Here is the complete collection of bison skull paintings I have been busily working on in recent weeks. It is nice to see them all together, feels like a small accomplishment! These will be part of my “Shadows of the West” solo show that is taking place in late March. I still have so much more I want to do…
All of the paintings are acrylic paint on acrylic plexiglass. They are 18″x18″ and 20″x20″ in size.
Do you have a favorite in the group? Thanks for taking the time to check them out!
This is the last bison skull painting in the series, the last one I am going to do for a while. I experimented with a bit of blue which gave the painting an interesting look. Along with the texture it has a bit of an underwater feeling to it.
The painting is an 18″ x 18″ acrylic painting.
This is the third bison skull painting in the series of “Western Shadows”. As I type this it dawns on me I’ve adopted the Led Zeppelin naming method… which means that number IV will be the most popular and this one will be my personal favorite… tangent!
This painting is 18″x18″ acrylic on plexiglass. I’ve developed some very heavy textures on the back of this piece as you can see there are interesting crater shapes and extensive cracks that catch the light. I’m taking a very basic subject, one that I adore, and experimenting with different ways to visualize it. I am currently working on the fourth one so before long I will be able to have all four up on the site for comparison.
Lulu decide to come by the photo cube and inspect the progress, she didn’t have much to say. But what is there to say?
This is the completed version of “Western Shadows (bison skull) II”. It is, for some reason, particularly difficult to capture this painting digitally, it just doesn’t seem to represent the final piece properly. I am including some detailed photographs that display some of the intriguing textural elements that make the physical painting so much more compelling (at least to me).
This is an acrylic painting that is 20″ x 20″
I am finishing up the second “Western Shadows (bison skull)” painting. I will try to get a proper photograph of it when it is complete. There are some pretty interesting textures happening that aren’t apparent in this photograph. I’m planning on doing at least one more of these but who can tell?
This is the newest acrylic painting I have completed. I am putting more pieces together for the “Shadows of the West” show. My goal here is to create what amounts to a really atmospheric still life painting. I want it to have a very ghostly ethereal quality, not entirely there. I found a bit of success with this particular painting. I am currently working on a couple other paintings with a similar approach, hopefully I will be able to post another one next week!
I’ve wrapped up my herd of cow heads so now I’ll move on to other paintings. I’ve decided to use this particular painting for the promotional card for the show “Shadows of the West”. The show is going to start March 31st of this year. I have a lot more work to do before now and then! I will post more information about that as the date looms closer.
I am attaching an image that shows three other paintings that are part of the 5 cow heads I recently completed. I still need to take final photographs of one of these.
This is an 18″ x 18″ acrylic painting that I recently finished.
Before I took the final photograph I took a snapshot with my iPhone in the studio. My subjects have been bouncing around from minimal landscapes to portraits of cows (cowscapes)? I thought it was interesting seeing the latest cow portrait next to “Cloud & Sea” on my easel. Wondering how these paintings will relate to one another in the context of a gallery show. Each painting was done by the same hand, same mediums and the same general approach. They are different paintings but they both are sort of a simplistic study of isolation/solitude. These two in particular had a nice relationship and set my mind at ease to some degree.
Building a collection of paintings for a show is both exciting and a bit daunting. I am always wondering if I shouldn’t narrow my scope and make a really tight collection of paintings with a very specific subject holding them together. The problem is when I’m working I always get excited about “the next painting”. Often this leads to something seemingly unrelated to the previous piece. Tangents and random explorations are part of the creative process and lead to new ideas and often new approaches. In a perfect world I would love to have a massive space where I could hang paintings to really get the overall feel. Then I would replace paintings that were not bolstering the show. Remove paintings that felt redundant or didn’t enrich the overall feeling. Create new paintings that would fill out the collection in just the right way. Of course this is not a perfect world and that is just a daydream. So ultimately I will follow my gut when choosing pieces and have a little faith…
This is a cloud painting I’m finally getting close to finishing. I guess when something is “finished” it has officially run out of potential? Maybe that’s why I’m dragging my feet these last few weeks. I am trying to wrap up a number of paintings… Of course I have to start some more to keep the wheel turning.
I’m also attaching a photo I took last night. I was thinking this particular corner of the studio had a lot of interesting things happening. It isn’t the “landfill” style of decoration I have used around the rest of the space. Anyway just got nostalgic looking at objects representing the last 6 years or so. One of the last crazy Halloween masks I made was in the shot along with paintings and show flyers. I did a terrible job framing the shot but it was good enough for Instagram!
working late in the studio with a ridiculous number of unfinished pieces. I keep starting new things and jumping around. Generally I think it is a good approach to have a few works in progress. It keeps them fresh to the eye… allows for drying etc. these days I feel like I am always starting projects but nothing seems to roll across the finish line. Maybe best not to over think it.
brian sostrom 