Matthew Warren Lee

NEW BLOG

2011-02-05T23:22:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone,

I've started a new blog and all posts will be there instead of here:

www.mwarrenlee.blogspot.com

This blog is connected to my UWM email account which was shut down years ago. And on the new blog you will be able to comment again. The first post is up, check it out.

-warren

Graduate Portfolo 2

2010-12-14T00:56:00.000-08:00

20 images
watercolor, pencil, ink

Graduate Application Portfolio

2010-12-10T01:50:00.000-08:00

Hey Denis,

I took your notes into consideration when putting this together. It is chronological, more or less, and so follows that natural progression of skill and development. The image above this paragraph is the earliest, so read the images from top to bottom. The works start in 2007 and go right up to a painting I finished just a few hours ago. While I work on a lot of other types of work (design, illustration, architecture) I just included figurative stuff to keep it focused and coherent. It seems like most places take between 15-20 images, so here are 15 to leave a little room for additions. Everything is scanned so the quality varies. I don't know how much it matters. Let me know what you think.

The Long Post Goodbye

2010-11-01T17:36:00.000-07:00

Photo by Rickey Gates

For those of you who are curious, I am still in Antarctica. It's month 13 on continent and my 371st consecutive day at the Geographic South Pole. I've never been so ready to leave a place in my life but the flights keep getting delayed for one reason or another, mainly weather.

This blog is on the way out, I've finally taken the initiative to buy an actual professional website. In the coming months it will be up and running and this site will come down. It will have a fully functioning blog on it, sections for painting and drawings, my resume etc. It is at:

www.mwarrenlee.com

And I can always be reached at my email:

matthewwarrenlee@gmail.com

and now also at:

warren@mwarrenlee.com

What follows is a small selection of the final paintings from Pole. Its been very hard to work and still paint on the side and I am very much looking forward to painting full time again. I'm planning a long period for art production.

The Gate

Watercolor and Ink on Arches

August 2010

The moon appears inverted at the South Pole, with the usual craters and such on the bottom. I believe too much Antarctic art to be overt, so this image is rather unassuming on purpose.

The End of Winter

Watercolor on Arches

October 2010

My final self portrait from Pole. The first painting I've done of myself with glasses or a beard. Otherwise common study type fodder. An attempt to keep those skills in tact.

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Patch Designs for the 2010 Winterover Patch and Galley Patch
Watercolor and Ink on Arches
May and September 2010, respectively
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Designs for patches in commemoration of the 2010 South Pole Winterover. The bottom one actually got made and turned out very well.

To everyone in the real world, I miss you.

-warren

Nightscape prep

2010-06-20T00:13:00.000-07:00

South Pole Telescope
Pencil on Arches
June 2010

Some prep work for new watercolors of the local night sky. This is a drawing of the South Pole Telescope which sits about a mile or more from the station. The thing is absolutely huge and my drawing doesn't do it much justice on that end. I'm surprised by its size every time I walk out there. Its really a dynamic object visually and while diagramming it was a bit of a pain it was an interesting exercise. The SPT is a Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Telescope which is scanning the South Pole sky for galaxy clusters, the universe's oldest objects.

Amundsen's Dog

2010-06-12T22:56:00.000-07:00

Amundsen's Dog

A Winterover Self Portrait

Watercolor on Arches

April 2010

A photo of the three South Pole Self Portraits

This self portrait was actually completed by the end of April, I just hadn't found the time to get a picture of it until now. Sorry for the line half way through it, I just don't have the same resources here that I do at home to clean it up. Its a pendant painting to the earlier Self Portrait With Byrd Map though I actually like this painting more. Its smaller and better handled. There are a few more details that need to be added, but in time. I was interested in completing another version of this portait and map combination but to do it knowing what I had learned from the first one and also to complete it here at the South Pole.

The title is a reference to the 1911 South Pole expedition of Roald Amundsen. Amundsen's dogs met one of two fates. Those that made it through the journey to the Pole and back were found to have gained weight, and were therefore more healthy after surviving their hardship. The other dogs were eaten.

Preparatory Drawing for Menu Boarder

Pencil on Bristol

May 2010

Midwinter Diner Menu Boarder

Watercolor and Ink on Arches

May and June of 2010

This menu boarder was designed for the South Pole's Midwinter Diner (June 18th). This meal commemorates the half way point through the six month Antarctic night. The sun set on March 20th and will rise on September 20th, this meal takes place at the midway point between these two celestial events. It's also symbolic of being half way through our winter deployment, a period of about nine months. This is essentially Antarctica's biggest holiday though few people experience it since winter populations on the continent are very low. Currently the South Pole base has 47 people including myself.

The top of the menu boarder features a nightscape with the Geographic South Pole represented furthest to the left, the massive South Pole Telescope to the left of the map and the IceCube Laboratory to the right. The quote on the left hand side of the boarder is from Tennyson's Ulysses. Robert Falcon Scott wrote down his final diary entry on the back of this page from Ulysses as he died on his return journey from the South Pole. These words are carved into his memorial cross on Observation Hill near McMurdo Station in the Ross Dependency.

-warren

Antarctic Baroque

2009-12-05T13:55:00.000-08:00

Justin Herrmann Playing Guitar in Hut 10

From a Photo by Aaron Jewel

Shot in the Ross Dependency in December 2008

Watercolor on Arches

8 x 10 in.

I made the drawing for this painting during my first day off here at Pole and had set it aside to work on my Double Self Portrait (previous post). I decided because I had invested so much time in the drawing that it deserved reconciliation and I returned to it. I handled the image rather loosely, approaching it as a study. As I progressed the image became more and more dreamlike and less real and I think the result is quite interesting. It certainly shows my affinity for the Dutch painter Vermeer.

This is a McMurdo Station image, the mountain range outside the window is the Royal Society, and the building is Hut 10. Though it would be impossible to view the mountains from this angle they are very closely nearby. The photo I worked from was shot by a friend (Aaron Jewel), though I was in the Dependency at this time and attended this concert by the now infamous Etta Jameson's World Famous Etta Jameson's Safety First Bedtime Orchestra for whom Justin was the guitarist and lead singer.

