A new one

So this one is a modification of a Color Field influenced piece from a couple of years ago. It wasn't terrible, but it was also not terribly interesting. So I took a metaphorical axe to it. It became less an abstract...okay, not really an abstract but I like the colors.

It's acrylics on unprimed canvas attached to plywood (waaay more than you want to know).

Monsignor, acrylics on unprimed canvas, maybe 36 x 24?

A couple of new old things

First another one from the "finding something there" in an old failure of a painting. This one was actually pretty easy - so easy that I don't know why I didn't see it earlier. Basically most of the black you see was white before. And is not uncommon, I found some realism in an abstract. So it's 3 friends "Hanging Out."

Hanging Out, 24 x 18 acrylics on canvas

Number 2 was different. I started with a heavily gessoed over big (for me) canvas. Karen gave me the new Joan Mitchell biography for my b-day. Joan is one of my very favorite artists. The energy of her canvases is amazing. Oh to be that talented! So I was thinking about Joan and her use of color and composition. After a couple of hours last night - getting late - I stopped, happy with how it was going. Karen thinks it's finished. I'm not convinced- I'm not sure I see where the eye is drawn. But I have f-ed up enough paintings by not letting them soak in before continuing. I have NOT f-ed paintings because Karen told me to stop. So I'm stopping for now.

Thoughts?

Birds in Flight, 36 x 24, acrylics on canvas

February show of my abstracts at Johnny's Gone Fishing

I'll hang a show in the back area of Johnny's Gone Fishing on W. Main Carrboro tomorrow, January 29th and it will be up through February. I've decided to show abstracts. Here's a new one. I pulled a failure from who knows when and saw a few glimmers of hope in it. After a couple of days of fooling with it something popped out. Finished and ready to go.

This is Not a Stained Glass Window. Acrylics on canvas. 24 x 30

This has nothing to do with my painting!

chris beachams 4, originally uploaded by beekalove.

Me and my boys at the remarkably gracious Christmas party/dinner we attended at the Edmondson's home in suburban Philly. Photo by my remarkably talented niece Becca Beacham.

The portrait or the abstract, portrait/abstract, abstract/portrait....?

Coin flip and it's, hold our collective breath.....the abstract that gets the blog treatment!

I'd never worked with such an odd shape of canvas before. It's, IIRC, 12 by 48. I started with an idea maybe 18 months ago. Fail. I pulled it out every few months, sometimes painting on it, sometimes just looking. Finally 6 months or so ago I did some pretty drastic modifications and I felt somewhat better about it. But something didn't ring true.

It had the box/window motif that has been a largely unconscious part of my painting from the beginning. (I'm sure there is some deep psychological reason for boxes/windows in my painting but I'm not going to go there.) Was structure the problem? How about color? Both?

A couple of weeks ago I had finished working on something and didn't feel like quitting and I had some paint that I didn't want to waste. So why not, I couldn't ruin a painting that didn't work could I? So it goes.

The color was the real key I think but the changes also improved the structural/compositional aspects. It's okay and it might not be finished but here it is.

Skyscraper (working tile). Acrylics and ink on canvas, 12 x 48