The release of my next collection is roughly two weeks away. Because of this and wanting to take different photos to serve as Cinefield® fuel/raw material I am mainly painting right now.
As to keep myself engaged, I keep switching size(s) and types of paper.
My latest is watercolor on French cotton paper (cold pressed) 5×7 inches. I was very pleased with this piece which is now a personal favorite. No matter how often I do it, the portrayal of flesh in my work always gives me the greatest pleasure.
I am always looking for interesting things to draw/paint. Feel free to email me if you think you may have something of interest.
Finished my painting. I had actually done a study for it beforehand which is not my usual way of working.
A bunch of us used to sit around and play games which were tied in with the life of being an artist. One was: describe your technique or mission in one sentence. For me it has always been “The gooniness of flesh”.
I want to show the heat generated by the flesh, the blood coursing below the surface, the splotches, the bruises.
Probably couched in grandeur terms, this was one aspect of the power of the work by the tronie painters as well as the mannerists painters. Even Jenny Saville’s earlier work has elements of this beauty and power.
I often do self portraits as showing myself as I am does not offend nor disappoint me as it may were it someone else emerging from my brush.
It is a truth and truth for me is always beautiful.
It is 11×17 Watercolor on tan paper.
Quick Sketch Study
Always looking for interesting things to draw/paint. Email me if you think you have something.
Finally finished my latest CINEFIELD®. Although it felt as if it took forever, I am very pleased and proud of the results.
The entire piece is from a single photo which I personally took and then printed up many times. I used my trusty pair of (tiny) scissors to cut out the pieces and then glued them to 11×17 piece of paper using adhesive and small brush.
My goal was to offer up a work that one could go back to many times and notice a new thing each time. I always have the design in mind beforehand but which piece I use where is completely discovered in the moment. I cut out sheets of tiny shapes which are arranged on a table by what will become the work. In this way you can look at all my complex CINEFIELD® as completely improvised.
(I’m the Charlie Parker of collage)
Northern Symphony 11×17 (C) Wayne Wolfson. Not for use without permission
Addendum: I used to live in a city that often had weekend “art walks” or art & wine block party type things. There would be kiosks for photographers etc who had “art” but each thing was reproduced hundreds of times and in various sizes. There is nothing wrong with this so long as you realize it is less buying art and far more in line with buying a postcard/poster/print.
I have CINEFIELD® prints available but each print is only done twice and one of the two is for my own archive. My site goes into all technical details. I have gotten emails asking what is available as the site currently only lists a few as available. If there is a Cini you are interested in get in touch with me, it could be that I just had not had prints made yet.
Full ahead into my next Cinefield®. Of course still drawing every day. I do not seek out things with a specific vibe. I would like to think that when not portraying someone from within my circle, I am a sort of spokesmen for those who have slipped through the cracks, the lonely, forgotten and outsiders.
My regular subjects intuitively know I enjoy that sort of convulsive beauty. I am fortunate that they trust me to present me with such honesty.
Poet laureate of the forgotten & ignored or from within my circle, either way, it’s raw reportage. I do not seek to beautify nor take down any subject.
All pieces are quick sketches in my trusty pocket pad.
I am always looking interesting things to draw, email me if you think you have something.
Just back from a trip where I successfully was able to take photos to use as Cinefield® fuel (materials). As is always the case, this is going to be labor intensive.
While on the road I used my new pocket pad. As I work on new Cini this will continue be main outlet for visual work too.
The pad is 4×4 inches and we are already fast friends. Back in my American studio, I finish me coffee put on some Miles and get to it.
Always looking for people to draw. Email me for details.
Weather finally allowed me to finish the painting I had been working on. This is good, as I am back on the road Sunday.
I went for a self portrait. With a new year and what looks to be a bumpy road for us all I wanted some positivity. There is a long tradition of painters doing self portraits. I have already done many. This one was just to remind myself that i am a small link in a chain that stretches far back. All those other eras had tumultuous times but despite whatever was going on, culture lasts past it.
My other less lofty inspiration was the face I see in the mirror every morning as I shave. I had given up sweets several years ago. Between that and getting older, I noticed one morning that I was slowly becoming a character out of a Velazquez painting.
I don’t mind as it is interesting to draw and paint.
This piece is 11×17 Watercolor & Tan paper
I did one study beforehand in water soluble graphite.
I had read an interview with a deep thinker who said that a major problem with many people in North America is that “happiness” now means when things go 100% their way, no effort required, no resistance to the desire (s).
Aspiring to this type of thing, It’s like aiming for perfection, which is a sure fire way to misery and missing out. While I am not necessarily akin to an 18th century German philosopher who believes life is merely struggle, I do think it has its ups and downs.
