You Made My Day

This is a photo sent from a client to show me where they hung the painting they bought.  What a nice surprise.  It looks great!

Thanks for making my day.

The open studio day was a smash! There were about 20 four year olds painting and having a ball. Last night the bed felt so nice and early too.  I'll post photos tomorrow.

Portes Ouvertes

Sunday I'm participating in the open studios day in Ivry-sur-Seine.  My atelier will be open in the afternoon, here is the info Plein Feux  .  There are hundreds of artists studios in Ivry, in the Fabrique des Artistes there are 77 individual artist studio's.
Hope to see you there.

Crossing 7th

Crossing 7th

Oil and spray paint on canvas

100x150cm

I could probably work on this painting for another two weeks but for now it is finished.  I have to move on to something fresh.  

Since August 5th I've finished two large paintings.  

In my mind this one works as a whole but the individual pieces are ugly.  Not rough like the first draft of a manuscript but plain ugly.  Its a characteristic of my painting, there is a rawness to it.  So they say.

I do like the guy in the red shirt on the left. He's the focal point.  Can you guess why?

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!

Another big one

Here is another 100x150cm canvas.  I like the abstraction in the underpainting

I love my atelier

Midtown Angels

Midtown Angels

100x150cm

oil and spray paint on canvas

Today the painting told me that it was finished.  Don't ask me how this happens.  Any creative person that listens to their creations knows what I'm talking about.  I don't know how to explain it.

Thanks to Cheryl for the title.  

Have a great weekend!

Painting in the heat

Here is a photo from yesterday.  It gives you a good idea of how large the painting is and of how bright my new space it.
I know I'll finish this painting in August, was hoping for tomorrow.  The painting hasn't yet told me that it is finished.  

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.  

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...