Painting Ai Weiwei Video
Painting Ai Weiwie, a short video about creativity, activism and human rights.
https://youtu.be/jUU07uYT6Yc
Yayoi Kusama Video
I noticed that my post for the Yayoi Kusama tribute video wasn’t displaying properly on mobile devices, so here’s a jpg you can click on to view the video on YouTube, or click here.
Layla
Layla seemed like the logical next step to take after Ruyoo No. 2. In trying to draw you in closer to the subject, I further blur the lines between fictive body paint and the painting itself. The analogous color study begins in the middle of the face with warm yellows and radiates outward into violets and blues. The contradiction between the illusion of physical representation and the electric mystical seems to be leading to yet another step towards the unknown. I wait for it, like the model seems to be waiting for something, and yet I can surmise that the answers are already before me by the apparent vacuum of significance.
Ruyoo series #2
The reference photo I worked from actually had red paint on model, Ruyoo Jyoo’s, face. I thought it looked a little too much like blood and opted for blue. Once I added the neon colored paints, the painting activated with energy, at least what I consider nice movement and balance. I didn’t use the stencil squares as much in this one. I stopped just as I found satisfaction with smudges and marks that are part of the process. And of course, there are a few intentional and carefully placed dots.
Almost all the paintings on this site are for sale. Currently, I’m working a small‘preliminary’ paintings that I will eventually show to my art dealer and then decide on what would translate well to large canvases. If you’re interested in collecting my work, please contact me or Glenn Aber, owner of Ai Bo Gallery. Please see contact page.
Suzhou
This is one of the rare instances where I painted from one of my photographs. The scene is from the river district in Suzhou, China. It was 2010 when I took the reference photo for this painting from a boat in a canal. I painted the scene the same year, but only recently (2018) added color.The framing with the window is one of my favorite effects. I did a series of windows a few years back, which were donated to charity, but I forgot to photograph them. There’s a good chance I’ll create another version of it on a large canvas.
Ruyoo #1
Although I’ve spent a few years studying Mandarin, I still can’t understand the language, much less decipher writing. The model, Ruyoo Jyoo, told me that she wasn’t sure what the Chinese characters on her face meant. I was eventually told by someone that they mean ‘true feelings,’ or ‘real emotions,’ at least the parts that were readable (seems compatible with the expression on her face). As with recent paintings, this is a small work on paper, about 18″ x 24″ painted with acrylics. This seems to me a good candidate for a large canvas. I’ll keep you posted if it becomes such a thing. Or you can help me decide by commissioning a new project.
Olga #2
This painting of Olga, a model from Russia, has a looser play on the large square stencils I’ve been using. The messiness, which is part of the process, didn’t overwhelm the painting (It could have). I found the dark blues over black to be quite satisfying from a color balance perspective. It also, unintentionally, gave the painting the effect of a person looking out a window with city lights reflected on the glass. There is also a bit of motion as the linear continuity takes the viewer in a spiral, but not the 1.618 the masters sought after. Well, I suppose you can do a little creative accounting to arrive at such a curve.
Boilerplate mumbojumbo:
Almost all the paintings on this site are for sale. Currently, I’m working a small‘preliminary’ paintings that I will eventually show to my art dealer and then decide on what would translate well to large canvases. If you’re interested in collecting my work, please contact me or Glenn Aber, owner of Ai Bo Gallery. Please see contact page.
FKA Twigs
Ai Weiwei
Steps of the Sun
Ah! Sunflower
William Blake, 1757 – 1827
Ah! sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun,
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller’s journey is done;
Where the youth pined away with desire,
And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves and aspire;
Where my sunflower wishes to go.