The struggles shouldn’t be avoided, pressure makes a diamond, grit a pearl. The trick is to have enough moments in-between the strife which make it all worth while.
There were definite aspects of the past year which, depending upon how one views the world, were brutal. It was some of these bad moments which made me delve further into my craft, as to keep my sanity. I also continued to explore things which resulted in discovering even more new music and authors along with peers with whom I have struck up friendships.
The stoics probably got it right, live an engaged constructive life while realizing it is akin to a giant wheel upon which we are all bound. Sometimes it lifts you up, while at others you are downward slopping. Here’s to hoping we all feel the sun on our bellies more often than not in ’25
I am in the middle of edits for my next collection (spring release) and weather has stalled the painting currently working on, so here are several of the daily drawings I have been doing in various mediums. (all are quick sketches)
Prob my last drawing of ’24 Quickie charcoal piece:
The tiny paint brush I have used all year (macro shot since it’s tiny) Nothing could be more emblematic of my life & year. Beaten upon thing which ceaselessly created beauty/terrible beauty
Between some short trips, holiday social commitments that staggered my usual rhythm and then days of rain, I am not done with my latest painting. I got new studio lights, I paint in natural light but for all my other visual mediums lights are fine. So despite having my painting disrupted, I have managed to draw every day.
I decided to mess around with charcoal which is not a medium that I often use. To further mix things up, i used a larger paper.
The piece was executed very quickly. “Song” 11×14 inches charcoal stick
Always on the look out for new people to draw. Email me for details
I have one brand of multi media paper in pocket pad form I use for my Lyra work. It has become a little harder to find and the price has gone up. With a short trip on the horizon, I decided to explore other companies.
My usual pad has the dimensions of 3×5. I found a new company which was shaped different at 4×4. This company offered features my usual one did not (hard backed, choice of bright colors for cover and matching colored attached elastic to keep it shut when not in use and a built in book mark ribbon also of matching color).
Unless I am intentionally trying to challenge myself in a chop building exercise, I never use completely crappy paper. On the other hand, with pocket pads for regular sketching, it need not be of the highest quality since sometimes an entire pad will be used just for exercise which I will either gift or throw away.
My Lyra work is another story, those are always kept and the paper has to be of a fairly decent quality. Cheap paper will bubble from liquid, shred when I go to blend or just make everything run together. With this in mind I knew I could only go so “cheap” in my search.
I enjoyed the challenge of this new pad having different orientation size wise. In general it is more of a squat square where as usual pad more rectangular.
I first tried the paper with lyra. It seemed to require a slightly different touch which I didn’t mind. I had just finished a regular watercolor painting and still had paint in the palettes. Rather than dump them out, I decided to try watercolor in new pocket pad. My usual pad had never been great with watercolors.
To my surprise, the watercolor painting came out very good. Again, it required a different touch but I enjoyed myself. The main challenge for any artist is not fame but creating and then honing an individual voice.
Once this is done, you notice nuances in the creative process. Equipment flavors a piece. All equipment has its specific voice. The artist’s is ever present but the cadence will be effected. This is why Miles used specific horns just for ballads.
My painting using this paper has a slightly different sound to it than on the usual papers I use. It’s the inherent properties of the paper and the different touch they require.
I will switch back and forth between new pad and usual, pleased to have expanded my bag of tricks.
Watercolor & water soluble graphite pieces 4×4 inches:
This is the painting I had worked on. French cotton paper 7×5 I had started it election day. The next day not finished, I walked away from it until I could shake off the bad taste in my mouth.
When I first started seriously doing visual work I saved every little piece of sketch ephemera. As I became more serious about it all, I began to woodshed every night no matter where in the world I was or what else was going on.
From a practical point of view, I could not possible save every sketchbook. Philosophically, I have sea changed. Now it is about serving the process and the joy in doing so. I need not save every hand or body part achieved during a session. In some ways I have always seen myself as a musician. A sax player has their horn but what they play is an intangible. The power of their art is bolstered by the freedom of knowing that they (and the audience) can maintain the memory and emotion of a solo but it also is ever dissolving. I started to approach my woodshedding pieces akin to this. The memories, pleasures and process stack up and become an integral part of me.
I work hard to make it easy. few hours every day drawing so that I can peel things off when I want to or when I slow my roll to do a painting, it’s easier.
There is always a pocket pad on me or scrap paper. I also utilize more formal sketchpads of higher quality paper. These I tend to hold on to and will put in drawings that are more than woodshedding. Often, especially when on the road, I combine text (by me) with drawings. These are my jazz, my bop, spontaneous and in reaction to what is going on around me.
Here is a quick sketch I peel off using a lead holder. Immediately upon finishing came text. 5×7 Hardbound French paper. Not for use without permission.
Paper Life Painting 