I am starting work on some new pieces. These are all going to be 16″x16″ acrylic paintings.
Dreamy lake imagery, atmospheric and calm. This is the first one mostly finished but still a work in progress.
Tag: poem
Pack up the plantation
29 paintings and Lulu
Getting my work together for the next show.
Filling my living room twice!
Sea Change
This is another large acrylic painting (48″x36″).
I am working on a number of large paintings currently. This one is basically finished!
Finished Wandering
I completed the unwieldy cow painting I started about a week ago. The finished painting is 48″x36″ mounted on a 3″ deep cradled board.
I could not fit the painting in my photo cube and had to take a photograph of it leaning against a wall. This painting has a lot of interesting shine beneath the surface which makes it intriguing in person but difficult to photograph.
The Pines
This is an 18″x18″ acrylic painting.
I read somewhere the description of tonalist painting as “breath on glass”. The idea of something barely there. That phrase echoes in my mind now and again… It is a beautiful notion.
Big Water
Big Water
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.
Three Paintings
I finished these there paintings this week. I still need to sign them and mount hangers on the back but the art is done. They are all 18″ x 18″ acrylic paintings. I’m getting down to the wire for my solo show (it is the end of the month). I have a handful of additional paintings I am currently working on which may or may not make the cut… plus there are three paintings I’m really hoping to do before the show.
Which of these three paintings do you like the best?
Across the sky
I’m continuing to flesh out the cloud series I recently began. This is an in studio iPhone photograph of the most recent piece. Once I finish the painting I’ll take a proper photograph!
I will paint a couple more of these… Easy to get lost in this stuff.
Billowing my mind
Somewhere along the road I fell back into another painting habit, cloud scapes. Often the most simplistic image speaks to me the most.
I think this is probably the reason I still paint. You have fun making a mess and then there is a flash of magic. You can’t take credit for it because it can not be reproduced. The brush was in your hand so…? It is the mystery of life and everything unknown suddenly feeling fine.
Distant Darkness
After wrapping up this series of skull paintings, I wanted to shift gears. I decided to paint another lonesome cloud image. This is a “work in progress”, though it is nearly complete. There are six more paintings I hope to create before late March… We shall see how it goes…
brian sostrom 