Notebook

Notbook is an informal collection of ideas, paintings and photographs revealing the creative process of contemporary artist Chris Page.

Sky Ecstasy 02.25.2017

Two hours looking west at the Fort River Conservation Area, Hadley MA  2:10–4:02 PM

 

2:12 PM

 

2:59 PM

 

3:23 PM

 

3:28 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking Slowly Toward Dusk 02.22.2017

Part of the series from the winter of 2017 using my old 90mm Leica lens. Walk was between 4:30 and 5:30 at the Fort river Conservation Area

Blue Painting on Sky Walk Photograph

I came across this painting on a digital print from one of my sky walks the other day and decided to photograph it. I am thinking this is going to be the beginning of an extended series of painterly sky works.

 

Blue Painting on Sky Walk Photograph  2016 acrylic on digital print  8.5 x 11 inches

 

Remembering the Incoming Rain

I found this painting on photograph that comes from a walk taken July of 2015 on the grounds of the Clack Art Institute. The walk was part of the exhibition SkyWalk. This did not get exhibited at the time.

Remembering the Incoming Rain,  archival digital print 8.5 x 11 in. 2015

New Show at the BMAC

EYES TOWARD HEAVEN An installation of paintings, photographs and video by Chris Page opens October 28, 2016 5:30–7:30 PM at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center. Show will be up until January 8, 2017

Sky Moment I  acrylic on canvas  6x14 ft. 

Sky Moment I  acrylic on canvas  6x14 ft. 

Cloud Dance 07.18.2016

I am beginning to create images with creative passes in panoramic mode. The arc of the camera is like a single zen gesture. This group of images has become the basis for the show EYES TOWARD HEAVEN at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center that runs from October 28, 2016–January 8, 2017. Images from a twenty five minute period July 18, 2016 4:33–5:08 PM while walking the Fort River Trail, Hadley MA.

July 18, 2016 5:08 PM Hadley, MA

Five Ways of Sky

World of Form, Form in Emptiness, Approaching Emptiness, Emptiness as Void, Emptiness as All Things Visible. This is similar to the ox herding pictures often depicted in Zen arts.

Unfolding Performative Process 400 Million years and Counting

Unfolding Performative Process
400,000,000 years and counting

Soft Gaze Meditation Field.

Experimental work from several years ago using pastel text on a sky photograph. The upper text comes from a combination of internet research and thought awareness that arose during a walk. The bottom text is the optical technique I used for experiencing this particular sky. The blue paint is totally accidental as this was lying around the studio for several years. 

Revisiting Two Painting Sets from 2013

Nine Rhythms Between Dark and Light. This is one of the early sky based sequences, graphite acrylic on paper, 9 x 12 inches each. 

 

Six Sky Rhythms. This is an of the early sky group, acrylic on canvas. Each painting is approximately 54 inches long.

 

Sky Gesture sequence from 2013

 
 

Sky Gesture Sequence 09.09.2013 acrylic on canvas panels, 5 x 42 inches. 

Originally exhibited in 2013 as part of Sky-Time Unbroken Continuities, Hope & Feathers Gallery, Amherst, Massachusetts. 

An early precursor to the twenty foot long painting, Warm Wind 11.109.2016. The painterly success of this piece is calling me to work similarly at a larger scale. Trust in process and incident will be necessary to pull them off.

This work is available: PRICE

Remembering a painting from 2005

White Continuum 2005   acrylic on canvas   30 x 60 inches   ©2005 Chris Page

It is hard to believe that this painting is over 10 years old. My sense of time is losing some of it's coherence, as my memory feels too complex to be useful as an accurate indicator of time. 

Test Post using Williamstown Storm Walk Painting Set

Williamstown Storm Walk—image2

Williamstown Storm Walk—image2

Williamstown Storm Walk—image1

Williamstown Storm Walk—image1

these two photographs of the same artwork I am publishing as a test to see which one shows up in google and to see how long it take before it shows up in google if at all. This image exists in my pagestudios.com site and may take priority.

Early Morning Sky Triggers Painting Memory

Waking up this morning (04.02.2016) there was a thin cloud layer in the sky that revealed a slight bit of light down at the horizon. The field like nature of this painting from 2012 came to mind.

Sky Gesture 1 ©2012 Chris Page

Sky Gesture 1 ©2012 Chris Page

Sky Gesture 1

2012
54 x 84 inches
Acrylic on Canvas

Sky Gesture I uses a rhythmic overlaying of gestural action using the length of my reach as the predominant size of the gesture. The final layer, a very thin wash, includes migrating drips that were allowed to remain visible on the right and lower edges of the painting. In Payne’s gray revealing lavender along the bottom edge, the spatial field appears to optically hover as if not quite synonymous with the picture plane.

Ocean Triptych

Establishing a personal style feels ludicrous yet necessary.
— Chris Page
The photographs look better that the actual paintings. 

The photographs look better that the actual paintings. 

Dark & Light Stripes 04.02.2016—a Walk at Wentworth

This a second set of images from the Evening Sky Walk 04.02.2016 looking west into the sun while walking at Wentworth Conservation Area. 

Small Sky Painting—March 2016

Small painting   acrylic on paper   18 x 24 inches  ©2016 Chris Page

Small painting   acrylic on paper   18 x 24 inches  ©2016 Chris Page

Small Sky Painting was created by over-painting an earlier painting. I am interested in the gap between cloud banks where the orange ground of the sky is revealed. The challenge is how to contend with the inherent figure ground problem of the atmospheric ground. The original soft orange of the ground made for a good chromatic contrast to the gestures using Payne's grey of the top layer. To see some other example of the appearance of this kind of sky gap check out the next entry Dark and Light Stripes.

Returning to Blue o4.15.2015

While walking on April 15.2015 at Wentworth Farm Conservation Area I kept returning my attention to the predominantly cloudless sky for over an hour between 5:35 to 6:40pm. This group of twenty eight photographs documents this walk  (shown below the installation photograph) . 

This work was installed as part of the Sky Walk show in the summer of 2015.

Returning-to-Blue-Chris-Page-Art.jpg