Work in progress...this one is taking a long time...

Work in progress "Blue Sky" as of 10/6/2010 (There is more than one blue going on in that sky...)

Work in progress about two weeks ago (maybe three, I've been glaring at it for a bit of time)

Work in progress a week ago, getting there

Hmmmm... I can't seem to find a first photo of this one when I started it with the Easter egg bands of color...I don't know what I was thinking at the time, but whatever, I started to go with it one way about a month ago, then changed my mind pretty much right away, tried to cover it up with a pale blue, then glared at it for another week or so, and then went back to it last week, and then tonight I glazed it with some cobalt blue after washing off the "sky blue" that I made and didn't like at all...it was too opaque...but I love how those bands of colors still show through, and no longer regret them...

I was lying on my back on the porch one day, I had a bad cold last week (haven't had one this bad in a long time), and the sun was out on one of the days that I spent at home nursing myself back to health (lots of tea w/ honey) so the dog and I bot had a nice lie down in the sunshine...I stared up at the blue and the blue stared back...it was lovely, and I felt so happy looking at it...one of the things I love about being up here on top of Irish Hill is this unobstructed view of the sky, it's what got me back on track painting all those years ago...my mind is just abuzz with this blue, and I want to make more of it soon...hopefully I will finish this one up this weekend, and I'll have the final piece photographed and ready to show!

Drawing the things I have no words for...

Cat's Cradle, 9/16/2010, pencil drawing in sketchbook, 7 x 9 inches

I've been drawing a lot more than painting lately, it's just the mood I've been in... I have some work in progress painting wise, but nothing I'm ready to share at the moment...but I've been drawing in my sketchbook...the drawings there will probably stay in there, I tend to abuse the paper quite a bit with the pencil point so they'll never lay flat, at times, I've regretted separating drawings from their sketchbooks because they become disconnected from the history that collected them, a thought process or whatever was inspiring them to come into being... my little graphite meanderings over the paper surface are not necessarily my best work, their purpose it mostly to work out the things inside that I have no words for... tho' I do name them later in an attempt to pinpoint a time, so I can look at them later and say, "Yes, I do remember that time..."

Set in Motion, 5/13/2010, pencil drawing in sketchbook, 9 x 7 inches

Springtime sketch, 5/16/2010, pencil drawing in sketchbook, 9 x 7 inches

September Nights, 9/2/2010, pencil drawing in sketchbook, 9 x 7 inches

The difference between ghosts and dogs, 5/29/2010, pencil drawing in sketchbook, 9 x 7inches

A work in progress as of 9/18/2010, same sketchbook

 

 

 

This latest drawing I started on Thursday night at The Gallery, just rolling around a fat chunk of very black graphite and then following the path of what I've left behind, filling in, expanding on...when I finish this one, I promise to post the end...

We will be officially naming our gallery soon...lots to do before then...we're going to have a reception on this Thursday night to celebrate Ken's 55th birthday, cake and goodies, and of course, the art! Some new work will be unveiled too...

A few new things...

This is a work in progress... I'm testing out the watercolor canvas that my Fred bought me, its texture is pretty flat so my monotype plates slip and slide... I didn't add my sumi-paper to the surface just to be different this time, so far so good... I like the brightness...

I finally finished this little guy from the Ancient Artifacts series (formerly known as Corrosion).



This one too, I was having a little bit of trouble with the two ends, but I think I resolved those, but, I won't stop myself from tinkering with it if I see something else I want to do to it...

The opening at The Gallery went well last Friday, I've been out of sorts with FMS all week, just a bit too much on my plate lately so I'm a bit worn out, I'm grateful for the long weekend to paint and relax, read and write... and of course blog! I feel like I've fallen behind...

I just tried out Tumblr this morning... it's going to take some getting used to... it's not rocket science, but anything new and unfamiliar tends to be like that with me, I still have issues with Facebook... hmmmm...

I couldn't resist this photo of Crouching Tigger-Hidden Pooh and Max sharing the critter bed... they're soooooo dang cuddly cute!

Rainy Sunday...

A work in progress that I'm really loving at the moment (9 x 9 inches)... this is it as it stands today, I've signed it, but I haven't named it yet... and I'm thinking it over... is it really done? Wait n' see... I love the glow of it...

