In the Studio #23

I just finished the latest Maybe Baby painting today, this is number 4 in the set of 6 paintings and boy did it get dark in the end. I wanted to do a more subdued piece color wise this time around and I succeeded spectacularly. I’m not sure if I like the results which is usually a good sign. I find artwork that is a little corky or unsettled more interesting. During the painting process for this piece I found myself wanting to make another fauve work, and for a log time the colors seemed to want to go in that direction. It wasn’t until the end of the process that I rediscovered that murky creepy element that I so like in works of this size. Here are some process shots of Maybe Baby #4 along with the final work.

The above pics are process shot and below is the final product Maybe Baby #4

Last week I found myself in New York unexpectedly. I had to go to town for a appointment related to my apartment there and thought I’d have to spend most of the day in offices. As it turned out my appointment took under and hour, which left me some time to check out a couple galleries in town. I visited three spaces, Matthew Marks on 22nd and 10th and Sears-Peyton and Edward Thorp both on 11th in between 23rd and 24. At Matthew Marks I saw the work of perhaps my greatest early influence, Terry Winters. I nearly crapped my pants when I saw his latest work. Big, beautiful, heroic, galactic, not enough can be said for the piece. It seemed to be from his “Tesselation Figures” set of works. I didn’t  get a chance to check since the gallery attendant was on my ass to make sure I didn’t take a picture. I managed to take one anyway and here it is:

I made it over to Sears-Peyton too but could sneak a pic. These spaces are pretty strict about taking pictures of work. The work on display was of Kathryn Lynch. The works, mostly small chunky and roughly painted pieces, perfectly married low and high art especially in the use of excellent design paired with a faux-naive technique. Here’s the card for the show:

 Kathryn Lynch “A View Of Ones Own Part 1” 2015

I think I had the most fun at Edward Thorp. This gallery always has excellent painting on display, though it sometimes seems like they’re dismissive of visitors – that’s probably a New York gallery thing. Thorp had this great painter, Matt Blackwell, featured this month. His pieces were like taking a trip to a bleak decreed carnival. The colors were springy but the subject matter was winter. There seems to be something post apocalyptic in his imagery. Very disturbing and well painted. Here’s an Blackwell image from Edward Thorp’s site:

Matt Blackwell, “Sailors and Sirens” 2015

All in all it was a good little gallery hop. Okay I think that’s enough for this time. First Friday is in two days so see you all then.