Portland: Drawing, Books, and Printmaking!

Portland – In early June I returned to Portland, Oregon where I’ve been busy balancing various projects, steadily working on print designs, and reading up on Burma.

Earlier this week, I met with some extraordinary local printmakers to discuss printing methods, the finer points of paper varieties, and a production timeline. It’s really exciting that the Thailand Burma Flora Fauna project has entered this stage of production. 

Thank you all for your continued interest and support with this endeavor!

Supermoon rising over Portland, Oregon – June 2014.

Works in Progress

Asian Elephant – After struggling with a design which first featured an extinct variety of rhinoceros and then later the Asian Elephant, I finally abandoned it and went back to the drawing board (quite literally) to rework the picture. Finally, the newer image feels like it’s on the right track! 

Sketchbook drawing of an Asian Elephant carrying a branch – getting closer!

Drawing the muscle movement of elephants + thumbnail compositions in my sketchbook.

Work in Progress (WIP) – an older version of the print featuring an Asian Elephant.

Sun Bear – The design for a print featuring the elusive Sun Bear is nearly complete! For now, here are some detail images.

WIP – The sloping head of the elusive Sun Bear with a Burmese landscape.

Preliminary sketchbook drawing for the Sun Bear print.

WIP – This print features a hilltop monastery based on Mt. Popa, a favorite place we visited in Upper Burma.

Additional Print – I’ve also been making drawings of Bagan, Burma in blue colored pencil. This will potentially be the additional print design that some Kickstarter supporters will receive for increasing their pledge during the funding campaign. (It would be printed in black, as a linocut or letterpress.)

Working on imagery for the additional print for those who increased their pledge.

Garden Drawings –This summer so far, I have been spending my off-time gardening and growing vegetables. It’s been enjoyable to draw from the garden as well.  If you can’t tell, I’m really into sketching with a cheerful blue color these days.

Sketching basil, chard, and carrot tops in my garden. July, 2014.

Reverse Culture Shock + the Big Burma Book Report 

Reading – Part of the way I’ve been processing my reverse culture shock (it’s a thing!) and reflecting on this recent time spent in SE Asia has been by avidly reading about Burma and its history.

Curiously, it seems that the more I seek to understand about Burma, the less that I actually know. While the history of any single subject is bound to be complex, for me the shaping of present day Myanmar, seemingly the result of an endlessly labyrinthine trajectory of events, is particularly captivating.

Books – For those of you who would like to broaden your understanding of Burma, I highly recommend reading the two books, in particular. This spring and summer I read Finding George Orwell in Burma and No Bad News for the King— both fascinating and well written documents.

No Bad News For the King details the affects of Cyclone Nargis, which claimed 138,000 lives.

Upon returning to Portland, I reread Burma Chronicles, by Guy Delisle and Quartered Safe Out Here, a WW2 memoir by a Scottish solider named George MacDonald Fraser. Reading Quartered Safe Out Here was a bit too much like eating lunch at the local V.F.W. with my grandfather in the early 1980’s. I also attempted to read some much hyped fiction, The Piano Tuner, but it just wasn’t for me.  

Currently, I’m reading 30 Heritage Buildings of Yangon. What I love about this book is that it is a positive and crystal-clear presentation of the current state of heritage architecture in Burma’s former capital city of Yagon.

It offers not only a concise history 30 unique buildings, but also details the potential of these structures available for restoration and renovation. Any one of them could join the ranks of the Strand Hotel, a Yangon landmark– that is, if they are not torn down to make way for newer construction. Follow this link to watch a video of The Strand Hotel.

30 Heritage Buildings of Yangon is a great read so far!

Also, I am currently reading two 100+ year old books authored by V.C. Scott O’Conner. Those books are The Silken East (1904) and another called Mandalay, and Other Cities of the Past in Burma (1908).

I was lucky to find an original 1908 copy of Mandalay, and Other Cities of the Past in Burma (1908), which boasts beautiful photos like this one taken by the author.

The lens through which V.C. Scott O’Conner wrote is now outdated, but none-the-less his books are filled with his fascinating photographs and oral histories that he learned while holding government appointments in Burma in the 1890s.

V.C. Scott O’Conner’s The Silken East (1904 – reprinted 1993) with paintings by J.R. Middleton.

