Interior at Night (initial concept)

After a run of small and intermediate sized paintings, I've been working on drawings for a larger and more complex piece: a composition of a woman in an empty room, with a window in the background open to the night sky. The final dimensions will be around 52 x 50 inches and I'm imagining the painting to be predominately tones of white with several smaller notes of dark color.

Interior at Night, drawing #2

18" x 17 3/8"     pencil on paper     2013 

The composition is a variant of a painting I did at RISD in 1979, Night in a White Room. I've always liked the image and often thought about making a new version, though have never done anything similar since then.

Night in a White Room 

12" x 18"     oil on canvas     1969

destroyed in 1974

The original idea was based on a dream and the young woman is someone I knew; she figured in several of my paintings at that time. Unfortunately, the painting was damaged by an experiment in varnishing that went wrong. After some additional damage that happened in 1974, it was destroyed.

Below is a photo of another painting of the same person; this one was based on reality and included a self-portrait. These are among the first paintings I did with figures, having transitioned three months earlier from making hard-edged abstractions.

D.C. Nightclub

72" x 60"     oil on canvas     1979

Private Collection, Connecticut

Loretta Sleeping

After four paintings in a row of a woman holding something in her hand, my "model" fell asleep!

Loretta Sleeping

8" x 10"    oil on linen    2013

Compositions with a sleeping figure have always been one of my favorite themes, both for the narrative and for the abstract possibilities. While most of them have focused on the figure from the head to the waist, below are  images of three older paintings on this theme with full-length figures.

Woman with Autumn Leaves

36" x 72"    oil on linen     1994

Private Collection, Michigan

Sleeping  Woman
22" x 40"     oil on linen     1989
Private Collection, New York

Hector  Asleep

14" x 16"    oil on linen    1983

Private Collection, New York    

Two New Paintings

Since my last post a month ago, I've finished two small paintings. Both are compositions of a woman holding an object in her hand. Together with the paintings of women and chocolate truffles that I made in January, this seems to be my theme so far this year. It's a basic subject that I've always enjoyed and trying to make a visually rich painting out of a few minimal elements can be much more challenging than its outward simplicity suggests.

Woman with Camcorder

6" x 3 3/4"     oil on linen     2013

Beach Ball

5 3/4" x 4 3/4"     oil on linen    2013

Private Collection, New York

As for the narrative, the image of a person or a saint with an iconic symbol identifying the saint or signifying an attribute of the person, has a long and rich tradition in art history. Young Woman with a Carnation, by Hans Memling, is among my favorite paintings in the Metropolitan Museum ... very beautiful color and composition. In this painting, the carnation symbolizes pure love and betrothal, and according to Flemish custom of the day, a pink carnation was worn by the bride on her wedding day.

Young Woman with a Carnation
Hans Memling
17" x 7 3/8"     oil on panel     ca. 1485/1490
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Below, a painting by Max Beckmann, another artist I admire very much ... this one a portrait of his wife, Quappi, also holding carnations.

Resting Woman with Carnations
Max Beckmann
35 1/2" x 28"     oil on canvas     1940/1942
Sprengel-Museum, Hanover

Winfred Rembert

Adelson Galleries Boston has opened an exhibition of paintings by Winfred Rembert ... to run until March 17th.

Picking Cotton / Colors

Winfred Rembert

 35 ¼” x 30 ¾”      dye on carved and tooled leather     2010

Courtesy of Adelson Galleries Boston

Winfred Rembert (b. 1945) paints on leather using a technique he first learned while in prison. His subject matter is autobiographical, telling the story of his life in Cuthbert, Georgia during the 1950's and 1960's; they range from scenes of crowded streets and lively dance halls to the hardships of picking cotton and working on a chain gang. The narrative of his personal experience is very compelling and moving, but these paintings are also very beautiful visually. Rembert has an innate sense of abstraction and rhythm, color and composition ... the word brilliant comes most to my mind.

Here's a link to more information about this great exhibition, including an online catalog: 
adelsongalleriesboston.com/exhibitions/current-exhibition/index.html

Water Break - Picking Cotton

Winfred Rembert

27 ¼” x 31 ¾”    dye on carved and tooled leather     2012

Courtesy of Adelson Galleries Boston

Chain Gang Picking Cotton

Winfred Rembert

30” x 32 ¾”      dye on carved and tooled leather     2011

Courtesy of Adelson Galleries Boston

All Me #2

Winfred Rembert

47” x 32”     dye on carved and tooled leather      2004      

Courtesy of Adelson Galleries Boston

Chocolate Truffles

I finished the second painting based on the composition of a woman eating a chocolate truffle.