This was my table yesterday afternoon... full of works in progress! I love these productive days... the red one on the right I can't tell you how many layers of paint that thing has on top of modeling paste, it's gone from one extreme to the next, and I decided to try red again (I have issues with red.) I'm not sure if I'm leaving it as is or if I'll keep painting over the darn thing until something makes me happy! The horizontal one at the top I wish I hadn't put those moons in it... they're way too white and they are bugging me... the earthy square in the middle is mighty nice, but I'm pondering it for now...

Speaking of pondering... this painting is FINALLY done... it's languished for months looking quite dull and brown... then I went crazy with my favorite turquoise color and so...


Ancient Artifacts, 8/15/2010 Acrylic, Wash, Monotype, Sumi paper on Canvas, 24 x 8 inches

This new painting will be in the exhibition opening this Friday, August 27th, 6-9 PM at The Gallery @ Healing Art Passages, 137 First Street, Liverpool NY!


I wrapped up seven of my new things for The Gallery this morning, and my Fred dropped everything off and is spending the afternoon there painting and enjoying himself in our little place. I felt disappointed that I only had seven new things to put in, but that's all right, I'm making more, and can always add stuff later or keep them back for another time or place... funny... I was reminded of something last night, as I was looking at the line up of my work... they are quite dark, murky, nocturnal themes, and lots of earthy tones... my Fred and the other two artists in our adventure are very bright in comparison... but this reminded me of a time in art school, when this young adjunct professor (a very perky girl, one of those too perky to the point of annoying, it was much too early in the morning for me to deal with that kind of energy)... well the story is this... she saw what I had been working on during the first few classes of the semester and she asked me point blank: "You use such dark colors, do you have mental problems?" (Excuse me? Oh, did everyone in the studio hear that? You did? GREAT! I feel even better.) I can't recall exactly what I said back to her, tho' at that age I tended toward being more polite, but I remember being appalled and giving her a look (honey, you've got mental problems asking me that kind of a question). Now, to begin with, this girl had pushed my buttons enough already that semester, and this comment was the last straw... I left the studio during our break, went to the department chair's office to make my complaint and picked up an add drop form... This young woman had formed a very odd bias about me, and I wasn't going to tolerate that nonsense for an entire semester... that was right up there with the guy who declared "Painting is dead." (All in one semester! Wait, I thought this was art school, not drama queen school!) Gotta love art school... oh the angst, so WTF at the time (early 80's). I probably should've stuck it out in that class to prove something, but I was young and impatient with bullshit, it was an intro painting class I didn't want to take, it just happened to fit my schedule and I needed the credits, so I shucked it off without looking back... but apparently, I never forgot since it came back to me with such clarity last night. So, looking at the line up of earthy toned paintings reminded me of this episode... (as I recall, I was painting a still life of field stones on that infamous day.) I laughed out loud at 11 PM in my dining room, how funny! It's so odd how people react to what you do... some love it, some don't, some 'get it', some dismiss it. All I know, I love what I do... these paintings of the bones of the earth, ancient artifacts, and night skies feel right to me, I wouldn't change a thing...

Thursday night at The Gallery...

Happiness is... having a gallery to call your own and hanging out on a Thursday night making art... this board each of us have taken turns to make our marks on it (Ken at the top, then my Fred, Suzanne, and that's me working at the bottom)... when we're done, the board will be sealed and hung outside our front door to greet visitors (or we hope it will draw them to the door!) It's interesting how our work is different, but we go well together... I think our visitors love coming in to see us working on making art, easels and brushes, sketchbooks and pencils fully operational... our next opening is August 27th! New artwork on the walls... and hopefully more new faces to mingle with the regulars!!

Good times!

Summer time...

August Night, is a bitty, 9 x9 inch painting...a work in progress nearly finished... still 'living' with it... there might be some things added, but I'm not expecting to add anything too big... I can hear the crickets singing...


Midnight Blue, 8/1/2010, acrylic wash, monotype, sumi-paper on canvas 20 x 20 inches

I finally finished this one to my satisfaction... I was afraid that I had worked it to death, but when I went at it with the slightly off center dark stripe about two weeks ago I knew I was near to the end of the ordeal...
Mid-Summer Night (Green), August 1, 2010, acrylic wash, monotype, sumi-paper on canvas, 30 x 12 inches

I fiddled with this a little more, the lower right corner was bugging me, and now I like this better...

