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 . . .

Phase II, Third of Three

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Phase II, Second of Three

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Phase II, First of Three

Phase II marks a second coat of acrylic paint. Here is the first of three. Phase III will involve "the dots." Stay tuned for more.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Phase I, Third of Three

And finally this is the third painting of three. I decided to use cool colors on it. So far I'm not sure of the color of the dots.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Phase I, Second of Three

This is the second painting of these three. I used warmer colors in it. At this point, I'm not sure what color the dots will be.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Phase I, First of Three

So now I have begun work on the next three paintings in the "Numeros Series." I've painted the first coat and sealed it with gloss acrylic. It may change with the next coat. The dots are applied last.


acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

Hurricane Isaac

Hurricane Isaac hit the new Orleans area on the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The storm wasn't officially recognized as a "hurricane" until the 10 p.m. report. Official reports are given at 10 a.m. & p.m. and 4 a.m. & p.m. The storm took forever to become organized. It also took forever to pass through this area. Hurricane Gustav hit Louisiana around the same time in 2008.

Evacuation, for Isaac, was voluntary in my immediate area. Lower lying areas had mandatory evacuations. Since Isaac was not expected to be as strong a storm as some previous ones, I decided to stay put. But I knew from past experiences that a tropical storm could still mean high winds and/or flooding.

When Isaac's winds had finally died down enough, I looked outside to see if I had any roof damage. One of my ceramic roof ridge tiles had fallen on my driveway and shattered. Some of the other tiles were simply displaced. So, this storm fell somewhere between Katrina (most) and Gustav (least). Other people in the region had much more damage.

This storm had me too agitated to paint. However I did render some sketches that I will post on my blog art at random. Look for them in the near future.

Dot Density

Previously I made a graphite drawing in which I varied the darkness of my dots. I called it Shades of Gray. For this sketch I used a Sharpie Fine Point to create dots of different sizes. I varied the distance between the dots.

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The same "Art for Art's Sake" night I also saw works by Mark Bradford. The large pieces looked like overhead images of cities. Some of them had collage elements in them. So, I decided I wanted to go on my own visual tangent.

 First I settled on some colors for a palette beginning with red, white and black for my background areas. Then I repeated the colors, adding yellow, in the form of dots as I created shapes. Along the way I ended up with something more digital looking. Well, anyway, that's how my process went.

  

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

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A few paintings back, I mentioned attending "Art for Art's Sake." That same night, I saw the work of Gretchen Weller Howard. Well, the painting below is what resulted from seeing her work. Of course I went off on my own tangent.

Yes, my dot painting turned out bright and cheerful. Figuring out what I wanted to do over the pastel colored background took a couple of months. Anyway, I finished it. Enjoy.

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"

Originally I set out to make the letters spelling "dotartdude" into a graffiti image. Along the way I broke up the letters into a grid; plus I added some large dots.

graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Striped Circles 2

graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"