Happy New Year! destockage old paintings for 2014

Hey there, sorry to post this late but it has been 18 months of house hunting, renovations and all the stress involved.  The last two months have been boxing, moving and everything else but painting.

I planned to paint in my old studio until the end of January but there was a leak from the studio upstairs.  Result, I had to move out because everything got humid, even the door that was stuck. I lost several paintings and lots of documents.

Today for the first time I opened my paint box and it felt great.  Here are some photos of what was going on, before I moved to the new place... 

I'll be posting more regulary and hosting some auctions on ebay of old works that don't fit me anymore nor do they fit into my new studio.  Which is much smaller but way nicer.  A photo coming soon.

I'll miss this awesome atelier where Farah Atassi once worked, even though it doesn' t feel right anymore. Still, I was sad when leaving.  A post industrial building on the outskirts of Paris perfect for creating freely, you can paint the walls, tag them, nail anywhere and basically trash the place or build it to your fancy.  Personally I like cleanliness and order.  Not the case last week.

 

I had to move everything away from the leak that came down like rain.

 

This is a box of manuscripts my father wrote, wet.

 

trashed paintings.  I cut them to peices and threw them out.  Oh well

 

Progress report and studio shots

Here is where I left the painting yesterday.  I was hoping to finish it today but that won't happen.  I'll be able to block in most of the unpainted parts like in the taxi below.

Lots of detail work to follow, it's a good thing I don't have internet in the atelier.  Nothing to distract me from my brushes

I bought some new colors, Ochre Gold is one of them.  It's been on my palette before but was shunned when I stopped painting Tuscany.  Too kitsch.  I guess paintings of NY are kitsch too.

Here's a detail of a sprayed part for the next painting that I started blocking in, you'll see that next time. I used gold spray paint.   Glass buildings reflect the sun.

I have lots of colors to play with.

Today will be another great day.  The key is in my hand.

my new atelier

Here is my new space.  I just moved in the day after returning from a five week adventure in Tuscany, Provence and Corsica.  

The space is in La Fabrique in Ivry-sur-Seine, where I worked from 2007- 2009.  It's not the same atelier, this one was where the artist Farah Atassi was working.  I feel lucky to follow her into this space, maybe some of her awesome success will rub off my way.

The exciting thing for me is that here I can use spray paints; use graffiti technique, pochoir, tagging, etc. in my canvases.

Here is a detail of the floor under the wall where Farah worked.  I decided to not cover it up, it's just too cool...