Robert Mace Bent

Figure

2012-02-01T23:15:00.001-05:00

Watercolor and charcoal on paper

Landscape

2012-01-29T22:15:00.001-05:00

c. 12" x 14"
Acrylic on Paper

#49

2012-01-26T22:40:00.002-05:00

Gouache on
Foam Board
6" x 8"

#41

2012-01-23T23:42:00.000-05:00

Conway View

2012-01-17T22:26:00.000-05:00

There is so much inspiration within the Bullit Reservation.

Winter Thicket

2012-01-12T22:11:00.000-05:00

Ink
5" x 5"

#59

2012-01-05T23:15:00.002-05:00

Gouache on foam board/#45

2012-01-04T22:47:00.000-05:00

Drawing with charcoal + gouache

2012-01-03T10:42:00.001-05:00

Landscape

2012-01-01T20:15:00.000-05:00

Oil on canvas
12" x 12"

Since having this photographed I have made several minor changes, primarily in the foreground but also the middle row of trees. I guess that would make this posting that of a "work in progress" as it were but now I've got it done....I just don't have a photo!
Journal: I spent almost six hours in my studio today painting and listening to football. I paid attention to each play as it was called and gave less thought to specific brush marks.....pulled color from a slightly distracted "inspiration" and worked with reference to a drawing and a photograph. Line and energy were the important criteria, color too but less thought went into color selection. Once I got moving I couldn't stop. I've got four pieces in process of completion right now and am anxious to get started on two or three larger works I have general ideas about. I keep studying my work so see where it is going, where I am going with it. Landscapes and figures becoming less real, more expressive; more in the direction of unfiltered responses to what I'm feeling and seeing; using less and less organizational judgment and looking for balance and rhythm, things I always knew marked good work.

Work in Progress

2011-12-30T22:46:00.001-05:00

c. 36" x 40"
Oil on Canvas

As I work on this I plan to post photographs of my "progress".

Expressive

2011-12-27T21:23:00.002-05:00

18" x 20"
Oil on canvas

12 x 12

2011-12-25T09:55:00.000-05:00

Something new

2011-12-24T23:05:00.000-05:00

Stickin' to the plan

2011-12-23T20:41:00.001-05:00

Woman with slipper
oil on canvas
12 x 12

Charcoal Drawing

2011-12-22T22:26:00.000-05:00

My favorite from the last Artspace life drawing session I attended earlier this month. Charcoal on mat board, c. 10 x 12.

Watercolor/gouache/charcoal figure

2011-12-21T11:23:00.000-05:00

I did this in October and just got a good photograph of it to share. Watercolor, gouache, charcoal on mat board.

Portrait

2011-12-20T22:43:00.000-05:00

18 x 20
Oil

I've pushed paint around on this picture for far too long. I think she's done...maybe a few little jabs with the brushes but maybe not, too. I want to do more oil portraits, get my hand, arm and head (mostly) to loosen up and get out of the tight zone!!!!!! I like the detail here and I dislike it too. Ah, the totally ambivalent painter.

Floral

2011-12-19T22:44:00.001-05:00

16 x 20
Oil

I like the color in this. Maybe I need to enhance the transparency in the "vase"?

Recent work/oil/charcoal

2011-12-18T23:11:00.001-05:00

The volume of recent work posted here has been pretty slim lately. But not for having anything to show, just too busy making it, slow getting it photographed and posted, pulled in another direction, etc. So, over the next several weeks I will try putting something up here every day or so.

Bullit Reservation
12x12 oil on canvas

Oil Figure
12x12

Charcoal Figure
12x16

Abbott Gallery

2011-12-04T21:45:00.001-05:00

My community is home to a four-floor, some would say old fashioned, department store. It has been in its current location for close to 130 years. This past Friday I signed an agreement to exhibit two original paintings in the store's Abbott Gallery and I am really pleased to have this opportunity. I see this as an occasion to have my work on view in a very public venue for an extended period of time. Although there are a number of other decorative items on display, my work will be the only original pieces available for purchase.
I've decided to exhibit two landscape works; both are done with oil and are framed in 2 1/2" plain gold frames.
Fun!