On deck, I just found a nice hardcover of From the Land of Green Ghosts by Pascal Khoo Thwe, and am searching for a used copy of No Time for Dreams by San San Tin, which is proving a little more difficult to locate for a good price.

Thank you

Thank you all for your continued support of this project! I’m excited to have entered this next stage of production and will keep you updated on the progress as it unfolds.

Design No. 3 – Hokusai + Richard Scarry + 1980’s Aquatic Wildlife Poster

The third design for the Thailand Burma Flora Fauna series is complete! My hope was that it could be a combination of Edo Period printmaker Hokusai, the busy children’s books of Richard Scarry, and a 1980’s Aquatic Wildlife Poster. (You remember the kind– filled to the brim with whales, coral and every kind of tropical fish imaginable…)

Thailand Burma Flora Fauna print design No. 3.

The Cast

Birds – The three main characters of this print design are the birds (from left to right): the Green Tailed Sunbird, the Blue Winged Leafbird, and the Sapphire Flycatcher.

Insects – Other creatures include five varieties of moths and butterflies, including the Hummingbird Hawk Moth (located at the top, middle) and the angular-shaped Geometer Moth (located on the far right). Also shown are the Asiatic Honeybee (Apis Cerena), an Asian Ladybird Beetle (SE Asia’s variety of ladybug), a Rhinoceros Beetle (children here like to catch these and keep as pets), plus a small tropical gecko.

Trees – The Bodhi (pictured on the right with its heart shaped leaves and long narrative history) and on the left a variety of flowering Plumeria which I found and photographed in Bagan, Burma.

This is a sketchbook drawing of Plumeria (Frangipani) that I saw in Luang Prabang, Laos.

Plumeria

The variety of flowering tree that I found in Bagan had the same leaf and trunk structure as Plumeria, but the flowers were softer, resembling Hibiscus.

Plumeria is actually native to Central and South America, but it has long since been naturalized to SE Asia. Across Asian folklore Plumeria is often associated with ghosts, vampires, and cemeteries, but in India garlands of its flowers are exchanged during wedding vows, and in Thailand and Burma it is often found at Temples. Also, the Hummingbird Hawk Moth (aka Sphinx Moth) is attracted to the Plumeria’s nighttime fragrance and helps to pollinate it.

Studies for the Design

Once this image started to get visually busy I decided the only way it could work would be to make it as bustling as possible, and by doing so find a balance. Pictured below are some sketchbook drawings working out the composition.

Sketch of the Sapphire Flycatcher, upper left.

Sketchbook page showing the original drawing for the design.

A sketchbook page with thumbnail drawings trying out different compositions for the design.

Incredible specimens at the Museum of World Insects and Natural Wonders in Chiang Mai.

The Museum of World Insects and Natural Wonders

Today I visited the Museum of World Insects and Natural Wonders in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was incredible, and I was fortunate enough to meet one of the founders of the museum, Mrs. Rampa Rattanarithikul.

She is Thailand’s leading expert on insects. Since the 1950’s she and her husband have dedicated their lives to insects, and specifically, the mosquito, in an effort to understand and eradicate malaria. They have researched insects all around the world, and spent years working for the Smithsonian in Washington DC. We had a very pleasant conversation about her life and work and, of course, insects.

Dr. Rampa asked about my work- so I shared about my print project and showed her some of the designs. She then offered that I could come back to do some drawing from life in the museum, which I will happily be doing that later this week. All of the insect photos shown here are from today’s visit.

Beautiful butterfly specimens at the museum in Chiang Mai.

A blue iridescent butterfly at the Museum of World Insects.

Geometer moth (bottom left corner) and two moths with skull patterns on their backs.

Thank you again for all of your support with my project!

Flora / Fauna – Concepting and Workshops

This past week in Mae Sot has been productive. I’ve given individual artist training, conducted Flora / Fauna drawing workshops, and am currently engaged in the initial concepting stage for the print project!

Student K.K. drawing a wild buffalo (banteng) during a Flora / Fauna workshop.

So far, the most difficult task is in choosing which plants and animals to represent. I’ve designed a rubric to help me whittle down the candidates. My hope is to create a dynamic group of images with a well rounded cast of creatures, and it definitely helps to have some self-imposed guidelines. I’ll keep you posted on the progress and will share some of my initial process drawings once I feel that the concepts are strong enough.

