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Drawings Catchup 2, 2022-23

There are a few more from 2023 that haven’t yet photographed and processed.

Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Flat Tube Rug, 2023
charcoal on paper
24 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Opposing Views, 2023
charcoal on paper
24 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Thrashing Carpet, 2023
charcoal on paper
24 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Creeping Tangle, 2023
charcoal on paper
24 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Confounding Louvers, 2022
charcoal on paper
24 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Table Encroaching, 2022
charcoal on paper
24 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Grand View, 2022
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Rug Around the Corner, 2022
charcoal on paper
23.5 x 17.5 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Oversized Wallpaper and Curtains, 2022
charcoal on paper
23.5 x 17.5 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior Outside with Circular Rug, 2022
charcoal on paper
23.5 x 17.5 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Impending Ceiling, 2022
charcoal on paper
23.5 x 17.5 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Lonely Chair and Plummeting Rug, 2022
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Coffered Rug, 2022
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior Off Kilter, 2021
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Drawings Catchup 1 2020-21

Just updating content.. These are some drawings from 2020 to 2021 (and one 2022)

Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior Sliding Between Expectations, 2022
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior Dominated by Whirlwind Table, 2021
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Overwhelming Wallpaper and Spiraling Rug, 2021
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Paradox or Coincidence, 2021
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Patterned wall and Big Empty, 2021
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior Unfolding with Coffered Ceiling, 2021
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Tempest, 2021
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Interior with Pointed Rug, 2021
charcoal on paper

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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Distant Compromise, 2021
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior Off Kilter, 2021
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Flat Black and Gray, 2020
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Voids, 2020
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Benedict Cressy
Charcoal Interior with Folding, 2020
charcoal on paper
24.5 x 19 inches
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Inside out Expectations

With recognizable images, the viewer brings their understanding of how things should look, or what we expect things to look like. I’ve already broken enough of the perspective to force a suspension of disbelief similar to surrealism or a less objective abstractions. By bringing the outside into an interior without the use of a window or doorway, the image becomes a little more curious.

A pink interior is not something one sees every day, so why not! And bringing in all the elements I enjoy playing with. Brushy paint surface (on the pink) dissolving into another plane, a half full glass and the hint of an orange or apple. 2 point perspective grid on the carpet draws you into a cityscape coming in from outside while a window hints at a bucolic garden just outside. Add in a missing sofa just because. What color would you make the sofa to go with the art?

Interior with Conundrum, 2018
oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches

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A variation of blue walls with a tilted vertical striped wallpaper sets the stage for a living room furniture arrangement to contemplate a landscape, seemingly entering the space. The inset painting of a slice of cake seems to be offering the first slice, however it might be from another cake altogether.

Interior Contemplating Cake and Other Distractions, 2019
oil on canvas
36 x 48 inches

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This painting directly creates an itch with the upside down picture on the wall, while the leaning table pushes the bounds of spatial expectation just a little more. A fly has landed in the middle of a piece of paper which hangs in the balance on the tables edge.

Interior with Hairy Arm, 2018
oil on canvas
28 x 22 inches

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Horizontal formats

For the longest time I have been mostly working with vertical format compositions. I think this started with landscapes breaking the landscape format tradition, and trying to squeeze a wide view into a narrow space, requiring a few tricks and adjustments. The same happens with the architectural spaces. So to shake things up every so often I’ll go for horizontal format.

This painting was worked on during the strange election chaos of 2020-21. The large, looming wall with confounding grid makes the arrangement of furniture and rug seem small and somewhat helpless.
Despite the reaction to current events, the painting is a continuation of formal experiments with pace and perspective.

Interior Contemplating the Overwhelming, 2021
oil on canvas
30 x 40 inches
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This painting was begun in 2011-12 and re-worked in 2021. I was interested in the steep oblique angles defining a corner of a room. In person, the space really shifts with the viewing angle, opening up and appearing to follow the viewer as they walk by.
The 2021 adjustments were a re-working of color and adding/adjusting/eliminating elements, while keeping the main angle.

Interior Corners with Shifting Fortunes, 2021

30 x 40 inches
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Interior with Beckoning Expanse., 2021
oil on canvas
28 x 22 inches
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Interior Contemplating Reflection, 2021
oil on canvas
28 x 22 inches
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Interiors with missing furniture

After some time of inventing an interior space, I chose to use some external references to switch up the feel. Usually I would look through interior design catalogs and then invent from there. I came upon the idea of painting everything except for the chair (or sofa or bed) as a sense of emptiness, and also a play on the interior decorator choosing their art based off of the colors of the furniture. As these are already inventions of interior design, I hope to force the viewer to choose the fabric of the chair to match the painting.

Wall configurations

After exploring some ‘hallway scenes’, or interiors seen from an oblique angle, I found myself engaging in the painting of a floor or wall surface. How to handle a shift in space that happens in 2 dimensions while trying to represent 3 dimensional space. I also find myself playing off of isometric perspective (parallel lines) and 1-2 point perspective. Perspective rules are made to be broken.

Accidental Content: 2009 Mortgage Crash

In the ‘Hallway Interiors’, the spatial aspects are my primary interest and the ‘content’ or subject is the pictures within the painting. While not consciously trying to document the terrifying crash of the mortgage crisis of 2009, I discovered after the fact that this group of paintings perfectly captured it.

Someone racing to bring some news, while a character digests in an unsure posture. Fight or flight?

Herald, 2009
oil on canvas
28 x 22 inches
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The bankers in charge of the shell game that is modern finance

Shell Game, 2009
oil on canvas
28 x 22 inches
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So many people getting caught in a bad situation.

The Hammering, 2009
oil on canvas
28 x 22 inches
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The party is over and everyone is gone, including the light in ones eyes.

Emptied, 2009
oil on canvas
28 x 22 inches
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The notion of retirement in comfort is further away.

Comfy Chair, 2009
oil on canvas
28 x 22 inches
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This could be titled ‘the new haircut’

Happy Couple, 2009
oil on canvas, 1 of 3
14 x 11 inches
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Metaphors

From right to left:

Consummation: Adulterated, 2011
oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches
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Lure: Distraction, 2011
oil on canvas
36 x 48 inches
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Comparison of Maladies, 2011
oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches
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Fishbowl: Bluebloods, 2011-12
oil on canvas
48 x 36 inches
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Indecision: Lurching Wall, 2014-15
oil on canvas
24 x 36 inches
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I don’t usually have a plan for the meaning or the content when I begin a painting, and am pleasantly surprised when I think I know what it represents as it nears completion. This selection seems to poke fun at ideas of success and failure.