Landscape with Stump

My friend Greg Benson thinks the only good painter is a landscape painter. In an effort to stay on his good side, I painted this little landscape for my current show at Wesleyan College.

Landscape with Stump, 2009, egg tempera over casein on hardboard panel, 9 x 9 inches.

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 12)

12.

I suppose this is done. Returning to the painting after a long interval was interesting. Many of the choices I'd made previously, and thought were good, now bugged the crap out me. No really drastic changes took place on this last round of work, however. I continued to bring up the values of the tubes in the foreground using a pale body color on the near tubes. Almost pure white. I killed the background's high contrasts, panel top and bottom. Those bands were way too distracting. And I tried to consolidate the masses of the tubes and tabletop beneath them. Overall, I shifted the painting's hues farther away from brown. The scanner is acting up, but I'll upload some detail images later, captured by camera.

Olsen's Palette (work in progress, 11)

11.

Hmmm. Here's a post I never uploaded, an image of a work in progress some time ago. An upcoming exhibition gave me the prompt to resolve the thing. Next image shows its current, and likely finished, state.

Upcoming exhibition in Macon

Long overdue attention to Blogger...
Here are a few images of recent paintings in tempera for a solo show at Wesleyan College in Macon, GA next month.

Scott Belville in His Studio

(detail)

Jay Bolotin in His Studio

(detail)

(detail)

Dennis Harper, Paintings in Egg Tempera
March 18 – April 29, 2009
Opening reception: March 18, 2009, 6-7:30PM with gallery talk by the artist at 6:45PM.
Wesleyan College, Murphey Gallery
Valeria McCullough Murphey Art Building
4760 Forsyth Road, Macon, GA 31210
Gallery Hours: M-F, 10-12 PM & 12:30-5 PM