Chet's Diner

Chet's is a diner in my neighborhood, built by the Worcester Lunch Car Company and assembled in its present location in 1931. It's had several owners over the years and is currently run by Jessica Fidrych, daughter of the late Mark Fidrych, a well-known pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and a 1976 All-Star. Before his accidental death in 2009, he often worked the tables.

Chet's is only open for breakfast, and Laura and I go there fairly often. I've wanted to do a painting inspired by the place for a long time, and have accumulated numerous sketches, trying out different compositions and different points of view. Three months ago the composition finally came together. Here's a photo of that drawing, surrounded with some of the sketches that led up to it: 

on the drawing wall

A few of the sketches:

A.)  pencil on paper, 6" x 7 1/4", 2004

B.)  ink on paper, 4 1/4" x 4 1/4", 2 July 2008

C.) ink on paper,  7" x 5 1/2", 2009

D.)  pencil on paper, 3 1/4" x 4 1/4", 25 November 2010

E.)  ink on paper, 4 3/4" x 4 1/4", 29 January 2015

F.)  pencil on paper, 4 1/2" x 7 1/2", 6 September 2016 

I made a large version (35" x 65") of the drawing below to work out the size for the painting, now in progress. There was no change to the composition.

Chet's, pencil on paper, 21 1/2" x 40", 23 - 24 September 2016 

I'm planning to paint the three figures who are cooking, serving, and opening a window as the same person: Jessica, the owner and cook. In some Renaissance paintings a narrative is told this way within a single image, such as in the panel by Sano di Pietro below - one of my favorite paintings in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. - telling the story of St. Anthony traveling to meet St. Paul and getting directions along the way from a centaur.

The Meeting of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul
Master of the Osservanza (Sano di Pietro)
c. 1430/1435, tempera on panel, 18 1/4" x 13"
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

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canvas on the easel with drawing transferred, 11 October 2016

Contemplating a Sculpture

The idea for Contemplating a Sculpture came to me last year and it's one of several compositions I've drawn in recent years on the narrative theme of people engaged with art. Five or six of the ideas have made it to the easel and have been painted, such as In the Clay Room which I posted about earlier this month. Drawings for a number of other ideas are still floating around the studio, waiting their turn.

Contemplating a Sculpture

9" x 10", oil on linen, 2016

The only bright color in this painting is the golden-yellow shape. All the subdued and neutral colors surrounding it serve to enhance the focus on the sculpture.

drawing #1

2 1/4" x 4", pen on paper, 2015

The first drawing for this composition had the two figures placed together on the right, but when I returned to the image two months later, I decided to move the sculpture to the center.

drawing #2

3" x 4 1/2", pen on paper, 2015

The sculpture also became a woman's figure in the second drawing; a change I quickly abandoned because it was too literal and off point.

drawing #3

5 1/2" x 6", pencil on graph paper, 2015

drawing #4

5 1/2" x 6", pencil on graph paper, 2016

drawing #5 (final drawing)

9" x 10", pencil on graph paper with pastel tone on reverse, 2016

In the final drawing, I added an abstract painting that has personal significance but more importantly bridges the gap between the two figures and completes an arching movement around the sculpture.

Lola Likes Red

Lola Likes Red

8" x 5 3/4", oil on linen, 2016

In this painting, I tried to push the different reds as close together in value and hue as possible. I also tried to create energy without the overt use of a complimentary green color, though there is a faint green tint in her hair and in some of the shadows.

As usual, the face was painted first:

Lola Likes Red, in progress

One of the most famous painting using a harmony of analogous reds is Red Room (Harmony in Red) by Henri Matisse (1869-1954). Some critics consider it his greatest masterpiece. 

Red Room (Harmony in Red)
Henri Matisse
71" x 87". oil on canvas, 1908
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Apparently the painting went through three stages - green, then blue, and finally red - before it was delivered to the Russian collector Sergey Shchukin where it was hung in his dining room.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City has another Matisse, painted three years later, that is also a good example of an analogous harmony in red: Red Studio.

The Red Studio
Henri Matisse
71 1/4" x 86 1/4", oil on canvas, 1911
Museum of Modern Art, New York City

In the Clay Room

New painting:

In the Clay Room

14" x 12, oil on linen, 2016

Two drawings for this composition:

drawing #1

7" x 6 1/4", pencil on graph paper, 2016

drawing #2, final

14" x 12", pencil on paper with pastel tone on reverse, 2016

Broken Glass

Broken Glass

10" x 7 1/4 '', oil on linen, 2016

This composition is a simple juxtaposition between the woman and the broken wine glass. I limited the color palette to cool blues that circle the warm notes of the woman's face, hand, and hair.

Two basic harmonies in color theory are in play here: the analogous and the complementary. The analogous is a harmony of closely related hues, such as the varied blues in this painting; the complementary is a harmony of two hues that are opposite each other on the traditional artist's color wheel,* in this case the blues and the gold hair. Analogous harmonies tend to produce more radiant and subtle effects. Complementary harmonies would be more jazzy and energetic. Each has its own beauty.

