Things in the works

Haven't posted in a while, though I've been quite busy with art.
Had a GREAT casting session with my neice, Jeana Hamilton Major, and her daughter Mariah. Got a box-full of casts including one set specifically for the meditation series I'm starting.

I have someone set for casting the series of seven "Connection" paintings in the previous post below. She's a friendly stranger - friend of a friend - and very interested in the work. These will be multiple full body casts - a generous offer on her part!

As always, I'm very, very grateful for everyone who's stepped up to be cast for these paintings. Aside from just a couple of cases of claustrophobia, the vast majority of people who have had it done have enjoyed it, comparing it to a spa day. The mix of cocoa butter and the heat of the plaster pack are a great facial. Some people relax until they fall asleep under the casts, and come out looking years younger! Still not sure if it's the heat pack or deep relaxation that does that for people.

If anyone's ever interested - especially guys, since so few have modeled so far - I'm always interested in getting casts for upcoming work. Just email, call or reach me through Facebook.

Connection

Sketched out a plan for a series of seven paintings on connecting to Source last night. Now I need to find a model (hopefully someone of smaller stature) to pose for the plaster casts. :)

Contentment

This painting just "fell out" today. As usual, I had the feeling I wanted to convey in mind even while I was contructing it, but the painting went easier than usual.

Model for this one was Daniel Garretson.

Three New Paintings

These are part of a crown chakra series I started last month, now finished. Several more to come - molding is drying right now.

Today's Work

Big boon to my work, especially during this long cold snap; I now have heat in my studio space! My brother in law and sister removed an old mock-woodstove electric heater from my parents' house and my father installed it in my space yesterday. It's just a space heater, but boosts the temps up to about 50°F, making the paint behave much more predictably.

Worked on two paintings today. They're not quite where I want them yet, but close. This one, called "Watchful Mind" needs to have more blue worked into the little extensions of energy above the head. I really want them to be tiny traces of light in a subtly nuanced field of blue. I might end up painting over them with the blue cross-strokes and then add very thin touches of warm white on top. The feeling is someone who's always on guard, almost chronically so. They're not expecting good or bad, but always in a guarded state.



This one, called "Preoccupation" is still hotter than I intend it to be. The cool blue at the bottom needs to be worked in along the top sides a little more. The auric field next to the face is looking more flame-like than I'd like, so something still has to happen with that space.

The heavy red-brown folds over the head are actually sculpted in canvas hanging over the face. I do like the face that the face is blending into the area around it, losing identity and definition within their own troubles. It just isn't integrating well yet and the upper areas are too solid.

These photos are also taken at night in artificial light. The colors don't reproduce as well as if they were shot in daylight.

In the works ...

"Shared Joy"
A busy transition stage in the studio. I finally have all the rough bits smoothed out of "Shared Joy". Being a bubbling up of laughter, I wanted this one to be smooth and rounded in its sculpting. It's now done, but with very thick molding, it's going to be wet and very heavy for quite some time.

This one was built on the old canvas for the original attempt at "Stellar Flame". I wasn't happy with that one and built the current one from scratch. Then I removed as much of the sculpting as possible and built "Shared Joy" over the remnants. There were still some ridges of upward movement that I went ahead an incorporated. They fit the mood pretty well. The cluster of heads at the top and bubbling up from the guts at the bottom (can you say "belly laugh"?) took care of the most obvious ridges.

"Shared Joy" features a cast of Karry Brothers, who was kind enough to do an open-mouth, smiling pose. The faces of those sharing in the laugh include my parents, John and Sophia Wessel, my partner Wendy Sawyer, Peter Mitchell, Tom Fitzgerald, myself and my friend Helen Wassell, who passed away in October this year.

Crown Chakra Studies
I have a bunch of smaller pieces, four "portrait" sized pieces focusing on the crown chakra in different states of energy. These are sculpted and currently being primed. I always do several layers, so they need to dry in between. One more layer and they're ready to go.

The cast for the one of the left is Daniel Garretson. It's intended to reflect a balanced, zen-like state. The upper center features a cast of Wendy. Called "Preoccupied", I used canvas to drape the top of the head, so it looked weighed down. The lower center one is a cast of Sophia, and is intended to reflect the heightened state of mental energy people experience when they're learning something new and exciting for the first time. The one on the left is a cast of Wendy and is intended to show someone watchful and alert.

I have more in mind, but I'm running out of face casts. I'm ALWAYS looking for people to cast, so if you're interested, please contact me. The idea is to have as many different faces as possible. These images are about everyone, so the wider the range of humanity, the better - all sizes, races, ages welcomed!

"1,000 Feet per Second"
This one popped into my head today while listening to Radiohead's "OK Computer". The song "The Tourist" is about that overcharged, hyperactive state and the sparks given off while in that state. I know that feeling very well, and could see the finished painting in my head. This is just in the sculpted state right now, so it needs to dry thoroughly before priming. It's lightly sculpted, though, so it shouldn't take long.

Wow. The top of my head is really flat. So *that's* how I balanced a cantaloupe up there!

Two Paintings in One Day!

Ooooohtay! Those paintings that I can't think of a title for are done - did them both in one six hour session today. Not the greatest color and lighting in the world on these photos, but you get the idea.

I also have four crown chakra paintings sculpted and first layer of primer on, a new batch of paper soaking in water, and a new batch of latex goo mixed up. I'm just about done sculpting "Shared Joy" as well. It's taking some time because I started with a rough batch of goo and now I'm smoothing it out with the new softer blend. So much for finger-prints.