How to Keep Paintings From Sliding in the Frame

Here's a simple solution to prevent your paintings from sliding around in a frame that doesn't have a tight fit.  It's always annoying when a painting shifts around during shipping and scratches the surface of the paint.

Back Side of The Certainty of Youth and The Complexity of Wisdom

I cut a few pieces of black foam core and use them as spacers between the edge of the painted panel and the edge of the frame.

In this instance the thickness of the foam core was the correct thickness to keep the painting snug. If it needs to be smaller the foam core can squish together, its kind of springy and that works too. If you have a bigger space you can use the foam core flat rather than on the side.

I find the best solution is to do a floating frame but depending on the design of the piece that is not always viable.

The gessoed panel or canvas is secured in the frame with a Fletcher's Framer's Point Driver. It's the best thing since sliced bread.

Another indispensable tool is the Fletcher PullMate, for removing the points.

Front Side of The Certainty of Youth and The Complexity of Wisdom

This painting is at Peterson-Cody Gallery in Santa Fe, NM., and here are a couple posts I did about the making of the work:

Black and White Or Shades of Gray?

 

The Inspiration Quotient or Mr. Coffee

 

I'm working on my November newsletter introducing plein air and alla prima oil sketches I've done over the past year.

 

To get the 7 tips for Plein Air painting that I learned the hard way, sign up to receive my monthly newsletter here.

"Story Within" at Peterson-Cody Gallery

The day is finally here!

"Story Within" Peterson-Cody Gallery Opening Tonight.

I'm very excited to be in Santa Fe attending the opening tonight of "Story Within" at Peterson-Cody Gallery. Stop by if you are in town and say hi. 

Peterson-Cody Gallery
130 West Palace Avenue
505-820-0010

The Magazine

Here are images of the work in the show and links to posts about them.

Our Dancing Days, 30x40, oil on panel

The Bribe, 11x14, oil on panel

Ripe Was the Drowsy Hour, 18x24, oil on panel

The Certainty of Youth and the Complexity of Wisdom, 43x49, oil on panel

Ode to Melancholy, 24x36, oil on panel

Power Struggle, 30x40, oil on panel

The above is a screen shot of the Santa Fe Gallery Association coverage of the show. You can read the article on the SFGA Web Site.

The Inspiration Equation or Ideas Percolate Like Mr. Coffee

Today I wanted to write about The Inspiration Equation or How Ideas Percolate.

X+Y = the Final Product - W Magazine uses this kind of equation to explain their fashion photo shoots and it makes sense to me. Sometimes there is a linear progression of thought for a piece. 

Mr. Coffee - In truth it's really much more complicated than that because there's no way to factor in years of life experience and emotions for example. Sometimes an artist doesn't know why they make the connections they do, it's more like percolating water flowing over ground up coffee beans and picking up a little something along its way into the pot.

"The Certainty of Youth and the Complexity of Wisdom", Diptych frame size 43x49,
each panel 29x18, oil on panel

So this is how all the following ideas added up to my painting.


Common Saying - "seeing things in black and white or in shades of gray". I think that is true and the older I get, the more I understand about certain situations, the less clear cut the issue is.

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 Billy Joel - A few years ago I heard his song Shades of Grey, for the umpteenth time and it dawned on me that there was truth to what he'd written. I frequently find wisdom in the lyrics of singer-song writers, they are indeed the poets of our day. (lyrics to the song are at the bottom of this post) 

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Make it so #1 - I sent my mind out looking for ways to visually present this very intangible idea. It literally took a couple of years for something to bubble to the top.

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Rocks? - I'm not sure when the rocks occurred to me so that will have to be a blank in the equation. 

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Awesome Models - A young model and a mature model to capture the idea that wisdom comes with age (hopefully). Both models are fellow Birmingham, AL artists. I decided that they should be depicted separately to allow for the possibility that it could be the same man at a different ages, for that reason they couldn't exist in the same pictorial space, hence the diptych. 

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Costumes - I wanted the younger model to be wearing a crisp white shirt and my mature model to be wearing a more relaxed shirt. Turns out my younger model didn't own a dress shirt, so he bought one on the way to my studio. When we took it out of the package it still had the fold creases, PERFECT, I thought for the black and white character. My older model is a sculptor so he lives in denim shirts anyway. This is an example of how models contribute to the painting in important ways besides how they look.

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Renaissance Altarpieces and Portraits - These things say "This is of import" and I couldn't resist having an elaborate frame, like the one below, built to house my diptych.

Piero dell Francesca, Diptych Portrait: Battista Sforza & Federico da Montefeltro, 1472-3

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my painting

Maybe that gives some insight into the creative process, it was a fun exercise for me anyway...

Here's another post about The Certainty of Youth and the Complexity of Wisdom that has many close-ups and other paintings that feature these models.

Lyrics to Shades Of Grey: by Billy Joel
Some things were perfectly clear, seen with the vision of youth
No doubts and nothing to fear, I claimed the corner on truth
These days it's harder to say I know what I'm fighting for
My faith is falling away
I'm not that sure anymore

Shades of grey wherever I go
The more I find out the less that I know
Black and white is how it should be
But shades of grey are the colors I see

Once there were trenches and walls and one point of every view
Fight 'til the other man falls
Kill him before he kills you
These days the edges are blurred, I'm old and tired of war
I hear the other man's words
I'm not that sure anymore

Shades of grey are all that I find
When I come to the enemy line
Black and white was so easy for me
But shades of grey are the colors I see

Now with the wisdom of years I try to reason things out
And the only people I fear are those who never have doubts
Save us all from arrogant men, and all the causes they're for
I won't be righteous again
I'm not that sure anymore

Shades of grey wherever I go
The more I find out the less that I know
Ain't no rainbows shining on me
Shades of grey are the colors I see

Oops! The Boxed Painting Won't Fit in the Car!

