“Shape of things to come…”

Poplar wood mosaics
painted, hand-beveled and sanded

These are some shapes I’ve been working on for some of the next mirror frames (see previous posts on these). It’s a tedious process involving lots and lots of sanding. I use the band saw to work out some free-form shapes, then hand-craft with an assortment of home-made sanding tools. Each piece has got to be beautiful on its own. Eventually I’ll work the rest of the mosaic around a few of these; not a pre-determined design. That would take the fun out of it for me.

You never know what will inspire you - in this case it was my lava lamp!

“Fiesta”

Poplar wood mirror frame
24.5×24.5″ dye, paint glazes

By now you’ve noticed that I have extensive bodies of work in three mediums: paint, silverpoint, and wood. “Fiesta” is the second in my developing series of fine art mirror frames. All of these are wood mosaics. I painted/dyed poplar wood panels before cutting the disks on a band saw. I then hand-beveled the edges using various grits of sandpaper, course to fine. I wanted to cut through the color, to encircle each disk with a ring of light wood.

The first mirror frame “Currents” was posted here on December 8, 2009. Other references to these are in the October 8 and September 22, 2009 posts.

Please email me if you are interested in buying this hand-crafted mirror frame.

“Currents”

Wood Mosaic (mirror frame)
29×29″ poplar, cherry, mahogany, walnut

Every year New Hope, PA has a national juried Works in Wood exhibition at the Arts Center. “Currents” is one of two Fine Art Mirror Frames that I submitted; both were accepted. Read about it here.

This is the fifth year of Works in Wood and I’m happy to have exhibited my wood mosaics in all of those shows. To see those works, please visit My Website.

To see more details of this mosaic, please see The Art Fly archives of Sept. 22 and Oct. 8.

Please contact the New Hope Arts Center if you are interested in this work. The 16″ x 16″ mirror is included, but not shown here.

“Currents” detail

Wood frame detail

This is a detail section of the mirror frame that I spoke about in Sept. 22 “Woodcraft” post. The wide frame is filled with wavy, compound curves of natural woods: walnut, cherry, mahogany and poplar that are inter-woven. I was interested in fashioning shapely pieces (some very intricate) with the intent of creating a mirror-art piece.

While sanding each sculpted piece, after shaping it first on the band saw, then scribing the next piece, shaping it, sanding…the process becomes totally spontaneous that it simply flows.

I thoroughly enjoy working in my chosen mediums: paint, silverpoint, and wood. Please see the Sept. 22 post to see that intricate piece of cherry in its place here.

“Woodcraft”

Cherry wood
11.5″ detail

Although The Art Fly is mainly about my paintings and silverpoint drawings, I also work with wood. For the past few weeks, I’ve been putting long hours into preparing for Works in Wood, a national juried show held in the New Hope Arts Center. The deadline for this came sooner than expected! I wanted to create something that was fun, fine, and functional. So, I decided to design wide mirror frames that give me a nice area on which to apply wood mosaics.

This photo shows one intricate piece of a large frame that will consist of hundreds of individually crafted pieces of natural cherry, walnut, poplar and mahogany woods. I scribe each piece, and then cut the shape out with a band saw. Next comes the tedious hand-crafting and sanding through various grits of paper. Most of the wood strips have compound curves. The wood shapes are spontaneously created and not part of a pre-determined pattern. That would take the fun out of it for me. Very satisfying to work in this way!

More photos of these to come!

“Onward and Upward”

Oil Painting
8×10″ panel

There are infinite variations on this theme of Nature and ordinary objects - as you may have noticed on this blog! This composition hints at the next one and the next… There are so many beautiful natural objects around my studio and house that it’s sometimes tough to focus on a particular composition. But, a few things always win out - it’s all part of the process.

As strange as it may seem, it sometimes takes a very long time to settle on a simple composition with the selected objects. But, you know intuitively when it’s right.

This painting will be part of an upcoming exhibition so please email me if you are interested in it. It will be mounted on the “floating” style of frames that I designed for my Meditations series. When I began this series the paintings just seemed to want to be free of an enveloping frame altogether. I bevel the edges of my painting panels and - for gallery exhibition - I mount them on wide dark textured back panels that enhance the paintings.

“Field of Sunflowers”

Oil Painting
8×10″ panel

Here’s something I keep returning to - a field of sunflowers. It’s a breathtaking site to happen upon, which I did near Stockton, NJ. This is the fourth variation that I’ve painted of this particular scene. I started this one last year but got sidetracked. I find that it really is good to come back to a painting and work from memory anyway.

Please email me if you are interested in this painting.

“Life Lines”

Acrylic Painting, graphite
6×6″ panel

Continuing the theme of meditations on Nature, I’ve been focusing on striped beach stones at the moment. They’re all over my small studio, inside and outside, along with seed pods, tree bark, shells, skulls, wood carvings… These treasures constantly stop me in my tracks. So, I give in and stop for a moment to study what it is that could have that effect. The words timeless…elegance… mystery come to mind and it seems I encounter a curious part of my own imagination. Suddenly a long, shapely seed pod becomes a canoe; stones become mountains, a clear sphere is an eye, me wondering at this magical world. As I play around with compositions, a word or a thought always comes clearly to mind, so I go with it. That becomes the title of the work. This is the essence of my ever-expanding Meditations series, which I’ve come to understand as my personal iconography.

You may have noticed that I work in both oils and acrylics. I have separate easels and separate brushes set up in my studio for these two mediums that serve different purposes. When working in acrylics I like painting on panels instead of canvas, using layers of glazes and then adding some details in graphite pencil. In oils, I don’t use pencil but do use panels, stretched canvas, or canvas that I mount on panels.

Please email me if you are interested in this painting.

Meet “St. Pietsa”

Wood Mosaic
28×13.75″ dyed / gilded / painted wood

The Art Fly is dedicated to my small-format Paintings and Silverpoint Drawings, but I also work in wood. Now seems like a good time to introduce you to my wood mosaic “St. Pietsa” as it is currently in the Works in Wood 2008 show at the New Hope Arts Center. For years, I’ve been creating these works and exhibiting them in this national juried show (see Wood Mosaic gallery on my website). “St. Pietsa” is a wood mosaic with dyes, paint, and a tooled mushroom pattern on the goldleaf disk. The idea for this piece originated one night when I reached for a pizza cutter to cut a home-made pizza. The tool suddenly reminded me of the Byzantine icons I was studying at the time - the cutter was most definitely a halo; the handle a body! Read the article.

This is one of the most popular annual art shows in the area and last night’s opening brought a huge crowd. Mira Nakashima of Nakashima Studios and Albert LeCoff, director of The Wood Turning Center were the jurors this year. I love this show for its wide range of styles and the fellow woodworkers I get to meet - always a thrill. “Works in Wood” runs through Jan. 2, 2009. For more info visit New Hope Arts Center.

Please email me if you are interested in this work.