Living off the Grid

2012-01-11T13:55:00.000-08:00

Title: "Stanfield's Farm"

Charcoal & Acrylic on Paper

66 x 44.5 inches

Year: 2011

Michael Cross

2011-11-09T11:51:00.000-08:00

Title: "Tributary 2"

Acrylic, Charcoal, China Pencil on Paper

66 x 44.5 inches

2011

2011-09-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

Title: "Tree Frog"

Acrylic on Canvas

28.62 x 31.62 inches

Year: 2011

Artist: Michael Cross

2011-09-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

Title: "Take To"

Acrylic on Canvas

28.5 x 33.25 inches

2011

2011-09-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

Finished this painting on Labor Day Weekend 2011:

Title: "Triple Digit"

acrylic on canvas

2011

2011-08-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

This piece and the previous post were created at [Press] at Untitled in Oklahoma City, August 20 & 21, 2011:

Title: "Red Clay August"

monoprint

28 x 22 inches

artist: Michael Cross

2011-08-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

Title: "Oklahoma City Piece"

monoprint

28 x 22 inches

2011-08-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

Title: " August Dawn "

acrylic on canvas

31.25 x 30.50 inches

year: 2011

artist: Michael Cross

2011-08-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

Title: " August Dusk "

31.75 x 31 inches

acrylic on canvas

Year: 2011

Artist: Michael Cross

2011-04-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

Title: "Aguirre Springs"

Medium: Acrylic on Matboard

Size: 8 x 8 inches

Year: 2011

Artist: Michael Cross

2011-04-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

Title: "Las Cuevas"

Medium: acrylic on matboard

Size: 8 x 8 inches

Year: 2011

Artist: Michael Cross

2011-04-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

Title: "Near Summer Two"

acrylic & graphite on matboard

Size: 8 x 8 inches

Year: 2011

Artist: Michael Cross

2011-04-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

Title: "Near Summer One"

acrylic & graphite on matboard

8 x 8 inches

2011

Artist: Michael Cross

2011-04-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

"Coaltown #1"

Charcoal & Acrylic on Paper

8.5 x 5.5 inches

2011-03-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

Five of the "Translucent Series" pieces are now available for custom prints through Fine Art America. Here are links to two of my favorites, one from 2010 and one from 2011:

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/june-one-six-michael-cross.html

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/january-one-two-michael-cross.html

2011-01-13T14:13:00.000-08:00

Title: "January 12, 2011"

Acrylic, Gesso, Graphite on Translucent Paper

8.5 x 8.5 inches

2011-01-11T11:58:00.000-08:00

Title: "January 9, 2011"

Acrylic, Graphite, Collage on Translucent Paper

8.5 x 9.0 inches

2011-01-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

Title: "Drawing Straws" 2011

Acrylic on Canvas

54 x 69 inches

Year: 2011

Artist: Michael Cross

2010-12-29T12:58:00.000-08:00

Title: "December 29, 2010"

Acrylic & Graphite on Translucent Paper

8 x 8 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

Year: 2010

2010-12-18T13:09:00.000-08:00

Title: "December 18, 2010 #2"

Acrylic on Translucent Paper

7 x 7 inches

Year: 2010

Artist: Michael Cross

2010-12-18T13:02:00.000-08:00

Title: "December 18, 2010 #1"

Acrylic on Translucent Paper

7 x 7 inches

Year: 2010

Artist: Michael Cross

2010-12-16T13:19:00.000-08:00

Title: "December 15, 2010"

Acrylic on Translucent Paper

7.5 x 7.5 inches

Year: 2010

Artist: Michael Cross

2010-12-15T08:04:00.000-08:00

Title: "December 14, 2010"

Acrylic on Translucent Paper

6 x 6 inches

Year: 2010

Artist: Michael Cross

2010-12-12T14:16:00.000-08:00

Title: "December 11, 2010"

Acrylic on Translucent Paper

7.50 x 7.25 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

2010-12-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

"December 7, 2010"

acrylic & graphite on translucent paper

6 x 6 inches

2010-09-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

Title: "Pylon"

Acrylic on Canvas

20 x 19.25 inches

Year: 2010

Custom prints are available from Fine Art America

2010-08-28T16:59:00.000-07:00

Title: " Blackjack Oak "

Acrylic on Canvas

20 x 19.25 inches

Original available: www.michaelcrossgallery.com

Custom prints available: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/blackjack-oak-michael-cross.html

2010-08-10T10:54:00.000-07:00

Title: "Back in the Sticks"

Acrylic on Canvas

43.0 x 42.5 inches

This original painting is also available now as a custom-sized print on canvas or on archival quality paper, framed or unframed.

