Jugglin

I haven't gotten much painting done this December, however, I have juggled a lot.

Pictures from The Shear Shakti Show.

December Art Crawl

Shear Shakti, a hair salon in Boone NC, will be featuring my newest paintings this Friday. They will be on exhibit there until the end of January. Come on out and check it out.

some news.

Well folks, this coming weekend I'm to Kentucky for show with Chris Sims. He's a pretty awesome photographer. The exhibit is at his office in Elizabethtown. Brockington and Associates. Then when I get back next week it will be time to get ready for my show at Shear Shakti, here in Boone, NC. I will be exhibiting my recent paintings with the black backgrounds. The show is during the December 3rd Art Crawl and will be up until the end of January. Hope to see you there!

-Jonathan

Braved

The newest of the B series. This one really jumps out at ya. I've decided on titles for some of these. I made a list of past tense verbs that start with B. That is the theme I guess. 78 titles in the bank. 78 paintings in the making.

Blazed

This new painting is pretty good, until you see the one I'm working on now. Stay tuned!

The next painting.

This is the fourth painting in this new series I'm working on. I'm really into the way the backgrounds are coming out in these paintings. The next one is being worked over. It is violet in the background and orange and red in the forground.

The third

This is the third Black background painting. Untitled as of now. The fourth is underway. I'm in love with this one.

another Black painting

I guess I'm starting my black period. HA. Anyway this painting was approached in the same manner as the last one. This one is a little better I feel. The cloudy green atmosphere works really nice in the background. I've started a third one and put a little more energy into how I approach the general form of the white. We'll see how it turns out.

Finally A new Painting

This is titled "Rapid". I really enjoyed this painting. Which is great because I haven't enjoyed painting in a month or so. I got the inspiration for this from looking at images of space. The atmospheric clouds that swirl around nebulae. I really like the white on black starkness of the image. Hopefully I'll be making some more like this one.

random drawings

Been pretty uninspired in the paint department. However it has been a long time since I posted anything new. So here are some random drawings I've been doodling on around the apartment.

Miniatures

These are some very small paintings that I have in progress. They are for the Miniature show at the Nth Gallery in October. Hope you like them so far cause my eyes hurt from squinting at them.

Peel

New work. I'm working with color a little differently. and obviously a lot of white. This one is bigger then I have been going. 36X22.

The Wait

I approached this painting with a new layering technique. White wash everything. In the early stages, a solid layer of white was put over the painting every time I used a new color. Toward the later stages I became more selective. The whites are intense in person. By underpainting with cool and warm tones, the white grew its own form. I feel good with the range of colors I used. In past paintings, I limited myself too much.

Reign

This painting took many many hours. There was a lot of back and forth with my lights and darks as well as massive amounts of composition editing. I like the green vs orange division. It creates a battle between two neutral colors fighting for depth in space. I feel some of the black is too heavy.
This painting and 7 others in the same style will be on exhibit at the Nth Gallery in Boone, NC on July 2nd. We are having our 13th anniversary show and fundraiser.

Price

This new painting titled "price" is the color of money and its composition much calmer than I have been working lately. These colors were quite the test. They were the result of having no paint. I had to work with what I had. This is also the first time I have broken one of these compositions into three parts. usually the compositions stretch across the entire picture plane, however this time I let it separate from itself.

Catch.

Catch, is the name. Violet tricked me with its neutrality. I had to bring it forward using a bit a red.

Today I discovered a tube of paint from who knows when. So old, it had separation anxiety. When it was purchased it was only 70 cents. Nowadays that tube is 8-15 dollars. the binder and pigment were separated. So it was really just a tube of gooey liquid plastic.

Handle

I thought these paintings were getting better and better. This one feels a little rough on the edges. Sometimes I just have to stop before I over work the painting. Maybe way later in the future I can tweek out the parts that I'll notice every time I glance over at it from the next paintings I start. This is another take on red. Leaning more toward oranges and yellows. Or another take on Yellow. Leaning more toward reds. however you see it. I've been taking "start the painting with this color" suggestions from Katelyn. That is usually the place I get stuck at it. The beginning. But, once I get rollin, its hard to stop. Kinda like when you learn how to ride a bike without training wheels.
Originally the central dark "hole" in the composition was not there. It was all red and orange like the rest of the "subject matter". It read too flat. So I made a drastic change and just visually cut a hole through it. Then just to be clever I pulled the brown background color through behind the orange/red/yellow. This really made the central vertical bright stop pop forward. To me it feels like a hot handle.

REACH

This new painting is an eye sore in the sense that my eyes really hurt from working on it. The green has a nice yellow vibrancy in the foreground. With that so starkly contrasted with the epic darkness in the central area of the composition an intense depth and imaginary visual space is created. This type of painting is really growing on me. It is really fun to paint non objectively and realistically AT THE SAME TIME!

in other news, last friday's art crawl was great. I sold some cheap art in my studio. Had to. It was collecting dust and monopolizing all the bunnies.

Revisiting the Illist.

