BlackX - Paintings

Welcome.

After years of mainly working in pastels I'm returning to oils. I loved working in pastels but my frustration with the technical side--fragility of finished work, radical alteration of image using fixative, hard to cover, etc.--has led me back to oils. In contrast to most of my work from the past 10-15 years, I'm now working much more realistically for the time being. The main reason for that is that I feel I need to develop my oil techniques--to master the materials--that I didn't learn enough about in school or other previous periods when I was working in oils. Once I'm able to do what I want without thinking about it, the percentage of realistic work will diminish--but not completely since it gets out some of how I see the world around me and I'm just plain enjoying doing it. :)

I hope you enjoy the work.

At the moment all images open up in the same window so you'll have to Cntrl-click (or Cmnd-click on a Mac) to get them to open in another window or else just hit the "back" button after viewing. They're roughly chronological, within each section, according to the order in which I painted them.

Recent Paintings

Lighthouse II Painted as a gift for someone who likes lighthouses. Acrylic on canvas Fall 2005 Linked image is roughly actual size Larger version	I shall go the way of the open sea This picture is from before it was finished. Forgot to take a final picture before I sent it off. If I had to redo it again, I'd use a smoother ground. Acrylic on canvas Fall 2005 Linked image is roughly actual size Larger version
Charles at Night I The shore of the Charles River east of the Harvard boathouse. In progress. [March 4 update] Oil on canvas Fall 2005 16"x12"	Power Plant I Farther down the Charles. Not sure yet whether I'm going to work on it further or leave it in this sketch stage and go on to another version. But I kind of like it like this. Oil on canvas Fall 2005 16"x12"
Charles Riverbank I Quick sketch along the Charles of the reeds along the river across from the Harvard boathouse. The start of a series I'll likely develop sooner rather than later. Oil on canvas January 2006 7"x9" (Linked image is roughly actual size)	Dutchess Portrait of the bride's dog for a wedding gift. Alkyd and oil with Liquin on canvas January-February 2006 16"x12"
L'Escargot Fâché (in progress) While documenting the older work, I ran across a pastel drawing from the early '90s with only the lines on it. Inspired by my older work--a style I haven't worked in for some time--I've been adding color to it. It's kind of fun to be doing this again. :) And it's also a nice balance to the realistic--sometimes tedious--painting that "Dutchess" entailed. Orientation (and titles) indeterminant. Pastel on paper Early '90s/February 2006 14"x17"
Hard Sq. Mirrors I Painting in successive sessions. Alkyd and oil with Liquin on canvas March 8-11 2006 24"x 20"
First session	Second session
Third session	Fourth and fifth session
Sixth and seventh session	Eigth through tenth(?) session

Older Work

I'll add more here as I get better pictures of them. I have some lousy pictures of older work up on DeviantArt that I'm going to remove for multiple reasons. (By now I have better pictures of most of them here.) But there are pictures there of one of my large canvases--still unfinished--done in pastel that's about 8'x10'. I have some other large canvases done in pastel or mixed media that I need to get good pictues of somewhere in here. Too many others are long gone that I never got photos of before they were gone.

Lintz on the Danube My favorite drawing from my 1981 European trip travelling with a friend. This drawing is from a visit to his aunt in Lintz, Austria. (Where I ended up sick in bed while they went to Vienna. :( ) Rapidograph on paper February 4 1981 Linked image is roughly actual size Larger version	Long Day's Journey Into Night - poster Doing this was fun in a lot of ways. It was a joint project with Annette Brubaker for the small religious college I had attended and she was still going to after a year studying in France. Our first major silkscreen work. I think we ran off 100-200 copies or so. What was neat about it was that after we were getting to know some of the "hip" people in town, we'd go to people's houses for parties or to visit and see it hanging up on the wall. From as many as I saw on people's walls, I suspect that not a whole lot of them stayed up to advertise the play. Seriagraph on paper 1985 or 1986? 20"x16"
Alien Mona Lisa Pastel on canvas 1987? 35.5"x29"	World Dancing Oil and pastel on canvas Fall 1990 16"x20"
Blue Girl Oil on canvas October 1990 20"x16"	Torso III Oil on canvas October 1990 20"x16"
Jennifer Tarpon Oil on canvas Fall 1990 20"x16"	No More Windmills Pastel on paper Fall 1990? 12"x18"
What else are friends for? Oil on canvas Winter 1990-1991 24"x18"	Your eyes have died but you see more than I Pastel on paper October 8 1990 24"x18"
Call Me Ishmael Orientation indeterminant. Damaged. Pastel on paper Early '90s 24"x18"	Cover Me with Love/Growth Title dependent on orientation. Pastel on paper Early '90s 14"x17"
Study for Andrew's tattoo This was the study I did for a tattoo for Andrew, which I tattooed by hand onto his back. That linked picture is only of the first pass but after 3-4 hours for that, he hasn't seemed to want to go back over it to finish it up. :) I did miss transferring one small line from the drawing to his back. :( Graphite on paper November 9-19, 1992(?) Cropped source image about 12" square	A is for Aardvark I think I did this on the impending birth of my first child. It's been hanging in their room(s) since they were little. Oil on canvas-paper Early '90s 20"x24"
Proboscidea Pastel on paper Early '90s 24"x18"	Greetings Pastel on paper Early '90s 17"x14"
Conquistadora Pastel on paper Early '90s 24"x18"	Not Tonight, Dear, I Have a Headache Pastel on paper Early '90s 17"x14"
Inner Visions Done about a month and a half before my second child, my daughter Katja, was born. Graphite on paper February 6, 1995 14"x17"