This is a painting I did a couple of years ago. I stumbled across it while trying to clean out my studio.
Different approaches to the same sort of imagery I still work on. I now paint almost exclusively with translucent paint. This painting is a more traditional approach with a warm under paint and opaque colors built upon that. It still has a lot of interesting translucent passages but looks a bit “overworked” to me now.
This painting is a work in progress. As the trees are growing leaves around me I am getting around to a winter tree image I have had in mind for a while!
This is a 16″x16″ acrylic painting.
Here is a collection I have finally put the finishing touches on! The small ones are 10″x10″ and the larger ones are 16″x16″. Always interesting to group paintings together and see how they get along.
This is a 20″x20″ acrylic painting. I did a few months ago and added it to the scrap heap of misfit paintings. I pulled it out the other day and find I like it a bit better now.
This is another painting trying to find that balance between something and nothing. I painted this in tandem with “I Hear The Owl”.
This is an 18″x18″ acrylic painting.
I have been working on some moody forest paintings inspired by the winter gloom of the Pacific Northwest.
This particular piece is an 18″x18″ acrylic painting.
For a long while I have been meaning to paint some much larger works. I finally finished one of these paintings. It is 3 feet by 4 feet (not huge but for me very large). It is tricky to work on a surface this big as you not only use a lot more paint it also feels like it is drying faster than normal. The painting also got heavy and difficult to move around without bumping the ceiling or walls in my work space. I tend to move paintings around and look at them from various distances and angles, tricky with this one.
This painting morphed and just about fell apart but then I switched to a small squeegee I occasionally use and suddenly it really started to work. Most of the mark making is done with a squeegee tool that is maybe 1.25″ in width… it leaves very decisive and clear marks. Once I found the rhythm it painted itself.
All the difficulties aside it is exciting to see something that feels like it has some legitimate scale. I am really hoping to do a couple more paintings of this size in the coming weeks… we shall see!
It is also a bit challenging to take photos of a painting this large! It doesn’t fit in my photo cube and it is difficult to get even lighting on the surface. I have attached a detail of some of the brush work so that you can get a little better sense of the surface. Still these photos don’t quite do it justice.
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?
Not quite dark yet
and the stars shining
above the withered fields.
Translated by Robert Hass
by Yosa Buson
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!
brian sostrom 