Doubble Self Portrait

2009-11-29T15:38:00.000-08:00

Two Self Portraits, As Studies

In ECW Gear, left, and as a Janitor, below

Watercolor on Arches

November 2009

Painting at the South Pole has proved to be an arduous task. Working 10 hours a day and then forcing myself to paint at night seems to have paid off, however, in this first work. It wasn't without complications though most of them were in my head, its hard to trust yourself. This painting was an important step for me, it proved that I could produce work here and it feels very good to have one solid painting behind me. While I can only paint for brief periods of perhaps three hours or so these sessions are very pithy. There is very little time to waste. I was given a two day weekend for Thanksgiving and this secured the painting's completion. And I must say that being able to paint by natural light any time of the day is a perk that only Antarctica could offer.

Virtual Retrospective

2009-09-22T13:59:00.000-07:00

Self Portrait with Byrd Map (Detail) 2009

Watercolor on Paper

Self Portrait with Byrd Map 2009
Watercolor on Paper

To frequent readers of my blog this retrospective may seem redundant. But when I meet new people and they ask about my paintings I direct them here. So this way everything is in one place. This is in reverse chronological order, with the newest paintings at the top. I'll be painting during this tour of Antarctica, but I don't know if I'll be able to get good pics of my work down there, if I do they will be posted here. Travel stuff and news from the Ice will be posted on the other blog (hit the link in the upper right, marked Matt's Other Blog).

The snail mail to the Ice can take months and you can't make phone calls in. Anyone who would like to contact me should do so by E-mail:

matthewwarrenlee@gmail.com

My best to everyone, talk to you all soon.

-warren

Two Details of the Map from Self Portrait with Byrd Map

Study of John Vanderhoef 2009
Pencil (underdrawing)

Study of John Vanderhoef 2009
Watercolor on Paper

Detail from 2 Studies of Caitlin Reed 2009
Watercolor and Pencil on Paper

View of the consecutive studies 2009

Study for a Portrait of Tiffany Ball 2009
Ink on Paper

Portrait of Tiffany Ball 2009
Watercolor on Paper

Portrait of Tiffany Ball (detail) 2009
Watercolor on Paper

My Coffee Cup 2009
Watercolor on Paper

Designs for Buildings 2008
Pencil on Paper

Study of Chairs 2008
Pencil on Paper

A Dream of Reason for Bellview and Stowell 2008
Watercolor on Paper

A Dream of Reason for Bellview and Stowell (detail) 2008
Watercolor on Paper

Hope and Memory 2008
Pencil on Paper

A Dream of Reason (John Vanderhoef) 2008
Watercolor on Paper

A Painting for C. D. Freidrich 2008
Watercolor on Paper

Study of Josh 2008
Pencil on Paper

Whats Become of us as Men 2007
Pencil on Paper

Study for The Fate of the Animals 2007
Watercolor on Paper

Two Studies for The Fate of the Animals 2007
Pencil on Paper

Self Portrait (detail) 2007
Watercolor on Paper

Portrait of Justin Tiesl 2007
Watercolor on Paper

Portrait of Johnathan Sadler 2007
Watercolor on Paper

Portrait of Bridget Finnegan 2007
Watercolor on Paper

Portrait of Travis Groh 2007
Watercolor on Paper

Portrait of Wes Ayres 2007
Watercolor on Paper

Portrait of Bridget Finnegan 2007
Watercolor on Paper

Portrait of A. E. vonBehren 2007
Watercolor on Paper

Portrait of Arnold Birren 2007
Watercolor on Paper

Design for a Playing Card, King of Hearts (underdrawing) 2007
Ink on Paper

Design for a Playing Card, King of Hearts 2007
Ink and Watercolor on Paper

Design for a Software Company Logo 2007
Ink and Watercolor on Paper

Design for a Coffee Shop Logo 2007
Ink and Watercolor on Paper

Design for the Mitchell Painting Association Logo 2007
Ink on Paper

Self Portrait 2007
Pencil on Paper

The Wandering Mind

2009-08-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

With my departure but a few months away my mind has begun to seriously wander back to the Ice. I'm having a really hard time concentrating on painting. That is the largest contributing factor to this work progressing so slowly. So I suppose this post is just to remind you all that I do still, in fact, paint.

I've really fallen in love with this model of making smaller figurative studies. I wish I had stumbled upon it ages ago, its a great way to make paintings. They take slightly less time than painting busts and they allow for a lot of experimentation.

I have decided to enter my Self Portrait with Byrd Map in Watercolor Wisconsin, though I will not be here for it. Its something I've always wanted to do and if I get accepted I'll post the dates of the show here, if anyone is in the Racine area (its in December).

I remember the terror I felt when I shot this photograph from the window of the C-17. And now, oh how I miss that crippling void.

-warren

Another Study

2009-07-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

Fabric Study, of John Vanderhoef

Watercolor on Paper
14 x 11 in.

I don't know if any painting I've done has given me as much trouble as this one. Had I encountered these problems when I was making a painting in the past I would have long since torn it from the board and filed it. But when I lost control of an area in this work I chose to find some resolution to whichever problem and move on. Instead of giving into my frustrations and abandoning the image I chose to turn it into a symbol of my new found patience and carefulness. So while the painting succeeds in some areas and fails in others I overall like what it represents. Its a bit strange, with the strong and weak areas fighting one another for control but perhaps after some time passes I'll feel different about this painting.

With the exception of myself, John has been represented in my work more than anyone. With a whopping six paintings and two drawings in my oeuvre. Congratulations John!

Here's the sheet before the painting began. This light drawing gets blotted with a kneadable eraser until its just barely visible then the paint goes down, layer by layer.

A photo of the painting.

And with the studies of Caitlin for comparison.

