Latest Painting: "At Last I Have My Eyes"

http://www.mattpulford.com/

click on the image below for a larger view:

"At Last I Have My Eyes"
Matt Pulford
acrylic on canvas
46" x 34"
2015

"pyre" - new painting

I just finished up a new painting. As the kids grow older, these come more slowly, but still surely. Here's "pyre."

"pyre"
2015
48" x 30"
acrylic on canvas

(detail)
Click on the images for a larger view.

www.mattpulford.com

New design on artist's web site

The transition is all finished up. The previous Matt Pulford dot com is now gussied up and fresh:
http://www.mattpulford.com

Debating a new web site

I'll probably own www.mattpulford.com for the duration of my lifetime, but the way in which I interact with it may change. For the last decade or so, I had used my old eMac (2012) and Dreamweaver (I think as far back as the MX version) to interact with and update the site structure. Roughly a year ago, we threw that old dinosaur in the basement and upgraded to a new-to-us, but used, Intel iMac, where I would knowingly be out of luck with my old Adobe CS2 versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, etcetera, but would deal with it later. "Later" was the can that got kicked down the road for a year or so, and I wanted to post that I might now opt for using weebly to interact with the site. Here's the current free-version tester of what I could do:
www.mattpulford.weebly.com

Stay tuned.

I promised new work.

Here you go. untitled as of yet.
72" x 48"
acrylic and pencil on canvas
2014

Paintings soon?

I've been busy in the studio trying to finish up a rather large (for me) painting - 72"x48". Hopefully I'll have something to post soon, and then work on something smaller will come shortly thereafter.

I was recently asked by a friend if I'd like to go in on a 2-person proposal to QC Arts, and I agreed. She's not yet shown there, and she thought we'd make a nice pairing. Always nice to have goals.

Studio jams:

Plein Air Painting with David Linneweh

Dave Linneweh - ISU alum, art pal, and creator of the podcast "Studio Break"(http://studiobreak.com/) - is perhaps best known for his painted deconstructions of homes, storefronts, and olde-tymey signage, evoking both a literal and figurative pulling-apart of the classic idealism of "1950s americana" (well, that's the point in time where my noggin goes).
http://davidlinneweh.com/home.html
But over the last year or so, Dave has been taking road trips to do plein air sessions, directly observing the landscape in an attempt to capture what's in front of him on canvas or board.  He's invited friends along for the ride several times, and for his latest trip, I tagged along.

We met up in Dixon, IL early on Friday, and landed at our first stop - a park that, while only a few blocks from the downtown core, actually felt somewhat remote. 

Dave's setup:

After settling in and working for a few minutes, it was immediately apparent that this was going to be a challenge.  Shortly after my first child was born, I decided to ditch painting with oils in my basement studio, and to switch to acrylics.  As we sat outside under the bright sunlight and amongst a pretty hefty wind, my paint dried far too quickly to do anything worthwhile.  But whatever, you just keep on working and go with it.

Early on at my first spot:

We sat and talked a lot about other challenges in working outdoors like this - less about the wind/drying, the bugs, or the swamp I hilariously decided to set up in, and more about the artistic challenges related to truly seeing what is in front of you.

First off, it's almost comical as to how "sun-blind" you can get while you work on a white canvas.  I'd often look at the scene in front of me after working on the canvas, and values of areas in front of me would seem "off."  And since both of us are mostly studio workers, neither of us are well adept at this type of a direct observation activity.  It's something you partake in during formal schooling, but it's an area hardly anyone sticks to, as people move into more contemporary media, or more "avante-garde" modes of abstraction.  We had art-nerdish discussions about local color vs observed color, specifically about what we were truly seeing in terms of hue and value on the water.  It was difficult to sit and accurately portray what your eyes saw, and easy to cop out of that mode of working and fall back into what you were more comfortable with, or "old habits."

In other words, it kind of kicked my ass.  But it was well-worth it.  I'd do it again.  Maybe more beer this time though - heh.

More photos...

Dave's first scene from our first stop:

With only about 15 minutes at our first stop, I whipped out some dry media and paper.  Barely got anywhere though:

Dave's second piece from our first stop.  This was the one and only "keeper" from the day.  Very nice:

The early beginnings of my view from our second spot.  This quickly became a bust for both of us, and 3:00 neared so we had to pack up and take off.

