Fiddling

Occasionally something about a painting nags until you fiddle. Sometimes the fiddling pays off, sometimes it creates more problems than it solves...and yet the fiddling continues.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Bride of New Studies: Alternatives

Camper: Choice of Pedophiles and Perverts

Pre-Hippie Volkswagen Camper: Choice of Military Formerly Stationed in Germany or Actual Germans

(I have no evidence for either of these claims)

More Studies

Broderick Crawford I

Broderick Crawford II

Police Action

The More Things Change...

In Some Episodes of Highway Patrol Dan Matthews Drove a Buick Century Just Like Ours. Sometimes He Drove a Dodge or an Oldsmobile. In Any Case They Were Always Two-door Models. In One Scene All Three Occupants Exit Through the Driver Side Door.

 

In One Memorable Episode Patrolman Runs Through Neighborhood, Demonstrating Poor Trigger Discipline, Searching for Suspect. Here, Carelessly Points Firearm at Mr. Matthews.

 

Child Leaps From Cover. Points Toy Gun at Officers.

Officers Do Not Blow Him Away But Rather Comply With Young Gunman's Instructions. 

Matthews Takes Young Gunman/Witness to HQ to Identify Plates on Getaway Car.

After Theoretical Discussion  on the Difference Between Yellow, Dark Yellow and Orange, Kid Picks Texas out of Lineup. Every State Has Unique Combination of Colors. No Slogans or Pictorial Elements. Kid is Confident Because Plate Matches School Colors.

The More Things Change The More Different They Become.

Studies II

Geeksquatch Orders the Chef's Surprise

The Navigator

Trailer Envy I: Shasta Wings

Next Up: Broderick Crawford

Studies: The Painting Process Begins

The purpose of these studies is to begin the visualization of the project while building a vocabulary of objects and situations. What the final paintings look like is going to come out of the painting process. I'm looking at levels of realism, detail, distortion, spatial issues, materials and methods, maybe even color eventually. These are all 11 x 13 inches (more or less) and painted with gouache on primed Rives BFK.

Truck, Sporting the Bear Alinement (sic) Happy Bear Logo, Barreling Down Mountain Road

Smudge Pot. 

Buick

Godzilla

What does all this have to do with pre-interstate travel you ask? Good question.

More Research

This is a matchbook advertising Perry's Trailer Village in Petaluma, California. We lived there for a while in the early 1960s. It had a pool. The matchbook was offered for sale on Italian ebay. I also found Mr. Perry's obituary. He started the trailer park after retiring from his dairy farm and ran it until the 1970s. 

Hillbillies were all the rage.

Surface Preparation

The ritualistic preparation of painting supports.

 Rives BFK Primed with Toned Gesso

 

 Sheets Sanded and Torn to Size

Homemade Painting Rags

Photographic Scrap

My research also included photographing and gathering reference material.

 Canyon Glen

 Bridge at Canyon Glen

 Northern Cruisers Car Show

Clouds 

Two of the over 300 surviving drive-in theaters visited via Google Maps 

Water

Watermelon 

Smudge Pot

Stills From 8mm Home Movies (bottom image: Perry's Trailer Village, Petaluma, California)

Locomotives at Forsyth, Montana

Constructed trailer model with die-cast Buick 

 

B-29 

 One of the B-29s My Father Flew in the Korean Conflict

More Sketches

Other work began to flesh out the ideas.

Floor Plan

 

Perspective

How Big Is a Locomotive?

Using Subject for Color Study Demonstration

Sketches

The project began shortly after my 2010-2011 sabbatical with quick sketches of ideas for paintings.

 

South Dakota

 

Overheating

 

South Dakota II

 

Yellowstone

 

Nocturne

 

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