Got A Piece Of The Rock

This is a story of a painting that I thought was finished re-emerging and finally becoming something far greater that I initially thought it could be. It's also a statement about a painting finding its own way, in spite of my best efforts to get it done simply and quickly. Some images are just determined to make a statement. Finally, its about a project that won't end, no matter how much I want it to.

On a windy and bitter cold Sunday in January 2009 I traveled with my buddy Willie Joe to Laurel Hill Park near Secaucus, NJ, just off of exit 15X on the New Jersey Turnpike. Laurel Hill used to be known as Snake Hill, and it's an unusual geological formation that seems to have been dropped in the middle of a vast swampland on the banks of the Hackensack River. The Turnpike skirts the eastern face, and motorists have for decades been enchanted by this very odd, very graffitied rocky knoll. Folks may also recognize its profile as it served as the visual inspiration for the Prudential Insurance logo.

I have personally been curious about this place, and finally made time to go there and climb it, for the purpose of taking photographs as I began my study of the New Jersey Meadowlands for this project. Many people have climbed it, mainly the local youth, primarily for the purposes of underage drinking and spray painting various illegible words and phrases on it. With Willie holding fast at the foot of the hill, I climbed it, utilizing a rusted fence that wrapped up the steep contour of the north side.

After about 10 minutes I had reached the summit at the south end which offers a perfect 360 degree view as far as the eye can see, as there are no other land formations or large buildings anywhere nearby. The closest obstructions of any size are the Palisades to the east and the New York City skyline just beyond, and city of Newark to the south west. The surrounding windswept landscape was very bleak and very cold, a perfect setting for some amazingly sublime photos.

I started the painting a few months after the trip, and after one sitting I had a completed sketch showing the south view, with the swamp, the Hackensack river and a railroad bridge in the foreground, the city of Kearny, NJ in the mid ground, and the Pulaski Skyway outlining the horizon in the distance. I put the painting aside and started another, and it sat for almost four years.

I pulled the painting out, and even offered it for sale, as I was satisfied by the sketch, as it had a nice, painterly, impressionistic quality and said everything I felt it needed to say. Shortly after, I took it out for a studio visit by a gallery curator, and she asked me if I had planned on finishing the painting. From that point on, it took on a life of its own and became what it is today.

Its interesting to note that I had officially declared this project over, until this and two other paintings from that 2009 trip made re-appearances in my studio. I still feel that the project is done, but my needs have changed. I'll need new paintings for some other events I have coming up, and this project still has plenty of unused material for subject matter.

See below, Kearny, 30" x 48", oil on canvas, then (2009) and now (2013).

Another One Down

This project was supposed to end, but it keeps on trekking forward. Two nights ago I finished the first of two views of the summit of Snake Hill, which is the image at the bottom of this post. The other image is a view looking south from Snake Hill. I wasn't going to work on it anymore, I liked the unfinished, impressionist look of it. But I had a studio visit from Off The Wall Gallery, who will be showing my work with two other artists in March.

The curator said she would like to see it finished, so I guess I'll get back into it. It has "MG 09" in the lower corner, so almost 4 years ago I did the initial paint sketch you see here. I signed it a few months ago when I posted it to my Zatista store. It will be a little unusual, I think, to go back and finish something I started so long ago, and I've never gone back in and touched a painting after signing it.

The show will be called the Mary Liz Memorial Masters Exibit 9. It will feature myself, along with Robert Bohné and Jim Montgomery, and it will be hung on March 2 and will run until April 12. Opening Reception will be Thursday, April 13 from 7 to 10 PM at Dirty Franks, 13th and Pine Streets, Philadelphia, PA.

For the record, the completed image on the bottom goes by the following moniker...

Matthew Green, Snake Hill Summit #1, 22" x 36",  oil on canvas, 2013

Fo' Rizzle Ma Nizzles

The paintings you see in the images below are based on photos taken at the top of Snake Hill in northern New Jersey, alongside the New Jersey Turnpike off of exit 15X, near the Secaucus Junction rail station.

It all started here. My first visit to the New Jersey Meadowlands began with a trip to and subsequent climbing of Snake Hill. It was January 2009. It was cold. The view from the top of that hill is pretty amazing, since there are absolutely no obstructions in any direction. No tall buildings anywhere nearby. The only large land formations are the Palisades a few miles to the east and the Watchung Mountains far in the west. A perfect panoramic view of one of the weirdest places in the known universe.

