Paintings in Process: A Series of ShortS

When you see a painting hanging in a gallery it can be hard to remember that the painting was once a blank canvas. In my latest video series “Paintings in Process”, you get to see a painting at various stages, from start to finish.

Check out the videos here.

The paintings in this blog and the videos will be featured in a solo show at Lynn Hanson Gallery. Find out more on my Exhibits Page.

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The Process of Creating a Painting

Sometimes when I’m painting, I take pictures of a single piece at different stages. Having these photos is a great way for me to improve my technique and to look at how I make decisions about where to go next. I also use the photos when I teach to show students how to move paintings from start to finish and to wade through the muck of the middle stage. Also, it’s just fun to see a painting emerge!

Sometimes you’ll see that I tape colored paper over an area to see if I want to remove something or change a color. It can be very hard to decide to let go of something I really like but ultimately doesn’t fit in the piece. Sadly, painting doesn’t come with a “Save As” button. If you watch the process video for Me and You, You and Me, you’ll see that I had to let go of a very friendly golden lab. That was hard, and he will be missed.

Some of these paintings are complete re-starts, i.e. paintings I started overtop of a completed piece that just wasn’t working for me. A couple of examples of this are By the Bay and Before Sunset.

People often ask me how long it took me to create a painting. This is an impossible question to answer for many reasons. One is that some of these paintings took years to complete because there were things I needed to learn before I could finish them. By the Bay, for example, lived in my studio for quite a while as another painting (check out the video to see more). Then, when I realized I wanted to drastically change it, it took me many, many months to finish the new one. Sometimes I just need to live with a painting for long periods between starting and finishing. I may work on it for a while and then let it lie fallow before taking it up again.

So don’t let these short videos fool you. The process of creating a painting can be a long and complicated one.

Don’t forget to check out my YouTube Channel for many more videos about painting techniques and the creative process

"Night Cats" - Underpainting

I often create a colorful ground, see what inspires me, and go from there

Process #1

Process #2

Process #3

Process #4

Process #5

"Night Cats" - final piece

"Me & You, You & Me" - underpainting

This is the colorful ground I often start with. You can see the chalk outlines where I was beginning to find form

Process #1

Process #2

Here I used painted paper to block out the dog and see if the painting worked better without it.

Process #3

Although I loved the dog, the painting didn’t need it so I had to kill my darlings.

"Me & You, You & Me" - final piece