SOLD

ArtSpace Exhibit Comes to an End

2011-11-15T11:55:00.001-05:00

Our drawing group exhibit of work based on the figure comes to an end on November 18th. One of the participants took this photo of the gallery and shared it with me the other day. The framed piece to the left of center is my work. Watercolor, charcoal, gouache and graphite. It was great fun to participate; the opening reception an opportunity enjoy each other's work and learn from those attending how they saw and felt about the pieces on display.

Faces

2011-11-10T21:25:00.001-05:00

Oil on canvas

Watercolor, gouache, charcoal on paper

Watercolor and charcoal on paper

I cropped these from some larger pieces. Just wanted to study the faces without the distraction of whatever surrounds them. To suggest that the face is most suggestive of mood (subject's and/or picture-maker's) is, well, almost silly, huh? Body language is suggestive but the face...well.

Writing about painting and other things.......

2011-11-06T20:52:00.000-05:00

In the past I have been content to make pictures, enjoy the process of bringing something to a conclusion and then spinning off in whatever direction I felt pushed or pulled to work through the next thing. Having the work (completed or otherwise) close at hand to consider, reconsider, hide (sometimes!), hang on the wall or lean on a window frame, there for my occasional pleasure as well as anyone who finds their way to my work-space. I sometimes rotate pictures in and out of my house too, so I guess I do have another favorite venue (my living room) and visitors there can see the pieces, too. And, yes an occasional exhibit at a local cafe or participation in a group show (which I'm doing right now) but not much sharing other than that.
All of that is to say that I want to make some changes, I want to find opportunities to display and exhibit what I do. I think this is going to be difficult as well as time consuming!
There is an emerging art venue in my community so I'm going to try to put something together there. It is a setting that may allow for both exhibition and demonstration. More later.

This picture seems appropriate for the time of year.

Summer scribble

2011-10-11T22:04:00.002-04:00

Watercolor and ink, c. 4.5"x4.5".

2011-10-08T22:06:00.000-04:00

Gorka's "Silence"/Charcoal Portrait-Figure

2011-10-06T23:39:00.001-04:00

So, art is art, I guess. There wasn't anything particular in mind when I did these two drawings...same day I think. I wasn't "trying" to capture a mood, feeling; employ a particular process or technique....they just came out the way they came out. The lower one might look sort of morbid (?) but I really think that's just me, right now, today, here at this moment. My father is near death, having chosen to forgo any additional treatment for the medical condition from which he suffers....so, stillness, silence, quietude, finality and the temporal, infuse my thoughts, perhaps on all or many subjects.
But another viewer may see that piece differently, likely will see differently. And therein the dimensions of artistic "expression", perhaps better described as artistic "observation"?
When I feel this way, analytical for lack of a better term, I slowly become aware of what is absent: the pleasure, pain or balance which flows from recognizing feelings. Just by virtue of considering, in an intellectual way, what a work might mean, I might be ignoring my own emotional state at any particular time....and I might be pushing important feelings aside. Ah, maybe that's the real contribution of art; if we let it, it can connect us to our feelings! Maybe?

The youtube piece is a really bad slideshow accompanied by a really good piece by John Gorka, a musician I admire. He does art with words and music and music is just as susceptible to analytical limitations as any picture; the picture he paints with words is open to multiple interpretations. Enjoy!

2011-10-02T23:03:00.002-04:00

One of three pieces I am showing at Artspace Community Art Center in Greenfield, Massachusetts as part of a show entitled Bodies of Work. The show opens on October 12, 2011 and runs through early November.

The colors I like

2011-09-15T17:30:00.000-04:00

Water color, charcoal, gouache; 14" x24"; detail.