These paintings represent the last of the Five Miles From Times Square series. Soon this blog will be renamed as the project will be officially finished. Some new venture will take its place, and this blog will take on a new meaning.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Thanks.

Updates

There's been some recent good news and positive activity in my art world recently. It seems like so much has happened so quickly and I'm about to get considerably busier in the upcoming months.

I've sold a nice chunk of work thanks to a fire sale I've been having in my store on Zatista.com and from other sources. Lots of canvases old and new have moved, which will make room for new work. Unfortunately, the walls in my home are becoming harder to cover!

I was recently contacted by the kind folks at Off The Wall Gallery at Dirty Franks asking if I would be interested in participating in a show this spring called the Mary Liz Memorial Masters Exhibition, which will run from March 3 until April 19, 2013. It's a show that will feature 3 selected artists, so I suppose that means they consider me to be among the masters who have previously shown there. A date for the opening reception has not been scheduled yet, but it will most likely be the first or second Thursday in March.

They have also asked me to be named a Mary Liz Fellow. I am honored to be a part of this fellowship and will post details of that in the upcoming weeks. The only down side of all of this is that they are coming to my studio sometime in February to choose work for the show. Since so much of my work has been selling, I'm finding myself for the first time to be short on available pieces. It looks like I'll have to kick it into high gear to get something ready from March.

Lastly, I just submitted an application to participate in an open studio tour organized by a local arts organization called 4 Towns 4 Art. The towns included are Collingswood, Oaklyn, Haddon Township and Haddonfield in southern New Jersey. I think I can say with confidence that I will be accepted for participation in this event.

The tour will take place on Saturday, April 6, 2013 from 11am until 6pm. It is open to the public, and anyone reading this is welcome to take the ride out and see the creative process in action. The only downside to this for me, again, is my current shortage of paintings for sale and display. Works will be available for purchase by the public, and there will be work in progress in the studio. Don't expect me to be wearing my Sunday Best as I plan on painting while people are visiting!

As a final note, I think it's worth mentioning that I have updated my website, mgreenartist.com to reflect all of the events of the past few months. Feel free to check it out.

Look for more updates as the dates approach for these events.

Who Speaks For The Water

Formerly called Bad Water, this painting's title was inspired by a blog post I wrote about a year and a half ago. I completely forgot that the photo I used at the beginning of that post is the same one from which I did the painting. The water was putrid in that lagoon. My brother and I were separated from it by an eighth of an inch of fiberglass. Get in a canoe and go there. Go into any little lagoon along the Hackensack River. You'll appreciate the pristine clear liquid that flows from the tap in your sink. Consider that the fact that the water in that lagoon used to be just as crystal clear, before civilization turned it into a sewer.

My only disappointment about this painting is that I wasn't able to fully capture the greazy film that was floating on the surface of the water. It was everywhere. It's lethal to anything that lives. It's gonna find its way into your body by way of the food chain. It will be in all of the food you eat. Your babies will be drinking it in trace amounts. If you're a mother it will be in your breast milk. Male or Female, it will be somewhere in your body. It may give you cancer.

I finished this painting in 22 sittings, and I captured each night's work and posted them here. The first one shows the original photo and an unpainted canvas with my pencil sketch, and you can follow the progress from there. I won't put links to all of them, but its easy enough to scroll through. I plan on making a video like the one I did for Xanadu, but maybe after Thanksgiving.

So here it is, the final photo:

Matthew Green, Who Speaks For The Water, 30" x 48", oil on canvas, 2012

Bad Water 22 - Done...

This painting is done. Time to move on. "Official" photo coming soon. No real title as of yet. Meanwhile I'm finishing this wine. Celebration time... 

Bad Water 21 - Growing Weary

I'm not weary of this painting. In fact, it's exactly the opposite. I'm in the beginning of a Fall Surge. Usually I wind things down in the fall and close up the studio for the holidays, but not this year. I've been distracted lately by other things, such as order fulfillment and Superstorm Sandy. Tonight was a re-emergence, and I think this thing is close to finished. New material is on the hopper and I'm feeling energized early heading into my January Zen period.

I'm weary of posting this painting each time I work on it. It's getting old. This blog is getting old. I think its time to close up shop, shut it down, kill it before it multiplies. I think this project is also coming to an end. I never got the grant money I was seeking and now its 3 years on and I need to find something else to pursue. I have some ideas on new subject matter and its nothing to do with The Meadowlands.

And I need a real title for this painting. I'm just not feeling Bad Water anymore. Gotta dig deep for that.

For what its worth, here's Bad Water 21....