Final Days of 2016

...some of the last pieces from 2016...smaller collage paintings on Rives BFK paper...

Happy New Year Everyone!

www.harrystooshinoff.com  

Winter Paintings....

I am coming to the end of my stock of Whatman paper. It's wonderful to paint on.....it holds washes beautifully, and buckles hardly at all with any application of acrylics. These 3 December paintings were done one after the other, on consecutive days....(top and bottom piece Sold)

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Hill Stop....Drawing on Location

(Sold)  Every so often, I make these drawings on location. 2b, 4b, and 7b pencil are used, and the pencil is continuously moving for about an hour.....drawn in the front seat of my car....

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Recent Pieces.....Late November

...a fairly gloomy time in this part of the world, but I enjoy painting these times. There is still time to do plein air work also, and more of those will be happening, although perhaps not with the same frequency as in the summer.

 

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Recent Pieces

A painting is made every day, and they all relate back to this place. I have to keep the process as fresh as possible, so the processes are constantly mixed....a piece done on location, a collage with paint on top in studio, a piece from memory and/or imagination, a piece from on site diagrams. I go out every day; sometimes it's to find a location to paint...but sometimes it's just to go out.....the painting comes after...

www.harrystooshinoff.com 

Paintings in Response to the Presidential Election...

 

...all (sold)...

...each of these was done in response to the US election. The most optimistic one was done the day of the election, before any results were in. Can you tell which one that is?

 

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On Location, November 6

November Valley
 ...so mild for November, and perfectly still.....I barely had to spray my paints at all. I'm just a short trek away from my car. There is a beautiful service path next to a mature forest....I'm just on the edge of it here, and completely sheltered on 3 sides, with this grand view to the east...

Visit me here:
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www.harrystooshinoff.com
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High

 

There's a certain kind of playfulness I've learned to respect, and court. It's best to stumble about, humming, poking your nose into interesting places....

 

...and it can be so contradictory, because while you have to learn, and have models of excellence to guide you at times, you can't Aim for that model....there is simply not enough adventure in that....it's about way more than learning skill....you have to find some useful guiding principles underneath everything....

 

I take much guidance from the elements and principles of art....and I always need those in any specific analysis.....but all that is a given and relatively easy for me to deal with these days. I can count on my ability to analyze and come up with solutions in each case. But beyond that, I look for an ease, a very simple movement from one thing to the next, a kind of absentness in myself, a lack of self-consciousness, that lets the thing made continually surprise me.

 

...there are very many things that can get in the way of this.....and they can be slippery, hard to nail down...but I try to watch for them....

 

....the picture is a relationship of elements....an arrangement of things coming together. There Always is a way for the things in this picture to come together....easily. The picture doesn't have to look any particular way...but it has to click together. While there should be craft....there should be no artifice. There's nothing to show off...all the pieces have to fit together.....or none of them fit...

 

www.harrystooshinoff.com

Halloween Field

Halloween Field (Sold)
...it rained on and off......I seem to really enjoy rainy and very grey days. As the weather gets colder I'll continue with this method of working in the front seat. I make a lot of these pieces on location, but overall, there are more that get made in studio.

There is something very pleasing about the feeling that you're not really in control. It's a mad rush when I'm out there....more so than when I'm in the studio, even though it's always my practice to avoid stopping to deliberate. This is even more pronounced when I'm out on location. I like that sense of reacting...and not really knowing what you're going to get....

www.harrystooshinoff.com  

Painting on Location....October 24

 

Secret Field, October 24 (Sold)

painted in the car because it was so windy and cold...

 

 

On location,  I set up the paints at the back, and bring them to the front, so that movement up front is very minimal. It's getting quite comfortable doing it this way.

Visit me here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/paintbox
www.harrystooshinoff.com...
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Rock and Hillock

Rock and Hillock
Hanging out in the graveyard on a warm October day.....scraped ground....early stages of a new housing development. Acrylic on thin gessoed masonite panel 8 x 8 inches.

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Some October Paintings on Location....

 

 

These 5 works were done on consecutive days, one per day, at a neighbour's beautiful property. The temperatures will get colder now, but there should still be time for some outdoor painting. (the bottom piece, with the white cliffs from a distance, is sold)

www.harrystooshinoff.com