a fun steel based console

well this one was interesting ... it started with husband and wife clients who were looking for interesting wood.  they had already committed to a small slab of claro walnut that i had on hand for their coffee table and were wondering what else i might have around.  i just happened to have this curved log of cherry that was sawed up by my friend mike stock of stocks tree care in west pawlet.  it came from the edge of a house adjacent to the 16th tee at the dorset field club where
we had done some work back in 2012.

the concept started as a full length bench, but after taking the mockup home with them, they decided a behind the couch console table would be more appropriate.

 

i made a couple of photoshopped sketches from the taller mockup

because the base looked kind of empty with the top up at table height.

 

we took elements from these two previous pieces

and combined them into the finished piece... the steel end pieces were originally temporary to keep the top piece flat while we worked on it, but we all liked them, so they stayed as part of the finished design.

cool project !! the clients are happy!

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painting class

please bear with me a bit here as i digress from my normal writings on woodworking.  there is so much more to life, and with the recent death of two close friends, the fact that time is finite and slipping by daily is on my mind ... for the moment, for what remains of summer at least, i am trying a new regimen:  into the shop by 9:00, out by 4:00, with an hour for lunch, (and sometimes, a nap).  more time with friends and family and other interests ... 

well see how long that lasts.  the checkbook is still, and always will be, in charge ...

click the photos to enlarge them ... 

so here is horst, my painting instructor, a few years back, with his painting, calligraphy.  actually the image says 2006.  ive known horst well since the early 70s.  hes an old master now, at 91, and is still painting away in nearby arlington.  i went for a visit a few weeks back, asked for some lessons and now were at it more or less weekly.  today was my third lesson.  so far, his advice has been mostly try that bigger brush. try that palette knife .... use that whisk broom some ... stop! ... stuff like that.  its a challenge ... the top photo is the results of todays lesson, and one of those paintings was a duet where we passed the brush back and forth a bit without saying much ... at first i was a bit, hmmm, miffed? he was painting over my stuff !!!  in the end, when i got home, kit and i agreed it was the strongest of the bunch.  see if you can figure out which painting that was, and ill post it at the end.
the other two classes are below ..

8/5

8/11 .. paint something representational was the task ... in this case he cropped off more than half of what i painted after i finished .. much improved, it was, by the chopping ...

next week, i get to use white with the black ... with the black for now, i think im channeling robert motherwell, learning about volume, form, power .. etc.  working my way up to color.  no rush .

 you can read more about horst in this blog post, the artist in his studio, from 2010 ...

 to get a good sense of horsts style you can see more of his paintings on my website.

a few of my clients have bought paintings, and you can too!

as promised, this image is the duet ... power, form, space ..

on another subject, i took some new pottery out of the kiln monday ...

 go out and play!

pottery close up ...
update 10 17

9/10/15

9/17/15

9/24/15

10/9/15

1016/15

this week i told horst i wanted tot do something maybe a little more representational.  i didnt get far with that but ... i can try that at home.  i like this guys style, which should work well with my drawings
but for now with horst im enjoying learning how to handle color with a palette knife.  heres one he painted in 2014 .. we bought that from him at christmas and thats how the painting class thing started.

about 30" x 40"  sort of a hans hoffman guy

stay tuned

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