Third Place Not Under Glass, Again!

Friday morning I entered art into an art show competition sponsored by the Metairie Art Guild. It was held at the Clearview Mall in Metairie. Participants designated three pieces to be part of the judging. Anyway, my acrylic painting, "Once," was awarded third place in the Not Under Glass Category. The judge was Tanya Dischler. This is the second time I've won third place for this painting.

 

I Has Canvases!

Today I traveled to the Bywater area to pick up my canvases from New Orleans Art Supply on Royal Street. These canvases are future dot paintings. The small boxes contain threes of 5" x 5" gallery wrap canvases. The box on the right contains three 20" x 20" canvases. I have plenty of work ahead of me.

et

For several years I've enjoyed viewing time lapse videos on a YouTube Channel called RinpaEshidan. The artists continuously paint over parts of collaborative murals and installations. Below is one of my favorite videos from the channel. The murals are simply painted in only black and white.



 The 5" x 5" format limited my painting detail, but I painted anyway. I stuck with simple shapes and representations of a fish and underwater plant life. In the end I decided to leave the background areas solid without dots.

 
acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

es

A few years ago there was a local restaurant called Semolina's Bistro Italia on Magazine Street in Uptown New Orleans. My family enjoyed dining there for several special occasions. Each of us enjoyed specific dishes. Being the artist, of the group, I also appreciated the decor of the place.

Anyway, I felt that I needed to make a dot painting based on my visits to the restaurant. I started with a black background. Then I added metallic paint dots to the background using four different colors mimicking the arrangement of artworks I saw. Below is
the result.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Third Place Not Under Glass

This morning I entered art into an art show competition sponsored by the Jefferson Art Guild. It was held at the Clearview Mall in Metairie. Participants designated three pieces to be part of the judging. Anyway, my acrylic painting, "Once," was awarded third place in the Not Under Glass Category. The judge was Carol Scott.

Numeros

Another slideshow has been in my head for a while. Well, I finally got around to making it. The dot paintings in this slide show are from my "Numeros Series." From the beginning I was inspired by a Mexican vibe. The video below is what resulted from my vision.


1 min 47 sec

Circle Madness

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Spots on Rocks

graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Tangled Coins

graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Poydras Home Art Show

The Poydras Home Art Show was Saturday and Sunday, November 3rd and 4th, 2012. I completed the last three paintings for that show. The three paintings were hung together in the front hall. The three canvases hanging together made me think of a face.

Dieciocho

On my third canvas, in this bunch, I added random dots in the center. Then I went back to the dot pattern I used in my earlier two paintings to finish. The brillance of color makes this my favorite one.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Diecisiete

Below is my second dot painting from this grouping. Again I painted dots in concentric circles. I varied my colors a lot more in this one.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Dieciséis

Tonight I finished my latest painting from the "Numeros" series. Each time I paint with dots, I learn more about the interaction of colors. Anyway, when I finished, I was excited about the illusion depth in my image.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Seventh Year!

Seven years ago I created this blog about my dot art. In that time I have discussed the evolution of my paintings, my process for creating each new piece and my influences along the way. This blog has become part of my process as I write about these works and as I respond to comments and questions.

Although Hurricane Katrina was seven years ago, I’ve been reminded of the dangers of such storms several times since then. Four years ago, Hurricane Gustav precipitated my forced evacuation. One year ago Tropical Storm Lee hovered over the area for too long. Then this past August, Hurricane Isaac made an indecisive and dragged out path through this area.

Hurricane Issac was very frustrating because forecasters couldn’t predict accurately
its landfall nor its strength. After the storm, it was a while before homes and businesses had power restored. Fortunately, I never lost power. I only had to replace some ceramic roof tiles.

Too bad I wasn’t inspired to paint while cooped up inside during the Isaac drama. My efforts would have been a waste of paint. Not until the end of September did I start in on the paintings for the annual art show at Poydras Home. Each year I have submitted three new works for the show.

Stacks of small canvases await coats of paint and dots as I write this. Seven years have passed and I’m still creating more of these. People still want them. Last spring marked the tenth year I’ve been painting this way and last summer marked the shift to painting smaller canvases. Anyway, I need to paint . . .