White

Lately I've been bouncing back and forth between word and abstract paintings with a short sidestep into watercolors when I ran out of fluid acrylic white paint and my supplier was shut down for a couple of days due to incliment weather. C'est la vie. Here are several new abstracts that I finished last week when my white paint ship finally came in.

Peekaboo - Acrylic on Canvas - 31"H × 39"W

Signal - Acrylic on Canvas - 27.5 ×30"W

Catbird Seat - Acrylic on Canvas - 30"H × 40"W

Zuma- Acrylic on Canvas - 34"H × 66"W

Hartford Courant review of Mercy Gallery Show

Charming, Whimsical Paintings Of Hal Mayforth At Loomis Chaffee

Windsor Exhibit Features Works By Vermont Artist-Illustrator

 

By Susan Dunne, The Hartford Courant,

10:48 am EST, March 6, 2014

 

Hartford-area residents may have seen the work of Hal Mayforth before. He's created illustrations for articles in dozens of national magazines and the Courant. His recurring character is a little guy with bulging eyes and a huge nose, wigging out over whatever situation the subject of the article puts him in.

The new exhibit of Mayforth's work at the Mercy Gallery at Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor doesn't feature that little guy, but instead a wider range of Mayforth's loopy sense of humor. The exhibit of watercolors and acrylic paintings is so charming that visitors may find themselves immediately going online to mayforth.com to buy a print, if they can't afford a piece right off the wall.

"I don't draw from life. I draw from my mind," Mayforth, of East Montpelier, Vt., said during a gallery walk-through. "I seldom start drawing with preconceived notions and I never know where it will take me." His primary goal? "I just want to put a smile on someone's face."
So he comes up with paintings titled "Do you really need that cupcake?," "Turn all your crap off once in a while," "Persistence will wear the bastards down," "Don't hold your breath waiting for thunderous applause" and "Floss the ones you want to keep."
Fifteen of those "humorous word paintings" are in the exhibit, along with three of a different style of word paintings.

These paintings feature a random variety of pop-culture references — pumpkinhead, moonbeam, periodic table, some mother's son, presto changeo, turning piont, Willie Nelson — looping around each other in multilayered spirals.

"They're just free-associated, but I'm sure a therapist could make something of it," he said. "I think two years of college majoring in liberal arts helped me. I know a little bit about a lot of things."
Other paintings in the show are grid paintings, with different images placed in neat rows, in a style inspired the pictographs of abstract expressionist Adolph Gottlieb. "I like the combination of vintage-looking cartoon characters and abstract marks," he said.

The silly tone of the exhibit is clear from the start, beginning with what Mayforth calls "The Dreaded Artist's Statement." "To be honest, there is not a lot of philosophical hokum behind these paintings," he writes. "My paintings are conceptually all over the map. The thread that runs through them all is a certain off-kilter sensibility."

HAL MAYFORTH will be at the Eugene Mercy Jr. Gallery in the Richmond Art Center at Loomis Chaffee School, 4 Batchelder Road in Windsor, until Thursday, April 17. Details, including hours: www.loomischaffee. Information about Mayforth: www.mayforth.com.

 

 

Sketchbook Word Drawings - Feb 2014

I've been trying to fit several of these drawings in a week, fitting them in during my morning drawing sessions. If you'll notice, I date each one and on most of them include a brief description of the weather. It's been a brutal month.

Peekaboo

Wonder Wall

The Intruder

Emergency Exit

Oink

Vox

Over, Under, Sideways, Down

See Saw

Neptune

A Show at the Mercy Gallery and an Artist's Residency at The Loomis Chaffee School

On Sunday, February 23, I headed to south with a car full of paintings, to hang a show, open the show and do an artist's residency at The Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, CT.. The gallery director and chairman of the art department, Jennifer McCandless had seen my show at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts last year and invited me to show at the Mercy Gallery on the Loomis Chaffee campus. On Monday we hung the show. I was assisted by Al and Ron, two maintenance staff members and both avid woodworkers. Here's what I learned. Woodworkers make excellent show hangers and laser levels can come in very handy in such situations. In the afternoon I did a watercolor workshop for painting instructor Chet Kempczyski's class. The facilities at Loomis Chaffee are outstanding. I was housed in a beautiful studio suite on the upper levels of the Richmond Art Center.

