Category Archives: Abstract

Avoidance of the depiction of mental objects, allowing the materials to speak for themselves, whatever they may have to say.

A Piece of Me #17, mixed technique on panel. 21 x 13.3 cm or 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #17, the mixed technique

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A piece of me, #17, the egg tempera underpainting over the india ink underdrawing.

A piece of me, #17, the egg tempera underpainting over the india ink underdrawing.

A Piece of Me #17, mixed technique on panel. 21 x 13.3 cm or 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #17, mixed technique on panel. 21 x 13.3 cm or 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.

This panel was pure painter’s delight. Took me about an hour to do. My challenge: how to make a field of dark green with some slight shadowed undulations interesting

So I mixed up five shades from the deepest shadows to the highest highlights and set to work. And though I did use some lead white for the tints, I was also careful to make use of the white of the gesso substrate, too. This was done by using a fan shaped dry brush to brush the pigmented paint into its neighbor. When the manipulation was vigorous enough the dry brush tended to reveal the substrate – which made the whole panel more luminous. Finding light in the shadows. And relative to the composition, I was careful to introduce whatever hard lines it offered as a counterpoint to the amorphous fields of green. This is the result.

The whole is already more three dimensional than its underpainting. I’ll take it.Full description of the whole project here. Write up on the mixed technique here.

A piece of me #22, the mixed technique over pastiglia on panel, 21 x 13.3 or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #22, the mixed technique

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A piece of me #22, the egg tempera underpainting over pastiglia

A piece of me #22, the egg tempera underpainting over pastiglia

A piece of me #22, the mixed technique over pastiglia on panel, 21 x 13.3 or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A piece of me #22, the mixed technique over pastiglia on panel, 21 x 13.3 or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

This panel was executed over a pre-prepared lightly sculpted pastiglia. On the pastiglia level I tried to create the effect of folds of clothing: the bends of my linen jacket and the flowing shirt of the lady standing behind me to the right. Unfortunately, due to my method of creating the pastiglia, a number of pinholes appeared in the gesso of the linen jacket. The oil was able to hide some, but otherwise it’s not an ideal situation, kinds like acne, you learn to live with the scars. The light jacquard pattern of the lady’s blue blouse was a nice surprise for me as I began to work on the enlarged image. Fun to render! Full description of the whole project here. Write up on the mixed technique here.

A piece of me #07, the mixed technique over linen on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm. or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #07, the mixed technique

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I completed this mixed technique panel this morning in about an hour and one half. It forms part of the larger mixed media project described here.

A piece of me #07, the egg tempera underpainting

A piece of me #07, the egg tempera underpainting

A piece of me #07, the mixed technique over linen on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm. or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A piece of me #07, the mixed technique over linen on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm. or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

I think it’s one of the most beautiful ones yet. There’s a lovely range of values with a simplified yet harmonious contrast of hues (the warm yellow-orange fields tend to push the warm gray shadows towards their complement). The architectural details provide a graphical contrast of curves, lines and larger open fields. Since it is (or will be) a panel that fits into the far background of the greater composition, I tried to be careful to not make the shadowed elements too dark. (Of course, when the final painting is assembled some adjustments can be made, if necessary). Write up on the mixed technique here.

A piece of me #42, the mixed technique over pastiglia on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #42, the mixed technique

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Fifth in the mixed technique series of the larger mixed media project. An abstract wall composition with a fan shaped shadow on the right side. When I prepared this with pastiglia I sculpted it using a painting knife, as I imagined how a plaster wall might feel. The shadow was not sculpted to look or feel differently because after all, its just a shadow.

A piece of me #42, egg tempera underpainting

A piece of me #42, egg tempera underpainting

A piece of me #42, the mixed technique over pastiglia on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A piece of me #42, the mixed technique over pastiglia on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

On the right the egg tempera underpainting. On the left the final after one working session in oil.

Write up on the mixed technique here.

A piece of me #62, mixed technique over pastiglia on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #62, the mixed technique

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Fourth in the mixed technique series of the larger mixed media project. (You can read more about the mixed technique but clicking the category link on the right.) It’s consistently amazing to me how quickly these images come together – but only because I have spent months preparing the earlier layers. So this is a sustained argument for the power, saturation and luminosity attainable through an indirect technique.

A piece of me #62, mixed technique over pastiglia on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A piece of me #62, mixed technique over pastiglia on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A piece of me #62, egg tempera underpainting.

A piece of me #62, egg tempera underpainting.

This particular panel was fun because it was lightly sculpted using pastiglia and because compositionally it contained the top edge of one of my shoes. That created not only a different texture but also a stronger warmer hue inn addition to a set of stronger values. Here on the right then is an image of the egg tempera underpainting and the left the final achieved through one layer of oil.

Write up on the mixed technique here.

A piece of me #32, mixed technique on panel over collage, final version, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #32, the mixed technique

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Third in the mixed technique series (see the category link on the right for a fuller description of the mixed technique). Here, compositionally, I am still navigating within the abstract flooring pieces of the larger composition. The plan for this panel called for a collage. Thus, in the very early stages I glued a number of pieces of fabric to the bare panel, roughly imitating the compositional planes to come. Doing so resulted in a very coarsely textured substrate and covering this with 9 layers of gesso never completely eliminated this coarseness. Yet elimination was never the idea for this project. My idea has always been to live with whatever the process created and still try to create something beautiful from it.

