Painting with Kenrick

Painting with Kenrick
Mana Contemporary in Pilsen, Chicago, Illinois

Since I revived my painting practice in November of 2020 I have been in this odd relationship with oil painting. If I’m being completely honest the relationship with oil has consistently been odd. But like any relationship, it must be nurtured to survive and my stubborn ass keeps coming back to it.

However, someone who does have a lovely relationship with the medium, is my dear friend Kenrick who came to visit and stay with me for a few days. During this time we took the opportunity to paint. We also talked about the flow state. The moments where actions come before thoughts, like in dance or making love and everything just flows, a trust.

On this studio night we started by placing paint on the pallet with no real plan as to where things were going, then we began to paint. Throughout the painting process, I could feel myself getting out of flow and then just as I was doing so Kenrick would come in with a big old streak across what I was working on. I knew this was a much needed intervention. After getting past that. I kind of just got a little loose with it, we took some brief moments of stepping back and analyzing what we felt was needed and then just added some more purposeful details to finish it off. The result, the first of many collaborative paintings to come.

A heart’s desire. 2021. Oil on Canvas.36 x 48in. Chicago.

A collaborative painting, the first of a continuing series, with my dear friend Kenrick McFarlane, created on the night of Friday, August 27, 2021 during the hours of 11pm-4am at my studio in Mana Contemporary in Pilsen, Chicago