I have always loved big empty spaces. No buildings no roads. There are not enough of these places today.
Besides the glorious desolation it is the atmosphere. The feeling of distance and light. I try to capture that feeling in my work, try is all I can do.
I realized I am neglecting the beauty of the season. Frequently we have grey winter skies in North Idaho. The bright snow and steely water. It has an undeniable beauty even on the darkest days.
Three surf paintings together on my studio table. It is still full night and snowing in North Idaho. I stomped the powder off my boots at the studio door. It was a nice greeting, scenery from some other place.
The final painting for my upcoming solo show is shipping out today.
The show opens February 2nd at Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, Ca. It will run the month February.
This is the last of my smaller wave paintings. I am moving on to the large commission at long last! It is not going to be a recreation of any of the recent wave paintings. It will however pull ideas from each of them. Most of all I was trying to get my brain in the mindset of the ocean and surf.
Christmas is rapidly closing in. I have all of my presents wrapped so I snuck over to the studio to do some framing. I have a lot of this sort of work to do at the beginning of 2019… I will split my time with painting. I get fidgety knowing I will be out of the studio a lot in the coming week!
Another cloud painting inspired by the low winter sun of the north! Pictured in progress on my studio table.
This is another painting inspired by mist and morning light.
I have been painting a lot of work this size lately. It has enough surface area to have a bit of freedom. I am going to start treating this as my minimum size. I have a lot of prepped 16″x20″, 18″x24″ and 20″x24″ panels I am excited to dive into next.
I know summer is long gone but this title was stuck in my brain. Probably because I have listened to Cashmere by Led Zeppelin so many times in my life.
The magical quality of moonlight is undeniable. It has been a popular subject for centuries but I can not resist the gravitational pull.
I am doing a series of moonlight inspired works so more to come.
I am pretty obsessed with light and atmosphere. This painting is inspired by countless mornings on the water. I say countless but I still have not spent nearly enough mornings like that. Sometimes it’s worth getting up.
brian sostrom 