Warren Criswell's Studio

Home..... Studio.....Paintings.....Watercolors.....Sculpture

Prints.....Animations.....Videos.....Drawings.....Exhibitions & awards

Collections.....Essays.....Reviews....M2 Gallery

Criswell on Facebook..........Search...........Contact

sculpture WORKS IN PROGRESS videos

Here is my third right-handed attempt at a new painting since my stroke:

skyscape Early April 2022 oil on canvas 16 x 12 inches

3/19/2021 Almost a year ago I wrote this:
Okay, so I have nothing in progress at present. Since finishing the painting below, Epilogue, a year after my stroke, I have continued trying to get my left hand working again and trying to learn to draw and paint wih my right hand, but with maddeningly little progress. And the muse has apparently dumped me. Bitch. What comes after an epilogue? But if and when I start something new it will appear here. 6/17/2020
And now, finally, I am attempting a new painting, "Waiting" Been working on this little thing for weeks of right-handed fumbling, not sure I'll ever finish it to my satisfaction. But I promised I would put any new attempt here, so here it is so far. 3/19/2021

Waiting 3/18/21, oil on canvas, 10 x 16 inches, in progress?

The old dude on his cane is me, waiting for the sunset, for my left hand to work again, and for my muse to get her ass back here where she belongs. The crow, as usual, is waiting for me to die.

OK, this may be it:

Waiting, 4/5/2021, oil on canvas, 10 x 16 inches

ALSO CHECK ME OUT ON SAATCHI ART.

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

8/6/19

8/9/19

9/16/19

11/19/19

11/21/19

11/22/19

11/25/19

12/5/19

12/14/19

Epilogue (the Red Giant), oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches, in progress
In a few billion years, long after we humans have wiped ourselves out or left the planet, the sun will begin its last gasp, burning its helium and expanding into a red giant, swallowing Mercury, Venus and Earth. In my version a cockroach has survived to watch it happen.

12/14/19
OK. I actually finished it.

7/30/18 (charcoal & pastel)

8/1/18 (acrylic grisaille underpainting)

8/2/18 (oil)

8/11/18

8/4/18

Devices, oil on canvas, 24 x 48 inches, in progress

I didn't know this when I started this painting, but it turns out that that's a Himalayan Salt Lamp over our bed. Himalayan salt is used to make sole (pronounced solay), which is water that has been fully saturated with a natural salt. But here's the kicker: the name comes from the Latin "Sol," the sun....

Then on researching Himalayan salt, I find out it comes from End-Permian salt beds which formed at the bottom of the primal Tethys Sea, dried up some 250 million years ago by a scorching Sol, and then over the next few hundred million years was shoved up into the Himalayas as India crashed into Asia. The End-Permian apocalypse was caused mostly by CO2 released by enormous eruptions of basalt by volcanoes in Russia, creating a poisonous hothouse that acidified the oceans and killed almost all life on Earth, just as humans are now doing by burning fossils - actually releasing CO2 at a faster rate than those Pangean volcanoes did. And the high water temperatures in the Permian ocean (higher than 100 degrees F.) would have generated hypercanes, "continent-sized hurricanes-from-hell, with 500-mile-per-hour winds ...,"* one of which had already turned up on the dark side of the burning and flooded Anthropocene Earth which had strangely materialized in my painting.... Go figure.

*That quote is from the book the old dude in the painting is reading, The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions by Peter Brannen.

7/21/18
7/24/18a. Had to paste another sheet on
the left side. Widescreen! 11 x 21 inches

7/24/18b

7/25/18. And another on the right side. A 180 degree view now! 11 x 22 inches.

Moving Earth & Moon.
(In this video I totally screw up the bookshelf behind the Earth,
but I fixed it later.)

