TJ MAHER Paintings

HA

2013-09-05T20:09:00.003-05:00

$50 [+shipping] : Ink on paper : 8 x 11.5 inches :

One of the choices made when creating Enso that is crucial to its final form is the brush. There are brushes specifically for ink and calligraphy and then there are other kinds of brushes. I like to experiment with other kinds of brushes but most of all I like to use old used calligraphy brushes. I find its very nice to know that by not cleaning a brush it actually becomes more useful. This is something that doesn't usually apply to everyday activities, when you don't clean something it usually becomes less useful. Its even a nice change from oil painting where the brushes become completely unusable if they are not cleaned soon after painting.

With this particular painting it is a little more clear how an old worn brush can be more interesting. When a brush gets old, worn or dirty the bristols and hairs begin to have a life of their own. They stop conforming to the overall shape of the brush and sometimes split the brush into several shapes. These stray hairs pick up the ink like all the others but when it hits paper they go off on their own journey. Sometimes they appear at the beginning of the stroke and other times they appear in the middle or end when the brush gets drier after dropping off most of the ink. The best part is you don't know exactly what those stray hairs or clumps of hairs are going to do, its a microcosm of life; you just have to try and accept what occurs.

Be well

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Play

2013-09-02T10:04:00.000-05:00

$50 [+shipping] : Ink on paper : 8 x 11.5 inches :

When making Enso over time one learns to accept what happens in the process of making a simple circle. The technique of an Enso is not necessarily in its execution but in its observation, the skill resides in the viewer. If the viewer is the artist trying to come to grips with the imperfections of their efforts then they must learn to let go and accept things as they are. If the viewer is a casual observer trying to find meaning in something then they must learn to look carefully and not assume that deliberate information is the only information where meaning resides

One way to approach an Enso, an artwork or life in general is through the doorway of play. This door is always open and is the most unassuming and meaningful entry into the mysterious or unknown. Humans and animals naturally play as children because it is the best way to learn (selected by eons of natural selection). Play keeps the mind at ease so that it doesn't interfere with an animal learning something it may otherwise be averse to trying if its mind interfered. Play embraces creativity, curiosity and adventure. Most importantly play enlists the imagination and quickly develops into positive commitment towards an activity. All of this leads to the most efficient knowledge acquisition mechanism we can initiate and yet somehow we forget to use it and need a good reminder.

Be well

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Sit Eat Sleep

2013-08-28T03:00:00.000-05:00

$50 [+shipping] : Ink on paper : 8 x 11.5 inches :

There are so many ways to contemplate life and so many things in life to contemplate. Selecting a single thing to center on and be with for an extended amount of time leads to very deep insights. These insights of course pertain to that central spot but also lead to many other discoveries about yourself and your perception of your life.

Enso come from Zen Buddhism and so have a curious paradoxical character to them. I like to think of them as visual Koans that are intended to confuse the logical mind and put it in a state of relaxed awareness. This Enso echoes words that point to our days on Earth. Discover what these words mean for you and the paradoxes within that meaning.

Be well

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Dalmata

2013-08-27T20:24:00.000-05:00

$50 [+shipping] : Ink on paper : 8 x 11.5 inches :

This Enso actually began as an experiment that was just about ink drops and had no Enso at all. I finished the drips on the paper and didn't quite know how to finish it but it needed something else. It sat in my studio for over a month until the day I set up an Enso session. It suddenly dawned on me as I was collecting the materials that these ink drop paintings would be perfect for Enso so they were included in the batch.

All of the paintings from this Enso session are stamped with the SkyTree stamp that I made to sign and complete them. The stamp is a crucial part of the Enso process and I use it not only to designate each session with its own stamp but to balance the final composition. Each Enso has the stamp placed in a spot unique to the needs of that particular piece.

