Thai temples, part 1

Some of my best memories from my October Thailand trip were of the many beautiful Buddhist temples that we visited. The following four pictures were taken at That Phanom, in the northeastern part of Thailand.

Inside the perimeter walls there are numerous ornately decorated structures and golden Buddha statues.

One interesting this is that whenever I was feeling anxious or down in any way, a visit to a temple would inevitably cheer me up somehow. Perhaps it was the peaceful tranquility of the place, or the outstanding beauty of the art and architecture.

The picture below shows a giant drum in the temple at That Phanom, as well as several gongs.

The photo below was taken at a temple in Phuket. I have a few more temple photos to share, but I will save them for the next post!

Playing with Borders

I've started working on a new abstract... This one using a slightly different approach. I started it off by painting in a border element to "contain" the main lively rainbow section. I'm interested in exploring new ways to approach abstract painting, transmuting my style into various offshoots.

Freshly finished

The yellow-orange toy/candy still life is finished! I'm quite happy with it. I'd even go so far as to say it's the best photorealist still life I've ever done. I feel it works really well in terms of composition, content, and execution.

Yellow Orange - 5" x 7" - Acrylic on Wood Panel

I thought it would be interesting to include a side shot of the painting resting on a small black easel, because viewing it from an angle helps demonstrate the 3-dimensional rendering of the objects.

Here is an image of my current workspace, showing all the paintings I'm working on. This is what keeps me busy throughout the day!

Yellow - Orange

Here's an update on the still life from last week:

Work-in-progress - 5" x 7" - Acrylic on Wood Panel

The duck and marble are pretty much finished. The next step is to finish the orange candy, the Tootsie Pop, and the shadows! This has been a really fun piece to work on, and I'm quite confident that it will turn out well.

Fun Facts

I did a bit of cleaning and organizing today in my studio space. I learned that on my art table, I have:

• 68 paintbrushes. (Of these, I usually use only 2-4 during any one painting session.)
• 91 tubes/jars of acrylic paint.
• 17 jars/tubes of gels/mediums.
• 54 unorganized cds which are getting dusty and scratchy.

I saw The Nutcracker today for the first time. It was great! I loved the costumes and the dancing was fantastic. I really enjoy seeing live performances and I want to make an effort to get out more to the theatre and symphony.

Short post today - I'm tired! Will post more art and ramblings soon.

Finished Tootsie

I started a new photorealist still life today. This one I'm quite happy with, and will definitely finish! Here is the underpainting:

Work-in-progress - 5" x 7" - Acrylic on Wood Panel

I realized what I really like in photorealist still lifes is strong color with ample detail, both of which were lacking in the Smarties still life I started a couple days ago. The actual Smarties are so pale, and the wrappers are clear except for the bold colors in the label. I liked the contrast of the pale candy with the vibrant wrapper, but still didn't feel it was enough to sustain my interest in the piece. Perhaps in the future I will be in the mood to capture such subtlety, but for now I'm on a brightly colored toy-and-candy kick!

I also finished the Tootsie painting from yesterday:

Tootsie No. 1 - approx. 4" x 5" - Acrylic on Book Page and Canvas

Moving On

So I decided not to continue with the Smarties painting that I started yesterday, at least not for now. Something about it just doesn't inspire me at the moment. I think perhaps I am not thrilled with the composition. I decided to set it aside for now and maybe I'll come back to it at a later date. I do that sometimes. It can be hard to let go of a piece of art, after I've spent several hours working on it. But if it doesn't feel right, I've learned there's no point in forcing it (a concept which can be applied to most things in life).

Here's another painting that I started several weeks ago that I set aside after a few hours. I'm not sure if I'll finish it; it's in my "maybe" pile. The reason I stopped working on this one was because I realized that what I really like in photorealist painting is to paint extremely tiny detail. This painting had too much "open space", too much broad sweeping color transitions. So when I set paintings aside, it's usually because something within the painting doesn't "click" with me, and it allows me the opportunity to further learn what it is about certain compositions or subject matter that causes me to enjoy creating certain paintings.

Unfinished - 6" x 6" - Acrylic on Wood Panel

I worked on a small 4" x 5" painting today. This was painted over a page from an old French book titled Existentialisme. The painting is mostly finished except for the Tootsie roll, which still needs a bit of work. I like the idea of combining text, abstraction, and photorealism, so this is an idea I hope to explore more in the near future. I also like the juxtaposition of the aged French text with the modern pop icon of the candy, and the modernist circles underneath the photorealist object.

Untitled (for now) - 4" x 5" - Acrylic on Paper & Canvas

Smarties

Goodness, it seems I've been so busy lately with art business stuff that I haven't had as much time for painting or updating my blog! Hopefully I'll have more time for painting now that things have settled down for the time being. A couple weeks ago I took a bunch of photos of different candy and toy still life set-ups, and I received the prints today. They look great and I can't wait to dive in. I'm going to try something new, a series of small still lifes painted over vintage text, so stay tuned for that!

I worked on a Smarties still life today. I finished the underpainting, so tomorrow I'll try to finish the painting.

I wasn't too sure about the composition though. I like the bottom pack of Smarties, but the angle of the top one seems a bit wonky. So I tried Photoshopping it out, but it seems a bit too empty. I guess I'll leave it in and see what happens!