Devices, 2018, pencil & white charcoal on butcher paper, 11 x 22 inches

Bug on the Floor, first sketch, 7/14/18, graphite, ballpoint & white charcoal,
6½ x 5¼ inches
7/15/18

To paint the boards on this laminate (fake hardwood) flooring in the dining room I needed a physical vanishing point to fasten a string to. But it turned out to be so high that I had to construct the apparatus shown here. The vanishing point is way up at the very top of that attached board.

7/17/18
7/17/18
7/23/18

7/19/18

Bug on the Floor, watercolor, 30 x 23 inches

7/3/18 7/3/18
7/14/18

I had wanted to paint this on a larger canvas, but all I had at the time was an 18 x 24 (see below) and I was afraid if I waited I would lose it, and besides, I had no idea how to paint those water drops, so #1438 was sort of a trial run. Now I have a 30 x 40 and am starting over.

Warren 7/5/18

7/4/18
7/5/18

7/7/18
7/11/18

Drain, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, in progress

6/25/18
6/25/18

7/03/18

I don't know, so don't ask. After several months with no new images, only a few reincarnations of old ones, so that I was really beginning to accept that the muse had left me for good, this is what she brought me. I was in the upstairs bathroom filling my watering can for my tomatoes' afternoon drink, when my eyes suddenly focused on the bottom of the sink, where fallen drops of water from the faucet were reflecting the overhead light in strange ways. Something I had never seen before! Just when I thought I had seen everything worth seeing and there was nothing more to discover and therefore nothing more to paint. When I started to draw it, I saw the spiral curling into the drain. The dead bug seemed to animate it all somehow, but I have no clue to what, if anything, it might mean as an image.

So that night I dreamed of another painting. "Again, Mr. Benny?!" This one also had some kind of sink in it, but in the foreground was a landscape, a highway, the kind of thing I've painted way too many times, but this looked different somehow. But when I tried to sketch it the next day, I realized it was the same image! So I started painting. I don't even know what the title is. But a desperate artist doesn't question the muse. You just paint the damn thing.

"Only one thing in art is valid - that which cannot be explained." Marcel Duchamp

(However, if you want a deep reading of this image - an explanation of the unexplainable - by a well informed viewer, check this out.)

Warren 6/28/18

6/26/18

6/27/18

5/28/18

6/30/18

#1438, acrylic & oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches

After failing twice to make a print of Fly Me to the Moon, like Sisyphus I decided to try again. Here is the result. It is a linocut, basically, but part of it (the tree) is printed intaglio over a base printed in relief and a pastel enhanced sky. Plus the collaged leaves. So each one will be a little different--but then so are all my prints.

June 7, 2018

Fly Me to the Moon, 2018, linocut with pastel, collage & other stuff,
image 10 x 7 inches

Key block

Ground block

Color block

Intaglio block

And then there's this one, an artist's proof, in which the leaves began to evolve ...

Fly Me to the Moon, 2018, linocut, a.p. 1/1

Overpass, 2018, oil on canvas, 40x 30 inches
Eat Now (Again), 2018, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches

Fly Me to the Moon, watercolor, 30 x 23 inches

Fly Me to the Moon, 2017, oil & collage on canvas, 40 x 30 inches
Installation view of Fly Me to the Moon

8/7/17, 5 x 7 inches
8/25/17, 5 x 7 inches
8/25/17, 5 x 7 inches

After telling Margueritte in a letter that I was burnt out, I got up and made that first sketch to illustrate how I felt. The rest followed in a tortuous series of frustrations and failures. I thought it might be my last painting because I might never finish it. But then on Oct. 7, Saturday evening, I had a breakthrough. The thing suddenly caught fire! So I decided to try to finish it.

9/30/17

10/15/17

10/10/17

Burnout, 2017, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

9/4/17	9/7/17
9/5/17
Ghosts, watercolor, 23 x 30 inches

Found this little watercolor in a box of old cards, this one a Christmas card from 2008 of my wife and me walking in snow out by the pond ...

