New drawing. Soon to be printed into Encaustic and Glazed………

Happy New Year everyone! Here’s a piece that I’ve been working on for the last year and a half. I decided this morning that I think I’m finally done. Better images to come, the highlights are too washed out here, they don’t show all the colors that are truly there, far to bright on the photograph, but I was too excited to wait to post this. The actual piece is much quieter and more centered in midtones and darks with a few radiant highlights. I was glazing it this morning with Raw Umber, Paynes Gray, and Ultramarine, and it finally achieved the look of being moonlit which I’ve been seeking. When it dries I can get some better shots. Let me know what you think!

It has been a busy year of teaching, working, and enjoying the outdoors of Austin. I’ve been teaching classes for the Austin Museum of Art in Old Masters Painting, Portfolio Prep, Teen Painting and Intro. Encaustic.  Click this link to see a student portfolio  of my teen classes.

Currently, I have a few drawings and paintings which I am working on. They are all long term projects which I’ve been adding layers to bit by bit since the end of 2010; a series of drawings soon to become part of an elaborate encaustic painting on a long sculpted sheet of metal; other drawings soon to be layered in encaustic and glazed over. The details below are from an oil painting I have been building up using old masters techniques for the last 10 months.

Details of a work in progress

Custom Walnut frame, Shadowbox stlye, for customer 2011

Detail of a prototype custom futon for client 2011

]]> http://thebenthos.com/2011/08/22/2011-woodworking-projects/feed/ 0 Vince OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA IMG_6555 http://thebenthos.com/2011/02/24/the-stolen-image-and-abstracts-borrowed-from-reality/ http://thebenthos.com/2011/02/24/the-stolen-image-and-abstracts-borrowed-from-reality/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 06:25:14 +0000 Vincent Colvin http://thebenthos.com/?p=482 Continue reading →]]>

Sensing (Scopelogados beani), Encaustic on Steel, 18.5" disc, $650, 2010

This piece will be on view at Atelier6000, in Bend, Oregon from March 1st to the 31st. The exhibition “The Stolen Image” is based around artists that use a transfer techniques in their work. This piece is an encaustic monoprint on steel of one of my recent drawings. If your going to Oregon stop in and check it out!

Medias, Encaustic on Wood, 55″ x 6″, $1400, 2010

The Suffolk Art Center in Suffolk, VA is putting on a show titled Abstracts: Borrowed from Reality with the help from curators Pam Rogers and Trudi Van Dyke. The show will feature a number of artists who recently exhibited at the DC Art Center aswell as 6 of my own works, including the piece above Medias. The show will open on March 9th and run to April 15th.

More good news: my piece Chauliodus sloani was recently purchased at the Torpedo Factory Art Centers Patron Show Auction. My work was on donation and all proceeds go to benefit the Torpedo Factory Art Center in my home town Alexandria, VA! Thanks to those that purchased works and for supporting the arts!

Rain Barrels such as the one pictured can be found @ EcoWise

Balena, Woodcut on Rives BFK, 9" x 36", Vincent Colvin,

After many long hours at the bench hook I finally got this series completed! Or so I thought after waiting a week for the oil based ink to dry, I realize they are better proofs, time to go back in and make the transitions between the pieces smoother.

The three prints connect when you put them all next to one another. The pieces are inspired by imagery from early maps and engravings which depicted whales. The first image is based on the 1562 Map of America by Diego Gutierrez and the third from a 1577 engraving by Dutch artist Jan Wierix. The second is a merging of the two.

The verdict…. Woodcuts are awesome why have I not been doing this forever?

The woodcuts are cut with Japanese Moku Hanga woodblock tools and are hand printed with archival oil based ink. The prints are 9″ x 12″ each and 9″ x 36″ together. 4 sets of proofs in varying paper colors gray, light grey, cream, and the tan in these pics, on Rives BFK, and Somerset. Proofs are $25 each or $60 for the set. Visit my frame section and you could get a whole set maple framed, float mounted and ready to hang for an extra $150. To frame one print would be an extra $90. Fill the form out at the bottom of the page to order!

Final edition will be around $50 each or $120 for the set, also in varying paper colors on Rives BFK, perhaps some Chine-collé also.

My new series is about the final voyage of the whaleship Essex and its demise by ramming of an angry sperm whale leading to a harrowing 89 day, 2500 mile drift by whaleboat. Accounts from the few survivors have inspired sections of the whale attack in Melville’s, Moby Dick, and cannibalism in Edgar Allen Poe’s Narrative of Author Gordon Pym.

To me the voyage and tragedy represent a different era of American history. One that is built primarily on the quest for whale oil. Aside from the obvious romanticism of man at sea and the hardships thereof, the dubious task of taking down so large a mammal by hand relates humankinds ability to willingly enter into stupendous circumstances and risk everything. Harpooning a whale could take the better part of the day, with the whole whaleboat team rowing for miles upon miles to kill the whale and then haul it back to the boat for processing. That of course is if the whale didn’t rend their boat to splinters and send them all awash with a flick of its tail. Whaling was a primal enterprise and truly, few lines of work were as dangerous or as grizzly. These whale crews were also explorers, escaped convicts and slaves, outcasts, and men searching for themselves at sea. Their trade put them not only at risk of the elements, but presented enormous strain on their bodies, psyche, and thus their futures.

My series is not about glorifying the hunt or the killing of these whales, but it is about the idea of setting yourself adrift and truly pursuing something. I am interested in thinking about what these people experienced not in the eye of the whale or moment of the hunt, but in the world and sea around them as they drift the vast oceans and brave the unknown and volatile environment so far from the comforts of land. The pieces focus on place, in fact specific points on the map, and distinct moments as I see them through the eyes of those who may have traveled before me. They are not based on photographs and internet queries, but narratives and course plotting’s of travels past and of ideas of an invented ocean that perhaps my history as a human knows better than my own eyes.

This series is still being built and the ideas around the pieces must to have room to grow and evolve, but for now this is the path I have laid out to navigate.

One on one, flexible scheduling, pay as you go, discounts for taking multiple classes! See new workshop page for details!!