this one's for fun ( love gun 2)

this one's for fun ( love gun 2),2009

15" x 30" , oil on canvas


This painting is available at the Judy Saslow gallery


This is the final stage with the Studio Products medium. The #3 glazing medium is super glossy ( and it will take a little longer to dry than the previous ones). One thing I like is that this doesn't contain any solvent so it won't screw up the layers beneath it when you apply it.

I realized when I finished this one that using the American flag changed my original idea. I forget that "Y'all wont to take mah guhn away" is a real thing for some people. I think the argument is that if "they" take our guns away, then only the criminals will have guns. I think a better way to look at it is that if "they" take our guns away, then "they" will take away all of those redneck hunting "accidents".

And now, a word on deer hunting:

The whole argument for the necessity for deer hunting as a remedy for overpopulation is total crap. The deer population is regulated by the deer, not Ted Nugent. The deer instinctively regulate their pregnancy rates relative to the forest food supply. Okay, that's not really the big thing for me. The part I don't like is that it's called a "sport". The word "sport" in this case is used a little loosely due to the fact that the hunters use high powered rifles, night vision, and special scents ( a.k.a. deer piss). When I think of hunting, I think of Ron Ely running around the jungle in a loin cloth with a spear he made with a sharp rock. I just think the playing field should be leveled a little. Oh, and seriously, should an intelligent civilized man really be participating in any "sport" that involves the handling of deer piss?




I also forgot that there's a little political tension right now between "Mr. Lefty" and "Mr. Righty". I would also like to add at this point that I would probably be considered the very Swiss "Mr. Ambidextry" ( because I am, and... I am).

Initially I was thinking more along the lines of Harold Gould saying:




"Shall we say pistols at dawn?"


with the Woody response of:




"Sure, we can say it, but..." Pin It Now!

portrait ( with dynamite)

portrait ( with dynamite), 2009

30" x 30", oil on canvas

This painting is available at the Judy Saslow gallery

This is my t-shirt from 2nd or 3rd grade, but I can't find my magazines ( I have most of "my stuff" from DNA to now). The cool thing about Dynamite magazine was the neat little cards and iron-on transfers that came inside. The first glimpse of Christopher Reeve in the Superman suit came to me by way of the good folks at Dynamite. The tagline for Superman-The Movie was "you will believe a man can fly", and I remember seeing those pictures and thinking you bet your ass I do.

I also remember thinking that The Hardy Boys was a "girl's show" until I saw this cover:



Hey, if Shaun Cassidy "hangs out" with Chewbacca, how bad could he be? Pin It Now!

Studio products medium demo 2

This is the second pass with the Studio Products Gel Maroger's Painting Medium ( No.2 in the 3 part kit ). For my Grisaille, I generally let a little more of the underpainting show through, but even with a heavier coat the initial tone will be evident. I'll work this up a little more ( add another two or three layers in some areas) to get all of the values and details correct, but this is pretty much the form that I'll work around when I start to glaze in color. This dried pretty quickly and has kind of a satin finish.

Don't get scared when you're making you're Grisaille and try to correct the colors. There's a temptation to do this due to the fact that you'll end up with "dead man's hand" where you've got a creepy corpse-like thing happening. This all changes in the glazing. All of the painting up to the color glazing is "foreplay" ( and in an odd parallel, the most fun and time consuming part of it... to me, anyway). When you lay in the the final glazes ( strange again, the shortest but also a very gratifying part...), you'll see why this technique gives you a result that you cannot get with other methods. The chemistry married with manipulating color theory is, to me, the very reason that painting with oil is truly wonderful. Over and above your image, manipulating the materials in a scientific way adds kind of a transcendent dimension of depth. You don't want to be the guy who buys a Ferrari, but never gets it over 35 mph. You can make "pictures" with oil paint, but the chemistry is the cool part.



Hey, what's with this? I took this picture of my backyard actually to prove that we had real snow.

The bad part about snow in Georgia is that every "Bo" and "Luke" thinks that this is his big chance to use his gigantic truck to "command the elements". Unfortunately, the converse is true, and you get to see the roads littered with abandoned vehicles ( and guys name "cooter" stumbling away from them with those little animated birds spinning around their heads). Georgia doesn't have much in the way of snow equipment, but it isn't really that big of a deal to hang out at home for one day. It's not like every car on the road is a mission to "get Mama's Insulin".

FUN FACT:

For the 12-20 hour period of "real" snow in the south, the grocery stores are descended upon like the crowds in Soylent Green fighting over bread and milk. Yeah, milk ! You know, the thing that spoils within a week.

Apparently, the fear of osteoporosis is a bigger problem than I could have ever imagined down here in "dixie". Pin It Now!