Just a quick snapshot as a sort of sneak peek – the scan I do in a week or so will show you a ton more subtlety.
I enjoyed doing this picture – more b-fly pictures will flutter in before year’s end!
Fun to see these again – did ’em 23 years ago! Is it time for a few more?
Thinkin’ about it.
From looooong ago – but I’m still fond of it.
My picture was a takeoff on another (see below), by Thomas Bewick, a British artist who pretty much invented wood engraving in the late 18th century.
My pig is waaaaaaay cuter!
Workin’ on a fine picture for my Sweetie – whose b-day was yesterday. Hope to finish it today, and then take a quick snapshot for you.
Meanwhile, here’s a little something to start your morn. Make this day count – and so will I!
In moments, I’ll begin the first day of my big ink-slinging push. Hope it’ll take me clear through to next Spring – with December off to paint butterflies for my Sweetie.
I wonder how this all will go? Time to find out!
Good Morning – and more show-n-tell for you – – –
There are such beautiful marks and effects in all of these, and they were painted in a motel room! What’s gonna happen now that I’m back in my studio, where I can make BIG messes, use my printing press to squash ink around and really let fly? Today we’ll begin finding out – – –
CLICK EACH PIC TO MAKE IT LARGER – IT’S WELL WORTH IT!
It’s good to be home, although I had a wonderful August, with every kind of fun I’d hoped for! Something surprising is that I began painting Montana thunderheads, storms and rain skirts. Oh holy moly, that was tougher than I expected!
How do I judge what I did? Will anything from that experience filter into upcoming work? I guess we’ll find out! My workspace is clean and reorganized, so I’m all set for my next BIG, BIG push.
Your Buddy Bill
PS: below are quick snapshots of some storm pictures. One thing I quickly learned is that clouds with nothing else adding context to their picture are kinda confusing. Thus, I spent a lot of time in and around Yellowstone National Park photographing ridge lines and hills that might look good below big, booming skies! Should I plug them into some of these views, or just dive in to new attempts? Am leaning towards the latter – – –
THESE ARE WORTH SEEING LARGER – CLICK THE PICTURES!
It’s time to do some fishing and paint pictures of something other than that ol’ Norwegian mountain! Gonna hang with friends too, recharge and just enjoy the summertime before starting my big Autumn push.
I’ll begin posting again in September! Hope you have the finest summer too!
Hey ya –
Here are quick studio snapshots of pictures on the boards just now. All are perplexing me. I seem to be making mountain pictures as much through erosion now as by painting them. I’m ripping, grinding, twisting and sanding so vigorously in fact, that it has become standard to add a back up sheet underneath, and sometimes even a back up to the back up!
The picture above has three layers. I must flatten the whole deal before I continue assembly – or add more.
The next one may be my favorite of this batch. I’m in love with the BIG black marks running across – I think they’re a waterline/wave? I was actually thinking of Hokusai’s picture, The Great Wave off of Kanagawa, while I did it. As you can see, there is still sanding, edge blending and repair to do.
My third picture has a looooooong way to go yet, and I’m worried I won’t find my way to a finish. But I have to try particularly hard because there are wonderful things going on in there already. I’m in love with the upper right quarter. Oh what to do?
The scraps of paper laying on the lower left are me just playing with notion of adding more textural/gestural overlay. I could either paint or collage – or both. Still thinking.
I wonder if this might be a nocturne?
Finally, quite a few of my pictures lately have looked this raw to begin with. What you see here are scraps of other failed attempts that I’ve started trying to put roughly together, just to see if another mountain picture may be in there. Possibly!
Good things happening in the ol’ painting and paper destruction department! Just look at these two – they’ve taken me further down my creative road than I had expected, and it’s both thrilling and a bit scary! Feel like my thinking has to catch up a little, or maybe I really shouldn’t let it? Huh.
Once you see really good scans (these are just quick snapshots), you are going to be AMAZED!
CLICK THE FIRST TWO PICTURES TO SEE THEM MUCH LARGER!
There is sooooooo much going on everywhere in these. To keep working on both, I had to add backup sheets because I was so brutal in painting, ripping, scraping, tearing, soaking and twisting the top layer. Am I sculpting as much as painting now?
A dragonfly and a damsel fly that are as abstract as not – was trying for that, and like how these came out. Some very nice mark making in there!
Finished moments ago – – – I think. You probably can’t tell from my so-so snapshot, but there is a quiet ton going on there. Just wait until I get this one flattened and scanned!
CLICK IT TO SEE IT A LITTLE BIT BETTER!
This is just a quick snapshot of the picture I finished moments ago. Can’t wait to get it flattened and scanned, so you can really see how gutsy and dynamic the surface truly is. Perhaps in the closeup below, you can catch a hint of what I’m talking about, especially in the water!
Printing with India ink on an old iron press = printing with water = squishes out all over! Rust is bad!
I use paper folders to contain the mess, This is one of them. Pressure drove my ink clear through the sheets I was printing and into it – the result is a gorgeous bonus image!
I actually sent this picture through the press a second time to add more to it, so this is one of the first ones in which I intentionally started tweaking happenstance. That working partnership continues!
Here are closer views:
There are very subtle things going on in this one. I particularly like the sharp mountain textures in comparison to the more muted water below, in which I used sandpaper to grind in some wave highlights
The unrelenting, dense gray makes this picture sort of eerie, especially with a hazy sun (or is it a moon?) barely peeking through!
Here are close-up views of each sheet so you can see it all a little better:
I still have quite a few more to finish, but I now have hi-res images and detail views for over 30 of my new mountain pictures uploaded on this website! You can find them RIGHT HERE and also RIGHT HERE. They’re sure worth checking out!
You saw an earlier studio snapshot of this, but here it is in glorious hi-resolution! Actually – if you wish to really see it at it’s best (and a whole lot of other mountains too), click RIGHT HERE!
Oh, and here are closeups of each of the two sheets that make this image:
Just put the scans for this one together, and it looks so damned fine that I had to show it to you. Beats the hell out of the studio snapshot I posted awhile back! NOW you can really see the complex interplay of textures and tones!
CLICK IT TO TAKE A GOOD LOOK!
And here are the two halves, so you can dig into ’em a bit – – –
I actually can’t quite decide what’s going on back in there – is that the most ethereal mountain ever, or is it sky? Dunno. But I sure like how this one sets up questions!
CLICK ON THE PICTURE ABOVE – SO WORTH A CLOSER LOOK!
I probably won’t post again for a few days – so much to do, and I’m trying to get it done. Until next time, here are closeups of today’s Norway picture, to give you something to wander around in.
One wonderful thing about working on a bunch of pictures simultaneously is that eventually (sometimes it seems like a reeeeeeeally looooong eventually) lots and lots of ’em wrap up all at once. It’s happening now and I am VERY happy with some of my new Norwegian mountain pictures!
They’re incredibly rich in textures and you can really wander around in them. Wow, I’m certainly going somewhere with these, and that’s a great way to feel.
MANY more are on the way, so keep an eye out! Here are some closer views for you too:
