Colleen Barry NYC Artist

Linear Pen Drawings hold ideas in a straight forward way.

“The curve in line helps design”. This is why I initially engage my ideas as simple pen doodles.

MAMA

2022, Process pics with the cartoon drawing and the influence: OUTLAYS collab piece by Warhol and J-M Basquiat

Digesting a Pose

Sometimes I’ll use the same pose over and over in various ways with varying brush work and varying colors to figure out how I want to use a pose in a larger work. There’s an element of play in doing studies, an openness, a non-commitment, and a curiosity which I find to be very important in this stage: to remain curious, to remain open, and to remain non-judgmental while you do your research.

“From prehistory to the end of the Roman Empire, the Great Mother…..

CAMILLE PAGLIA QUOTES:

These quotes (some paraphrased) are taken from various sources, some direct from her book Sexual Personae p. 1990 and from various lectures on YouTube.

“From prehistory to the end of the Roman Empire, the Great Mother never lost her barbarism. She is the ever-changing face of chthonian nature, now savage, now smiling. The medieval Madonna, a direct d...

Study for Stolen Vessel was a Wet into Wet technique and Clarissa Pinkola Estés.

I call this technique "Sombre sur clair". This is French terminology for “dark on light”. I have found that a key feature of interesting mark making when doing dark over light is making sure you’re working into a wet base. See below in this painting by Franz Von Stuck, his soft edge play is attained through having a wet base layer, at some point, that was integrated well into the primary subjects edges. Subsequent glazing layers as well were added.

2025-02-17 14:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post

William Zorach Sculpture and Camille Paglia on the Mother Tribe

Camille Paglia, a cultural critic and feminist scholar, has written extensively about gender, art, and society. In her work, she often discusses the differences between male and female roles, particularly in terms of how women and men interacted within early human societies. One of her key ideas is that women formed tight-knit "tribes" or groups while men were more often involved in individual pursuits, like hunting.

Here are two quotes I found from Paglia’s writings and lectures rega...

I love this arm & Manet on Art

"I do not want to be an imitator of nature, but a painter of modern life."

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."

"In painting, there are two things that count: technique and character."

"I am the first to be shocked at what I do, but I am only following Courbet."

It is reported that Gustave Courbet once compared Édouard Manet's pai...

Michelangelo and Feet Washers

This crouching figure by Michelangelo heavily influenced the Feet Washers painting. Here are more pics of the preparatory studies I made back in 2022.

Manet Quotes Raphael

I am currently obsessed with the Manet figure from his famous painting “Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe” and how he quotes Raphael’s design from a print collab with the engraver Raimondi “The Judgment of Paris”. Its so cool to see how this 19th century artist appropriated the old masters. It’s such a classic pose, and such a modern painting. Makes me feel emboldened to keep looking into history and pulling things out.

The Ground Color is paramount…

Choose the right ground color when deciding if you are making a “color” painting or a “tone” painting. Tonal paintings work better with middle value grounds, or a grey value 7. But more illumination in the final means lighter grounds. Lighter grounds age better.

Refer to the Color Wheel

Refer to your color wheel when making a ground color and when applying subsequent paint layers. Making small oil sketches like this is how I come up with ideas. I have a digital reference image but it only offers me the ghost of an idea. The wheels really start turning when pigments touch canvas.

Catch a Fire progress

This new work is not finished yet. Here are some process shots as it has developed.

Why I make Oil Transfers

I typically make oil transfers for my larger paintings. I like the “redrawn” or “stamped” look to the lines when using paper as opposed to a projector.

FEET WASHERS ÉBAUCHE

This video is from 2022 when I was working on The Feet Washers. Here I am laying in the first pass of the ébauche. (Ébauche is a French word meaning “first draft” or “initial sketch”) I was painting on a very vibrant oil ground subsisting of a mixture of neon yellow (gapka) and cadmium lemon yellow (Michael Harding). Relative to this warmth, my first pass seemed very cool. I am also using lead white, which is quite transparent. This was the most meticulous layering process I have ev...

Candid pics of The Feet Washers during the ébauche stage.

I used a large tv screen to display my reference images on as I worked this large canvas (50x80 inches). The larger screen helped me to see my reference sight-size. I also had a detailed drawing to reference for when I needed a simpler value arrangement. When the ébauche was finally finished, the painting looked pretty good, although it was transparent, and I was kinda exhausted to make a final pass on top, but I did manage it. Ébauche’s take a certain level of stamina on the part of the...

SPIT FIRE PAINTING

I made this work last summer in the heat of July, 2024.

My desire was to somehow encapsulate and blend the influences of artists William Blake (London 1757-1827) and Frank Walter (Antigua 1926-2009). I have included here works by Blake and Walter that I looked at while making this painting. The image of this canine figure was actually taken indirectly from a Roman bronze sculpture (see attached). I call these spirited sketches “release valve” exercises. I always begin with some form...

Form Pass over Grisaille

In this new painting I’m reconnecting with a more historical technique of making a monochromatic grisaille underpainting with the pigments Raw Umber and Lead White on a hand prepared linen. The linen has a Neutral Gray #7 Golden Acrylic Ground. This allows for one opaque pass to be applied with the “Alla Prima” sectional (window shading) approach. Premixing robust piles of paint is very important for this technique (see palette pic).