... and even though I didn't know why this ghostly image grabbed me (100 degrees F. outside with a solar eclipse approaching), I finally decided to make a print of it. I guess, besides depicting ghosts, the print itself is a kind of ghost of the original watercolor. Ghosts all the way down. (8/21/17)

2 of 12, 8/21/17, the day of the eclipse

Ghosts, 2017, 3-color linocut, image 7 x 10 inches

Key block	1 of 11, 6/20/17
Ground block
A Man Following a Woman with a Dog in Norwood Creech & Tri Watkins' Driveway, 2017, 2-color linocut, image 7 x 10 inches

A Man Following a Woman with a Dog in Norwood Creech & Tri Watkins' Driveway, 6/16/17, watercolor & pastel on recycled paper, 5 x 7 inches On June 4 Norwood Creech posted this photo on Facebook, saying the light reminded her of Warren Criswell's paintings:

David Bailin warned her that Criswell might steal that image from her, and so of course I had to take up the challenge. I did that drawing as a joke, but then it sort of grew on me, and now I'm making a linocut from it. (See above.)

Sailor's Delight, 2017, 3-color linocut, image 7 x 10 inches, t.p. 1 of 6

Sailor's Delight, 2017, watercolor, 23 x 30 inches

5/18/17
5/19/17

Sailor's Delight, 2017, oil on panel, 13 x 18 inches

As the Crow Flies, 2017, 3-color linocut with pastel, image 10 x 7 inches

Smoke, 2017, 2-color linocut with pastel, image 7 x 10 inches

This was image inspired by "The Half-Finished Heaven," a poem by Tomas Tranströmer, which ends with these two lines:

The water is shining among the trees.
The lake is a window into the earth

Half-Finished Hell, 2017, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches

Mid-Autumn Festival, 2017, 3-color mini-linocut,
image 2 3/8 x 1 3/4 inches

10/10/16 First sketch

Autumn Leaves, 2016, watercolor & collage, 30 x 23 inches

I tried to make a print of this before but failed. After listening to the song again - via a video of Dietrich Fischer-Diskau and Alfred Brendel, sent to me by Lisa Bostic on Facebook - I thought I might try it again.

Vapor Trails (der Leiermann), 9/20/16, linocut with pastel, image 7 x 10 inches, 1 of 12

While I was waiting for those to dry completely so I could do the "post-production" work on them, working on my studio catalog, I stumbled upon another pole dancer, this one less vaporous, an old drawing from 1996, Rita. Comparing the drawing to the lioncut I made from it, I noticed some things I seemed to have missed when translating the drawing to the print.... That was a traditional linocut, made long before I invented the "Criswell Linocut," so I decided to make another version of it using my present methods.

First I ran it with 2 blocks, white over black...

9/29/16

But then I cut a 3rd block and overprinted a red glaze.

10/1/16

Rita, 2016, 3-color linocut, image 5 x 7 inches

Blind Man's Bluff, 2016, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

Summer Solstice, 2016, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

4/27/16 Preliminary sketch

Video

Götterdämmerung (or The End), oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches

Working on "And now you're even older"
"And now you're even older," 6/7/16, monotype,
image 10.5 x 8 inches

And now you're older still!

Ticks Crossing, 2016, cover art for Steve Whiteaker's next CD,
oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches

Smoke, 2016, watercolor, 23 x 30 inches

Smoke, 2016, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches

Oracle, 2016, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches

Winter Solstice, 2016, watercolor, 23 x 30 inches

Vapor Trails (Hurdy-Gurdy Man), 2015, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches
Vapor Trails (der Leiermann), 2015, watercolor, 23 x 30 inches

color block (orange)

ground block (black)

key block (white)

Mid-Autumn Festival, 3-color linocut, image 10 x 7 inches, edition of 12

Two Buzzards, 2015, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches

Key block	T.P., 9/14/15
Ground block
Dark Road, 2-color linocut, image 10 x 7 inches

Girls & Gulls, 8/26/15, acrylic, oil & pencil on paper, 30 x 23 inches

Crescents, oil on canvas, 2015, 20 x 16 inches
Crescents, 2015, watercolor, 30 x 22 inches
Crescents, 2015, 3-color linocut, image 10 x 7 inches

