leftovers and a little olive oil

 poppy leftovers on the easel

Thanks in part, to a severely overcooked bird, none of our guests returned for seconds, and we were rewarded with an enormous amount of Thanksgiving leftovers. The leftovers were turned into all sorts of turkey related concoctions. Some edible.

"a very large meal" 12 x 24

Same thing with poppies. After completing such a large body of poppy paintings, I found the studio filled with bits and pieces of cropped images and odd-sized boards. 

detail from "a very large meal"

I don't usually like working with smaller sizes, but I also wasn't anxious to jump back on the computer to develop new large imagery. And the beauty of working small, is that it gives me a sense of freedom to work on new techniques. 

detail from "a la folie"

The details above illustrate how I'm developing my mark making through scraping and rubbing. Keeping in the spirit of the season of cooking, I used olive oil to rub off excess paint. Reheating the area with a heat gun caused the paint to separate in areas, adding texture to the work. 

"a la folie" 12 x 24

Stephanie Hargrave at Patricia Rovzar Gallery

Stephanie Hargrave "imbricate 1", 40 x 60

Last night was opening night of the Hargrave exhibit at Patricia Rovzar Gallery in Seattle. In this new body of work, Stephanie has rediscovered her skill with transparency through layers of color, line, and organic shapes. The resulting compositions have both tranquility and energy. The line work is stronger than ever, and the addition of little dimensional spheres of wax drop like jewels onto the surface. They are perfectly placed. Like all encaustic, any form of reproduction is a woefully inadequate experience. Do yourself a favor, and skip the online show and go directly to the gallery to view the work in-person.

The show will be up until August 4th. Enjoy!

Patricia Rovzar Gallery. 1225 Second Ave, Seattle

Repairing a Scar

It seems that some lessons I'm destined to learn over and over and over. In my excitement to begin work, I was not careful with blending the seams. The photo below shows a detail of an area where the seam is most apparent.

Because the painting consists primarily of transparent yellow, it is almost impossible to completely cover the offending scar with paint and clear wax alone. I painted a semi-opaque white wax, mixed with a tiny bit of yellow, over the seam. But I also had to add the wax over other areas of the painting, so that the resulting texture would be more unified.

I call this the ugly stage. It takes me a few days to actually build up the courage to attack the painting in this way. After applying the patch, I scraped it to a smoother consistency, and then started re-building the painting.

This detail of the area now has four or more layers of oil paint rubbed, painted and burned into the surface. You can see where the underlying wax was added, because the area is more textural, but I think it is richer and more complex than the original. It's a time-consuming approach which requires a lot of patience and trust. Check back later to see how the patch integrates with the rest of the painting.

Home At Last

Upside Down Martini, 70" x 54" x 3"

Last week, I finally removed the painting from its shackles, filled the holes where the handles and eye bolts were screwed into the wood frame, stained and cleaned up the edges and sides. I decided to leave the painting flat on the work bench until delivery, to protect it from potential damage. The finished piece weighed in at about 60lbs.

Patricia Rovzar Gallery brought their van to transport the work to the customer. I covered the surface with glassine paper, and made some corners out of corrugated board for protection. We decided not to bubble wrap the piece, because the fit in the van was going to be tight. Two of us were able to lift and carry the work to the van. Thankfully, it wasnt that difficult.

"Upside Down Martini" now lives in its new home. The client loves it, and I'm a happy artist.

Tomorrow I'll add a post to explain the name, and talk about how completing this painting is taking me on a new conceptual journey with my work.