It’s Day Twenty-Two and today’s painting was so much fun!  I painted a photo of myself transforming into a wolf…while wearing my

wolf scarf.  I have close to no memory while painting this since I fell under some sort of spell…maybe a residual effect from the recent full moon?  Today’s artist is Brad Greenwood and I just fell in love with his paintings.  It’s also the first day I painted on a 8 by 10 inch wood panel since I read that that’s what he usually paints on.  Let’s learn about Mr. Greenwood!

Below is an excerpt from lamama.org.

BRAD GREENWOOD is an artist. He currently lives and works in New York City. Formerly Development Manager for MoMA and the Director of Development for P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center from 2000-2005, Brad now dedicates himself to his own art.

Brad Greenwood’s paintings are visual diaries. Greenwood mines memory, dreams and

experience, and in the process attempts to balance beauty and disorder, figuration and abstraction. His work explores our common cultural vocabulary across bright and dynamic panels fused with iconic narratives — as perceived through a slightly obscured lens.

Greenwood’s method involves the addition and removal of layers of paint on large and small panels in a manner that allows the artist to retain the fresh quality of his ideas as lain down with pencil. The technique allows the grain of the wood to play an integral part in various elements of each picture. From palm trees to palm readings, cosmos to comic super heroes, motifs coat the surface, but negative spaces also have their say.

Click here to read more from lamama.org.

Below is from mixedgreens.com.

For years, Greenwood has painted figures undergoing transformation. Whether they are personified animals (the wolf appears most frequently), shape shifters, or something more human, all of the characters exist on multiple physical and psychological planes. Energetic, thick brushstrokes, graphite, and washy paint hover above judiciously exposed wood grain, leaving the viewer unsure as to whether the narrative is emerging or being absorbed. On a deeper level, the characters exist in a liminal state between the past and present, literature, myth, and Greenwood’s contemporary existence.

Personal narratives are integral to Greenwood’s work. His love story, star charts, and his

dedication to painting after years of working a dual role as arts administrator/painter all influence the content of his work. However, there is never a single, dominating narrative. Greenwood describes his paintings as scenes in a play with actors coming on and off the stage, drawing upon his personal story but also fed by his deep fondness of art history. While each character is uniquely his own, his figures often co-mingle with iconic likenesses from paintings by Matisse, Gainsborough, Hockney, Basquiat, and others. He blends fact and fiction to create new and unauthorized portraits. Ultimately, the pieces function as narratives of personal emotion complicated by a deep and energizing love of paint and the history of art.

Read an interview on his creativity by Melissa Unger with this New York City based artist here.

Now here’s my transformation!

And finally, here’s my finished piece!  Thanks AGAIN for joining me on yet another day of Day of the Artist…I haven’t quite transformed into a beast yet.  At least not physically!  I am definitely feeling a little worn out with the project, but haven’t lost my motivation or enthusiasm.  I don’t plan to!  See you tomorrow on Day Twenty-THREE!  Getting close to an entire month of painting.  I really hope I can do this during my move.

xoxo, Linda