New Figurative Paintings

Whew! I finished up a handful of new paintings just in time for my June open studio. The varnish is literally still drying. I'm planning to show 12 new works during the open studio, all made in the first half of 2014.

Each painting in the series is a 24 inch square, 2 inch deep, hardwood panel with canvas stretched over it.

I used a combination of painting and screen printing. It's an elaborate process that roughly involves: sketching, inking, scanning, digitaizing, refining lines in Photoshop and Illustrator, creating screens, painting, printing, and painting and printing again. It's a massive amount of work per image, but with the combination of technical knowledge and free hand painting involved it appeals to both my detail oriented side and the side of me that loves to make a mess. The finished paintings have an ultra-smooth finish with great detail that usually elicits a response along the lines of "how did you do that?"

I've also been using a set of pantone color swatches and matching them back to acrylic colors when deciding on color schemes for the paintings. I'm normally more of a repetition & revision (rep & rev a la Suzan Lori Park) type of girl - deciding on colors as I go along and responding to the colors already on the canvas, so this pre-planned and methodical colorization is new for me. I love it though. Let me know what you think, and don't forget to drop by the open studios!