New drawing in progress, shown here at three different stages. 13″ x 54″ Charcoal on Gessoed Paper Mounted to Panel.
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Art Projects
New painting in progress
Painting
Details
Etching in wax and Developing Surface Movement through Scraping
Sketching New Woodcuts in the Sun Shine.
Latest Work in Progress, +9 ft Encaustic!
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- Cutting the 4.5′ plank of ash down to two planks to make my diptych surfaces
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- After some huffing and puffing at the hand saw, two nicely cut planks
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- Clamping up the support cradles, made in stained cedar and the jointed with dowels.
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- The Ash wood I chose has the right coloring and grain pattern for the look I wanted but apparently it also has a lot of open pores in the wood grain containing air. When heated they are releasing into the wax resulting in pits.
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- So I am going over each one and cold tooling hot wax into the pits and then fusing and re-leveling, resulting in a smooth surface.
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- Second Round of Drawing Transfers, so far there are over 40!
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- Full View of the piece in progress, the piece is a diptych totaling about 9.5 ft long
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- Example of where the piece is headed. I am 40 prints into it and I plan to add about another 40+
Field Sketches From Alaska
Alaska has one of the most visually arresting landscapes I have yet encountered. The feeling of its wilderness around you is truly inspiring. It is different than hiking in the Blue Ridge, biking in back country Central Texas trails, different than any other place I’ve been. It is the lighting directly overhead, spiraling around you never below the horizon. It is just a dirt road, a rambling oil pipeline and once that gets out of view, long stunning rolling hills of green and yellow, dashes of purple and red, blue blue mountains blocking the horizon miles away.
The sky has a volume to it. The clouds with their weighted rain filled bases wrapping up into the air turning into wisps and puffs of shape. On a clear day, looking to the Brooks range everything is just as far away as the first mountain, all others around it blending together. Then the clouds start to roll and suddenly something you thought was 20 miles away now has clouds forming between it and the other mountains that are no longer so close. Dumping sheets of gray purple rain this atmosphere creeps towards you, faster than in most places I have been. Just when you think it is getting close the cloud catches another wind drift from one of the rolling valleys and starts to wander off in another direction.
Back in Fairbanks
I just got back into Fairbanks driving 9 hours down the famed Dalton Hwy. There was lots of construction on the road which is primarily a dirt haul road for truckers taking supplies N through the Arctic. Where the construction took place I usually had sometime to sketch as they only let one direction through at a time. Worked to be a nice way to breakup the trip. While here in Alaska I took over, 1000 photos of clouds, landscape views of the tundra and the brooks mountain range, our field work and I made many of sketches. I have so many ideas for new work! I will update soon with a few selected sketches and photos.
Gearing up for Toolik, Alaska
Heading out this week to Toolik, Alaska. I’ll be there fly fishing for the Fishscape project helping them assess the health of Arctic Grayling Trout. When I’m not reeling in fish for science I’ll be sketching and shooting lots of photos! The landscape looks very inspiring from everything I have researched, I can’t wait to get there. I am planning to keep a sketch journal of landscape, insects, wildlife, flora and fish. Will update when I return.
the benthos 
