Tuesday, March 30, 2010

7th Street Mural Project


7th Street stretches between the Tyler-Davis and Bishop Arts Districts in my neighborhood of Oak Cliff. A group of area artists, organized by Steve Cruz, are painting murals on the walls of some of the businesses on that street. In the photo above, I'm working on my contribution, the proposal for which is, with other proposals or works in progress, pictured below.
I'm painting the image on wood panels which will be installed on the chosen building's wall.
I'll update as I have new pictures to show.

Here I'm preparing the panels with primer. Our cat G.G. is providing supervision and taking advantage of the shade.

G.G. appears to have helped at one point, with the application of the purple base coat. That, or as my wife, Becky, suggested, she voted in the Iraqi election. We haven't noticed her being gone long enough for that, though.

The proposals and works in progress are below.

This is a Photoshopped depiction of what my final mural will look like. As I mentioned before, it's actually on four separate wood panels, and will be attached to the wall. Also, it will be installed on a different wall, not this one. The wall assignments were changed before anyone got started.

This mural is by Brian Scott.

This is a mural in progress by Gillian Bradshaw-Smith.

Lewis Carroll's Alice trapped in a too-small-for-her space reminiscent of the paintings of Gerhard Richter, by Chaitra Lineham.

Proposed mural by Brian K. Jones.

Proposed mural (now being executed at a different location) by Steve Cruz.

Proposed mural by Eric Tosten.

Photographs of murals in progress courtesy of Brian Scott.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Mystery Project - Part Five

Getting there...

One more land form in the background and the sky is still to come.

This is a detail showing the stand of trees in the background. I'm going for a jolly grandfatherly look with these guys.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Hartford University Masters class at TCU.

Yesterday, March 19, I gave a presentation and talked about my work with a Masters degree class from Hartford University. The program originated at Syracuse University under the guidance of illustrator and educator Murray Tinkelman and has been visiting the Fort Worth campus of TCU as part of its tour of cities since the late 1980s. Other stops include New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The group comes through every two years, and I've been invited to address them at every visit since 1989.
We didn't bring a camera, so I don't have any pictures of the lecture. So I thought I would use this one instead.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Luminaria: Arts Night in San Antonio

This past Saturday I participated in an on site painting event at Monte Wade Fine Arts Gallery in conjunction with "Luminaria: Arts Night in San Antonio". Like last year at the La Villita Arts Festival, San Antonio painter Sage Gibson was also on site working on her beautiful flag paintings.
This time a lot of kids watched me and asked questions and offered their comments. That was great.
Here are some pictures (out of respect for the visitors' privacy I've blurred their faces).

Lights on the side of the Palacio del Rio Hotel.







Sage Gibson works on one of her flag paintings.

Sage and I toast paint jars.















Thursday, March 11, 2010

Mystery Project - Part Four

This update shows the foreground taking form more clearly than has been the case before. I'm putting in the grass color, which will go back just past the elephant, with a lighter version of that color continuing on the slopes behind him.
He's pink, obviously, and is spraying a rainbow into the little pond. I painted his reflection several times before I got a version I was comfortable with. The foreground cows are completed, as is the flying bee on the right. He's not reading clearly yet, since he's still against a dark background, which will be lightened considerably soon.
Below are a few details illustrating the transtion of tonal values as I paint from dark to light.


Monday, March 1, 2010

Favorite paintings

I first saw the work of contemporary artist Richard Thompson in the mid-eighties, when he lived in Austin (he now lives in upstate New York). I actually saw the work in a regional art magazine called Artspace. I was immediately drawn to his color, his drawing style and his themes and subject matter.
I've seen his work "in person" is some surprising locations. A print of a fish can be found in a upstairs dining area in the Dallas World Aquarium. A large painting and another print adorn the walls of Blue Mesa restaurant, also in Dallas. A friend has a small painting of an apple, which is very beautiful and causes waves of envy within my innards every time I see it. Of course his paintings are in private and public collections, but those are the ones I've actually visited first hand.
This example is a small study for a larger painting. His work has taken a direction toward more abstract use of imagery, less "literal", but this piece represents the qualities I'm most attracted to in his pictures.
More can be found at his website.



Here's an example of his more recent work. I visited an exhibition of his work at a local gallery and it's growing on me. Love those contrails.

Both images © Richard Thompson.