after what seems to have been an eternity, i believe my life is smoothing out. i spent part of each weekend day at the studio and i’m going bsck today. i’ve been told that doing something 3x begins a habit. so … hopefully my studio habit will re-emerge fully.
printers ink and graphite on paper
until next week (i hope only until next week or i’ll implode). i’ve had a few visits to the studio, yet they yielded only a few scribbles which i won’t torture you with. hopefully soon i’ll return to a more consistent studio practice with samples.
in the meantime, here’s a link to mark bradford’s work at the san francisco museum of modern art
small painting on paper.
In the Hold, oil painting into monotype, 20′ x 16″
The title is a reference to the non-committal online connections that pass for friendship bonds today. The whole concept is silly and sad. That said, please don’t un-follow me or I’ll cut my ear off.
With the paint into monotype I’m continuing to explore a guarded, nuanced and neutral palette with some higher hues thrown in. Here the cool grays got too blue and of course the yellow blares out a bit. The figure may have pronounced itself rather more than was intended, but I’m ok with it.
Unfollow, 2008-2012, oil into monotype on paper, 18″ x 12″
Yesterday Toni Tiller posted about the show Its a Small, Small World, also called Cluster Fluck, an open show at Family Business, a 10′ x 12′ foot space curated by a very funny Hennessy Youngman. Entertaining art happening. There may have been maybe 100 artists represented; here’s the little piece I had in it. It was in a good spot. On the other hand, when you’re talking about 120 square feet, any spot is a good spot.
Drunken Silenus, ink and graphite on paper, 11 x 8
Below is a recent Monotype reworked with oil.
April, oil paint into monotype on paper, 24″ x 18″
graphite, charcoal and oil stick
Sometime last year I had a conversation with Jean Christensen, a collage artist whom I’ve befriended through an online art group and who lives and works in France, about the idea of a collaboration. I had pitched the idea to him just because I thought it would be a interesting exercise in managing decision-making within a control-variable situation. I’m a bit of a control freak as I think Jean is, although I believe we’re both generously diplomatic at the same time. But as he has suggested himself, he and I are quite different in our styles, tastes and history.
So he agreed to the idea and sent me a 10″ x 14″ hardwood board he had glued various cut paper to. Images of fish, food, mammals, rocks, etc. I worked oil paint into it and sent it back to France. He added more collaged bits and sent it back where I sat on it for a long, long time. I Had been trying to make it work abstractly but it wasn’t happening so I went in another direction and finished it. I think it works pretty well under the circumstances, formally and somehow as expression.
I suggested to him if we do this again, I’ll start the piece and he finish it. The artist to last work on a collaboration like this has the advantage of final say.
This is a mediocre photograph but I’ve included the first 3 stages of the process as well.
Tom Bennett & Jean Christensen, Collaboration, oil paint, collaged paper, varnish. glue on wood, 10″ x 14″
Below are the first 3 stages.
stage 1:
Stage 2:
Stage 3:
My cat’s sick, my car’s in the garage, I’m doing commercial work and I’ve got several unfinished paintings in a state of mess in my studio, so I’m posting this simple direct mixed media sketch. My alma mater won at the Garden in OT, though, so that mitigates something. I think.
Folded Figure
India Ink, benzine ink and graphite on paper, 11 x 17
after a much needed warm weather excursion, i’ve spent some productive time in the studio. my last post spoke to the dilemmas i face when placing my studio practice on the back burner. when i wrote that i’d be taking some oil sticks, pencils and a sketchbook on my vacation, i obligated myself to actually draw… which i did, happily on the beach. it was a necessary excercise to stay in the game, to make sure my practice is as much a part of my life as … oh .. drinking coffee. the results are below. i also spent some time in the studio upon my return to make certain my practice stayed on track when i’m not at the beach. while i can say i succeeded in my commitments to draw consistently, i can also assure you that time spent at the beach is really, REALLY nice!
beach time
this was done in studio. acrylic and pencil on black plexi 4"x5"
This is a bad photo of a work in progress. I’m going south for a couple of days.