A piece of Me #32, egg tempera underpainting

A piece of Me #32, egg tempera underpainting

A piece of me #32, mixed technique over collage, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A piece of me #32, mixed technique over collage, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

So the image here on the right displays the egg tempera underpainting (over the collage) stage. Overall it’s light in value while the hue differences between the tiled planes have been accentuated. The image on the left shows the panel after one working session in oil. Due to my gray unifying glaze, the heavy texture of the collage caused the broad fields to look very dirty. Couldn’t live with that! So, I decided to do one more working session in order to reclaim the beauty of these subtly modulated fields. The spotlighted image above illustrates the difference. BTW: if you’re reading this via email, the wordpress interface doesn’t include the enlarged “spotlighted” image at the top, so (if you are interested to do so) you’ll need to use the link to compare these three stages.

Write up on the mixed technique here.

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A Piece of Me #57, the mixed technique on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #57, the mixed technique

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A Piece of Me #57, the mixed technique on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #57, the mixed technique on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #57, egg tempera on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #57, egg tempera underpainting on panel, 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

Here is the second of the mixed technique series (see the category description on the right for a full explanation of the technique). Like #47 before it, this one is another abstract design principally of the tile flooring in front of the great mosque at Casablanca. You can read about the concept behind the whole project here.

To the right you can view the egg tempera underpainting before its layer of oil. To the left the completed panel afterwards. Once again, the increase in saturation and depth seems to happen almost automatically – due to the difference in medium. Additionally, what’s interesting to me, is that I had completed the underpainting a few months back, imagining it to be a final piece (and not just the groundwork for further manipulations in paint). That is, I thought I was creating a finished panel for the egg tempera series – and at the time I was pretty happy with the result. I think the composition lends itself to that satisfaction, but still after I discovered the error, I was curious about how much the oil level could or would enhance the piece. I think it does. What do you think?

Write up on the mixed technique here.

A Pice of Me #47, the mixed technique on panel, 21 x 13.3 or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #47, the mixed technique

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After a long hiatus I was finally able to get back to the studio yesterday. Hooray!! This piece marks the beginning of the upcoming “mixed technique” series. For a full description of the mixed technique see the category description to the right.

A Pice of Me #47, egg tempera underpainting

A Pice of Me #47, the egg tempera underpainting

A Pice of Me #47, the mixed technique on panel, 21 x 13.3 or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A Pice of Me #47, the mixed technique on panel, 21 x 13.3 or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

So on the right you can see the preparatory work consisting of an egg tempera underpainting developed over an india ink underdrawing (no image of the B/W phase). On the left you can see the final panel after a session of maybe an hour or two, working oils into its underpainting. Saturation and contrast/depth is quickly achieved – but only because the groundwork has already been developed. I remember the words of James Brown: “Now brother don’t leave your homework undone”. Viewing the results of the oil though, It’s easy to understand why their discovery in the fifteenth century was such a revolution.

I’m thinking that this speed of image development will most likely be true for all the “abstract” panels of this project (see link for a full description). The figurative panels will, most likely, require more time, thus more working sessions. But we’ll see. Onward and upwards!

Write up on the mixed technique here.

A Piece of Me #31, egg tempera over linen on panel. 21 x 13.3 cm or 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #31, egg tempera

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A Piece of Me #31, egg tempera over linen on panel. 21 x 13.3 cm or 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #31, egg tempera over linen on panel. 21 x 13.3 cm or 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.

A panel of abstract geometric shapes – diagonal trapezoids except for one lonely cigarette butt lower left. Deceptively easy. Create a few washes and that’s it. But no, there were cool tiles, there were warm tiles, there were neutral tiles. How to create an interesting unity of these subtle contrasts of hue? Then also, how to emphasize the extremely reduced value range – inherent to the original subject – so that this panel, too, is interesting by itself? This is the result. I’ll take it.

Note to self: this was an egg tempera over linen panel. I am slowly finding by experience that the linen is not a good addition on a substrate for egg tempera. It affects the absorbency in a negative way and influences the brushwork in a negative way, too. For oils that is the opposite. For the next time, perhaps a very fine linen weave might be OK, but not a coarse one.

Write up of the overall project here.

A technical write up of the lessons learned about egg tempera in this series of panels.

A piece of me #16, egg tempera over collage. 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A Piece of Me #16, egg tempera

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A piece of me #16, egg tempera over collage. 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

A piece of me #16, egg tempera over collage. 21 x 13.3 cm or 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.

This is one of the more interesting spontaneous compositions of the overall project. When I first saw it, I wasn’t sure what the long haired girl was doing. Then it hit me, of course, she’s taking a selfie! How 21st century.

The dice-roll treatment for this panel stipulated collage and egg tempera. These are two elements that are almost antithetical to one another. Collage is coarse and heavily textured. Egg tempera is quite refined, subtle and also accentuates any irregularities in the substrate. Thus I anticipated that this one would be challenging. But in fact, as I began laying in colors and calibrating value relationships, the coarseness of the collage didn’t create too many problems, au contraire, it actually enhanced the design (for the most part), which of course is what I had wanted (but couldn’t expect).

Another aspect of the composition is the way it reads as landscape. There are clear foreground, middle ground and background elements. That meant that I needed to modulate my values in such a way to enhance the “landscape” experience. So, given all the givens – of a very contemporary subject mattered panel –  I’m pleased with the way it turned out.

A technical write up of the lessons learned about egg tempera in this series of panels.