Chocolate Truffles

12" x 7 1/4"     oil on linen     2013

As in the first version, I kept to an analogous harmony of closely related colors. Often when I go in this direction, I'll add a note of complementary color which can add some jump and energy to the visual experience - perhaps could have made the ribbon green or blue - but this painting wanted the quiet of staying totally focused on warmth.

Chocolate Truffle

The first of the two "chocolate" paintings is finished. The second one is still in progress.

Chocolate Truffle
6 1/4" x 5"    oil on linen     2013
Private Collection, New York

Chocolate Truffle

I've been working on two paintings ... two versions of the same composition ... a woman about to eat a chocolate truffle. In the larger one (12" x 7 1/4") she's wearing a dress and in the smaller (6 1/4" x 5") she's not. The larger also includes a table with a box holding three more chocolates; I didn't think those additions were necessary in the smaller one. 

left:  12" x 7 1/4" pencil on paper with dark ochre pastel on reverse 2013

upper right: 4 1/2" x 3 1/4" ink on lined paper 2011

lower right: 6 1/4" x 5" pencil on paper with red ochre pastel on reverse 2013

The idea originally came to me a couple years ago and I made a very quick and simple sketch at the time, top right above. The sketch floated from place to place in the studio until a week ago when it resurfaced on my work table, catching my eye. After that, the final drawings came together fairly quickly.

I've often noticed that an initial idea can remain dormant like that for a year or two or more, before it's ready to become a fully worked out drawing and then perhaps a painting. I've never been able to figure out the reason for this long wait. Maybe the image needs time to flow around the subconscious.

Cell Phones

This painting was finished earlier this week and is based on several drawings I made last August. The five central figures create a circular motion within the overall square and hopefully give the picture a quiet stability, while a lot of triangular geometries give a contrasting energy.

Cell Phones

15" x 15"     oil on linen     2012
Private Collection, Massachusetts

The composition originally began with just the two women in the foreground, but as the image evolved, more figures appeared. The two figures in the upper corners arrived last, one of which I changed while painting. 

Cell Phones, drawing #2

7 1/4" x 9"     pencil on graph paper     2012

Cell Phones, drawing #4

15" x  15"     pencil on graph paper     2012
Private Collection, Massachusetts

Cell Phones, drawing # 7

15" x 15"     pencil on paper     2012

Group Exhibition: Post War Works on Paper

I have four pieces in the upcoming group exhibition, POST WAR WORKS ON PAPER, at the Adelson Galleries Boston, from 14 December 2012 to 30 January 2013. The opening reception is on Friday, 14 December, 6 - 8 PM.

Drawings for three recent paintings will be exhibited: Blackjack Players, On the Stairs, and Sophie ... as well as the print, Nadine with Espresso.

Nadine with Espresso

20 ¾” x 8 ½”       line etching with chine collé        2001

Nadine with Espresso is the last etching I've made and is an edition of 25 with 4 artist's proofs. The chine collé process is one of my favorites; a thin sheet of delicate tissue is placed over the inked plate and the pressure of the press bonds it to the supporting paper, creating a beautiful tone beneath the lines. 

The print is based on a composition I'd used earlier in a painting of the same title.

Nadine with Espresso

24" x 17"     oil on linen     1998

Private Collection, New York

2012 Exhibition

My exhibition at Adelson Galleries Boston has been extended another week ... to run through Sunday, December 2nd.

Aztec Lounge

24" x 24"    oil on linen     2007

view exhibition catalog

2012 Exhibition

view exhibition catalog

Sophie

The last bits of sky and final glazes were done on Monday, and my work on this painting is finished.

Sophie

42" x 27"     oil on linen     2012

I'd originally thought to have fewer oak leaves, to have more sky, to have some green leaves along the bottom as in the final drawing in the previous post. However, as I added the oak leaves, they seemed to keep calling for more, descending downward and becoming more dense behind the figure ... and not for any narrative reason, but because the painting wanted all the red.

