Remarked Lennox Woods Catalogs

I have been having a great time this week filling orders for remarked catalogs, that is, Lennox Woods catalogs which include an original pen and ink drawing. Each one is different and includes a personal note. Click for larger view.

  If you would like one of your very own, click here.

Lennox Woods Show Schedule

Only a few weeks away from the opening of Lennox Woods- The Ancient Forest. This project has been two years in the making and it is hard to believe we are almost at the finish line!

For those of you who are in the Dallas-Ft Worth area and plan to visit the show, here are some details. The show is in two venues- Galerie Kornye West and The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT), both located in the Cultural District of Ft. Worth. March 29 is Spring Gallery Night, an annual event sponsored by the Ft Worth Art Dealers Association., so there will be other galleries hosting events as well. Spring Gallery Night runs from 12:00 noon to 9PM on March 29. The Lennox Woods show will open at noon at both venues.

I will be at the gallery from noon to about 5:30 and I will be giving two gallery talks, one at 2PM and the other around 3:30 PM. 

BRIT is hosting a member reception from 6-8 PM which the public is also invited to. I will be there from 6-8 PM and will be giving a talk at 6:30 PM.

The show will hang in both venues through May 8.

Catalogs (which include five essays about the Woods and the work, as well as color plates of most of the paintings ) will be available for sale at the opening and are also available for purchase here. A portion of the proceeds from catalog sales go to benefit the Red River County Historical Society.

You can read the Southwest Art Magazine article about the show here.

Hope to see you there!

Lennox Woods Exhibition Catalog

I am happy to say the Lennox Woods Exhibition Catalog is now available! It contains 64 pages, with five essays about the history and ecology of the Woods and of course, the art. It also has over 40 images of drawings and paintings.

You can purchase the catalog here. 

Please note that the catalog will be available for shipping in mid March. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the catalog will benefit The Historical Society of Red River County.

Sprint

Reflections on Winter

16 x 12

It's a sprint to the finish line! That's what I told a friend yesterday. Actually, it's more like a slow motion ant farm. With two ants (me and Steve).

I have a brand new online class starting at the end of February. This one is called Understanding Values in the Landscape. Value problems account for a lot of what goes wrong in painting. So, learning to sort out those pesky values is an essential part of learning to paint well. We'll cover Carlson's Theory of Angles of course. In addition, we will study how to create certain effects of light by careful attention to the value range or 'key'  which is used and how to compress the value range effectively from what is seen in Nature and what our materials are capable of producing. Students will learn the value ranges to use to create the illusion of a sunny day, an overcast day,  a foggy or rainy day, backlighting, patchy sunlight, nocturnes, etc. So, give yourself an early Valentines Day present, and sign up here!

Less Is Not Always More

 Whose Woods These Are

54 x 72

(click for larger view- pardon the homemade photography)

Sometimes it's just less. One of the great challenges of this project is to find a way to convey the Woods in a way that is authentic but still suggestive and full of mystery. And to do that in sizes ranging from 12 x 16 to 72 x 96.  In a 12 x 16 you can use one brushstroke to describe what requires a complicated passage in a larger work. But more importantly, you have to find the right balance between what Asher B Durand called imitation and representation. There are some things which can be imitated and some things that can only be represented (I would use the word suggested perhaps). The right balance is essential to capture a sense of place and yet retain the mystery and mood you want to convey. I wanted the paintings to look like the Woods without being literal portraits- to convey a palpable sense of what it feels to be in this place. That requires something more than suggestive generalization and less than simply copying what you see.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Spreadsheets. Really?

Illumination

48 x 64

(click for larger view)

Spreadsheets. Not a word I would have ever included on a list of things I might learn about over the course of working on my solo show. But, here I am two years later finding myself creating spreadsheets to keep track of and organize over forty paintings for the show.

The exhibition will hang in two separate venues (Galerie Kornye West and The Botanical Research Institute of Texas) and is organized around the theme of the four seasons in Lennox Woods. Early on, I worked out the number of pieces I would paint for each season and the size ranges and how many in each range, and roughly how many of each would hang in each venue.

As the work begin to take shape, other things needed to be kept track of- what pieces had been photographed, what was finished and what was work in progress, how many of each group still needed to be started, and the frame status for each piece.

