Red Region Inferno

Along with my new found quest to conquer the world of erotic art and mess around on tiny canvases comes some general studies.
Figurative ones mostly because I will be mostly doing figurative work for this project.
Composition and paint handling are my main priorities with these studies.
My usual painting methods don’t apply well in such a small area so i have been experimenting and playing around.
This was the fourth figure study on an 8″ x 10″ canvas.

The oddity here is for my eyes only I think.
My finished product looks to me as if someone else has created it.
I did not notice this until a week or so had past when I pulled it out to apply some varnish.
Varnishing a little painting that I new I had created yet looked like it was the work of another was queer indeed.
I hope this project gives me many more such experiences.

Another tiny painting of an erotic nature.
Just ten inches across and eight inches in height, done on cotton canvas.
I have been managing to find time for at least one of these little erotic paintings each week, but have also had to step up the size and do some a bit bigger.
These tiny things are really constraining.
I paint twice as fast at a larger scale. My wife is really hating the finished products too. She says my stuff looks unnatural at a small size and though I don’t exactly agree with her… I do know that I can’t find my natural flow when working tiny. The public rules though when you are a working artist and I shall find out I suppose if my working tiny has merit when the series is done.

I ended up calling it starry kiss as a descriptive title when I needed to save file, but when painting it I was thinking something between the stars of the sky and the magic of passions. The stars are as much creation of the kiss as they are a setting for the moment. Imagined, but real I suppose.
“Starry Kiss” is not an official title for this. I think I shall maybe not title these (or very few) small erotic paintings at all and leave it up to the collectors who end up buying them to title them.
Sex, love, lust, etc… is very personal. It is viewed differently by all and art is participatory in my mind much the way sex is. Letting the original owner title each work as they see it seems fitting for such a subject.
Still not sure on how I am going to handle that.
Still not sure how many I shall do for that matter.
We shall see.

For those not fallowing along:
My first post of the year (see it here) was called “New Year Art Endeavors” and explains that I usually never work on small canvases and that I have decided to tackle art of an erotic nature as my years goal.
Once I have conquered working on tiny canvases I will no doubt jump back up to canvas sizes at three to four times this scale at least for my art erotic.

Since my biggest goal this year is to push the erotic with my art I thought I should have my first post of 2012 be some art of an erotic nature.
I have also been screwing around with tiny canvases. I am doing it out of stubbornness to tell the truth. I am really not suited to such tiny painting surfaces. I will not stop until I feel comfort though.
Once comfort has been achieved I will most likely move back back up and avoid anything under 24 inches in any direction again for some time.
Heck… I may even take some mural commissions to un-cramp my brain from doing these tiny canvases.

Anyways, without further ado…

Just for the fun of it I shall say that in the case of this particular little painting the model ‘of my minds eye’ was my lovely wife, and my vision is one I am very fond of.
I love it when she rides me from this direction as I am very much an “ass guy” and she has some great moves.
Though I have not seen her red/pink nighty in a long time my imagination created it because I have very fond memories involving it.

I have been a painter for my entire life.
My work has mostly been in oils through the 80′s and 90′s until I switched to acrylics in the late 90′s.
A brush and canvas are my tools.

Watercolors have never gotten along with me though.
They just don’t do what I want. Classes, friends who only work in the medium, books, etc… have done me no good.
I learned all the tricks. I hate tricks though. Watercolor doesn’t allow for freedom of expression like oils and acrylics do.

Erotic art is the toughest market in art I think. The collectors are limited.
Not everyone feels comfortable displaying such things on their walls, no matter how much they may personally love it.
I’ve done figurative work since I was a small child, but I have never done erotic paintings.
I don’t know the market or the people in the erotic art world. For some reason though I decided to start meddling around with it though.
Since I don’t know the scene, and have no expectations to live up to in the world of erotic art I decided to do a watercolor for my first experimentation.

Here it is.

Watercolor on paper and it is just ten inches wide.
Working small with paint is also not my thing. A twenty four inch canvas is about my average/small, and I am usually working at double that.

Yes, I have stepped outside of my painting comfort zones.
Watercolor, erotic subject matter, and keeping it small.
I am not sure what to think of the outcome.
For a first endeavor it is o.k. I guess.
Shall I do more?
I’m not sure.
Maybe a few acrylic works are needed in this small size before again attempting the use of watercolors.
Maybe some larger (and looser) watercolors are needed before attempting another small work in this restrictive medium.
We shall see.

As for the erotic art market I will look into that as well.
Unlike many who play with paints… I can not afford the luxury of painting JUST for fun.
I am simply to flaky to hold down a real job.
My source of income is art. I have a family to support.
Art that I cannot sell is not an option for me and I refuse to paint lame ass landscapes just to make ends meat.
So… I am excited to delve into something new, but also anxious at the prospect of failure.

