Category Archives: Grid Work Paintings

Grid Work: Spurgeon Tower, Rooftops

Spurgeon Tower Rooftops • Joe Forkan 2013 Oil on Linen 48" x 28"

Spurgeon Tower Rooftops • Joe Forkan 2013 Oil on Linen 48″ x 28″

Another addition to the Grid Work series. I’m still building these using completed observational paintings as a starting point. This one is another studio view (see below). Eliminating expressive drawing as a component of the paintings has really ratcheted up my attention to subtle color relationships. Trying to build complexity with intentionally simple marks has really clarified to me how much size of mark and relationships of color build our sense of space and form.

Old & New-Rooftops, Bush Street • Joe Forkan 2011 Oil on Panel 17.5" x 11"

Old & New-Rooftops, Bush Street • Joe Forkan 2011 Oil on Panel 17.5″ x 11″

The image below is an early stage of the final painting, starting with solid masses over colored grids.

Rooftops, Spurgeon Tower (process) 2012 Oil on Linen 28” x 48” 900

Rooftops, Spurgeon Tower (process) 2012 Oil on Linen 28” x 48”

Grid Work: Spurgeon Tower 4:00 PM

Bush Street 01B(900)

Spurgeon Tower • Joe Forkan 2013 Oil on Canvas 48″ x 66″

Here’s a new painting from the grid work series I’ve been working on. This was the first one I started a couple of months ago, trying to move space a bit differently. It’s got me pushing a lot more paint around as well. This is based on a painting of the view from my studio in Santa Ana that I completed in 2010 (see below).

Bush Street 01_detail(900)

Spurgeon Tower (detail) • Joe Forkan 2013 Oil on Canvas 48″ x 66″

 

Spurgeon Tower 4pm 2010(600)

Spurgeon Tower 4:00 pm • Joe Forkan 2010 Oil on Canvas 34.5″ x 48″

New Painting included in Upcoming Auction at the Laguna Art Museum

Little Corona • Joe Forkan 2012 Oil on Linen 40" x 40"

Little Corona • Joe Forkan 2012 Oil on Linen 40″ x 40″

I’ve donated a recent painting to the upcoming Annual Art Auction at the Laguna Art Museum.

The work in the auction will be on view during Preview Week at the Museum Feb. 4-9, with the auction and after party happening on

February 9th.

This stylish event will showcase works of art from over 100 premier California artists such as Charles Arnoldi, Tony DeLap, Laddie John Dill, Manny Farber, Joe Goode, Helen Lundeberg, Kim McConnel, and more (click here for a full list of artists), which will be sold during an exciting silent auction as well as a fast-paced live auction led by Christie’s International Auctioneer Andrea Fiuczynski. Attendees will have the opportunity to support the museum’s extraordinary education and exhibition programs by adding works by prestigious California artists to their collections.” 

New Painting Series

Little Corona • Joe Forkan 2012 Oil on Linen 40" x 40"

Little Corona • Joe Forkan 2012 Oil on Linen 40″ x 40″

I’ve been working on some new paintings that deviate a bit from the work I’ve been doing in the last few years. They actually include some formal interests that I have been exploring in other work, but in these I am pushing a bit harder, and challenging myself to find different ways of building form and space, removing some traditional approaches to drawing and value as the framework for the image and letting the paintings hinge more on the color relationships.

I have many of these paintings underway. They are all based on paintings done from observation which therefore already include decisions about composition and color choices, so they really feel like reinvestigations of ideas that I am already exploring in the on-site work.

I’m interested in trying to create a bit more for the viewer to navigate in the apprehension of an object/image, or a painting/picture relationship.

One of the difficulties of posting these on the internet is that much of what is happening in the color relationships and interactions in these paintings doesn’t really translate to the computer screen, but I guess that is really one of the great things about paintings.

I’ll be posting more soon.

Little Corona (site painting) • Joe Forkan 2012 Oil on Panel 12" x 12"

Little Corona (site painting) • Joe Forkan 2012 Oil on Panel 12″ x 12″

Little Corona (detail) • Joe Forkan 2012 Oil on Linen 40" x 40"

Little Corona (detail) • Joe Forkan 2012 Oil on Linen 40″ x 40″