Alleluia!

It's finally done! That was the fastest I have ever painted a large scale painting. It's amazing what having a deadline will do for you. Now I am off for a two month road trip! Geoffrey and I are planning on exploring installation/performance art while we travel. I will update with plenty of pic's and new work.

Collage #6 copyright sean lewis 2010

Sooo Clooose...
Ok, not done yet, but here's an update. Pretty, no?

I still have a week to meet my deadline. I think it's gonna happen. Hoping to complete the foreground today. Better get to work!

Jackpot!
While searching through some old CAD files yesterday, I sumbled upon these designs. I reworked the colors a little bit, but the pattern designs were from probably 3 years ago.

Hex pattern 1 copyright sean lewis 2010

Cone Pattern 1 copyright sean lewis 2010

And my personal favorite:

Untitled pattern #2 copyright sean lewis 2010

Work Continues

I wish I had more time to continue process pieces, but the painting has become all consuming. I'd like to get it finished in 3 weeks. Hmm, this may be a stretch.

Went on a photo taking expedition with Brandi today. Who knew that Queens was so photogenic? The good shots are being developed in black and white. Here are a few I took on Brandi's digital.

Train  copyright Sean Lewis 2010

Untitled  copyright sean lewis 2010

Process/Progress

The Liquin original has worked well so far. It stretches the paint and makes it more workable. I think I would like to use something that has a bit more thickness for texture. The painting is coming along. I'm going to try and do some photo work over the next few days as well.

Progress/Process

After letting my first coat of white oil paint dry, I'm off to a nice start on the collage. I mixed the top layers with liquin original medium. My friend Andrea reccomended it. I'm not sure if I will appreciate faster drying time, but I think the improved transparency will be great. The blue didn't turn out exactly how I wanted, but I think once I add the highlights, it might look brighter.

It begins

The painting and I were not getting along very well. I had to start over when I realized I had mismeasured the canvas. But I think it was for the best. I was going to paint the entire background, but then realized much of it would be too dark and show through. So, I made a template on photoshop and drew in the edges with oil pastelle. It was important to lay out the lines of the background first, so I didn't have to lie my ruler on the center after it had been painted. Here is a view of todays progress:

copyright sean lewis 2009

Now, I plan to paint the center first and background last. Seeing as this is going to take forever, I thought I might document it rather than not post for months. Enjoy! 

New painting sneak peak.

After much design work and much giving up, I have laid out the next oil painting! This is a preliminary outline and some things will change, but how cool is it?!

Collage #6 copyright sean lewis 2010

I think I will photoshop some rims on the lower car and maybe play with the background colors some more. Any suggestions?

Car collage

Got to work on some ideas for the next painting. I'm thinking a car crash collage. Here's a first attempt. This will be hard to paint though.

Collage #3 copyright sean lewis 2010

Christmas Presents!

Sorry about the delay in posts. It was a busy holiday in Detroit and Chicago. I did get some cool digital pics of nuclear power plants on the way home in Pennsylvania. I'll post some art made from those soon. This year I made everyone art for Christmas and was planning on posting all the pieces after I gave them out, but things got busy and I didn't scan or photograph any. Many of the pieces were made digitally, but then traced, drawn, or painted. So, I'm going to post a few of the initial digital pieces. Here is one that I gave to my dad. It's based off the same Mercedes that I painted (shown in first post).

Mercedes collage 1 copyright sean lewis 2009

Another photo abstraction

I took one of the black and white photos from an earlier post and made this color overlay in photoshop. I then painted it in oil for Geoffrey for christmas! Merry christmas!

Industrial Building #3 copyright sean lewis 2009

Sidewalk findings

I walked around Clinton Hill today looking for cool sidewalk crack patterns. Finding good ones was actually harder than I thought. I guess people keep their sidewalks in good repair in my hood. Here's one of the pieces I made from them: Sidewalk Crack #1 copyright sean lewis 2009

I also found this green paper that had amazing folds: Green Paper copyright sean lewis 2009

Sean Stripes II

My Sean Stripes 'woven' together with a red butterfly pattern. 

Teal and Red 48x48 Oil on canvas copyright sean lewis 2009

This was inspired by my computer's glitches. I was overlaying the red pattern on the teal one in CAD, and the print preview showed it all weird and intertwined. So I gave it that effect when I painted it. Not the first computer glitch inspired design of mine. Excited to go photographing tomorrow! I'm gonna take some sidewalk crack shots!

Sean Stripes

Some older patterns that I just recolored.  Sean Stripes 1 Copyright sean lewis 2009

Sean Stripes 2 Copyright sean lewis 2009

Houndstooth patterns I worked on today:

Houndstooth Pattern 3 copyright sean lewis

Houndstooth Pattern 2 copyright sean lewis

Houndstooth Pattern 1 copyright sean lewis