There's A Light...

...at the end of the tunnel. But I am not on a bullet train or even the Model A in "A River Runs Through It." Most often, it feels like I am manically pumping one of those hand carts in an old silent film ahead of a steaming locomotive and getting nowhere fast.


But there is a light as the background trees start to fill in. The detail below is roughly 15 x 20" and located in the right center of the painting. The bright white dots (again in the right center) are leaves that I missed on the first pass of yellow.


So now I get to paint, you guessed it, more leaves!

- j.b. boyd

In case you were wondering...

...this is what my next show will look like:


Of course, these are only the foundation for my September show, but seven months will go by faster than I would like, and it will take a couple of weeks at least to fully prepare these panels (drying time on oil grounds is a test of even my patience). But in the meantime I get to look at the shapes and start to imagine what will fill them. The boxes in the upper left will be studies for the three large pieces in the bottom of the frame. And because I will be painting them in the mountains of Wyoming, it would be a safe bet to expect a healthy amount of snow, rock, and trees. Speaking of, it is time to paint some:


-jb.

The Forest For The...

...trees! I get to paint trees! It is just a start, and sooner than sooner I will be back painting leaves, but today it is trees!


This is the first to go in, and I will paint in four more that are partially hidden in the back, then reflect on how I can make them better while painting, you guessed it, more leaves.


-jb.

Two Hours In The Studio

Continuing the the cliche of likening painting large to running a marathon, I decided to set up my camera to show some detail in this important milepost, the third corner.


First, I use a straight edge razor to cut the Aspen branches and trunks into semi-channels.


Next, I paint the lightest leaves to use as markers for the general space and shapes.


Then, I switch to the darkest colors of each corresponding section.


To finish off the section, I paint in the mid-tones of color, then go over the dominant individual leaves to soften their edges.


Finally, I go back to the razor to clean out the channels for the branches.


Rinse, repeat...

-jb.

Living In A Tent Sucks.

Living in a tent city sucks even worse. Living in a tent, in a tent city, with a fever, when you are four? Well, you get the idea. But one of my dearest friends is doing something about it, by bringing a traveling art endeavor to the streets of Haiti. The project is fully funded, their bags are being packed, and in these last three days of fundraising, they are using the extra money to buy children's medicine that is in dire short supply. Jenni is one person who can make me wide eyed at what a mix of art and charity can accomplish in the lives of children, when I can pry a story of what she accomplishes stateside out of her. Because she is not at her best when it comes to her own PR, I will say that dollar for dollar, this will be the best aid you can ever provide, and bring color and relief to a place that desperately needs it. So please, become a part of this mission today:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mimicake/hope-art-haiti-operation-peace-endeavor

-jb.

Yup, Still Painting Leaves!

So here is an update on the progress. It is going a lot slower than I hoped, but you know, just keep painting! ...cause it is going to be one cool painting.



-jb.

Leaves

I realized three things from my last post. First, my old iPhone does take not the best of photos. Here is hopefully a better image.


Second, I never included anything that gives a sense of scale for you to realize that this is a big painting.


Finally, to put that in perspective, here is a detail of the leaves that I will be painting for the foreseeable future.


More to come...

-jb.

One Month of Painting

Large paintings are like marathons. Or, like the philosophy of Dory from Finding Nemo. The point is, you just have to keep painting.


These photos were taken over a period of one month.


The working time between these two images is just over 40 hours.


Aside from not getting frustrated at the grinding pace, the main challenge is keeping the foreground tree lines clean.


They are defined by the negative space of the green, and after each small section, must be scraped back into existence using a razor (especially the smaller branches).


This way, there are channels for the trees in the background paint which in the end will create a flat painting, contradictorily making it appear more three dimensional.


But the nice part in this long stretch of painting green is finding the areas that I missed (either aspen tree or leaves) and filling them in, either with yellow or with the absence of paint.


And yes, filling in the last of the green was a wicked exciting day!


-jb.

The Road Home

Aside from the curious habit I've picked up of beeping when crossing a state line, one of the true gleeful moments of a long roadtrip is seeing your starting and ending point etched in green and white. It promises a long shower and a familiar bed in not to short, or, depending on the size of your hometown, at least finite order.


But my favorite part of getting home is walking into my studio after a prolonged absence. There is a smell in that moment that could be the most calming in the world. If I could bottle it I would, instead I can only offer you the painting that greeted me.


And due to my woefully delinquent blog posts, you may or may not see it tomorrow one month and change more complete!


-jb.

Santa Fe, NM to Linville Gorge, NC

When the highlight of 1,500 miles in 36 hours is seeing three blades of a wind turbine loaded onto giant trucks making a right turn off the byway onto the highway, all I can say is, boring!


Then again, I wasn't exactly taking the scenic route, Arkansas has a lot of trees, and FYI, Tennessee is a long state driven lengthwise. But the the end point was worth it, camping with great friends in an ancient gorge deep in the Appalachian Mountains.


-jb.