First painting completed in 2017! Another record, but this time a 45 single of The Beach Boy's " Good Vibrations. It's 12" x 12" and painted the same size as the actual record. When I see this painting, I cannot help but think of summer, which unfortunelty is still far away. The blue and white stripped background was a last minute decision before starting this piece. It was inspired by the button-down shirts The Beach Boys would sometimes wear. This painting along with 9 others will be on display at my solo show at McCormick Gallery in March through April. More details to come. |
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A few months ago I completed a small circular painting of a Coca-Cola bottle cap with beaded water on it's surface. I really liked the finished piece so I decided to paint another work to complement it. It would be the same size, background color and frame, except a different cap. I debated about painting another Coke cap, but ultimately settled on the Coke rival, Pepsi. The two cap brands are similar in age and I think it is an interesting juxtaposition to see these pieces displayed next to each other. I don't know if these two paintings will stay together, but I hope they do. Here is the finished Pepsi Cap, same size as the Coke Cap below it, about 3-3/8" in diameter. It's been well over a month since my last blog post, but I am finally back to painting - now in my new studio. I recently moved to a new house and it took a couple of weeks to set this room up for my painting equipment. The entire house has hardwood flooring and this was the only room that had the original carpet. It took me about a week to install the hardwood into this new studio... work I hope I never have to do again. Despite the pain of the installation, I'm really satisfied with the results, and this will be a great space to work. There is more room than I know what to do with. I was even able to fit some guitar stuff and a massive desk in there. It also has 2 large northern facing windows incase I ever decide to work from natural light. With the studio complete, I need to complete 2 more paintings for my solo show at McCormick Gallery in March. I'll have 10 pieces total and it looks like the opening will be on the 11th. More info to come soon. My painting "Remembering Iwo Jima" won the Special Merit Award in the 29th Northern National Art Competition. This is one of 3 competitions I'm participating in this fall. Of course I would have liked to win something in the other 2 shows, but I'm grateful for the Special Merit Award.
I had high hopes for my "WWII Rations" piece getting some recognition in the Arkansas competition, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. The rations painting is still the work that took me the longest to complete, about 4 months. It's also my favorite painting so far. I'm hoping to show it off in one more exhibit before my solo show with McCormick Gallery in April. Below are some photos of my work in the competitions.
The beginning of this year looked bleak for competitions, but I have managed to find my way into three exhibitions this fall; all of which opening within the next couple weeks. I have "Remembering Iwo Jima" in Wisconsin, "Sounds of Earth Single" in North Carolina, and "WWII Rations" in Arkansas. I realize that these locations don't exactly sound like places for art competitions, but they are indeed awarding good prize money. The top prize in Arkansas is $4,000, and there is over $8,500 awarded to artists in the Wisconsin show. Art is everywhere in the U.S., you just have to look for it. Aside from the competitions, I recently completed a painting - "Twinkie Rescue Circa 2013". It's 21" x 14" and oil on panel. I've been wanting to painting a Twinkie ever since it's near extinction in 2013. This piece reflects that time period when Hostess filed for bankruptcy in 2012. There was a short length of time when Hostess products were no longer available. In March 2013 Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Company purchased the bankrupt company and quickly replenished store shelves with Hostess products. The Twinkie in the painting hangs on hook from a fraying string as a Lego repairman attempts to fix the damage. On the repairman's shirt there is an abbreviation of Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Company - AGM and M & Co. The upward pointing arrow hook and green background represent future prosperity. I finally decided to rebuild my painting rack. It's made from 1" by 2" furring strip and 1/4" plywood - not exactly the best quality wood, but it's inexpensive and looks alright with a bit of paint. As you can see, I simply made several frames and attached them to the plywood. It's very repetitive and time consuming work... I'm glad I'm done. It came out a bit larger than I imagined and barely made it up the stairs. The rack also doesn't fit well in my studio closet, but this is only temporary. I'll be moving soon to a much larger space where there is a lot more room for my painting stuff. Friday, August 19th, I will be displaying 5 paintings along side 8 other amazing artists in a hyper-realism group show at the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago. The reception starts at 7pm and lasts until 10pm. It's been about a year and a half since I displayed any paintings locally. A few of these piece will be available next April at my solo show at McCormick Gallery. The work below is what can be seen in Bridgeport until Sept. 30th. Here is the Coca-Cola bottle cap completed and framed. It's oil on panel and 3-3/8" in diameter. This will be the smallest painting displayed at my solo show at McCormick Gallery next April. It's tiny but engaging. The frame is 8 separate pieces of oak glued together and trimmed to a round circle. I beveled the inner edge to 45 degrees with a router. I realize it would have been much easier to cut out a round frame from a solid piece of wood, than to try to get 8 joints to fit properly. However, I prefer the appearance of each joint and piece of wood forming a circle. This was my first time painting water drops, it's something I've been wanting to do. It was a good learning experience in terms of how much time it takes to paint them precisely. These drops took me about 2 days lol. I laid down a couch of medium and sort of glazed the drops in; the highlights are opaque of course. As always, I paint everything there actual size, 1:1. The bottle cap is only 1" in diameter so it's quite small. I chose Coke because of it's timeless tradition. I think Andy Warhol said it best... "What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."
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Kyle Surges's Oil Painting Blog
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