Available directly through: Fine Art America

2010-08-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

Title: "Cirri"

Acrylic on Canvas

42.5 x 42.25 inches

Now available as a custom-sized print on canvas or archival paper, framed or unframed.

Through Fine Art America

2010-07-04T09:44:00.000-07:00

Title: " July 4, 2010 "

Acrylic on Canvas

8.25 x 8.35 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

2010-05-31T18:25:00.000-07:00

Title: Yangtze

Acrylic on Canvas

6 x 6 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

Year: 2010

2010-05-31T18:14:00.000-07:00

Title: Four Corners

Acrylic on Canvas

6 x 6 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

Year: 2010

2010-05-31T17:30:00.000-07:00

Title: Ask You

Acrylic on Canvas

5.5 x 5.5 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

Year: 2010

2010-04-29T15:58:00.000-07:00

Title: " Fabric "

Acrylic on Canvas

30.75 x 30.75 inches

Year: 2010

Artist: Michael Cross

2010-04-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Title: " Ibis "

Acrylic on Canvas

31.50 x 31.25 inches

Year: 2010

Artist: Michael Cross

2010-03-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

Title: " Ides of March 2010 "

Acrylic on Burlap

53.5 x 42.5 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

Year: 2010

2010-02-21T10:54:00.000-08:00

Title: " Mogul 1 "

Acrylic on Canvas

19.7 x 19.25 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

Year: 2010

2010-02-21T10:44:00.000-08:00

Title: " Mogul 2 "

Acrylic on Canvas

19.7 x 19.25 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

Year: 2010

2010-01-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

Title: " Back in the Sticks "

Acrylic on Canvas

42.75 x 42.5 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

2010-01-17T09:41:00.000-08:00

Title: " Cinder "

Acrylic on Canvas

20 x 19.25 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

Year: 2010

2010-01-09T08:12:00.000-08:00

Title: " Twenty-Ten One "

Acrylic on Canvas

20.5 x 20 inches

2009-12-15T20:29:00.000-08:00

Title: "Cirri"

Acrylic on Canvas

42 x 42 inches

2009

2009-11-10T19:49:00.000-08:00

Title: " November #3 2009 "

Acrylic on Burlap

10.25 x 10.25 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

2009-11-10T19:37:00.000-08:00

Title: " November #2 2009 "

Acrylic on Burlap

10.25 x 10.25 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

2009-11-10T19:29:00.000-08:00

Title: " November #1 2009 "

Acrylic on Burlap

10.25 x 10.25 inches

Artist: Michael Cross

2009-10-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

Title: " Jack and Bill "

Acrylic on Canvas

31 x 31 inches (85 x 85 cm)

2009

2009-09-23T11:40:00.000-07:00

Title: " Autumn Day One 2009 "

Acrylic on Canvas

31 x 31 inches

2009-08-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

Title: "Feeding Koi"

Acrylic on Canvas

31 x 31 inches

August 30, 2009

Thinking of looking down into the water at colorful fish.

2009-08-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

Title: " August 5, 2009 "

Acrylic on Canvas

30 x 30 inches

2009-07-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

Title: " July 16, 2009 #1 "

Acrylic on Matboard on Wood Frame

4.5 inches x 4.5 inches

2009-07-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

Title: " July 16, 2009 #3 "

Acrylic on Matboard on Wood Frame

4.5 inches x 4.5 inches

2009-07-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

Title: " July 16, 2009 #2 "

Acrylic on Matboard on Wood Frame

4.5 inches x 4.5 inches

2009-06-19T11:43:00.000-07:00

Title: " June 19, 2009 #1 "

Acrylic on Matboard on Wood Frame

4.5 x 4.5 inches

(See " June 19, 2009 #2 " below)

2009-06-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

Title: " June 19, 2009 #2 "

Acrylic on Matboard on Wood Frame

4.5 x 4.5 inches

(See June 19, 2009 #1 above)

2009-06-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Title: " June 13, 2009 "

Acrylic on Matboard on Wood

4.5 x 4.5 inches

2009-05-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

Title: " May 20, 2009 "

Acrylic on Canvas

32.5 x 30 inches

2009-05-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

Title: " West to East "

Acrylic, Pastel, & Fiberglass on Canvas

57 x 64 inches

This is the same painting as "April 19, 2009" posted below. However this photo is of the piece as it appears on the stretcher bars, hanging on the gallery wall. Finally, out of the studio space where it can breathe.

