Two Women with a Mirror

I've neglected this blog in recent weeks and also realize that I haven't posted yet about the last painting I finished in 2013: Two Women with a Mirror.

Two Women with a Mirror

8" x 9"     oil on linen     2013

Private Collection, Florida

I enjoy working with compositions that include mirrors; on the abstract level, they allow me to introduce additional complexity to the spatial organization, and they make for an interesting narrative as well. 

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Other recent news: there is now a page about me on Wikipedia. It was also featured on the Wikipedia homepage on January 21st in the "Did you know" section. (Links to both are in the side bar.)

And today, I was informed that a photo of my 2012 painting, Hat Party, was used to complement an article by David Pablo Cohn, appearing on February 27th in The Paris Review, titled: It's My Party: How many hotheaded academics does it take to solve a riddle?  The author is writing about "word game" puzzle parties that took place in the 1990s in Cambridge, Mass. (Link in the side bar.) 

Coincidentally, Hat Party has a mirror too.

Hat Party

7" x 8"     oil on linen     2012

Private Collection, New York

Marie Combing Her Hair

A recently finished painting:

Marie Combing Her Hair

6 3/4" x 4 1/2"     oil on linen     2013
Private Collection, New York

Anne at the Window

I've finished a small painting of a woman looking out a window, parting a curtain.

Anne at the Window

5 1/4" x 3"     oil on linen     2013

                                                                         

This is the third painting on the theme that I've done in two years . All three are of specific individuals, but the situation is imagined. On the abstract level, I enjoyed using a limited color palette and developing a counterpoint between the flowing lines of the figures and the juxtaposing curves of the curtains. 

Woman at a Window

7" x 4"     oil on linen     2012

Private Collection, Massachusetts

Loretta Looking at the Sea

4 1/2" x 4 1/2"     oil on linen     2012

A fourth work with a similar composition is another recent painting, Woman with a Large Envelope (see September 19th post). She's at a door rather than at a window, but the interplay between the curving lines in the figure, archway, and envelope remains very important to the structure and flow of the composition. 

Woman with a Large Envelope

7" x 4 1/2"     oil on linen     2013

Marko

Marko

6 1/4" x 4 1/2"     oil on linen     2013

Over the years, I've done six or seven paintings and many drawings composed around the image of a single person smoking.  I like the theme, and the variations of gesture allow for interesting abstract possibilities. The compositions usually come to me either as a free thought while drawing or from direct experience. This painting, however, was inspired by a recent work by my friend, Marcus Reichert:  Mada Head Blue.

My title, Marko,  reflects the homage, though it's not intended to be an accurate portrait of Marcus.

Mada Head Blue
Marcus Reichert
size and medium unknown
Courtesy of Adelson Galleries Boston

Here are some of my other smokers:

Woman Smoking: Eliza

7 1/2" x 6"    oil on linen     2009

Private Collection, Maine

Eliza with Saigon Martini

6 1/4" x 5"     oil on linen     2000

Private Collection, New York

Lola Smoking

4 1/2" x 4 1/2"     oil on linen     1990

Private Collection, New York

Louie Smoking

4 1/2" x 4 1/2"     oil on linen     1990

Private Collection, New York

Annie Smoking

4 1/2" x 4 1/2"     oil on linen    1989

Private Collection, California

Coconut Club

Coconut Club

20" x 24"     oil on linen     2013
Private Collection, Florida

The idea for this painting came from a visit to Mizner's Monkey Bar in Boca Raton, Florida, four and a half years ago. Laura and I were in town for the opening of my retrospective at the Museum and the bar was in our hotel. The decor intrigued me and we stopped by for a drink, together with a dear friend of ours, Annie. Here's a photo of the place and of the quick sketch I made that evening:
  

Mizner's Monkey Bar
Boca Raton Resort and Club

Annie at the Monkey Bar

3" x 4 1/2"     17 March 2009     pencil on paper

I liked the composition and pinned the sketch to my drawing wall when I returned to the studio. I'm not sure why it took so long before I actually got around to making the painting, but then it's always been an enigmatic process. Some ideas move along fairly quickly, others percolate a few months or a year, and my most recent large painting, Interior at Night, was on my mind for forty years.

In late July, the sketch finally received my full attention; two weeks and four drawings later, the composition and the size were settled. I didn't make any significant changes to the initial concept, and always had a strong sense that the background would be a harmony of red and orange tones, energized by the one cool note of the dress.

Below is one of the drawings for the painting:

Coconut Club

16" x 20"     5 August 2013     pencil on paper with pastel tone on reverse

Woman with a Large Envelope

Finished a small work.