Ink Drawing

2011-09-11T21:10:00.000-04:00

Pen/sketchbook

Studio Favorite!

2011-09-03T21:24:00.001-04:00

I generally have Pandora going while I work in my studio; somehow this tune pops up when I'm playing my "Magnetic Fields" station. I jump all around hoping nobody is watching through the big windows. This is the Pogues, "Tuesday Morning".

Adult content!

2011-08-30T00:23:00.000-04:00

So, maybe I should but the adult content warning page on this?

Charcoal and oil

2011-08-28T22:40:00.000-04:00

While speaking with an artist acquaintance last week the subject of working in a series became part of our conversation. For whatever reason I have chosen to work on individual pieces with a rather random, perhaps whimsical approach. The fellow I was speaking with offered a suggestion that I think I might try to implement. He offered that if I were to choose a subject and purchase a sufficient quantity of paper or canvas I'd have an easier time and an opportunity for efficiency in the work. He offered that many gallery directors prefer to exhibit a series of related works. That certainly sounded reasonable. So, I think I am going to work on that. Maybe I'll start with 25-30 or so sheets of exceptional paper, lots of really good charcoal and a few soft pastel sticks.

Near Bullit Reservation

2011-08-23T11:16:00.001-04:00

Oil on canvas board c. 18" x 20". Took me a long time to do this; lots of changes, particularly color arrangements, brush stroke or paint application decisions, fighting myself about realism, representation and abstracting details.
The change of seasons seems to be running in our direction here so it seemed appropriate to post it. Finished it last month.

Work in Progress

2011-08-21T23:09:00.002-04:00

For me, a massive oil. I keep looking and wondering if I can do it. 36" x 48"; maybe a half-dozen times to the canvas, including almost eight hours yesterday....and I'm absolutely unsure of where I am headed with it. So far, not too frustrating. Not sure about it but I'm "listening" and for the most part enjoying the search for balance and tempo.

Finding more lines

2011-08-09T22:55:00.000-04:00

Finding the lines and finding the image

2011-07-31T11:14:00.000-04:00


Green River/watercolor and ink/c. 5"x5"

I've been reading a biography of Marc Chagall over the summer. How I could have waited so long to know more about him, his family and his work?!! Jackie Wullschlager, the author, puts the Chagalls in the room with me as I read and brings to life a period in history reverberating to this day.
As with any individual's observations of another, Wullschlager's choice of which dots to connect might not reveal Chagall's every need or motive but the volume is a spectacular treasure. Paris and Berlin in the 1920's and later, Russia, antisemitism, slippery gallery owners and art patrons, fragile bodies stressed again and again, success in small and large increments, an artist's life intertwined with poets, actors, poverty, wealth, political and social upheaval, religious traditions, philosophical questions. And within it all the story of the evolution of the art of an expressive painter whose work continues to reveal layer upon layer of the life he knew.
So, I'm channeling Chagall. I hope he wouldn't be too offended.

Fairly fast ink figures

2011-07-30T16:34:00.000-04:00

If I remember correctly, these were three to five minute sketches; done in 5" x 5" sketchbook.

Charcoal drawing with white highlights

2011-07-20T22:11:00.002-04:00

#24

2011-07-12T13:16:00.001-04:00

Charcoal Figure

2011-07-09T22:15:00.001-04:00

So, I need to take some photographs of work I am doing.......this particular image comes from my computer achieve of images, which of course I like to look at from time to time, but I'm working on two floral pieces, one portrait, a figure in gouache on canvas board and an expressive landscape, all of which I'd like to post. Soon.

New Art

2011-06-19T21:27:00.005-04:00

Small piece I did two weeks ago using gouache on foam board. The colors don't reproduce too well; I scanned it right on the glass....no photo...and the copy still disappoints, me at least. Anyway, I like the way the paint slides on this surface, dries in puddles so that it is more and less transparent along the brush-path. This is like impulse, reflex, spontaneous line and blob-making that really just catches arm movement and some conscious idea of where to push or lift or drag the brush and what colors to place next to others. Fun and fast!

