Second Round of Oils

Citation: Brandon U. Hansen, Second Round of Oils, OmniNerd.com, 26 September 2005, accessed on 12 March 2010 from http://www.omninerd.com/articles/Second_Round_of_Oils
Tags: art

Images of four of the author’s most recent oil paintings with descriptions of their size and media, as well as some behind the scenes information on their inspiration. | 2005-09-26 16:20:39 | 319 |Horizontal Blood

I was in the middle of this painting when my wife, Kari, commented that it looked like "dripping blood." This ad hoc name was later modified when I decided I liked the finished product better rotated 90 degrees from the position in which it was painted.

This painting also has a little extra personality that may not be obvious. Soon after finishing the painting, I was contemplating the "official orientation" and decided to seek Kari’s thoughts. While excitedly showing her one view and then rotating the painting to the next, the painting slipped from my hands and fell face-down towards our beige carpet. At the last moment, I kicked up the corner of the painting and it flipped onto its side. A little paint still got on the couch and the carpet, but the painting was saved – albeit with a nice toenail scrape on the left edge towards the top (i.e., the personality I mentioned earlier).

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border ‘’Horizontal Blood’’. Painted April 2005. Oil on 20″ × 14″ canvas.
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Fiesta Corn

Each "section" of this painting was painted using a different brush stroke. The painting earned its name while it was at an unfinished stage in which the general color scheme screamed Mexican (or fiesta) corn.1 I ended up making some changes that significantly lessened the name’s appropriateness, but it stuck nonetheless.

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border ‘’Fiesta Corn’’. Painted May 2005. Oil on 14″ × 20″ canvas.
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I Hate Settlers

I was inspired to paint this after horribly losing a game of Settlers of Catan.2 Completely unintentionally, the colors used ended up paralleling the colors on the tiles used in the board game. The name isn’t entirely accurate as I do not hate settlers, but the temporary disdain for the game made this piece possible.

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border ‘’I Hate Settlers’’. Painted June 2005. Oil on 20″ × 14″ canvas.
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Dad’s Office

This smaller piece was painted as a gift for my father. As his office is his preferred hang-out, it was designed to be displayed on his desk. However, he cancelled his visit to Houston at the last minute and I have not had another opportunity to give him the gift. Maybe after seeing it in this venue he will reschedule!

On an artsier note, this was the first time I used layers of oil paint. The streaks of yellow are painted with thinned oil paint on top of semi-dried layers of thicker paint.3,4

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border ’’Dad’s Office’’. Painted July 2005. Oil on 8″ × 8″ on canvas.
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1 Fiesta corn looks like this: http://www.pcboriginals.com/user/Fiesta%20corn.jpg and is made like this: http://southernfood.about.com/od/cornrecipes/r/bl30207e.htm.

2 Highly recommended. Can be purchased here: ___http://www.unclesgames.com/product_info.php?ref=3&products_id=1938&affiliate_banner_id=1___.

3 This technique is commonly known as painting fat over lean. More information is available here: http://painting.about.com/cs/oils/a/fatoverlean.htm.

4 Gicleé prints of the paintings displayed herein are available from the author’s website: http://www.artbyhansen.com. Some originals are also available.

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