Drawing from a cast concrete sculpture helps students understand how light falls onto the different planes of the human head– in the drawing room at the Puzzlebox Art Studio.

This week I’ll be conducting three Flora / Fauna drawing workshops. Today, I gave one such workshop to a group of young adults who are all themselves art teachers for a local Mae Sot based project called Kick-Start Art. It was the best workshop so far! They were enthusiastic and fun, and all of their work is really strong. I’ll share more of those images next week.

Here are some more day to day shots from my life in Mae Sot. Thank you all for your support!

Student John Khai and his drawing of the Great Indian Hornbill for a Flora / Fauna workshop. This animal is particularly important to John as he is from Chin State in Burma, where the Hornbill is used as a symbol on their flag.

Sunset in Mae Sot, Thailand.

Some small, delicate local flowers.

Midnight self portrait.

Full moon over Mae Sot.

My Kickstarter – Thailand Burma Flora Fauna: A Handmade Print Series

I’ve launched my first Kickstarter project! Watch the video to learn more.

As you may know, Kickstarter projects only raise their funding if they meet their minimum pledged goal by the deadline. I have until December 6th (16 days from today) to raise my funding goal of $4,000. Any help spreading the word will directly support handmade art!

For a pledge of only $25 you can choose your favorite print from the Thailand Burma Flora Fauna series, once complete. That’s a great price for handmade art.

This is an example from a previous body of work about California.

Pictured above is an example from my previous series about the flora and fauna of California. It is a print of a hare native to California paired with the California poppy, the Christmas beetle, and the silhouette of Mt. Shasta (all things found in the state California).

The Thailand Burma Flora Fauna series will be similar to this print, but the themes will reflect both the iconic and the little known natural treasures of Thailand and Burma.

Teaching drawing / design at the Puzzlebox Art Studio in Mae Sot, Thailand.

I will be giving intensive drawing / design workshops with the apprentices at the Puzzlebox Art Studio in Mae Sot, Thailand. These workshops will help to determine which plants, animals, landscapes, and monuments will make the best designs for new artwork. This process will also help to create new images and designs to be made into products for the Puzzlebox to use to sustain itself.

When I return to Portland after five months of volunteering, I will choose the eight most dynamic images that I come up with to make into this new series of prints. What is unique about this project is that you can be a part of the process and watch the series unfold through email updates and blog posts, before choosing your favorite print! Sounds fun, right?

Thank you all for your support!

-Mike

Opium, Tea, Lemon and Chili

Opium, Tea, Lemon and Chili, Mae Salong, Oil on Paper, 5.5 x 7″ (14 x 17.75 cm), 2013

Opium, Tea, Lemon and Chili, Mae Salong (2013) is the seventh still life painting in an ongoing series called Objects and Oddities from the Thai-Burma Border. For me this piece is about a lot of things, but particularly it is about being in the right place at the right time, and incorporating more of the serendipity and chance encounters from life into my artwork.

Detail of Opium, Tea, Lemon and Chili, Mae Salong

About the Painting

The painting includes a lemon, a spicy Thai chili from my summer garden, a tea cup, and a photograph. The day I found the small tea cup featured in this painting I was in what was to become one of my favorite places in Thailand, a remote mountain town called Doi Mae Salong, also known as Santikhiri, Thailand. That same day while on a hike on a high mountain road outside of Mae Salong, I took the featured photograph of a valley and a Buddhist temple with the mountains of Burma rising behind it.

Two painting on easels beneath the skylight in my studio.

History of Mae Salong, Thailand

Doi Mae Salong has a fascinating history. It was founded by China’s “Lost Army”.  The Lost Army was made of Nationalist soldiers of the Republic of China Army, who along with their families fled Yunnan, China in 1949 rather than surrender to the Communist Army. They first fought their way into the jungles of Burma, but eventually found themselves up in the remote mountains of Thailand, where they became heavily involved in the opium trade. These days, the opium has been replaced with tea plantations.

The first layer of ocher ground on Opium, Tea, Lemon and Chili.