Two pieces

2011-06-14T22:32:00.004-04:00

Free time Thursday!

2011-06-09T12:12:00.005-04:00

Life drawing "collection".

On a different note!

2011-06-09T11:57:00.007-04:00

I tried using gouache on foam board covered with a smooth, almost glassy surface the other day. And I enjoy the results! Don't know (don't really care) if this material is archival....well the gouache is, I think. The color in these photos doesn't really compare to the originals but it was the best I could do. I have enough board to do maybe 30 of them so there will be more here.

Suburbia/violence/haunted still?

2011-06-09T11:45:00.003-04:00

I don't really want to offer much about this. I like the work or I wouldn't post it but the "inspiration" was an exclamation point, punctuation mark, in character formation with negative implications and energy which survives to this time in my life.

View of Pushkin Gallery last week (quick)

2011-05-30T18:49:00.001-04:00

My studio; maybe someday I'll do some really serious work!

2011-05-30T18:38:00.003-04:00

Sometimes the painter gets stumped, distracted, starts to think about what the work ought to be, etc. Stuck with no new "ideas". Funny how that can happen.....especially when all s/he needs to do is just paint, paint, paint.

New things done in the last two weeks or so

2011-05-28T21:03:00.018-04:00

"Ok, so I like to paint."

"Well, what kind of painting do you like to do?"

"Actually, whatever kind of painting I do when I am doing it!"

I think each picture is sort of an experiment in and of itself. Although my marks may have some common features from picture to picture I really see each piece as an adventure, an effort in fact, to pull out something new....maybe fewer gestures to reveal my impression of whatever the subject is? And at the same time I am learning the expressive language of the brush and combinations, juxtapositions of colors.

Sometimes I am looking at someone or something; on other occasions I reach into my imagination or assess the work as I am doing it looking for direction from the colors and lines. How wonderful!!

I don't think there is a "best" art-making situation or experience; the results vary regardless of the set-up, locatation, presence of another; what seems to matter is just the continuous "making", the effort to do it (effort is a synonym for pushing paint with brush). All anyone has to do is paint, if that is what they want to do. Me, I like to paint.

Floral-1998

2011-05-16T22:45:00.003-04:00

I've been doing several floral pieces lately, reviving an interest in that subject I began years ago. Over the next week or so I'll post images of my progess.

2004-2011

2011-05-15T21:49:00.002-04:00

If my memory is accurate I started working on this piece in 2004. I've moved it so often, from work-space to work-space, storage to studio, mishandled it, smudged it over and over and reworked it endlessly, so much so that it doesn't have much resemblence to what I started. If I could frame it, maybe I'd be done with it! Watercolor, charcoal, pastel, gouache; it's about 24" by 48". This image is a portion of the work.

Faces and figures

2011-05-03T12:39:00.008-04:00

I like the way it sometimes feels that artwork can suspend time, but alas it really only records it. That's better actually because with time one can grow, positive change can occur, knowledge can be increased.

Recent figures

2011-04-30T09:38:00.004-04:00

Each of these sketches was done quickly using watercolor and/or gouache and at least in one instance graphite. Something like three to five minute poses and the work was done on mat board.

When I look at them they strike me as efforts to order lines, curves and volumes. In that process there seems to be a dividend paid (at least it seems to me that one is paid!). Each piece seems to have a "weight", a certain personality, something projected or withheld by the subject which, again, it seems to me transcends the conscious effort to organize lines, volume, etc. Art making is exciting that way!