Her blouse changed too. I'd always envisioned the blouse to be grey with a few small dots scattered about as in the drawing, but the dots became too busy against the backdrop of leaves, and the color too heavy, so I went to blue with a simple geometry to the pattern.

Sophie, in progress

I've been working the last several weeks on a painting of a young woman standing against an autumnal background of red oak leaves. All has gone well so far; the figure is fully painted as well as a good number of the leaves, though there are still plenty of those left to do.

Here's a photo of the final drawing that was used to transfer the image to the canvas. 

Sophie

45" x 27"   pencil on paper with pastel on the reverse  2012

The original drawing (pasted below) dates from five years ago and it's been pinned up on my drawing wall ever since. I liked the composition and have wanted to paint the image, but the viewpoint -- looking down on the woman as she lay on a blanket surrounded with fallen leaves -- was too problematic and made little sense logically. Turning the drawing so that the right side became the bottom didn't help either and actually made the situation worse. I kept looking at it, and then a couple months ago -- when I wasn't thinking about it -- the obvious solution arrived: have her in the same pose but standing, and move the leaves from the ground to a tree.

Sophie
20" x 18"  pencil on paper  2007

Richard Diebenkorn

Ocean Park #83, 1975
Richard Diebenkorn
100" x 81"  oil on canvas  1975
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

I was in Washington, D.C. for a few hours last week and spent the time at an exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art: Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series. The series was painted between 1967 and 1985, and named for the Santa Monica neighborhood where Diebenkorn's studio was located at the time. His paintings from this period have a wonderful luminosity and depth, a beautiful unity of composition and color ... all the elements working together in harmony.  

The following Diebenkorn quote is on page 15 of the exhibition catalog*:  "Now, the idea is to get everything right -- it's not just color or form or space or line -- it's everything all at once." 

Perfectly said. 

The exhibition runs at the Corcoran until September 23rd, and I highly recommend it. 

* Originally quoted in a John Gruen article in Art News 85 (November 1986).

Coffee

This diptych was started in early May, then ran into problems and got sidetracked by the arrival of all the hat paintings. When work resumed on it, I decided to go with a very neutral palette, keeping to warm subdued tones ... perhaps I needed some quiet after the colorful hats, perhaps it just suited having coffee in the morning. The blue sky is the single significant cool note, hopefully bringing life to the grays and pale ochres.

Coffee

each half is 6" x 4 1/2"     oil on linen     2012

This painting did not begin as a diptych; the original drawing was square with a man facing the woman from the front.

Coffee 
6" x 6"     pencil on paper with pastel on reverse   2012
Private Collection, Massachusetts

I painted the woman, her hand and her cup of coffee, but the man proved resistant, becoming a nuisance and creating a major problem. While the drawing works well with him there, the painting thought better of the idea. Have mentioned before that they have a life of their own. The painting was put aside.

Left:   Coffee in progress      6" x 6"

Right: Coffee in progress      resized to 6" x 4 1/2"

When I brought it back to the easel a couple weeks ago, I decided to get rid of the troublesome man, to change him to a profile view and move him a bit away from the woman. The painting was on a piece of unstretched linen and the image could have been extended to the right with no problem, but I realized the composition would also work very well as a diptych. An inch and a half was taken away from the right side, and a new "panel" was started for the man.

The diptych has always been an interesting concept for me; each half being distinct from the other, yet usually closely related. One of my favorite paintings is the double portrait of Federico da Montefeltro and his wife, Battista Sforza, by Piero della Francesca.

Battista Sforza and Federico da Montefltro
Piero della Francesca
each panel 18 1/2" x 13"   tempera on panel  ca. 1465
Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Federico da Montefeltro (1422–1482), Duke of Urbino, was both a successful warlord and a great humanist. His odd profile is the result of a disfiguring sword blow during a tournament that cost him his right eye and part of his nose. Some accounts say that he had the remaining bridge of his nose removed surgically, to improve his field of vision to the right. He commissioned a number of portraits … all in profile from the left side.

Battista Sforza (1445/1447-1472) was the second wife of Federico da Montefeltro, marrying him in 1459 at the age of thirteen (or fourteen); she died in 1472 a few months after giving birth to her seventh child … or ninth … sources on these dates and facts seem to vary. She was a highly educated woman, fluent in Greek and Latin, and acting regent of Urbino when her husband was away at war.