More January Paintings

More winter/bird paintings found their way onto my drawing table- I’m enjoying painting these on paper in black and white, two here with charcoal and acrylic on paper, one acrylic with a little colored pencil. I am especially pleased with the black/icicle one, “January No.5”- it seems as cold as the end of this past week! Brrrrrrr!

A friend asked if I was feeling ok after seeing these! She observed that my color is usually so vibrant, and my sudden turn to stark black and white seemed unsettling. While, it’s true that some of my recent winter paintings look chilly, I am writing this in my cozy little apartment, with food in my refrigerator and the heat on. In truth, I have been having the best time trying to break these drawings/paintings down to their most simple and singular essence.

I’m very lucky/blessed to be loving what I do, painting, making the new record with my band, enjoying warm shelter and good food. A lot of people across this country, across the world are really having a hard time, and the recent cold weather felt like an official stamp on our collective conscience. The Winter of Our Discontent. My buddy DJ told me that when it warmed up on Saturday he felt a deep comfort in that, knowing it will again be warm not so long from now... in time the weather will change. I hope you are staying warm- this shall all soon pass.

CM Shaw
January 2009

January

Two new paintings: "January No.1" & "January No.2". Nothing much to say, just painting away as furiously as I can... have been enjoying the black and white, drawing with charcoal and painting on top, getting messy.

More with the birds, of course- the winter treatment this time... have you heard the Fleet Foxes record? That song "Winter Hymnal"? Love it! Thanx to DJD for turning me on.

New Paintings, December 2008... and Best Wishes

My five new paintings made in December- hope you like them. December was REALLY busy for me, perhaps busier than ever- I had a great time, but I'm sure glad it's almost over. We'll get shawart.com 2008 works updated as soon as we can- much to do!
Another year come & gone- old dreams dashed against the rocks, new dreams taking off like a rocket in the sky. I'm unsure of what to do next, though I know I'll find out soon enough- I always do. I hope you all will find your way too- just do your best... I'm counting on the best in you. I'm counting on hope, on new beginnings. Take care of each other and yourselves.

My Best- CM

Autumn #1 and #2

“Autumn #1” and “Autumn #2” are finished! I have been working on them in tandem since the end of September. I only stopped to make a dozen or so sketches and a handful of smaller crayon & acrylic monotypes during the process. These are a larger paintings than I typically make, measuring 24 x 30” each, and are a return to my mixed media/collage method, deeply layered in gold and bronze acrylic with paper and canvas collage- very tactile and colorful. I gravitate to this very process-oriented fashion of painting, slowly building a thick stratum of texture and color- though I have explored a variety of mixed media, I will never be done with the endless possibilities.

While there wasn’t anything particularly allegorical or meaningful intended in their creation, a couple people were intrigued by the fact that the birds were all flying downward, diving. As far as my conscious & present mind can offer/explain, this means nothing. For some reason, and probably the obvious reason, all my body of work is subject to analytical scrutiny- the truth is that I was making a couple paintings based on my love of design, color & materials.
Birds as an emblem or icon go way back in history, denoting a source of food, harbinger of death or sorrow, symbol of freedom, or representation of a god. Winged creatures seem magical to us earthbound terrestrials- it is of little wonder why we tie so much importance to them, such primal amazement to their ability to fly! And getting into Superman, Icarus, Henri Matisse, or the delicious turkey I ate this past Thanksgiving holiday is hardly worth it- you get the idea. I’m likely representing much less real meaning than a Paleolithic cave painter. Uggg!

CM Shaw
Nov. 30th, 2008

“Autumn #1” and “Autumn #2” will be featured at Deck The Walls at West County Center in the month of December!
Deck The Walls
119 West County Center
Des Peres, MO 63131
(314)966-6965
www.westcounty.deckthewalls.com

Au fond il n’y a que Matisse

My friend showed me a new trick the other day, one she was almost surprised I hadn’t tried- she taught me how to make a simple monotype by drawing in crayon on a piece of sandpaper, covering the drawing with paper and ironing the back of the paper which melts the wax onto the paper, leaving the transferred image. What fun!

I ran home a did six of them, eager to escape the two nearly finished larger works on canvas I’d been toiling away at for over a month. I have the attention span of a flea, and I’ve needed a distraction from my larger projects- something new to play with on a smaller scale, something I could finish in one or two sessions. Of course, I couldn’t resist painting atop the monotype.
The bird theme dominating my larger canvases found it’s way into these small paintings, a symbol or letter in my own language that has been popping up in my work since old school days- as the great master Picasso often said, “Au fond il n’y a que Matisse” (All things considered, there is only Matisse). What better said?

Abstract Experience

I attended the “Action/Abstraction” show at The Saint Louis Art Museum this past Sunday which highlighted Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, along with a selection of their contemporaries of the New York School from 1940-1976, the development of their methods and it’s impact on Western art, and the role of rival art critics Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg in shaping both the artists of the new school as well as public perception of this movement’s break from formal tradition in art. Great stuff! I hadn’t felt this inspired by a museum show since “Beckmann in Paris” back in 1999. This is the kind of work best experienced firsthand- seeing it in an art history text is deceiving, “Mountains & Sea” 1952 by Helen Frankenthaler for example shocked me by it’s size a surface complexity, as did several of the Pollocks & de Koonings.

The excitement inside me had been building in anticipation of this event, and I was electrified by the experience- I felt romantic like back in my old art school days! I’m a dork, too- I even took notes in my sketchbook as I went along with the I-Pod stops throughout, and I coughed up $40.95 for the accompanying book in my quest for more knowledge about this complicated time & movement.
This show came at an important time for me as I am currently working on two “abstractish” pieces to be shown in November. I became so excited after my Sunday art excursion that I raced home & made eleven abstract drawings in my sketchbook, some of which I have featured here for your amusement.

I hope these scribbles find you on your own quest for knowledge at what you yearn to excel at. In the meantime I shall be scratching my head while reading this fine tome I purchased on Sunday, attempting to crack the code of Modern Art and understand how it has affected our collective sensibilities.

Stop the Press!

My award winning hometown newspaper, The Cuba Free Press, gave me another shot of press again last week... My brother calls them “The Colin Free Press”   :D  You can check visit The Cuba Free Press at http://www.threeriverspublishing.com/ .