stevedayton.artist

Getting around to it

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I started this digital painting near the end of October 2020. I fiddled with it some more in 2021 and thought I was finished with it in 2021 and signed it. I had forgotten about it then rediscovered it in 2022 and decided to add some more detail to it. I decided to leave the signed date as 2021. I was poking around in some folders on my tablet recently and here it is.

Spooner’s Cove No. 01
Infinite Painter 7 | Galaxy Tab S7 tablet | 3000 x 3000 pixels
Spooner’s Cove is located in the Montana de Oro State Park on the California central coast, San Luis Obispo County.

8-ball yo yo

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I had been reading about Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, and Kenneth Noland and wanted to see what would happen when I watered down some acrylic house paint and poured it over the surface of a small panel. I came up with this piece and decided to put some kind 8-ball in it and ended up with an 8-ball yo yo. The yo yo is made from two wooden wheels I got from the craft store. The 8 in the white circle is made using the paint transfer technique I often use with the titles.

It was a magical descent into the abyss of disposable 8-ball yo-yos.

Acrylic paint, wood, linen string
10 x 10 x 1.5 inches (25.4 x 25.4 x 3.8 cm)
July 2023

If I had the studio space I would consider this small piece a maquette and do a 100 x 100-inch version with a 20 x 20-inch 8-ball yo yo hanging from it. As the song says “It doesn't cost a dime to dream.”

The title pieces are printed backward. I will coat this printed side with paint and place it painted side down on the art. After the paint is completely dry I will put water on the paper to soften it so it can be rubbed off revealing the type underneath which is no right reading.

On the reverse side of the title bar I pencil in an arrow to mark the center of the title and make sure the title is not upside down when I stick it to the art.

Still hanging around. Part 4

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I set out doing another piece of work with this panel but decided to get rid of what I had done and created another behind the yellow line work completing it in 2016.

The four hand shadow creatures are made of painted fabric pieces backe with heavy paper and fixed or hung on the panel with small screws so they swing freely. The hand at the top is also made of painted fabric and paint transfers. The chair, iron head, and lollypop in a yellow frame are hand constructed from wood.

With the exception of the first yellow line works no one seems to want any of the others. I gave the first one I did to a family member as a gift.

Please stand behind the yellow line. III
Acrylic paint on wood panel, string, cloth, recycled soda pop can, wire, paper
22.25 x 22.25 x 3 inches (56.5 x 56.5 x 7.6 cm)
October 2016

Still hanging around. Part 3

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This work was created nearly six years ago which isn’t a long time. How ever no one seems to be interested in wanting to own it.

The donut image attached to the bread slice made of wood is a paint transfer of an image I took of a glazed donut when I worked in the bakery department of a local grocery store. The bird is part of a discarded craft thing. The bread slice shape in the bird’s beak is made of laminated heavy paper. The yellow wheels were purchased from a craft store. The black base is made of wood covered with some very coarse sand paper then painted black to resemble an asphalt road. The telegraph poles are made from .5 inch thick dowels. The bread slice hangs on the wire with two eye screws. The green and blue paint wrap around the sides of the box.

This image doesn’t show the title which was added at the bottom of the frame.

The only two formal methods of communication left to contemplate.
15.25 x 22 x 3.5 inches (39 x 56 x 9 cm)
September 2018

Still hanging around. Part 2

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This is one of the largest pieces I have made and it is still hanging in my home. I made it eight years ago when I had more space to work in. The panel is made of 1.5 x .5 inch wood and MDF. When the crank on the left is rotated the walking fingers hand attached to it moves back and forth. The other hands on the right side are painted on pieces of muslin fabric backed with some heavy paper. They are attached to the panel with small brads at the top so they swing freely. The small hand shadow shapes on the yellow bar were made by cutting the shapes out of newspaper. Each shape was then painted with yellow paint and adhered paint side down to the yellow bar. After the paint was dry and set I wet the surface of the shapes with water and rubbed the paper off to reveal the black type underneath.

The idea for this one and several others came while waiting at a light rail station for a train to arrive and noticing the yellow strip near the edge of the platform. A voice on the intercom would caution folks now and then to stand behind the yellow line away from the edge of the platform.

