Stripes

Stripes is one of my favorite movies. Bill Murray, John Candy, Harold Ramis, funny guys. When I paint I love lines, especially lines that catch the eye and make it move over the painting. It is quite addictive having that kind a power in a technique.  Being a weak willed person I have been battling a stripe addiction for quite some time. But I love the way stripes look in paintings, and the power they have to move the eye. Here are some of my favorite paintings, featuring stripes in the compilation of these paintings.

This first painting, entitled "the frog and the thief" was one of the first ones I used stripes. I added the stripes because I wasn't happy with the way my eyes moved over the painting. I was also experimenting with space and position within a painting, and I liked this painting enough, to keep it in the upper folders of paintings, instead of in the bottom folders. I rarely throw a painting away, because just like science or anything else, sometimes we learn more from our mistakes, than from our successes. 

This painting is quite similar, even the background coloring. It is entitled "the grump and the guppy".  I really enjoy the balance between the top half and the bottom half of this painting.

This painting is entitled "protectors". My son loves to sleep with his bed full of stuffed animals. He knows immediately if one of the twenty animals is not on his bed. I like to think when Ethan sleeps, he imagines his animals protecting and watching over him.

(When I started writing this blog, I had like 15 or 20 paintings, but decided I didn't want to bore you, so have winnowed down the group, a kin to the democratic primary election.  . . .)

This next painting, I had shown someone before a show, and they were interested in purchasing the painting, but my son Ethan was very upset about the possibility of my selling this painting. He became upset enough that I finally gave him the painting. I later found the painting in his room, and he had stapled about 50 staples into the painting. I asked him why, and he said, that way I could never sell it. The painting is entitled "the introduction". My wife wondered if Ethan was attached to the painting, because the man in the painting wore a black hat, and I tend to wear a black hat. This painting I was experimenting again with the directions of the stripes and how they move the eye.

This painting is entitled "the dog sitter" and the stripes are attempting to distract you from the dog, the same way, the people and creatures in the painting are trying to distract the dog sitter from watching the dog. I feel like this is a busy painting, with lots happening, and that is what i was after when I painted it.

This  painting entitled "the "ladies" man" was another experiment. I used stripes to weigh one side of the painting. This was done to hopefully produce a feeling of isolation . .thus . .the ladies man, is only a ladies man, inside his own head.

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This painting is entitled "hide and seek". A baby is hiding among all his striped toys. I again was experimenting with the direction of the stripes, to lengthen the painting. 

Well another change of heart during the writing of this blog. I did keep most of the paintings I had picked out, but will not comment on any more of them. Just their titles, and  a smaller view, so as not to overwhelm your eyes with all this striping brilliance . . .

the search

the escape

the witch

in flight

digging up bones

the parrot

the burden

reptiles galore

worming my way through history