Pious Pelican

You love pelicans too?  I  thought I was the only one.  Someone pointed out to me that they are creatures comfortable on land, sea and the air.  I love how they look crazy/hideous/prehistoric on land and like vintage car cruisers in the air.  Then they do this insane kamikaze dive, with that scoopy beak.

detail of "Cruising Employed" oil on canvas, 30"x24"

They look like a experiment.

Fossil evidence of pelicans dates back at least 30 million years.

The pelican has been featured in mythology as far back as the 12th century.  A mother feeding her brood with her own blood.  A male pelican that kills their brood, only to revive them with blood from a self inflicted wound.

I love it, Zombie Pelicans! 

The Art Elves Have Been Visiting

As some of you know, I rent a space in a communal studio, we lovingly call it "Shanty Town."  It is housed in a large warehouse.  It is  a "biosphere" of  creativity.  It is an amazing place to hang out.  Who knew there were so many people doing artsy stuff.  

Lately there has been a huge turn over.  People have moved out and are now working at home, some are starting graduate school and are entitled to a studio space. (As expensive as the tuition is, was, I have to admit, I loved graduate school, three years to paint, see painters painting, talk painting, have other people talk about your painting.  What's not to LOVE?)  I still have friends in "Shanty Town," and I will make new friends, but it is definitely the beginning of a new phase.   

From what I have observed so far, most of the new people come in at night, so I don't see them very much.  Some, I haven't seen at all.   I just see the clues that they have been in, in the night.  I see a chair moved, I see the changes in their work...

It is like the elves have visited. 

Anyway, open studios should be interesting.

I am still working on the shy pelican, that's giving a fetching look over it's shoulder.

I have moved the horizon line down some more.  

I am indulging in a color binge.  Close up this painting has a lot of color, especially in the "nautical pier post" or stump to the lay person.   I have been alternating working in my old way OHB (one hair brush) and flat brush.  I am either doing painstaking rendering or brushy brush strokes.  (see next image)

I used a flat brush on Makiko's hair and face, showing the brush strokes.  I think it has a lot more movement and light this way.  (I know I said this painting was finished, but I can't leave it alone!!! Maybe it will be finished before she goes to college.  Do I hear graduation present, yea?)

"Under An Iron Sky"

New series that reminds me of how I used to work.  This is not quite finished, but the process is clear and logical.  I feel so sane. 

I laid the ground with lots of gesso and sanding. Then I blocked out the background, leaving the pelican white. 

I am slowly adding layers, opaque and sheer to build up a luminous background.  I did thicker paint for the clouds. 

I decided not to make the background all sky and I put in some undulating water.  The water has a lot of color in it.  I want to vary the contrast of the values, so that parts will look closer and the part near the horizon will look farther away.    I am starting to build up the clouds and started blocking is some darker values to the pelican. 

Stay tuned...

Abandoning Process

This summer has been a blur.  (My favorite kind of painting, blurry.)  I feel like I have been in a frantic state for  a while, always in a frig-in' rush.  I forget that I am not living by the bell anymore, but old habits die hard.  All I can think is, I need to get to the studio and this mind set has seeped into my paintings.  This summer I started 3 30"x24" paintings, that I have not finished.  Now, not everything gets resolved, but for me this is a high number in one series. 

I started them with abandon, not a lot of conscious thought.  I have been consumed with experimentation, process and am getting no where.   

"Stretch One", 30"x24"
  It doesn't look like this anymore and I changed it a lot and I am not sure it's a good thing.  I am ignoring the pain. I can't even post what it looks like now.  Maybe someday...

"Stretch Two"
This one is more resolved for me.

"Stretch Three" 30"x24"
They all kinda looked like this in the beginning.  The Drippy White Series.

This was "Stretch Three" now it's is called "Employed Cruising." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, you get the idea.

I want to abandon these for now.   This is unusual for me, because I usually will grind a painting into the ground before letting go.  I feel free writing this.  Tra, la, la!

What I am doing now...
So, on the side, not really thinking too much about it, I started preparing some small canvases.  It started out as a meditative process.  Also, it was something I could control when what I was painting was so out of control.  I took an unusually long time sanding and gesso-ing surfaces, trying to obliterate the weave of the canvas. 

Things are going to get surreal.  I have had these funny little images popping up in my head. Which is an old way of working for me, instead of waiting to see what happens on the canvas,  I picture it first.  I am working slower, with less process and experimentation. 

New Format And Going In All Directions

Drippy sketch

 I got all these new canvases that are longish rectangles.  It is quite a change from the squares I've been working with for the past year.  I started three of these puppies a couple of months ago. ( I work on about 4 paintings at a time.  If the planets are aligned, I am in the studio 4-6 hours a week, 5-6 days a week.) I prioritized the small pieces for the San Pablo show, with Jhina and Scott, so these long paintings are a long time coming.  I think I was figuring out the format and how to compose it.  I started out vertical, but ended up turning the whole thing on it's side!  

30"x24"  oil on canvas.  I started out going very white.

Now you see him... 

Now you don't.