I just had a new exhibition of photos, drawings and paintings installed by Suzanne Master's at Gentile's Restaurant in downtown Syracuse, and we're gearing up for our second opening at The Gallery at Healing Art Passages on August 27th... these three little paintings will most definitely be there...

I did a book signing yesterday at The Gallery, it was well attended, and I did do a reading from Chapter 1, it was a good deal...my Fred video taped it, we'll see if it's good enough for a Youtube post...it felt good to be there and talk to people about what I do...

I think it's been a good thing, combining our efforts to have our little gallery space, it feels right... and we're already talking about what we're going to do during the holidays... that will be a special time for the four of us.

Digging back into the past to unbury treasure...

Here's an oldie, but a goodie...River of Fallen Stars. I'm always partial to posts that illustrate the process, I don't always stop long enough (or soon enough) while making a work of art to photograph the beginning to the end...

Sunday, March 02, 2008

The Progress of a River of Fallen Stars

I started this one back, back, back...ummmmmm...January, after the New Year, immediately following the second large Celestial Spring painting, soooo that was back on New Year's Eve...

1
Well, it all started with a wash of blue, and sprinkles of salt, I let it run and drip, then dry...




















2

I kept it taped to a board during all this time, so forgive the rough edges, it is a mess...but the next few steps were like this, I would work into it, drawing, splashing paint, shaving pastel and water-soluble graphite into damp soggy places, and more splashing, and occasionally loading up a brush with white acrylic paint and splooking it on there...fun, right?















3

Well, then I made more of a mess with it, and tried to make some defined linear stuff to lead the eye around...it didn't go where I initially planned for it to go, more white than I wanted it to be...I really wanted more blue...but sometimes you go with what you got and make it work...

but I really didn't like it that much at this point, there were parts to it that I enjoyed, and parts that I just didn't know what to do about...











4

Today I finished her off...finally...I'm mostly happy with it now, I had to fall in love with it all over again today...which wasn't easy, I was really having doubts about it, but I like it now...



















Detail of bottom








I really like the way I dropped it into the margin to make up for the blop that oozed under the tape...

The title is from a song by The Kennedy's a little folk duo, Pete and Maura Kennedy, River of Fallen Stars is one of my favorite albums...I believe it's out of print, but there are used ones out there to buy...


Detail of top...



It just makes me think of a meteor shower when I look at it...kinda sparkles...


Well, that's that...it seemed to turn out all right after all..









Later, in the summer of 2008, River of Fallen Stars sold at the Contemporary Gallery during the Whimsy exhibition, co-curated by Courtney Rile and Roslyn Esperon.

My faithful laptop has suffered with the "Blue Screen of Death" condition this week, so I've been a bit out of commission, tho' I am back at half the size with a new Dell Mini...it is mighty itty-bitty, but I'm loving it...as for the old laptop, I'm hoping to get it repaired and up and running again soon, and I'm hoping to retrieve as much information from the hard drive as possible because there are a few photo gems that I haven't backed up in recent weeks...so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it isn't a lost cause...

A work in progress...

A work in progress on the porch, a nocturne in blue and purple...

Summer Night, a new painting...

It's still a work in progress, but almost done...there's still a little bit of something I want to do to it, a splash here, a splash there...maybe...I'll enjoy it as is for now...

I'm really loving the details...




If you look close there are browns and earthy colors in the layers below the green and Payne's gray, it was a painting that I started back in April and stalled out on it...and I left it hanging on the wall where it could nag me every day (FINISH ME!)

Here's the before:
It had a lot of cool possibilities going on in there, but it wasn't shining like it is now...

Oh happy day!

Here I am waving to you in the midst of the opening of our little gallery at 137 First Street, Liverpool, New York! It was a beautiful night outside and beautiful inside, the local support of our effort was AMmmmm-AZING! We're trying to figure out how many people showed up, and ran out of fingers, so we're guessing about 60 or so...maybe more... many familiar faces from other gallery events and such that I've been involved in/gone to, etc...the lovely cluster of art lovers in the area who hear about an opening reception and graciously show up every time (Thank you!) I sold a painting and a book, that'll pay for our share of the July rent! It was a big night, and I'm totally wiped out tired in that fantastic good way of being after such a good thing...I'm buzzing, but have yet to "land"...there's a nap in my future! I want to paint...and will...but I need to relax, I need to rest...and regroup, get back to reality...


As more pictures come along I'll add them!