Also, I got my Self Portrait with Byrd Map framed. I was apprehensive at first but now I really like it. I would potentially like to enter it in Watercolor Wisconsin, a competition at the Racine Art Museum, we'll see.

Caitlin

2009-06-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

Two Studies of Caitlin Reed, Detail
Watercolor on Arches
about 8 in. tall (14 x 11 sheet)

I have found a new attention to detail, generally, since my Self Portrait With Byrd Map, in the previous post. Fabric was something in particular that I once shied away from, but lately I've learned to really embrace it. So I decided to plan a series of studies with a focus on clothing.

I had several photos of my friend Caitlin but none of the ones I liked were really suitable for formal portraits, they are all more casual poses like the one above. So I selected a few to make studies of and ended up painting this one (the other is at the left on the sheet, but it didn't show up well in the scan so I cropped it off).

I tend to "feather" all of my strokes into gradations, but with this study I decided to leave them all be, so each stroke appears as a shape of color. I painted the entire thing with a very small brush (0/3) with the exception of the one large shape that makes up the tank top. I very much like the result and I'm going to do one more study in this style before I pick up my next big project.

The scan blows out most of the detail, this photo gives a better idea of how the painting actually looks.

And here's the drawing for the next study. This one is much more elaborate, with light from the right casting some complex shadows.

Self Portrait with Byrd Map

2009-06-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

Self Portrait with Byrd Map

Watercolor on Arches, with traces of pencil
11 x 14 in. (sheet) 10 x 12.5 in. (image)
May and June of 2009

Self Portrait with Byrd Map, detail

It had been over a year since I painted a self portrait, so I decided that I would produce a new one and use it to stage some advancements in my work. The intent here was to create a painting where everything is considered equally: the flesh, hair, fabric, background and composition. This did not come to me easily but in the end, much to my relief, I feel as though I succeeded. For those who are interested, below is a deconstruction of the painting and its elements, organized into their logical categories.

I. The Composition

Portrait of Tiffany Ball
Watercolor on Arches
11 x 14 in.
April 2009

My portrait of Tiff revealed to me the things which my paintings were neglecting. I would float heads in the middle of the page and then leave the background blank or fill it with muted color. This leaves the images without solid compositions and floods space around the figure. So from the beginning I decided that I would plan out a background and composition. To solve some of these problems I went to my books and found suitable solutions in American Regional artist Grant Wood.

Grant Wood
Self Portrait
1932
Figge Art Museum

In this 1932 self portrait Wood placed himself slightly to the side and cropped off the top of his head to create two negative spaces on either side of him. I dominantly paint portraits with the subjects facing left so I flipped Wood's composition around. Cropping in this way fixes the subject in space and solves my "floating" problem. This composition is very stable, it keeps the eye from roaming around aimlessly.

Here is the painting as it looked before I began the background, with the top of the head cropped and the two negative spaces on either side.

II. The Background

Grant Wood
Portrait of John B. Turner, Pioneer
1928 -1930
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

Wood filled the background of this portrait with a map of Iowa. Wood was a follower of Classical Dutch and Flemish painting. Including maps in paintings is a Dutch Golden Age tradition, and is likely where he got the idea. This would work well with my bust length portrait style, so now all I would need is a relevant map.

My father is an antique dealer and his house is packed with all sorts of things. So I never gave much thought to this map that hung above my parents fireplace until after I went to Antarctica. Its an original 1934 lithograph that Richard E. Byrd printed to raise money for his second Antarctic Expedition. The map is colorful, interesting and not too complicated, which made it the perfect choice.

Here's a close up photo of the lithograph. The writing on the seal makes a hilarious plug for Grape Nuts, another one of Byrd's sponsors. And my Antarctic friends may find it interesting that the two locations labeled "unexplored" in cursive are now the locations of AGAP and the WAIS Divide. The map is totally inaccurate by today's standards since inland Antarctica was nearly unexplored in 1934. Now that I had a map I would need to include it in a meaningful way.

I sized and cropped the map so that the area I lived in, The Ross Sea region, would be clearly visible in front of me and the seal with the small picture of Admiral Byrd would be behind me. I wanted to include the portrait of Byrd as an homage since Byrd's Little America is the precursor to the United States Antarctic Program of which I am a part. The two busy areas and the two shapes were placed diagonally from one another for balance. Although the lithograph is bright and vibrant I painted it faintly so that it would fall into the background and bring the darker figure to the foreground.

III. The Subject

Calving Glacier in the Ross Dependency

During my six month stint in the United States Antarctic Program I decided that I wasn't going to paint. There were many reasons for this, among them that I would be working 60 hours a week and also that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I don't particularly enjoy painting, its a tedious, stressful activity. I paint because I find it fulfilling. So upon my hiatus I initially felt a great sense of relief. I didn't miss painting, so much as I felt free of the constant need to be doing it. But once I returned to it I realized that I had forgotten how good it made me feel. It gives a sense of purpose to my life and allows me to transcend my loneliness. In this respect, its important that Antarctica and painting are merged in this image. I'm scheduled to return to the continent in October for a 13 month stay between the South Pole and the Ross Sea Region, this time I'll bring my brushes.

thanks for reading
-warren

PS: Sorry about the seam through the image, I have no idea how to get rid of it (and Galloway is out of town).

Appetizers

2009-04-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

North Point Water Tower, Study

Pencil on Bristol
11 x 14 (sheet)

My new portrait is taking much longer than I had anticipated, although it is going very well. I'm back from Vancouver now, and I should have it done by the end of the week. These are some small projects I've been doing on the side. Something to tide you over until I get the portrait done.

The above schematic is of Milwaukee's North Point Water Tower. I was going to use it in the background of a portrait. Unfortunately the images I got of it on the net weren't very good and I'm going to need to go and take my own pictures of it. Maybe I'll pick it back up another time. Below is a portrait of my coffee cup on some new, really rough watercolor paper.

Coffee!
Watercolor on Arches
8 x 10 in

Tiff II

2009-04-29T12:34:00.001-07:00

Portrait of Tiffany Ball

11 x 14 in.
Watercolor on Arches
2009

All right, Here's the finished painting of Tiff. Enjoy!

