Gary Erbe's trompe l'oeil painted collages

I went into NYC Saturday to drop off a couple of paintings for two upcoming shows at the Salmagundi Club. If you don't know this grand old place, you should stop in for a visit. It's one of the oldest art organizations in the country. The club occupies a townhouse built in the 1850s on lower fifth avenue just a few blocks north of Washington Square. The building has been used in a number of movies, most recently the club library was used in "The Good Shepherd." But I'll save all that for another posting.

Saturday was the last day of a wonderful retrospective exhibit by Gary Erbe, an artist one might describe as a hyper realist, in the tradition of William Harnett and John Peto. But unlike those 19th century masters Erbe often works quite large. You can see a great many of his works on his website but there's nothing quite like seeing them in person. Some are very large indeed.

One theme that fascinated me was a series of paintings of abstract collages. The textures of papers overlapping each other are minutely examined and delineated in paint. But what makes these works unique is Erbe's reverence for the abstract, perhaps a rather unusual quality for one who works so hyper real.

I was fortunate enough that when I saw this exhibit that Erbe himself was there and we chatted for a few moments. I told him that I was flattered to see two newspaper front pages done long ago at Newsday (where I was director of design) were included in one of his largest paintings ("Subway Series"). I assumed that he had included the Newsday front pages because he lives on Long Island where the paper circulates.

"No," he said. "I live in Hoboken."

He had simply included those newspaper front pages because he thought they were particularly graphic. And so I was flattered all over again. Erbe may be as charming as he is talented.

Erbe's website: http://www.garyerbe.com/

Finished... Again

This little yard-side scene was up the road from where we stayed on Little Cranberry Island in Maine at the end of May. The top image is a reference photo I took for this painting. The finished painting is 24 by 30 inches, oil on canvas.

Although I signed this painting and considered it finished more than a week ago, I just went back into it and added a bicycle to the porch. It's an illustrative detail that may not add anything aesthetic, although I like the way reds and greens play off each other in this painting, along with the complimentary relationship between the maroon and the yellow. But I liked the addition of the bike for some sort of story-telling quality that the detail adds.

And as you can see from the reference photo, I chose to change the color of the shed in the background and lose the bush in the center.

Finished

Finished. Signed. Small differences between this image and the previous posted. Are they noticeable? Perhaps only to me.

Progress is our most important product

Glazing underway. A bit more to go. And lighter areas replaced with more opaque mixtures. It's kind of a shame that the most fun part of the painting is the part that goes the fastest. The glazing is far and away the most satisfying stage of the painting but it tends also to go very quickly, even allowing for drying time between glazes.

Some painters seem to get lost in applying multiple glazes. Titian was said to have done thirty, forty and fifty glazes in one area to achieve a single optical color effect, if we can believe stories from his studio assistants. (He is also said to have painted a great deal with his fingers, but that is another story.) I have not found that more glazes are always better. What is true is that the glazes should be whisper-thin and built up gradually. Sometimes I apply the glaze and then take a cloth and remove perhaps 90% of it, leaving only the remnant of the glaze that has retreated to the crevices in the texture of the linen.

There is a temptation to apply all the color in a single glaze the thickness and consistency of the surface of a candied apple. But the end result is not so good. Believe me, I've tried.

Just Happy to be Here

The above drawing is included in the new 2009-2010 catalog for the Art Students League of NY. Those familiar with the catalog format know that the bulk of the book consists of a page devoted to each instructor. One each page is a fairly large reproduction of a piece of art by the instructor and a smaller image of a piece done by one of the instructor's students. My drawing appears on the page devoted to James Lancel McElhinney with whom I've been studying for the last two years or so. I am also his 'monitor,' a sort of teaching assistant who takes care of chores like timing the models, collecting class tickets, etc.

Overhearing two students talking about my drawing in the catalog, a third student asked me, "Is that a picture of you?" Well, no, actually it's not: I am neither bald nor thin. And at this point in my life, not likely to pose nude for a group of thirty or so artists. But thanks for the compliment. I guess.

Altered states

I finished this painting last year. Or so I thought. But something didn't look right and over time I grew to realize that I needed to do something with this painting.

I liked the basic composition, the relationship of the three objects and the definition of the space as being bound by a shadow. It took me a long time to realize that what I didn't like were two things: First the edge of the shadow was too hard and crisp. Second, the overall light was too bluish and I wanted to warm it up. These things sound simple now that I've articulated them but they took me a long time to realize.

But once having realized these things, it took less than an hour to make the changes. Now that I've made the changes I feel like the painting is more interesting and 'painterly.'

BTW, the top image is a bit too contrasty and the bottom image is more faithful to the colors and tonality.

Starting with the highlights

One of the interesting aspects of working on a neutral ground is that, if you choose, you can begin with the highlights. I find this to be a very refreshing way to work. We are so used to putting dark marks on light surfaces that to do the opposite kind of forces me to stay engaged in a way I might not when beginning a painting like this.

This one is large (see comment from my mathematically inclined son on my earlier post) at 36 x 48 inches. And while Chris can tell you why that not only seems much larger than 30 by 40, but in fact IS much larger (by about 44%), for me, it's the practical consideration that in my crowded little studio I can just fit this baby on the easel.

Are you peeking at my underpaints?

There's a conscious effort on my part here to create some interesting colors and optical effects by laying in some complimentary colors as underpainting. You can be the judge as to how successful this is when I'm finished.

I did this kind of underpainting in the composition at top. You can see traces of the orange underpainting peeking out from beneath the pale blue surface on which the two shells sit.

Almost finished

I still need to adjust the highlights in the smaller shells. And that cone shaped whitish shell in the lower center is still too bright but I'm fairly happy with how this has gone. A little more work and it might be signature time.