Frames

Today was all about frames. Because I do not like manufactured frames (or rather I have yet to find one that I really like), I make my own. So I guess today was really all about a table saw, measurements in centimeters, a miter gauge I am really starting to fall in love with, and a trusty drill press.




This is my workshop, which in a previous life was the master bedroom of my home. Because it is the only room large enough to rip a 4x8' sheet of plywood, it now occupies its current function. The other pic is the end of my day, dry fitting the frames together to make sure I carried all the ones.




-jb.

My Studio

well so much for the computer doing all the work. many clone stamps, warps, heals and one very hot computer later, here is the panoramic of my studio.

click on the image to see the whole story!

Studio Shoot

Yesterday I shot (err, Andy shot) my finished recent work and a panoramic of my studio to use as press for my April show. So while I sit in my funny how that happens really clean studio and watch the progress bar slowly crawl across my computer monitor, I figured I would post a pic from the shoot.




Many thanks Andy, you're the best! And you can check out his work at www.heirloomcreative.com

And if my computer ever finishes stiching it, I'll be posting a panoramic of the studio soon!

-jb.

Painting outside

It is undeniably getting warmer, at least in the sun, out of the wind, and preferably late in the afternoon...




This is a first of a series of color studies for the sky, focusing on the color ranges around twillight. I am thinking of doing six, but perhaps I will do more and cast off/recycle the rejects. I've created a corner in the studio to keep them safe.




The one closest to the clock is the hour before sunset, while the top row square is just after sunset, both facing away from the sun. Will post more as the corner gets filled with colors, and as the colors shift with added layers.

-jb.

Little paintings

For the past few nights I have been working on a little painting. It is roughly the size of two dollar bills laid end to end.




It is a nice change of pace because of the time I can afford to spend on the tiniest details. Normally I get frustrated by only painting a few square inches in a days work.




But because the painting is only 36 sqaure inches, the percentages makes it feel "speedy." And painting grass is almost like putting together a jigsaw puzzle (a favorite childhood pastime of mine), in finding the rhythm and understanding how the reflections create the grass shapes.




All in all, I am pretty happy with my weeks work.

-jb.

3 of 216

Tonight's main task was to finish the last three or four square inches of a three inch tall by six foot long panoramic painting of a fog shrouded section of the eastern shore of Maryland.

It is just a bough of trees but painting the condensed reflection it cast before the wind cut it off looked like fun, so I saved it for last. Which isn't much of a stretch because I usually paint from background up to foreground. 

Unfortunately the really long skinnies present problems when photographing (the other side of that statement being it is much more fun to inch down it with your nose just a couple of inches away), but here is an idea of the finished painting:

Transfering Photos

As an artist, you never really get time "off." Vacations are really photoshoots, running errands become reflections on what the color blue is, and in the studio there is always something to be done: a panel to be sanded, another application of ground, last weeks photoshoot to be pieced together. It can be endless. So today while I would have rather left my full attention to my team beating up on the bolts, instead I was splittng my attention, happily on the couch transfering the photo image to my next three painting panels.




First I cut and piece together the photos, then cover the back in charcoal (which acts like carbon paper), carefully place the photo over the panel and tape it down, then trace. Each painting is different, so there are different shapes to focus on, but for this little painting I focused on the dark areas of grass and the reflections.




By focusing on the negative
shapes of dark, the blades of individual grass get outlined. In the water I focused on outlining value shifts (light and dark) which are closely related to topographical maps. Finally to minimize the confusion of lines, I added the vertical straight lines (shown here in the horizontal) to the water. More lines equals darker water and less lines equals lighter. Now I have a pretty good road map for my next three paintings!

-jb.

Up in a tree...

Today I found myself without a ladder but still wanting a little more perspective in my shots, so I climbed the nearest tree. I was shooting one of my favorite subjects, grey bay, at sunset with the tide out. Here's one of the shots, with a little long skinny painting of the dry oyster beds to follow.

Well, it may have taken a little while longer than I thought (you will hear me say that a lot), but a few nights work and I have finished the foreground and the painting...








ps. great opening tonight Kerry!

hello! welcome to my brand new shiny blog...

while i intend to use this to update you and share some of the incredibly random places i go to make art, today it is already cold and dark. so instead, here is what i will be working on tonight. it is a view of the tetons from an overlook in teton national park. my friends were married there, and with a view like that, you can see why! but what i have to do tonight is paint in the grassland in the foreground, which is the bright yellow. off to work...