Hi all,

Welcome back to the blog! Today, I’ve got updates on the cherub painting and the self-portrait series, as well as some news on publications, shows, and festivals.

At the time of my last post, I had recently completed two self-portraits and was working on a third. The first two were a pen and ink and watercolor combo:

Self-portrait — watercolor and pen and ink on paper — 12’’ x 9’’

Self-portrait — watercolor and pen and ink on paper — 8.5’’ x 8’’

The third, which I’ve completed since, is mostly oil (with a bit of acrylic magenta) on canvas:

“Drift” (Self-portrait) - oil and acrylic on canvas - 12’’ x 12’’

As I said in my last post, I usually do self-portraits when I’ve gone through a major change or am at a transition in life. I spend so much time focused on writing — working on my own, editing others’, teaching it, reading it — that it’s a relief to be able to engage in self-reflection without the demands that writing imposes, especially when the dust hasn’t settled or I’m having trouble making sense of exactly where I’m at.

This piece, then, is appropriately titled “Drift.” I couldn’t tell you exactly what it means (if I could, that would sort of defeat the point), but I can tell you that there’s something about the play of super-saturated and muted colors, the screen-like effect of the brushwork and paint-handling, and the fluid-but-structured mark-making that captures the push and pull, the visibility and obscurity, the forming and dissolving that I feel in my self these days. Of what, exactly, I suppose time will tell.

In other painting news, I’m continuing to make progress on the cherub. When I last posted, I had finished the animal studies for the cherub’s heads. The cherub painting is based on the description of the cherubim (or what rabbinic scholars decided are cherubim) in Ezekiel I. Ezekiel describes the cherubim as having four faces: one, facing right, of a lion:

Lion head study - oil on canvas - 14’’ x 10’’

another, facing left, of an ox:

Ox head study - oil on canvas - 10’’ x 14’’

another of an eagle (direction unspecified):

Eagle head study - oil on canvas - 14’’ x 10’’

and, finally, the face of a human. At first, I didn’t think I would need to do a human head study (I’m a bit more familiar with the human head than I am with animal ones), but, after thinking about it a bit, I decided to do a few anyways.

I didn’t want to make a completely generic, mannequin-like face, so I began to wonder if anyone has any idea what ancient Israelites (Ezekiel’s kinsmen) might’ve looked like. It turns out, someone does. Or rather, some people do. A group of researchers, Kobylianski et al., published a study in which they reconstructed the face of two ancient Jews — one male, one female — based on the morphology of their skulls. I did charcoal studies of them both.

The male was from the Hellenistic period (third century BCE):

Head and skull studies, male - charcoal on paper - 9’’ x 12’’

and the female was from the Roman period (37 BCE-324 CE):

Head and skull studies, female - charcoal on paper - 9’’ x 12’’

With those, and a study of the full cherub complete:

Cherub, Ezekiel’s vision - charcoal and dry pastel on paper - 12’’ x 12’’

I finally felt ready to start the actual cherub painting. Ezekiel says the cherubim look “like burning coals of fire or like torches,” so I’m starting with an extremely warm underpainting:

Cherub, Ezekiel’s vision (WIP) - oil on canvas - 42’’ x 26’’

More updates on that to come. In other news, I’ve had/will have a few shows and publications. Last month, I showed at the Pancakes and Booze show here in Denver once again.

And, a few weeks ago, “Drift” was published in Artstonish magazine.

I was also accepted into the Wrightwood Arts and Wine Festival. I’ll be heading that way next month, so I should have more updates on that the next time I post. In the meantime, here’s a couple of 100% candid, organic photos I took for my application.

A preview of what my booth will look like

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading, and keep creating!

Hi all,

Welcome back to the blog! Today, I’ve got an updates for you on the cherub paintings and a self-portrait series, plus more work available on Saatchi.

First, let’s get the shameless self-promotion out of the way. I’ve added a whole bunch of work to Saatchi, including two hamsas, work from the Paradise Lost series, skull paintings, an abstract, and a very cute cat, so stop by and see if anything strikes your fancy! And as always, feel free to email me about purchasing a piece directly or to inquire about commissions.