Be well

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Mole

2013-08-21T17:18:00.000-05:00

$50 [+shipping] : Ink on paper : 8 x 11.5 inches :

In the previous Enso I talked about the importance of noticing the subtleties of the ink and the brush. This holds the key to entering into the entire Enso; it is the subtle differences from one Enso to any other that really provide a universe of information to sit with while viewing them. As Enso are meditations for the creator and the viewer it is important to spend time considering very nuanced aspects of what is on the paper. What has been deposited? What aspects of the materials have been left behind and how do the differences in material choices impact the resulting Enso? What aspects of the artist have been recorded in the application of the materials?

Those are some of the basic questions that can be contemplated while viewing an Enso. For this particular Enso some other potential questions can be as follows. What is the significance of the word "mole"? To which meaning of the word does it refer? How did the artist want the word to relate to the Enso?

I would be delighted to hear any thoughts, conclusions or answers in the comments section.

Be well

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You You

2013-08-21T16:54:00.002-05:00

$50 [+shipping] : Ink on paper : 8 x 11.5 inches :

The extreme simplicity of an Enso is at once its profound strength and its greatest deterrent to being accepted by viewers. A painting is often given value based on the time spent creating it or the difficulty in producing it. With an Enso however a whole other set of criteria must be understood in order to enjoy it.

Enso come from Japan and are a motif of Japanese Zen Calligraphy. If you are familiar with Zen Buddhism you may already be appreciative of Enso, if not I will offer a few things to consider.

For one with a painting this simple it is helpful to notice the mark that the brush has made and how each edge of the brush and even individual hairs took part in defining the Enso. Second is the ink itself and how its qualities took part in marking the paper such as drips as the brush was lifted over the paper or how the texture of the ink changed as the brush became dryer near the end of the circle.

This particular Enso is tagged with the words "you you". Its an isolated portion that I heard recently in the phrase "What makes you you?" The isolation of the words makes them feel abstract yet provocative and open to meditate on. The words also give a point from which to relate to the Enso.

I will be posting Enso for a few weeks so be sure to check back for more insights into appreciating them.

Be well

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Pineapple Top

2013-08-14T03:00:00.000-05:00

$125 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 10 inches :

Its important for artist to experiment with technique but its also important and often overlooked for us to experiment with subject matter as well. Lately I have found that I really connect with subject matter that relates to the spirit even if its a bit cliche I feel as though it has become cliche for a good reason, it works. I have been gravitating ever more slowly towards painting only things that connect with me in this way. However I discovered this connection by experimenting with subjects so its important that I continue this practice even though I finally feel comfortable with a specific batch of subjects.

This painting seems straight-forward but for me I had to push myself to stick with such a traditional still-life of fruits and plants. I don't think I will make a regular habit of painting C'ezanne'like still lives, although I am fascinated with C'ezanne so who knows. I did learn some interesting things from this painting though, for one that building up the painting in blocks is like feeling your way around in the dark but it can still lead to really satisfying results.

Be well

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Gourdita with Sprout 2

2013-08-12T17:46:00.000-05:00

$100 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 8 inches :

I had e most fun with the background on this painting and thats saying a lot because I really loved painting the gourd too. The background however was kind of an eye opener. It really helped me to actually get a grip on paint handling which I was having trouble with lately especially with the landscapes I have been doing. Since the background for this was all blue fabric it lended itself to experimenting in order to unflatten that space and make it more interesting.

Basically I started scrubbing the brush across the panel in very odd directions. I was holding the brush almost directly parallel and against the panel because the angle was so extreme. It really loosened me up and was quite fun compared to the controlled approach I was using prior with the brush about perpendicular to the panel. Ive learned quite a bit more since applying this approach to recent tree paintings but Ill comment on that when I post those. One thing always leads to another and this painting led to some groovy stuff.

Be well

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Offerings

2013-08-07T10:33:00.000-05:00

$100 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 8 inches :

This was another painting started from life and finished from a photograph. I generally prefer to work from life but Im experimenting since the main objective is to make a quality painting so I don't want to limit my options to do that. At the same time though I find the limitation of only working from life can also be a good thing for a work. So its a toss up and I haven't found a perfect solution yet (I guess when I do I should move on to other pursuits).

