The Light Box

Strangely perhaps, I've never owned a light box before. Light boxes are most useful for transferring rough sketches to another sheet of paper to create a basis for a more finished artwork without having to eradicate the original piece, and for all kinds of operations where tracing of some kind is necessary. This box we made is quite large, being based around a sheet of plexiglass 36" long by 24" wide. The interior is lit by six LED bulbs (equivalent of 60w output each, warm light). I haven't used it in a real-world situation yet, but it looks like it's going to be useful. Huge thanks to my pal Jim Stevenson, without whose skills and efforts this would not have been possible. I did some of the easy work, Jim did all the rest.

I put a drawing on top of the lightbox for the first photo & turned it on, to give an idea of how it looks. The 1" holes in the ends are for ventilation, though the LED bulbs give off very little heat (the holes also reduce the weight of the box a little).

Light box with drawing on top

Illuminated light box

Light box in the studio

The Angel of the Culvert

This is a collaborative painting with my friend Jim Stevenson. We began it over a year ago, & worked on it for several sessions, but it got put away for a while, especially as Jim moved to a new studio space during this time. It's done in oil on board, which is unusual for me, as I've used acrylic paint almost exclusively for over 10 years. We took it in turns to work on it, so it's difficult if not impossible to distinguish who did what. In the final session, yesterday, at some points we were both painting on the support at the same time, which was a little difficult, as the piece is quite small.

Angel of the Culvert, 2011-2012, oil on board, size unknown at this point (but approximately 14" x 11")

Baby Mountain Goes to Michigan

This is just to mention that my artist collaborator friend Tim Lowly (The Book of Souls) and the smaller version of his musical group, the Lowly Ensemble, called Baby Mountain, will be playing at the Stone House in Brighton (Michigan, not the real one) on Friday, October 29, at 8pm, if you're in the vicinity, and some other places nearby (click on the poster to read where). Here is the poster:

Poster design by Tim Lowly.

The image comes from The Book of Souls itself, it's the facing page from "JLS and the Origin of Storms", which gives me an excuse to show that image again below:

JLS and the Origin of Storms (JLS is my friend, the painter Jim Stevenson)

Exhibit opens today

Here is the flyer for the show that opens today in Rhinebeck:


Please click on the graphic for a more legible version.

Jim's landscapes are in the front section, I'm in the back. For me, it was kind of a last-minute thing, as Jim offered me the space that he didn't really have enough pieces to fill. I have 18 artworks in the show, dating from 2006-2009. I have 4 large paintings (from 2006, the oldest works in the show), plus a few new smallish paintings, some ink drawings & silverpoints.

RICS - Rhinebeck Institute for Creative Studies

This is to mention that I'm working with a couple of artist friends, James E. Ransome & James L. Stevenson (I only work with people called James) on the Rhinebeck Institute for Creative Studies (RICS). This is a loose grouping of the 3 of us, who are offering classes & workshops in our own studios to interested parties. We are all professional artists with considerable experience, so I think we have something potentially very useful to offer to other artists & students who may be just starting out or needing help in some way.

For more information, please check out the RICS blog.

Other links:
www.ayton.net (my main web site)
www.jamesransome.com (James Ransome's site)
www.jlsfineart.com (Jim Stevenson's site)