My apologies dear readers for the lateness of this post.  No excuses to offer except some familial fun and my own recent academic preoccupations.  They are over with now for the most part (only a thesis left to write … he he), and now work here can proceed.  I’m also planning an overhaul of Bryan’s main portfolio site as well as one here to make them both a little more streamlined and stylistically coherent.  Check back soon!  So to make up for my tardiness I’ll now post one of the more recent photos of the progress on Bryan’s current project:

  The background is coming together beautifully and is meticulously wrought.  A friend of ours dropped by the other morning and took one look at the floor and emphatically stated that Bryan was certifiably OCD. :)  There are some fun items in the background.  A beautiful homage to the Grand Central Academy is on the easel - one of the unfinished paintings from Douglas Flynt’s figure painting workshop.  Another is the unfinished painting in the left corner.  It was begun several years ago during a critical juncture for Bryan’s methods and techniques.  In many respects that painting and the few that followed were a significant turning point.

  The matte finish over the basecoat continues to be an annoyance as it is rapidly absorbing the paint and making it difficult to blend.  Bryan has mentioned this several times and I’m sure he would not recommend doing a matte coating under hardly any circumstances now.

  In other news, Bryan’s work ‘Deliberation’ was selected as a finalist in the figurative category of the Art Renewal Center’s 2008-2009 Salon competition.  The ARC has been conducting this competitive salon for the last five years and it has grown in participation and prestige.  The winners and other finalists of this year’s salon are truly awe-inspiring works and are a testament to the rising popularity of representational artwork.  To buy a catalogue with the top 100 entrants, including ‘Deliberation’, please click here.  Congrats to Dave Malan, a good friend via the blog, who also was one of the top finalists with ‘The Artist’s Studio’.