clock is ticking......

I'm going to be part of a group show in L.A. at Gallery 1988 in January. The show is called "Under the Influence: A Tribute to Stan Lee" He will be there at thr opening on Jan. 8th. Wish I could be there to meet the legend. Anyway, I'm WAY behind on my piece. I started a Wolverine character last night. This is where things left off. It went through so many changes, I'm curious where it will go next. The dimensions are 18x24 Acrylic on Canvas. Stay tuned....

new

Here's a new figure I recently finished. It is one of a series of four 22x28 canvases. I felt that I was a little more successful with the figure/ space relationship than the last grouping. It is a challenge to deal with this relation without being too literal and descriptive, or the opposite for that matter.

I recently read a great passage from a book that sums things up pretty well, "The truth is that the piece of art which seems so profoundly right in it's finished state may earlier have been only inches or seconds away from total collapse." Boy isn't this the truth. Unfortunately, I tend to wallow on the latter side.

sketch encounter

There was a funny situation the other day during my daily train ride to work. I see this guy on my commute roughly once or twice a week. He is always listening to his headphones with a sketchbook. During our last encounter I sat across from him. Nothing exciting, just another day. I saw him sketching so I decided to do a sketch of him. After our sessions were up I looked over to show him. He smiled and flipped through his book. He flashed a drawing from a previous time of me sketching on the train. We both laughed and went about our business. We transfered at the same stop and began to converse. His name is Joel. Nice guy. It's funny, you never know what to expect while sketching on the train.

session two

Well, the saga continues. After painting and fighting with the figure that was initially there, I decided it wasn't working. I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The whole composition and size just wasn't working and I didn't feel good about it anyway. There's nothing worse that starting with something bad and thinking it will work out later. That just never happens. If the start is not confident it will show throughout the whole process up until the end. After painting it over at the end of the night this is what I sketched in. You can see I was more confident in making up this figure. I feel much better about the size of the figure in ratio to the canvas. There is much more potential for spatial elements and exploration. This is part of the process...

new on the easle

Here's a new figure I started last night. I didn't get too far due to a raging migraine. Although, it has already taken a bit of a transition so far. The size and position of the figure was constantly expanding and retracting while I chopped away with brush in hand like a machete trying to tame this damn beast of art. This is where things ended. I think she won the first round. We'll see what happens this evening. I'm sure things will change a lot as I work on it. The size is 22x28.

sketch of the week

So I'm trying to post a weekly sketch. We'll see how well this goes. I love to sketch but have been a bit lazy these days. This will keep me on my toes now that I'll have to post something weekly. I did this yesterday on the train on my way to work. It's quite a challenge to draw while riding on a bumpy train. I guess no excuses.

Finished

Here's the finished landscapes. They're going to Summa Gallery in the Upper West Side. I used European stretchers so in inches they're 32x39.5

New Figures

Figure Leaning


Figure With Pink


Figure With Red



Here are three recent figure paintings. They're 16x20 Acrylic on Canvas. I have always been drawn to figurative work, especially the single figure. I believe this stems from being trained classically and loving anatomy (the way we're orchestrated absolutely amazes me). Most of my figures are drawn from an observation of memory. This allows for a certain rawness which for me is closer to reality than painting "realistic" features. There are marks from the beginning that are left in the end as a sort of road map. It is the search during the process which I find most exciting and frustrating. This is why I make art.

Crayon Drawing Session!

Here's a couple of Crayon Drawings Angela and I did the other night. She had to do some drawings for a class so we set up a still life and had a blast. I learned this exercise from my friends Preston and JT. Pretty much the idea is that with a box of crayons your palette is very limited so you have to make use of what you have. As silly and as fun as it is, the actual exercise of making conscious decisions about space, color, and edges with this unforgiving medium is a great way to approach painting and problem solve. I must admit, it's also fun to laugh at what you're doing in the process. C'mon it's crayons! If I was an art instructor I would definitely assign this to my class. I went the route of using flat planes of color. Angela did contour drawings. These are the results.

In Progress

Working on Two of them.



Detail

Here's what I'm currently working on as per request by a gallery I deal with on the Upper West Side. They are in progress and should be done by this weekend. I've included a detail as well. The detail is a bit closer in color to the original than the other image. You get the idea.

First Post!

Well, hello out there. This is my first Blog. Please excuse my shyness. Anyway, I've decided to start this blog as an extension to my website : http://www.frankgonzales.net/ This will be a good opportunity to post images of new work, talk about art, complain, and other random things that happen in my life. I am hoping to start a dialogue about art with others and invite people to participate as well. I currently live in Queens, NY. with my wife Angela, cat Cha,Cha, and two turtles, Yertle and Mertyle. So stay tuned for more.....Salute!