News — Process

I recently went back through the last few months of 2016 and tracked how many times I’d posted to my social media channels. I knew I had let it slide a bit but as I thought through all the things I was taking part in, surely I had posted a fair amount. After all, I’d been busy.

Not true.

One of the things I’ve had a hard time coming to terms with is that my paintings are hand made. That sounds ridiculous because of course they are hand made. That’s the whole point. No one would argue with that. But that leaves open a lot of grey. In our digital mass produced world,  I think sometimes we say we want hand made but then can get upset if say, there’s a brush hair in the painting or a thumbprint or an edge that’s not totally 100% smooth. But in truth, those are all a part of something being hand made.

We deliver paintings the very first week of December and so it’s with great excitement that I’ve finished the final three Big 500 dogs. That way I can stuff myself silly over Thanksgiving and not worry about finishing everything up.

A week or so ago I finished the first dog for the Big 500 show. Today it was dog 2. My color goal for this particular painting was originally to use the triad color scheme. The colors would be blue, yellow and red. I work very transparently building up layers of paint and the yellow had some trouble over the blue underpainting. For this reason I ended up moving more of the painting red (or orange-ish) than yellow. However, I really like that the yellow still peaks through.

(See steps after the jump.)

Group shows are a natural part of an artist's career. I don't think they are for everyone and they definitely aren't always worth your while. After doing a couple, it's worth taking a moment to figure out if they are right for you.