Studio 267

2010-11-13T13:51:00.000-08:00

I am currently reaching the end of my 3rd semester of graduate school. Here are some paintings that I have done since the end of the summer.

"I Dont Ever Want to be Your Cornerstone"

48"x96"

Acrylic on Wood Panels

2010

"Four is a Crowd"

60"x 60"

Acrylic on Canvas

2010

"Untitled"

15"x 22"

Acrylic on Rives BFK

2010

"Stilts"

15"x 22"

Acrylic on Rives BFK

2010

"Destroying the City"

48" x 48"

Acrylic on Wood Panel

2010

"Flying in the Distance"

48" x 48"

Acrylic on Canvas

2010

New website

2010-09-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

its been awhile since i have posted on here. im trying to get back into the swing of this blog thing. the summer was productive for the most part. i got my website up and im very pleased with it.

http://bobbycolemanart.com/home.html

enjoy.

2010-02-07T22:13:00.004-08:00

this past week i have tried to do start doing small daily paintings. it was something that i did in undergrad while studying under professor steven pearson (http://srpearson.com/home.html). currently these small paintings are ways to work out new ideas and ways to experiment with interesting/new color combinations. i find myself learning alot from these daily paintings. i may do a small painting and really like the color scheme and want to use it in a larger painting. also, i may use a shape or technique in some piece and want to bring it into a different piece. i love the daily paintings and i think it is a tool that every artist should utilize. it helps me get the thought out of my mind that every piece has to be a "finished" piece. i think that any drawing/painting/excercise that u can learn from is a success. anything that you can do to help yourself grow as an artist is valuable. once again these pictures were taken by a small digital camera. so the pictures are not great, but the give you a pretty good idea. i will be scanning them in and getting better images

this piece has actually led to a new idea that i which to pursue. the grid was taken from a graphic novel page. the colors were chosen by reacting to the sage green that i first put down. my plan is to continue the painting and when elements go into different grids they will change colors in accordance to whatever color scheme i chose. im really excited for this piece and i think it could lead to alot of interesting paintings.

2010-02-07T13:09:00.000-08:00

This semester i have continued to work on my abstractions and i am thinking alot more about what i am trying to convey with my pieces. I have posted many pieces below, some of which are finished and others which are not. the more i am painting the more i am beginning to discover what i am trying to do. i am very interested with colors and i love having colors interact in uncommon ways. i also have been trying to create these visual "landscapes" for my emotions. i want to play with the push and pull of layers and colors to help enhance these landscapes. i also use alot of shapes/signifiers that can be linked to graffiti. the pictures that i have are not the best pictures because i took them in my studio. i will post better pictures later when i consider the pieces finished. even though the photos may not be of great quality you can still get an idea of what it looks like

90% done

done

im not sure if this one is finished. i like how it looks, but the more i look at it, the more i want to add

roughly 70-80% done

maybe half way finished

95-100% finished

probably 75% done

90% finished

small daily painting

2010-02-06T20:23:00.000-08:00

SNOW DAY!

we got about 27 inches of snow today. unfortunately i did not get any painting done, but i did get alot of shoveling done. and i also lost gloriously in monopoly and cooked alot of sausage and hashbrowns. all in all it was a good day.

the sidewalk in front of my house

our yard/driveway/buried cars

cars in the driveway

me attempting to dig my mom's van out

my snow gear

digging a path to walk next to our cars and get to the street

2010-02-06T19:01:00.000-08:00

In my first semester of grad school I began to think alot more about what i wanted to convey with my art, and alot more about what i was interested in with the art i was creating. during the first half of the semester i was continuing to do the creature paintings that i had originally applied with. while i would do these paintings i would work on small abstract explorations just to experiment with color and to keep myself constantly working. eventually i found myself focusing more on the abstractions than the creature paintings. the abstractions allowed me to focus on color interactions and spacial relations without having to worry about how a creature would fit into the painting. the second half of the semester and up until the present time, i have been focusing solely on these abstract paintings. the first four pieces were explorations i worked on during the creature paintings. the rest of the pieces were ones that i consider successful pieces and were ones that have led me to my recent concept and body of work

2010-02-04T10:43:00.000-08:00

so i havent post anything in a long time. i feel really bad about it. i lost my camera usb cord, so i couldnt up load any pictures. however, i did find my cord and we are suppose to get 2 feet of snow this weekend, so i plan on doing a bunch of updating. i think i will start where i left off. my last post was right before i had my final critiques at AU. For our final crits we basically had to set up our work and then present the work in front of a panel of about 10 teachers/faculty members. the critiques lasted about 30 minutes for each person and the weeks leading up to the critiques were very stressful for much of the program. everyone was trying to get as much stuff done and working up until the last minute. i took a few pictures of what i had set up. unfortunately i couldnt take pictures during the crit, the faculty may have thought that was weird.

