Time in: 1:00pm + Mathew Cerletty

Every once and a while I check out Painting People, figure painting today  from the library. It has both portraits and figurative work with a wide variety of styles. One of the artists that I am always drawn to is Mathew Cerletty . Maybe it's because his portraits have a similar minimalism to them as mine do, and he often paints himself (like me), but  his have a distinct oddness to them and seem to reflect more specific inner narratives.

I'm probably also drawn to the patterning in a lot of them- bedsheets, wallpaper... if you are familiar with my work you know that I did a body of work titled "Ornament and Silence" using only decorative patterns as the subject matter. I blew the patterns up large scale and combined patterns from many time periods, styles and cultures.

As I'm reaching my goal for how many double portraits I've wanted to do, I've been thinking about what I'd like to do next- if I would like to continue with another portrait series and if so, how would it be different? Keeping it simple but with some added information is what I'm leaning towards. I have a few ideas that I'm bouncing around and after mulling them over there's usually one or two that seem to stick and I feel they are worth pursuing. 

TO DO:
Clean up studio
white out scott?
gesso paper for Asher portrait
Home Depot? - board and traps

PLAYLIST:
The Murder Room by P.D. James
Tegan and Sara - The Con
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
The Books - The Lemon of Pink

(Images are of Mathew Cerletty's pieces entitled The Faux Pas and Last Chance Dance)

New face to work with

Today I photographed a new person for my portrait series. I met Michele at my critique a couple of weeks ago and she approached me about being photographed for the series. I'm very excited to have some new references to work from and to get going on the last couple of pieces. I've been waiting for someone to pair with another woman that I photographed a while back (Nell) and I think they would make a great combination. 

Starting a new painting is always exciting and I can't wait to get back in the studio and get back to work. I've been giving my studio the cold shoulder the past few days in response to its tendency to be an inviting place for rats. 

(Latest in the rat saga: the tail that was found in the basement disappeared a day later so I didn't actually have to clean it up... although I hope it doesn't turn up again in another location!)

Time in: 10am + It Wouldn't Surprise Me

I'm just putting on the finishing touches of my latest piece: "It Wouldn't Surprise Me." I'll be varnishing it and fixing a few things today, but it's basically done. It's nice to finish this one up; it's been a challenging piece. 

To do:

clean up white on "surprise"

varnish

touch up on Eric's nose, and both lip highlights

Rebecca- 

keep going on face, refine skin tone

palette- too pink

eyes- develop

lips too high contrast, soften

Frame "No Words"

go to Home Depot and get rat traps

pick references for next piece

small portrait?

Playlist:

NPR

Murder Room by PD James (audio book)

Camera Obscura- "Let's Get Out Of This Country"

Kings of Leon- "Because of the Times"

Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter- "Oh, My Girl"

Starting Over

When you've put a lot of work and hours into something, a painting for example, you would do anything to salvage it when things go wrong. You can't imagine all those hours wasted if you were to give up- you have to make it work! You keep forcing it, working at it, waiting for that moment for it to gel thinking "One of these days I'll get it right!" Sometimes it works out. 

Sometimes you just have to start over. 

Time in: 1:30pm

To do:

Work on Rebecca's face

draw out features

complete underpainting

more shading on shirt

Finish up David and Eric

varnish

Research Fiberglass

Playslist:

Bad At Sports podcast- Larry Rinder part deux

The Raconteurs

Jack Johnson

Shivaree

The Band- Music from Big Pink

Time in: 2:30pm

Currently I have work on display at Wicker Park Grace which is located at 1741 N. Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60647. The pieces that are exhibited are all portraits, mostly from my series titled "I live in a duplex."

The series, when completed, will be made up of 12 double portraits. This series is developed around a simple idea: housing two portraits on one surface to tell a story. The idea of a duplex references two-in-one, parallel lives and a location for stories and interactions.

The information in these paintings is intentionally limited, allowing the viewers to create their own narrative. The series is about interactions- both real and fiction, ambiguous and evocative.

The series is still in progress, and being documented here on this blog but you can see the pieces that are finished (so far) here.

To do:

Update website

work on Tom and Scott piece:

Scott-

• develop skin tone
• neck
• eyes?

Tom-

• refine skin ton
• finalize eyes

Playlist:

The Books

Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter

The More Shallows