2009-05-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

" DRAWN TO PAINTING "

Exhibit at the Mesquite Arts Center

Opens with a reception May 9, 6:30 to 8:00 pm

(Located on Galloway Avenue 1 mile south of Hwy. 80 in Mesquite, TX)

2009-04-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

Title: " April 19, 2009 "

Acrylic and Fiberglass on Canvas

57 x 64 inches

(see close-up below for details of surface)

2009-04-19T14:04:00.000-07:00

This is a close-up view of the surface of "April 19, 2009", the painting shown above.

2009-04-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

Title: " March 31, 2009 "

Acrylic on Foamboard on Wood

4 x 4 x 1.75 inches

2009-03-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

Title: " March 27, 2009 #2 "

Acrylic on Matboard

5 x 5 inches

2009-03-27T13:58:00.000-07:00

Title: " March 27, 2009 #1 "

Acrylic on Matboard

5 x 5 inches

2009-03-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

Title: " Small Sandia 2009 "

Acrylic on Matboard

6 x 4 inches

2009-02-27T11:51:00.000-08:00

Title: " February 26, 2009 "

Acrylic on Matboard

6 x 4 inches

2009-02-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

Title: "February 20, 2009 #2"

Acrylic on Foamboard on Wood

4 x 4 x 1.75 inches

Note: This piece and #1 below are shown hanging on the white wall to show the cast shadow on the wall.

2009-02-21T12:08:00.000-08:00

Title: "February 20, 2009 #1"

Acrylic on Foamboard on Wood

4 x 4 x 1.75 inches

2009-02-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

Title: " February 6, 2009 #1 "

Acrylic on Foamboard on Wood

4 x 4 x 1.75 inches

Title: " February 6, 2009 #2 "

Acrylic on Foamboard on Wood

4 x 4 x 1.75 inches

2009-01-29T12:46:00.000-08:00

Title: " January 29, 2009, 1 & 2 "

Acrylic on Foamboard mounted on Wood

4 x 4 x 1.75 inches (each)

I enjoy the way the cast shadows interact. These two paintings belong together.

2009-01-28T11:47:00.000-08:00

Title: " January 28, 2009 "

Acrylic on Foamboard mounted on Wood

4 x 4 inches

2009-01-09T10:31:00.000-08:00

Title: "Border Dance 2009"

Acrylic on Foamboard

4 x 4 inches

2009-01-07T09:18:00.000-08:00

Title: " January 7, 2009 "

Acrylic on Foamboard

4 x 4 inches

2008-12-18T14:50:00.000-08:00

Title: " December 14, 2008 "

Acrylic on Translucent Paper (Vellum)

35 x 35 inches

This piece sits on the fence between "painting" and "object", "finished" and "unfinished", "2-D" and "3-D". I like that it tries to avoid definition.

2008-11-22T11:17:00.000-08:00

" November 22, 2008 "

Acrylic on Canvas

46.5 x 47.5 inches

Locked into our DNA is a now unnecessary urge to identify whether the shadowy form in the twilight is a hungry lion or a visitor from a friendly tribe. (I say unnecessary, since today it is always wise to assume the lion.) With an abstract painting, once we realize it's 'just art' the potential power of the primal urge is watered down to a game of nostalgia. Abstraction continually struggles with how to keep the viewer in the present, to reconnect with that power, and to somehow deny that what we are presented with in paint is anything more than an artifact.