Then, some pieces were sold and others left the studio for the gallery. Some pieces were varnished and others had not been (making it easier to work on them again if I wanted to).

When we started working on the catalog I needed to keep track of what information had been given to the designer of the catalog and what was still needed. And, of course, the deadlines to get the work finished, photographed, framed and delivered.

It turns out, spreadsheets are a great way to organize all that information in an easily accessible and organized way. Spreadsheets. Who knew?

What Might Have Been

What Might Have Been

48 x 40

(click for larger view)

Lennox Woods is a 300+ acre oasis of old growth forest surrounded by fields, pastures, third or fourth cut woods and pine plantations. Driving down the dirt road to its unassuming entrance one can immediately see the change in the landscape. The fact that the Woods exist today is because from the mid 19th century, the Lennox family preserved them, protected them from logging and then gave them to the Nature Conservancy to be protected in perpetuity. It could have all turned out very differently.

I thought a lot about all this while I worked in the Woods over the last two years. But, I also came to understand the idea of "what might have been" in much more personal terms. When I first came to the Woods I had certain ideas about how I would paint them. Although I spent several months just looking and drawing, I did have some preconceived ideas of how I would approach the work. Over time, many of those ideas dissolved and reformed into new ones- influenced both by the Woods themselves and the rhythm of my own life. Those things combined to produce a very different body of work than I would have produced in a shorter span of time or if my own life had not been upended in various ways during the process. I don't know what that work would have been like, but I feel confident that the body of work that I will exhibit this coming March will be stronger, better, and deeper. That is something else I learned in the Woods. 

A Summer Idyll

I continue to work steadily on the Lennox Woods body of work for my solo show next spring. There will be five large scale paintings - 48 x 60 up to 72 x 96-  and a total of about 42 paintings in the show. I started with the smallest of the "BIGs" as I call them, and am working my way up in size. I am working on several of them at the same time, plus others as well- usually about 8 to 10 pieces at a time. 

In January of 2012 when I first started on this journey, I was out in the Woods one day with Steve and Allen Phillips (the filmmaker for the project). Allen and I managed to wander off the trail. I didn't know my way around the Woods very well back then and neither did Allen. But, he had a GPS on his phone and we knew if we kept heading north we would hit the dirt road that runs along one side of the Preserve. So, we kept going instead of doubling back to find the trail. It was winter so bushwhacking through the Woods wasn't too hard and we got back into some spots that would be hard to find in any other season.  Pretty soon we came upon a small pond. It was a big surprise because the only water I had seen in the Woods was Pecan Bayou and the small streams it spawned throughout the Preserve. This pond looked self contained, although Steve thinks it is fed by a spring on adjacent property. Anyway, having found it, I knew I wanted to come back.

Here is a study for the 60 x 72 painting I am now working on.

A Summer Idyll

20 x 24

I started with lots of sketches, working out my ideas. This is my preferred way to work- hunting for motifs, then using drawings to work out designs and to gather reference materials.

Once I had the design organized and the field reference I needed, I started the 20 x 24 study.

I made a grid of the study and traced the main shapes and lines. I gridded the large canvas with proportional squares with vine charcoal, then drew in the composition.

Here is the studio with the large canvas on the left, the grid in the center and the study to the right of that. Just to get an idea of the scale, the painting on the easel behind the grid is 36 x 48!

In the Light

In the Light

12 x 10

This small painting is available at Galerie Kornye West. It started out as a demo for a class and then morphed into a meditation on chiaroscuro. I was less concerned about depicting a particular time of day, and mostly focused on organizing the lights and darks in an interesting way.

Ft. Worth, Bernini and an Article

Yesterday I drove to Ft Worth to deliver a painting. After meeting with Paula Tillman (Galerie Kornye West owner) about the upcoming Lennox Woods show, we headed to the Kimball Museum for lunch and to see the Bernini: Sculpting in Clay show.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was the artistic titan of the 17th century and the author of the Baroque style. His dramatic naturalistic style was the perfect sculptural counterpart to the painting style of Caravaggio and his followers. This show, which originated at the Metropolitan Museum, traces the development of some of his most famous sculptures through the terracotta studies or bozzetti he created to work out his designs.

