I made a smaller version of this painting last year and thought that it deserved another composition and a larger canvas.
After The Sun Sets II is at the George Billis Gallery in New York City.
After The Sun Sets II
Tagged books
Classic Pelican Books
An 18 x 36 inch composition of wonderfully aged Pelican Books – see the painting closer here.
These books cover a broad range of subjects – everything from art, architecture, history, philosophy, etc. Something for everyone. And even though these books come from the past, they’re still relevant.
Read What You Will
The titles read like a poem. Or at least they do if that’s what you want. It’s not intentional on my part. It’s more serendipity.
Text makes you look at a painting longer. If there’s something to read, you’ll spend more time. Then you begin to draw connections between the words. You let them tell you what you want.
You may also respond to the color, and the structure the books create. They are architectural. Solid and sturdy.
Anything Can Happen
“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.”
― Lao Tzu
The Interpretation of Dreams
“Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let’s not forget this.”
― Dave Eggers
Sunshine and Rain, After the Sun Sets
Books have always been one of my favourite things to paint. And I think the titles, the actual titles, say just enough. I don’t need to add anything else. They speak for themselves and are up for your own interpretation.
Once you add text to a painting, you’ll immediately look at it differently — words transform the subject.
Underwood Standard Portable Typewriter II
This is the sister painting to the baby blue Royal typewriter in a simple vignette. A red Underwood Standard Portable Typewriter to be featured in my October 2017 solo exhibition at the George Billis Gallery in New York City.
This is another painting that left me very pleased with the outcome. It’s the culmination of years of work and dedication.
Royal Quiet De Luxe I
This is hands down my favourite painting that I have done in the past few years. It’s a Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter in a simple vignette. It feels good when a painting comes together in all the right places.
This will be one of 18 new paintings showing at the George Billis Gallery in New York City from the beginning of October through to the beginning of November.
This is the culmination of plenty of work and focus. I painted all throughout the summer months and a huge sense of relief and accomplishment has come over me. I have kept busy boxing up and shipping the paintings, but also stepping back from an intense period of painting and now I’m gearing up for the fall months spent following the momentum I built up this past summer.
Electric Fan & Red Books
This painting is at the George Billis Gallery in New York. It’s another in a series of paintings I have been doing by revisiting my portfolio and applying a new technique to subjects I have painted in the past 17 years.
The first time I painted a fan, I had a quick technique and was finished the painting in a few hours.
I think being a young father with a 2-year-old son and a 3-month-old daughter may have had something to do with how little time I had to paint. We had also just moved in to a new house that needed major work and I had a job at a university.
I have distinct memories of feeling this crunch of getting a painting done, racing to the finish line, before my son woke up from a nap. I also painted in the evenings for several years, tired and beleaguered.
I am completely on the other side now. Teenaged kids who require no nap times and they occupy themselves marvellously. I left my job and paint full time in a house that needs no work. Goals achieved. I have the next several decades (hopefully) to paint uninterrupted.
Three New Paintings
Here’s a look at three new paintings off on a plane ride to a collector in Singapore.
Piles of Books
I recently came across a Japanese word that I thought was a good descriptor for this small series of paintings I recently did.
Tsundoku: (n) the act of buying a book and leaving it unread, often piled together with other unread books
I currently suffer a mild case of this tsundoku phenomenon, but I suspect as I get older I’ll find ambitious piles of books growing around me. My wife encourages this.
Smith-Corona
A Smith-Corona typewriter. Recently completed and now comfortably inspiring a new collector in New Jersey.
Several years ago I started painting a series of typewriter vignettes. Recently looking for inspiration, I found that revisiting my own paintings as a place to learn and grow from.
You can check out all of my typewriter paintings to date on Flickr → click on this link.
