Horizon Lines

Curled up in the fetal position, drenched in sweat yet still shivering, and thanking god that at least I could watch the entirety of a 20km cross country skiing relay race (I hate daytime tv unless it is the price is right), I realized why I started stitching photos together. My reference for "Spiral" had a bridge in it. I've painted this bridge before, and did not want to do it again. So I photoshoped it out and covered it with a bad guess at trees. It was a good enough guess to forget I did it, but when I went to add in the detail there was none. So the I needed the tree line under the rise in the bridge in the top photo of my last blog to make this:




Horizon lines are tricky. They curve with the earth, but our brain says that they are straight. But if painted as a straight line, our brains say, "huh?" so the trick is to curve them ever so subtly. This curve has to be perfect, so a while back I made a rule that I would devote a full studio day to simply paint the horizon line. Free of the flu, that was today.

-jb.

Digital Archives are Dangerous Places

One minute, I'm mixing colors wondering about the shape of a bough of trees. Eight hours later I am at the computer and wondering if I even found the photo I was looking for. Looking for a specific reference photo for "Spiral," I found the master series. For giggles, I stitched it together.

It went so well, I tried another. This one did not. Not wanting to end on a bad note, I found and stitched this.

Which made me think, why not try the big one from way back?

I should have stopped after two for my eyes are bleary. But the cool thing is that they will be on Google Maps (click on the "More" dialog box then click photos) in the next few days.

ps. click on the photos to view a larger version

Reflections

The working title for this painting is "Spiral." I was wondering why I named it such after the first photo edit. The creek is more of a dead superman or a snake in the grass. Spiral must be the way the clouds, with the creek, make your eyes turn in tighter and tighter circles going back to the horizon line.




This photo is working halfway through the clouds. I tried to finish them in one really long painting day, but had to break it into two days as coffee only goes so far. Having the leftover sky paint made it easy to continue straight into the creek. The reflections, not only of the clouds but of the grass divides the shapes into something more.




But reflections also keep me on my toes and out of my bed as they have to be worked into the water wet to keep them soft. For this reason I flipped the painting upside down and covered the recently painted sky to keep from spattering it with finger thumb and palm prints.




Finally I add in the water in the spartina. Most of it will be covered up by the final layer of grass, but without adding enough, you lack options to play with the negative space later. Now I'll leave it alone, actually banish it to the panel room to dry.

-jb.

Ishmael Found!

...clinging to a clamshell. And I found Kara's wallet on tonight's lowtide. And don't worry Walt, Mini-Shaq was a swimmer, ending up in the weeds of the dredge a half mile downstream. And if anyone is reading this in France, i want my oars back. Be on the lookout come spring. So with a new iPhone in hand, back to the business of blogging:




Pictured in its first layer, this is an offshoot of hamlin creek on the south end of goat island. It has been out of the rotation for a while, so tonight I sanded off the surface and razored off the chips and dead brush hairs. After mixing the cloud colors, I sat and stared for a while, remembering why I wanted to do eight of this scene (but will probably end up making only two). The variations could be endless.

-jb.

Down goes Frazier!

Frazier, by the way, is the new name of my rowboat, because on my birthday, it went down. To the bottom of the intracoastal waterway, that is. High winds, rough seas, birthday drinks, a killer manatee (though unconfirmed i will stick with this highly suspect part of the story), and a snapped oar were all to blame, but needless to say it ended up being a cold swim. Sadly, iPhones and salt water make poor bedfellows. Thus, such richly informative blog posts as "Framing Part 3!" "Installation Views of New Work," and "Five Favorite Things Of Being an Artist: Number 4" went the way of the Pequod. I guess it serves me right for being a lazy poster. But fear not! Posts will resume again if diving for my wallet turns out to be successful and I can get my hands on a new iPhone. Otherwise, my new work will be posted on my website by the end of the day: www.jbboyd.net Cheers!

Framing Part 2

After the second day, the frames have been assembled and get a half day to dry.




Then I cut backing panels to suspend the painting panels to and screw them into the floater frame. The orange line lets me know how to reassemble them at a glance, and both the painting and the frames are signed because you don't get to see the back of the painting in this type of assembly.




Next I use precut spacers to center the painting in the frame and then attach the painting to the backing panel.




Finally I unscrew the backing panel from the floater frame, leaving the painting attached. Tomorrow is sanding, spackling, and then priming the frames, while painting the backing panel and painting edges seperately.




-jb.