24"x30"  Ta Da!  New title, "Eaten By A Crow"

Lanai City, Hawaii

 Lanai City reminds me of that mythical place portrayed in "Northern Exposure".  It is full of old timers, eccentrics, and wide eyed transplants.  For example, we had dinner with Mormon missionaries at my cousin Michael's mom's house.  (I have a lot of Mormon cousins) They had been visiting various Lanai residents and had a picture of one family's living room that contained a makeshift pen with a baby deer in it (I really wanted a copy of that picture, but alas... ) Of course the deer could jump out and did, anytime it wanted to, but like a good pet deer, it always jumped back in.  Another time we saw a guy walking an exotic dwarf goat, that was not Nigerian, the goat that is, not the guy.  I know this because I am into Nigerian Dwarf goats. 

Some folks have been rescuing, and raising baby deer that have been orphaned, due to the drought.  (I guess these guys got too big for the living room)

My mom Mildred is from Lanai and we still have lot's of family there.  Tom, Makiko and I just got back last night.   I saw my friend Susan Hunter, who makes amazing jewelry, that she sells at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manele Bay and the Koele Lodge in Lanai.  I also met the artist, Mike Carrol.  He is a painter that relocated from Chicago and opened a gallery, http://www.mikecarrollgallery.com,  in Lanai City.

Makiko by the Banyan Tree outside our hotel room window

Makiko won the "Crystal Pineapple" for archery at Koele. 

Polihua Beach

The streets of Lanai City, speed limit 20 mph.

San Pablo Gallery HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Scott, Jhina and I are having a show together, at an out of the way gallery in San Pablo.  Scott and I paint on canvas and Jhina paints on wood panels and uses en caustic wax over her painting.  We are calling the show "Machines, Muses, & Memories to encompass our different subject matter.  Jhina uses old photographs in her paintings, so there are the memories.  Scott does El Caminos, the machines of the group, and at the time of naming the show, I was painting my dog Elmo, (my muse), views of Highway 5, (hence vehicles) and various collages, made up of glimpses of San Francisco, (kinda memorish). 
Then I found out I needed to make smaller pieces for this gallery space, so that threw me a bit and I started doing birds, bunnies and a stop sign.  Scott and Jhina are consistent to the theme,  my stuff is a bit of a stretch. 

This is the lettering on the wall for the show.

MACHINES, MUSES, & MEMORIES
Jhina Alvarado, Scott Inguito, and Lani Tanaka
August 11-September 9
Reception August 25 11-2
San Pablo Gallery
13831 San Pablo Ave, Maple Hall, Bldg 4 San Pablo, CA

Come on out for the wine and cheese, then hit the Lytton Casino down the street after the reception.

Fatty

"Fatty"

This guy, I don't know why I assume it is a "guy," was the Steve Jobs of seagulls at J.V. Fitzgerald Marine Reservation, in Moss Landing.  

This seagull reminded me of Steve Jobs.  There were a number of similarities.  First of all he was so willing to risk all for what he wanted, which was our eggy lunch.  This proves him not only driven, but also a terrible cannibal just like Steve.  Okey, Steve wasn't literally a cannibal, but he admitted he was all for it, figuratively... speaking. 

Also, like Steve, Fatty was vocal, emotional, crazy and he had a "reality distortion field."  He believed that he could eat out of our hands and we wouldn't reach out our other hand, and wring his scrawny neck.  Most of all, he made us believe this too and well... he was right.  This made him the most successful seagull, ever.

Makiko loves to sit in a tree.

These ladies, (I'm giving females equal time), are out here all the time.

Makiko's Bunny Love

This is a mash up painting of Makiko and 45th Avenue.  Both subjects were battling it out and Makiko finally won, of course.  

Beginning Sketch

PHASE 2

PHASE 3 Little bit of rain.

PHASE 4 A lot more rain.

FINAL PHASE "Makiko Land" 30"x30" oil on canvas. 

I muted out 45th Avenue and worked on rendering Makiko.

More Birds For The San Pablo Show

"On Stop" 6"x6" oil on canvas

I am working on more paintings of demonized birds and a stop sign, to go into my up coming show with Jhina Alvarado and Scott Inguito at the San Pablo Gallery.  We are calling it "Machines, Muses and Memories." When we came up with this theme, Jhina was, and still is, painting her "Forgotten Memories" series, so that is still right in theme.  Scott was painting El Caminos, perfect car images,  and I WAS painting vehicles; semis, motorcycles, bikes and my muse dog Elmo.

I have veered a bit out of theme,  doing birds and a stop sign... whoops.  I am working on some larger bikey images with seagulls that I have to finish for the show.  Hopefully it will all tie together, somehow.  In an case these little pieces are a bit of a stretch.

For now, the stop sign implies vehicles and the perhaps the birds incite memories and the fear of poop on cars, more vehicular references....  Ok, I am grasping.  

"Winged" 6"x6" oil on canvas

"Flirt" 6"x6" oil on canvas

"On Break" 6"x6" oil on canvas

San Pablo Gallery

13831 San Pablo Ave, Maple Hall, Bldg 4 San Pablo, CA
August 11-September 9

Check it out and bring your friends.

I have a piece accepted into the Art For Aids Auction.  Hope someone bids on it.  It is the first in the abstract collage series, that "Derailleur" was from. 

"Orange Bike" 16"x24" oil on panel