Printed a relief print at the Compound Gallery in Oakland today--a little linocut from the Garford series (thanks to Jeanne Lorenz's expert work with the self-inking press).

My dad's here visiting from Annapolis, and we've been dancing between the raindrops (getting a lot of late-season rain), touring wine country and enjoying great food in Sausalito (The Spinnaker), San Francisco (The Stinking Rose), Napa (Bistro Don Giovanni), and of course, lovely Vallejo (Good Day Cafe and China Wok). We've been eating our way through the week, and painting. Three new, little Garford paintings on wood, finished this week, are now posted on the "recent work" page.

Last month I re-organized and re-designed the studio, and did a minor painting purge (which stalled my studio work for a month, but ultimately brought the studio back to a fresh, ready, re-set state). In the process, I abandoned several underwhelming, would-be candidates for the Garford and City Limits series. (Their skeletons are waiting on my next trip to Dick Blick in Berkeley, since I'm out of canvas to stretch). In an attempt to reboot, I did some ink drawings on paper and some festive little watercolors from those two series. It seems that the Garford compositions have the most promise, now that I'm getting back to painting on canvas again.

Also in the past month, I have been having a ton of fun working with my fantastic colleague, collaborator, and co-conspirator---artist Jeanne Lorenz---on making a series of Garford monotypes.

I love love love monotypes, but have neither the know-how to work a press (without damaging it or me), nor the sense of timing and touch to get the paper soaked and blotted and placed just right, nor the discipline to keep my grubby paws from putting inky fingerprints all over my paper. As both a painter and print-maker, Jeanne has such a keen knack for the technical aspects of the process--and she has super color skills and a strategic painter's mind--making it a really fluid and cooperative creative process.

It is such a treat to work with someone and have those back-and-forth discussions of what's working and what's not (like graduate school, but without the stress).

The process has yielded some surprising results--I think I'm getting closer to getting close to something! It's actually a liberating feeling, not really knowing what that something is. With painting, I have an almost too-codified standard of "yes, that's it." Doing monotypes lets me let go, and take bigger risks than I would normally take.

I'm looking forward to maybe making some prints with Jeanne's help this summer at the Compound Gallery in Oakland. I feel like a kid in a candy shop!

I have finally joined the land of Tweets (having run away--with all haste and with no fanfare or regret--from Facebook).

Although I spend most of my workday shooting my mouth off, I really have nothing of consequence to twitter about. (I can barely manage one update a month on this site!)

But, what the heck, you can follow me anyway, @ThatFerd.

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Reading over January's post, I must confess that all my works-in-progress on canvas failed miserably. I pushed them and pushed them, until they got pushed right over the edge. Compositions that really sang in watercolor just lay there like a dead duck in acrylic. Quack, quack, croak.

Along with my painting woes, I had to re-configure the studio over the Presidents Day holiday; it had to absorb a whole storage-space full of large paintings, which weren't earning their keep at the StorQuest. The result is definitely a smaller space in which to paint, but it's cozy and still workable.

So glad to get this year underway, and put 2011 to bed.

I happily wrapped up the last few days of last year with some watercolor paintings and ink drawings. They are part of a new series indulging my wall/fence/shadow obsession, which began with Yellow Cab (no. 5).

The new series is actually two in one: "City's Limits" features a site not far from a city limits sign (although I'm baffled as to why the sign's there, as I'm sure it's right in the middle of the city and nowhere near its limits. To be sure, though, the city does have its limits). "Garford" is a strange little street, not more than an alley, that just keeps going.

The works on paper are preceded by a group of four paintings on canvas (one large, three smaller) that are still works-in-progress.

A couple of months ago, I started making paintings that are nearly square, at 22" x 24" I have three in the Lewis Brown Series, but I think that Lewis Brown is just about wrapped up, so I'm looking forward to starting a new series, in this "nearly square" (n.s.) size.

Fall is coming--although it's been feeling fall-like almost all summer in Vallejo. The Lewis Brown series is still underway, and I'm getting ready for the new semester. Despite budget cuts and cancelled classes, I'll be teaching a full slate of courses (though I had to take one from an adjunct professor). There will be a lot of students looking to enroll on the first day, with remaining classes over-full. My schedule for this semester:

Art History 1
Art Appreciation
Modern Art History
Diverse Artists (U.S.)

I'm hoping mid-year cuts are not in the cards, but that depends on the gap between projected and actual revenue in CA. We may be in for a bumpy ride.

On the bright side, the show at Andrea Schwartz Gallery came down with a few pieces sold. I'm still hoping people with bigger walls than mine will be hankering for a room full of big paintings.

The show at Andrea Schwartz Gallery is going well. Dewitt Cheng wrote a thoughtful review for Visual Art Source: Editorial: Recommendations.

My show with Wynne Hayakawa at the Andrea Schwartz Gallery will be open through the end of July.

It's a great space, and our paintings compliment each other well. Wynne's work features abstract, organic landscapes of verdant, spring colors. My work shows urban landscapes, geometric and sometimes indeterminate.

I'm showing a few small paintings on wood, and three large paintings. And a rare medium-sized piece, which is my personal favorite (from the Yellow Cab series).
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I ran across a thoughtful and positive review of the show by Oakland artist Sarah HaBa, which you can read at her site: Sarah HaBa.
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I am hoping to finish at least two more big paintings for the "Yellow Cab" series before my show in June. My compositions and palette have grown a bit starker with Yellow Cab (large, no. 1). Maybe warmer colors will return when the California budget looks better!

Solano College

If the funding gods come through, I will be co-presenting a paper with colleague Marc Pandone at the FATE (Foundations in Art: Theory and Education) Conference in St. Louis, March 30-April 2. The topic is "What's Appreciation Got to Do With It? --Building the culturally-literate citizen through art education."

My schedule for the Spring 2011 semester:

Art 3- World Art History (MW)
Art 10- Art Appreciation (MW and TuTh classes)
Art 2- Art History [Renaissance to present] (TuTh and Tuesday night classes)

Art

I was bowled over by the James Castle retrospective last year at the Berkeley Art Museum; his drawings are incredible. Looking through the catalogue today, I decided to begin a new series of drawings (in graphite on paper) for the New Year.

I'm working on a new series, called "Lemon's End." I was able to take some photos of a semi-abandoned factory at the end of Lemon St., and the neighborhood leading up to it.

Lemon gets a little quieter (and weirder and sadder) as it nears the Carquinez Strait, turns a tight left and becomes Derr St. I took these photos in August, but am now starting to do large and small paintings from them.

My work has taken a turn for the unyieldingly geometric-- almost as if this world has become hermetically sealed. As though no new air has been pumped in here since 1978. Deep breaths! Deep breaths!

Artwork

I have been working on the Everett Road series, and have just prepped 13 new wood panels for future work. The panels were cut from a 9 foot plank of lovely cherry wood, 5.5 inches wide and 1.5 inches thick (ordered through Dolan Lumber).

I am also pleased to announce that the Andrea Schwartz Gallery in San Francisco has offered to represent me.


Solano College

The Fall semester begins this month, and I will teach five classes:

Art 1 (Art History), sections 80088 and 80089
Art 10 (Art Appreciation), sections 80095 and 80096
Art 12 (Diverse Artists), section 80099.

I am currently preparing my Sabbatical (Spring 2010) report, and shopping my completed Art Appreciation textbook to publishers.