once I understand my face well enough. I hope I can get a bit closer to Lucian Freud's artistry. One can dream, can't we?

After some drawing, I felt comfortably familiar with my face. So, I painted myself in oil. This is the first time I am using wax medium. It seems to give a softer look.

For those who know me, please hit the figure to enlarge. You will see it IS me. LOL.

Color Field Portrait?

I had an interesting discussion with a local artist on Glenn Brown's work, particularly his use of flat color background. She thought that supports the subject of the painting (see the first figure. I thought his more successful ones using this approach is when the "background" occupies less area on the canvas. To prove to myself that this is the case, I painted the portrait of Madam X shown here in the second figure. I intend to make the "background" competes successfully with the figure itself. Yellow is usually a difficult color to deal with - its intensity depends very much on the neighboring colors. I chose it as "background" on purpose, and see whether I can make it very intense. You may need to click on the figure to enlarge it in order to see the intensity of the yellow.

Rusty's and Snacktime

When I finished "Rusty's Jazz Bar" today, I cannot believe that I worked on it on and off for 7 years!! The original figure was done in 2002 when this native American posed lying down to fit my horizontal canvas. It was a barren naked figure to be a good painting. But, I liked the pose to discard it as a failed painting. I left it in the garage not knowing what to do with it. Then, last year, I looked at it and got some images from internet and started to compose a more complex picture. I worked on it, but did not like the color and some compositional element. Last week, I was working on the "snack time". I thought these two are similar in genre. So, I took it out and continue working on it. Well here are the results of "best effort".

Old family album

Found these pictures in my file. Aside from the last one, I took them when we got the family's first camera in 1957. Most of them are very small 1.5inch. Printing was very expensive then. The price grew exponentially with size.
I was cool, trying to make "art pictures". You can see the staging of a pretentious angle of myself reading. I like the pictures of my mother. They show her making soy sauce in our yard, and arranging flowers. I like very much the school master's awkwardness in the last picture of my mother's elementary school graduation. It will be fun to make a painting out of this. I need to rearrange the pattern of the shirts girls were wearing to make a good composition. I may change the body language of some school girls to expand the feeling of awkwardness. Hmm... Will be a challenging task. My mother is at the left corner of the last row.

Snack Time - A Study using Computer Graphics

I did a drawing last week of a man in a hat standing and hunching over a pedestal. I thought the pose is interesting and can be a basis for a painting.
I tried a few compositions using Artrage in my computer. Struggled quite a bit as usual. Finally settled down to these. Still don't know which version I like better. I learned a few things. For this kind of painting, the detail modeling is not as important as the gesture. The design element takes over. I just wish when I paint on canvas, I can be a little painterly as Edward Hopper. I will respond to what's on the canvas.

Boom Town on the Lake

The booming construction in our city is incredible. At one time, I counted 14 cranes near downtown Bellevue. I started this one way back. But, somehow I have not been able to come up with a good composition. I kept playing with it. I use my leftover oil paint on my palette to play with color and to build up the texture using palette knife. I also put enamel paint on it. It tends to drip which can be used judicially.

This is the final product. Construction and destruction are two sides of the same coin.

Enamel Paint - Lady in Black

Got some medium gloss enamel paint from Benjamin Moor including a blue. I painted this one still based on the drawing I made. I clothed her in black and added necklace. The brush strokes and colors are more confident and clear. I scratched some marks to reveal the underpaint. They are only visible if you enlarge the image by hitting it. I am happier with this one than the previous one.

Enamel Paint

Continue experimenting with enamel paint I got from Home Depot. I got only 3 colors: red, yellow, black, plus white. The limited palette is good for experimenting. The reason I do this is that I have a very large "experienced" (meaning used) canvas that I picked up from a discarded pile at Gage Academy of Art. I thought about doing something with it. Commercial paint came to my mind. Discarded canvas + cheap commercial paint appeal to me philosophically. So, I bought a few small cans of enamel paint to experiment on my own "experienced" canvases.
I continue to paint "Rothko painting" using an used canvas with built up texture on it. Trying to get to Rothko's religious experience. I also painted a woman's portrait based on a studio drawing I did.
Enamel paint dries fast. I have to paint like acrylic paint, fast and using layering. The draw back of the paint is the gloss. Only the white color is flat. So, I have not much control of the reflection when I don't want them. I may try to find other oil-based paint to see whether I can gain some control of this.

