I’ve been working at a frantic pace trying to pack in a week’s worth of studio time in a few days off which, as I have mentioned in previous posts, is extremely frustrating. I do manage to get some good work done though in the end and this week was no exception. I managed to finally finish one of the Higg(ins) Bosons pieces and to begin in earnest my new Venus painting.
Here what my studio desk looks like when I’m working, a complete disaster
About two years ago now Tim Higgins, the former art critic for our local paper The Morning Call, challenged me to stop painting over my work. I’ve spoken about my difficulty in doing this in several posts in the past. There are several phases in my painting process that I regard as secret paintings, designed more as spell-casting and surface building than anything else. For the Higg(ins) Bosons series I decided to finally take Tim’s advice and let a series stand at the just about halfway point in my process, which was and is a real challenge. I’ve seen with several artists I know, that they aren’t always the best judge of what’s good in their own work. My modus operandi is usually to pile on more elements to create super-dense surfaces designed to obliterate perception. I kind of think what I’m after is painting what it would be like if you can see all the molecules atoms and quarks that make up everything simultaneously. How crazy must a seen look like. Would it look like just visual noise. I’m not sure why such cacophonous scenes appeal to me so much but it seems natural to try to paint this way so I go with what feels natural.
I titled this series Higg(ins) Bosons as a wink and nod at getting at what lies beneath the surface. With each of the remaining three pieces, I will incorporate visually compelling elements I have found in the diagrams which describe the Higgs Boson as I have done in this first piece. Here’s the first Higg(ins) Bosons piece along with progress shots of the others.
I’m also beginning work on my latest planet painting, this one will be of our solar systems second heavenly body. And I’m provisionally titling it “With Fondness to Spare Nina is as Venus”. I found some really good images to use as source material for this piece and I’m excited to see it come to life. Here’s where the piece is right now along with the images I’m using as inspiration.
I’ve been listening to Mac Demarco lately and love this guy. He’s a Canadian singer a he’s a bit quirky, melodic and twangy, perfect background music for painting. I like almost all his records but my favorite is his album Salad Days. Here’s two YouTube videos of my favorite tracks from the album, the title track “Salad Days” and “Goodbye Weekend”
Okay that’s it for now. I think I’ll squeeze in one more end-of-the-year post to review this annum, its been a crazy one for me. Until then do be well.
Anthony Smith Jr. 