Please stand behind the yellow line. II
Acrylic paint on panel, cloth, wire, paper
24 x 33 x 1.75 inches (61 x 84 x 4.5 cm)
October 2016

Still hanging around. Part 1

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I created this tryptic piece twelve years ago when we were living in West Jordan, Utah and it still hasn’t found a good home. It is one of my favorite works. The boxes (rooms) and roof top are made from some old fence slats. The baseboards of the rooms are made from popsicle sticks purchased from a craft store. The body of the snake coming out of the hole in the room at the left is made with a piece of old Christmas tree light wire I acquired some years ago. After all these years I’m still using piece of that wire. I made everything in this piece from scratch.

Guards of the panini maker levitate.
Recycled fence slats, found objects, wire, popsicle sticks, acrylic paint, staples.
13 x 15.625 x 3.375 inches (33 x 40 x 9 cm). 2012.

Playing around with relief printing

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These three relief prints were nothing more than experiments. The plates were created with a material called Sintra that was white and 3mm thick and quite smooth. It could be scored and broken into sections. I used linoleum cutting tools to produced the lines. It was not as easy to work with compared to traditional linoleum or other relief printing materials. The runs on the prints were very small and I never did much with them.

With most of these I used an 1/8 inch thick felt blanket and rolling pin to press the damp paper against the inked plates

I still have a few prints lingering around in a storage box.

A not very successful clean print but a nice solid black.

Yellow, black, and white inks.

Black and yellow inks.

Changing the look of eye screws

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I like to take new eye screws and give them a tarnished and old appearance. It is a simple process of holding an eye screw with needle nose pliers and heating the eye end of the screw with my trusty pen torch till it goes dark and even red hot. Then I dip it in cold water to cool it down. I usually rub the cooled down piece with a paper towel to dry it and it give it a slight polish.

Depending on the metal the look is either a dull gray or a blackish color like the one on the right in the picture.

The butane torch by HONEST.

Another Bakersfield Hills work in progress

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I need to do some more work on the sky and clouds. There are a few other things with foreground and the purple hills in the back that need a little more work.

See the finished painting in the “recent work” gallery of this site.

This will be Bakersfield Hills No. 13 when it is finished. Based on a photo taken in July, 2022. The hills of California are forever brown in the summer.

A few unwanted paintings

I retrieved quite a few unsold paintings from the gallery in Morro Bay a few weeks ago and hung them on the walls of the studio to clear up the crowd of boxes taking up space in the studio. What to do with these paintings that nobody seems to want? Hmm.

The piece with the white matt around it at the right of this image is a photo of Morro Rock by Greg Siragusa all the rest of the pieces are by me.

The pieces on this long wall are my creation except the one at the middle of the image with the white boarder and the small piece with the dark frame at the bottom just above the bed headboard.

Back in the saddle again

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I haven’t done any art work for the past couple of months mostly because of some needful distractions and partly because of a creative slump. I decided I needed to get myself out of this creative fear. So having been inspired by places seen during our recent trip to California, I’m back in the saddle again with some digital painting. Here is a sneak peak at something I started working on today.

All of my digital land and seascape paintings have been squares (3000 x 3000 px). This time I thought I would do a size that I hope will fit a more standard size frame such as a 16 x 20 inch and be easier to frame.

Update August 3rd
You can see the finished piece in the “recent work” gallery of this site.

Bakersfield Hills No. 11 | This one is from a reference picture I took out the car window while my wife was driving east along Hwy 58 through the hills above Bakersfield, California on our way home from Cayucos on the central coast a week ago. It’s late July and the hills above Bakersfield are golden and brown with punctuations of green.

Infinite Painter v7 on a Galaxy Tab S7 | 2880 x 2304 px

The New Studio Layout

I finished my new studio layout project this week. Well I mostly finished it. I still need to get a lamp to light up the work table. I’m also planning on replacing the ceiling fan/light with a track system so I can point various lights to areas of the room along with a smart light switch that I can control with my Nest Hub. I was able to toss some things that have been hanging around and not being used so it feels good to declutter.

Moving from left right: I thought I would need to move the paint rack but it ended up staying. Next to it is the new shelf unit from IKEA. I left the top dividers off so I could make a longer shelf to hold my dowels. Next to it on the adjacent wall is my new computer desk. Then comes the tall shelf unit also from IKEA. And finally the new work table I pickup from Home Depot. It has two shelves under the top. The table top can raise and lower using the crank handle. It is very sturdy.