ELEMENTAL

Emily Christenson, Steve Banks, Terry Rathje, and I all just finished the run of our group show ELEMENTAL. The show came about mostly within Steve's mind, as he thought about each of us and our individual interactions with nature. We tended to run the gamut in our group, with Emily and Terry being the most immersed in the natural world (Terry living in a rural area where the Wapsipinicon River actually flows in his backyard; Emily taking trips to Alaska to literally paint in glacier lakes - water-based oils... wha?...) to Steve being the most distant from any natural immersion (he can't even see anything green from his downtown apartment or studio windows).

I showed my most recent paintings and drawings. Same goes for Emily - she showed recent paintings and drawings from her work in the Carribean Ocean. Steve gathered driftwood from the banks of the Mississippi - the only "natural" thing he could see from his window (it's two blocks away) and constructed a passageway made of wood and fired clay totems/masks. Terry gathered willow wood from his back yard and paired it up with 2x2s that had felt the touch of a human hand, creating a construction that was inspired/informed by his recent trip to Istanbul (he had a show there), where he learned about reductive architecture.

All in all, it was a great time, and I always enjoy showing with these locals. We had great attendance at two receptions. We were featured guests for an hour-long interview on Augustana College's public radio show "Art Talks" (mp3 should always be archived here http://www.wvik.org/listings-arttalks.htm look up November 20th 2011). We had some feature coverage in the Quad City Times.

i hope you enjoy the images. click on any of these for a larger view.

the blackest bile

what it's all about.



yeah, that's right.



december approaches, and i will soon be out on foot in the middle of fields taking a lot of photographs of churned up black earth, fog, blackbird groupings, and ultimately – in january – completely frozen-over hellscapes. can't wait.

i'm back.

i suppose i'm coming back from a hiatus of sorts - the main reason for my absence is that i'm now a proud father of a 3 month old.

my daughers rock; studio time had to wait for a while.

so... i've finally caught up a bit on some of the work that was started several months ago. I'll be in a group show this November/December, and most of this new work will be shown when that time rolls around. here's a new painting, followed by a new drawing. i'm a little worn out by painting lately, and i'm not sure how to accurately describe it. things seem a little forced to stay within the boundaries of what i've done so far with this "series," but the more i try to push out of that mold, the more things come full-circle back to what's comfortable. the drawings, on the other hand, are not that different from what i've been doing for the last 6 or 7 years, but they still feel fresh. funny, eh?

here you go:


















all gossamer, temporary
2011
acrylic on canvas
46 x 34 inches





















untitled
2011
pencil on paper
32 x 20 inches

m i d d l e s t a t e s opening reception

m i d d l e s t a t e s opened this weekend and i had the chance to drive to des moines for the reception. the show looked great, i met a lot of very cool people, and we ate good food and had some good beers.

big thanks to:
Benjamin Gardner, Curator of the exhibit and Professor of Drawing at Drake University (and to his wife Amy as well)
Heather Skeens, Director of Anderson Gallery
Gilbert Vicario, Senior Curator at the Des Moines Art Center
John Fender, designer of the exhibition catalogue and Graphic Design Professor at Drake University

Here are some install shots:

oh no! a 2010 wrap-up...

hi there; long time no see.

first off, here's the site for "m i d d l e s t a t e s," the group show i'm in this winter:
http://artsci.drake.edu/andersongallery/current.html

i'll be showing five paintings of mine, and i will doing my best to attend the opening reception (everything revolves around what the weather will be like that weekend). some old friends are in the show, as well as some artists i've never met before. it should be a great time catching up on the old and learning about the new.

now then... as you can tell, there have not been many updates here lately. i've been a little bit jaded about social networking or blogging on teh internets as of late, mainly due to the way Facebook has reduced the conversations (well, usually just the one-sided reading of posts) i have with 90% of my friends to really strange, even smug posts such as "so-and-so hates x, y, and z" (x, y, and z being completely ridiculous things to write long-winded, public gripes about). it just seems that 90% of the lengthier, more intelligent dialogue is absent from my life lately.

now that the holidays are over and done with, i hope to soon finish up a painting and a drawing that have been placed on the back burner for a month or two. and then, of course, i hope to get some real momentum moving down in the studio. this usually happens in the dead of winter, so... fingers crossed.

as far as a wrap-up on 2010 goes, i could go on and on about the details of the daily ins and outs, but there's one quick summation that covers everything: i can still count the number of really amazing close friends of mine on one hand. to each of you in the following photographs, thanks. i love you all a lot.

