Today's 50% chance of rain turned out to be benign light showers. The weather changed frequently back and forth between overcast and brilliant sun. It was a perfect day to be outside working next to a slow flowing river. The antique stone bridge crosses a small stagnant side channel. Cars within the park continue to travel on it, somewhat incongruously, and so far too fast to record in paint. … [Read more...]
Charles River
It turns out painting has a few things in common with fishing. Artists look for similar choice spots to set up and don't like newcomers to crowd it. The best catch is often the one that got away. The first painting I did looked great about a half hour before I finished work. The experience reminded me of a joke heard this summer: How many people does it take to make a painting? Two. One to paint, … [Read more...]
Charles River
My current intention is to create atmosphere in my paintings; atmosphere in the sense of air rather than mood. My clay-like paint handling makes air easier to come by on rainy days, when the substance of space approaches a solid. On those days, forms appear smudged, presenting themselves that much closer to open-form non-linear representation. Yesterday was crystal clear, a perfect summer day to … [Read more...]
Bread, Gin, and Tomato
Bread, Gin, and Tomato, oil on paper, image 9.5 x 9.5 in, (24.13 x 24.13 cm), 03/13/2009 … [Read more...]
The Meditations of Rabbit and Pierrot
Last summer a friend gave me a hardcover bound sketchbook she'd made using Stonehenge cotton paper for the text block. She recommended pencil, if you don't erase, and water-based media, for which I chose gouache (opaque watercolor). I began on the second page — my habit for sketchbooks and journals — to do still-lifes using objects already in the studio. As the work progressed, turning the pages … [Read more...]