Like all ways I'm having trouble getting a good picture of the painting, the background is blown out but the face looks pretty good, alas, it will suffice. A painting like this would have usually taken me about two to three weeks (maybe more on account of the hair), but since I'm painting full time I was able to complete it in just eight days.

I'm very happy with the figure, it represents significant progress, but I struggled a lot with the background on this. In the end I settled on an abstracted, out of focus view of the McMurdo laundromat (Hi Caitlin!). It wasn't included for any reason other than that it was the location where the photo was shot. I just saw the Edvard Munch show in Chicago so maybe that's where its rounded forms and strange colors came from. When you view the painting in person it does bring the face to the foreground, but I'm still not completely satisfied with it. If its disastrous I can live with it but I am thinking more about what to do in the backgrounds of future paintings. Leaving them white would be cowardly but what I'm doing now isn't completely working either. I'm looking into the conclusions of twentieth century American painters, especially Grant Wood.

Portrait of Tiffany Ball (Detail)

Note to Shawn: If you're looking to buy something you can drop me an e-mail. I would suggest the painting as the drawing looks pretty dull and lifeless in comparison. I'm usually willing to let go of stuff after about a month or two after I've created it.

I'm at: matthewwarrenlee@gmail.com

Tiff

2009-04-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

Study for a portrait of Tiffany Ball

Quill Ink on Arches
2009

Even without the six month hiatus in Antarctica it would have been a substantial amount of time since I had drawn a portrait in ink. It is the most frustrating of all the mediums I use. Something is always wrong on the equipment end and I was forced to quit work on this study when my tools stopped working entirely (the shirt is unfinished). I learned my lesson and it will be a long while before I pick up a quill again.

Tiff and I were both janitors at McMurdo and after the season ended we traveled through New Zealand together along with Leigh Crowder (another portrait in the works). The scan of this drawing has left it a little blown out, the intricate details have disappeared but I think that it still gets the point across. This black and white study is preparatory work for a later painted version. This image is a departure from previous ones if for no other reason than that its a radical change in expression. Tiff is not smiling really, nor is she particularly morose (see previous portraits). She looks as though she has just finished, or is just about to, speak. This is the moment when Bernini believed people were at their most expressive, so perhaps she is in good company. I selected this image for its complexity (simple clothing, yes, but plenty of hair). It was awash in texture so I decided to execute it in ink, with some successes on the page and failures in the experience. But it will be of much help I think, when I begin to execute the final, painted version. Thorough studies exponentially increase the quality and chances for success in the finished product (thanks art school!).

It will be a while before I start the painting. I have no watercolor paper and will actually have to get up to Milwaukee to get what I need. But until then I'll be drawing on scraps. This study is actually on the back of an old drawing.

For those of you who know Tiff, I hope it looks like her, I'm having trouble seeing it for what it is after staring at it for three days. Please let me know.

Building Designs

2008-09-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

Designs for Domestic Stave Kirke and Pagota
Pencil on Paper
2008

It is sad when our projects do not come to fruition. But our lives some times coax us to accept the occasional casualty. This drawing was to be a watercolor, the buildings were to be covered completely in gothic windows and metal piping. I sank weeks into it, sharpening my pencil on sandpaper, diligently doing the math. But I had to reconcile it and let it go, I'm leaving for a long time.

Poems for the City

2008-08-19T18:36:00.001-07:00

A Dream of Reason For Bellview and Stowell
Watercolor on Arches
(please click image to zoom)

Untitled

Pencil on Paper

A Dream of Reason For Bellview and Stowell (detail)
Watercolor on Arches

Experements

2008-08-11T11:38:00.000-07:00

Untitled Study (Shark)

Watercolor on Arches

I don't answer to much of an audience anymore, compared to the once talkative critiques in college. I felt an intense urge back then to spend my artistic time on the end products, to prove my abilities. But you often learn more from failures than by making work you know will succeed. So I've been doing more studies and experiments lately. Both of these paintings let the brush do the talking, while in nearly all of my other paintings the meticulous drawings confine such activity.

The shark came about when I saw him on the cover of Smithsonian Magazine and I thought it would be a challenge to paint the inside of his mouth and the bubbles in the water around him. I dipped a toothbrush in liquid frisket (a mix of wax and latex) and sprayed it onto the paper. I cut out the shape of the shark with another piece of paper and used it as a shield so the spray wouldn't get on him. When I was done painting the water I lifted the frisket out with an eraser to reveal the white of the page. The result is that it appears as though bubbles are being formed from the shark thrashing around near the top of the water. I painted the mouth in wet blobs so that lines would form at their edges. I wanted it to look like torn up meat.

Imaginary Landscape for Wisconsin
Watercolor on Arches

I got the idea to paint landscapes from my memories while traveling on the Badger Bus between Madison and Milwaukee. I took a trip on the bus after I painted this and realized that trees are a lot more colors than just green. It was an interesting little test however and I plan on trying it again, learning what I have from the mistakes of this work. Not a good painting by any means but built on an interesting idea. I like the hard edge yellow line cutting through the bottom of the page, disrupting the organic flow of the trees and land. A symbol of the human destruction of nature. I also like that it looks like its made out of mold.

The Armies of Homeworld

2008-08-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

Crow Cult Character Model

Quill Ink on Paper

Cat Shadow Character Model
Quill ink on Paper

Hi all, sorry for the mass of delays. I've been having a lot of trouble getting good photos of the new work but I think I have it figured out now. I was going to post everything at once but its all so different that it seemed odd to put it all together so I'll release it in easy to digest increments.

These are some character models for my game, The Armies of Homeworld. The top one is a member of the Crow Cult, which stalks you throughout the game. The lower is one of the playable characters. I haven't thought of a name for her yet but all the characters will be named after famous painters. She has a French accent and is a living shadow. The King of the Darkness locked her in a library where she's been reading for thousands of years. You set her free by finding and returning her scarf and she joins you.