Venus and Jupiter are again in conjunction, and even though I recorded their last encounter in 2012 with an oil, watercolor and print, I felt obliged to do it again. This was the lineup around June 25, a crescent Venus, Jupiter, Regulus (in Leo) and the crescent moon tracing a larger crescent in the western sky. The woman appeared as I was applying the final glaze. A complete surprise! 7/12/15

As the Crow Flies, 2015, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches

Flash Flood, 2015, 2-color linocut with watercolor,image 7 x 10 inches
Two Transients, 2015, 3-color linocut,
image 7 x 10 inches

Two Transients, 4/17/15, pencil & white charcoal on tan paper, 9 x 13 inches
Nocturne, 2015, 3-color linocut,
image 5 x 7 inches

Sketch (inspired by JMW Turner), 2/1/15

Trial proof 6/10, 2/16/15

Trial proof 5/10, 2/10/15

Revelation, 2015, linocut, image 7 x 10 inches

It Took Four Vultures, 2014, watercolor,
30 x 23 inches
Never Look a Crow in the Eye, 2014, watercolor, 30 x 23 inches

Spider, 2014,watercolor & box cutter on paper,
30 x 23 inches

Arc, 2014, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches

The Secret Sharer, oil on canvas,
20 x 16 inches, detail
The Secret Sharer, 2014, oil on canvas & wood panel,
34 x 25½ inches

(If you want to see how this image evolved, click here.)

The Secret Sharer, 2014, linocut, image 10 x 7 inches, edition of 12

Key block
9 of 10, 4/20/14

Ground block

Alignment (6 AM), 2014, 3-color linocut, image 10 x 7 inches
(For a demo video of the making of this linocut, go here.)

4/13/14

Alignment (6 AM), 2014, watercolor, 32 x 23 inches

A Man Following a Woman in Dark Woods, 2014, oil on canvas,
30 x 40 inches

Key block

1 of 12, 12/28/13

Ground block (with counterproof of keyblock)

A Man Following a Woman in Dark Woods, 2013, 2-color linocut, image 7 x 10 inches,
edition of 12

1st sketch, 10/19/13, pencil on paper,
4 x 5 inches

12/8/13

A Man Following a Woman in Dark Woods, animation in acrylic, pastel & charcoal on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

7/5/13

7/7/13
7/15/13

7/13/13

7/14/13

Go Ask Alice, 2013, clay sculpture in progress, 18 x 18 x 5 inches

(Warren working on Alice)

The key block

4 or 12, 5/28/13

The ground block

Conjunction, 2-color linocut, image 10 x 7 inches

Two minimonotypes, 5/20/13, image 1¾ x 2¼ inches

The key block

1 of 10

The ground block

Go Ask Alice, 2013, 2-color linocut, image 7 x 10 inches, edition of 10

Kayla in the Window, studies in natural light, 5/5/13, pencil & chalks on tan paper, 24 x 18 inches

Go Ask Alice, 2013, watercolor, 23 x 30 inches

Go Ask Alice, 2013, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

Kayla 1, 4/8/13, graphite & white charcoal on tan paper,
7 x 9 inches

Kayla 2, 4/8/13, graphite & white charcoal on tan paper,
9 x 12 inches
Go Ask Alice, 4/23/13, chalks on tan laid paper, 18 x 24 inches

The Moon & Six Cents, 2013, watercolor, 30 x 23 inches
The Moon and Six Cents, 2013, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches
The Moon & Six Cents, 2013, 3-color linocut,image 9¾ x 7¼ inches,
edition of 10

CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR A DEAD DOG

I found this block while attempting to clean up around my press yesterday. Apparently I had never tried to print it, maybe never finished it, but I liked the way it looked. I remember drawing this on the lino while Skipper (a Schipperke), who died a year later, was sleeping on the floor in my studio in 2007. So I cut a ground block for it and printed it today--a small edition of 5, the same number of years it took to make it. Now I can frame one of them and put it beside Skipper's urn.
12/10/12