Often, I start a painting with a pencil drawing to get the composition roughed in, and then add a first thin glaze, or ground, which will be painted over in layers of oil paint to come. This initial ground informs the rest of the painting and affects the overall hue of the piece. It was a lot of fun to paint this one– honestly, I could spend all day every day painting smoky little landscapes.

The second, cadmium-gold colored layer of ground on the canvas.

Thumbnails composition drawing with objects and oddities.

Drawing thumbnails compositions from objects in the studio.

Preparatory thumbnail drawings of Opium, Tea, Lemon and Chili, Mae Salong.

A three dimensional birthday card for a loved one.

Harvest moon in the sky above Portland, Oregon.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment!  <<<>>>

Burmese Days – Painting George Orwell

Work in progress of a monkey skull and George Orwell’s passport photo.

I’m currently working on a painting of a monkey skull, a small Buddha statue, and George Orwell’s passport photo from his time in Burma in the 1920’s. After reading Orwell’s Burmese Days (1934) I was moved to honor him in oil and include his portrait in my series of still life paintings: Objects and Oddities from the Thai-Burma Border.

In a lot of ways Burmese Days was a difficult book for me to get through, particularly because the subject matter is dense with racism. But Orwell’s gift for description made it all worth while, including beautifully written passages like, “The egrets that roosted in the palms were streaming homewards over the treetops like white flights of arrows.”

Thumbnail drawings in my sketchbook.

Preliminary thumbnail sketches of the painting.

I’m rereading a book called Culture Shock! Thailand (1982) which is far more interesting after having lived there, as I now actually understand what the authors are talking about. The text is a bit dated and pretty tongue in cheek, but all in all it’s a very informative read.

According to the authors there was a famous ghost named Nang Nak Prah Khanong (aka Lady Nak) who used to haunt the Sukhumvit area in Bangkok. Thankfully she was tricked into entering Wat Mahabutr (a Buddhist Temple) on Soi On Nut and her evil powers were diminished. “Fortunately, no ghost exists without its anti-ghost.” Whew!

“Shhhhhhut your big American mouth. . .” – Culture Shock! Thailand (1982)

Lastly, we’ve been enjoying some cool, rainy days here in Portland, Oregon. My garden is flush with vegetables– especially tomatoes and basil which has led to a great pesto bounty. My sunflowers were recently mysteriously ravaged, and I finally discovered the culprits to be a family of Blue Jays. I’ve since harvested the sunflowers to dry out the seeds, but left a last large stalk and flower for the Blue Jays to finish eating. Who am I bum out a family of birds?

Tomato basil bounty fresh from my garden.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!  <<<>>>

August

Cicada, Graphite on Paper, 5 x 8.25″ (12.7 x 30 cm), 2013

Earlier this month I enjoyed a packed trip home to Ithaca, New York where I attended three weddings in a single week, two of which were same-sex marriages– hurrah for New York!

I spent full days drawing on the banks of Cayuga Lake as well as in the gardens and pastures of friends. The east coast summer nights were great– garden salads for dinner, humidity, cicadas, and I even watched the Perseid meteor shower from a dock on the lake.

Back in Portland, Oregon, I am busy working in my studio on several pieces simultaneously, including the sixth still life painting of objects from the Thai-Burma border. The painting features a 1920’s passport photograph of a young George Orwell from his time serving with the British Imperial Police in Burma.

Thanks for reading!  <<<>>>

Drawing dead cicadas from life.

Steve’s Garden, Sumi Ink on Paper, 11 x 14″ (28 x 35.5 cm), 2013

Burma map painting in progress on the easel in my studio.

Work in progress of a stage and a painted backdrop.  Earlier version.

Preliminary pencil drawing for a painting of a young George Orwell and a monkey skull.

Sunset on Cayuga Lake.  Ithaca, New York, August 2013.

Thai Ceramic Baby Tiger – Still Life Painting!

Thai Ceramic Baby Tiger on my easel.

Recently, I’ve been focusing on a series of still lives based on objects and oddities I brought back from the Thai-Burma border. I’m currently beginning work on the sixth painting, and wanted to pause and share some images of the first piece in the series.

It depicts a small ceramic statue of a baby tiger made by a Thai ceramicist that I found in the northern city of Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was painted over a couple of weeks in mostly soft evening light.