My quills are missing so I have to draw these with a nib taped to the end of a stick. They are on good paper though so I'll eventually get around to painting them. They look a little naked now in their inky shells but it gives you an idea of where I'm going with the look of the game.

Back to work

2008-06-25T23:58:00.001-07:00

Above is my new watercolor area in Madison with a little glimpse of a work in progress. I haven't purchased the lamps for my new studio yet so I've gotten my watercolor things together here where I paint by the daylight. The painting is of a scene rather than a portrait which is the direction I want to move in in the future. Its been a challenge but is going remarkably well considering I haven't painted for over a month. It will, obviously, be posted upon its completion.

Here's my new space. It needs to be cleaned and organized and I'll need to get more plugs installed as well as some sort of ventilation system. Now that I've been painting watercolors by the sunlight in the upstairs room I think I may just keep doing so and use this space for oil and egg tempera exclusively.

to Milwaukee, I miss you and love you.

New Painting

2008-04-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

I shot these pictures of my newest painting before I left Milwaukee and now I'm kind of stuck with them, even though I know they are not true to the actual painting. Oh well, there's not a lot I can do about it now since I 'm leaving for the month.

This will be the final post on this blog until June. I have left Milwaukee and have been in Madison for a week in order to prepare for my trip to Israel and Jordan. Upon my return I will be moving back to Madison permanently where I am building a studio, which I will post pictures of when I get back. I am hoping that I will be able to post from my trip on my other blog Art Forward, since I will be visiting a plethora of artworks including the ancient city of Petra.

Goodbye everyone! Talk to you all May 23rd! Leave a post and I will read it when I get back.

-Warren

New Paintings

2008-03-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

This painting of Jan turned out more like an illustration, which was not my intent, but an outcome I can live with. One could argue that all portraiture is caricature anyway. Its the most violent thing I've painted in a long time, but I hope that it has a little sense of taste as well. It documents a real event, and one with some meaning, so if its gone too far I can deal with that.

below is a study of wolves (bad scan, sorry).

Back to Work

2008-03-26T11:19:00.001-07:00

Finally back to Milwaukee and I'm starting new projects. I've been trying to get all these years and years of photographs and images into a single archive for ease of use. And I stumbled upon a disk of scans and pics of really old paintings and drawings, so I figured I would post a few. Its been years since I've seen some of the stuff and, compared to my work now, it looks like something from another world.

Exhibition Opening featuring New Painting

2008-03-09T13:52:00.001-07:00

After I had finished the sketch of this image featured in the previous post below I decided to execute it again in the opposite manner. The sketch seemed to suggest that there was a possibility of a great painting in it somewhere. So I painted it slowly and with the utmost care. This image is unified, with the figure, the background, and the fabric all handled equally. The result is, on the technical end, the finest painting I have ever produced. An environment where the darkness divides the light and conjures in us the sickest of dreams. I am very happy with the results and am planning future works to be executed in the same manner.

It is fitting then that the painting will be featured in a show. Five UWM graduates are opening a gallery called Spackle. It is located at 2674 S. Kinnickinnic Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53207. The grand opening show is on Friday March 14th. There will be an abundance of wine and cheese to consume while you take in the wonderful intellectual company and artworks. The show will feature watercolors by myself, prints from UWM alum Clark Rendall, and oil paintings by former UWM professor Amy O'Neill (I believe she now paints in Boston). I, unfortunately, will not be attending this event, since I will be in Minneapolis. I am very sorry. The show will be up until April 13th. Please check out the Spackle Website.

Regular visitors of this blog may be happy to hear that I have returned to work on The Fate of the Animals and will be posting new studies shortly.

the bomb shelter of ideas, interior view.

New Paintings

2008-02-13T13:01:00.001-08:00

Painting is a strange habit. Some days I have faith in its power and purpose in the world and at other times I have nothing but questions and doubt.

I decided to paint this self portrait since I have spent so much time outside my comfort zone with my new projects. Certainly it is good to work on different things, if you don't you will never become a better painter. But I wanted to make a good portrait because I missed the subject, and it feels good to be back in that realm I know so well. And perhaps I needed to prove to myself that I can still achieve that effect I'd spent so much time developing.

The first painting below is called The Prison Sphere. I've been playing Final Fantasy 3 on my super Nintendo lately and it got me to thinking about the video game that I had been designing a few years ago. So I decided to draw a nice diagram of one of the structures I dreamed up. My game is called The Armies of Homeworld and at one point the main characters get imprisoned in this floating spherical prison. The device at the bottom raises and lowers the sphere to get people in and out.

And this is one of the small drawings from my new series called No Threshold. Its a meditation on the aesthetics of guns. Its purpose is to take these objects that mean such different things to different people and make them think about them without telling them exactly what to think... if that makes sense. More on this soon.

A Painting For C. D. Friedrich

2008-01-18T11:14:00.000-08:00

Many of you may remember this image from another painting I did a while back. I learned a lot from that first try and applied it to this newer, better version. The least successful parts of the old painting, the bottom half and very upper top have been cropped off and I handled the clouds much differently: darker with only faint hints of orange and blue. I call this image A Painting For C. D. Friedrich.

C. D. Friedrich was the most prevalent of the German Romantic painters. His images really focused on the monumentality of nature over the fragility of man, heres his Abbey in the Oak Wood and The Polar Sea . My painting is the opposite, with human beings leaving nature behind as they sail away in their airplane, a dense smog in their wake.

Hope and Memory

2008-01-12T15:43:00.000-08:00

Ah, the first post of the year. Thanks to everyone who posted on my year end retrospective. I'm hoping to do some more portraits soon, its really been quite a while. Back in Milwaukee now with a few projects underway.

