Playing with Mr. Epps

Playing with Mr. Epps

10" x 10", oil on linen, 20177

A recurring narrative in my work involves one of two cats: Mookie, a grey tabby, and Mr. Epps, a black cat. Mookie belonged to my son for eighteen years; Mr. Epps to someone I knew in my 20s who had named him after Preston Epps, the bongo player. 

In the drawings for this composition, I was thinking to use Mookie, but when I painted the woman's dark dress I thought the counterpoint of a black note worked better then a grey note.

The composition is based on a triangle - a classical solution that helps creates weight and solidity - and I went with a background of light muted warm tones to further enhance its strength. The ball is the only bright color, and is echoed by the dark red of the chair upholstery and the light red of the horizontal line dividing the upper and  lower sections of the wall.

Playing with Mr. Epps (drawing #3, final)
10" x 10", pencil on paper with pastel tone on reverse, 2017

Besides changing the cat from Mookie to Mr. Epps, the only other significant change from the final drawing to the painting was eliminating the treat on the table top and giving the woman a red ball to hold ... and having both paws on the table instead of one.

Playing with Mr. Epps (drawing #2)

7 1/2" x 7 1/2", pencil on graph paper, 2017

Playing with Mr. Epps (drawing #1)

6 1/4" x 6", pencil on graph paper, 2017

Little One

New painting:

Little One

6 3/4" x 4 1/2", oil on linen, 2017

The image continues my ongoing narrative of individuals with demons, devils, or imps, and in this case a blue goblin. I've often been asked about the meaning of these strange creatures that have appeared in my work with some regularity over the years, but - as with all my narratives - I like viewers to have their own interpretations of a painting.

This painting is a bit unusual in having no preliminary drawings. The composition was drawn directly on the linen.

Here's a painting from 1995 with two devils being served chicken nubs:

Woman with Two Devils

6" x 7 3/4", oil on linen, 1995

Private Collection, New York, NY

And one who doesn't need the presence of a human:

Demon with Drink

4" x 3 1/2", oil on linen, 2009

Two paintings in progress:

Two Women Feeding a Monkey, in progress

18" x 20", oil on linen

Playing with Mookie, in progress

10" x 10", oil on linen

Loretta Feeding a Monkey

The first of my two "monkey" paintings is finished:

Loretta Feeding a Monkey

14" x 16", oil on linen, 2017

A major change from the final drawing was the removal of the awning across the top. I envisioned the awning having yellow and white stripes, but after the oranges and the red blouse were painted, the awning no longer seemed a positive contribution to the composition. The yellow would have also diminished the strength and movement of the orange and red notes.

Woman Feeding a Monkey                           (drawing #4, final)

14" x 16", pencil on paper with pastel tone on reverse, 2017

Another change - small but still important - was removing the woman's left fingertips from under her right arm. When making a decision like that, I'll repeatedly cover and uncover the part in question to see if the composition looks better with or without it ... if the part adds no real improvement, it gets taken out. 

Now the second of the "monkey" paintings is on the easel:

Two Women Feeding a Monkey                    (drawing #2, final)

18" x 20", pencil on paper with pastel tone on reverse, 2017

Monkey Paintings

Inspired by recent travel experiences, I've developed three compositions around the narrative of monkeys being fed oranges. 

Woman Feeding a Monkey                           (drawing #4, final)

14" x 16", pencil on paper with pastel tone on reverse, 2017

Two Women Feeding a Monkey                    (drawing #2, final)

18" x 20", pencil on paper with pastel tone on reverse, 2017

Woman Feeding Lots of Monkeys                 (initial sketch)

7" x 8 1/4", pencil on graph paper, 2017

note: when fully developed, this image will be either 28" x 32" or 35" x 40"

The first of the images, Woman Feeding a Monkey (14" x 16"), is in progress on the easel.

in progress: Woman Feeding a Monkey

14" x 16", oil on linen

Below are three more drawings as I worked out the composition for this first painting. Drawing #3 combined drawing #1's figure and oranges with #2's monkey.