2008-11-15T09:36:00.000-08:00

" November 14, 2008 "

Acrylic & Paper Collage on Canvas

14 x 11 inches

2008-11-11T10:34:00.000-08:00

"November 11, 2008"

Acrylic & Paper Collage

on Canvas

14 x 11 inches

2008-11-05T13:56:00.000-08:00

Title: "November 5, 2008"
Acrylic & Paper Collage on Canvas
14 x 11 inches

After working about 4 days, more or less, on this small painting I began to wonder whether I had now started a painting, or finished one.

I had gone with a friend last week to see some impressionist paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago's collection. Since I had years ago painted landscapes exclusively, the urge to do a new landscape was very strong. That is how I started this piece.

But we are not in the 1890s, and I am not the same person, or painter, that I was 15 years ago. Art history and personal history cannot be set aside on a whim. So, after much work and considerable looking and thinking, this little painting emerged as you see it in the photo; continuing my "white painting" series that was started about 9 months ago. It seems to fit nicely into the route I'm on now, and ultimately there is a comfort in not retracing old steps. The landscape is under there somewhere, but an artwork can gain energy from going beyond what once seemed like a destination. This piece is finished, but it points the way to the ones not yet started.

2008-10-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

View of the current exhibit "The White Paintings 2008"

Closeups of some of these paintings are below in previous posts.

2008-10-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

Title: " October 3, 2008 "

Acrylic and Polyester Fabric Collage on Canvas

46 x 55.5 inches

2008-09-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

Title: " August 6, 2008 "

Acrylic on Translucent Paper (Vellum)

6 x 4 inches

2008-07-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

Title: " July 17, 2008 "

Acrylic on Canvas

49 x 47 inches

(This one is still on the studio wall, just finished today. The flash from the camera in the upper center shows the glossy sruface.)

2008-06-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

Title: " June 27, 2008 "

Acrylic on Translucent Paper

5 x 5 inches

2008-06-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

Title: " June 19, 2008 "

Acrylic on Translucent Paper (Vellum)

6 x 4 inches

2008-06-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

Title: " June 14, 2008 "

Acrylic on Translucent Paper (Vellum)

5 x 5 inches

2008-06-07T15:13:00.000-07:00

Title: " June 7, 2008 "

Acrylic & Charcoal on Translucent Paper (Vellum)

5 x 5 inches

2008-05-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

" CHAROLAIS "

Acrylic and Fiberglass on Canvas

32 x 46 inches

2008-03-07T13:50:00.000-08:00

" March 5, 2008 "

Acrylic and Fiberglass on Canvas

54 x 48 inches

Third of the paintings using fiberglass sheet collaged onto the canvas. These change character as the lighting changes direction, intensity and quality. I imagine placing this first group of three paintings in a location where natural light can influence them through the day. This one, March 5, has yet to be put on its stretcher bars. It was photographed still stapled to the studio wall.

2008-02-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

" February 5, 2008 "

Acrylic and Fiberglass on Canvas

54 x 48 inches

2008-02-04T10:39:00.000-08:00

This morning I was walking around the small lake near my home, before driving to the studio. I had grabbed the nearest shirt off the chair without paying much attention to it, but halfway through my walk I became aware of what an intense color of blue the shirt is. The sky was cloudy, which can always enhance color, and the lake was reflecting the same silvery grey of the clouds. Then a strange shift in thought happened.

I have been working for nearly a year on paintings which are either black and white or, recently, mostly white. People have asked me why I'm doing white paintings, so I've struggled to give them an answer. The answer never really quite seemed to fit though. Maybe only now are the paintings starting to reveal their real purpose. By looking at these white on white, textured surfaces, I am becoming more aware of colors, shapes, and surface textures in my surroundings, not just in the studio.

I now think this series of work is less about what you see WITHIN the painting than about what you see BECAUSE OF the painting. That answer seems more "true" for now. A new one, another acrylic and fiberglass on canvas, will be finished in a couple days, so we'll see then if that thought still fits. I'll post a photo and will enjoy your comments.

2008-01-06T13:15:00.000-08:00

" January 5, 2008 "

Acrylic and Fiberglass on Canvas

54 x 48 inches

(This painting builds on the "Translucent Series" by changing from working on paper to working on canvas. Also the grid element has been added by use of fiberglass in the large central area.)