Tribute to Mark Rothko

In order to achieve a deeper understanding of what Mark Rothko wanted to achieve, I made this painting. It is done on a small (18x22) canvas using commercial enamel paint. I learned a lot from doing it. For example, I initially left more space around edges. Found that it does not feel the force Rothko had in his paintings. I feel more satisfied with the composition after I reduce the edges. I painted darker fringe in the lower part of the painting around yellow and reddish parts. That made the lower part more "resolved". But I decided to leave the upper part somewhat "unresolved". I think it creates more tension with this contrast in "resolveness". I found the enamel paint is quite good for layering. I will try a few more paintings with this type of paint and see what happens.

Modernist Painting

To get some stimulation, I am taking a course on modernist painting taught by the local artist, Charles Emerson. Each week, he assigns us to paint a painting using the aesthetics and painting method of a specific master. The first one above is after de Kooning. I learn to play with the paint, mixing them on canvas, texture them, utilize "accidents", and use bold brush strokes and marks. The second one is after Francis Bacon. I cannot paint his excruciatingly painful picture. Instead, I made this "Dick Chaney smile" using his technique. But I also use Mark Rothko like background. It is pretty wicked looking. I can not imagine who will hang a Francis Bacon in his/her home. Art and decoration are definitely different. Francis Bacon said (I am para-phrasing) in his BBC interview that abstract art can not be more than miracle and decorative, and it does not include human emotion so essential to all great art. His art certainly has plenty of that.

Utah Trip (1) - Arches National Park

After a 4 hour drive, we checked in at our Moab motel, and were eager to explore the area. The highlight of the day was hiking to the Delicate Arch. The hike is only 1.5 miles each way with an elevation gain of slightly less than 500 feet. We timed it so that we would see the beautiful arch under the light of the setting sun. We stayed near the arch for 40 minutes or so, just to soak in the evening glow and ambient. The last picture is interesting. There are these moggles with strange but beautiful green. They look fabulous in contrast with the red stones. We were told that they have something to do with the uranium deposits below. The first atom bomb used the uranium produced here in Moab.

Change My Mind

I changed my mind on the composition yesterday.

Pretty Woman

The previous two painting based on the life drawing I made were too pretty. They are OK. But, I want to try another one that convey certain psychological state of the subject, even though I made it up.
The photo lost the gradation of color and value. I wonder whether it is the camera or the lighting that caused it.

Yet Another Variation

Want to try more free way of painting, I want to try another one with the basic nude I drew in the open studio. I changed the head position and body position so it won't be too much of a studio pose. I lengthen her neck, and clothe her to help the composition and color. Originally I had the frame of the chair on both sides, but decided to paint out the left. I really feel the freedom of paint application. Since it is acrylic, I was able to keep changing and get to this stage in a morning. Again, I will sit on it and see whether I am happy with it a few days later.

The head needs to be turned, I wonder.

I struggled with this nude using Artrage on my computer for quite some time. No matter what I do, things just don't come together. So, I tried turning her head to the right. It seems to work better. So, I tried it on paper using acrylic and charcoal. This is the result for now. The detail of the face is not important to me, so I don't really care. I will sit on it for a few days or weeks. I may yet to change it again. I enjoy the process, even though it is frustrating at time.

Developing New Painting Process 2

Spent 3 hours on computer to come up with the second picture based on the charcoal drawing I did. Aside from the model itself, the setting is just out of my head. That is not bad, giving me freedom to do whatever I want to do with the composition. Not completely happy with it.
I worked hard today, spending another 3 hours to come up with the first composition. I do not like the heavy stripe on the right side of the model, and the composition does not feel tight. The back of the seat needs to be more upright. The new one seems better. I am tired now. I will sit on these two for a few days and perhaps try other options.

Developing New Painting Process

Finally got rid of the terrible cough that lasted more than 2 weeks. Eager to start painting in the new year.
It is difficult to develop a painting using these public open studio sessions. You don't have much control over the pose of the model. Usually, there is no "setting", just the model. You carry whatever the canvas/materials not knowing what you will be seeing. And the short time you have at these studio, usually 3 hours with breaks, does not allow you to do some thinking and experimenting on composition. Since I got the computer painting tools, I am developing a new process: (1) Do charcoal quick studies of the model in the open studio, (2) Use computer painting to study possible compositions, (3) If satisfied with the composition, transfer the computer painting to the canvas, (4)finish the painting in the open studio if the pose is multi-session. These two drawings are done in a 3 hour session, 2 hours for the pose and 1 hour for the portrait. I will start the second step of computer studies. At this stage, I still don't know whether I can have a satisfactory composition deserving going forward. Having written a 3-part analysis of Richard Diebenkorn in Chinese in a blog set up by my friend Jason, (click here 1, 2, 3 if interested) the drawing is obviously influenced by him.