First Painting of 2024 (#5 in the series)
01.13.2024
This is one of my favorites of the series so far. This composition allowed for opportunities to combine texture and flat areas as well as realistically rendered areas with more abstract areas, a true collage of observations. The area in the top right corner was a last minute improvise, not included on my original study. I decided to include this portion of worn street art for two reasons, first, to provide visual balance between the left and right sides of the painting, and second, to cover up a faint trace of spray paint on the raw canvas that snuck under the tape when I was spraying the neon green shape. I see it as a happy accident that increases the visual interest of the piece.
10:44-10:48 am is the title of this painting, coming to late morning in my pedestrian adventure in Venice. The first group of 12 paintings I am working on represent a sampling from throughout the day. As I look at the group as a whole I can notice the change in light and shadow and the changes in color as the day went on. I’m very much looking forward to continuing this series and hope to find a venue to show as many as I can in order to tell the story of this amazing day.
With a new year comes new goals for my career as a painter. In addition to my revenue goal, at the top of my list is to complete and find a way to exhibit this series in it’s totality. When I have 12-15 of the paintings complete, I plan on creating a book (digital and maybe printed) to distribute to galleries and venues who may be interested, telling the story of this series and my process in making it. I am also finding several calls for proposal opportunities at various galleries, which I plan on applying for with this work. Galleries in Venice will also be in the mix with this pursuit because I still feel strongly about this work making an appearance in a space in Venice, whether during the biennale or not.
Sculptural paintings are still on my mind and I hope to be part of my 2024 studio practice. There’s still a lot of experimentation and research to do but I’m excited to turn my attention to it after I get more of the Venice series completed. While the sculptural paintings were my initial plan for this series, I am really enjoying how these paintings are coming out on canvas and will continue my current process for these paintings.
I can’t wait to see what 2024 has in store in and outside of the studio!