I discovered with finishing this painting that I could pull out colors and shifts in the photo to satisfy the things that nature usually provides more readily when painting from life. For instance I found a really fun shift in the highlight on the lower right portion of the blue fabric that was some strange light tonal change in the shadow area. This actually was one of the final touches to the painting since adding this shift completed it in my eyes.

Be well

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Gourdita with Sprout

2013-08-05T11:10:00.001-05:00

$100 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 8 inches :

This little painting is one of my recent favorites and I have been dying to share it. It is of a dried and hollowed gourd which I filled with dirt and planted a little plant in. Its been such a joyful little thing to have around the studio. It reminds me of how nature can take root anywhere like when you see plants growing between sidewalk cracks.

As for the painting itself it was one that was part of the Shrine series but I had given up on it after we moved the shrine to another room. It was mostly finished but clearly lacked something and was staring at me in the studio for a few weeks, even being lined up to be painted over at one point. It survived though and it dawned on me that maybe I should give a go at finishing it from a photo (something I try to avoid if possible). So I dug through my photo files and found one where I could see the setup from a distance. I zoomed the photo and found that the graininess of the zoomed image actually helped me to paint it as it was less specific and static then if I had a nice sharp image to work from (meaning I was forced to focus on the feel of the object rather than the details). The painting turned out to be on par with my love for the little gourd plant itself and I love looking at it in the studio.

Be well

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Perfect Arches

2013-07-31T10:03:00.002-05:00

$125 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 10 inches :

Im becoming more amazed with each painting at how much composition can rock your socks off. I recently wrote about composition at my art essay blog Rag & Koan (The Subconscious Neglect of Composition) and I feel this painting is a good expression of what the essay is about.

When I chose to paint this scene I wasn't sure what drew me to it although I obviously liked the trees. I scouted and sketched the area earlier in the week but when I came to paint it was the middle of the day and there was very flat light. This means there was not a lot of pop to the values or color intensity. The drawing and/or composition was going to have to carry the painting. It is a very small panel so there is only so much drawing can do but as I worked I began to feel really strongly about the composition.

The painting has sat in my studio for a few weeks now and I have come back to it with fresh eyes and have been discovering fun little unplanned things like how the arches echo the twin trees. In fact I wasn't sure how this painting stacked up to my other current works which are more colorful and contrasty but the flat color and narrow value scale really turned out to be an asset to this piece as the composition really shines in their absence.

Be well

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Citronella

2013-07-29T03:00:00.000-05:00

SOLD : Oil on panel : 8 x 8 inches :

One thing that keeps painting interesting is that there are numerous ways to begin a painting. There are classical techniques of layering paint, there are pure alla-prima methods and among all of those there are ways which involve sketching in a line drawing first or simply going at it randomly or blocking in abstract sections first.

With this painting I wanted to explore the different greens in the bottle and in the leaves. Above that though I wanted to focus on how I start the painting and progress to its completion. I experimented with merging drawing in the composition with just blocking in color shapes abstractly.

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Shrine Painting 4

2013-07-24T03:00:00.000-05:00

$100 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 8 inches :

Sometimes paintings fit together like a puzzle and other times they fit together like a soup. When they are like a soup everything gets worked on simultaneously and any change to one part requires changes to the whole and all of the other parts in equal measure. When it is like a puzzle each piece or section has its own rules and eventually solving the problems of each section brings resolution to the whole.

In the case of this painting I realized towards the end that it was a puzzle painting. Some of the sections were complete on the first sitting but others required a few more layers to satisfy their needs. Its the first time I realized so clearly this process occurring and was really quite surprised that some sections matured instantly while others weren't on par with the first sections until they got much more attention. It was an interesting way to work and one that I will consider more deliberately in future paintings.

