The Future According to Pete

I don't think I ever shared with you the results of my painting of the future. The assignment was to make a pictorial image that depicts our vision of the future. This is mine looks like.

The image is quite large 60" by 48". Oil on canvas. I left a lot of the space and figure ambiguous because I don't really know what the future looks like, so how can I get away with depicting a solid image. Also, I like the way it takes on a dreamy, almost hallucinogenic quality. The figure is taken from a National Geographic story that had photographed several images of "Wild Man" festivals around the globe. This person was dressed up as a deer headed thing with a bright red wooly frock. Perfect reference material to depict aliens :) Next I'll be posting the results of the textual component of this assignment. Hint: it has a strong Egyptian vibe!

Okay As Is

Okay As Is, 28" by 22", oil on birch plywood, 2017

Compression

Compression, 28" by 22", oil on birch plywood, 2017

Love Cobalt Teal!!!Study

Study, 18" by 14", oil on birch plywood, 2017

Stripes with quinacridone magenta! (love that hue name)

Study, oil on birch plywood, 18" by 14", 2017

Loving this birch plywood as a support for painting on. I like the resistance you get, kind of like painting with canvas tacked up against the wall. More of these to come!!!

Entangled exhibit at VAG

I went to see the current painting show at the Vancouver Art Gallery earlier this week. It is entitled "Entangled: Two Views on Contemporary Canadian Painting." I'm usually not particularly excited about painting that is non-figurative, but I knew of some of the artists in the show (Sandra Meigs, Elizabeth McIntosh, Colleen Heslin) and decided to check it out. They are currently between shows right now so the ticket price was discounted ;) but it also meant that the gallery was pretty empty. I like it when the gallery is empty because then you actually have time to stay with a painting for a while, without the pressure of being hurried along by someone next to you. My favourite thing to do is to sit down on the benches they have set up a stare at the work for a longer period of time (sometime fantasizing about what my work would look like in the space, but that's another story) and just let my eyes soak in the work. It takes awhile for a painting to unfold for you sometimes. I think good painting does that. Here are some of the highlights.

Nice to see Sandra Meigs' work on the huge banner outside :)

Sandra Meigs

Elizabeth McIntosh

John Kissick

John Kissick

Nathalie Thibault

Jeremy Hof

Neil Harrison

I have to say that I think I'm the "Performative Painting" camp (painting that values actions and materiality). Painting that reveals itself to you, its form, its meaning as you make it is what interests me. I still hold onto figuration because I need it as a base of which to push off. But then again, who knows where I'll be at the end of my BFA :)

Stripey in Blue

Loving these!!!

Identity is a wall of self-portraits

Here's the final install images from my project about identity.

You gotta love that laser level ;)
Some of the comments were: studying, casual, repetition
-like vampires drawing each other, drawing yourself to know yourself
-process: specific vs general
-impressive scale
-psychology
-tape, appropriate lack of refinement
-container? (referring to overall shape) amount
-space them out more to fill the wall? that would give each one a little more autonomy and enable the viewer to engage with them one on one, with each one individually
-represents the failure of pictures, how 10 seconds interacting with me gives a more complete impression than this series of images ever could (debatable)
-logos: name
-familiarity drives the work
-takes us on a journey, variety of exploration

All in all it was a good crit and my classmates had some good projects too!
On to the next one . . .

No title yet

This is one of my newest paintings and I am absolutely obsessed with it. I am using my fetish of striped socks as a jumping off point to create these images that are both figurative (imply the figure) and abstract (the stripe is a stripe, but it is also a mark from a brush). I love where these images are taking me and it has got me all fired up. My only problem is that I don't what to call them . . . maybe something will come to me later as I work on these :)

124 self-portraits

Well! I did it. I made 124 self-portraits. I think that'll be enough to create an installation for my critique next week. Gonna have to be up early that morning to set it up cuz I think the VA building will be closed on Monday because of Thanksgiving. Anyhoo, here are some more images from my self-portrait-o-thon.

Stripey stripedness

A study for an idea for a painting that I've had in the back of my mind for quite a while now. I was thinking about what kinds I'm obsessed with. One thing on the list was striped socks. I'm attracted to the graphic simplicity of stripes and I like the way in which clothing indirectly references the figure. I'm going to do a few more bigger studies and see what happens.