Skipper, 2007-2012, linocut in 2 colors,
image 5 x 3 inches

Naked Dreams, 2012, terracotta,
18 x 11 x 3 inches
The Temple of the Muse, or Butthead, 2012, terracotta,
12 x 9 inches horizontal,
11 inches vertical

Wild Geese, 11/5/12, 2-color linocut, image 9¾ x 7¼ inches, 2 of 10
Wild Geese II, 2013, oil on canvas,
24 x 18 inches

Wild Geese I, 2012, watercolor, 28 x 22 inches

Sketch for "Wild Geese," 10/16/12, graphite & pastel
on tan paper, 12 x 9 inches

Sleep Reading, 8/22/12, monotype, image
8 x 10 ½ inches
Sleep Reading, 2012, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches

Sleep Reading, 2-color linocut,
image 5 x 7 inches, edition of 12

Aristeas, 1996, oil on wood,
24 x 17 inches

A Dryad in the Headlights, 6/5/12, graphite & chalk on green laid paper, 22 x 12 inches

Nature Morte: Gnat Traps, watercolor,
23 x 15 inches

A Dryad in the Headlights, 6/16/12, 3-color linocut,
image 7 x 5 inches, edition of 10

Simone Jumps! 2012, bronze, 19 x 12 x 13 inches

Angry Birds I, 2012, terracotta,
7 inches high

Psyche, 2012, terracotta,
17 x 13 x 3 inches
Angry Birds II, 2012, terracotta,
17 inches high

2/11/12

2/13/12

2/11/12

Sketches for "Death and the Maiden," graphite & white charcoal on buff paper,
12 x 9 inches

Black Stockings XXI, 12/1/11, monotype on buff paper, image 7 x 5 inches,
Up Close & Personal, 12/2/11, monotype on buff paper, image 5 x 7 inches

Black Stockings XXIa, 12/1/11, monotype ghost on white rice paper, image 7 x 5 inches

LOST AND FOUND

Concerto, 2001 - 2011, oil on linen, 9 x 12 inches (sold)

I found this canvas in my closet the other day, begun from a sketch I did at an ASO concert back in 2001 but never finished. So I finished it--or as finished as it's going to get--I like the sketchiness of the underpainting so I left most of it, over-painting only the center. I know it was David Itkin conducting but I can't remember who the piano player was or what concerto they were playing. So it took 10 years to paint this picture.

RELIEF ETCHING

I'm reading Joseph Viscomi's book, Blake and The Idea of the Book, in which the author tries to reconstruct the obscure printmaking methods Blake used to produce his Illuminated Books. Relief etching looked pretty easy--a sort of reverse process like my linocuts--so I decided to give it a try. Oh, easy for William!

11/12/11, painting on copper plate
11/12/11, varnished plate with fine lines drawn with needle
11/15/11, 5th proof with watercolor

This was only a test-- just to see if it would work. Not as easy to draw and paint on copper with asphaltum as it looked in the book. The varnish wanted to spread out on the plate, refused to hold a line. Aj Smith told me the varnish wasn't thick enough, and it turned out he was right. But then I had trouble ethching the plate because my nitric bath was old and produced no bubbles, so I tried some old ferric chloride (it's been, like, 10 years since I've done any etching) and that worked pretty well--too well, in fact, since I got some foul biting in the dark areas--but it bit the fine lines pretty well. Until I get some more acid I don't have a strong enough mordant to bite the large open areas, like the back of the woman picking up a rock. I had to wipe that out with a rag before printing. But I think I might like this technique.

11/14/11, 1st proof, with watercolor
11/14/11, 2nd proof, with watercolor

11/15/11, 3rd proof

11/15/11, 3rd proof with watercolor

Woman Picking Up a Rock, relief etching with watercolor, 6 x 4¼ inches