A fresh 30 x 48-inch painting just off the easel is on the way to The George Billis Gallery in New York. It’s a sturdy Royal FP typewriter from the 1950s. You can take a closer look at it → here.
I have been working on my upcoming exhibition for the gallery’s Los Angeles location and have made major headway, so I am able to send this one to New York for clients to see.
I read this book 17 years ago – long before social media. How is it possible that things might be turning out worse than the fiction of the book? Perhaps we shouldn’t think about this too deeply and just find a funny and cute YouTube video to take our minds off things.
This Penguin Books classic edition of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is the perfect subject on many levels. Not only is the theme of the book relevant, but the simple graphic design of the cover with the symmetry and balance attracts me as well.
Happy New Year! Let’s make it a good one.
Here’s a glimpse of a recently completed painting – a Corona No.3 typewriter. I’ve used this in the past but it needed a bit more of a grand composition so I added some pencils and books.
I’m calling this one done. Finding the point of completion is always satisfying on a painting. This one is going to hang in my house for some time while I move on to the next stack of books to paint.
This painting is available as a 12 x 12 inch print. See it in my print shop → here.
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.
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.
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.
“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.”
― Lao Tzu
“Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let’s not forget this.”
― Dave Eggers
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.
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.
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.
