WIP Update: Metro Map Painting

Here is the painting as it is right now:

I haven't decided if it is done yet or not.  I do think it needs a little something else, but it is very nearly complete.  Again, the color quality is not good, I have not photographed it professionally with color adjustments yet.  The colors in actuality are much more vibrant.  Thoughts?

WIP Update: Metro Map Painting

Here's an update on my current painting project: 

I added more drips of paint in different directions, a sheer layer of a gray-lavender color to what should be the land/water part of the map, and an opaque violet octagonal border to represent the Beltway.  I think I am going to go in to the black metro rail system and make parts of it opaque again and even add some highlights.  This way there will be even more depth and the rails will look "pipe-like."  I should be done in a few days.

New WIP (Work In Progress): Metro Map Painting

I am not sure what I think about it yet, but I wanted to challenge myself and go in a new direction.  I think it's a start.  It has been hard to "let loose" and let the paint drip where it wants to, rather than try to control it too much with my brush.  I think I am going to do lots of layers of light washes of paint to express depth.

If you have not figured it out already, this painting is based off of the Washington DC Metro system, the Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, and Orange lines.  I worked with a lot of ideas, but decided to remove the colors of the lines and use the iconic shapes of the lines on the map as a basis for a painting.  It really is an interesting shape, even without the colors.  It's definitely something to explore and work on.

WIP Update: Metro Landscape Painting

I worked some more on this painting, changing around the lines a little and adding more dimension to the radiating circles.

I also started another painting, which I will post about tomorrow.

New Painting: Dreamscape- View of the Newark Reservoir

I finished this painting last Friday, the emotive landscape/dreamscape painting of the Newark Reservoir in Newark, Delaware:

My brush took me somewhere special.  I just kept painting and painting wherever I felt was right at the time.  I sketch for general composition, but not for details, so I did not really plan where I was going.  I am really satisfied with how it turned out.  To me, it was about depicting the emotional response I have to the landscape in the paint.  The saturated colors and exaggerated lines reflect how I view the landscape.  Even though it is abstracted and exaggerated, to me it looks realistic of the landscape as I know it.  Again, it is in oil on 24 x 36" canvas.

This painting is now on exhibition at the Newark Arts Alliance in Newark, Delaware.  It is part of the open juried show, "Landscapes/Dreamscapes of the Delmarva Peninsula" and is on exhibition until May 30th.  Come stop by to see it!  It's a great exhibition full of beautiful landscapes.

WIP Update: Newark Landscape Painting

Thank you all for the wonderful comments!  While I think I am pretty positive about my work, as I am an eternal optimist, these comments certainly encourage me to continue producing work and uploading pictures.  For that I thank you!  

Here is an update on one of my WIPs (Works in Progress).  I worked on the upper half today, trying to get the sky done first while the oil paint is still dry.  I definitely want the paint to create a mood of awe.  I am trying to create a smoothness and fluidity throughout the composition, introducing more and more colors, and mirroring the landscape below in the cloud formations.  I wonder where this dreamy landscape will take my brush next.

New WIP (Work In Progress): Newark Landscape Painting

I just started another one today, so now I have several paintings in progress.  It will be an "emotive landscape" of Newark, Delaware.  The Newark reservoir will be a little sliver in the background.  It is an oil painting on 24 x 36" canvas.  I would love any feedback.  Right now I'm just trying to put down main colors and tweaking the composition as I see it in my sketchbook.

What I've been doing lately

I have not been updating the last week or so because I have been traveling to Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  I loved both places.  I learned a lot about the American South while there, visiting museums and interacting with people.  I definitely needed the break, and was hoping to do some sketching on the beach, but we had rain every day except for the last one.  

I took some good reference photos and hope to do some sketches based on them soon.  While there I was struck by the beautiful Neoclassical architecture, and how harmonious it was with the landscape.  This is something I have always believed about the American landscape, that it is possible to have something manmade living harmoniously with nature.  I will definitely have to develop this idea.

