November studio

The studio in early November, 2014.

Lucy (and paintings)    2014

Brothers   2014

M1 and BALL M2   2014

Studio S & W    2014

Daffodils Checkered (past)

Daffodils - Checkered Tablecloth (first stage)

I have been painting this for almost two months- knocking everything out, re-painting.

We'll see what happens... I am more and more intrigued by dense closeness rather than large planes of flattened color.

Daffodils - Checkered Tablecloth (second stage)

Daffodils - Checkered Tablecloth (third stage)

Bump It Girl #7 (just do it)

Since the first week of the new year I have had an on again/off again relationship with this painting Trying to resolve and ignore problematic areas has kept me from working on other paintings, but it seems to finally be coming together.  Now Bump It Girl #7 (just do it) 42" x 42" oil on canvas is a little closer to what I had envisioned all along. Before the last two sessions, the piece had undergone a number of transitions and revisions (see below).

Bump It Girl #7 (just do it) 42" x 42" oil on canvas  - Here is the painting after the first day.

Afterward, the figure went through a series of transitions.  From this thinner figure...to

This fuller figure which began to form the structure for the next state. When I decided to paint out almost everything and start over. 

So I wiped almost everything out and started again.

"a Quarter Plus"

Here is the link to my upcoming one-person show at YorkArts (running from June 6 through August 3, 2013)

FRED HAAG “a Quarter Plus”
The work ranges from a figure painting from 1987 (Black Dress)

to a newer figure painting from spring 2013, to a figure painting from this past April (Garland, Jess II).

Black Dress 1987

Garland, Jess II 2013

The exhibit will also include oil paintings of my studio from the early 1990's to a few years ago and a number of "text" pieces

I and Thou (you bastard)

Religious Girl

Garland, Jess II

Garland, Jess II  48" x 36" oil on canvas painting.

I am trying to complete this before my one-person show at YorkArts which opens on June 6 (D-Day).  

The pieces in this show will cover a span of over twenty-five years and encompass my major subject areas:  the figure, the studio-interior, chairs, and the still-life. Since my sensibility is autobiographical, these pieces tend reflect my surroundings and experiences. I usually work from direct observation, but I also use memories and conversation as departure points for both paintings and drawings. I have noticed that, over time, this body of work often references itself through specific aspects of subject, color, composition, and even particularities such as patterns and brushwork. I like duality in both form and content: ambiguity and clarity; color and draftsmanship; manufactured and natural. I am currently working on a series of figure paintings and interiors.

It is progressing very slow and steady.

Painting likes to move around.

This started as a still-life for an upcoming show.  After seven hours or so it was starting to shape up.

but something wasn't right and I covered it with black paint and decided I would work on it today (Thursday).  Little did I know that a sick cat would take me to the vet, home, and that I would be digging a very good-size hole - I like to dig.

Jess and still-life, oil on canvas  40" x 48"

Anyway, by the time that my model got to the studio, I pushed the table to the right and made it a lot smaller, and added the figure on the left (rather than a chair).  It is a long way from looking the way I imagine it, but it is something to work with.

Jess and still-life, oil on canvas  40" x 48" (after some re-working the angle of the head)

After a bit more work this week.

Winter 2012 - 13

Tin Cup and Funnel, oil on canvas (11" x 14")

I remembered how the texture of paint and the smell of linseed oil and turpentine evokes memories of doing and making.  All sorts of nostalgia came flooding back as I started to work on the little painting behind the cup - it was a present to my Grandmother that I painted for her birthday over thirty years ago.

Winter Skulls and Pumpkins, oil on canvas (18" x 24")

 

 Trying to articulate the space gets complicated - finding that marriage of paint and object, color and space, line and shape.

Punk'n Bunny, oil on canvas (18" x 24")  I would never have thought that this stuffed rabbit would provide so much painting material.  I have a lot of other plans but making time to paint between semesters ending and beginning is a challenge.

Silly rabbit (-s)...

 Process?

Trying to paint in a thunderstorm

A small oil study on canvas...I barely got a chance to get started on this before the rain came today.  I think that you can see the raindrops on the canvas.

I started working on this almost a month ago, but events conspired against my getting back to it until today, and then the rain came!

 Anyway, there is a lot more work to be done on this once the weather breaks.

Spring Table

Spring Table,  oil on canvas 36" x 40" 

I have been working on this painting on and off for over a month.  It is finally getting somewhere (exactly where I can't tell).

In many ways this resembles some paintings from years ago - like interiors from the early 90's.

Girl on Couch or "Red Hots and Valentines"

It took me twenty-seven years to get back to this idea.  On Friday I stumbled upon the sketchbooks that I was working from in July and August of 1985.  Here are two small sketches from the painting(-s) I finished in early August and September '85.  I never got around to painting the one below until this weekend.  Go figure.
The finished painting is from the left-hand sketch is owned by Jim and Ellen O'Hara.

Study for Lisa's Space, summer 1985

Study for Lisa's Sox,  fall 1985

flipped sketch

Girl on Couch  24" x 30" (in progress) oil on canvas
This is a straight-up figure painting (no bau irony) based on some old drawings from 1985 (some of you from long, long ago might recognize the model)- but the socks were borrowed from a newer set of paintings and a different model.

I managed to mangle the working drawing but here is a similar one from the same sitting.

New Black Dress and re-worked Dolphins

So, it has been some time coming, but this Black Dress (w/ Morandi Bottles) painting has finally come together.

 

 

 

 

Black Dress (w/ Morandi Bottles) oil on canvas, (2012

)

                                          ...and this one has finally "gelled"

Woman in Hat w/ Dolphins oil on canvas (2008-2012)

Time for some work

This reminds me why I don't use color pencils.  New Jess from Old Jess, 22" x 30" color pencil and watercolor wash.

Get more paint on this and do something with these dolphins.

Bunn-evolution

From the start two years ago until now...(I am allergic to stuffed animals)

Lost Bunnies

This first set of bunnies (actually two separate canvases) began as a lark.  I was goofing around trying to justify taking this beat up old stuffed animal from my nephew.  I figured the only way I could really justify behavior like that would be to paint of draw this old rabbit.  The paintings were just quirky enough that I had to do more with the subject.  So, as "bunny" was sitting in the studio,on a chair with some cloth hanging over it...

Cloth Bunny

I started cloth bunny right before the Bau Movement group show and I was tired of playing with text and stencils and I was feeling the need to paint again.  But then I had three bunny paintings.

Beach Bunny

This is a 30" x 44" charcoal and inkwash drawing loosely based  on some family members at the Jersey shore. The Jersey shore just happens to be the place where Smitty was a life guard.

Bunny und Wehrmacht- This needs no explanation.

Study for PzKpfb II (Panzerkampfbunny)

No explanations for the next pieces either.  Yes, the model "Tiger" tank and P38 are just laying around in my studio.

PzKpfb II (Panzerkampfbunny)

M4 Bunny (gotta get one for the kids)

Bunny Gun (2011)