New Studio

, originally uploaded by amandahanlon.

List of projects on my plate right now:
- Figure out the next stage on Part-time Resident paintings...
- Finish Hallway pieces
- Think about the Figure
- Linoleum cut of Ironwork from W. 51st st.
- Mezzotint, in progress

The New Project

I’ve been ridiculously busy lately. To the point where I’ve said “I’m so busy” so much, that it is starting to annoy me a little bit. And feel a little bit like an excuse. Which is upsetting to me. Because, Seriously! I’ve been super busy!

So this month the following this happened, in the following order:

• My parents came to visit.
• The boyfriend and I purchased out very first house.
• My summer class started at the University.
• We went to Nashville for a wedding.
• Our best friends in Savannah got married the following weekend.
• We found a 3 week old kitten in our backyard, which we’ve been patiently nursing back to health.
• The boyfriend started his summer session at the College.

In between all of this we’ve been working on the house and making a solid effort not to tear each other’s hair out. This has been successful for the most part.

The biggest thing I’ve been trying to remember is to enjoy the process, although I miss feeling like a real person. I feel like I’ve gotten really really far away from my studio. Last semester I was able to work along with my students, create a couple of paintings, prints and start making the effort towards showing my work again.

Yesterday, as I was laying on the floor of my new house, meticulously touching up the base trim in my soon to be new bedroom, it occurred to me that my latest art project has been this house. I knew it would be several months ago when we started looking at houses but in the cloud of sleep deprivation and overall running myself ragged, I seemed to have forgot.

Like my paintings, I’m paying attention to the interactions colors in between doorways windows, to the line when the edges of two colors meet, specially the wall color and the trim. When we painted the trim there were some areas that bled through the paint tape, and other nicks and imperfections. Experiencing these minor imperfections has helped me realize how all of these small moments can accumulate to affect the tone of the space. Something to remember when working on canvas/panel again.

I’m so pleased with how the house is shaping up. We painted the entire interior every single color of the spectrum. It is a house that was clearly painted by two people that have been living in white walled rentals their entire adult lives. My “attention to detail” carpenter boyfriend had the foresight to remove all of the old hardware from each door in the house and strip the layers upon layers of paint that covered some really nice antique brass. We then gave each piece of hardware a single coat of spray paint in a rich deep brown. Against the white of the door and the bright saturated colors of the walls it is the perfect amount of contrast.

Here are just a couple of shots of my most recent “project”.








I'll have images of the studio when we are all moved in. Hopefully that will be the beginning of me feeling like a real person again.

Ironwork Canopy

Ironwork Canopy, originally uploaded by amandahanlon.

I've been working on this linoleum plate for a while now. I was finally able to run off an edition of 4 of this piece a couple weeks ago. I printed it on a creme colored Kitakata Paper. It is a reductive print from the same block.

It is now time to use some of the reference shots I've been collecting in the last several weeks to explore a different iron work pattern. I'm thinking I'll look at this one next.

I know the ironwork compliments the interiors I've been working with but I haven't figured out how yet. I think it will make more sense the more time I have to look at these shapes/patterns through drawing.

Relief Edition

Relief Edition, originally uploaded by amandahanlon.

I'm working on an edition of relief prints for the PrintZero exchange. This is the first layer. I'm printing on lightweight Rives BFK paper with a linoleum block. I've been experimenting with a digital print overlay.

Self Portrait (In Progress)

Self Portrait (In Progress), originally uploaded by amandahanlon.

I've made some changes to the self portrait I started in January. At this point I want to focus on the cups in the foreground and pushing the room back a little further. The space isn't quite doing what I had in mind, but it is almost there.

Reductive Linocut

Here is one of the linoleum prints I worked on this weekend. The composition is the same as an egg tempera painting I've had "in progress" for some time. My hope is that this straightforward approach will shed new light on how I should proceed with the painting.

In Progress - Hallway

Here is an "in progress" shot of the painting I've been working on of the hallway in our house.

I've been enjoying all of the opportunities for values and slight changes in temperature to "butt" up next to each other. For example, the edge of the bathroom door against the the front door. Its been a struggle to get the hue and value of all of these blocks of "white" just right to depict that space.

There is a dim yellow light in the bathroom on the left, that reflects against the open door. In addition there is natural light that streams through blinds in the bathroom, creating cool light and a pattern against the door. The combination of natural light, artificial light and the pattern of the blinds makes for an interesting surface, and something I would like to explore a little more as I continue this painting.

It's been an off and on grey day, so the temperature of the light has shifted since when I first began working on this painting. The red and orange in the foreground might be a little too intense but I'm attracted to how they "pop" against the cool, dull hue in the portion of the hallway furthest from us. I plan to glaze a more neutral shade over the red and delineate the orange shape on the bottom right. This should help break up the overall intensity of those areas but still allow the space to breathe.