JUEVES, TRES DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-ONCE
A little experiment - I spilt some indian ink the other day over some pieces of aluminum that I had laid out ready to prime for oil paintings. It was damned expensive ink too, so I spread it over a couple of the pieces and let it dry. This afternoon, while watching a doco on Delacroix, I picked up the piece and started scratching into it with a compass. It reminded me of the scraperboard drawings we did at school, but those ones were on cardboard prepared with a layer of clay, then covered with indian ink. In a way I like this better as you get the glistening of the shiny metal when exposed. You can see in the photo below, there were some areas where the ink didn't take to the surface of the metal as there must have been some oil-based residue on the surface, which acted as a resist to the ink and when scratching into it, whole flakes came off. Something I'll need to assess if I want to use this medium and technique.

I like how this technique lines up with my scrimshaw which are halted at present due to not having the tools to make them. This is like the photographic negative of them.

MIERCOLES, DOS DE FEBRERO, VEINTE-ONCE

After a couple of months, I sat down and decided to finish the spleen painting. I actually posted it back in November, last year, here on my blog. Based on the Catholic 'Sacred Heart', I ended up thinking it would be best to keep the imagery reasonably generic and then went to work drawing sketches of what I thought were good analogies for 'venting', and to keep it kind of upbeat for such a tempestuous subject. I decided on the flick of a rubberband, the violence of the broken bottle as a weapon , wrist-slitting, a gunstapler attack on a penis (as seen on Dirty Sanchez) and a snail traveling over a razorblade.

LUNES, EL TRIENTIUNO DE ENERO, VEINTE-ONCE
I've just finished a new little version of 'The Teacher' (you can see a bigger version of it in yesterday's post), made to fit a decorative frame I found at a swapmeet recently. As I used to do in New Zealand, I'd trawl junk shops and opshops for old period frames to mount my paintings in. Often, I'd have to work on a specific sized surface that I'd have to cut especially for the frame rebate. It was a hassle if I didn't pull-off the painting as then I'd have to have another go at repainting the idea, trying to get it right for the frame. I recently also found an old photographic frame for an 8x10 Ambrotype or tintype, so I've painted a retablo of an old view camera to mount in it. I'll post that as soon as I've photographed the work in the frame.

VIERNES, EL VEINTIOCHO DE ENERO, VEINTE-ONCE
'The Teacher', 2010, oil on metal, 8in x 10 1/2in.

MIERCOLES, EL VEINTISEIS DE ENERO, VEINTE-ONCE
'Family Portrait', 2011, oil on metal, 8in x 10 1/2in.
One of my favourite paintings so far this year, mostly because of the colours of the background and how they relate to the figures and forms. I resisted putting too many forms in this painting, especially as it's a family portrait (which in my family are only taken when EVERYONE is home). There are familiar symbols, the Liberty/Zelandia figure with the Parthenon head, the bees, my Great Grandfather's Rotherham pocket watch, the Southern Cross and the Eye of Provenance. The text, 'Historia Luget' comes from an inscription of the tomb of Leonardo Bruni in Santa Croce in Florence, Italy, a moving two words, that can be taken in a 'glass half empty/half full' kind of way.
The camera is starting to reappear in my paintings too, mostly because of it's 'birth' is so close to that of New Zealand's signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. In several new paintings, the camera signifies the birth of a nation, which in turn has sparked off many new ideas on that topic. One o the initial pattern recognitions was Griffith's early 1900's film by the same name.

MARTES, EL VEINTICINCO DE ENERO, VEINTE-ONCE
A one-night-only exhibition that I'm having in Las Vegas in a couple of weeks time. I'll post a link to the new work on my website shortly.

DOMINGO, EL VEINTITRES DE ENERO, VEINTE-ONCE
A photo taken by JK Russ of me painting, probably about two-thirds through a bigger painting. This was taken a couple of weeks ago and I've just about finished it. It features references to Sassetta's St Anthony Tormented by Demons and Chardin's Le Singere (both works I've referenced in the past, as far back as 2002). I've decided on a title for the painting: 'The Trickle-Down Effect' which will make sense once I've finished it and posted a photo of the finished painting.

JUEVES, EL VEINTE DE ENERO, VEINTE-ONCE
Jules Breton, Le Chant De L’alouette (Song of the Skylark),1884, oil on canvas, Chicago Institute of Art.
I've uploaded an image from the net and a photo I took, framed included, from 2008.

MIERCOLES, EL DIECINUEVE DE ENERO, VEINTE-ONCE
I've just completed varnishing, 'antiquing' and archiving thirty-two new retablos and ex-votos from December/ Jan. The majority of the paintings are small oils on metal, approx 125mm x 90mm and seem to be assessing my new American environment and art scene. I've been keeping to smaller works to keep a balance of confidence and development as I've really just come to understand the gravity of our recent move to the USA and how daunting it really is. I've been looking back at some of my painting from 2003 to 2008 where my work shifted focus from NZ to the USA and popular culture, whilst trying to assess how narrative art from the Renaissance has been transformed into the narration of popular culture. When I first arrived in the USA in July, I was treading water and repeating works that I'd done in 2003/2004 to find an equalibrium to help me make the adjustments to living in a new country. After 5 months of painting, this new series of small works, I think, hold the key to my assessment and assimilation into the new country. Useful talismans/heirlooms indeed.

