ça pète

7th Ave - unfinished

100x150cm

oil and spray paint on canvas

When someone asks me how I know a painting is finished, usually I say I don't know why, but I do know.  It is when something in the painting moves, flickers.  People think I'm kidding when I say this but then write it off because artists are all nuts.  We have the freedom to talk and walk with anyone unilaterally because we are unclassifiable. I love it.

When I was building portraits with clay -modeling not sculpting that's technically carving, I knew when I had captured the person because the eyes on the sculpture would blink. Usually after an hour or so.

Last week, during the rentré -when kids go back to school in France, I almost cut the above painting in half but instead I plodded on.  It's a pain in the arse.  Just do it, sit in that chair and paint, or stand there and paint.  I imagine it is like a writer trotting through the first draft of a long work of fiction.  Just sit down and do it, keep your butt in the chair. 

The result, in this case, is that this painting hops, not just a flicker but skipps.

Ça pète.

Here are some details

I love the abstraction of the blocking-in part.

This shows the mixture of spray paint coupled with alla prima oil technique.

Ça pète!

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.

Experimenting with spray paints

This is one of the largest paintings I've done recently; 100x150cm.   I decided to post my progress.  It may become the invitation to my next show:  The Grand Marché d'Art Contemporain at the Bastille (Paris) from 1 to 5 November.  We'll see when it's finished.

An exciting thing that I recently wished for is to utilize spray paints in my paintings.  To my delight, when I moved into my new space I discovered boxes of spray paints that my friend left for me.    

It's great to be experimenting again. 

Here is a detail.  I think that it blends well with my urban landscapes.  I love that the colors dry so quickly and leave an absorbent matt surface.  It makes for great contrast with the oils.

Here is a detail of the top left corner, looks like an iced cake, that's the spatula knife.