2008-01-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

Part 2: The Process of Painting

During most of the year 2007, I painted with only black and white acrylic on translucent cotton vellum tracing paper. I titled the body of work “The Translucent Series”. The majority of the pieces are small, either 6 x 4 inches or 5 x 5 inches. The most recent paintings were done with only white acrylic or white gesso.

These paintings are moving closer to my idea of the “shell of the cicada”. I think of each finished painting as the physical evidence of a creative process that begins before the painting starts and continues after it is done. In this process, the viewer becomes an active participant in the creativity by bringing his or her own life experience and interpretations to the painting. Rather than producing art that works like flashy billboards or popular advertising, the tendency of much contemporary art today, I prefer a subtler conversational approach.

In working with the Translucent Series I allow the mediums to function naturally, let the paper warp, let the paint pool and bubble and crack as it dries, and I try to remain open to what the painting might have to say in this “conversation”. This method produces paintings that also seem very open to what the viewers bring to them. It is work that does not exclude the viewers by trying to tell them something, but instead includes the viewers in a conversation full of questions.

Today I will begin work on a new series of paintings. Those results will show up on this blogsite soon.

Michael Cross

2007-12-30T14:19:00.000-08:00

The Process of Painting
by Michael Cross

This attempts to put into words the ideas behind my art making process. By writing this, I do not intend to say this is how all artists should or do work. It is an approach that I personally have arrived at over many years, and can be seen as a snapshot of how I work at this particular time. That will change. Change is a necessary part of the process.

As background, when I began to learn to draw and paint as a child, my goal was to reproduce the things around me. Being outdoors in my rural environment was important to me, so the landscape in particular was what I wanted to paint. Barns, fields, fences, rock formations all appeared on my canvas boards and in charcoal drawings. Learning the skills of rendering these as accurately as possible fascinated me.

By the time I was in my teens, my feelings began to connect with the paintings, and I found that particular kinds of features in a landscape could represent my specific feelings and emotions: dark clouds could seem ominous, bright sunlit wheat fields were cheerful, windswept trees and foliage could have a wildness about them. I began to let my work be influenced by emotions, while still using realistic depictions. Some of the paintings now included human faces and figures that could indicate emotions more directly than landscape could. The process of visually inspired depiction began transforming into a process of emotionally inspired depiction.

Through, and for a few years after, college my paintings continued to move between landscape and figure, but gradually with less emphasis on realistic rendering of forms. By the time I began painting full time several years later, I was almost completely working with expressionist landscape painting, mostly influenced by the New Mexico desert where I attended college, and the Kansas prairie where I had grown up.

A big change in my work came when the look and feel of the paint medium I used became more important to me than the objective forms and figures in the paintings. Forms themselves were interesting apart from what they represented, and my goal moved from describing something on canvas to letting natural effects take place more freely on the surface. I did not want my paintings to depict things as much as I wanted them to themselves become things in the physical world. I was losing interest in making paintings look like something other than paintings.

(end of Part One..... to be continued in next posting, along with photos to illustrate some of these points.)

2007-12-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

Title: " December 12, 2007 "

Acrylic on Translucent Paper (Vellum)

63 x 42 inches

2007-12-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

Installation view of the four "Translucent Series" pieces in the current exhibit "Breaking News" which opened at Michael Cross Gallery in Dallas on December 2, and continues through December 30, 2007. These paintings are done in acrylic on vellum (translucent cotton paper). Each is suspended 3 inches from the wall from a 1/2-inch diameter plexiglas rod.

(Two of the individual pieces are shown in the posts below.)

2007-10-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

" October 2, 2007 "

Acrylic & Gesso on Vellum Paper

68 x 42 inches (172 x 106 cm)

2007-09-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

" September 21, 2007 "

Acrylic on Translucent paper

63 x 42 inches

2007-08-15T15:13:00.000-07:00

" August 12, 2007 "

Acrylic on Translucent Paper

5 x 5 inches (12.7 x 12.7 cm)

2007-08-15T15:09:00.000-07:00

" August 11, 2007 "

Acrylic on Translucent Paper

5 x 5 inches (12.7 x 12.7 cm)

2007-08-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

" August 10, 2007 #1 "

Acrylic on Translucent Paper

6 x 4 inches

2007-08-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

" August 10, 2007 #2 "

Acrylic on Translucent Paper

5 x 5 inches (12.7 x 12.7 cm)