Sunday, May 27, 2007

New art

A batch of paintings arrived from Steve friday. Ten new pieces. Considering his painting/drawing had come to a screeching halt when he was all wigged out about the pastel dust that's a fantastic number. Of course he wouldn't have been working on it during the European tour in any case, but he had stopped at least two or three weeks before then. And then it was a week or so after he got back that we worked out the filter/vacuum solution. I think he started back working within a couple hours after that call. Anyway it was quite a while since the last stuff he worked on (which I'm pretty sure were commissions) and these. I do think he mentioned a couple of these he had started a while ago and just finished up, but he can be incredibly prolific. Plus he was working on other projects during the same time period as he was working on some of these. Sometimes I'm just amazed at his creative output.

They have to go to be photographed for prints/cards (and also low res images for web use) now, and then I would usually put all the images up on the SK art site. But with this exhibition in the works we need to reserve some for it. I still want some to go up on the site since it helps keep interest up (plus provides a potential revenue stream), but we need a good solid selection of work for the show. I'm a bit nervous about putting some of these pieces on the SK art site because although he's on quite a tear now, I know he can also quite suddenly stop. While I'd have no trouble finding paintings to exhibit if that happened, I also know people are less likely to make as much effort to go to see work they can see on their computer screen. The web images don't do the work justice, but it's still better to have the vast majority of the exhibit be exclusive to that exhibit -- at least for a while. With any luck he will continue to produce work at a good clip for the next couple of months at least. I won't be getting the work back from the photographer for a while (it won't be even getting to her until after the weekend at the earliest and then will take a week or two) so I'm hoping to know how SK is coming with the next batch before we have to decide what to put up and what to hold.

But back o the actual paintings. These are really cool. I notice that sometimes when he has a block and doesn't do any for a while, when he does get back to it he makes a big stylistic and technical jump in the quality of his work. I think this set does that. Even though I have always liked his pieces and felt he had great potential (yes I am tooting my own horn here -- it tickles me no end when people tell me they weren't too sure about his art at the beginning, but they've become increasing impressed. I've had quite a few people tell me that over the past year), his more recent work is a great deal better than his early pieces. That doesn't mean there aren't early pieces I love and will always treasure, but it's so cool to see him develop more as a visual artist.

The Hellbound Heart is one of these -- of course most people who read this have already seen it on SK's blog (he used effects on that pic, so the colour is a bit different). Some of the other titles are Bombay Hook; The Serpent; Tom Collins; Vanity; The Ambassador; Burning Bush; King Philip's Dream and I've forgotten the other two's titles right now.

In the last email I got from SK he mentioned he has three more pieces finished. That's great news because although November seems a long way off, it really isn't, especially when you consider all the things that need to be done prior to the exhibition and that Steve will have other things come along over the next several months which will take his time and energies. And of course I'm greedy -- I want him to do the paintings, but I also want him to do all the other projects too. Luckily it seems (lately anyway) when SK is at his most creative he is also at his most content and happy, so I don't feel guilty for wanting him to work, work, work!

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