I call this image Hope and Memory. I'm not sure what this thing is exactly, something to do with plumbing probably. Its attached to the old coast guard station on the lake. It was built around the turn of the century and is a rare example of prairie architecture applied to a maritime building. These architectural jewels are hard to come by (Milwaukee has plenty of ugly buildings however) though it may not look so good now, since its been left to decay for decades and all the windows are boarded up. The city plans to spend 1.5 million dollars to demolish the building and put a picnic pavilion in its place. All efforts to save the building have failed and it will go under the wrecking ball shortly. The title of my drawing is meant to reference this loss: this thing is just a small part of the building, and the building is a small part of history, but history in its entirety is made up of these small parts. A tragedy, it would have made such a beautiful museum.

here's a picture of the building before the last time it caught on fire. Imagine it with new glass in the windows and flowers in the potters.

2007 Year End Retrospective

2007-12-28T15:45:00.001-08:00

Well, its the first anniversary of my blog. So here's a re-post of my most successful portraits. I would have to say my favorites are the one of Wesley (above) and the one of Bridget (two below). My work with interiors and other subjects (like the Fate of the Animals) are coming along but they are not currently well developed. These portraits are the real solid pieces from this cycle. It was a successful year for me artistically. I really moved forward and found a solid direction in both subject and practice. A lot of things were put behind me and these portraits are a symbol of that. There is a lot of angst in producing works of violence and disgust as I was prior to January of 2007. Not that I would not tackle those subjects again, but the way I was going about it was perhaps without merit.

I've returned from North Carolina and am currently in Madison with my family. I will be returning to Milwaukee shortly and will post my new works when they get underway.

Big thanks to everyone who comes to my Blog! Everyone who was willing to pose for me: Wesley, Bridget, Jan, Johnathan Sadler, Justin Tiesl, Andrew Edward vonBehren, Josh (even if he didn't know it), Travis, Arnie, and anyone else I forgot. And Kristen! who leaves a comment every time I post something.

See you all next year!

The Fate of the Animals III

2007-12-15T17:40:00.000-08:00

Here is the new diagram for The Fate of the Animals (see previous posts titled Fate of the Animals). It may look very similar to the previous diagram (at the top of the post below) however some crucial changes have been made.

In this drawing the long dimension has been extended allowing for a larger depth of field and also for room to include another piece of meat. There are now twelve pieces instead of eleven. This became an important element for me since people can read into that number with more ease (there are twelve disciples in Christianity, there have been twelve people to walk on the moon, etc.). The elements in the picture have been raised upward so that the eye now travels from left to right and strait outward. In the drawing below the eye goes left to right and then outward and down. The image is more stable this way. This version has a repositioning and reworking of the images major triangles as well, its hard to see but very important to me formally.

I'm still not satisfied with the diagram enough to make it into a painting so another will need to be made. I'm learning a lot by doing so much prep work and I'm confident that I will one day achieve the final piece. I'm heading to Charlotte, North Carolina in a few days. It will be good to get away from my work for a while and return to it with a fresh mind. That's it for new work until January, but I am going to make a year end post so stop back soon and check it out.

The Fate of the Animals II

2007-12-13T15:01:00.001-08:00

Here is the diagram (pencil drawing) for the painting The Fate of the Animals. This is the image that I've had in my head all this time, all the other paintings in the series have been studies and sketches to work toward achieving this composition. I've struggled a lot with this work. This is the sixth attempt at the diagram and I'm now half way through a seventh which will hopefully be the final version. When I work on realistic images I always reference photographs. This work is a serious departure from that process as I am attempting to completely imagine a realistic scene.

Formally I want to create a painting that is both too real and incredebly not real (dreamlike). It is to be orchestrated, incremental, repetitive and composed (like music). And contain elements that are strongly geometric as well as elements that are strongly organic.

It may look naked now without the paint but I hope it will give people an idea of what I'm heading toward. I will post the seventh diagram upon its completion.

Run Away and Stay Forever

2007-12-04T14:23:00.001-08:00

These paintings are called Run Away and Stay Forever. I seem to repeat the image when I hit a wall with my work. Its somewhat akin to a broken computer spitting out the same information over and over again. I like the idea of a house having legs so that it could get up and move around if it had to. The idea would be really useful in practice, were it not such a complicated engineering feat. Ron Herron, a british architect, was attempting to create just that in the 1960's with his walking cities. A great idea which unfortunately never came to fruition.

The Fate of the Animals

2007-11-28T22:49:00.001-08:00

These paintings, sketches and diagrams comprise my new series. They are all more or less studies to prepare for a larger painting. The series is entitled The Fate of the Animals after the 1913 painting The Fate of the Animals by the German Expressionist Franz Marc (I've posted a picture of it below).

Here are the main ideas in a nutshell. Franz Marc, like his Expressionist contemporaries, believed the end of the world was coming. Artists like Marc and Kandinsky thought this was going to occur in spiritual terms. In the painting below... The large diagonal thing in the center is the world tree (Yggdrasil) which in Scandinavian mythology is a large tree which holds the earth (Midgard) in its branches. The red stuff spewing out of the tree is blood, which is being spilled onto the dying animals witnessing the end of the world. In my paintings the animals have died at the hands of human beings, the world tree has been replaced by a meat packing plant. My meditations on Marc's painting are pointing out the differences between how he saw the world ending (a spiritual or religious apocalypse) and what we now know for scientific fact how the world can and will actually end (environmental destruction, global warming and pollution). I've titled my series after his painting so that this art historical reference can be made. There are many other ideas going on here like formal artistic concerns, the human relationship to animals and food, our responsibility to sustainable living etc. The list could go on but everything still falls under that one main idea. This fear of an environmental apocalypse was something that Marc and people in his day never would have dreamed of. When World War 1 began Marc thought that this was the beginning of the apocalypse he had envisioned (he was shot in the head shortly thereafter) but what would he have painted if he could see our current human crisis?

Note that the brown area on the right side is from when the painting was caught in a fire. This occurred long after Marc had died and the paint on top of the burn was added by Paul Klee. And here's a strange Milwaukee fact - Jeffrey Dahmer kept a poster of Franz Marc's painting The Fighting Forms in his bedroom for most of his life.