Thai Ceramic Baby Tiger, Oil on Paper, 5.5 x 7″ (14 x 17.75 cm), 2013

My priority with this work was practicing a traditional oil glazing technique to create soft shifts in light and tones. What made this particular work especially challenging was depicting a high fire ceramic glaze. (I love painting.)

Thai Ceramic Baby Tiger (Detail), Oil on Paper, 5.5 x 7″ (14 x 17.75 cm), 2013

It is my intention to show these paintings and to use the sale of which to partially supplement my return to Thailand in early 2014 to resume my work with migrant youth from Burma at the Puzzlebox Art Studio.

Guy Delisle’s Jerusalem (2012)

Currently on my nightstand is Guy Delisle’s Jerusalem which I am enjoying quite a bit. I recently finished George Orwell’s Burmese Days and I highly recommend it.

Thanks for reading!  <<<>>>

Books, Gardens, Paintings

A work in progress on the easel in my studio.

Summer. The air is warm, the sun is hot, and the nights are breezy and cool. The past few weeks have been filled to the brim– I’ve been painting, practicing meditation, taking photographs, lovingly toiling in my garden, and reading a handful of brilliant books like George Orwell’s Burmese Days.

With my painting I have been working on a series of still lives based on objects I brought back from the Thai-Burma border. It is my intention to use the sale of these paintings to partially supplement my return to Thailand in early 2014 to resume my work with migrant youth from Burma at the Puzzlebox Art Studio.

Here are some recent images from my summer so far.

Thanks for reading!  <<<>>>

Au revoir, Scratch. My studio buddy has moved to a new home.

View of Mount St. Helens from my balcony at dusk.

Thai basil bolting violet flowers in my garden, Little Fall River.

Current favorite summer reading spot. *sigh*

Summer: A Passage to India, Burmese Days, and Guy Delisle’s Burma Chronicles.

A pretty yellow rose I fancied at the Portland Rose Test Gardens.

Thanks for reading!  <<<>>>

Painting Studio and Flower Blossoms!

The loose underpainting of a still life featuring a ceramic hare and red swallow.

Over the past several weeks I’ve been focusing on a series of still lives depicting mementos, oddities, and knickknack from the Thai-Burma border. Later this year I’d like to show this body of work– hopefully the sale of which will help to finance my return to Thailand to continue working with migrant youth from Burma.

I would again be teaching art as an artist/mentor to young and talented Burmese folks at the Puzzlebox Art Studio in Mae Sot, Thailand. Potential energy is my favorite kind of energy– and they’ve got it!)

Painting still lives of mementos from the Thai-Burma border in my studio.

Pictured above is a shot of my studio near the completion of the third painting in the series. Recently I have been trying to be more deliberate about mixing my palette of colors before I begin painting for the day. It’s said that Pablo Picasso structured his painting days like this: In the mornings he mixed his palette. He’d then eat lunch, take a siesta, and do the actual painting all afternoon and into the evening.

Mixing a spectrum of golds, greens, and grays on my palette.

While I usually demonstrate ample patience with my artwork I have realized that I can be impatient when it comes to finding the right color during the actual act of painting. So, lately before I paint I have been placing my palette between myself and the easel. This has proven to be a good way of structuring in slowness and deliberateness when mixing all of the colors that the painting requires.

Cherry blossoms at Portland’s waterfront on the Willamette River.

Spring continues to bloom here in Portland, OR!  This is one of my favorite times of year here as the streets smell like flowers everywhere you go . . .

Friends enjoying a cherry blossom petal shower. Yay, spring!

Next week I’d like to share some of my sketchbooks from Thailand!

Feel free to comment and thanks for reading!  <<<>>>

Still Lives and Sunshine – Spring Descends Upon Portland, OR!

It’s true.  First there was endless grey and rain and everything felt all Mordor and Voldemort forever, and now– Spring flowers!

Spring blooms in Portland!

Panorama: My trusty steel steed against a pretty willow tree.

We just enjoyed three days of Spring bliss here in Portland which I took advantage of by biking and walking all day long soaking up some much needed vitamin D.  Sun starved, bleary eyed Portlanders stumbled out into the sunshine to work in their gardens and breathe in the sweet smell of Spring mud.

Lately I have been enjoying painting directly from life concentrating on color theory and more specifically color mixing and painting with a muted palette.  So far, so fun!  I’ll share some of the still lives I’ve been working on once they are completed and varnished. <<<>>>

Here are some photos from my wanderings plus a couple of studio shots.