MARTES, EL DIECIOCHO DE ENERO, VEINTE-ONCE
Painting problems. Usually, I can solve issues with paintings (the issues, if explained, would seem nonsensical and ridiculous, so i'll just say they're 'issues') through drawing - developing sketches and doodles from the original invention/drawing. Sometimes it's along time which helps resolve the problem. Time allows for clarity. But sometimes in a particularly tricky painting, such as the one below, I want it to be something that it is not. That is, an older painting from 2008 called 'Big Garden'. I painted Big Garden after returning from a 5 month trip around the USA and Europe. I actually started this blog on returning to NZ and you can see the painting in development in some of the early photos (that's Big Garden on the ground by Jo). That painting took 4 days to paint, without any prior drawings or sketches. I just knew what and how it needed to be painting. The work below that I've been nursing for 3 months and been through 3 incantations now and I've just painted over the third. I now saw what needs to come out of this painting and to involve the spirit of the original 'Big Garden' I'm going to attack the painting without any prior sketches and develop it in the canvas.

SABATO, EL QUINCE DE ENERO, VEINTE-ONCE
I cleaned up the studio today, hadn't been done for 3 months and it was filthy and not conducive to the vernissage process (hair, dust, ants and other studio ephemera). Here's a stitched together photo of it spick and span:

LUNES, EL DIEZ DE ENERO, VEINTE-ONCE
Today on Facebook, I was asked to explain a painting, or myself, from 2005.
I ended up answering:

'It's not enough for me to watch a single football game. I want to see two football games played at the same time on a field that cross over each other. I want the half times to be staggered so there is play all the time. I'm happy for the o...range boys to run on the field too, rather than the players leave the field. I want the player to be able to play any field position in the team and be able to use their hands, even if they're not playing goalee. When the game is close to finishing, I'll get nervous because I want it to continue, so I'd happily be able to pick the players I enjoyed watching the most and make them play in the next game, but of course they'll get too tired and let me down, so I'll need new players, but perhaps not football players.'

I resent handing over answers. If I knew what it meant in the way that people want to know what it means, I'd hesitate because it's then presented in words and in a manner to resolve or make succinct and it becomes that. In the end, the answer will be different according to what I'm specifically asked or wanting to elaborate on.

DOMINGO, EL NUEVE DE ENERO, VEINTE-ONCE
Have been flat out with work recently, so nothing interesting to post. Here's a version of Millet's 'Man with Hoe' that I saw at The Getty recently. It's a painting I got back to (along with the Ensor's 'Christ Entering Brussels') over and over again. I'm interested in the social message vs. the romanticism of his images, especially in the dusky sunsets he often portrays them in. Jules Breton fits into this mode as well, along with one of my favourite paintings of his in Chicago, 'The Sky Larks'.

LUNES, EL TRES DE ENERO, VEINTE-ONCE
This morning it started snowing here in Las Vegas. It was snowing a bit like this on the 30th when we were out at Red Rocks Canyon, but not as much as this. In the second pic, the neighbour wasn't impressed with the pitch, but I loved it...

SABATO, EL UNO DE ENERO, VEINTE-ONCE
first painting of 2011; 'Valley of the Dry Bones'. Happy New Year!

MARTES, EL VEINTIOCHO DE DIECEMBRE, VEINTE-DIEZ
The Christmas/ New Year's break is always productive. I feel like I can get on with my work while others are off on holiday, so there seems to be a quiet around the city. I've had three good steady days of painting, drawing, inventing and reading (have got through a bio on Warhol, Stephen Fry's 'The Hippopotamus' and am making my way through Moby Dick).
It's only these days, with this consistency, that development seems to happen and I'm reminded of a letter I received from Scottish artist, Alan Davie after meeting him in Inverness in 1997. It may seem old-fashioned, but I still believe merits of hard work is the only way to get a glimpse of the dwat.
The quote reads: 'Only a lot of work and struggle will produce the real magic - and it only comes through the struggle of working - (no easy way)!!'

LUNES, EL VEINTISIETE DE DIECEMBRE, VEINTE-DIEZ
I hope everyone had a great Christmas break. Here are three photos off our Xmas presents; the 'Trubyte Dentures Portfolio' and Casey Weldon's 'Kitty Kitty (Rust)' painting.

MIERCOLES, EL VIENTIDOS DE DECIEMBRE, VEINTE-DIEZ
Merry Christmas, y'all! I'm taking a few days off from the blog, will be back online just before New Year's... have a great one, drive and eat safe!

MARTES, EL VIENTIUNO DE DECIEMBRE, VEINTE-DIEZ
R.I.P. Captain Beefheart. Click here to read my friend, Simon Sweetman's obit on Blog On The Tracks.

LUNES, EL VIENTE DE DECIEMBRE, VEINTE-DIEZ

I've now got our Prologue website back up and running on the internet. I had it hosted on a free server which because a spammer's pitstop, so the site couldn't be shared on forums and along with javascript issue, I couldn't put it on my website hosted site asa subdomain. So with a quick fix of the pop-ups, I'm now hosting it on my domain server.
The website was intended as a co-catalogue (we printed a very limited edition hardcopy catalogue too) for the physical exhibition at the Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, NZ and contained about half to 2/3rds of our present collection.