Snow snow painting and snow

It has been snowing most of the month of January with 7 school snow days. Shoveling out to the studio when we can get my son to do it. Hopefully today I can get  out there.

Snow outside the studio

I am working on an even NEWER series of paintings. Using the previously posted paintings as bases, I am working from a sketch and responding to the canvas as it develops. I clearly need a palette to develop, but right now I am working with the composition.

base painting for siena series

I am happy with the above base as a start. As I continue, here is where I have left off:

step two on siena base

Again, the colors need to shift, but I am trying to constantly simplify. I think I may even just take a piece of this painting and redo it as a new painting. Crop it to simplify the composition even more. This canvas is 36″ x 48″ as are all of my canvases I am discussing. It has been weeks since I worked on this so I am chomping at the bit to get back to it. I’ll post more as it develops.

I’m off and runnning, but where you ask?

I was hooked again, I couldn’t get enough painting. I was in the studio painting one canvas, taking a picture, painting another canvas, taking a picture, etc. every hour I could find. I’m working with line and topographic elements and my cellular structures and layering paint and trying to work out colors and making all kinds of decisions. Here’s an interim look at what I was working on with the various canvases (I am voracious):

another painting

Yes, I know they are hideous, but they are layers. They are sketchbooks where I try out ideas. I get to see what works and what doesn’t, what I like and what I don’t and I keep painting on top even with areas I like. That’s the hard part. Risk. Not being safe. It’s all good.

Here’s where it took me, and keep in mind I am still not done!

to this:

and another:

I’m still nowhere where I want to be, but I am encouraged. Dan shows me how to work with my surface texture and paint application techniques, and I explore the forms I think are working. I am liking scratching and revealing what is underneath the surface and drawing by removing paint. Oooh, yum. I like the topographic elements and how they reference my cellular structures too. Here’s a detail:

This is where I want to be going, I love the way this looks, just this spot. OK so on to another canvas…