Tag: painting

Symbols & Signs

by Brian Sostrom, posted in Uncategorized

 

image

This painting goes back a few years.

I was working with really thick translucent acrylic paint. I would pour it on and aggressively dry it in front of a heater and the surface would craze in unpredictable ways. A person can never entirely dictate the way materials will interact when used in unconventional ways. That unpredictable outcome can result in something that feels akin to magic but more often results in wasted materials. I was caught in a loop basically lured along by glimpses of success but wasting too much time. Quite literally hanging around watching the paint dry! The method of painting, used in this particular piece along with scores of others, I have moved away from. It started to feel more and more like that definition of insanity…

This blackbird painting was one I considered a success, he seemed to know the score.

 

 

Nowhere

by Brian Sostrom, posted in Uncategorized

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Another empty water scene. I used a squeegee and brush to create this like most of the other water scenes I’ve painted. This one has some interesting and subtle texture particularly in the upper left portion of the image. I used interference paint underneath the texture that gives it a dynamic quality that you can see as you move around the painting. Most of these have been 18″ x 24″ and 20″ x 20″, I really want to make very large version at some point… so much to do!

Hello?

by Brian Sostrom, posted in Uncategorized

hello

This was a self-portrait I did as an experiment. It is composed of 4 paintings on plexiglass of my mug from slightly different angles. The underlying paintings were done with warm translucent colors. The top most painting is the boldest with the darkest values. I stacked them all in a frame which created an intriguing result. There is a very physical depth between the paintings that gives it a real sense of volume.

I photographed it from different angles to give you an idea how the color shifts and the image changes.

A Mixed Bag (Amalgamation)

by Brian Sostrom, posted in Uncategorized

sleep mix

swan

water and meat

Anyone who has digitized their artwork knows how difficult it can be to capture an accurate representation. First getting the image “square” so that the art is not being distorted. Finessing the lighting so that it is bright without glare. Balancing the contrast, hue and saturation to accurately represents the original work etc…

I recently had a little fun with some work I had painstakingly digitized. I used a simple little app called “layout” on my iPhone in order to combine multiple images for a single Instagram post. Immediately the paintings started to feel like new work. The specifics of the images and the context shifted making them feel fresh and a bit more intriguing. In college I created a number of paintings that were a pre planned amalgamation but they lacked the spontaneous and unique results that are immediately possible in the digital age. Part of me wants to take a saw and glue to my work to recreate these kind of hybrids! In the end it is just an interesting exercise. What are your thoughts on the results?

Decomposing Light

by Brian Sostrom, posted in Uncategorized

Sostrom_01_EdgesSostrom_02_Smart-SadSostrom_04_Decomposinglight#2

I have done a lot of small paintings around the theme of decomposing light. Using the interplay of texture and color to convey that sense of daylight transition to darkness. I recently took some photographs of some that I am preparing to send to a miniature show. For this show they can be 6″x6″ as the largest dimensions. These also aren’t the hyper-realistic, super detailed type of paintings that true miniature painters make. They are simply small but mighty?