The last time I posted an update on the cherub painting studies, I had finished the lion head study and was making my way through the eagle. For those who haven’t been following this (sub)project, I’ve been working on illustrating the cherubim from Ezekiel’s vision in Ezekiel I. In his vision, Ezekiel sees ‘visions of God’ that some rabbinic scholars believe include two classes of angels: cherubim and seraphim. If you’d like to see a quick study I did of the seraphim (truly bizarre), you can check out this post.

The cherubim are four-faced, four-sided creatures. One of the faces is human. The others are a lion, an ox, and an eagle. The cherubim also have four wings—two covering their body, the other two facing upward—with human hands beneath them. They also have straight legs leading to feet “like those of a calf” that gleam “like burnished bronze.” Here’s a preparatory charcoal study I did of the cherub as I geared up for the painting:

Cherub, rendered - charcoal and dry pastel on paper - 12’’x12’’

Since I’m not super familiar with lions, eagles, or oxen, I decided to do some head studies of each of these animals before diving into the full painting. I’m now done with all three (yay!), which you can see below:

Eagle head study - 14’’x10’’ - oil on canvas

The lion and the eagle I painted the way I spent most of my time at The Art Students League of New York learning to paint: alla prima, or direct painting. In alla prima, you start with opaque paint, mixing what you see and putting it directly on the canvas (thus the ‘direct’ name). For the ox, however, I decided to try glazing. When you glaze, you start with a monochrome underpainting called a grisaille, usually using a warm earth tone like burnt sienna. You then add the color in using thin, transparent layers.

This past fall, I started teaching a course called “Painting Through Time” where I guide families through the materials and methods of different painters over art history. The second painter I covered was Anthony Van Dyck, who, in my personal opinion, makes the OG list.

Van Dyck had a three part glazing process. First, he would do a grisaille in a warm brown. Then, he would add in the highlights using impasto, or thick, opaque paint without any kind of paint thinner added. Lastly, he would glaze and scumble the color in. Glazing uses wet, transparent paint to create thin layers; scumbling uses dry, thin paint.

I usually hate glazing, but I actually enjoyed trying out Van Dyck’s method while making a demo painting for class. In my demo, I did the grisaille using red ochre. After it dried, I taped off a third of the canvas and did the impasto highlights. Once that was dry, I taped off another third of the canvas and glazed/scumbled in (most) of the color. This allowed students to see all three layers on the same canvas. You can check out the end result below:

Van Dyck demo - acrylic on canvas - 10’’x8’’

Since I actually enjoyed this process, I decided to try it (albeit with a different palette) with the ox head study. Here’s the grisaille, which I did using burnt sienna:

And here’s the grisaille with the impasto highlights (and a touch of glazing on the snout):

I plan on starting the final painting of the cherub soon — but first, I decided to take a detour and work on some self-portraits. I look at self-portraits as a way of checking in with myself, using visual expression as a means to free myself from verbal or written articulation. I tend to do them at points of transition in my life or a short time after them, once things begin to feel a little more internally settled.

It’s been about a year and half since I moved to Denver from New York, and, especially with the new year starting, it felt like time to check in. I knocked out two quick ones using watercolor and ink. The first one I started with an ink line drawing, then added the watercolor:

Self-portrait - pen and ink on paper - 12’’ x 9’’

For the second, I reversed the process — watercolor, then pen and ink:

Self-portrait - watercolor on paper - 8.5’’ x 8’’

I’m also working on a new one using oil:

Self-portrait (WIP) - oil on canvas - 12’’ x 12’’

Funnily enough, this one is reminding me of another self-portrait I did in my senior year of college. I was taking a painting class at the time as an elective (I did my undergrad in Middle Eastern studies) and had no real training when I started it. The assignment was an ‘internal self-portrait,’ which is how I’ve more or less come to think of all self-portraits since. I had just come back from a rather tumultuous seven months in Jordan and Lebanon, and the piece definitely reflected that.

“On Anger” (internal self-portrait - 2015) - oil on canvas - 11’’ x 14’’

This one feels calmer so far, but I definitely still like green (and partially obscuring my face).

Aside from all the painting stuff, we also have a new reading period open at Consequence, the journal I help edit poetry for. We focus on writing and art on the culture and human consequences of war and geopolitical violence, so if you have any relevant work, send it our way! We publish poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, translations, and visual art. You can find the links to submit here.

That’s all for now, folks. Thanks for reading, and keep creating!

Faces, skulls, animals, and more

New year, new paintings

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