Head Of A Young Man

A new drawing -- kind of an exercise, in a way. Came out quite well.



Brush & ink on paper, 2006, 12" x 12".

Evocation

Again, a small image loaded with mystery. This one looks somehow Asian. It's more about a mood or a feeling, no real "meaning" to this one, or many possible meanings...



Acrylic on board, 2006, 8" x 6".

The Enigma Remains

At the moment I'm working on some small, in-between-big-project pieces. These tend to be a little quirky & off my own beaten path (which is not necessarily so beaten anyways). This little fellow is called "The Enigma Remains", a title which kind of popped into my head as I was doing it. It reminds me of some kind of surrealist painting from the 1930s or something, Dali or Magritte, but maybe with a timeless edge -- it's not cold enough for surrealism, somehow it recedes into time -- it has always been there and always will. Whatever it is.



Acrylic on board, 2006, 10" x 8".

The Lovers (Nocturne)

Here's a new, mysterious painting:



Acrylic on board, 2006, 10" x 8". Almost miniature in scale. It started as one figure, but very quickly split into two. Funny how that happens, sometimes...

Melancholy Colossus

Here's a new little drawing I did today for the forthcoming solo show in Poughkeepsie (Barrett Art Center, "Myths & Monsters"):



Brush & ink on paper, 11" x 8.5" approx. The figure is kind of an archetype for me -- the solipsistic figure absorbed in their own world; Narcissus (painting, see previous post) is another one.

The Return of the Art Book

Now called "AYTON Volume I", I've combined Ayton Portfolio One & the "AYTON" book into a 64-page collection of works from 1991-2006 (includes around 16 pieces from this year -- so that's 25% new work). I've just uploaded the PDF to Lulu.com & ordered a couple of copies. Fingers crossed -- this should be the definitive version. For now.

Here's the cover:



The front cover is the 1991 "Narcissus" painting, the back is the 2006 "Dream Of Cyclops".

Study Of Mountains II

The companion piece to the painting several posts below:



Acrylic on board, 2006, 10" x 8". These small paintings are scanned directly from the originals.

Citadel

Acrylic on board, 2006, 8" x 6". Another Little Nocturne:

Sphinx And The City

Here's another image from the Little Nocturnes series. Acrylic on board, 2006, 8" x 6".

Study Of Mountains I

New painting:



Which seems to be part of a new series of small nocturnal images. The idea is to show vast objects on a small scale. More to follow.

Acrylic on board, 2006, 10" x 8".

The Witnesses (War Room)

Here is the painting mentioned in the previous post:



It's from 2004, acrylic on unstretched canvas, 48" x 72" approx. This is one of the medium-sized studies for the War Room panels -- the final pieces in the NYC War Room were about 10' high & 15' wide.

The Outsider

This is a little painting of a head that I did in the last few days:



Acrylic on board, 2006, 10" x 8". It reminds me a little of the character in the old Steve Ditko comic book stories, the Mysterious Traveler. Ditko is a comic book artist that I tend not to think of as very influential, but then I find him popping up all over the place, such as in the War Room painting, "The Witnesses". Very strange.

Ditko is a very underrated artist, but his place in comics history is secure, if only because he was the first one to illustrate Marvel's Spiderman. And Doctor Strange...

Day Of Creation

Another new, small, mysterious image:



Acrylic on board, 2006, 10" x 8". Another mythical piece -- creation myths are universal, & here's mine -- and I've not much idea what's going on, but it looks about right, somehow.

Head Of Medusa

Again, I'm replacing a previous photo (with glare) with a newer one (without glare -- well without the photographic kind of glare, anyway):



Acrylic on masonite, 2006, 24" x 24" approx. Another mythological image.

Cyclops' Dream

This is the improved photograph:



Acrylic on masonite, 2006, 24" x 24" approx. From the new series of mythological paintings for the show, "Myths & Monsters". I've removed the old photo & blog entry.

On The Hill (Enigma)

This little painting showed up a few days ago:



Acrylic on board, 2006, 14" x 11". I'm not really sure what it "means", but then that's not unusual for me. I tend to work on instinct. Sometimes my instinct is off, but I think this time it was working. The image is a bit of an anomaly, which is good. I try not to repeat myself too much.

The Production Line

My studio floor, with a dropcloth & a number (14, actually) of boards primed & painted with a colored ground (mixture of burnt sienna & cadmium yellow deep) to give an amber-colored painting surface.