I have been swamped with work lately, my studio is a mess but no time to pause. I am doing some wave studies in preparation for a large commission. This first go is the same aspect ratio as the final painting. Giving me a chance to play around with some compositions and color schemes.
I painted this over the weekend, just a final glaze this morning.
I am doing a little series of cloudscapes with the sun concealed but still very present.
I have a number of 30″x24″ panels primed for painting, I love working at this scale. Large enough that you have a sense of freedom moving around the surface but not so large that it is awkward in the studio. I did have to stand on a chair to get far enough away for a photo, so a little awkward!
I am pretty obsessed with brooding epic scenes. I keep getting wound up about new ideas but I realize this is a common thread.
Today I will be varnishing and photographing much of my work. As eager as I am to paint I have a looming deadline for my show solo show at Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, California. The show is the month of February so I need to get my work photographed, varnished, framed, packaged and shipped very soon! Deadlines keep me running!
I have never been an optimistic person. In grade school, learning vocabulary, the teacher asked us if we were optimists or pessimists. A girl I had eyes for said, “Oh, we are both optimists.” She was a bit smarter than I was, but as she explained the difference, I knew she was horribly mistaken.
For some odd reason, I am filled with an unrealistic optimism for the new year. I am making my living painting, it’s not easy. My days are only getting shorter, never mind. I have a vision for my work, mastery of my materials. For the first time in my life I know my greatest work is ahead. I am excited to make it.
I hope you all find passion and meaning in 2019.
It struck me when I walked into my studio this morning that my current painting feels very much like a ghost. I have it on my table easel and it seems to hover on the table.
This painting is almost a study in subtlety. The color and values easing into one another. This kind of painting seems difficult to capture digitally but for now here is an iPhone version.
I love painting moody water and cloudscapes. I tend to turn them into something I think of as an emotional landscape. Expressive and full of motion, a place to put my feelings I suppose.
This is one I just finished yesterday. I will be working on some more along this theme!
Christmas is rapidly closing in. I have all of my presents wrapped so I snuck over to the studio to do some framing. I have a lot of this sort of work to do at the beginning of 2019… I will split my time with painting. I get fidgety knowing I will be out of the studio a lot in the coming week!
I finished this painting yesterday afternoon. It has a really great meditative quality. I frequently create work with a calm and tranquil vibe… even when I don’t feel that way. I suppose it’s a form of therapy.
I find myself chasing ethereal beauty in my work. Trying to find that otherworldly magic that is impossible. Once in a while I catch a glimpse and it keeps me running.
brian sostrom 