I spent some time editing my this last painting. It just decided to not be finished. I spent a lot of time really trying to pull the right side of the composition forward and pop off of the picture plane. Its easy to push things back into the plane, but i've found pulling them up off of the plane is tricky. So it took alot of highlighting and then pushing the highlights back and pulling them back forward. on and on and on and on.

The Illist.

This new painting is BRIGHT. I used your typical art school complementary color palette. Yellow vs. violet. In an all out brawl. As usual no black. I'm really happy about the way this composition worked out. Balanced and economic. I've reached new depths in the imaginary world of the picture plane.
Also the Nth Gallery will be having a fundraiser show as usual and for the thirteenth time in July. This year we've decided to show ourselves. As any 13 year old would do. So come out and check out what your local artist are up to. More details will come when the show approaches nearer.
Also Blood Meridian has me wandering deserts and running from apaches in my dreams.

sincerely
Jonathan.

Red Rover Red Rover

I finally finished up this red painting. And by finished up I mean, have to stop working on it. It turned out ok. Im ready to move on. I'm over red. Its so last week.

welcome to my studio.

Thought I'd share a photo of what all is on the palette right now. This is the wall where my work hangs in my studio. The red painting in the center is one I'm trudging through currently. Red is a "bully". I'm hoping it matures more as I keep working on it. I'll let you know when it is done.

for now. I'm watching It's Always Sunny.

almost for sale
jonathan

Some new thing.

Finished up this new thing today. Calling it this new thing because I don't what to call it. Its about almost maybe 3 feet wide by some less footage tall. Made from scrap parts that fit together so I didn't take any measurements. Who has time for that really? This new thing has a faux frame similar to the yellow one and green one a while back. Using Yellow for the frame was a great idea. It's bold outwardness frames up the blue's introversion pretty nicely. I think it feels like a window into something. Also if you examine the top left of the painting you'll see that there is a shadow I didn't have to paint.

Just doin it.

I haven't had as much time to paint lately because I finally started work. When I have had time to squeeze the studio in, I've been working on this painting here. It hasn't a title yet. It is about 12" squared. It is very bright. It started very neutral and gestural. I feel like the composition is strong and has a good sense of economy. I really enjoy its vibrancy.


Also Friday April 2nd from 6 to 9 there is a reception for the show at the Adam Ramsey Miller Gallery in concord NC. I have 9 pieces in the show. Maybe see ya there.

Homebrew

I took a turn for the realistic. It is good practice. Which I need. A lot. This is the top of a carboy from homebrewing. Its all crusty from the fermentation process. Hope you like it.

Ryan Visits

Tiger Style

My good friend and old roomate Ryan F. Batten came for a visit. We collaborated and attacked this canvas. His linear grid work provides a beautiful stark contrast to my organic forms. We are feeling pretty good about the finished piece and planning to make more of these paintings together.

new sqar

"Wreckond"

wanted to get two in a picture to see how they'd play together.

Well, another series underway already. Dubbed Sqars, cause they ain't squares. I have a third one underway. This blue sqar was a real treat to paint. I was skeptical of goin in with the magenta, but it all worked out alright.

straight out the box.

Squar.

You get two shots cause I wanted you to see the way the sides were treated. This was challenging to building and great to paint. I think this style of painting is better than what I was using with the "monsters." those short choppy strokes weren't doing it for me. This feels more refined. I think it is funny how I built a panel and backing so rounded with straight materials and it eventually ended up looking kinda like a slice of a stump. But I assure you I made this that way. I have the headache to prove it. I look forward to making more of these. Maybe this will be something I can stick with a little bit longer.

Now with 3 Layers!

This is the newest painting. I was reluctant to post the images because I'm not as happy with it as I want to be. It feels too clunky. I'm about to head to the studio after a week off and I know it is gonna be tricky to get my head back in it. Hopefully great things will happen.

In other news, during the month of April I will have some paintings on exhibit at The Adam Ramsey Miller Gallery. in Concord North Carolina. The show is called Ostensible. The artists, including me, were handpicked by the owner of the new gallery. His work will be featured too. It is good. I'm not sure about reception date but I'll let you know. Maybe I will see you there.

Phone Home Mr. Carter.

BLIZZARD outside. Wayne inside. This pen drawing of Lil Wayne is from a photo in Rolling Stone. I briefly considered figuring out how to mail it to him in the pin. But I figure he's flooded with letters from teenage girls.

FINISHED MONSTER

Here I have you some in progress pictures as well as the final state of the painting. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to starting the next one.
I started out by muting out all the edges and laying it some darker values. I started with burnt umber and then a layer of prussian blue over that. It creates a wonderful black. The next step was getting the surface some color or another. So lighter blues and darker greens figured out their place and the obvious contrast to that was the orange and yellows. I've noticed the something about the way i have been doing compositions. darker tones separated from warmer light tones by dancing line of highlights. Usually the flow of highlights stretches and falls across the composition in what i find to be a natural pattern.

Clamp monster becomes Primer Monster.

The clamp monster, after much intensive sanding, became the primer monster. I can't wait to start painting on this guy.