Shrine Painting 3

2013-07-22T03:00:00.000-05:00

$100 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 8 inches :

I have been looking a lot lately at Monet's Rouen Cathedral series of paintings. These paintings are really groundbreaking for their attempt to capture a fleeting aspect of our experience. They are in a way the first conceptual works of art because when viewed together they create a sense that Monet was actually able to depict time as time actually exists to us. Think about that for a while as it is much more profound an accomplishment than it may at first sound.

What I am learning with my series paintings is that it is not just shifting light that is conveyed in a series of paintings of the same subject but the shifting mood of the artist as well. In this painting for example it seems at first that compared to the others a shift in light has occurred, perhaps from being painted at a different time of day. In fact though this painting was done in the same lighting conditions as the others and has instead captured a shift in my perceptual mood when I was more sensitive or drawn to expressing a higher key painting with warmer tones.

If you would like to read more on Monet's Cathedral series there is an excellent article here at The Art Wolf.

Shrine Painting 2

2013-07-17T03:00:00.000-05:00

$100 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 8 inches :

The great thing about painting a shrine is that shrines have a lot of meaning to those who set them up and so there is usually a tremendous amount of care given to the selection of materials and objects. In the case of this shrine the background fabric was exquisite and created a very wonderful contrast to the small statue in terms of color and decorative elements.

I decided in this painting to zoom in on the Buddha which had some interesting effects. Since the statue was so small zooming in really effected the handling of the background details. What happens with the brush marks when painting on a small panel is similar to what happens with a photograph when the background blurs due to depth of field settings. Little spots of reflected light become little blobs or bubbles of color. I enjoyed trying to capture the decorative elements on the background fabric which had little sparkly "mirrors" sewn onto it as well as elaborate embroidered patterns and color shifts. I could have used a smaller brush but I feel the brush can only be scaled so much with the size of the painting surface before it is categorized as a miniature and conveys a completely different feeling (I will be posting a full essay on this idea during the next few weeks on my writing blog Rag & Koan).

Shrine Painting 1

2013-07-15T09:26:00.000-05:00

$100 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 8 inches :

Artists are drawn to subject matter according to who they are as a person and nothing reveals their depths of an artist like what recurs as their art subjects. For some time I have been interested in art's ability to convey the spiritual experience of our species. However while I tend to look for this spiritual aspect in other's work I have struggled with how best to convey this in my own art. This has been especially tricky for me with my oil paintings which I feel by themselves don't necessarily convey what I feel but more what I see.

In this short series of shrine paintings I discovered the simple solution was painting the objects which hold a significance that I am trying to explore in paint (seems ridiculously obvious now that I am writing about it). This particular painting focused on the full scene of the small shrine I had in my studio. There are so many elements to constructing a shrine for me which are all very intuitive yet also very deliberate like composing a still life. This painting captures some of that holistic staging of a mini environment.

Einstein

2013-07-10T03:00:00.000-05:00

$100 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 8 inches :

Little bit at a time I'm getting adjusted to working outdoors. The 2 things I have discovered I need to adjust are my preparation and my state of mind. I have figured out a pretty good packing system for my paint supplies but I need to work in rain gear somehow. As for the state of mind I have ot just accept what nature throws at me.

If you haven't guessed I was caught in the rain while painting this one. A giant Einstein head in the park in Mexico, I had to try painting it. I had done a sketch the day before and that really helped me to finish just before the heavy rain hit. I enjoyed how calm I was, being focused on a painting really realigns priorities.

View Azul Series : Ridge

2013-07-08T03:00:00.000-05:00

$125 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 10 inches :

Early on in a painting small decisions are made which effect the final piece, mostly compositional. This painting's experimentation happened early on as I decided to see what it would turn out like without a horizon or ocean in the scene.

