Thursday, August 30, 2007

Where Some Ideas Come From

I spent the last week and a half creating a newsletter and working on the mailing list. My husband Frank who retired a couple of years ago and is now helping me full time did most of the work in the mailing and we are just about ready to launch it.

In the meantime I have also been working on two 48"x48" commission pieces. I hope to complete the second one today and I have one more 32"x32" commission to complete. So--- I have not had much time to spend on my blog or on my new series. Now that the newsletter is done for the month of September and my commissions are about done I can move on to creating and posting the blog as I go along.

Since this blog is about painting and series development, I will talk about the things that have been going on with developing my new series. I stated my intent in my newsletter to develop two new series for my show in Houston coming up Nov. 8th. Whew! That's putting a bit of pressure on myself. I hope I can pull it off. I haven't been able to start on work yet or that show, but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it.

Here's how some ideas get started for me. I read a LOT of magazines including those on home decor and have probably become the catalog queen of my area. It seems everywhere I look there are black and white designs and I am really attracted to them. For several years early in my career I worked only in black and white pencil or ink. I think this is one thing which has helped me in the use of strong values in my work. Although one of my strengths is color I began to get the idea for a black and white series. My intent for this series is to have color in under layers but still have predominately black and white designs.

My other idea is for an abstract figurative series which I've been wanting to do for several years. I took 4 years of life drawing in college and in my prior artistic life I did detailed portraits. Since re-inventing myself as an abstract artist I have avoided doing the figure because I couldn't seem to break away from doing all that detail. I think now, after several years of painting abstractly, I am ready to give it a try even though it makes me nervous. Sooooo -- as I look through all my magazines and catalogs I have been pulling out tear-sheets on black and white designs as well as on figures and putting them in file folders. Along with this I have been doing some sketches. All of these things are kind of jelling in my mind as I work on other stuff so that by the time I can start them I hope to be raring to go.

I hope by next week I will have finished the commissions and will be ready to get started. I'll give some reports on the process and the progress.

Max
http://www.maxineprice.com/

Saturday, August 18, 2007

New Painting



Well, as usual I got pressed for time and did not get photos "in progress done" although there is still some work to be done on this piece which I call "Bateman Hardware" for obvious reasons. I have straightened some lines since the photo was taken and I also plan to glaze the painting to give it a patina of age. I am pretty well pleased with it. The original wall was very wide and narrow so I had to change the composition. Also, the real colors were not only washed out but not pleasing so I referred to the earlier piece shown in a previous post and used those colors which I invented as well. When and if I get anyone looking at my blog, I will be glad to post the original image that I worked from if there is an interest. This painting is all done with a palette knife. The texture is very heavy and will be enhanced by the glazing.

Fortunately, I am prepared with enough paintings for my Sept. 8 show in Austin as I got calls this week wanting commission pieces and, of course, they want them right away. Two 48"x48" pieces for Atlanta needed by Sept. 20 and one for a hospital in Austin needed by Oct. 1. I have a little window of time right now to do them before I have to start painting for my November show in Houston. Since these pieces are both to be similar to paintings that are sold they should go fairly fast.

I want to try some new ideas for the November show and am anxious to get started on it. While painting the new piece, "Bateman Hardware" I decided that I am getting pretty good at doing lettering with my palette knife and got the idea to try some large pieces with words and symbols in them that are not based on actual store signs. I have also had the thought that I want to do some pieces that are primarily black and white. I'm working on some sketches. I seem to always have ideas percolating -- as Paul Simon says -- "in the back of my head, in the back of my head". We shall see what develops

Meanwhile we will have some fun tonight with our dinner club. Some of the members just got back from a trip to Africa so it will be interesting to hear their stories.

Max

www.maxineprice.com

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Painting in Series

I work in oils and palette knife on canvas.



Right now I am painting for a show in Austin Sept. 8. I'm working on a piece for a series called "What Remains" that is inspired by old walls, alleys and signage on old buildings , etc. Shown is an earlier piece called "Delicious and Refreshing".

One thing that intrigues me with these images is the way the lettering has been over-painted and then weathered over the years so that the under-layers are revealed. Sometimes I can't make out what the bottom layers spell but I paint it as is which adds to the mystery of the piece. Tomorrow I will show a new painting in development.

Monday, August 13, 2007

First Day

Welcome to my Blog! This is my first day as a blogger and I have to confess that I don't know anything about blogging yet. My intent is to discuss how I go about creating a painting and have discussions with other artists about the creative process.