Also, I attended the reception for the Enclave Art Contest that I entered several months ago, and I was awarded with the Special Achievement Award for my painting, "Life Liberty, and the Pursuit of... Prosperity."  It was kind of a shock since this was the first contest I have ever entered, so I was incredibly pleased just to be a finalist and have my work on exhibition!  It was a great experience.  I felt like a "real artist" for the first time.  I need to hold on to that for times when my inner critic tells me I'm just "faking it."

As far as my paintings go, I'm still working on the last one, but I am also challenging myself to paint in subjects and styles I am not so comfortable with.  I am not sure I will post those when those are done, but I'm doing it to learn.  Back to painting!

WIP (Work in Progress) Update: Metro Landscape Painting

Here's where I am with the painting now:

Not finished yet, but it's nice to get the blocks of color down.  Can you tell that there is a Metro train?  I am still working on making the lines straight.  I think I'm going to make some of the sections more painterly-looking, and doing more with the train cars.  Any comments on the painting so far?

New WIP (Work In Progress): Metro Landscape Painting

I am currently working on an oil painting on an 18 x 24" canvas.  I'm not sure what it will be titled yet, but hopefully I will know soon.  I started it last week, and hopefully will have it done in the next couple of days.  Here's what I have so far:

I know it's hard to see at this early stage, but this painting is actually depicting the Washington DC Metro.  Later I will describe some of my influences, and my whole concept of the painting.  I am really excited about it because it builds on my last painting, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Prosperity" but goes in a different direction.  I have some really great sketches in preparation for this painting too, so perhaps this is the start of a series...?  I certainly hope so.

New Painting: "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Prosperity"

I haven't written in quite some time, so I should update!  I actually just found out a few weeks ago that I am a finalist in the art contest I entered at the end of 2008.  The contest was sponsored by the Enclave apartment complex in Silver Spring, Maryland.  I could choose from 3 themes, and I chose "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of...", using that theme for my title, and ending it with "Prosperity".  Hopefully you can see why from my painting.  It is a large canvas, 36 x 48", done in acrylic.  

I did a lot of preparation for this painting: brainstorming, sketching, photographing, researching, collecting images, etc. before I even started painting it.  It took me two weeks total, but it was well worth it.  The subject is from part of the actual Enclave apartments.  I visited there for about an hour, and took many photographs, using them all as reference, and not painting directly from a particular image.  I wanted to capture the height and the curvature of the building, and I think I succeeded.  What do you think?  I thought it was important to use a large canvas to portray such a large building.  I want the viewer to look up at the painting and have their eyes drawn to the top, just as mine where when I visited the buildings myself.

I am a lover of American Art, and as such, some of my favorite artists served as my inspirations for this painting.  Among them are Georgia O'Keeffe's cycle of cityscapes, Precisionists Charles Demuth and Charles Sheeler, and the Works Progress Administration prints by Gerhard Bakker.  I did a lot of thinking, writing, and researching of what buildings mean to America.  The city, the skyscraper, are landmark symbols of our identity.  There are so many dimensions to portraying the American industrial landscape.  Perhaps it is because I am drawn to good use of line in art, but I think it is only fitting for cities and buildings to be portrayed in this modern, geometric way, with crisp, clean lines.  

The artists that inspired me painted many of their cityscapes during the 1920's, and stopped with the stock market crash, when the once prideful symbol of strength became a painful reminder of the failure of business.  I wanted to take a different

approach, not shying away from it in this economic recession.  This painting is meant to be a more positive approach, reflecting my optimistic personality.  I wanted to show the sun casting shadows on the building, looking ominous, but peaceful.  Is the sun setting or rising?  It is not meant to be clear, but I wanted to draw the comparison to the glass being "half-empty or half-full".  For me the sun is rising, though uncertainty lurks around the corner of this economic crisis.  Hope can be reflected in the lights of the building: a symbol of life, activity, and perseverance of the American people.  As Americans, we have the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, but also to the Pursuit of Prosperity (at least I think we do).  I kept thinking that if I were to live in one of these apartments, I would have a prosperous life, and that I would be ok no matter what happened with the economy.  Because it's true, that America will turn around eventually and once again prosper.  We just have to wait for it.