Feel free to comment and thanks for reading!  <<<>>>

The Crow’s Nest with my painting set up.

Secret elixir – a mixture of turpentine and stand oil for painting with glazes.

Currently, I’m painting a still life of a ceramic tiger that I found in Thailand.

Sunny street with Portland Craftsman bungalows.

Portland is known for its Arts and Crafts style bungalows. Here’s a nice symmetrical one with an outstanding sunrise pattern.

Sunrise out studio window facing Mt. Hood with a wispy dragon cloud catching the light.

Renovate, Revamp, Renew – Painting Over the Past

This weekend after organizing my painting archives I thought it might be interesting to breath new life into some older artwork.  I chose to rework a simple painting from 2008 from a series I made of theater stages. This particular piece had a straightforward composition of two red curtains framing a theater stage with a backdrop of red Italian hills.

Theater Stage with Tuscany Backdrop, 5 x 7″ (12.7 x 17.8 cm), Oil on Panel, 2008-2013

Once dried it will be touched up, signed, varnished and available on my Etsy site.

Painting rework on the easel in my studio.

A palette including Burnt Sienna, Earth Green, Yellow Ocher, Naples Yellow…

Repainting a piece that you are not attached to can feel fresh and invigorating– as long as it doesn’t turn out like this.

Also, for the sky I enjoyed using impasto– a painting technique using thick layers of paint to reveal brushwork and texture.

Italian landscapes demand impasto– and possibly pesto. Mmmm, pesto…

I used a large brush for the impasto (ample amounts of thick paint) on the sky.

The reworked painting pre-re-work.  Zzz…

Back by popular demand– my studio pal relaxes on a ceramic tile. Looks comfy, Scratch!

Thank you for reading!  Feel free to comment.  <<<>>>

Preliminary Pencil Drawing – Exodus

Exodus (detail), Graphite on Paper, 10.5 x 12″ (26.5 x 30.5 cm), 2013

Ahhhh, we had one day of blissful sunny weather with blue skies and Spring air– followed by another usual overcast day with a sky that looks like a flat florescent light bulb. Damn you, Portland, Oregon. The winter here is the trade for living in such a beautiful and bike friendly city.  For anyone who needs a winter lift I recommend this: Brooklyn, NY PS22 children’s chorus singing Lisztomania by Phoenix.

This week I’d like to share a preliminary pencil drawing that I have been working on for a double painting called Exodus. Double painting meaning I plan on painting two works at once back and forth so I can try out different techniques and colors on each canvas.  This is a narrative theme, image, and character that I have been making variations of for years.

Exodus, Graphite on Paper, 10.5 x 12″ (26.5 x 30.5 cm), 2013

Above is the full drawing.  I used Photohsop along with my actual drawing to reassess the composition.  Photoshop is a great way to try out radically different things to get a sense of what will and will not work.  Pictured below, you can see me  re-designing the clouds before drawing them into the final composition.  This also led to me adding a strip of paper to the top of the image to give the figure more breathing room.

Using Photoshop and a Wacom drawing tablet to experiment with the composition.

Lately I have also been playing around with different chops (a traditional artist stamp/seal that signs a work).  Eventually I would love to carve one out of jade or soapstone. Below is the first draft of the chop on my recent work.  I liked it, but it was too visually distracting for this particular drawing and so I reduced it to just the hare.

Duck and hare chop pre-edit. Fun? Sure, but too busy for this one.

The final hare chop (sans duck and vines) used for the Exodus drawing.

Sun starved artist lays on floor to soak up vitamin D while drawing.

Local cat Scratch chilling in the window enjoying freak February Spring weather.

Thank you for reading!  Please feel welcome to comment.  <<<>>>

Process: Varnishing an Oil Painting!

Well, we seemed to have survived the Mayan Apocalypse.  <<<>>>  So, this week I’d like to share process images from varnishing a finished oil painting. Once the oil painting has dried and has had a chance to cure (initially) it is ready for a varnish– which gives it a final protective coat.

