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.
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!
The app said these were my top 9 of 2018, who am I to argue? Thank you all for your support and positivity in 2018, happy Holidays and here is to a great New Year!
This is a new painting I am pretty excited about. Inspired by many shockingly beautiful evenings up hear in North Idaho.
This piece is going to my solo show February 2019 in Sacramento at the Elliott Fouts Gallery!
This is what I refer to as a psychological cloudscape.
It seems like I always have a lot of “series of paintings” I want to work on. This is one I am going to boost up a bit higher in priority. A sort of heavenly view of the skies. Dreamy and a bit surreal or at least that is my thought today.
I painted this little study this morning. I am also prepping a bunch of larger panels to move forward with these paintings…
brian sostrom 