it was pretty hard to get a really good picture of the whole set up, and since it was in the corner it made it even harder to capture all of it. i had about some pieces to show for final crit and i was pretty pleased with what i put up. the semester was a real transition period for me. i came into american doing these creature paintings that eventually evolved into these abstract paintings. the more i painted the creatures the more i began to realized that i was more interested in the color and spatial interactions more then the actual creature in the piece. learning this i began to create paintings that were more focused on this interest and completely void of the creature. my next couple post will be all about my new body of work and what im interested in. sorry for not posting in so long. many more posts will come shortly. i promise

Towson University Student Art Show

2009-11-20T20:02:00.001-08:00

Last night I attended the Towson University Student Art Show at the Center for the Arts located on campus. The exhibition had roughly 35-40 different pieces that represented all different forms of media. I am always interested to see how student shows are set up because they encompass such a wide variety of artists, media and subject. The one at Towson was set up well and allowed for good flow. Like all student shows there are obvious pieces that are stronger than others, but for the most part the Towson art students were represented well. Below I took some pictures to let you guys see what I thought were some of the stand out pieces.

the dimensions of the pieces were not listed, so the one's I am giving are just my estimates.

Sarah Kirby

"Oreo"

Oreo Cookies

Katherine Nonemaker

"Letters of Leaving"

48" x 48"

Mixed Media

detail of "Letters of Leaving"

Susannah Fitz

"Made in Korea" locket series

Bronze

Cynthia Protman

"Alone"

20" x 30"

Collagraph Print

Robert Plater

"Sick Story"

24" x 36"

Acrylic on Canvas

Sashiko Yuen

Embrace

18" x 24"

Oil and graphite on wood

There is a brief look, but my pictures do not give these pieces or the show enough credit. I recommend going out and seeing it for yourself. The gallery is located on the third floor of Center for the Arts building and is open tues-sat 11am to 4pm. Also, if you make it into the art building there is a good exhibition in the MFA gallery on the 2nd floor feature work by Matt Voelker. Photos from his show will be up shortly.

-Bobby Coleman

Grad school art

2009-11-19T12:43:00.000-08:00

"They Learn"

24" x 48"

Spray Paint, Acrylic and Charcoal on Wood

2009

"There is something to believe in"

6" x 6"

Acrylic, Watercolor and Ink on Rives BFK

"He let it out only to be denied"

6" x 6"

Acrylic and Ink on Rives BFK

"Soon he felt the grass grow over his feet"

6" x 6"

Acrylic, Watercolor and Ink on Rives BFK

"Brain Neuron"

6"x 6"

Acrylic, Watercolor, Graphite, Ink, and Vellum on Rives BFK

"Don't look him directly in the eyes"

6"x 6"

Acrylic, Watercolor and Ink on Rives BFK

I thought that the next appropriate post would be to show some of the work that I have been doing in grad school. Here are a few images and I will be making more posts to show different bodies of work that I am working on. I went into grad school doing alot of creature drawings and paintings and I wanted to find a way to further the concept of them. I started to separate canvas and bring in this grid structure to my pieces. The grids allowed me break up the piece more and bring in certain imagery that made it easier to get my meaning across. I draw these creatures as a way to cope with whatever is going on around me. Certain events and emotions will inspire different pieces. Also, what I see around me, or the interactions that I with people everyday play a huge part in these creature pieces. They have become a huge emotional outlet for me and allow me to get all my thoughts out in a visual way.

I hope you enjoy and more posts of other work will be posted soon

-Bobby Coleman

my studio

2009-11-19T11:07:00.000-08:00

So this is my first post, and I wasn't really sure how to start everything off. I figured i would post some pictures of my studio and then show some work that i have been doing. To give you a little background on me, my name is Bobby Coleman and I am currently an MFA student in painting/studio art at American University in Washington, D.C. I am just about to finish up my first semester of my first year. I received my BFA in studio art from McDaniel College in Westminster, MD where i studied under Steven Pearson.

I have created this blog as a way to post recent work and ideas. I also hope to share with people the things and artists that I draw inspiration from. Also, in time I will be trying to review any shows and gallery openings that are in the DC or Baltimore area. I will try to post everyday and also use this blog as a way to recount what I am going through in grad school. I should've started this blog when I first got to American, but I was alittle overwhelmed at first and I am just now beginning to feel settled down and ready to take on the task of making this blog.

I really appreciate anyone that will take the time to look at this and i hope that they may gain something from it. Also, here are a couple shots of my studio at American

here's a shot of my desk/work area/inspiration wall

this is a view from my doorway