Detail of Baumgartner (Tree Gardener), Oil on Panel, 2011-2012

Thank you Sarah Wilmer for helping with these photos!  <<<>>>

Recently, I finished a commissioned oil painting where I used old master glazing techniques. Glazing is done with a series of thin layers of paint and oil medium on top of one another, gradually increasing the amount of oil as you build up each consecutive layer.

Traditionally one way that oil paint is meant to perform is by light passing through each glazed layer and then bouncing off the primed white canvas beneath the paint and then passing back through the layers of glaze.  Historically this action of the light is what gives oil painting a certain luminescence when viewed in person. (I love painting.)

It is important to spread an even coat of varnish while listening to Moondog.

The Four Horsemen of the Varnipocalypse, 2013.  Aka my preferred tools for varnishing.

My patron who commissioned this work has been very gracious while we have waited for the oil medium to cure enough to be varnished.  If one varnishes too quickly, the varnish itself can crack terribly as the oil glazes below it dry and slowly expand.

Dammar varnish is made from a gum which comes from trees tapped in Southeast Asia and India. I like the quality of Winsor & Newton’s dammar, and I prefer a softer varnish opposed to a high gloss finish. So, I cut the dammar varnish by adding Gamblin’s cold wax medium to it– giving it a velvet like surface. Varnish brings out all of the dark darks which had chalked over in the initial drying stage of the painting process.  It can really revive a piece of art!

Varnish: good.  Chalky: bad.

My friend Sarah Wilmer helped me to take some photographs of this artwork when it was finished. I’ll be sure to show those images of the painting as a whole when those pictures ready.  Thanks, Sarah!

If any of you have any insight or opinions about varnishing or oil painting please don’t hesitate to comment as I enjoy hearing from you. 2013 is going to be a good year!

Thanks for reading!  <<<>>>

Making Art and Reading on the Brink of the Mayan Apocalypse

On this day Friday, December 21, 2012 I decided to take the day to peacefully read and paint. Upon my glass palette I have a fiery colored oil paint (Old Holland’s Cadmium Red Light) at the ready for any impromptu plein air landscape painting in the event that Portland, Oregon’s resident volcanic mountain, Mt. Hood, engulfs our fair city in a sea of lava and brimstone.

City on the Hill, Oil on Paper, 11 x 14”, 2009

Currently I am reading several books for artists– some on old master painting techniques and tricks of the trade and some authored by painters. Highlights include Salvador Dali’s 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship, A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney by Martin Gayford, The Art Spirit by Robert Henri, and Bright Earth, a book about the history and invention of colors and pigments. (Oh helllll yes I am a nerd…)

Read more, web less!

My new painting studio is located in a renovated third story attic of a hundred year old Victorian house. It has two large skylights under which I have set up to paint. The clarity of the light up here is truly wonderful.

My new painting studio, December 2012.

Originally, I had my studio on the second floor of the house, but after I saw a painting in the Met Museum in New York City this past summer I was moved to adapt to a smaller space in the attic in order to work with the best daylight possible.

In the painting an artist works in an attic space beneath a skylight and has a suspended pane of frosted glass over his desk to diffuse the light. Since Portland, OR is an unending grey rain shower for most of the year so far it is like the light has already been frosted for me. I am unsure if the artist in the painting isn’t also using the diffused light with a small mirror for an unknown technique. What do you think it looks like he is doing?

The oil painting that inspired my studio space. Did you notice the red and blue chairs?

Update: Dissecting this oil painting of space/etching techniques after discussion.

My current painting commission in progress on my easel.

So far December 21, 2012 is a good day. I have my hot tea. While I paint I’m listening to Moondog’s Lament 1 and Jonathan Richman’s Egyptian Reggae. No sea of lava… yet.

Thank you for reading! Happy Apocalypse and Winter Solstice 2012!

My Portrait made by Jack Baumgartner

Here is a portrait that my good friend Jack Baumgartner painted of me one million years ago when we were in school together at the Kansas City Art Institute.  He just posted it this morning on his website and I thought I would share it with you. Can’t we all agree that he painted a nice glowing horizon? I’ve always loved the way he handled the rolling, receding fields too.

I tired to reblog Jack’s original post, but it read like I was talking about myself in the third person.  Well played, WordPress… well played.

