Seeing...

Sun Queen   oil/canvas   20 x 16 x .5

the smaller things around us is such a pleasure.  A bit of quiet time allows these heretofore background scenes to permeate our consciousness.  These days our children live elsewhere and, for the first time ever, (temporarily, anyways) there are no pets in our home.  The bird feeders outside have been full of activity all summer along.  We are attentive to the comings, the goings and the rhythms of the bird world.  Goldfinches are perched at the tops of the sunflower stalks where they enjoy pulling out the seeds.  Enthusiasm gone wild.  Terrific.  The ebb and flow of the seasons.  A delight to behold.

Tale of Two Betties...

Betty Crawford   oil/canvas   20 x 16 x .5

Betty Wolfe   oil/canvas   20 x 16 x .5

I have had the privilege this month of painting two women named Betty.  Both Betties are fixtures in the Akron area arts community.  Betty C. is a painter and frequent volunteer at Cuyahoga Valley Art Center....she is often the smiling face behind the desk.  Betty W. is also a painter whose work is often seen at regional exhibits.  These small works were created in my summer "Painting the Human Figure" class.  The canvasses were pre-toned.  That allows for a more finished presentation, even if the work remains somewhat unresolved due to the time constraints of the class.  Both works consisted of 2-2 hour in classes live sessions and 1-1 hour session using a photo at home.  This last session helps me to purify somewhat the flesh tones that have become muddied; to repair glaring drawing errors; and to consider rhythms utilizing hard or soft edges.  I am happy with each one.  And I also love the Betties.....

Dussel Farm...

Bi-Color   oil/canvas   11 x 14  

in Brimfield is where we shop for corn....the tastiest thing going in this harvest season.  The circular driveway is arranged so that you literally drive-through and just open your window.  Members of the Dussel family are ready to serve you a dozen or a half (with an extra one included).  These are hard-working people, local farmers, who depend on our support for their existence.  Sure, it is a bit out of the way.  Sure, it costs a fraction more.  But ever so much more delicious than the genetically engineered stuff that fills the bins at Marc's.  It seems to me that if we artists seriously value the notion of one-of-a-kind art, then it follows that we would be apt to support and sustain the farms and farmers of our locale and in our farmer's markets.  Amen.  Please pass the butter.

Gross Motor Skills...

Paint Dancer (detail)

allow for freedom of expression in a large format.  Using our shoulder muscles rather than our hand/wrists; while standing up; using large brushes and wide markers and pens; and holding the brush loosely at the very tip of the handle  produce marks that are bolder and freer.  We feel a bit out-of-control at first, but practicing simple line-work such as a natural curve can up the confidence level.  OUT OF CONTROL CONTROL.  Small motor mark-making includes:  sitting down; finely sharpened tools; small brushes; choking up on the brush at the ferrule....all of these add up to CONTROL.   In our expressive drawing workshop, we gradually inched our way up to the gross motor mark-making.  Wonderful!


Painters who drop their brushes during my painting class are rewarded with cheering.  This means that the brush is being held lightly and not being over-controlled.

We got skeels.

I have tried to love shadows.....,

Garden Bench   mixed/paper   20.5 x 27

those areas of soft transparency where cools and warms play together and the reality of the moment is defined by the arc of the sun.  In fact, I love paintings by other artists where the story being told is about the shadows themselves, the objects that cast them being forced into supporting roles.  I also love back-lit paintings by other artists.  I just don't love doing them.  For me, the transparency has a place at the center of interest, in the story I am telling.  For me, opacity must play a counter-movement.  And so, "Garden Bench" started out as a pure watercolor.  It remained in my studio unresolved for a year or more.  I wanted an overall feel of chalkiness, of layer upon layer.  I relish the unexpected play of paint on the surface....the spattering, the marring, the dribbling.  Further work in gouache helped, but the resolution was still out of reach.  The work was satisfactorily completed in pastel.

"Garden Bench" is a mixed media work.  It simply had to be done.

I think that I'm getting the hang of it!

Dappled 2   oil/canvas   40 x 30 x 1.5

....making slide shows, that is.  Painting will always be, I am hoping, a bit of mystery with unknowns to resolve in playful resolution.  My progression of "Dappled 2" can be seen at the right.  This painting was rather straightforward...8 frames.  8 sessions.  8 passes.  Some paintings are done pretty much on the spot, with perhaps some fine tuning when dry.  Other paintings morph and morph and morph over the months and represent quite a struggle....but I always learn something.  Dappled is a series that I will be dipping into over the next few years.  Wabi Sabi.  Imperfect.  The opposite of purebred, thoroughbred.  Inside/Outside.  Tattered.  Comfortable.  Unpressed.  Wrinkly.  Patinaed.  Scratched.  Me.

Click on "Some Paintings" to see a larger version of the finished work.

Opportunities...