Austrian Nazi Victim's Heir to Get Klimt Painting from Salzburg's Modern Art Museum

2011-04-22T20:22:00.001-04:00

Austrian Nazi Victim's Heir to Get Klimt Painting from Salzburg's Modern Art Museum

Ink figure

2011-04-17T21:32:00.002-04:00

Small oil/Deerfield

2011-03-27T12:34:00.002-04:00

Idea for big gouache picture

2011-03-22T13:40:00.002-04:00

Finished picture, plus

2011-03-20T21:10:00.012-04:00

At the top of this posting is a piece I finished last week; the images which follow are works in various stages of completion. The finished floral represents a departure of sorts from my usual selection of subject as well as a shift in style. Although essentially representative, I feel it has an expressive quality I would like to grow in similar work, including figurative and landscape pieces.

Blue ink daylilly

2011-03-13T22:06:00.002-04:00

Portrait/work-in-progress

2011-03-05T20:14:00.002-05:00

Delicate

2011-03-04T23:19:00.003-05:00

Charcoal drawing

2011-03-02T21:32:00.004-05:00

"Why don't you dance?"

2011-03-01T15:27:00.003-05:00

I think these are more or less finished. Images constructed from a combination of ingredients: Raymond Carver's short story "Why don't you dance?", a large dose of imagination and some refrences to my memory of shapes, light movement, figures.

Floral [work in progress]

2011-02-27T23:23:00.002-05:00

Figure

2011-02-22T22:25:00.004-05:00

Recent pen and ink drawings

2011-02-20T22:02:00.006-05:00

Portrait

2011-02-19T09:59:00.001-05:00

Sketchbook/Conway/Fall

2011-02-13T20:11:00.008-05:00

I'm working on a picture of the scene represented by the two ink drawings at the bottom and have been using them (and the exercise of doing them) to understand the value possibilities and where I'd like to head with color, too. I took some photos one day while driving around Conway and Ashfield and have decided to try and do a series of watercolor pictures. Above them is a watercolor sketch of that scene; the other an ink and watercolor sketch of another piece I plan to do.

Some work from Sunday

2011-02-10T21:09:00.004-05:00

Graphite, watercolor and gouache. Both pieces are about 5" x 8" and done on mat board. Quick studies with color added after the initial "outlines" were made. Personal preference for the yellow background; something about the attitude (real or imagined) depicted.

Pictures in progress

2011-02-03T11:52:00.004-05:00

The top one is a fall scene I started recently and have set aside long enough...want to get back to it; the lower one I have been working on very slowly (ten months or longer). Both are oil on canvas board c. 18" x 24".

She reminds me of Wyeth's Helga

2011-02-01T11:23:00.004-05:00

Wyeth, in something that I recall reading, referred to himself as making abstract work. That may or may not be a difficult self-observation for some to swallow. I can see it, I think; his work was so amplified, super-real at times, that it seems he went beyond duplicating what was before him. The lines (which of course don't exist in the observable world) that he was required to make to construct the image expressed a quality in the subject separate from the subject itself. I think that is abstraction. When I made this I was attuned to what I felt; an energy, attitude or emotion, an ethereal expression.

Shelburne Falls in October

2011-01-30T17:09:00.004-05:00

Beautiful day, as I remember. Maybe 2 or 3 p.m. on a quiet dirt road near some farms and orchards. Pulled the car off the road and worked as fast as I could....sometimes the less thinking the better. Actually, with respect to making pictures, minimizing the thinking is (or should be)
for me a top priority! Watercolor on board, c. 6" x 8".

Venus in Transit and another

2011-01-20T23:16:00.006-05:00

Expressive portrait with graphite, charcoal and gouache;

Venus in Transit following its most recent revisions and adjustments.

Fall

2011-01-18T23:14:00.003-05:00

2011 Post #1

2011-01-04T22:52:00.010-05:00

Although my postings have been few since August 2010 (actually only one)
my work has continued....although most of it remains unphotographed. I have managed,

however, to make some images and have added them here. I did some pictures in October in Shelburne and the watercolor/gouache directly above is one from that effort. It was made while a shower passed through the area.

