Crit tomorrow so paintings finished today

Duckie Still Life

Today was a catch all rampage to put the final few brushstrokes on some paintings till I abandon them for now. It was a bittersweet victory as I wouldn't really like to call any of these paintings finished, but it is more like I am done with them. Mr. Duckie there turned out well considering how much trouble I had working with yellow. Quite accidentally I also discovered that as an art piece you can pull a few messages from it if you wish. Some sort of environmental stuff about plastic ruining our ecosystem, but let's face it, I did this cause rubber duckies are awesome.

Medusa's Garden

 This was one of the first paintings I started here in Finland and as such I decided to try native finnish materials...bad idea. The 'canvas' that they use is closer to a burlap sack than the awesome duck cotton that I have apparently been spoiled with back in Canada. The roughness and preparation don't really bother me, it is the fact that it has an imperfect weave with holes all over, so unless you heavily gesso or paint thickly you have a hole filled painting like I do. Hint hint: one of the reasons I quickly grew disenchanted with this piece. 

Persona

 Glorious day I also managed to start work on the final painting in my Jung Series. For some reason I wrestled with the composition endlessly. Thankfully Mr Caravaggio gave me the inspiration boost I needed. Today was about getting my version of an under-painting. Everything is placed about where I want it to go and most of the basic colors and motifs have been laid down. It is far too bright though. In the next session I will pump up the shadows and hopefully decide which kind of masks the subject will be pondering over.

Lou Lou

Day 1

Meet Lou Lou, she will be one of my many side projects as I indulge in painting everything that is not for academic purposes. She is a lovely girl from Scotland that is on exchange here in Finland. 

I have had this composition in my mind for quite a while so I am pleased to finally get it done. Now the issue is how to make this uniquely about miss Lou Lou. I am not sure what I am doing with the back ground, so I will keep it fairly loose until some idea grabs me. I am also considering some type of skirt to make her legs more interesting. Hours of work awaits.

Day 2

So it begins...

After a few weeks of planning the work week is finally upon me. I am starting work on my third winter sculpture endeavor. So that means that every day I will wander home soaked and cold, painting sure is looking good right now. Regardless I will keep my spirits up by spending an hour or two in the studio each evening. The objective of this week is to finish a still life I started a while ago.

Let's hear it for random objects I found in the studio! One of my class paintings had to be a still life so after 10 minutes of poking around the studio I stumbled upon these, laughed to myself a lil bit then got to work. I'm having some trouble establishing the form of the can through all the texture, but the duckie keeps me happy so it's all good.

Working for yourself

I have lost count of the times I find myself sitting before a blank slate, work and responsibilities piled around me. It is rarely a case of a lack of inspiration, instead it is a lack of motivation. It is still hard to define even after it has plagued me a great many hours. I would assume art making should come easy to me after spending so many years dedicated towards it, but still something holds my hand. Current speculation is a lack of confidence, but I love painting so confidence hurry the fuck up.

Much of today was spent researching and idly sketching. I started another wall mural as well, but it has barely 30 minutes of work into it so no picture of work today. However, I can show you the camera lucida that one of my teachers let me borrow. It is very interesting tool and incredibly difficult to use. Best described as a primitive overhead projector. Unlike the modern day version it depends on environmental light and an assortment of lens, so everything has to be manually adjusted. After about an hour of tinkering I managed to get it to work and well lets just say I need much more practice.

Freud Series

This is a series I made based on Freud's structural model of the psyche. My goal was to visually represent abstract concepts of the mind.The pieces are not meant to embody Freud's concepts, but instead draw inspiration from them. I tried all sorts of experiments throughout this series. Some worked, some didn't. Overall I am pleased with the results.

Self

Ego

Id

Superego

Old Man Portrait

Hour 1

Hour 7

I always wanted to paint a really wrinkled face so I figured it was about time. There is a certain beauty in something that has been ravaged by time and life. Still not quite finished but getting there. I also decided it would be interesting to show a bit of the process and if you are wondering the eyes are red in the first photo simply because I thought it was funny. The background is a bit harsh and will be toned down. I will also add quite a bit more details.

Been a while since I posted because of general procrastination issues, but as it is several people have been inquiring about the professional advertisement of myself. So logic says I need to get on that shit. I will try to keep the world up to date and pull some work out of the dark reaches of my closet to share.
As for the lovelies depicted above, they are to be a series I have been working on for the past few months. They are based in Carl Jung's theory of personality drawing upon his concept of archetypes. More details shall be shared in future posts.