Sunday, July 18, 2010

Some more pieces based on photos...

First, good news, a friend has bought Dancing Alone and Together which basically didn't change much from what I put in the previous blog post.

Below I've posted two more.  The first is vaguely based on a photo of Robert Mapplethorpe from the Patti Smith memoir.  It is pretty simple at this point and Karen is voting on leaving it that way.  I've played with this photo of the piece in the Gimp (an open source Photoshop) and I'm still on the fence.

Robert.  Ink and acrylics on watercolor paper. 9 x 13


The next one is from a photo on the cover of Art in America.  There are a couple of more realistic versions in previous posts but this one is much more of a departure.  It has already changed some since I photographed it this am and there will likely be more changes.

Untitled.  Oil pastels and acrylics on watercolor paper.  9 x 13

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Some new pieces mostly based on photos

I've been working, really I have.  Mostly the effort hasn't resulted in much but I've been fairly inspired anyway.  One thing I've been working on are paintings from photos I like, Man Ray, Robert Mapplethorpe, etc.  Some I've stayed pretty close to the photo, others I've tried to use as a motive for either an abstract or just an inspiration. 

First though a piece that was influenced by, hell, I can't find the piece in this mess of a studio.  Anyway, I started with random lines and ink confined in a series of 4 x4 inch boxes.  Afterwords I looked for some kind of pattern and found confined spaces suggesting two dancers.  So...

Dancing Alone & Together.  Ink and acrylic on mat board.  12 x16 Perhaps not finished.


I have been highly influenced by Man Ray's photos.  The following two are from a photo called "Netting" and I've been pretty faithful to the original.  Here are 2 versions both on black artist grade sandpaper.  The first is quite small, the second somewhat bigger.


Netting #1.  Conte pencils and acrylics on black artist grade sandpaper.  5 x 7


Netting #2.  Conte pencils on black artist grade sandpaper.  9 x 15