Dec

An Excess of Excessism!

Now that the year is drawing to an end, I’ve been finishing up the last of the paintings of 2009, taking inventory of the paintings I still have in my possession (including some watercolors from as early as 1983!), and deciding on which paintings will be traveling to Fountainhead gallery for the next show in 2010, which will accompany me to Costa Rica, and which will be stored in the States. It’s been exciting going through my work and rediscovering some of the paintings that I had forgotten about. They were patiently waiting for me to liberate them from the corners and closets of my studio. With liberation in mind, I ran across a big box of the first hundred or so Excessism paintings that I began roughly in 2002 after teaching some classes at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle and seeing how much paint actually goes to waste during the painting process.

You see, I have defined Excessism (a term I coined BTW) as”A style of artwork that is instinctively and spontaneously produced by the superabundance of paint from another artwork”. The series derives from my reaction to the customary ending place for waste (particularly wasted paint). Instead of discarding perfectly good paint and another opportunity to be creative, the excess from my planned works give birth to Excessism triplets and quadruplets!

I felt really good about “saving” this paint and often sat and admired the little gems that I created out of something that was once considered valueless. In the midst of my warm and fuzzy feeling though, I guess I failed to let any (save one that was featured on the cover of the Southern Quarterly journal) out into the world……

And so now here I sit, with the first box of never-been-seen paintings that I have horded away at the same time creating more and more in my studio nearly every day….An Excess of Excessism!

So I’ve decided to send them out into the world! They need homes where they will be loved for what they are and displayed where people can see them, flirt and make witty banter in front of them. So each day I have decide to post one of these paintings (most are 5″ x 7″ on canvas panel) on this blog and via email so they can make their own way in the world.

Here’s how it works: We will share in the liberation of each work. I will post a couple of pictures of one of the Excessism paintings each day until they have dwindled to a manageable number that I can realistically take with me (say 50). I will give all the details of the piece including the title, dimensions, and compose a short story about how the piece came to be and from which painting it originated. You will then have the opportunity to purchase the featured painting for $50.00. That’s right, $50.00! No hidden fees, no shipping costs, no nonsense. For $50.00 you get an original, signed painting by me, Paul McCall, a handwritten story (in my own chicken scratch) about the painting, a typed version of the story (just in case you can’t read my chicken scratch), and free shipping to your door.

Now why, you ask, would Paul McCall, an established artist with artwork selling for thousands of dollars in well-respected galleries sell his work for only $50.00? Three reasons. First, I believe in making art accessible to folks regardless of their means, second, artwork does nobody any good if it is stored away where it can’t be admired, and third, I need to make room in my life for new creations.

So here’s your first opportunity to help liberate a painting….