Post 37: A Series of Small 12"x12" Simple Panels as Entry Level

   As I said previously, I want people to buy the stuff when I have a show, and have something at every price point, starting around $250.
   My original 12"x12" so called "Test Panels" were not made to sell, but I could do a Series along the same lines that could be hung in square groups of 9. The Test Panels do not really match in style, as they were experiemental, but still look pretty good as a group because the colors are consistant and warm thoughout:

     I suppose after all that thinking and planning, it's time to cut, glue, sand and prime some wood...
     Also, I still have a whole bunch of stuff to photograph, and also need to keep looking for objects I like, but are not so rare and attractive that I can't give them up and use them in a panel...

     I always liked old bottles. My mother in law had a huge collection of old bottles she dug up from abandoned dumps and displayed all over her house. I borrowed some for a while to do a bottle painting as part of my "Collections Series" back in the late 80's, and it turned out beautiful and sold quickly. But that was a lot of work to paint all the details, transparencies and reflections. It was huge too, about 5ftx7ft, on 4 large sheets of paper. Here is "Massie's Diggings", apiece I am still very proud of:

   I actually still have some of these bottles, but I don't want o use them in this project, so I ordered some apothicary bottles with glass stopper on Amazon, and will watch on eBay for good deals on old ones. Most seem to sell in the $20-30 range, but I have already found a 5.5" one for less than $10 including shipping:

     I would like to make for it my own aged ragged pharmacy label,  fill it with some kind of strange "snake oil", and use it as the starting point for a triptych, may be recessed in an ornate nook with a mica window. Time will tell, the possibilities are infinite...
     Cornell did a couple of intersting pieces with small bottle, which will no doubt inspire something quite different in the end. I like this one very much, which is actually rather unlike the rest of his shadowbox work:

Post 36: An entirely Different Concept and a Spare Design

     Among all the images of Astronomical and Astrological Charts I have collected, one was huge, very complex, and very interesting, the Wright Celestial Map from 1741.  It shows on the same page the different conceptions of the Solar System developed over two thousand years by the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, Ptolemeus, Platon, Pythagore, Ricciolus, Tycho Breha, etc...
    I have always liked old maps and charts, but I was particularly taken by this particular one because I just finished reading 3 big volumes about the lives and work of Copernicus, Kepler, and Gallileo, who themseves came up with diffeent systems.

    It is big and detailed enough to be spread continuously over the 3 pieces in a triptych, so I built three virtual 18"x18" panels of chalkboard, with veneer frames, layered the chart with the Luminosity Effect so it is visible, but subtle enough to remain in the background. It will eventually be drawn by hand in chalk on a base of chalkboard paint. I can only used a narrow slice of the central part of the Cart, with the Sun slightly off center on purpose.

     This can become an unusual piece looking again very different from the others, yet still be an Hommage to Cornell, who loved Astronomy. I will have to keep it simple. The chart shows the orbits of the Earth, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and(barely) Saturn. I had on file a number of Nasa images of the Planets I could draw from, so I placed the planets on their orbit where marked, added the names of Copernicus, Kepler and Gallileo and symbols for the Zodiac signs to the background,  and decided I would cut out small 4 to 5"doors opening on niches where I would place balls painted to look like Jupiter and Mars, as well as the Sun:

        The small Mars and Jupiter will also be painted balls serving as knobs to open the doors. The Sun door will open with a real key hanging from a nail in the frame. 

      I am even thinking of possibly painting the planets and the sun on 4" light bulbs that would turn on when the door is open.

Post 35: Something Different

   I often surf eBay or Etsy in seach of interesting old things that do not cost much, and hapenned to run across a set of three weaving Bobbins with nice colors of wool on, wound to create a nice bulge, and I bought them, thinking I could build a Triptych around them. Those are definitely my colors:

    They are definitely very oblong in shape, and 9" long, so I decided to build 3 vertical panels 18"Wx 25"H, with narrow vertical niches to fit the Bobbins. I also thought the "Veneer Frame" I used on the big Blackboard would match the color of the spools nicely, and they would stand out on matching dark rusty brown background with the same Cosmological chart drawn in a lighter shade:

    This time, I decided to work on the 3 panels at the same time as a triptych, and made a template that could possibly be re used with different oblong objects(bottles, pods, tools, etc...), using other backgrounds and textures:

      These Bobbins are designed to fit in a Wooden Boat Shuttle, so I looked on ebay, and found some nice cheap ones. I made a low offer and got them even cheaper. They are on the way, but the plan is the photograph them with the Bobbins in place, and to use these images. 