The remainder of the work, with the exception of the two pieces at the top, are of recent vintage and incorporate charcoal/watercolor/graphite/wash in combination or alone.

Pastel and charcoal (#1); charcoal (#2).

Figure Study I

2010-12-28T22:58:00.006-05:00

Watercolor on board

Passports/Gloucester

2010-08-08T11:17:00.003-04:00

Maine

2010-08-05T12:40:00.001-04:00

My sole, one and only, effort while on vacation in Ellsworth, Maine last week. Ink, c. 16" x 12".

Style and medium

2010-07-20T18:58:00.009-04:00

Well, it may not be a crisis but somehow I'd like to get past a nagging, dragging concern I have about where to go with my work, which I seem to have saddled myself with recently....like within the last day or so. Maybe just this posted examination will help me! So, I'm thinking... "maybe it should be oils only(with a BIG brush); maybe just ink, maybe just water media or maybe I should try acrylic again?" Or maybe I need to write a cohesive artist's statement and go from there. After all, I will not know what my art is about if I can't explain it to myself, will I? What about explaining it to someone else? "Well, thanks for asking: yes I like beautiful images of things........and.....the paint is colorful and I enjoy the............mess!"

Do the paintings have to have a meaning I'm conscious of as I make them? Do I have to have a plan, a completely thought-out idea for an image before I begin? Can I understand all of what there is to understand about the work as I do it and move from idea to idea, canvas to paper and back again? This is what has attached itself to me and I can't seem to flick it away!

I like what I like (and choose to reference in my work) and sometimes I put what I like through a filter (me) and scramble the reference just as I feel like scrambling it. Today I was working on a small (9"x12") oil picture of three trees......I've painted these trees a half dozen times, I think and never tire of them. The image was realist/impressionist with dream like qualities when I went back to it after a day's absence. But I couldn't figure the thing out...how to make it cohesive, consistent, interesting and not dead in the sense that the eye would fall and stay in one place. It seemed to me that my thoughtful, realist hand was winning out over my not-thinking abstracting/expressionist one and that was detracting from what could be a more satisfying piece. I think: "the realist approach is a fall back, one to be avoided at all costs" but then I'm confronted with a question of perspective and I want expressionist depth everyone can see and appreciate as perspective. For some reason I think that is difficult to accomplish but I want to make something like that!

But what are they about, these pictures I make? I look at copies of images I've done and wonder: "learning a skill, looking into my head"? Certain subjects are repeated but not so much the technique, the style, the brush stroke, color or lines. It is as if the work for me is really just experimental...not in the sense of a never seen before style, not like Cubism was new and maybe experimental but more in a "use all the known styles/techniques" kind of way.

Maybe that's it?! Maybe I really want to invent something new! As if.............!!!!

So, here are some images, including one of the interior of my work space, which illustrate, to some degree, the dilemma.

Mostly new work on exhibit 7/6/2010 through 9/4/2010

2010-07-06T20:27:00.005-04:00

Cafe Siren is a favorite stop of mine! Delicious and reasonably priced lunch, wonderful coffee concoctions, busy, congenial atmosphere and wall space for art exhibitions featuring locally produced work!! So, when I approached Dre and Sarah, the ambitious and dedicated owners about showing my work in turn, they were enthusiastic and quite supportive. I hung the last image earlier today, a large watercolor piece depicting the buildings along a side street in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The section of Gloucester where Short Street is located continues to hold my attention after all the years I've visited Cape Ann.

Although this piece is several years old I wanted to include it with the other, new and newer pictures I chose to show. Six works are displayed. Two 2010 oils, one 2010 gouache/watercolor/charcoal, two 2009 oils and the aforementioned watercolor street scene.

Cafe Siren is located at 204 Main Street, Greenfield, Massachusetts. Generally, it is open seven days per week until about 6:00p.m. Interested art fans can check http://www.thesirencafe.com/ for directions and hours of operation.

