Some Pretty Paintings; a collection of flowers and figures in paintings and prints
I buy myself flowers because they make me happy. They are colorful and fragrant, and have no purpose other than my enjoyment. As temporal sculptures, flowers mark time by dropping petals, and are to be enjoyed without procrastination. No matter how busy I am, the time to appreciate a flower is gently now.
As flowers shift my attention towards the now, so do people. Collaborating with models is a creative joy. For this series we used blankets and kimono patterned with flowers. We set up in diffused morning light, and the models moved slowly as I captured images in my camera. Photographs allow me to take more time with my paintings, and layer images to carve one moment’s form with another. The figure is now an abstract of overlapping sensual shapes, now with an element of time. As each pose shifts, and we take advantage of the light, day to day, moment to moment, no person is exactly the same.
Drypoints were printed in collaboration with Nikki Barber, printmaking instructor at the Seattle Artist League. I scribed the plates and Barber printed them. Each image sparked a discussion of line, tone, and texture, and each print is a hand worked original. Since each print is hand inked with so much personalization to the wiping of the ink, no drypoint print is exactly the same. Each print is slightly different, and with each print the burrs that cause the velvet areas compress, and for this reason the marks that differentiate drypoints from etchings also mark the end of an edition. Once the burrs are compressed, the print is finished. Drypoints are known for producing editions of only about 10 and then they’re gone.
Some Pretty Paintings; a collection of flowers and figures in paintings and prints
Show opens January 5, 2019
Show up through January 27th
Artist Talk Saturday, January 5th (3:30-4:30pm)
Opening Reception to follow (5-7pm)
I’m currently reading the The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells. I wouldn’t wish the book or the subject on anyone, were it not imperative. In Seattle, the temperature typically varies from 37°F to 79°F, and right now we’re setting unpresidented records for heat, day after day, so it’s seeming especially imperative today. “In Seattle, where …
WTF The quote from Gerhard Richter about looking for boring and irrelevant photo materials is from the upcoming lecture on Portraiture After Photography – part of our ongoing WTF Art History Lecture series with Suzanne Walker (BA, MA, PhD, BFD). These lectures are one of a kind, and not recorded. Don’t miss Suzanne Walker’s latest spitfire! …
Exercise your creativity This SAL Challenge is a vocabulary based creative challenge every day for January. Materials are artist’s choice. You can draw, paint, sew, collage, sculpt your food, anything you want. See below for today’s creative challenge. Set the timer for 20 minutes and see what happens. UNLOVESOME Horrible or distasteful—the opposite of lovely. …
[image_with_animation image_url=”9927″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Chris Harvey’s notan study in preparation for his painting 6th Floor Vancouver Library Popularized in Sir Arthur Wesley Dow‘s book on Composition (1899), Notan is a Japanese design concept based on simplified light and dark shapes. The idea is that composition is based on value, and by waiting to …
Some Pretty Paintings: Figure “Z” and Artist’s Statement
Some Pretty Paintings; a collection of flowers and figures in paintings and prints
I buy myself flowers because they make me happy. They are colorful and fragrant, and have no purpose other than my enjoyment. As temporal sculptures, flowers mark time by dropping petals, and are to be enjoyed without procrastination. No matter how busy I am, the time to appreciate a flower is gently now.
As flowers shift my attention towards the now, so do people. Collaborating with models is a creative joy. For this series we used blankets and kimono patterned with flowers. We set up in diffused morning light, and the models moved slowly as I captured images in my camera. Photographs allow me to take more time with my paintings, and layer images to carve one moment’s form with another. The figure is now an abstract of overlapping sensual shapes, now with an element of time. As each pose shifts, and we take advantage of the light, day to day, moment to moment, no person is exactly the same.
Drypoints were printed in collaboration with Nikki Barber, printmaking instructor at the Seattle Artist League. I scribed the plates and Barber printed them. Each image sparked a discussion of line, tone, and texture, and each print is a hand worked original. Since each print is hand inked with so much personalization to the wiping of the ink, no drypoint print is exactly the same. Each print is slightly different, and with each print the burrs that cause the velvet areas compress, and for this reason the marks that differentiate drypoints from etchings also mark the end of an edition. Once the burrs are compressed, the print is finished. Drypoints are known for producing editions of only about 10 and then they’re gone.
Some Pretty Paintings; a collection of flowers and figures in paintings and prints
Show opens January 5, 2019
Show up through January 27th
Artist Talk Saturday, January 5th (3:30-4:30pm)
Opening Reception to follow (5-7pm)
Smith & Vallee Gallery
5742 Gilkey Ave, Edison
(360) 766-6230
Open Daily 11-5
www.smithandvalleegallery.com
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WTF The quote from Gerhard Richter about looking for boring and irrelevant photo materials is from the upcoming lecture on Portraiture After Photography – part of our ongoing WTF Art History Lecture series with Suzanne Walker (BA, MA, PhD, BFD). These lectures are one of a kind, and not recorded. Don’t miss Suzanne Walker’s latest spitfire! …
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Exercise your creativity This SAL Challenge is a vocabulary based creative challenge every day for January. Materials are artist’s choice. You can draw, paint, sew, collage, sculpt your food, anything you want. See below for today’s creative challenge. Set the timer for 20 minutes and see what happens. UNLOVESOME Horrible or distasteful—the opposite of lovely. …
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[image_with_animation image_url=”9927″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Chris Harvey’s notan study in preparation for his painting 6th Floor Vancouver Library Popularized in Sir Arthur Wesley Dow‘s book on Composition (1899), Notan is a Japanese design concept based on simplified light and dark shapes. The idea is that composition is based on value, and by waiting to …