Not having those other elements to think about freed me up much more to consider how I was handling the clouds. It also made me realize how much the other paintings success or failure hinged on the horizon and reflections in the water. With this painting its success rested solely with how well the clouds carried the piece and so their handling had a bit more panache.

View Azul Series : Sprite

2013-07-03T03:00:00.000-05:00

$125 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 10 inches :

Also while working in series the tendency to keep from getting bored with the repetition leads to experiments. Sometimes the experimentation is extreme and will often lead to big new ideas or enormous yet necessary failures. Other times the experimentation is more subtle and tends to be for the amusement of the artist only. This is the case with this painting where I pushed the color a bit and tried a few playful things with the brushwork. I let myself loosen from the attempt to get a precise likeness and instead just tried to see what happens.

View Azul Series : Grid

2013-07-01T03:00:00.000-05:00

$125 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 10 inches :

Horizons are one of the most fun parts of a scene to play around with in an abstract way. It is such a distinct separation of the surface of a painting which allows for a shift in the composition. Yet it reinforces the pictorial space and so you get the best of both worlds.

With this series the left side of the horizon tends to fade and gets a soft edge and it was always my favorite part to take artistic license with. With this painting I let it stay a bit harder and got it as straight as possible which gave it a very stable structure and I've enjoyed looking at its grid-like qualities.

View Azul Series : Singularity

2013-06-26T03:00:00.000-05:00

$125 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 10 inches :

One of the fun things about painting in quick sessions and trying to complete a painting in only a few sittings is that different kinds of energy get into different sections or layers of the painting. This all comes from the mood and mind-set of the painter during each session or even their shifting energy during a single session.

While painting it's not just what I see that I'm translating and converting into paint, it's also my Chi. In this painting its more clear the varying expressions that can come from this as each half of the piece has its own characteristics.

View Azul Series : Descent

2013-06-24T03:00:00.000-05:00

$125 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 10 inches :

Sky and water are probably two of the most interesting elements to paint together. There are so many ways to understand the relationships between the two that trying to express it in paint becomes far more than just depicting line and color. This is why so many of the most sublime paintings in history are either of water and sky or of such a relationship.

When it's done well this relationship stirs in us a very primal feeling of stillness and a sense of awe from being reminded of our bodily scale. In this painting it is the relationships that take center stage.

View Azul Series : Emergence

2013-06-19T03:00:00.000-05:00

$125 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 10 inches :

Seeing different objects or things in the shapes of clouds is a beautiful pastime especially laying on a field of grass or a beach. As I said in a previous post, cloud painting lends itself to abstraction but cloud viewing also lends itself to the mentality of viewing abstract paintings.

One way that people react to abstract paintings is to look for something familiar. The beautiful charm of a cloud painting is that you get the best of both worlds; the left-brainers get a painting of something and the right-brainers get something that can be anything they wish it to be. I've had a lot of fun interpreting the cloud form in the upper left of this painting.

View Azul Series : Portal

2013-06-17T03:00:00.000-05:00

$125 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 10 inches :

The thing about working in a series is that what you learn from one painting will quickly apply to the others. This can go on for as long as you work on the series like an infinite spiral of improving the group. Each step-up that one painting teaches allows for experiments to advance the others in a continuous loop, its a microcosm of the theory of evolution.

I find it works best when there are about 3 sessions for each painting so that they aren't "finished" before the learning loop can play out a few times. This painting provided some great insights for how to handle the water in the series.

View Azul Series : Drift

2013-06-12T03:00:00.000-05:00

$125 [+shipping] : Oil on panel : 8 x 10 inches :

There is something about painting clouds that invites abstraction. Even when painting from a photograph the forms require more attention to the feeling of the whole.

This actually makes it a great exercise for balancing a painting since the focus must remain peripheral rather than aiming for academic accuracy. The question for the painter of clouds is not "does this look like a cloud" but rather "does this feel like a cloud?" So something else this series taught me is that from every painting of a cloud a unique feeling emerges, even when its painted from the same cloud.