Oh, summer. You make it so hard to stay focussed in the studio. The lure of the sunny beaches and trails to explore. Please grant me a few overcast or rainy days so I can lock myself in the studio for a few hours to finish these paintings.
Once these two paintings are complete, they’ll be heading to the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, California.
Here’s a peek at me working on a recent commission – a Bolex Paillard 18-5 8MM film projector form the early 1960s.
The blades are like flower pedals, the body color is a crisp electric blue. This painting of a vintage Electrohome fan is one of a dozen new paintings showing at the George Billis Gallery LA from May 21 – July 2, 2016.
These two paintings are about contrast. Above are three clocks; simple, orderly, tidy, Type A. Below are ten clocks; in a cluster, mingling, Type B. Everyone should know their comfort zone.
Last year I started painting film projectors after years of seeing them in vintage and antique stores. They have all the trappings of a subject I like to paint.
The reels all have these unique designs. The repeating pie shapes, the circular repetition, the repeating lines on the lamp housing.
The dials, knobs, levers, switches, gears, springs and buttons give the paintings a tactile sensation.
This will sound sentimental, but who cares. I like the thought of how exciting these cameras would have been to a kid who received it as a gift. Back when photography took time, it would have seemed magic. I like the thought that these lenses were the eyes on so many events.
And then there is the fact I can present these objects in such an orderly way. The four cameras are all 3/4 turned, facing to the right. These black cubes, such simple shapes, with the circular flash from the unique Spartus camera. The stack of ten cameras makes a small architectural structure, each with a different facade. The box cameras with their shining brass art deco designs, the different materials used. Composing the cameras this way adds a structure and order.
The materials, their designs, the history and story, their utility as image making tools, cameras are deserving of a portrait.
I have been painting cameras for well over a decade. You can see 40 paintings of cameras I’ve done on good old Flickr.
As with many of my recent paintings, the subjects were found at Everything Old in Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island.
Typewriters are all about ideas and writing. They seem to spark the act, I think it’s because of the physicality of them. They make this amazing noise, your words literally express themselves vocally as you tap away at the keys. You have to immediately concentrate, your whole mind and body becomes involved. You focus.
These two typewriters are a great contrast to one another – the Corona with its sleek black curves and stately design, the Royal with its crisp blue and modern edges.
I have these typewriters in my collection, and when they’re out of their cases they invite anyone around to sit down and type.
Both of these typewriters were found at Everything Old – an antique store in Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island.
I had a great time in Los Angeles at the opening reception for my exhibition at the George Billis Gallery LA.
For the most part, being a painter is a solitary experience. One spends a great deal of time focussing and concentrating on making the paintings, then things turn completely and you find yourself sharing the finished pieces with everyone you possibly can. It can be a little jarring to go from solitude and privacy to a public, open space.
But I’m very happy with the way the paintings turned out. And I think the gallery did a great job of displaying the paintings.
The gallery is also showing a few sculptural pieces by John A. Peralta. These exploded camera and projector pieces are fascinating. I see it as a deconstruction / reconstruction way of looking at things. Viewing these exploded objects has the same effect as my paintings – they make the viewer slow down and really investigate the object.
John’s construction of these sculptures is absolutely meticulous. True craftsmanship.
Check out this ad for my exhibition in art ltd. magazine.
Always these vintage books conjure up a narrative – perhaps naïve, perhaps blindly optimistic. But that is precisely the charm I’m looking for. I like the contradiction this casts over the regular pall of doom we are forced to endure every day. Read more