New Images of New, Old, and Unfinished Work

I had Rick photograph new work last week before installing the sea shell. In addition to having a good camera and the right lights, his ability to get the colors right with photoshop are much better than I can do even with the right equipment so I think it is well worth the investment to get a decent portfolio together.

Epitonium apexaurum (Hitzig, 2010)
curly yellow birch, walnut, shellac, gold
82" x 48" x 1"

I had finished the piece below in September/October (I spent several weeks trying to get the shellac to crackle by taking it in and out of a meat freezer before giving up and calling it done) but, luckily, it hasn't sold yet, in spite of the unusual and spectacular figure, so I've been able to get a good image taken. I decided on the shape because the end of the board was cut at that angle at the lumber mill or forest and I thought it would look good at the other end as well.

Frozen Flame
shellac on blistered maple

30" x 19" x 1"

The title is partly a reference to the blue surrounding the flames and partly a reference to putting it in a freezer.

I finally finished my first flag. I wasn't happy with the coloring in the star section when I first had it imaged. This is what I was trying to do originally.

Untitled First Flag
shellac on curly maple, cherry, and bird's-eye maple
24" x 41" x 1"

The second flag isn't going so well and I think I'll need to completely redo the blue section. I've tried about 5 or 6 different combinations of blue, deep blue, purple, green so far and none of them work. I think I might try something more geometric next. At this pace I should have enough of these for a show in about 15 years.

Almost Square Flag Draft
shellac on curly maple, cherry, bird's-eye maple
26 1/2" x 26 3/8" x 1"

Alternate orientation

I also had an image taken of an older piece that I didn't have a good picture of, again, luckily, it remained unsold.

Miocenean Memory
curly maple, moose antler, epoxy, shellac
52" x 14" x 4"

I thought the piece looked something like a bear, maybe a proto-bear from long ago, long since forgotten, hence the title (I think bears first started to appear in the Miocene). The figure in the wood really makes it look like it is covered with fur.

I haven't yet finished the piece below because I've been struggling with the overlay rectangle. Since I was having other pictures taken, I had it imaged also, hoping that having a good picture would help to see it better.

Untitled/Unfinished
shellac on curly maple, cherry, and walnut
49" x 26" x 1"

I consider vertical striped section to be done but have been unable to find a color combination for the overlay stripes that work with the rest of it. So far I have been through the following combinations:
red/yellow/black/red/black
all clear
shades of blue (which looked great but didn't work with the rest of it)
blue/green/blue/green/yellow-green
blue/green/red-green/blue/yellow-green
various shades of black added to the above

Right now, I'm liking this combination the best but think that it might be better to replace it with a solid black piece (with grain still going in the perpendicular direction). It is painful how the little things can take the longest time. It is also painful learning how to paint. You'd think it would be easy but it really isn't. Sculpture is much easier, painting sculpture is relatively easy, but figuring out color combinations and making colors work on their own, that is hard stuff.

In Praise of the Nikon D-90

My sister-in-law recently came by the gallery and took some pictures of my work with her new Nikon D-90. I was very impressed with the quality of the pictures and the accuracy of the colors. Amazingly, it balances the light and can even take great pictures with just ambient light (we turned the gallery lights off for one of them). With virtually no effort, just point and shoot, we got very good images. I can't complain about the Canon Power Shot, 4-Meg, point and shoot camera that I've been using. Images are good for what it is and I can get the right colors as well, but it is impossible to take pictures of large objects without getting too much distortion. When I've used Canon's SLR (Rebel), I haven't been happy with the colors and usually go back to the images I've taken with the Powershot.

Here are some examples, I'll add them to my website soon:

"Five by Ten" - 27" x 26" x 1"

Yin/Yang - 33" x 20" x 0.75"

"641" - 33"x 24" x 0.75"

"Three-of-a-Kind" - 36" x 36" x 1"

"Untitled" - 56" x 20 x 0.5"