Montreal has been awesome so far, and the opening at Yves Laroche was amazing. I'll post pictures and a more detailed entry within the next few days, but wanted to drop a quick word about the London Miles "Next Generation" group show opening tonight (Friday) in London.

I got some fun mail today: a couple copies of the June issue of Ego Magazine i'm featured in. I have no idea how I got on the radar of a Ukrainian print magazine, but it's quite an honor. A huge thank you to Aleksandra at Ego for the opportunity. I did an interview for the feature, and was asked some really interesting questions.

The sister painting to the 12" x 12" I posted last week will be down at Thinkspace for the Culver City Art Walk on June 5th. There's a really solid lineup so if you're in the area, definitely try and stop by.

As I mentioned a while back, I'll have a small painting in "the Next Generation" group show at London Miles Gallery in London, England. the opening is June 4th. there will be something like 45 artists in this show and should be fantastic. I really wish I could make it out for the opening -- next time.

This was the first piece I finished after the "Marks" show (progress pic posted a few weeks back here). It's now on it's way to Montreal for the show Justin Giarla (of the Shooting Gallery) is curating there. The show will be at Yves Laroche gallery in their brand new space, and I'll be making the trip out for the opening June 9th.

Since I don't have any new work to post yet, I thought I'd do a quick entry on paints, and one of my favorite painting supplies: the Tube Wringer --a very simple device with gears that will squeeze every last drop of anything from a tube.

I'm still painting...not a whole lot else going on. I'm about %80 done with the first of the wood panel pieces, and this week I started on a new bigger canvas (below). this new one is 48" x 48", and while that isn't huge for me, the composition is much different than I'm used to. I usually tend to focus on a single torso/head, but this one will have two subjects, with both full figures within the scope of the canvas.

I'm now done with the two 12" x 12" pieces I started two weeks ago. one, or both of them, will be part of "the Next Generation"art show (flyer below) at London's London Miles Gallery. It's curated by ThinkSpace (now down in Culver City), and features a ton of excellent artists from all over. It opens June 3rd for anybody in the area.

This week, I continued on the two 12" x 12"s i've been working on. they're going pretty well and are both almost done. (one thing about painting so small -- they go quickly). I'll get some progress pics up soon. until then, I was able to get to a few art openings this week, so I thought I'd post a bit about that. word?

I'm just finishing up this painting here. This picture was taken only two days in, and all in all, it went pretty smoothly. (I'll post final pictures soon). as usual, I did the face in one sitting, then was able to do the rest of the flesh tone the following day. I played around a bit with this piece: tried my best to loosen up a little, painted some pearls for the first time, did some different things with the background...It was a fun one.Next up, I'm going to do a piece for the Thinkspace group show that's going to the UK in June.

I have just experienced my first post-show painting lull. I spent the better part of the last 10 months on the "Marks" show, but once the show was up and the opening over, I felt really indecisive about what to do next. it seemed like a good time to do some new stuff; try some new imagery, work on some different surfaces...step it up a notch if possible.

A Huge thank you to everybody that covered the show this past week. at risk of total overkill, I've posted some of them here if you want to check them out. (this is the last "MARKS" post I promise, I did another shoot this last weekend and will be starting new stuff this week. If people are interested, maybe I'll do another step-by-step series? let me know if you could, they're a lot of work!)

Pictures from the opening are trickling in so I thought I'd post a few. Most of these I poached from the Shooting Gallery blog, so thank you to Kirsten and Dayna!

First off, thank you to everybody that made it out to the "MARKS" opening. The Shooting Gallery was packed for almost 4 hours and it was great to talk to everybody. Special thank you to my family for making the trip from the East Coast and Chicago, and for those that caught flights or drove long distances to be there for the opening. It means more than you could know.

"Marks" opens tonight. I spent all day at the gallery yesterday, hanging the show and painting a bit on the walls. Things look amazing and I'm really excited for the opening tonight. It's a huge relief having all the pieces up on gallery walls, with nice lighting and plenty of room. I'm heading down early today for a little more prep, but here are a few shots of the setup yesterday.

All the paintings for "Marks" are done! I finished oiling out the last one last night, and will be taking it to the gallery still very wet today. 9 of the 11 paintings for the show are already there, and having them out of my apartment after so much prep is odd. I sure do have a lot more room now though.

Last Sunday, I found myself with nothing to paint. I was (and am) still working on one last painting for the show in March, but was held up waiting for a background to dry. I've been on such a painting bender the last few weeks that having nothing pressing to work on, and thus, nothing to distract me from the inevitable depression of Singles Awareness Day (read: vday), was distressing to say the least. so, instead of handling the myriad other things I should be doing, I decided to paint my dumb face again.

I probably don't need to state that some paintings go more smoothly than others. many times, an idea about composition or additional elements in a painting totally work out, and there's a clear "and it's done" point. I love it when this happens... it feels like things are working properly, my brain and my hands are working in tandem and the final product is just that, a final product. I don't think about whether its done or not, what could maybe be added to make it better, etc...it's just done. that said, this is pretty rare for me. I did have a few consecutive paintings a few months back that finished easily, meaning that I didn't second guess them and knit pick them into completion (don't get me wrong, the second guessing works for me too, generally I'm happy with the outcome eventually...but it's certainly a lot less stressful the other way). these days however, as I work on the last 3 for the "Marks" show, not so much. One is going smoothly and is 95% done, the other two however, are a lot more challenging. they both are a lot more stark in composition, with more of a plain dark background to draw the viewer into the figure...or so I hope.