Woman Feeding a Monkey                           (drawing #1)

4 1/8" x 4 1/8", pencil on graph, 2017

Woman Feeding a Monkey                            (drawing #2)

4 3/4" x 5 1/2", pencil on graph, 2017

Woman Feeding a Monkey                            (drawing #3)

7" x 8", pencil on paper, 2017

Jessie's Diner

Finished:

Jessie's Diner

35" x 65", oil on linen, 2016-17

The view outside the windows was the last area painted and I tried a number of ideas before finally settling on a single building with an attached wall and a swath of sky. Originally I thought to have a second building on the left side, but this solution brings in more light and balances the density of the right side. It also solves the problem of how to stay minimal and it doesn't distract from the interior.

The real-life view out the diner windows offered me little inspiration: a stretch of US route 20 and a wide parking lot with a large windowless building on the right side - the Northborough Highway Department truck terminal - and a barn-like structure filled with sand on the left.

Since the painting is large and the photo above is small, here are two details:

ca. 34" x ca. 37"

35" x ca. 39"

Chet's becomes Jessie's

The assortment of food containers stored under the counter is finally finished. Organizing them and their colors in a way that enhanced the composition without being a distraction was a challenge. They originally had letters on the labels and images of tomatoes, chickens, oats, etc. That soon became very busy and precious; I scraped them all away, and restarted, making the containers more minimal and abstract, quieter and in harmony with the rest of the painting.

Jessie's Diner, detail of lower half

approx. 17" x 52"

I've also decided to change the title from Chet's Diner to Jessie's Diner. After my last blog post, a friend wrote to say that the original title was confusing since it is Jessica who owns and operates the diner and is in the painting, while there is no Chet to be seen. In fact, Chet had sold the place in the 1930s, leaving behind only his name printed in large block letters on the exterior. As I developed the idea in drawings, I always referred to the subject as Chet's Diner, but for the painting my friend is right. The original title makes no sense. Jessie's Diner now it is.

Jessie's Diner, in progress

35" x 65", oil on linen

Next will finish the upper wall and ceiling, and then turn my attention to the last challenge in this painting - figuring out what will be going on outside the windows. As with the items under the counter, will try to find a solution that is minimal and unobtrusive.

Chet's Diner, in progress

My painting of Chet's Diner has been moving along slowly but surely. All the figures are now in place and I've been working on the background.

In my previous two blog posts I wrote about paintings by Benozzo Gozzoli, Sano di Pietro, and Sandro Botticelli, and about how figures in those paintings were repeated to capture movement and/or the passage of time. I've played with the same idea here, putting Jessica, the owner of Chet's Diner, in three different places as she goes about her day: cooking, serving, and opening a window.

Chet's Diner, in progress

35" x 65", oil on linen

My neighbor's 24-year-old son, Ethan, stopped by the studio last week. His take was quite different and futuristic; he thought the three Jessicas were a trio of clones.

A few days earlier, another visitor thought they were natural-born triplets. And someone else told me that the idea made no sense at all.

I've always enjoyed and encouraged the fact that different viewers interpret my work in different ways. Probably the most extreme example happened at one of my openings when a person came up to me, pointed to a painting called Pharmacy, and said I must be seriously depressed to have produced such a bleak work; just a few minutes later another person came up, pointed to the exact same painting, and cheerfully complimented me on having a very amusing and insightful view of the human condition. Paintings in a way can be mirrors.

Pharmacy

9" x 9", oil on linen, 1994

Private Collection

As for Chet's Diner, Ethan immediately recognized it as the setting for my painting, though when I'm done, the lower part of the walls will be colored differently ... not white but the same red I used on the window frames. The other major difference is that the real Jessica has brown hair, not blonde, but - together with the man's shirt - I wanted to bounce golden yellows across the surface.

Photoshop color study for roughly how the wainscoting will look when painted:

Interior of Chet's Diner: