Friday, February 18, 2011

Back to oils

When I was a student at the University of Washington School of Art in Seattle, most of my "training" was focused on painting, and for the first decade or so after I graduated I concentrated on painting.

Most of those paintings were sold while I lived in Europe, and when I returned to the USA in 1992, I stopped painting and focused strictly on drawing. The only works on canvas that I've done during those years didn't really involve the use of the brush, as these pieces were and are mostly an intensive amount of taping and paint application.

I recently received a complimentary try-out set of Cobra Water Mixable Oil paints, with a note from Royal Talens, the manufacturer, asking me to try them out for them. I put it off for a while, but after scoring some amazing prices in a variety of substrates at Plaza, I took brush back to hand and painted my first new representational paintings in years.

These Cobra paints are amazing by the way; the facility with which one can mix them with water, and the resulting ease of not having to have mineral spirits around is worth a try alone, and I highly recommend them and intend to get a full set of them soonest.

I was stunned as to how much I had forgotten in the intervening non-brush-painting years, and it will certainly be an interesting road to regain the facility that I once had with the brush. In any event, below are my first three finished new oil paintings. They are all oil on masonite. The imagery is familiar in two of them, and returns to my Eve and The Lilith themes.


Persephone
Persephone. Oil on masonite. 7 x 5 inches, c. 2011
Eve
Eve Running Away from Eden. Oil on Masonite. 5 x 5 inches, c. 2011.
Lilith
The Lilith Running Away from Eden. Oil on Masonite. 7 x 5 inches, c. 2011.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fucking 'ell

Nice paintings

Chuck

Anonymous said...

Fucking 'ell

Nice paintings

Chuck

DC's Salonist said...

From Mel:

Lenny: I saw your absolutely magnificent "Eve Running from the Garden of Eden" at the WPA VIP gathering on Saturday. I recall the hastily constructed show you constructed for Mera in 2009, and I must tell you that I am convicted as your fan and cheerleader for the superior use of negative space in your pencils and charcoals. Your minimalist narratives guide me evermore to the contemplative, Lenny, and I will delight in bidding on your work at the WPA Auction on March 12th. I own your pencil drawing of "The Black Nun" and its many references guide my continued activism in the arts of the DMV. Thanks.

Lenny said...

Mel,

Thank you for your kind words... see ya at the show!

LC