The Certainty of Youth and the Complexity of Wisdom, including the frame size is 49x43 and too big to fit in any of the StrongBoxes I had on hand, first problem encountered! 

Backing up a moment - When shipping work first I wrap my paintings in Dartek, a plastic I've had great luck with. It is an archival museum product made by University Products. I find that it works great to keep foam and dust from getting on the work. I would caution that it's best to experiment with your particular varnish. I always try to varnish at least a week before the work is shipped so it's not green.

Then they are put in Airfloat System StrongBoxes, which have a puncture resistant liner and foam so the work doesn't move at all. They are expensive but reusable and I've had great luck shipping with them. They are lighter weight for shipping than a plywood crate so you will save in the end on shipping costs. 

Meanwhile back to the problem at hand - we opened up one end of my largest StrongBox and made the box bigger by canibalizing other boxes we had on hand. Ok, this is gonna work.

Then...As we are building the box we realize IT'S too big to fit in my Mazda CX 7. At this point I have already delivered four boxes to FedEx and paid for a shipping label for this fifth box and time is of the essence. FedEx had given me a deal on shipping the five boxes as a multi-piece shipment.

It seemed too complicated to try to arrange a pick up of the work so we took all the parts down to FedEx and assembled the package there.

EXTREME amounts of Extreme packing tape and many FRAGILE stickers later I finally said goodbye to my diptych.

Now I know my absolute width size limit if I'm going to haul the work to FedEx myself. Wondering, will these years be known as the Mazda years? Someone in this family really needs to buy a truck.

I'm happy to say all the work arrived safely in Santa Fe at the Peterson-Cody Gallery for my show which will open next Friday, Nov, 4, 2011.

Here are few links you might find helpful: Dartek Film,
Airfloat StrongBox  

Here's a previous post I did about  The Certainty of Youth and the Complexity of Wisdom. 

Here are a couple others about shipping art work. Good luck!

Black and White Or Shades of Gray?

Does our view of complex issues change with age?

This is my new painting "The Certainty of Youth and the Complexity of Wisdom", 43x49, oil on panel. 

 

 

Both these men are Birmingham artists. You may recognize the wise model, a cowboy in The Incognito Project, in "Yippee Ki-Yay".

"Yippee Ki-Yay, The Incognito Project" 16x16, oil on panel

You may also recognize my youth model from the cover of the novel Olympia Heights, The Pantheon, by Amy Strickland

"Olympia Heights, The Pantheon" a novel by Amy Strickland

Click here to see a post about my cover photo shoot for Amy's book. Thanks Ira and Nick!

Myth Busting One Art Rule at a Time

Yesterday while painting rocks I had an ah ha moment....

"The Certainty of Youth and the Complexity of Wisdom" detail
(diptych in progress)

As I share my knowledge of painting with my students I also delight in debunking ART RULES as they understand them.

The ah ha moment today came when I realized WHY this is crucial to growth as an artist, particularly to a realist artist...drum roll please...

If you have a preconceived idea of what something SHOULD be you can't get to the thing as it REALLY is.

While all the technical stuff I share is important what I really want my students to do is observe nature, really observe nature.

The conversation usually starts when I say something like "Look how warm the shadows are here" then one of my very accomplished students says something like "But I thought shadows are cool and highlights are warm" then I say "That's what I used to think too." And then we are off!

I've come to think of these statements as Art Rules that Hinder. While painting in the solitude of my studio I find myself problem solving ways to help students rethink these rules, ways to shake them up just a bit.

So for my lovely students (you know who you are), I'll be debunking the rules one by one and having fun rocking your world!

Myth Busting Art Rules that Hinder

1. "Shadows are cool and highlights are warm"

Wrong, it's all relative. 

If you are trying to fit what you are observing into a painting formula you cannot see the magical natural phenomenon that is right in front of you.

Example: The hot southwest sun shining on a mesa is warm and the shadows cast by the mesa are cool, but a cool north light will make the highlights seem cool, in comparison to the shadows which will seem warm. 

Think of your paintings as movies, you be the director and set up any number of color temperature scenarios and variations.

Here is the illustration I use in class. This is a small still life I set up in a box, it's a wooden finial I painted flat white and mounted to a canvas board. The light is the same, all that changes is a piece of colored paper on the right hand side reflecting into the shadows.

With  black paper to the right of the box the shadow is dense and fairly neutral.

There is a red-orange piece of paper to the right of the box, notice all the gorgeous hot colors bouncing around. The highlight in comparison to the shadow is cool even though the light source hasn't changed.

Same light, but now with a cool blue paper reflecting into the shadows, the highlight is positively warm. 

Simply shine a light on a white object, put a piece of red paper on the opposite side of the object and really observe the light and shadow. In relationship to the red bouncing around in the shadows the highlights will seem warm. Yes this is reflected light, but it's also the color temperature in the shadow. My point is that it is all relative to the situation you set up or observe in nature.

If anyone knows any Art Rules that Hinder just send them to me. This is going to be fun!