"Refinery"
oil on canvas
22" x 28"
I meant to post yesterday...and the day before that...but, I've been drawing a blank. Actually, I've been doing a lot of "housekeeping". Let's see, I've been cleaning my studio spaces, reorganizing the archives, boxing up the last of the "bargains", visiting FedEx, stretching canvas, editing photos...the list goes on and on. It's boring so I'll stop boring you. As much as I hate doing all of that stuff, I always feel a lot better about getting back to painting after all of the chores are done. I'll be honest, I haven't done much painting lately. Between school, my portrait project, holiday festivities, and a couple rare commissions, I've had very little time to paint for paintings sake. I'm okay with being "unproductive" though, as I know my next wave of productivity is going to come on fast and stick around for quite a while. I've got a dozen different themes to pursue via paintbrush and I can't wait to get started.
So, I've considered myself on a bit of a hiatus, regardless of how much painting I've actually been doing. While I haven't been cranking out as much work as I'd typically prefer, it's not as though I've forgotten about my "artwork". The past few months of reading, writing, playing music, teaching, and pursuing other interests have been pretty influential on how I plan to continue painting pictures. I'm excited to let some new ideas and practices develop in the coming weeks as I really throw myself back into painting.
I'm also interested in making some changes to what I do after my pictures are finished. I wrote quite a bit about it and then deleted it, but I'm pretty frustrated with my current gallery representation, the types of exhibitions I feel obligated to enter, and the lack of alternatives for a person that paints pictures of things in Indiana. I mean, the lack of options for a person that wants to make a living painting pictures of things in Indiana. I don't have a solution, but that's for a different post anyway.
The painting above is a new-ish favorite of mine. I've got a series of nocturnes in the works...can't wait to paint some more glowing streetlamps and shadows.