Tom Bennett
WIP, oil into monotype on paper, 18″ x 24″
Here I’m publishing the 1st stage – an original monotype – and the finished overlaid painting. Looking at the two images now I can see what choices I would make differently. The energy of the 1st state has been redirected distinctly.
I’m working on some monotypes dedicated to Jeremy Lin, the phenom of the NY Knicks. I hope to post the results later.
Tom Bennett
Nod to Basch, 1st stage, monotype, 18″ x 28″
Nod to Basch, oil over monotype on paper, 18″ x 28″
More paintings made from monotypes. These two pieces I finished a couple of days ago and I’m of two minds about them. The first, In the Corner, may be a tad too defined in the figure. I’m not sure I’m pushing the abstraction enough. The second painting I’m on the fence about as well. How’s that for mixed metaphor cliches?
Tom Bennett
In the Corner, oil over monotype on paper, 28″ x 20″
The Fat and the Thin, oil over monotype on paper, 20″ x 16″
Two more explorations in the current series. The one called Lauren’s Underbelly got its title from the happy little fact that the underpainting/monotype was a portrait of a pregnant woman. She apparently gave birth to this painting. It’s a girl!
Hidden Defect, oil into monotype on paper, 22′ x 16″
Lauren’s Underbelly, oil into monotype on paper, 18″ x 12″
This piece has a photographic feel and Kodak is on its death bed. That’s a sad thought.
Ektachromoplasm, oil over monotype on paper, 20″ x 16″
Photos of the first stages of the process I’m exploring with these current reworked monotypes-to-paintings.
The monotype is an ancient relic from the early 90′s. Drawing over the image and reintegrating the underlying forms with the new marks, I then bring in paint of varying viscosities with brush and knife. The recontextualization of form may be overtly reconsidered or more likely metamorphosizes ‘organically’ (for lack of better pompous phrasing). Here much of the original is obliterated yet structurally the new image is recognizably built on form that is now rendered abstract. I’m away from my studio this week and won’t be reworking this until I get back, so this current unresolved stage will have to ferment like a soft wheel of gouda, also known as my head.
When taking monotypes and working back into them with other media, I intend to allow the under-print to be an integral part of the process and have a dialogue with the fresh mark making. With this piece I fear I have pushed to far with the paint and the literal form. The most overt area revealing the print is the space on the right with amorphous cell-like blobs. That said, I like the spotty abstracted relationships and may accept this as sort of a red-headed step child, even though she’s a brunette.
Tom Bennett
Nice and Easy, oil on monotype, rives bfk paper, 20″ x 16″
Happy Thanksgiving.
Age Before Beauty, 1993-2011, oil study into monotype on paper. 20″ x 16″
Leafing through the archives of not-quite successful prints, I came across a good candidate. I didn’t document it in its original stage, as I haven’t really done for most of the pieces in this series, but suppose I should. I will, however, search for a slide of it, which I am almost positive I have catalogued somewhere in the cave I call my studio.
I’m not isolating the printmaking paper with hide glue or gesso or anything. It should last at least until a meteor hits the earth, destroying civilization as we know it.
Hedwigs’s Spread Spectrum, oil over monotype on paper, 20″ x 16″
I’m writing this on the 2 V’s, vicodin and vodka, as I try to recover from a kick-arse flu.
This is an oil painting on paper.
Anachronism, oil paint over printmaking ink on paper, 20″ x 16″
This is pending sale, pending on spending.
Submissive, Oil over monotype on printmaking paper, 20″ x 16″
Agora Gallery - the proud sponsor of the Chelsea International Fine Art Competition, which offers contemporary artists the opportunity to show their original art at one the most acclaimed juried art shows in Chelsea, New York’s art galleries district.
darteboard
jdhastings
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Tom Bennett
Toni Tiller
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