Included with this post are images of two pieces in the show. My efforts thus far to interpret the prose of Raymond Carver make up the balance.

Quick brush; pushing to be expressive...maybe this is where I will "settle" my work?

2010-06-01T15:05:00.008-04:00

I've been making a conscious effort to be loose with my brushes and, to the extent I remain committed to that objective while I work on something, to also simplify lines, curves and "definition" by making quick gestures. Trouble is, sometimes I find myself putting layer after layer of stuff on (no examples of that here). Maybe if I don't post the "layered" work I'll stop doing it!! Unlikely. Anyway, here are some life drawing images in watercolor and gouache.

Just fun!

2010-04-22T22:14:00.004-04:00

"Why Don't You Dance" and other images

2010-04-13T12:18:00.009-04:00

What's the work about these days? "Why Don't You Dance", Raymond Carver's short story which appeared in a volume entitled "Where I'm Calling From" and which describes a random intersection of lives, young and not so young, personal transitions, plans and failures, is a focus right now. The image set in the middle of this post is 24" x 36" and is the first of two I plan to illustrate the story. It (the image) is my progress thus far as I attempt to zero in on lines, trajectories, light and shadow. Colors are revealing themselves to me....since I think you really can't shape lines, trajectories, light and shadow without using color in some fashion...so I think I am progressing.

The second canvas will move the view more to the right and include the young male and female couple in the story. Haven't decided if I want to include the third character in the view....the lone male resident of the house whose life seems in major disarray. I'll have to re-read the story. It's great how the picture informs the story and vice versa!

Oil on canvas and conte, watercolor and gouache in the images above "Why Don't You Dance".

The orange/white picture is a modified version of the picture I posted previously. Better proportions, I think.

I bought a book at a local used book place a couple of weeks ago: "The Human Figure" by John H. Vanderpoel, published in Chicago in 1913. The pen and ink images are copies I've done. Great fun to do!

Auction for Artspace @ Hope and Olive

2010-03-25T10:17:00.004-04:00

On Monday, April 12, 2010 Artspace, Greenfield's community art center, will hold its annual fundraising event from 5:00 'til 7:00 p.m. at Hope and Olive restaurant on Hope Street in Greenfield. The program includes a silent auction of pieces donated by local painters, sculptors and others and I've chosen to offer the picture above. It's oil on board, c. 9"x12", framed in a c. 2" black, wood frame. A minimum bid of $150.00 has been established.....this is, after all, a fund raising event to support the programs offered, particularly those for local children in music and the arts.

Local businesses and professionals are also participating and offering services and products to the highest bidders. The event has been well attended in the past and it would be great if that trend could continue.

The restaurant offers special items and the bar is open; join us for a fun evening!

Photo of studio; oil portraits; preliminary drawings

2010-02-24T22:10:00.024-05:00

In early January I decided I needed to increase the volume of my work, both in terms of the number of pieces I'd complete and their dimensions. So, maybe a progress report is due? Well, it is difficult to make four new and larger works each month!! I've certainly been able to continue with my studio drawing as well as pen and ink work in my sketch books but the number of completed canvases hasn't kept pace with my wishful planning. That isn't to say I'm going to abandon the objective; I'd like to keep working toward that goal as I am not certain it isn't attainable.

This post includes a picture of my studio taken earlier today as well as some new and old work. The white, reclined figure is a work in progress; the portrait is finished. The charcoal and ink drawings are preliminary planning for three pictures based on short stories written by Raymond Carver.

I seem to have all the artistic inspiration I need, just have to keep it going.