-m

news + new painting

the news:
i will be included in a group show this coming january and february. the exhibition is called "m i d d l e s t a t e s" and it is curated by Benjamin Gardner. the venue is Drake University's Anderson Gallery in des moines - should be a grand time at the opening. i'm guessing that there will be a web site for the exhibit soon, so sometime soon when i have more time, i'll do a quick post on the other 3 artists in the show.

the new pieces:
i finished a painting and a drawing a couple weeks back, and after promptly updating my main web site, I somehow neglected to put an update here. my bad. here you go:


















Bailey and Benji
2010
acrylic on canvas
46 x 34 inches
© matt pulford























spent (one)
2010
pencil, colored pencil on paper
32 x 20 inches






.

installation shots of solo show

Matt Pulford
Pour Out The Sky
March 5 - April 28, 2010

"Pour Out the Sky"

the new show is all hung and lit, ready to go. first off, here are two links to a recent sunday Times article on things:

interview/feature with David Burke:
http://www.qctimes.com/lifestyles/leisure/article_1cc9e964-216a-11df-8d0c-001cc4c002e0.html

video piece, where they had me try to give a very condensed description of my background and my work:
http://www.qctimes.com/lifestyles/leisure/article_1cc9e964-216a-11df-8d0c-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=video


and finally, here are the details on location, time, reception, etcetera:

- - - - -
"Pour Out the Sky"
Recent paintings, drawings, and installations by Matt Pulford

March 3 - April 28, 2010
Midcoast Fine Arts @
Bucktown Center for the Arts
225 E. 2nd St., Davenport (2nd Floor)
Hours: Wed. - Sat. 11 am - 6 pm

*****Please join us for a reception for the artist on Friday, March 26, from 6:00-9:00pm. This event is open to the public, so bring your friends and enjoy some free food and drinks.

to view more works by the artist, please visit:
http://www.mattpulford.com

- - - - -

new painting, new drawing, ready for the show

i finally finished up the latest painting. finally? yes; it completely kicked my ass. i took an opportunity to try and re-shoot the new drawing too, and the new pics came out a little better. those drawings are terribly difficult to shoot. here you go:



















josephine (four)
2010
pencil, colored pencil on paper
32 x 20 inches
© matt pulford



















Amelia and Dandelion
2010
acrylic on canvas
46 x 34 inches
© matt pulford

m i d d l e s t a t e s

i just received an email from an artist friend that i have been curated into a group exhibition that will run during the first months of 2011. the show is called m i d d l e s t a t e s and is at Drake University's Anderson Gallery. here is the PDF of the exhibition, divided up into two jpgs for you (click on images to see a larger view).

Amelia and Chloe

this past weekend, the village of east davenport had an event where all the small business owners kept their shops open late for a shin-dig that included santa, reindeer, carolers, free food samples, hot chocolate, fire pits, and artists working on their work in storefront windows. it sounds campy, but it was actually quite fun. steve banks and i were hosted by the Village Corner Deli. we each had a 5-hour stint in "the studio" (rare these days) and they hooked us up with a very delicious dinner for taking residence with them for the night. a win-win situation. during the night, i finished up the painting i've been working on, as well as another one of the Josephine drawings. the drawing is incredibly difficult to photograph, so i've given up on putting it on the site. however, here's the finished painting:


http://www.mattpulford.com/amelia_and_chloe.html
















Amelia and Chloe
2009
acrylic on canvas
46 x 34 inches
© matt pulford





































by the way, if you have the time, go see Marta Currier's show at the Catich Gallery (at Saint Ambrose University). steve and i left our post for a quick moment and checked it out; it's very good.

http://www.sau.edu/x2696.xml

a little further along...

the large canvas is moving along decently well:

































the small paintings on paper are slower:


















i recently received an order of that 20 x 32 inch drawing paper i love, so there will be more "josephine" drawings soon
here are some from the earlier lot:
http://www.mattpulford.com/josephine_1.html
http://www.mattpulford.com/josephine_3.html
i've already started working on one, and it's a lot more dense, and kind of "wind-blown."