Blog

   As I begin to dust off those winter blues, and the days begin to warm, I can't help but reflect on the past couple of months. One highlight was that I went to see the Spanish painting exhibit at the Guggenheim museum. There were a lot of incredible paintings but for me the Goyas stole the show. His still life paintings, which are rarely seen, were a revelation. One could imagine that Chardin and Goya would have had a great time hanging out together and talking painting. Or maybe not. Legend has it that Chardin was a bit of a tight-ass. Goya's figure paintings are like what Chardin's could have been if he had painted the figure with the same aplomb used in his still lifes. A few Velasquez paintings also, but mostly minor paintings except for the one of the woman sewing, for which I had a mind blowing experience. Looking at it from about six feet away, I thought "okay, pretty good, looks sort of unfinished.". But then I looked at it from a ramp across from the other side of the museum (one of the great things about the Guggenheim) and it was wholly realized and had a presence rarely to be found in figure painting. I said to myself " now I get it!"
         Working in my converted garage-studio was a little rough this winter. Usually, if the temperature stays above freezing, I can do okay with my two heaters plugged in. The up side is that when it got too cold it forced me to come up with a way to keep painting so I started doing interior scenes, which were different and a lot of fun. I'd like to do more but with the daylight savings time switched earlier, theres too much light coming in. For one of the interiors that was only partly finished I had to tape garbage bags to all the windows in the living room. I told my wife that she should invite people over because I'm pretty sure that I've come up with the next big thing in suburban haute-couture.
        I've also been working at least one day a week on portrait painting. I'm making slow but steady progress and the great thing is that even though the mind set for painting a portrait is so different from still life or landscape, I find that when I make inroads in my portraits, my other paintings seem to benefit as well. At least it seems that way. I'm torn between wanting to paint with the panache of Manet or Sargent, yet I'm also blown away by Ingres and Degas. In more current styles, I'm inspired by Jacob Collins and Anthony Ryder, yet i still have a soft spot for more expressive artists such as Odd nerdrum and Lucian Freud. Right now, my portraits are probably more in line with the more realistic schools. I start with a fairly tight pencil drawing, which is then transferred to a canvas and worked up with the usual rub-out imprimatura, glazes and scumbles. Once the imprimatura is set I paint from the focal paint using a window-shade technicque, trying to maintain the unity and integrity of the whole as I go along. It's kind of like walking a tight rope without a net.
    Things have been going pretty well in the classroom. I decided to ratchet things up a notch in my painting class. The great thing about the fact that I'm still studying is that I can take things that I've newly learned and pass it on to my students. Theres nothing funnier than hearing an inner-city kid say "Yo Mr.S, what painting string should I be using? Wheres the Burnt Umber?" These kids are painting still life paintings that they get to work on for forty minutes a day, at eight o clock in the morning, using acrylic paint. Yet they never complain, and there paintings look great. It takes me at least an hour of painting before i feel like i'm getting my groove on. My students leave me awestruck and inspired. Like they say on the Sopranos "what a great thing this thing of ours is!" I got to get my butt in gear and clean up and reorganize the studio. It's starting to look like a refugee camp. Someone was talking to me the other day about that famous photo of Francis Bacon's studio and mine isn't too far off the mark.