Tony Renner at Mad Art

I’m currently working on 3 large paintings. By large, I mean 4, 3 feet etc, so nothing huge but definitely larger than what I normally work on. The 3 pieces are “bill morris at white flag”, “mark stephens at the firebird” and this one, “tony renner at mad art”. The Tony Renner piece is from an old photo taken during an event Eric Hall put on called BioSonarOne and Tony’s band – Learn, Artist – performed. I’ve always like this photo and intended to do something with it.

It’s also the end of the year and I was thinking about the paintings I completed in 2009. Not as many as I’d like. Here’s the list with links to the image.


the official seal of the dirty 30s of missouri
old mckendree chapel
american folk art museum (nyc)
union electric
"freud's cobwebbed poem" (poetry scores)
view from talbot heirs room 2 (memphis, tn)
view from talbot heirs room 4 (memphis, tn)
dj kiki at rue 13
n. nomurai at the way out cluc (poetry scores)
bunnygrunt at cbgb
naoko at bullseye shooting range
darin gray at dunaway books
amy broadway on manchester
jim atkinson at 3wk
finn's motel at off broadway
mark early at typo


now playing - Wilco - "A. M."

Bill Morris at White Flag (part 2)

Back in May I started this piece which I blogged about here. Last week I picked it back up and started to define it further. I’m always surprised by painting, sometimes things happen quickly and easily, other times every stroke is a struggle. So far the sessions on this piece have been going very smoothly and if they keep up, I may finish by the end of the month. I’ve switched to listening to Jazz for this one, Rock and Roll just wasn’t inspiring enough, the obvious stuff, Coltrane, Miles, Monk and even some Herbie Hancock. This is probably one of the largest paintings I’ve done to date (4x4 feet) and it’s quite the learning experience. When working on something this size or larger, you have so much space to fill and create. Colors and shapes take on new meaning and you must look at the piece in broader terms. I was recently looking (online) at some large paintings by William LaChance and was amazed at how much space he’s able to create. His larger paintings are 7, 8, 12 feet in size and have great detail on every inch. They give me ideas on future large scale paintings I’d like to do of photographs like this, this and this. The idea of painting digital effects caused by a camera is very appealing and would make interesting art.

By the way, if you want to check out some of Bill Morris’ video art, go here.

now playing – Miles Davis – “In a Silent Way”