Moments in between the layers, and failures

This is a collection of images I took while making some of my paintings. The technique I use involves putting down paint and then wiping it away in order to build up the image. Sometimes of the moments that happen in this process reveal a ghost of the object that doesn't fully exist in the final form, but lives in the layers between the surface and ground. 

This was when I realized I couldn't do the intricate objects on a smaller scale and decided instead to use the small canvas to test out making tightly cropped images instead.

Often I wonder if one of the more ghostly under images might be better than the final painting, this one in particular I think would work well as it appears here. Going forward I may want to try working on two at once and leave one at a mid-point so i can compare which one I prefer.

This one I considered a failure, it was a good learning moment realizing my method didn't work very well if the object has straight lines, circles or text. I found the wonkiness distracting

I ended up trying to completely wipe the image away, which didn't totally work, but I think I may try adding a layer of white on top and seeing if the image seeps through at all.

I had initially planned on mostly painting my collection of blue and white ceramic pieces, but I found the method I was using did not work well when attempting to paint painted objects. This was when i realized that interesting textures and shapes would work better than painted images and shifted the direction of what objects I would use.

The stories in between surface and ground

I photograph the steps in my painting process and put them together into videos that show the object coming into and out of existence 

Sketchbook, tests and mockups 

I do material tests, color tests and make mock ups in my sketchbook and photoshop to help guide my decisions about what to paint, scale and display. For a more in-depth look at some of these activities, please look at studio diary PDF, downloadable from my additional content page or below. 

Studio Diary .pdf

I try to keep as many paintings up on my studio walls as possible, it helps me to see how they look all together as a collection.

making work for the miniatures show was.a good opportunity to test a new scale and material. while the paper worked better than I had expected, I did prefer the use of canvas for my ground.

I am running into trouble getting a smooth enough surface for my ground. I need to do more experiments to find a way to have fewer visible brush marks

I am thinking about working at a larger scale, making mock ups in my sketchbook helps me visualize how that might look. I think if I do go that big, I like the idea of all of the works being the same height.

Thinking about zooming in on moments within the objects that hint at a recently vacated human presence

One of my ideas for display is to have all of the paintings framed together in one large frame, with windows for each piece. I was thinking it would be kind of like a large drawer with dividers for each object. I wanted to think of it as a piece of furniture, with a hint of the cabinet of curiosity.

i used photoshop to test how each piece might fit together. I made each rectangle accurately scaled to the canvases I had (some finished, most unfinished). It was really challenging to get them to fit all together with a rectangle border outside. I think this may have to be done by making he paintings to fit a predetermined set of sizes that I know will fit together.

I got some feedback that the blue wasn't working, so I tried out a few other colors. I did like the wine red and darker green and will try those out, but I still think the blue works best .