It’s great stuff, dries like plaster... Priming canvases when I don’t know what else to do is moving in the right direction. You get to be in the studio looking at unfinished work without having to entertain your critical mind. Linen rocks! It lifts beautifully as you apply the gesso. John Shinnors once told me he always makes his stretchers and stretches his canvases as a necessity. His reasoning was simple: ‘It calms the mind to watch paint dry while you smoke a rollie and have a cup of tea ‘.
A Route to Paradise
I don't think you could or should explain any piece of art entirely because it cuts it off from alternative interpretations. What I want to do here is talk about the things that happened around it, the things that pushed it into what it became. It was the largest oil on canvas I painted during my time in Berlin. The video was filmed in my Berlin…
Swashbuckled Self-Portraits
This technophobe got an iPad Pro. I am still waiting for flying cars, but in the meantime I let my mind be blown by mixing “live paints” on this glowing glass thing. To be honest, I found it frustrating to get into it. The concept of layers is central to my painting process, but these digital layers feel so alien. I have spent so much time thinking about “layers” and “masks” recently that they have tweaked how I see paint. These small self-portraits are the first…
Herding Dirty Sheep
Today I decided to take all the bits of canvas that have been with me for years out of their various hiding spots and measure them for stretchers. I have been meaning to do this for ages. I am not exactly careful with canvas fabric. Once it’s off the roll, it is fair game. I use it to wrap stuff when I am on the road or as a painting rag. Even when I don’t actually use it, all those bits of fabric are lying around the studio where they get covered in drips and all sorts of other studio DNA. I like my canvases to be…
