Getting ready for the show

The upcoming show at Carteret Contemporary Art will be four painters rather than five: Martha Bringhurst, David Connell, Anthony Ulinski, and me. I am honored to be in their company. The opening reception is on Saturday, August 2, from 6 to 8 PM.

Today I finished what I think is a very good piece. No title yet, it's 14" x 16", oil on linen. Something is lost in the photo, but I can't seem to photoshop it into any better fidelity.

A good arm

I was very happy with this arm today. The whole painting is coming along, but once in a while there is some little thing I know I couldn't really improve. The painting is 14" x 16"; this detail is about 4" x 6". It also occurred to me that part of my inspiration for these two "back" paintings was this lovely Eckersberg.

C.W. Eckersberg, Woman Standing in Front of a Mirror (1841)

Vasari

Today my order from Vasari Paints arrived, in packaging so beautiful I felt like a princess. And all for earths. But earths are what I use. The Capucine Reds, light and deep, are more beautiful-- and promise to be more useful--than I can describe.

Exhibit

Several of my recent paintings will be included in a group show at Carteret Contemporary Art called "Five Views." It opens on August 2. I'm working hard and waiting anxiously for frames to arrive.

(Edit: I posted at 1 PM and two large boxes appeared on my porch an hour later.)

Column

10/12 Edit:  This is a much better image.

The best image of this painting so far. It's still 16"x18" oil on linen.

Studio Tools

I looked down this afternoon and noticed that many of my favorite oil painting tools were lined up on the table. The brush just to the right of the tube of Trans Sepia--a Grumbacher Gainsborough #6 bright--has been a workhorse for me since art school, and it's finally showing its age. I'm getting fond of Escoda Tadami synthetic mongoose brushes (the four gray-handled ones). The brights make a remarkable clean edge or thin line, and the filberts allow calligraphic drawing marks with thin paint as well as being all-round useful. The fattish handles are comfortable and have a nice balance. They are holding up very well so far. The Holbein scraper (top center between the Rublev lead white and the big tube of Michael Harding Cremnitz) gets used every day, sometimes even for a purpose other than clearing out a mistake. That's a rolling pin for chapatis on the right for squeezing tubes and threatening intruders. My pica rule (from a past life) is thin and lightweight for straightening an edge, and its various scales can come in handy to simplify mental arithmetic.