Thanks for reading! <<<>>>

Jack Baumgartner, Portrait of Mike Schultz, Oil on Oak Panel, 5.5 x 6.25″, 1999

Our Interview and Artwork in Korean Photography Magazine PHOTO+

August 2012 PHOTO+  –  Can you see the influence Super Mario Bros. had on us?

Recently a collaboration with my friend Sarah Wilmer was chosen to be the cover story in the Korean photography magazine Photo+. The publication was interviewing Sarah about her beautiful work and chose to focus their questions on a series she and I had made together– the theme of which was about the shift in technology after the Apocalypse.

Sarah graciously asked me to participate in the interview and we had a fun time reflecting on the series together. You can view Apocalypse as well as my preparatory drawings for it here.

Thanks for reading!  <<<>>>

We had no idea that discerning reader Tubs Wilmer knows Korean!

Sarah Wilmer and Mike Schultz, PHOTO+, 2012

Sarah Wilmer and Mike Schultz, PHOTO+, 2012

Sarah Wilmer and Mike Schultz – image from the Apocalypse Series, 2009

Sarah Wilmer and Mike Schultz – image from the Apocalypse Series, 2009

A Portrait of My Great Grandfather Enoch Schultz

Mike Schultz, Portrait of Enoch Schultz, Oil on Canvas, 2007

This is a portrait of my great grandfather, Enoch Schultz.  I painted it a few years back from an old photograph that was taken by my great grandmother, Caroline.  She took a lot of photographs, and whenever I work from one of them it feels like a serendipitous collaboration with the past.

One thing that I’ve always really liked about the original photo is that it is clear that Enoch has no problem holding the weight of eight large Canadian geese over his shotgun.  I’ve been a vegetarian since I was a teenager, and there is something about this photograph that makes me feel comically wimpy.

To see more of my artwork, please visit MikeSchultzPaintings.com.

 

Bygone Works

After going though my digital archives, I wanted to share four quiet landscapes, painted in 2007-2008.

Mount St. Helens Erupting, Oil on Wood, 6 x 8", 2004-2007

In March of 2005, Mount St. Helens had another in a series of minor eruptions.  At the time, I lived in the hills overlooking Portland, Oregon, and had a great view of St. Helens from my studio window.  One evening, the plume looked like a bizarre, cartoonish tube, floating above the mountain.  That visual inspired this artwork.

Moonlight on Cayuga Lake, Oil on Panel, 5 x 7, 2007

This painting began as a plein air study from a dock on Cayuga Lake, during one summer in Ithaca, New York.  Later, I finished it in my studio as a night painting. For me, this work has always held an odd quality that I like.  Perhaps it is the light pollution on the clouds?

Stars Over Cedar Mountain, Oil on Panel, 5 x 7", 2007

Stars Over Cedar Mountain was painted after visiting my grandmother, who now lives in Cody, Wyoming. On her property, there is a small log cabin sauna next to a babbling brook.  When one takes a break in the middle of a sauna to cool off, this is the view of Cedar Mountain from the hillside.   The air there is dry and clear and smells like sage brush.

Lawrence of Arabia, Oil on Panel, 5 x 7, 2008

This last work was inspired by one of my favorite scenes from the 1962 film epic, Lawrence of Arabia.

To see more of my artwork, please visit MikeSchultzPaintings.com.

Goodbye Blue Monday, for Kurt Vonnegut

Mike Schultz, Goodbye Blue Monday, for Kurt Vonnegut, Oil on Panel, 5 x 7", 2007

In the spring of 2007, I made this portrait of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. in the days following his death.  Vonnegut’s book, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), influenced my personal philosophy, and remains one of my favorite novels of all time.

Saddened by his death, I wanted to honor him with a painting.  So, I made an imagined portrait of a young Kurt Vonnegut looking out over a bleak, war torn Dresden, Germany.  In real life, Vonnegut had been captured by the Germans and locked inside of an underground meat locker called slaughterhouse-five, and so then serendipitously survived the fire bombing of Dresden by American forces in February of 1945.

Earlier this week, I came across this painting while going through my digital archives.  Five years has passed since I made it, and although my visual aesthetic has shifted, I believe that as an image, it holds up.  I know that if I made it now it would be a very different painting, but for me, that is the reason why revisiting one’s work from the past can be so interesting.

To see more of my artwork, please visit MikeSchultzPaintings.com.