The Drop Cloth Series: 2013, 2017, 2019

---

After the fire left me without a place to work, a studio was made available to me for a couple of months in 2013. Unfortunately, at that time paint was in short supply and cash was non existent. Fifteen mildly dimensional wood forms were covered with used house painter's drop cloth canvas and the painting continued until the supplies were exhausted. Another twenty designs never entered the production stage.

Few of those 2013 pieces survived time and events. Most were lost due to storage shortages. Several were cut down and totally repainted in 2017. Of those, several were over painted again in 2019. Additionally, fragments of other drop cloth paintings were utilized in some of the small, newer works.

above:  Cul-de-Sac Action

2013/17

34" x 64.5" x 3" 

Acrylic paint and resin on used drop cloth canvas mounted on wooden form. 

above: The Painter's Parallax View

2013/19

45" x 60" 

Acrylic paint, house painter's roller stick, paint stirring stick, rope, on used drop cloth canvas. 

above: The Passaic Painter's Archaic Smile

2013/17

approx 50" x 50"

Acrylic paint, electrical cord, house painter's tray and roller, masking tape on canvas drop cloth.

above: Arrangement in Black and Grey No. 2 (Portrait of the Artist's Mother) 

2013: constructed and painted.

2017: cut down on four sides and totally repainted around June. Repainted again in October.

2019: Repainted in final form.

26" x 26.5" x 3.5"

Acrylic paint on used house painter's drop cloth canvas, wood picture frame, copper pipe. 

above: Painting of an Unpublished Pictogram

2013/17/19

24" x 26" x 3"

Acrylic paint, brushed, dripped, sprayed, wood, nylon mesh, string, steel pipe on used house painter's drop cloth canvas.  (private collection) 

above: Tripping the Light Fantastic. 

2013

51" x 85" 

Acrylic paint on multiple house painter's drop cloths. 

In 1983 I was visiting Kenneth Noland’s studio. Ken was happily sharing his new paintings with us and in good form. A bottle of champagne was opened. 30 years later, as I developed a new body of work, I recalled this visit with amusement and decided to commemorate the event by incorporating a Noland motif into one of my paintings.

Life, in recent years, was a chain of challenging situations. There was a family health care crisis involving a long term terminal illness. Concurrent to this period was a catastrophic business failure. This was immediately followed by a number of losing business ventures, and another long term terminal illness. Next the house and studio burnt down. Finally, the remaining remnant of the investments soured. Down to the last of my painting supplies, and about to lose the studio before this series could be completed, I remembered Kenneth Noland’s toast—“Here’s to not living in poverty.”

Since working with rectangles and their derivatives comes naturally to me, I chose to work with Noland’s concentric circle motif because it was radically different from my own, and would therefore be the most challenging. The exercise was enjoyable and artistically fruitful.

A toast to Ken. “Thanks for the memory and the inspiration,” Paul.