New Watercolor and Charity Auction

2007-11-17T09:47:00.000-08:00

The plane painting below in the previous post is for sale at a charity auction tonight! "Engineers Without Boarders" is having a shindig at Stonefly (formerly Onopa) today, November 17th at 7:00pm. There is a requested donation of 7.00$ and all of the proceeds will go towards funding UWM engineers in designing and building a water filtration system in Guatemala. There will be bands playing along with the charity auction so if you're in Milwaukee tonight you should come. Sorry for the short notice.

new watercolor

2007-11-09T14:21:00.000-08:00

This is a really terrible scan of one of my new paintings. Coulden't quite figure out how to get it to look right. Oh well you get the idea. This is the piece I showed at crossing over. Everyone seems to think that its about 9/11 witch was not my intent, what do you think? The other sketch below is part of my prep work for a larger painting of Jan and Josh after Jan was beaten up by racists on the east side, this figure is at left, with Jan nursing his wounds to the right. I'm also working on a new self portrait and will post it upon completion now that I know that people are still checking this blog. Thanks for your posts everyone!

Show opeining this Friday

2007-10-17T11:24:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody! I won a BFA scholarship at the BFA show in May and I have been invited to show at Crossing Over as a result. The show opens this Friday the 19th from 5 to 8pm and is located at the UWM Union Art Gallery. I made a piece specifically for the show and I totally blanked and didn't take a picture of it for the site. I'll put it up when the show is done. Its a cloudscape.

does anyone read this blog anymore?

At Long Last

2007-08-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

Finally, after nearly a month my powdered pigment has arrived. It was held at the Canadian boarder for nearly two weeks by U.S. Customs. Why would a customs agent think that large bag of white powder is so suspicious?
So I'll be to work on Temperas soon, I think I'll post pictures of the process, it should be interesting. My work has been on the backburner for so long since I got my animation job. I'm frustrated and eager to paint for myself again. Expect typical Matt Lee iconography.

“One has to believe in what one is doing, one has to commit oneself inwardly, in order to do painting. Once obsessed, one ultimately carries it to the point of believing that one might change human beings through painting. But if one lacks this passionate commitment, there is nothing left to do. Then it is best to leave it alone. For basically painting is idiocy.”
-(From Richter, 'Notes 1973', in The Daily Practice of Painting, p.78.)

Galloway's Site

2007-07-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, I hadn't looked in a while but Galloway has a bunch of new stuff on his site and you should defenately check it out. Just click the Ryan Galloway link in the bar to the right.

Been drawing a lot of horses lately... thats all I've got really. Later.

-warren

Update

2007-07-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! I wont have new work up for a while, I got a freelance job doing drawings and watercolors for children's films and that is occupying most of my artistic time. So it may be some time before I get some new "fine art" type work up here. I'm very excited about the job and hope that it will lead to professional possibilities.

Me and Jan have bought the rights to our web comic home page and we'll get stuff up and running soon, check back for news on that.

Best wishes to everyone, hope to see or hear from you all soon

- warren

New Watercolor

2007-07-01T12:56:00.001-07:00

So here is the nearly finished, or finished enough, portrait of Jonathan Sadler. It took a good two weeks and I'm sorry if the image is bad, I've had a terrible time trying to get it accurately scanned. I may try to re-scan it and post it again for better quality. This is the first large undertaking of the summer, I hadn't realized when I began it that it would take so much time to complete, but I'm very happy with the outcome. Do zoom in and take a look at it's intricacies. New paintings are in the works. talk to you soon.

-Warren

"Watercolor painting has long been the domain of the "Sunday painter," a practiced bourgeois armature in pursuit of benign leisure activity. Not unsurprisingly, these occasional watercolorists favor uncomplicated subject mater- picturesque landscapes, sweetly personal portraits, floral still lives, and other pleasantries. The exactitude required of the medium seems to warrant such imagery, letting imagination off the hook in light of the painstaking duties demanded of the hand. As such, watercolor has been granted a low status in the pantheon of painting, being seen as a practice synonymous with distraction rather than distinction."
-Dominic Molon (from a vitamin P essay
about Tim Gardner)

Portrait in Progress

2007-06-23T12:14:00.001-07:00

This portrait of Jonathan Sadler is my first major undertaking since graduating. I've been working on it everyday for the last six days. It's looking really good and I'm eager to get it finished. Below is a picture of my BFA self portrait for comparison. This work represents my ideal paint consistency and you can see that the Sadler portrait is getting pretty close to the BFA portrait. I used to ask myself "why arent my watercolors as dark as my oils?" and I destroyed several paintings in the persuit of that awnser. The awnser, of course, is that they're not supposed to be. It would betray the optical nature of the medium. Watercolor is meant to be transparent and fragile, its where its beauty lies. I learned that the hard way but I'm a better painter because of it.

Me and Jan are contemplating starting a web comic, him writing and me drawing. I probebley won't post them here though, they'll probebley get their own site. I'll post the info on where you can read them when we get things going.

and coming soon! egg tempera experiments!

good bye - war war

2007-06-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

These are the new works- all unfinished and they may remain that way. On the top is a portrait of Justin Tiesl (spelling?) who is an exceptional painter from UWM. The next is the painted version (a detail) of a previously posted drawing and the cat is a logo for Matthew Husby's software company uncouthsoft. The photos are the in progress painting of Jonathan (this is about the ten hour mark). I will post the finished painting when its finished, I'm very excited about this one and am optomistic that is will turn out very very well. sorry the pics are a little cyan, when I try to color correct them they turn orange.

And sorry about the header, I'm aware its enormous, I'll fix it soon.

-Warren

Much Needed Update

2007-06-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I just returned from the twin cities. I've gotten only a few solid works done since summer but am beguining a major portrait tonight. Its all penceled in and ready for frisket and paint. This one is of you Johnathan Sadler! are you still out there? Drop me a line. It should be done in about two weeks but I'll post a preliminary pic and the other work before that.