Woman with a Large Envelope

7" x 4 1/2"     oil on linen     2013

The composition developed from a figure in a painting that I completed in 2010, On the Stairs. Below are photos of On the Stairs, with a detail first ... and three drawings.

On the Stairs, detail

approx. 17" x 14"     

On the Stairs

54" x 60"     oil on linen     2013
Private Collection, Texas

left: sketch of figure, #1 

cut-out, approx. 7" x 4"     pencil on paper      2010
right: sketch of figure, #2

cut-out, approx. 5" x 3 1/2"     pencil on paper     2010

Woman with a Large Envelope, drawing #4
7" x 4 1/2"     pencil on paper with pastel on reverse     2013

Two New Paintings

Since completing Interior at Night last month, I've finished two small paintings: Nauset Beach and Julian's Treatment.  

Nauset Beach

7" x 4"     oil on linen     2013

The first, Nauset Beach, is a relatively simple composition, juxtaposing yellow and blue, and counterbalanced with black. I've always liked working with the basic theme of a bather wearing a cap at the beach and being able to place a strong note of color against a blue field. Here are two more paintings, from 1990 and 1992:

Bather: Lifeguard

4 1/2" x 4 1/2"     oil on linen     1990

Private Collection, Maine

Bather: Gray Day

4 1/2" x 4 1/2"    oil on linen     1992

Private Collection, Massachusetts

The second new painting, Julian's Treatment, originates from a set of drawings about men and women having beauty procedures.

Julian's Treatment

6" x 4 1/4"     oil on linen     2013

Interior at Night

Interior at Night

52" x 50"     oil on linen     2013

After three months on the easel, Interior at Night is finished and awaiting its frame. This painting is a very different composition for me because the interior space is as visually dominant as the figure; I haven't taken this road in many years and it proved to be a very interesting journey.

The simplicity of the composition and its basic abstract elements -- large areas of "empty" space,  relatively few curved lines to play against the many strong horizontal and vertical lines, hardly any diagonals, and the limited palette -- all made it very challenging to paint. I've also found that relatively simple compositions are often much more demanding than complex compositions ... the latter can have an abundance of colors and forms with which to create a rich visual experience, while the former may have only a few components.

Hopefully the triangular movement of the black notes locked in tightly with the L shape of the reds, together with the nuances and rhythms of the whites, create a complexity out of the painting's apparent simplicity, and combine well with the narrative of the moment.

A last thought: I've always said I'm fundamentally an abstract painter, that the narrative is an important level to be enjoyed or contemplated, but that it's not the only level to see. This painting is perhaps a good example of that point.

Interior at Night (in progress)

The painting below by James Abbott McNeill Whistler is one of my favorite paintings in the National Gallery of Art and one I never fail to see when I visit Washington. While I often mention artists such as Giotto and Gauguin as significant influences, Whistler – and this painting in particular – has also been very influential to my work and to my way of thinking … most especially his brilliant use of closely related tones and subtle harmonies. 

Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl 
James Mac Neill Whistler
84" x 42 1/2"     oil on canvas     1862
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

In Whistler's painting, the beautiful variations of white complemented by her dark hair add an additional level of poetry to the visual experience, and was a direct influence on my painting, Night in A White Room (image in my April 4th post), which in turn brought me to Interior at Night forty-four years later. 

Here's how my painting looks today ... still in progress:

Interior at Night, in progress

50" x 52"

I'm exploring a composition that is also predominately white, in this case punctuated by a triangle of three dark notes: the woman's hair, her skirt, and the night sky. The rug will be in red tones related to the blouse, hopefully creating an interesting counterpoint to the triangle.

Interior at Night (final drawing)

I've spent the last four weeks working on a large oil painting, Interior at Night (52" x 50"). At this point the figure is finished -- except for some final glazing -- and I'm well along on the walls. I'll have an "in progress" photo in my next post.

In the meanwhile, below is a photo of the final drawing. It looks quite beaten up and wrinkled because I worked on it for almost two weeks, and there are many changes between it and the "initial concept drawing" in my previous post. A lot of the work involved shifts in lines and edges, and refinement of the figure; a major change was the removal of a small angled wall behind the woman which enabled me to simplify the composition and to bring the wall and the rug straight across from one side to the other. I felt that gave the composition better weight and stability.

Interior at Night, drawing #6

50" x 52"  pencil on paper with pastel tone on reverse  2013

The most obvious change is that the cat is gone. While I liked the cat, I thought he was attracting too much attention and changing the narrative in a way that was contrary to my intent with this painting.  

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 1969, 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     1969

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

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.