Black Boned Angel

Black Boned Angel, 2014, acryilc on panel, 30 x 24 in. 

2014 Benefit Exhibition for Ballet X

2014 Benefit Exhibition for BalletX   On view: September 5 - October 4, 2014   Bridgette Mayer Gallery presents: 2014 Benefit Exhibition for BalletX  On view: September 5 - October 4, 2014 Opening Reception: September 5, 2014 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.  The exhibition will feature work by over 250 artists!    For more information click   For a preview of available works, please contact:  rsvp@bridgettemayergallery.com Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m & by appointment.    For pricing, images or additional exhibition information please contact   t: 215 413 8893 e: bmayer@bridgettemayergallery.com      Thank you to our 2014 Benefit Exhibition Sponsors                   __________________________________________________________________________

Well, this is late because I had the post in "Draft" mode and had forgotten about it. Anyway, I have two new paintings in this show and will be at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery for the reception. 

Embracing the obvious

Sometimes, what I think of as the easy or obvious solution is actually the best solution. Earlier tonight, I reached a point with a work on paper where I was just shy of a resolution. I took a break, went back to it and still couldn't satisfy myself with the results. Walked away again, came back to it and started tinkering with it more. I needed a decisive mark or series of marks to finish the piece off. The image making techniques that I'd used for the majority of the piece were not going to work for the final layer. I finally stopped avoiding the "obvious" and got on with finishing the piece with the "easy" solution...and it worked.

It was a relief because I'd spent so much time trying to find a way around the obvious solution that I think that I gave myself a dull, throbbing headache in the process.

That's all (for now...)

I don't know if I've mentioned it on this blog, but this summer I had a studio intern for the first time. Her name is Caitlin and she's a student at Moore College of Art entering her senior year. I was approached by a friend of Caitlin's who asked if I would be interested in having a studio intern. I wasn't sure at first because I'd never had an intern in the past and didn't know what I'd have them do. However, once I thought about it a bit, I realized that I did have a project, which was beginning the process of cataloging the works in my studio, starting with the works on paper.

Today was Caitlin's final day as my studio intern. I'm a little bummed, but also very grateful for the wonderful job that she did this summer. At last count, we'd gotten to #1099. Most of the work was accomplished, but there's still a bunch left to be photographed and given inventory numbers.

Having Caitlin's help this summer was invaluable because she was instrumental in getting me to become much more organized with my work. Organizing and documenting the work in the studio had been on my mind for a while and having Caitlin there moved the process from idea to full-on reality in a very short time. I'm very good at procrastination and I would not be even close to where I am now without her help. Thanks, Caitlin!!

My studio as it appeared yesterday (8.05.14) before a studio visit with Bridgette Mayer to show her my new works. 

Four Seasons brochure

Brochure image for my show at the Four Seasons Hotel-Philadelphia. On view until January, 2015. 

Paintings at the Four Seasons Hotel-Philadelphia

(photo: James Miller)

I'm very pleased to announce that several of my paintings are now on view in the Fountain Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel-Philadelphia. The works will be exhibited until January, 2015. This show consists of 7 paintings: 5 completed earlier this year and 2 older pieces from 2010 and 2013.  My thanks to the Bridgette Mayer Gallery and James Miller at the Four Seasons for arranging this show.

New roads

On the studio wall, an as yet untitled new painting, acrylic on panel, 48 x 48 inches. 

I've been developing some new work on paper and smaller panels for the past few months and am at a point where I'm scaling things up a bit. I'm returning to some themes that I started with back in 2010, namely the use of the stencils that appeared in several works on paper and panels from that year. I made a lot of works where I attempted to incorporate the stencil patterns with other imagery-geometric and loose linear forms-with varying results. I chose to put that work aside for a while and continued my focus on the work that would make up 'Presence', my solo exhibition at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery in 2013. 

I finished a few other paintings that will be in an upcoming (August-December, 2014) show at the Four Seasons Hotel here in Philadelphia in the spring of this year. Since then, I've refocused my efforts on making works that incorporate some of the stencil patterns and are monochormoatic. I've wanted to move towards a monochromatic palette for a number of years, but didn't quite feel comfortable with it, but now seems to be the time to dive in. I've had some silver acrylic paint sitting in my studio for a couple of years and wasn't comfortable using it with my color work. I think that when I started experimenting with the silver (plus black and white), I began to see ways that silver could be an asset to the work.

So, I'm off on a new road. I don't know how long it will be, but I'm just going to try and enjoy the ride.

Philip Guston

A great excerpt from "Philip Guston: A Life Lived", in which the artist responds to a question about the seemingly abrupt change in his paintings from abstraction to the cartoonish figurative works that he might be best known for...

I Can See For Miles

I Can See For Miles, 2014, acryilc on paper, 30 x 22 inches

Estate

Estate, 2014, acrylic on panel, 48 x 36 inches

Release

"Release", 2014, acrylic on panel, 30 x 24 inches

Edge of the Deep Green Sea

Edge of the Deep Green Sea, 2014, acrylic on panel, 48 x 36 inches

So Much More...

"So Much More", 2014, acrylic on panel, 30 x 24 inches

Studio 6.26.14

On the wall: two new works on paper

Each: acrylic on paper, 27 x 19 inches

First oil

"Still Life with Blue Cloth", 1983, oil on masonite, 14 x 8 inches

The studio cataloging project continues and with that has come some interesting re-discoveries, like the one pictured above. That is my very first completed oil painting dating from my senior year in high school. I remember working on that painting for a long time in class, but was very happy with the results in the end. For the time, it wasn't bad. What I regret now is the lame signature that I put on it, but, oh well. It has held up pretty well. It's been stuffed inside of an old black portfolio case for most of it's exisitence, along with other older works, so there's been very little exposure to any adverse conditions. 

The Changing Complex Profile of Black Abstract Painters | ARTnews

Odili Donald Odita, Firewall, 2013. 

©ODILI DONALD ODITA/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK

The Changing Complex Profile of Black Abstract Painters | ARTnews

This is a really good article about the complexities and problems faced by black painters working with abstraction.

Studio 5.02.14: Bad painting day

Man, things went really bad with this painting yesterday. I wound up painting out half of it to start over. I'm going in today with what I hope is a fresh perspective and see how I can salvage it.

Studio 4.26.14: Detail

Detail of a new painting-in-progress. Combining different modes of image-making in the paintings more often now. 

Studio journal: October, 2010

Studio journal, October 2010

Process control patches from various packages.

For some reason, I went through a period of collecting these color blocks and taping them in my sketchbooks. I find them quite interesting as little pieces of art, I guess. I also like that they impart something about the making of the packaging, and by extension, tell us something about the marketing of the products within that packaging through the use of specific combinations if the CMYK color palette.