Work in Progress

I'm experimenting with using a palette knife and acrylics. I'm not diluting the acrylic, so it can really bunch up under the knife. I like the textural effect, but stepping back it's a lot of shades of gray. It's a good first and second layer, and I'm reasonably satisfied with the composition, but I'm not sure where to go from here. I do like the flat graphical effect, and don't really want to impose depth on the painting, but it needs contrast. Maybe just another layer of the same palette knife effect with contrasting colors or brighter versions of the colors already down.

Brush and Ink

Do we see more in art when we feel we have less control? See this study on control and order.
It's not about art, but I'm curious how it might apply.
(Brush and ink on paper, 2008)

"What're you lookin' at?"

So I know painting pets can be cutesy and cliche, and this may well not be an exception, but for me, the challenge is to move away from a drafting, engineering drawing style and into a looser exploration of color and movement. And if you look around me seeking movement, you can't miss the wiener dogs.

First

This is a detail of a larger painting. I'm not sure when or how the fire hydrant theme started, but this may have been the first one. This is from 2002 or 2003.

Ninepatch

This ninepatch is leather on acrylic on canvas. A note about the leather - it was scrap leather my grandmother bought years ago from a coat factory. She would take the scrap leather, piece it together on muslin like a crazy quilt, but usually all the same color leather, and make coats out of it. These are from some scraps that never made it onto a coat.