Sunday 12:25 AM (Kitchen)
48 × 36 × 1.5 inches, oil on linen
In this painting I’m sitting at a kitchen table after midnight, with a takeout container, a bottle, and three empty chairs. My body is part of an ordinary situation. I’m looking toward the viewer, so there’s also the possibility of someone else being there, on the other side of the table. The room is private, but we’re looking into it.
I’ve been thinking about how aging becomes visible through everyday habits and the spaces we occupy. Eating alone late at night is a small event, but it brings together questions about solitude, time passing, and how we take care of ourselves. The takeout has some ambivalence for me. There’s convenience and comfort in it, and also the possibility of carelessness or letting things slide. I wanted that uncertainty to remain in the picture.
Aging is a universal process. Coming to terms with it has become an integral part of how I develop the imagery in Self Directed. I’m using my own body because it’s the body I know and live in. The empty chairs, the food, the dark window, and the familiar furniture give that body a context. They let me work with feelings that would be harder to get at through the figure alone. A kitchen can feel comfortable and a little melancholy at the same time.
I constructed and adjusted the scene as I developed the painting, working with photographs of myself and changing the lighting. The intense yellow-orange room and red table are important to its emotional character. The blue-gray chairs and the pale takeout container interrupt that warmth. The dark window closes off the space beyond the kitchen, while the hanging light concentrates our attention inside it.
It started with a preliminary drawing in crayon on toned paper with black and white crayon. The painting began the same way, with a crayon on drawing. Then I put an imprimatura of burnt sienna paint and wiped down the highlights, strengthening the drawing with burnt sienna as part of the under painting. As I worked on it, I realized that I wanted a vareity of ways of handling the textures and rendering. I left some layers just the drawing then I opaque layers of color over some areas and with the chairs and table I literally troweled paint over surfaces to create thick impastos.
The painting also grew through decisions about how much to finish. I worked more fully into the figure, the chairs, and some of the objects, while leaving other passages more open. There are thick, opaque strokes alongside thinner areas where the earlier warm paint remains visible. The chrome edges, flesh, walls, and floor each gave me different surfaces to work with. I wanted that variation to remain, so you can see some of the painting’s construction as you look at the room.
This is an original oil painting on linen, measuring 48 × 36 inches and 1.5 inches deep.
Sunday 12:25 AM (Kitchen)
48 × 36 × 1.5 inches, oil on linen
In this painting I’m sitting at a kitchen table after midnight, with a takeout container, a bottle, and three empty chairs. My body is part of an ordinary situation. I’m looking toward the viewer, so there’s also the possibility of someone else being there, on the other side of the table. The room is private, but we’re looking into it.
I’ve been thinking about how aging becomes visible through everyday habits and the spaces we occupy. Eating alone late at night is a small event, but it brings together questions about solitude, time passing, and how we take care of ourselves. The takeout has some ambivalence for me. There’s convenience and comfort in it, and also the possibility of carelessness or letting things slide. I wanted that uncertainty to remain in the picture.
Aging is a universal process. Coming to terms with it has become an integral part of how I develop the imagery in Self Directed. I’m using my own body because it’s the body I know and live in. The empty chairs, the food, the dark window, and the familiar furniture give that body a context. They let me work with feelings that would be harder to get at through the figure alone. A kitchen can feel comfortable and a little melancholy at the same time.
I constructed and adjusted the scene as I developed the painting, working with photographs of myself and changing the lighting. The intense yellow-orange room and red table are important to its emotional character. The blue-gray chairs and the pale takeout container interrupt that warmth. The dark window closes off the space beyond the kitchen, while the hanging light concentrates our attention inside it.
It started with a preliminary drawing in crayon on toned paper with black and white crayon. The painting began the same way, with a crayon on drawing. Then I put an imprimatura of burnt sienna paint and wiped down the highlights, strengthening the drawing with burnt sienna as part of the under painting. As I worked on it, I realized that I wanted a vareity of ways of handling the textures and rendering. I left some layers just the drawing then I opaque layers of color over some areas and with the chairs and table I literally troweled paint over surfaces to create thick impastos.
The painting also grew through decisions about how much to finish. I worked more fully into the figure, the chairs, and some of the objects, while leaving other passages more open. There are thick, opaque strokes alongside thinner areas where the earlier warm paint remains visible. The chrome edges, flesh, walls, and floor each gave me different surfaces to work with. I wanted that variation to remain, so you can see some of the painting’s construction as you look at the room.
This is an original oil painting on linen, measuring 48 × 36 inches and 1.5 inches deep.
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