High Contrast Grey.

After finishing up my BFA senior thesis and graduating we packed up all our belongings and headed East. Off into the sunrise. My wall of the BFA Thesis show. Somehow we ended up arriving in Maine a whole day before we had planned on arriving, but with driving through the night and switching off the whole way there with only a short stint in Minnesota where we took a quick nap at a truck stop, and then two stop overs with some relatives of Jessye, we were making good time. When we arrived in Maine they were having rain showers, which were apparently making up for the fact that the season switch had gone from winter to summer and it was finally making up for the absence of spring. Our beginning in Maine started out with being lazy at Jessye's grandparent's place in the woods on an island in Harpswell, Maine.  Spending the day watching TNG on BBC America and short trips out when family members would visit. The Pemaquid Light House. Dobra Tea. Where I work. Then wit...

I sneak in a mirror reflected reference photo. While we were in Toulouse we ducked into a nice little salon de thé that to me felt like something out of a 1940s representation of Europeans in Africa. Probably just the French dealing with the heat of the south. While at this place I noticed a girl sitting alone at one of the tables reading on her phone. Perhaps surfing the internet, perhaps reading a book, I couldn't quite tell as it was in Asian characters. I would guess that it was either Chinese or Japanese. In such a beautifully intriguing place I found it to be somewhat odd that she would pass the time ignoring her surrounding to immerse herself in her phone. I remember they also had nice restrooms. The girl then left and we stayed a bit longer sipping on our drinks, which if I remember right were not actually tea but something cool to counter the heat of Toulouse. Taking a breather in the hectic nature of our vacation. It was one of those towns where I ...

Jessye looks at my presentation. With university in 'full swing' it seems as though all my free time has been taken up. Regretfully resulting in fewer posts keeping up with my art. Part of what has been filling up my time was learning that I could still apply for the Bachelor of Fine Arts which I had originally thought I had missed the chance to while I was in France. I had thought it was one of those things that needed to be applied for a year in advance, but thankfully (and frustratingly) I was incorrect. It has been nice to finally get all my art supplies together. All those antique frames that are in need of images to put in them. But still I wish that I could be back in Bretagne. If there could have been a way to have all my things and groupings of friends here. The BFA show was based on a collection of ten different pieces. 5 in my medium of preference (I wanted to select both the painting and the drawing categories as I try to apply both, but I was deterred into ...

 I finished a piece today that I had started as a 'little' drawing to fill one of my many empty frames. I had received some old sketch paper in California from my grandma and wanted to pair its yellowing with some of my layered drawing. It took a lot longer than I thought it would take, but that was my own doing with adding more and more detail to such a small piece of paper. I am still in the process of trying to finish a collection of other paintings. They are inspired by my travels around France and the many things that I saw while traveling around. Except the one in the upper left hand corner which is one that I had been working on last summer and was left behind while I left for France. At the moment I think I am done except for naming the gallery. That and finding it a frame to put it in. I really need to work at cutting the paper to fit the many empty frames I have in my collection, so that I can display them easier and save money on going to get things framed. To...

We stop somewhere in Eastern Washington on the way back to Montana. Coming back to the States has been an 'interesting' experience. After the stress of having to figure out living and how to get around once getting back, I have since spent most of the summer in hiding. Time to time popping into the Butterfly to work on art, but mostly staying in the apartment. Perhaps this was all the reverse culture shock. Having to come back to a place that I really don't understand. Like, why are so many foods flavored to taste like other foods? Or, why do so many people need large trucks that have large plumes of black smoke that explode out the back every time they push on the gas pedal? Although, I think the worst of all the reverse culture shock has been going to the grocery store and having to pay so much for so little. And then the discovery that Petti Rosso was no more.. When we got back it was nice and it seemed to keep raining wherever we went. We would wake up on Dustin a...

So, I haven't written much lately.. but from the doldrums of the end of semester I then entered a time period of a flânerie across France. A last hurrah. Jessye came to visit again and the tiny room was packed up all into a few suitcases, the largest being named Bertha, and Rennes was left behind, although not before having a picnic in Thabor for the last Saturday market... We got the essentials. Madeleines (where as I reached the front of the line the vendor greeted me with a question of, '6 madelines?') with a few more of that vendor's delicious delights, like those bite size rolls with jams and caramel and chocolate.. Then of course the impossible cow cheese that acted like goat cheese and was rolled in Provencal  herbs. And of course a baguette from the amazing bakery covered in tiles. A trip to Thabor with Jessye was never complete without a stop at the aviary. And some people watching. A mohawked punk rocker walks a little girl hand in hand through th...

 I begin the piece by defining the form and covering up the painting already on the canvas. Something found at Emmaüs. A painting of what looks like was a French town. I try my best to lay the new layer of paint as thinly as possible so textures won't later interfere with my painting. I know that everything is going to be covered at some point so getting perfect colors isn't really an issue. To get the form I use a gel pen to make an outline to see how things will be laid down. I try to error on the side of thin to allow for the paint to cover it up. I continue laying down the form. Getting a feel for where everything is going. How the figure interacts with the setting.  Turns out that the leg was a little too far out so I fix that and start adding shadow. I had a little bit of orange left over so I play with adding a halo.  Layering up. I start to add some of the finer details that I won't have to mess with too much later on, ie. hair. Playing with the su...