Studio update: Studio visits, exhibitions, new work

In preparation for a studio visit from collectors (and friends) over Fourth of July weekend, I manically re-organized the warren of attic rooms I’ve adopted for a studio in my Mystic, CT, house. The visit went well, and I sold a couple paintings from the 2007 Tower Series, which I’ve rarely shown publicly. At the same time, I realized that however lucrative selling work from the studio may be, the audience is so limited it’s ultimately unsatisfying. I emerged from the long weekend determined to line up some new shows, and sent letters to friends asking for advice. I want to thank everyone who has graciously stepped forward with suggestions and help.

In my new paintings, I’m engrossed in the subtleties of color. Sure, I took a Bauhaus-type color class at art school, but in previous work, using color struck me as both thorny and precious, so I always worked with an austere, severely limited palette. But this summer, due in part to time spent at the studio shack in Beacon, NY, where I visited Dia:Beacon and saw installations by Blinky Palermo and Imi Knoebel, I became fascinated by color mixing and color relationships. Dia is certainly an odd place to discover color, but gradually I’ve overcome my chromophobia. I started a series of color studies on cardboard (which will be available in my Pierogi file in the fall), several 40″ x 54″ canvases (unstretched so I can get them out of the attic), a dozen small constructed wood pieces, and some sewn canvas collages. I’m at that anxious beginning stage in a new series when anything can happen, good and bad. In my next Studio Update, I’ll let you know what happens. Of course, now that the attic is presentable, if you feel like coming to Mystic, let’s arrange a studio visit.

Images: My painting room in the attic (above, right) is small but thankfully air conditioned. Dog Fiona is sleeping near the easel that I found in the trash a few years ago. At left, above, unstretched paintings are hanging to dry. At right, the front attic windows from outside.

Note: Look for my article about Dia’s Imi Knoebel installation, “24 Colors–For Blinky,” in the July/August issue of The Brooklyn Rail.

Related posts:
Studio update: Itinerant painter (May 9, 2008)
Habitat for Artists: Studio shack update (May 18, 2008)
Studio update: Unplugged in Beacon (June 6, 2008)
Studio update: Studio visits, exhibitions, new work (July 12, 2008)