This was the studio part of my apartment. I managed to do several watercolors here during my stay.

 My idea for this show was to show a number of different aspects of my work and tie them all in with two walls that were papered with sketchbook reprints. I think it was important to show my sketchbook work, as that is the basis of all my work. In the show were humorous paintings, grid paintings, word paintings, recent abstract work and an entire wall of watercolors.

On Tuesday I presented a powerpoint presentation of my work to an auditorium full of kids and spoke about how important sketchbooks have been to my life and gave an overview of my career.

The Ellen Magurn (my lovely wife) Method: One of the many life lessons that was shown to the students of Loomis Chaffee in the course of my presentation.

 Tuesday night was the opening and there was a good turnout. It coincided with a show of student work from the previous semester. I had the opportunity to speak with a number of kids and parents. One of the highlights of the evening was the appearance of Randy Enos and his wife, Leann, whom I had not seen in a number of years. After the show, we headed up to my apartment and shared stories for a couple of hours. It was so cool to see them both.

I'm not normally a fan of odd typefaces, but this one, whatever it is, seemed to sum up the flavor of the show. Good call, Jen.

The south wall.  Reprints of sketchbook pages on the left, with a grouping of 15 humorous acrylics. Photo by Mike Taylor.

The west wall: 3 word paintings, a grouping of sketchbook reprints of word drawings and 3 abstracts. Photo by Mike Taylor.

The north wall: a grouping of 18 small watercolors. Photo by Mike Taylor

The east wall: a grouping of 11 grid paintings. Photo by Mike Taylor

I headed back to Vermont early on Wednesday morning, as they were predicting snow. It never materialized. I was a great adventure and I would like to thank Jennifer for hosting my stay. Our standard poodle, Maude was very happy to see me. She is my beloved studiomate and didn't at all dig being alone for a couple of days. I gave her a couple of biscuits and then it was back to the studio, me to work and Maude to snooze.

Maudie

February Funnies

Another batch of sketchbook cartoons, straight up with a little pshop color added. I send an email blast of stuff like this every month. If you are interested in receiving them, lemme know and I'll add you to my list.

 

New Word Paintings

I have been continuing to draw word drawings in my sketchbook and trying to figure out how to translate the spontaneous feeling of them into finished paintings. Here are two  paintings that I finished in January that work toward that end. In them I've tried different layering techniques and different use of color. A couple of weeks ago a good friend mentioned that these paintings can be summed up in one word: palimpsest. I had never heard the word, but in the ensuing weeks I heard that word at least three more times. Funny how that works.

Zenith X - Acrylic on Canvas - 31"H × 48"W - see more word paintings

The Little Things - Acrylic on Canvas - 30"H × 47"W - see more word paintings

Sketchbook Word Drawings - Jan / 2014

I have a new morning routine in the studio. As soon as my computer business (email, sports scores, silly kitten videos) is completed I turn my computer off. So now my morning meditation  and drawing sessions are not only humless, but more importantly, less interrupted by the beeping of incoming emails. I have learned that I CANNOT disregard unread emails and because of this my creative time was constantly being compromised. So in an effort to have a little more focus in my morning drawing session, the computer stays off. I have continued to work on sketchbook word drawing in the book that I had previously mentioned. Here's what transpired in it during the month of January.

Bitches Brew - January 2, 2014

Azimuth - January 21, 2014

New York, Yew Nork - January 22, 2014

Wee Willie Winkle - January 3, 2014

Lost in Space - January 24, 2014

Mojo - January 25, 2014

Pester - January 28, 2014

Simon Says - January 17, 2013