Maybe fate will deal me some good cards on this one.

Upward to tranquility…
is obviously a painting inspired by the yoga pose Upward Facing Dog.
“urdhva mukha svanasana”

Upward To Tranquility

This pose stretches the chest, lungs, abdomen, and back.
It will free you to breathe… thus the tittle of the painting.

High up, free from bothersome demands where the air is clean and fresh we open ourselves and allow ourselves to truly breathe.

I have actually done this pose high up on a mountain a few times, but in general I practice it on a mat in my living room.
If my mind can become clear enough I still am able to find that tranquil place I long for.

Upward facing dog is not only good for the chest, lungs, abdomen, and back.
It also stimulates your internal organs and offers relief from depression.
Many  yoga practitioners claim that this pose offers relief from asthma also… and they very well may be right.
Personally however I think that if it does help with asthma it is simply because when in this pose and breathing correctly it expands the lungs and chest so much that it may actually clean out the lungs a bit – ‘so to speak’.

So… I hope you enjoy my painting and it inspires you to not only get into this very beneficial pose, but also to seek your own tranquility.

“away she goes”

That is the title of this painting.

away she goes

It is a small painting , just 13 inches wide, and I did it with acrylics.

I painted it in 2005.

and… That’s all I have to say about that.

Ever go to a strong man competition?
If you havn’t… you should.
The flip cars, lift cars, press huge logs, throw kegs, and lift monster sized stones.
They do it fast too.
It is all about lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying the hugest things possible and usually in a semi race type of manner.

One of my favorite events is the tire flip.
Multi hundred pound tires flipped in a race.
Usually two competitors race side by side.
It is awesome.

I actually had a national tire flip champion model for me to do this painting.
We met up at  his gym and we went outside and he flipped tires.
He also did some atlas stones and some log pressing and some dead lifts… but the tire flip was what I was after.

A couple weeks back I posted a drawing I called “Sacrificed “
that I pulled from a sketch pad I had filled up during a bad portion of my life.

The sketch was not the end though… It inspired a painting.
It deserved to be a painting.
Only paintings can really last.

I called this painting “Sacrifice of a soul mate.”

It was I who had been sacrificed so I thought.

I was in a lot of pain.

I did the drawing on 2003 and the painting in 2004.
It has now been over 7 years since my old life completely ended and it has been 6 since I painted this image.
Over those years I have changed my views.
Certainly I was cast aside and destroyed by a woman I had lived for close to 20 years.
There is no doubt I died in many ways and I will never be the type of person I once was.
One can not burn on the alter and rise back up whole.

The real sacrifice however was not me.
She sacrificed herself.

I had changed.
She had changed.
The end had come.

She did everything she could to hurt and destroy the lives of everyone she held close.
Nobody who cared for her was spared.

She hurt me most only because I was the closest.
I was the one who had shared her entire life.

The bridges she burned down could never be repaired.
She lost everyone and everything she had ever know.

She assumed (wrongly) that I who was a very strong willed megalomaniac sort of man would recover from it and rise up to be what she had always thought I could be.
To be richer, more famous, happier, and fulfilled… without her.
She did not realize how so much of what I had accomplished was for her.
To impress her and make her proud of me.
She didn’t really understand.

It was a self sacrifice.

Nobody was hurt as badly as she.

Even our son… who became bitter and leery of women forever was not hurt as badly as she hurt herself.

So now when I look at this painting I see it differently.
What I felt before remains, but now I see her pain. I see her torment and how she must live with her mistakes forever.
I feel sorry for her and wish I could help.
I wish there was something I could say.

There is nothing.

The deeds have been done.

What is done can never  be undone.

“No such thing as angels”
That is something I used to say a lot.

Under The Full Moon

One of my small quick paintings done in that “let the paint guide you type style”.
Or in other words… just start painting and see what happens.
The original painting is under 12 inches wide.
That is small for me. I usually hit canvas at least 3 times that size, but oddly it is these little paintings that come from nowhere that I often end up liking most.

Painting can be a release for the soul.

Often when I paint my method is to dump a color that catches me  onto a plate… smear it around a bit with a brush and then just let the brush play across the canvas until it lets me know what it wants to do.

I let the painting create itself. I release control and try to let it happen on it’s own.
It is a type of meditation.
Clear the mind, surrender, and flow……

Iris

This painting I call “Iris” is just such a painting.
It happened. It was –  for a certain portion of my life all that existed.
It’s creation was a reflexion of my subconscious and inner being.

These types of paintings are often my favorites.
They have a loose quality about them that refuses any sort of judgement.
They are therapy and what they reveal helps me learn about who and what I really am.

This one was a small painting (just 14 inches across) and it was done in a kitchen when a midnight snack just couldn’t settle me enough to sleep.