     I brought back from my World Travels several spindles used to make the wool thread by hand, so I searched for images of better ones, and found an image of some wonderful decorated Inca Spindles from Peru:

   Unfortunately, the image is too small to print, so I will have to eventually make some, either for real or in Photoshop. I also found images of old wooden combs used to pack the wool weft on the loom, and images of interesting Ancient Spindlewhirls. I built the composition of all three pieces similarly with different images.

    I wanted some sort of narrow frame around the niche, and doing some research on weaving techniques, found interesting diagrams showing the Jacquard patterns for different designs. Most were too complicated, but I found a couple simple enough to give an interesting pattern:

 This is where I am now, and I am letting it sit before adding anything else which it probably doesn't need. Always careful not to overwork...

   

Post 34: Making it a Triptych

   I wish I had time to detail the construction of the next two pieces, but there is no point. It is basically the same approach, process and techniques anyway.
    First I decide to do two lighter Assymetrical piece with more paper than Chalkboard to flank the first one. I use the same colors, textures and some of the same images for consistency, adding similar quirky details at the end. The first piece is designed around a Red Croquet Ball I have, and doesn't have a name yet:

    The second is designed around a White Pool Ball with a Red Dot Ball I also have. It is of course called "DANGER":

  This last one doesn't entirely please me, so I may evolve, but the three Pieces will make a nice Triptych hanging together, even though they will likely be seld separately".

Post 33: First Ideas and First Photoshop Mockup

    I gathered in a set of folders a bunch of images I felt like would work: Backgrounds, Colored Textures, Striped Textures, Images of Stuff, Images of Objects the pieces can be built around.
   Then I just picked an 18"x18" square chalkboard texture, an old yellowed paper texture, an old Red Top to put in a 3"x3"square niche in the center of the panel, and the image of a really nice old circular Hebrew Astronomical Plate:

   I  made the 3"x3" niche, put in the Red Top, and arbitrarily cut out two shapes out of the chalkboard layer, a rectangle and part of a circle. Naturally, the design is symetrical, which always seems to be my basic first instinctive idea:

    Now, I need to add some red to match the Top, and layer the lines of the Astrological Chart in white on the Chalkboard, and in black on the Paper. In order to do that, I need to cut out the background, invert the chart, and save it as a .png with a transparent background.

    So I add as layers a red texture, the chart, the inverted chart, cut them out to fit, and use a Multiply effect on the chart layers so the lines blend in subtly. And then I try, just to see, adding a Drop Shadow effect on the red layer. Bingo, I love the simple trompe l'Oeil that created, making the paper layer appear recessed behind the chalkboard layer, with the real niche cut even deeper, which will eventually contain the Red Top :

   Next, I decide I want to try another ruler like background texture along the vertical sides, and a vertical ruler texture along the middle(still my primeval obsession with symetry). So I pick the image of a Surveyor Pole, cut out the background, and invert the image.

   That will be duplicated and added with a Soft LightEffect.
   I also have on file the image of a bunch of old yellowed tape measures/seamstress tapes:

    I pull out images of a few more red objects that catch my eye, including a Chinese Contract, my signature Wax Seal, the Red Cord I used in the previous piece, a Red Lapel Button, an old aged tag, a brass Name Plate, a rusted nail, and one of my favorite long time symbol: an old Brass Plumb Line Bob. I move them around a bit, add Drop Shadows to create a Trompe l'Oeil depth(very important to me):

   It looks pretty good already, and some people would stop there, but it doesn't quite have my look yet. It's a little too plain, and I have to introduce a few of my "quirky" touches: a wasp spider and a Horn Bug crawling, a Bee in flight(with shadow), a square plate under the seal with 4 nails, a Domino leaning on the Trompe l'oeil Arch at the bottom, a rusted clip on the cord(I have no idea why, it just seemed to work), and decide to hang a real Old Key on a real Rusty Nail appearing to also hold up the Tag. All these things are positioned to overlap, and cast shadows, which is one of the basic rules of Trompe l'Oeil.
    The working title will remain "Red Top" until I think of something more clever to write on the brass plate. I have not figured out either yet what the Tag will say, but here is the pretty much final composition now, and I am pleased. I feel it is really starting to look like me, an evolution of what I have been doing, just smaller and simpler, with a hint of Cornell, but certainly not to be taken for a Cornell. Plus of course, it is not an "Assemblage", since there are only two real objects there anyway: the Top and the Key. The rest is Illusion, with a twist of Surrealism, and that is the way I like it:

Post 32: Thinking in Terms of a Show

    I wanted to let the collage sit a while before I coated it in encaustic. There are a few things I could add to it, but it might make it too busy, though they are all relevant to the Subject Matter. It is always the hardest thing for the Artist to decide when to stop, and not overwork the piece... So I decided to take a break, and started thinking about a Show. I do not want a group show, I definitely want all the pieces shown together in a One Man Show. Where that will be, I have no idea at this point. I might consider renting a space and bypassing the Gallery system, which would allow me to offer wholesale prices...
    I know very well from experience that even though I like large pieces, and it does takes large pieces to impress the Galleries, the Public and the Critics, many people do not have the space on their walls, or the money to get them, but might well buy a medium or small piece. I am not thinking in terms of making money anymore these days. For that purpose, I have always said it is easier to sell an elaborate impressive $7500 painting than seventy five $100 plain small pieces. At least that was my experience in the 80's and 90's, when I did most of my painting. This show will be different, and may well be my last. I don't have space in the house to hang any more "left over" paintings, so I really want to sell most of the work. I don't want to be cheap, my work takes time, but I want it to be reasoneably priced, slightly on the low side. I want people that really like a piece to be able to buy it, and will work with them to achieve that goal, with discounts, layaway, etc...
    I like series, triptychs, groups of 4 or even 9 smaller paintings that are related in style and color.  So I will from now on work on 3 pieces at a time. Some will have to sell as triptychs, but other I might show as triptychs and sell separately.
    I pulled out of my collections a number of favorite objects of no particular monetary value, simple old things and tools that I like and have over the years accumulated, but never took time to photograph. I am going to photograph them all first. Some of them will be used as such as part of the piece. Others will become part of my bank of images:

    There are several things I do like very much in some of the pieces I have done so far, that are going to become a common thread for most of the show:
            1. The mix of real objects with the painting and collage of realistic images to create sort of a mixed Trompe l'Oeil effect.
            2. The multiple layers built into the panel, giving depth to the work, such as a cutout window, a niche, a drawer, a door, a protruding area.
            3. The sheen and irregularities of the scraped encaustic finish.
            4. The narrow real wood veneer frames.
            5. The aged and weathered look.
            6. The constrasty blackboard and aged paper look of the backgrounds.
            7. The geometric figures, esotetic drawings, charts, graphs, grids, equations, algebraic formulas, words, stenciled letters and numbers, calligraphy, letters, solid lines, dotted lines, crosses, circles, spirals drawn over the background with white chalk or charcoal.

      I fairly recently "discovered" the surrealistic shadowbox assemblages of found objects made by self taught reclusive Artist Joseph Cornell in the 40's. He has apparently many followers these days. He experimented with many different  kinds of assemblages, some very simple, and some very complex. Some I love, some I don't like at all, so I put together a group of images of my very favorites:

     I really feel we both share a love for a lot of the same kind of humble and often distressed or broken objects: old documents, old maps, old  drawings, old astrological and astronomical drawings and prints, old celestial charts, old musical partitions, old blueprints, old tags and stickers, old photographs, old tintypes and daguerréotypes, old pipes, old broken dolls and doll heads, old  globes, old wooden blocks, old radio tubes, old keys, old locks and padlocks, old tins, old clocks and watch dials and gears, old books and printed pages, old  game boards, book marbled paper, old bobbins, rusted wire, rusted chains, rusted nails, screws, hooks and washers, springs, hat pins, dominos, dice, buttons, stuff hanging from old cords, metal rods, rings, drawers, doors and hinges, shelves, nooks and niches, the sun, the moon, disks, birds, insects, shells, bones, feathers, numbers, fonts, lines, grids, dotted lines, geometric shapes and constructions, spirals, graphs, crosshairs, targets, compass, points, egg shapes, stamps, seals, matchboxes, wooden sticks, round holes, boxes, chalkboards, corked bottles (preferably half full with liquid or stuff), tapemeasures and rulers, apothicary jars and bottles with glass stoppers, glasses, balls of all kinds, wine corks, marbles, minerals, coins, medals, small stuff, etc... We both like photography and film, Renaissance  paintings,  few bright colors on a neutral blue black to tan textured backgrounds, a full range of tones and fairly high contrast.
     Of course, I have no interest in redoing Cornell, nor in doing  any assemblage of actual found objects. My interest has been in Surrealistic Trompe l'oeil Effects. My intent at this point, and of course things may change, is to start with one found object I care about,  to create a special space for it space within the panel, color the panel with pigments and/or paint, and then to go on as I already have with cutout images glued down and finally embedded in Encaustic. The original inspiration came from Cornell, but I know by experience that things will take a life of their own, and may end up looking quite different...