One of the things I love most about seeing original works of art, and particularly studies and drawings of artists that I love, is the palpable sense of being in the presence of the artist. In this case, that feeling is almost overwhelming. Seeing the thumb prints in the modeled clay, the textures created by quickly applied tool marks, the measuring points used to scale up the figures- one feels acutely the presence of the master and for a brief instant, can trace the movement of his hand as well as his thoughts.

This was not the first time I had seen some of these terracotta studies. Many years ago (too many!), Bernini's bozetti were the subject of my senior thesis. I traveled to Boston and spent a week in the Fogg Museum looking at their collection of bozetti and digging through their archives for unpublished research. So when I saw them again, together with the others from collections around the world, it was like greeting old friends from one's youth. Familiar, yet different, and seen through a different, more experienced lens.

Coincidentally, yesterday an article was published in Professional Artist Magazine tracing the careers of fours artists including me. The theme was "its never too late" which in my case meant not a late start, but a detour.  It was interesting to experience the Bernini show and relive those times many years ago when I first saw that work and have this article appear in print on the same day.

Back In the Woods- Exciting News!

I have been back at work in Lennox Woods for about a month now, working in both the field and the studio toward my solo show Lennox Woods-The Ancient Forest next March. And there is exciting news about the exhibition!  The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) will be co-hosting the show! BRIT has a beautiful new facility located in the Cultural District in Ft. Worth near Galerie Kornye West. They have a spacious exhibition space which will be a perfect venue for the large format paintings. On Spring Gallery Night, March 29, 2014 there will be simultaneous openings at BRIT with 16 large format paintings and at Galerie Kornye West with another 25 paintings.

Galerie Kornye West and I are excited to partner with BRIT for this exhibition! In addition to the show, a lecture series, gallery talks, and other special events are planned in connection with the month long exhibition.

Me standing near #52, one of the huge short leaf pines in the Preserve

Studio Visit & Interview With Paula Tillman

In late February, Paula Kornye Tillman, owner of Galerie Kornye West in Ft. Worth, and her gallery assistant Kelli Cotten traveled to northeast Texas for a studio visit to see work in progress for Lennox Woods and to see the Woods for themselves. Click on over to the Lennox Woods blog for an interview with Paula and to read more about it!

Dusk Study

6 x 12

Last week was my birthday. We took a day trip to Ft Worth to see the Caravaggio show at the Kimbell Museum and delivered a painting to my gallery in Ft. Worth, Galerie Kornye West, which is just down the street from the museum in Ft. Worth's Cultural District.

As we headed home, we saw a beautiful dusk fall over the landscape. With the intensity of the sun below the horizon, the sky took on a beautiful glow and the reflected light into the clouds was magnificent. I painted this little study from memory.

Southwest Art Magazine Article

I am happy to say I have an article in the April issue of Southwest Art Magazine! The painting which is featured in the article, Autumn Light, will be part of the Spring Gallery Night show at Galerie Kornye West, opening this Saturday, March 27 from 5-8 PM.

(Click to enlarge)

Here is another new piece I'll have in the show. I'll be in Ft Worth for the opening so if you are in the area come by and see me!

Evening Pool
18x 24
Available at Galerie Kornye West

Sold

Blackheath Gallery Christmas Show & New Galleries

Remains of the Day
10 x 10

This painting and a half dozen others are on their way across the Big Pond to the Christmas show at Blackheath Gallery in London. The show opens November 7.

I am very pleased to say that I am now represented by Galerie Kornye in Dallas and Galerie Kornye West in Ft. Worth. I'll have work in the Holiday open house at the Dallas gallery on November 19 and the Miniatures Show in Ft. Worth which opens December 4.

Also very happy to say that Evening Embers sold at the Albuquerque Museum Miniatures & More gala on October 24!

And The Winner Is....

Evening Embers
24 x 48
Sold

Thanks to everyone who left comments and emailed me with suggestions for a title! I finally decided to use a title suggested by Brenda Boylan, but there were so many really good ones, I'm sure I'll be using many of them in the future. So here is newly named Evening Embers in its frame ready for delivery to Ft. Worth next week.

Suggestions, please

Triptych

24 x 48

This piece will be shown at the Fall Gallery Night show at Galerie Kornye West in Ft. Worth next month. Usually, I get an idea for a painting and the title is part of that idea. Or, the title comes to me while I am painting it. Maybe its because I have a studio full of pieces that I am trying to finish for upcoming shows, but I can't seem to conjure up a title for this one. Suggestions, please?