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 am continuing my recycling of boards. Half a dozen paintings I liked but not enough to keep have been stripped off to become something new!
I am really pretty addicted to apocalyptic cloud formations. The beauty and power are fascinating. This one is small but mighty!
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 destroyed half a dozen paintings I decided not to put into my solo show. I like to let paintings breathe for a while and see them fresh. So often you feel an energy and excitement from work, that usually fades. If a painting doesn’t intrigue me after hanging around the studio for weeks it is probably not worth keeping. Sometimes I will deeply love elements of a piece but it has to be compelling as a whole. Once in a while a painting just needs a little extra work to bring it all together. Sometimes that little extra is the final blow…
So I destroyed a painting, this is the new painting on the same panel. Now I can’t remember for sure what was originally on this board but I know this is stronger. Will it stick around? Time will tell.
I have shipped all of my recent work to Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento. Now I am making a new start! I have some commissions I need to work on, those start next week. I will take the remainder of this week just to paint.
Time erodes everything, painting offers occasional moments of ascent.
I revisited a painting from late 2018 that I wasn’t entirely satisfied with. I am gathering paintings for my February solo show making hard decisions. This particular piece was on the edge but now it will be attending the exhibit! The show is at the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, California.
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.
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!
brian sostrom 