Making The Turn...

 ...on this painting, I’m sanding it smooth for the second layer of paint. 

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From here it becomes glass-like, which is perfect for focusing on the details.

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Finally, the palette is set with a wider range of color to capture water.

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The First Layer...

 ...of paint is finished, and now the fun part begins: focusing in on the details to make this painting really sing. 

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“Concentric Circles...

 ...referencing Jasper Johns, Kenneth Nolland...” said Carl Belz. If only he was talking about my painting, but this was part of an impromptu art monologue on the packaging of Lucky Strike cigarettes. Holding about a dozen slightly shivering art students, myself included, transfixed on a Boston sidewalk during a smoke break, it was one of those little lectures on art in the everyday that stuck with me. Carl had an amazing way of making art relatable and immensely exciting at the same time. If you ever see one of his books on art, do yourself a favor and buy it. And so some twenty years later, I am painting a painting that was partly inspired by that little lecture.

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The Most Asked Question...

 ...when people walk through my studio is probably how long it takes for me to paint what I paint.

I don’t keep track, but this is an hour time lapse of a circular area with 2.5” diameter. Using some internet math, and at this perfectly focused painting rate, the two layers of this 2x2’ painting will take me 235 hours. Yikes! Back to work, as I still have a lot to go...

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The New Painting...

 ...in its humble beginnings. Seven colors so far in this spare palette will make two feet by two feet of swirling water.

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If You Don’t...

 ...want to go out shopping, Fine Art America is offering free shipping on all my photos this weekend only. They offer dozens of different ways to display them, so you can customize to whatever you want! https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jb-boyd.html

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And as always, shipping is always free here!

Although I Finished...

 ...this painting a while back, I forgot to post a picture of the finished product. “us 28 (can’t look away)” 12x18” oil on panel $4,500

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The Latest...

us 29 (One Drop of Truth) oil on panel 22 x 39” $14,000 Drop by my studio @robertlangestudios to see it in person!

 

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My Last Two Paintings...

 ...have started with nothing but a simple line to delineate the horizon line. While far more lines will follow on this painting after I paint the sky, this is a start. 

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I Grew Up Looking...

 ...at a reproduction of this painting as my mom made my dad sit through a traveling salesman’s vacuum cleaner presentation, and for doing so, they received that reproduction. It hung by their bed ever since I can remember and I used to stare at it all the time. One day as a family we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and while there, we walked into a room with paintings by John Constable. Pointing at one I declared, “That’s the person who painted your painting!” My dad may have raised an eyebrow and walked off, but my mom raised two and went to check the name tag. When the names matched back at home, she started looking at her under hip-high son a little differently, and always supported him in his artistic endeavors. So thank you Dad for sitting through an I’m sure very boring presentation. Thank you Mom for never seeing a painting of mine that you didn’t like. And thank you John Constable for painting phenomenal clouds and pastoral scenes that endlessly captured this artist’s young imagination. And if you ever have the chance to go to The National Gallery of London,drop by “The Hay Wain” and spend a little more time than you might otherwise. It is a fascinating scene.

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