Susan's Sunflowers   watercolor   13.75 x 10

present themselves constantly in our lives if and when we are paying attention.  Painting to the season is something I enjoy particularly.  Although I don't often paint flowers, and, in fact, don't really enjoy floral paintings, I am drawn to sunflowers and their majestic presence in mid-July.  We had a few this year and I had every intention of spending a day on them and had already toned a vertical canvas.  But obligations of other sorts consumed my time.  When I was ready, they were done.  Oh well.  There is always next year.  I painted "Susan's Sunflowers" in watercolor last year during a demonstration at Cuyahoga Valley Art Center.  My friend and colleague Susan Mencini had brought this beautiful bouquet.  My own set up was decidedly inferior, so I looked on at what she had brought.  Thank you, Susan.

My Hat...

Wendy Park   oil/canvas   20 x 16 x .5

goes off to plein-air painters everywhere.  Or should I say "blows off"?  My Sunday was spent at Wendy Park just off the flats in Cleveland painting in the Color Me Cleveland event.  Traditionally a studio painter where everything I need and want is at my fingertips, making the adjustment to outdoor painting is always a challenge and a bit of a surprise.  The wind gusts were unbelievable!  Even the duct tape gave way at one point as the painting sailed off and landed, of course, face down in the dry grass.  What's a bit of texture?  Then the final gust mid-afternoon tipped over my tray table holding the turp, the medium and the olive oil which were quickly absorbed into the hard ground.  The painting was left a bit unresolved, but I was finished for the day.

The Color Me Cleveland works will be on display at Artists Archives of the Western Reserve  from
August 16 - 20, then auctioned on August 21 from 5:30 - 9 pm.  Contact Artists Archives for more information, especially if you are looking for something with texture.

Portraits...

Barbara Krans Jenkins   charcoal and pastel on paper   12 x 17.5

are a sticky wick.  I have seen seasoned portrait artists put their materials away in defeat after an unsatisfying session.  Likeness is illusive.  Sometimes, it seems that all of the pieces/parts are in the right place yet the overall work is just not right.  True, true, true.  I love the human face and the spirit it offers to me.  For me, doing a portrait of Barbara Krans Jenkins was a daunting task.  In my mind, her spirit is most apparent in her smiling eyes.  All strokes lead to that.  Also an enduring softness.  The demonstration at St. Paul's was difficult, as all eyes lead to the work on the easel.  I prefer to work incognito.  Talking and drawing are polarized tasks for me.  Getting into my zone was impossible.  I worked in soft vine charcoal from the inside out.  Although the work was satisfactory at the end of the demo, the overall feel was missing to me.  The softness was missing.  I finished the work at home with the aid of a photography and many overlays.  Subsequent layers were done using harder vine charcoal that allowed for a softer lighter line.  Some pastel was added for a lighter value, as the paper was a toned blue-green-gray. 

Barbara is happy.  She says her forehead curl is three-dimensional.  Rick says that curl is a "Superman Curl".  I am happy.

The Finishing Touches...

Banquet   oil/canvas   20 x 60 x 1.5

for me are done lightly and sparsely.  I decided to smooth out the patchy background as I feel that the texture interfered with the business of the foreground.  Particular colors were pulled out using pure pigment, those on my original palette (selected in the pre-planning stage) that had become too subdued:  cadmium yellow; cadmium red and blue-violet.  More yellow-green was pulled out in all of the leafy areas.  Done.

With this work, a "project", I spent more time in the planning stage.  Fewer risks were taken.  Fewer changes were made.  I have a theory that the more "stuff" (forms) are in a painting, the less freedom can be expressed throughout.  Nothing outrageous was performed.  The destruction parts were very subtle.  I am satisfied.  Banquet.

The Fifth and Sixth Passes...

Banquet...fifth and sixth passes

were carried out with the intent of bringing the work up to my own personal sense of aesthetics.  Up to this point, I had been primarily concerned with reality....describing the individual elements as well as using hard and soft edges to initiate a flow.  The painting had been drying over the weekend.  Large transparent cad yellow pale and blue-violet strokes were added vertically and rhythmically, primarily to offset the horizontal nature of the work.  But also to bring the corners in....to stop the action somewhat at the ends of the canvas.  And, also to break up the tightened restraints of the reality painting.  I also decided that the background and foreground white cloth were too similar in value, so I stroked in a darker tint mix with terra rosa to the background, in a patchy way to emulate the look of plaster.  Now we are cooking, so to speak.

The Fourth Pass...

Banquet...fourth pass...one day...fine tuning

was spent in fine tuning that which had already been considered...only detail work.  More definition in places.  Reestablishing shapes that had run amuk.  This took one day.  I knew that bigger changes were in store down the road as larger more important concepts such as harmony, temperature, movement and overall feel had yet to be considered.  I was still playing it safe at this point....coloring in the lines, so to speak.

In looking at these last two small images, in fact, no changes are distinctly noticeable.