Hello

Thanks for looking. You can see more recent stuff at reinoart. Thanks for thinking about art.
r.

Did some work since yesterday's post

I still argue that there is still something needed to tie the overpass painting together. I'll be chewing on that piece of cud for a little while but will keep you in the loop. With that said I do feel some improvements have been made and it is closer to some end. The previous phase is here, and an earlier look can be obtained from that post. I am in an awkward place with this painting. I have done the "fun" parts but the painting is still unfinished. I did work on it as recently as yesterday though. It happens sometime, either frustration or intimidation will keep me from working on a painting. It is all a weird psychology. I like the way it is shaping up though. it was certainly an exercise in portrait painting if nothing else. It seems making my own flesh colors is much more useful than using the out-of-the-tube flesh color. Additionally I think I need to coax out a little more emotion on the faces. One o the reasons I chose this scene was the drama it portraits regardless of my abilities to capture it.
the early stages start here and then here and then here.
I have been ignoring this painting a lot. Poor little painting. I have no sense of its direction or of where it now stands. I think I need to wait for a rush of painting enthusiasm and tackle it then.

cheers
r.

Work in progress (aren't they all)

Sorry about the blurry image but this post is really about color so it isn't so necessary to have a crystal clear pic.
I felt the need to back up the picture so to speak. i did a coat of a neutral color to bring back a muted quality I wanted to build off of. The earlier stage of the picture is here. Perhaps this is a mistake, perhaps not. If I have one complaint at this point I think my ..... lets call it french grey, has too much yellow in it. I wanted a more blue or even purple tone. The color is made of purple,yellow, burnt umber and white. I was though seemingly unable to add enough purple to hide the yellow tones. Go figure.
In my head the picture is supposed to be about the emergence of the red truck from the shadows of the overpass. True this may fall under the bad habit of mine of putting a central subject in the middle of the canvas. We can discuss that when the painting is done.
ciao
r.

new

updates here.

trying

Sorry that i keep using the word

trying

. Anyhow, I saw some stuff recently that added to my desire to paint. I am still in the phase where I am painting unambitious pieces to help build up to the more ambitious stuff. There is some external issue (legitimate or not) that hinder me some. This of course should be file under E for excuses. I hope to show something soon.

on going somewhere

Part of the intent of this post was to compare/contrast the two canal side pictures. There is, however, too much of a discrepancy between the quality of the two pics for any real view into those changes. Sorry.



Firstly these are still works in progress closing in on being "done."
On the subject of getting somewhere I feel I have some progress there.
It takes me a while to remember to paint. That is to say I am usually locked into illustration aspects of the picture and not those things that are painting's milieu. I feel I am having success in reworking some of these picture with broader suggestions and implications rather than working on detail. Trying to capture the form through color and light rather than line and literal translation. I certainly have been told to do this and have seen it in paintings. I also have remembered to do it myself but it seems that there is a certain amount of painting that has to happen before this knowledge kicks in. Particularly if there has been a hiatus between works.

In regards to the canal side changes that I am not demonstrating with this post's pics I was trying to undo a flatness i was unhappy about. This was done (intended if not achieved) by changing some color choices. Adding the cadmium yellow, changing the black masses into deep color hues to pull it out to the foreground. I will have to scrutinize this painting some more to see if I succeeded in this. At this writing I would say the changes are an improvement.

Additionally I feel it is important to mention that there has been a sense of doing (as opposes to striving) in this last batch of painting. Is there more to learn and more to improve? Yes, but it does not mean there isn't that satisfaction of growth and increased intention in the painting. I think this might be the nut of my desire to paint. It is something to problem solving or creation that is not so easily found in other activities. I don't think I realized how much I missed it. Hooray for flea market paint.

At least I am painting.

I am not in love with these painting. True thy aren't done but any sense of what they are is pretty much already put down on paper/canvas. Am I happy to be doing them? Yes, I enjoy painting, I enjoy improving my novice abilities. Its true that not being done could mean that there is the chance that these will take on some as of yet applied aspect or compositional element. I hope they do. If nothing else it is useful with the idea of learning or unlearning.
Examples of what I mean:
I keep using and reusing similar palettes or color choices, clearly there is a world of options out there.
My brush technique can always be refined or all together thrown out window.
I never feel good about my trees, I might have to paint one hundred trees just to find out how to actually paint one.
I still need to let go and let the painting be itself. I can be far too literal in my objectives.
I can't help think there are much simpler ways of doing what I do, not painting often enough makes that harder to see.
When to be subtle when to be overt, TRYING to be clever doesn't fly very often.
When to let go of a bad idea and move on.
Oh the thousand choices one has to make, what if? what if?
r.

Abstract?

I've managed to paint a little these days. I am working on some landscapes and other scapes. This is not so very interesting but a way to get back into it. I still strive for technical execution so though any painting is good practice the representational straight forward pieces are somewhat easier for me to gauge the outcome. I am still using photos for models, a habit I hope to break. I have been squeezing in some abstract Pieces. Just messing around, trying out stuff, exploring etc.
Clearly I need to be spending far more time and possible paint on the paintings but its all an exploration, something not yet fully itself.
On the topic of using more paint has been on my mind ( often and reoccurringly) of late. Largely because of a bottle Eric Fischl painting.The richness of it, the way the color works differently with thick(er) coats than the thin ones I tend to use. This is something I might be intimidated by, largely because I do not have the experience or control to pull it off. I forget sometimes to take opportunities even though they are right in front of me.
As I write this I am looking at a seascape painting I am working on and I think that it would be the perfect chance to do just that. But will I?
r.

How it turned out.

I haven't been able to upload this image for a while. I am not sure why. If it does upload this is how the "susperia" painting turned out. The earlier pic was an unfinished version.
I think the quotation marks in my file name were screwing me up fyi.
r

a suite with maybe one or two more not yet started.

so this is what is going on, Some of these are yet to be finished. The lady and the boy one needs to be creepified as well as just painted to a finish. The goggled men is meant to be whimsical so i just need to finnish painting it. But hopefully as a group these paintings have a gravity to them. I have the Nocturne series which speak for itself. these were meant to explore the idea of narrative or background story via the assimilation of scenes from movies. specifically movies with a horror bet to them.  Again I hope that as a group some of this ideas spills out without the need to actually know where the subject matter came from.

Newish or have been changed

Here are some paintings that are on the new side or have been altered since there last documentation. as always there is more to see and search through at reinoart.blogspot.com.  At least one of these is in progress. Though I often like and enjoy the look of the rough unfinished look it is not indicative of how it is supposed to look at the end. I should consider doing a series of "roughs" though. It would be fun and interesting.

I am unorganized. the more recent entries are at reinoart.blogspot.com
I need to make a static portfolio page.
RGC

gowanus painting

another one sort of done.

I like this one. I might play wih it some but this is the painting for the most part. It should be filed under "people". I think it has some ennate commentary. It takes place on a fourth of July, if that means anything.

People

I would like to have a better and greater collection of portaits. The tones of the flesh seem to offer endless variation and potential. My study of anatomy is limited at best.

Cityscapes

I enjoy the cityscape. The "noise" and the somehow random collection of geometry and texture. The static buildings the streets where the only life often seems to be the cars. For some reason i find it endlessly facinating and beautiful.

Nocturnes

These are a series of nocturnes. They came about from the streetlight scene, a common sight on evening walks. The islands or pools of light on street corners were dramatic and intreguing to me. All of them are from Somerville MA. I hope to revisit the Nocturne idea again.