Studio Update

This is an old canvas of my roommate's that I'm in the process of covering to give it a new life.

He already had a nice layer of texture on it, so rather than scrape it off, I left it on and am trying to work on a painting where outside influences are apparent, and acting on the new painting. I started off liking where this one going, but now it's frustrating me. I had a feeling my first couple of paintings would have this affect on me since I'm getting back into my studio practice after not painting for the whole summer. The texture on the ground, and the semi-transparent paint is interesting me, but the composition is stale and lack-luster.

Detail of the paint

This guy's giving me some hope, I'm happy with how it's taking shape. Creating shallow, awkward spaces is something that interests me in painting, and I think this one has what it takes. There's only two real layers of paint on it so far, but it's already starting to act in a way that I like. I want to explore the blocking/veiling of spaces, but while still showing each layer of paint. The mixture of gestural and geometric forms creates exciting relationships. 

When I'm trying to create space in my paintings, I try to not be illusionistic about it, but very upfront. The viewer is aware of what's happening in most cases, but I try to find different and interesting ways to describe the different spaces within a painting.