Strings...connectedness...heartstrings...an oil portrait of Nate

Strings   oil/canvas  30 x 40 x 1.5

Our lives are full of connectedness, those strings which lead to others, those strings that tug at our hearts.  Strings is a work that seemed nearly effortless, due, I believe, to my emotional connection to the guitarist, my son.  A fairly detailed sketch helped to provide a map for what I hoped to achieve....at this point I am concerned only with values and their movement throughout the work.  My color notations included:  violet, green and yellow.  This hues would help to support the moody feel of my perceptions.  I love the implied motion of the guitarist's right hand.  For me, this amount of indication is right on target.  Sometimes, for me, continued rendering leads to a tightness that becomes just too self-contained and seems to lose its service as a pathway to other areas of the work.  I am quite satisfied.  I am quite happy.

Strings.  Happy Birthday Nate.

Add...subtract...construct...deconstruct...create...Birch Brothers

The Birch Brothers   Watercolor   20.5 x 13

The painting of trees is something that painters do on a regular basis.  Those plein air painters seem to have it down to a science.....the lightest most suggestive trees in the background and gradually more suggestion in the middle and fore-grounds.  Those trees are usually just a part of the story, so their suggestive nature is a given.  Painting a singular tree or grouping is yet another matter, where the story IS the tree....where animation and gesture are oh-so-important.  The tree becomes a figure of sorts.  When we tackled the subject of trees in a current watercolor class, I chose this grouping that I pass daily.  The focal area on the birch bunch was wonderfully manageable.  The upwards cluster of tangling branches not-so.  My goal was, of course, an overall feel of late winter.  Those top branches weren't nearly as important.  Yet the push and pull of branches over and under, branches hidden and viewed, became very difficult as every effort to describe them was just too deliberate.  Addition.  Subtraction.  Construction.  Deconstruction.  Every bit of my work includes all of the above.  It is part of my process.  It is who I am.  A forceful spray from the basement hose (kept carefully away from the focal area) provided the effect I needed as well as the additional bonus of sparkling frost-like texture.  Nothing ventured.  Nothing gained.

The Birch Brothers is the result.

Guilty as Charged...on taking time to pose the model...Denim Coat

Denim Coat   Watercolor/Mixed   13.25 x 9.5

Yes, there was mutiny aboard our watercolor class boat!  I quickly set up our model Jessica with a pose that I thought was different from the week before..straddling a chair with her denim coat hanging between her legs.  I have very little patience for the nit-picky positioning that takes place when more than one artist is directing.  (ah....too many cooks)  In fact, there have been several occasions when this process has taken at least a half hour....a half hour of painting time.  The tasks in my life have been subdivided into two categories:  those things that need to be done so that I can paint, usually done with great impatience; and creative painting time, where I have all the patience in the world.  As the class artists pointed out the following week, the pose was definitely not a good one for those learning to paint the figure...too much was hidden from view...too many assumptions.  I, on the other hand, have spent my life making lemonade....working with what I have, even though it is less than ideal.  So....my apologies to all of the art center painters.  I will try to have more patience next time....and perhaps delegate some of the requisite tasks, such as lighting and taking money, to others.

"Denim Coat" was painted transparently.  Since there was so much darkness and little variation, I chose to accentuate the patterning on the blouse and then pull it into a side border.  Tinted gouache was added to the background.  Lemonade.

Note to myself:  pose the model at least 15 minutes before painting time begins.  Arrange a pose that sufficiently portrays most of the body parts, and includes some counter or negative space as well.

Quantity versus Quality...there is something to be said for quantity...Daffodil Bunch...a watercolor

Daffodil Bunch   watercolor   18 x 10.5

The funny thing is, no matter how much experience I have under my belt, no matter how old I get, it's all just a repeat of what came before.  I think certain types of processes don't allow for any variation.  If you have to be part of that process, all you do is transform--or perhaps distort---yourself through that persistent repetition, and make that process part of your own personality.

Haruki Murakami

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

This could be a quote about painting....or about anything at all upon which we are trying desperately to improve.  I think that we are sometimes so focused on quality that we try to make each work a masterpiece, and by that very action, the work  becomes far too precious.  On the other hand, just painting painting painting (quantity) eventually fuses painting into your being where transformation is then possible.  Transforming ourselves.  Pretty profound really.  I'm not sure there have been many great painters who were amazing from the get-go.  Or athletes.  Or leaders.  Or potato peelers.  By virtue of the lengthy repetition of the action, we are able to get to the point of meditation during the process.  We want each painting to be of our best effort.  But, sometimes, by letting go of that notion, we allow the process itself some room for growth.

Over the years I have painted daffodils many many times....each is different, yet the same in so many ways.  My hand is my hand.  Sure, I like some better than others.  But I have also found that others are preferred by others.  

So be it.  Paint and paint and paint, and then paint some more.

Painter of medium-sized polka dots with wide brush in oil?.........NOT...painting for self:painting for others...Three-Handed

Three-Handed   Oil on Canvas   24 x 48 x 1.5

Our cultural workings here in the US have become more and more specific.  I wouldn't be surprised if a doctor specializing in hands might further specialize in a particular digit....far-fetched with a bit of truth.  We artists are encouraged to find our "niche", a place where our work will become easily identified by others as our own.  OK.  Identifiable I can agree with.  But medium?  Or subject matter?  It's not for me.  As gallery advertising comes around, one sees entire exhibits made up of works of hazy trees, all painted quite the same but in different colors.  I love experimentation and play far too much to pigeonhole myself in that way.  I believe that my hand shows sufficiently enough in my work, irregardless of subject matter or medium, to call my own.  The choice of subject matter in works painted over a lifetime will portray that in which I have interest.  Those things I love.  My choices.

Most of my work involves a bit of deconstruction/reconstruction.  I simply love this process.  However, the more forms that are in the painting, the more the chaos must be controlled in order for the work to be visually read.  More hard edges than usual.  My goal in "Three-Handed" was the feel, the atmosphere of spring with diffused lighting that is both cool and warm.  I chose to keep the destruction of edges to a minimum, while ensuring a locking together the comb-like shapes of the three figures (seen as one shape) and the background.  This was my way of simplifying the information.  The grassy decorative strip at the bottom was printed onto the canvas using a linoleum block.  I thoroughly enjoy the combination of realistic painted with flat patterning, a love that comes from printed fabrics.  My loves come together.  I am satisfied......and extremely happy that I am not...

a painter of medium-sized polka dots painted with a wide brush in oil.

Fat Tuesday...the use of dark values to enhance...Mardi Gras

Fat Tuesday   Watercolor   9.25 x 13.6

 Recently in watercolor class, we designed paintings around the theme of Mardi Gras.  Here in the north, this rambunctious holiday passes relatively unnoticed.  My sister-in-law Ann lives in Louisiana and is involved in the preparation and celebration of this notorious fete.  She decorates her home for Mardi Gras as one does for Christmas or Easter.  This theme provided the opportunity for painting both sequins and feathers.  My sequins were painted with a round pretty much one-by-one, then later smushed together in spots and glazed in others to avoid a speckled appearance.  My original feathers (few of which are seen in the finished work) were painted with a new split-hair brush, a gift from mon mari.  Although I really liked the looseness and watery appearance of the work after the first session, I wanted to go for the gusto...the darks.  My work is all about the "feel" of the subject, the mood.  I wanted to include the darkness of the night and a bit of the raciness of Mardi Gras.  The darks were added by painting negatively and rhythmically.  Fat Tuesday.  Drama.