I want to paint like a person...yin:yang

Grande Dame   oil/canvas   30 x 40 x 1.5

For more years than I can count, the voice inside me declared that I wanted to paint like a man.  Why?  Because I loved the certainty, the broad loose brushstrokes and the bravado that seemed to ooze from the work that I admired so very much.... all painted by men.  My inspirations came from such painters as:  H. Craig Hanna, Alex Kanevsky and Randall Tiedman. I must add that there are many local, regional and national artists whose work I enjoy, but inspiration goes a step further into enticement, excitement and stomach flutters.  Time has passed.  There are now so many women artists whose work is inspiring to me:  Stanka Kordic; Rimi Yang; Jeannie McGuire; Jenny Saville and Carla O'Connor.  These female artists are, for me, grandes dames.  For the first time ever, for me, I can honestly say that gender-bias has been removed from the equation.  I want to paint like a person.

"Grande Dame" was first painted from a reality....everything in its place using local color.  Boring, boring, boring.  After a year of living with it, I attacked it with my own sense of aesthetics.  I am relieved.  I am purged.  I am totally happy with this work.

Grande Dame has been included in the 36th Annual Art Exhibition sponsored by The Fairmount Center for the Arts.

  June 3 - June 14

8400 Fairmount Road   Novelty, Ohio

The Drawing of the 10,000 Things...

This summer I will be leading a drawing class that is a bit unusual - The Drawing of the 10,000 Things via Journals.  This whole notion spins off of the zen notion of drawing, drawing, drawing in order to perceive and understand the nature of things.  We will combine drawing realistically from nature; observations, writings, notations, page design, border design and hand-drawn letters.  Our goals will be:  better drawing skills (utilizing value, perspective, texture, line and variety); self-awareness; self-definition and the use of drawing and writing to interpret everyday reality.  The goals and subject matters will be individual to each artist.  We will incorporate critique and goal-setting as a means of self-improvement.  We will be using the Zen notion of drawing a great variety of everyday objects and drawing conclusions that will, hopefully, transfer to drawing anything at all.  A greater awareness.  The class begins on June 18, Mondays from 6:30-9 pm for 8 weeks...all at the Cuyahoga Valley Art Center.

This drawing was done some time ago at a similar class.  I discovered that rumpled and squashed things are often fragmented into triangle shapes.  Also, that the description of the key junctures of these fragments was crucial to the understanding of the drawing.

Redux...the re-making of a watercolor painting using gouache...Canned Beauty

Canned Beauty   Watercolor/Gouache   10 x 6.5

From time to time, I reconsider older works that have lain fallow.  "Canned Beauty" was always a favorite of mine, but lacked sparkle.  It was rendered totally in transparent watercolor with a navy blue background.  Something about it tickled my fancy.  I decided to rework the background including gouache, a much more opaque water medium.  I used a bright blue-violet on top and a creamy white below.  These older works are exactly the ones on which  to experiment as the emotional attachment has usually waned.  In addition, improvements seem to appear quite simply given some distance and, perhaps, more experience.  I reworked 4 paintings that day....each was improved in my opinion.  The resultant work has a primitive chunky quality that I admire and is definitely more colorful.  Sometimes the reworks provide solutions that will help expand the visual repertoire for future work.

In watercolor painting I usually hope for a transparent solution.  In oils, solutions are often reached after layers of attempts.....and I always appreciate those earlier layered attempts showing through a bit.  I enjoy seeing the struggle, the adventure.

"Canned Beauty" became a different work.  Different is good.  Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained.

Nevah say Nevah...on using Chinese White watercolor...April Cove...a Portage County landscape

April Cove - Portage County   Watercolor   20.5 x 13

Nevah say nevah is Bostonese  and is a bit of a conscience call to small-mindedness that creeps in when we think we have the correct solution for anything.  Just a few months back, I advised a watercolor student to pitch, yes, throw away, the tube of Chinese White that came with his set.  I am sorry, Chris.  Up until that point, I had seen far too many applications of this opaque white used in lieu of cherishing the whites of the paper which is my preferred technique of working in this transparent medium.  But recently, in our study of reflections in class, I used a thin application of Chinese White to smooth over some areas where the strokes seemed to be bothersome to me.  It allows a merging to occur.  And, I must say, I wish I had discovered this application many years ago!  Gouache is far more opaque and goes way too far in the destruction of the transparency.  I often use gouache in painting in the water medium, but usually in the background in order to intentionally juxtapose the polar opposites transparency:opacity.  And so I welcome this new bit of knowledge.....there have been many occasions where I wanted to quiet certain passages....and now I know how.  And, by the way, the visible whites in this work are cherished whites.

Evolution Revolution...interpreting the past...Catch...a painting of my father

Catch   Oil/Canvas   14 x 10

Personal evolution keeps me working, keeps me interested, keeps me painting.  During the past couple of years, I found myself less interested in working from a life model with its inherent reality and emotion, which is inevitably connected to the sitter's openness and disposition.  Often, in group situations(which is economical to be sure), costumes are added for visual interest.  But those costumes were, in a sense, distancing, especially those that are historical or overly romantic.  Or especially, for me, those involving military uniforms.  And so, I have been using old family photographs as reference.  These allow me great freedom in their interpretation and a sense of connectedness that results in commitment.  My goal is to reduce the amount of given detail to fairly simple shapes, especially in the visage, in order to make that figure more universal, more approachable.  Definitely not a portrait.  "Catch" was painted from an old family photograph of my father at an early age.  The resultant joy from a young fisher-boy is, I think, timeless.  I am pleased.

It's Art Walk Season!...and time to play three-handed euchre on the grass

Three-Handed   Oil/Canvas   24 x 48 x 1.5

The temperature is climbing....which signals the beginning of summertime activities.  The Akron Art Walk is this Saturday, May 5,  from 5-10 pm.  There is a host of activities within the downtown area which are more fully described on the Downtown Akron Partnership website.  Just click on Downtown Art Works Event Series.  And while you're at it, stop at Summit Artspace, located at 140 E. Market Street at the corner of Market and Summit Streets.  There is fine exhibit in the downstairs gallery of local award-winning artists and several studios on the 3rd floor as well as the grand studio of Akron Society of Artists.  Shirley Blake, our president, will certainly be there to greet you.  As for me, I will be attending "See How They Run", a British farce at Weathervane Playhouse.  My good friend Jo McGarvey is one of the performers.  So much to do...so little time.  All provide a stimulation and awareness that make our lives so wonderful!