Basic Color Wheel
Complementary colors: yellow/purple, orange/blue, red/green

In the following example, the red in the center of each panel is exactly the same red, but the surrounding colors create dramatically different effects. 

        analogous                                                   complementary    
         (radiant. subtle)                                            (jazzy, energetic)       

In contrast to Broken Glass, where the analogous harmony is predominant, my 2012 painting Hat Party is full of complementary harmonies, adding their energy to the narrative.

Hat Party
7" x 8", oil on linen, 2012
Private Collection, New York

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* Isaac Newton is generally credited with the invention of the color wheel in 1706, when he arranged the colors created by a prism - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet - into a circle.

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Young Man Smoking

Young Man Smoking

6 1/4"  x 5 1/2"     oil on linen     2016

My son, Alexander, smokes, and this composition comes from a quick sketch I drew in June. He was wearing a Boston Red Sox cap and a dark grey jacket, but my vision was to go with a red palette against a warm background. The white and black notes work to energize the reds.

initial sketch

4" x 3"     drawing on light-yellow lined paper     2016

Smokers have been a recurring theme in my work for many years. For one, I smoked when I was young and can identify with the movements and rituals involved. I also very much like being able to use the interesting hand gestures made when smoking. While the gesture serves the narrative, it's also an important part of the abstract design of the painting, helping to keep the eye moving.

Woman Smoking: Eliza

7 1/2" x 6"     oil on linen     2009

Private Collection, Maine

Smoke Ring

9" x 9"     oil on linen     2009

Private Collection, New York

After the initial sketch of Alexander, it took three more drawings to fully develop the idea:

drawing #2

4 1/4" x 3 3/4"     pencil on graph paper     2016

drawing #3

6 1/2" x 5 3/4"     pencil on graph paper     2016

drawing #4

6 1/4" x 5 1/2"     pencil on paper with pastel tone on reverse     2016

The "B" on the cap was lost when the cap was painted. I felt that it was too much of a distraction, grabbing too much attention.

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Wolf Hat

New Painting:

Wolf Hat

6 1/2" x 4 3/4"    oil on linen     2016

Sleeping Woman with Dog

The third and largest in my recent series of dog paintings:

Sleeping Woman with Dog

20" x 36"     oil on linen     2016

This composition is built around the triangle of dark notes in the woman's hair, the night sky, and the dog. The middle tone of the blanket is a bridge between the dark and light notes.

In the initial drawing, the dog was sleeping and lying in the same direction as the woman:

drawing #1

6 1/4" x 9"     pencil on paper     2016

I liked the composition on an abstract level, developed two more drawings from it, but came to feel the narrative was too obvious. The drawings were put aside. A couple weeks later, I had the idea to face the dog in the other direction. The energy seemed much better, more interesting, especially with the dog's eye now open.

drawing #4

6" x 9 1/4"     pencil on graph paper     2016

The next to last drawing:

drawing #5

17 5/8" x 32"     pencil on paper with red and yellow ratio lines     2016

Final drawing, full size and used for transferring the image to canvas:

drawing #6

20" x 36"     pencil on paper with pastel tone on reverse     2016

The dog's slipper was added after the painting began.

Parker

After finishing this painting and the one previous, a friend cheerfully told me that my work has gone to the dogs. This time, a simple composition of our dog anticipating a snack.

Parker

4" x 4"     oil on linen     2016

She came from the shelter with the name Stella, not Parker; however, before we adopted, Laura had been wanting a dog for a long time and we used to joke about having a 'conceptual" dog called Parker. (Much easier to care for than a real one.) Since all paintings are basically conceptual, I've decided that Parker would be an appropriate alias for Stella when painted.

The red collar - bringing energy to the painting in the interplay with her eyes - is what Stella actually wears.

Dog with Slipper

Since January, Laura and I have had a dog ... a two-year-old black mutt. How she got here is a long story and she's clearly changed life's routines, as well as given me ample subject matter. In this composition, she's chewing a much-loved old slipper that came along with her, and it's the first painting I've done since 1968 without a human figure in it.  

Dog with Slipper

5 3/4" x 11 1/2"     oil on linen     2016

On an abstract level, I liked the dark shape created by the dog and slipper, and wanted to enhance it further by surrounding it with a palette of pale and subdued warm colors. The long piece of white rawhide, together with the whites of the teeth and the baseboard bring some energy in counterpoint.

Except for her ears and the tail, she's not unlike the dogs that have appeared from time to time in earlier paintings, like In the Garden:

In the Garden

62" x 72"     oil on linen     2006-07

Private Collection, New York

And Woman with Autumn Leaves:

Woman with Autumn Leaves

36" x 72"     oil on linen     1994-95

Private Collection, Michigan

Two drawings:

Final drawing

5 3/4" x 11 1/2"     pencil on paper w/ pastel tone on reverse     2016

6" x 10"   pencil on graph paper     2016