oil painting

Where have we been, where are we now, where are we going?

That is a paraphrasing of a series of paintings by Paul Gauguin. I was reading Wild Thing: a biography of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux and saw these paintings by the Post-Impressionist. I had done a small sketch that I was turning into a 30 x 40 inch painting. I saw that the title could be represented by my painting and took it. The St Sebastian is the past, while the full length figure symbolizes what lies ahead, and what is our present. The heads are the spectators that I enjoy putting into my work to represent the viewer. What is going on? they seem to be those of us trying to find out what is happening.

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Riffing on Reality

While speaking with my mother I noticed she often brings the past into the present with the past being as real to her as the present moment. Her memory issues started me thinking about how different realities are represented in paintings. With the painting I am working on now I am bringing in various images to underpin the idea that many realities may be described in one painting. Since I utilize artworks by other artists to inspire my own, I have used a watercolor landscape for my first layer of reality. This is the dream layer because it is less clearly defined than the ‘realistic’ layer to come next. As in a dream, it is in some places just an outline, barely recognizable. Thus far I am pleased with the result: a dream like reality achieved with thinly applied layers of paint.

Is This Hell? In process, the dream layer, 30 x 24 inches, oil on canvas

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Ganymede

I experimented with a new surface for this portrait of Ganymede. It is called Alumacomp and it is manufactured by New York Central. I purchased it from Jerry’s Artarama, where I get most of my painting supplies. The inspiration for Ganymede is the New York Mets baseball player Drew Smith.

Ganymede

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Daniel in the Lion’s Den

This painting was created in response to our perilous political times. We are indeed in the Lion’s Den and though I do believe in a higher force at work, only our common sense will save us. Though it is nice to think that faith alone can be a guiding light, we all see faith so differently, that in the political context it gives less comfort than perhaps it should.

Daniel, complete
Daniel, in process
Daniel, in process
Daniel, in process, detail of face

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No chains

I decided to exclude the chains. It is enough to depict two people bound together struggling to be free. Or is only one aching to be free? Difficult to tell from this image. So often people have their epiphanies after they destroy others. And the destruction may not be literal or obvious. It is enough to wear away at someone’s confidence or their self-worth. Often, one’s self-actualization is an excuse to think of oneself above others. I still like the abstract background these figures inhabit. I am reminded of the work of David Park. It has always been a goal of mine to depict figures in a landscape but to have the elements appear to be organically formed, that is, to grow from each other. Complicated, and difficult to achieve.

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