Everyone should check out my friend and fellow Milwaukee artist Chris Arzberger at his blog: Chris Arzberger

out- Warren

Coffee!

2007-05-21T10:54:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody! I just graduated. Coffee! I've been so busy with graduation and finishing finals and all that junk that I have not really been painting. But the coffee is on now, I've got nothing to do but go to work and paint so expect new work shortly. This is a painting I made a while ago for a coffee shop logo. I thought I would post it for fun. I'll get new paintings up as soon as they're done, till then, see you guys later. I've got to go get some coffee.

New Work

2007-05-07T09:16:00.000-07:00

So here is some of the new stuff, I know, I coulden't have posted three more different images. The first is a watercolor portrait of Bridget, its done on a really heavy hot press which caused a lot of dry brushing. Its supposed to look kind of like an Anderew Wyeth painting. The octopus is a logo for the painting association. I was going to color it (its ink on watercolor paper) but I really like the quality of the drawing as it is (zoom in and check it out). The last piece is a prepretory drawing for a painting that I have allready begun. My new direction is about masculinity and this drawing is a good example of a moment of bizarre intimacy. I'll post the finished painting of it shortly.

The BFA was this weekend and I managed to win one of the six or seven awards! I'll be spending the money on supplies to beguin my egg tempera operation. This requires me to make my own paint and some other things that I've never done before. When I get it up and running I'll post some pictures of the process.

News: BFA exhibition

2007-05-03T12:35:00.000-07:00

hello everyone. The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee BFA Exhibition is this Saturday starting at 5:00 and ending around 7:00. It will be at INOVA arts center located on the second floor of the Theatre Building at UWM. The self portrait below will be shown there along with work from some 50 other graduating visual arts students. This is the last collegate exhibition of my undergrad. There will be snacks.

New drawings and watercolors are in the works, expect an update soon! -Warren

New Watercolor

2007-04-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

With my other paintings being shown at Tory Folliard's I didn't know what I was going to put into the BFA show. The BFA is the last time that graduating students in the visual arts show their work at the university. So I got to work on this painting. Naturally I chose a self portrait to represent my work. I'm going to go back into it over the weekend and will probebly post the updated painting later. I'll get the info onto the site concerning the time and date of the BFA show. Along with this painting there will be work from all doctorines of visual art there, and is defenately worth seeing. The Folliard show is tonight! Hope to see some of you there!

News

2007-04-11T14:02:00.000-07:00

you can check out the page about me on the Tory Folliard website by clicking here

News

2007-04-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a blurb about my show at the Tory Folliard Gallery, check it out by clicking here.

New Watercolor and News

2007-04-09T08:08:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, I have several paintings in the works but this portrait of John Vanderhoef is the only one thats finished. I took a brief hiatus from painting and am now back to the grind. Good news, I won the Folliard project and will be having a show there. The opening reception is Friday April 20th (gallery night) from 5 to 7 pm. The show will be up through May 4th. The folling paintings will be for sale; Portraits of Wesley, Bridget, Drew VonBehren, and the Self Portrait furthest to the bottom of this page. You can check out the Tory Folliard Gallery by clicking this link: Tory Folliard

New Watercolor

2007-03-26T08:36:00.000-07:00

This is the finest work done over break. I spent a lot of time doing studio grunt work, building canvases and such. A lot of paintings simply didn't work out as well. Anyway, about this painting, a portrait of Andrew Edward von Behren. This painting was tough, a lot of problems came up, like that deep shadow covering the neck, and in the photo Drew is soaking wet so I had to come to terms with that as well. When I showed it to Travis he pointed out six or seven things that were wrong with it, so I scoweled at him, and then when he left I did everything he said. The resulting painting is well resolved, and the one good piece I got out of the week. The watercolors are really coming along, if you compare this work to the first post of watercolors you can see that the dimensionality has really improved. Thats it for now, I'm still working on that oil update, so check back in a week or two, I'm starting a 48 by 36 inch painting this week and I'll probebly post some in progress photos. leave a post, tell me what you think, see you later.

New Work: Watercolors

2007-03-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

Allright, finally, an update. Next time I bring my camera to school I'll put up some of the oils. But here are my three newest watercolors and a drawing. These scans are all details of the larger (11x 14) paintings. Updates should be happening a little more regulairly so check back soon, and leave a post if you feel like it.

hey everybody

2007-03-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's taking so long to get new work up everyone. I assure you that the next update will be this Monday. Check back then to see new watercolors and some in progress oils.

finished!

2007-02-14T09:14:00.000-08:00

Here's the finished product in watercolor and ink. This was pretty time consuming and it'll be a while before I start the next one. But new watercolors are in the works and new oils are almost completed and they should get posted in about a week or so. I'm going to be photographing some older work as well and I might post some of the better ones.

Applied art in progress

2007-02-07T07:49:00.000-08:00

I've started a series of playing card paintings/drawings and this is the first one, unfinished. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the background yet, either paint it blue or ink it in black. The fish will be an earth tone orange. The jack of diamonds is next. I'll post the finished king when I get it done.

New Paintings

2007-01-31T07:35:00.000-08:00

This is the start of my new oil studies (except for the watercolor on the bottom). Concentrating on glazing and the layering of paint, my oils before this were all applied in mass tone. These are all in progress and I'll post updated versions in a few weeks when they're more developed.

top to bottom: Arnold Birren, Oil on panel 11 x 14, Self Portrait, Oil on canvas, 11 x 14 (detail), Nose bleed, Oil on canvas, 5 x 7, Self portrait, watercolor, 11 x 14

First Post: Watercolors

2007-01-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog everyone. For my first post I'm putting up my last set of watercolors. These were completed at the end of last semester and into the WinteriM. I'm working on oils now and will post some of my new paintings on canvas and panel in progress shortly.

From top to bottom they are: a painting of my mouth, portrait of Jan Vanderhoef, portrait of Arnold Birren, and a self portrait. (all are details of the larger images) watercolor on Arches hot press, all 11 x 14.