Saturday March 7th 2009

Hello. I am taking a break form work for a moment to check in and write a post. I am out in EH and tonight was a reception for James Kennedy at Sylvester & Co. in Amagansett. James Kennedy of Surface Library Gallery showed fifteen or so paintings, the work is beautiful and soothing and looked great in context with simple contemporary furniture. It was nice to see some local people that I like out and being social and meeting some new people. Hey Lynn Dunham it was so nice meeting you if you are reading this, if not I will be in touch. Of course insecurities of my blog not being good enough creep up, got to let it go.

I am making a proposal for a Canadian company that is doing over their offices and the conference room's are being named after trees. It sounds a little hokey but I think it has potential to be a nice group of work. In total it will be nine paintings. Seven will be the same or similar scale 40"x36" and two will be larger for the two "Maple" conference rooms. I am making close-up views of the trees which is something that is familiar to me, the way I have been looking at trees. So as far as this project goes it feels like a natural progression of my current work.

I'm using watercolor for the proposal and will include a piece of canvas with oil swatches of color to show my palette. I am trying to make it fool proof for the designer, with my site as a reference to get a look at what I've done will seal the deal one way or the other.

It is a nice amount of money for the work which will flow very easily. If approved I think I can crank these paintings out as I have made many preparatory sketches/paintings for this proposal and feel very familiar with the trees. I've made quite a few watercolors as I have not used the medium in a while and it is a little tricky. While my show was up in February I did do some graphite sketches from my head and then used a wash over them, that flowed very well and I always seemed to achieve some pleasing result but when making something for approval that is a different proposition. It just takes a bit more work and the finished paintings will be oil so I have to let it go. These watercolors are just for composition and color feeling.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Hello. I am beginning a new project involving nine medium sized paintings. It is for a Canadian company and their conference rooms. They are naming the rooms after native trees and I am making plans, small paintings for the project. I am hopeful as they have seen my site and like the work. The Sycamore is one of the trees and the image is a close-up of Sycamore bark.

I found this great site for tree photos called www.earlyforest.com
I emailed this guy, the photographer of the site to ask permission to use his images for paintings and He responded that it was fine and he was happy to help. Great guy. Anyway the internet can be amazing for that reason alone. Connecting with a perfect stranger over the love of trees. He sent me a better jpeg of the Sycamore image which is amazing and a view that i would have gone after. Life is crazy, good crazy. I am heading out to EH this Friday am for the weekend to hopefully get back to my studio.

Later.