Painting Cradles

Right Curve, 2009, Oil on Birch Panel, 30x40

So here is the official jpeg of this lovely painting that I am so pleased with. It is nowhere near as good as the actual painting, alas, but it will suffice I suppose. I always struggle to keep these pieces painterly, and they actually are in real life (a few close ups below to prove it:)), but somehow they tend to look stiff when photographed.

Anyway, I am finishing up the cradles on the last two paintings and am also putting on the picture wire, etc. Someone (sorry, can't recall who!) asked me awhile back about painting the edges so I thought I'd explain that a bit today. Obviously there are a lot of different ways to handle the edges. I have seen them left unfinished, I've seen the image painted around the sides and then the other day I saw a solution that I also like on Mary's blog. I think what Mary does works perfectly with her work. I probably would lean towards leaving my cradles unfinished, however when I do the underpaintings I always get the paint smudged all over the edges, it is nearly impossible not to since I work with my hands at this point. I have tried to tape the edges so that they'd be protected but then I got all kinds of weird clumps of paint chunks stuck between the tape and the corner of the panel, which was a look I didn't care for. Finally, after some experimentation, I decided that that I should just paint the edges. I experimented with using different colors, but that got too complicated and I eventually settled on black. So now I apply wood primer when I prep the panels and after I am entirely done with the painting, I sand the cradles and then paint them with two coats of black paint, sanding in between coats. I use a sanding block so I can just drag it flat along the surface. I have gotten this all down pretty well over the years, but when I paint the cradles I do sometimes get a ridge of the black paint on the actual surface of the painting. So whether that happens or not, I run a cotton rag along the edge of the surface of the painting after I paint each side, just in case.

I like how the black cradles look on my paintings: clean and modern, and allows the focus to be on the painting. And of course I love working on the cradled panels-I am very emotional about my edges and despite how easy it is for the corners to get dinged without the protection of a frame, I MUCH prefer that everything shows. However, as I tell my gallery directors, the cradled piece can be framed if one desires, but please, don't tell me about it!

Close ups of the painting shown above:

Birch Panels

Through There, 2007, Oil on Panel, 18x24

Ok, last week, several people, including Michelle, Janet and Kim, asked about my panels, so I said I would write about them in a post. However, the whole topic seemed familiar and so I looked through my archives and found two posts that discuss switching over to birch panels, after having used gessobord panels for quite some time. At first I bought several large ones to work on, you can read about my panic attack concerning the scale here. And then last year I began to exclusively use the birch panels and I wrote about that here.

And with that bit of background info I will explain why I have my panels made for me, rather than buying them at a wonderfully low price in a Home Depot. Mostly it's because rather than framing my work, (I do not think my paintings look good with a frame) I prefer the cradled panels. Which leads me to reason #2: In many ways I am a full out girly-girl. While technically I know my way around a woodshop, I really prefer not to have to actually do work in one. The dust, the noise, the possibility of losing a body part, ick. Um, and I don't have a workshop anyway. AND there is no way that I could ever possibly have enough time to build nearly 200 cradled panels each year either. Even if I did have enough time, I have about a million other things I'd rather do. In theory, I'd like to be that self-sufficient but instead, I must comfort myself with the knowledge that I am helping to keep others afloat in their professions and so most of my panel business goes to Soho Artist Materials in New York City. They have been great to work with and I can't tell you how exciting it still is to get a batch of new panels from them. They are so beautifully finished and so full of promise! As I said they are a bit pricey, for example an 18x24 costs $40, but since I don't have any framing costs, that price becomes much more reasonable, and my time involved in painting the cradles and putting the hangers on etc, is fairly minimal. However the prep is kind of a pain in the neck. I apply two coats of clear polyurethane to the backs and two coats of wood primer on the front and sides, sanding between each coat. And then I apply a coat of gesso to the painting surface. If I really keep at it I can do a table full of panels in a day, but more often it gets spread out over a few days or even a week sometimes. My son is going to work as my assistant next summer and prepping panels will be his very first job!

So that's my panel story and I am sticking to it. And to follow up on the painting that the 48x60 panel became in the post linked above, the image was a barn and was not hung in the show that it was intended for, as the gallery director didn't like it. It then went to another show where it didn't sell and proving that third time is the charm, it finally did sell last summer at yet another show. The other large panel sold last summer as well, as a sort of commission. I feel like I dodged a bullet by getting those two huge panels sold and out of the studio!

About New York City

Me! In a window! In a gallery! In Soho! In NYC!

We decided to drive the whole way into the city last Thursday instead of taking the train. I had some paintings to deliver, Doug needed to deliver a fossil to a client on Saturday and we also planned to pick up a load of birch panels at Soho Art Materials on our way home. And since we left later than planned, we drove into Manhattan at rush hour. Yay. Although Doug is a good driver, I was filled with terror. I don't think you could pay me enough money to drive through that city.

Anyway, we stopped at Doug's showroom and then went down to Multiple Impressions to deliver a few paintings. It was nice to look at the other artist's work as well as to finally meet and chat with Betty, the owner. We settled into the loft space that Doug's company had rented for the month and then went out for a really nice dinner, where the waiter only had eyes for Doug. Literally. He never looked at me once and he practically rolled his eyes when I spoke. And despite the fact that we insisted on no desert, he brought over a piece of cheesecake, for Doug, of course. When we left he looked right past me to say a heartfelt goodbye to Doug. I would have felt offended except, well, it was funny.

On Friday we met up with Chris Rywalt in Chelsea and visited about 859 galleries. I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with Chris, he is very funny, silly and smart all at the same time. Doug and I totally enjoyed seeing so much contemporary art and the highlights for me, were seeing a few of Jeff Cohen's paintings (I used to read his blog, which seems to be gone now), Ron Ehrlich's work at Stephen Haller Gallery, and David LaChapelle's photography at Tony Shafrazi Gallery. I really connected with the show at Dillon Gallery. Michael Ryan's paintings remind me of my own, but are much much better. Bigger, more colorful and more abstract. I loved them. Another show I enjoyed was at McKenzie Fine Art. The work of Marietta Ganapin should be seen in person as it is incredibly and wonderfully obsessive. In a very good way, of course.

After getting back to the loft, I dozed on the sofa (I never sleep during the day, but I was beat and what the hell - I was on vacation!) and my husband, the workaholic, went to the showroom and spent a few hours working. We ordered pizza and watched tv for the rest of the evening. Pretty exciting night in the city, eh?

Tomorrow I will write about my visit to the Whitney, which was life-altering!