Studio sale

Making room for more art

Aug 19, 2023

The gallery which has hosted some of my art will be closing its doors soon. It has been a great experience, I met some wonderful folks.

A box arrived with what remains of my 2020 Uniqlo series. These paintings mark the first steps in my current painting practice of mixing printed digital art with real actual paint. I wrote about these paintings back when I participated in a local art walk.

Prepping for an Art Walk

Michael Barrett

July 18, 2021

I’m participating in the St. Johns Art Walk this year. I’ve been a little bit anxious if this is the “right” venue for my work, but friends and family have been encouraging. One friend remarked “better to let the venue determine that” and that was good advice.

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Each painting is 12ʺ ✕ 12ʺ (the size of a vinyl record), acrylic, inkjet, and mixed media on canvas mounted on wood panel. The panels are 1ʺ thick, and ready to hang.

I’m offering these for $50, including shipping costs.

I’d love to give these paintings a new home. If you’re interested, please drop me a line at mb @ abouthalf.com

Over the shoulder 1 and 3

These were the first attempts at this series. Number 3 has a great visual effect caused by both the printer heads clogging and running out of two colors at the same time. I love how the “language” of the printer comes through.

Winter sky 1 and 2

With these two paintings I wanted to upset expectations by putting elements in the wrong places, with the wrong colors. The sun is blue, the figure is upside down.

Sunrise 2

This is a riff on “Winter sky” - but I’m allowing some photography to sneak in. The upside down skyline becomes a sort of reflection in a pond.

Denim Jacket 1

In this painting I started to let some of the sketchy elements sneak through. Usually when I make a digital painting, I have several layers of sampled colors, quick sketches, and reference lines to help me line up the figure. Here those begin to peek through.

Hooded 1

In “Hooded 1” I began to bring in shapes beyond simple geometric shapes. The circles and squares in the other paintings referenced logos and color options in clothing ads. Now I have a cold-front and a giant jelly bean invading her space. Good thing she has a jacket.

Beanie 2

This is one of the last in this series. At this point I started showing the underdrawing and color palette for the painting along with the paint. Here the bright blue squares are sort of the inverse of the Uniqlo logo.