First time juror; slow start; Old Deerfield and some other stuff

2010-01-20T12:39:00.011-05:00

I was honored to be asked and to serve as a juror for an annual exhibition at Artspace in Greenfield, Massachusetts which runs through mid-February. A first for me! Yesterday (1/19/2010) I reviewed the work of many talented young artists, students at local private boarding and public schools whose work had been nominated by art faculty at their respective institutions. What a challenge it was! So much well executed work! The exercise challenged my notions of what I think is "exceptional". Couldn't remove the I from the equation; I guess I don't think there is an objective formula for quantifying the "pull" of a particular work.....I just had to try to be open to interpreting the execution and content of each piece without regard to the medium, subject or technique employed. I looked for evidence of a process in assembly and execution.....that was the best I could do. One work was a technical masterpiece (chosen as best in show by a majority of the "judges"). It was beyond competent and deserved all the recognition it received but for me its "artistic" merit was diminished by the weight of its precision and the calculus of its formation. So, with "judging" you get mass quantities of subjectivity!?! Pity the artist who puts his/her work in the matrix of "evaluation"! I toss my own work into the "show" business from time to time but in the future I'll have insights from my recent experience; feeling rewarded or ignored by the "evaluations" will be tempered with those insights!

My painting pace hasn't yet matched my plan of four per month....as January comes to an end I've got two canvases started! I'll take some pictures and post them next week.

Pictures w/no words;A.;picking up the pace

2010-01-08T12:36:00.012-05:00

I often stay clear of posting here for lack of anything much to say about the work I up-load. As I'm sitting here writing............! With visual art, maybe just posting it is enough, though. I don't need to explain it, the viewer can see for themselves, interpret it, devine its source or suppose its inspiration, calculate whatever needs to be calculated and feel what they feel.

However, all that said, I'm picking up my picture making pace and plan to purchase supplies to allow four (4) 2'x3' or 3'x4' new oil pieces per month for the next six months. I think its ambitious but I want to do it and maybe I'll report on the progress from time to time.

Self-portraits, flowers, buildings, model

2009-10-06T20:41:00.011-04:00

Day lillies, Green River, Cairns, Shelburne, "Eros the Bittersweet", "Why Don't You Dance?"(Ray Carver)

2009-09-27T20:50:00.018-04:00

When not in my studio I made frequent trips to the Green River to cool off this summer. Above are a few sketches I did while in the "woods"; some trees along the banks, day lillies and a cairn I built one really hot mornimg and afternoon.

The scene of dirt road and trees was something I did a week ago today in Shelburne; the floating figures are preliminary drawings to what I hope will be a large scale oil painting representing some of the dynamics in romantic love relationships. I got the idea while reading a wonderful book entitled "Eros: The Bittersweet". The book examines ancient Greek writing, poetry, art and traditions. The figures are floating in a dream-like environment much the way those in the grasp of Eros may feel when trying to understand themselves and the beloved in the confusing state of attraction.

Lastly, a preliminary pastel and charcoal drawing for a picture based upon Carver's short story entitled "Why Don't You Dance?" In the story a young couple driving through a neighborhood in the early evening come across a yard sale set up by a man who apparently has to sell all of his possessions. The couple meet the owner, he provides drinks, they buy, the couple dance in his driveway to music he provides and there are connections made and emotions to be understood.

Work from summer 2009 and earlier

2009-09-17T20:45:00.020-04:00

Ink.

Charcoal on paper.

Charcoal and charcoal pencil on paper.

Watercolor and gouache on board.

Watercolor and goauche on board.

Charcoal and charcoal pencil on paper.

On October 12, 2008 I posted several sketches representing an idea I had for a painting based, in part, upon a short story by Raymond Carver entitiled "What we talk about when we talk about love". The image above, with two couples, is the almost completed piece that I was attached to with my brushes for most of the month of July. When not concentrating on that image I managed to find the time and energy to work on the other pieces posted here.

Ambiguity in the visual world

2009-07-06T13:50:00.015-04:00

"What you see is what you get"?

I've heard that expression several times recently. What do the words commonly mean or intend to express? What must be considered if those words are to have any useful meaning to me? Despite the fact that the phrase is in common use, I find it to be confusing. But, I can only speak of what language means to me.

"Artists see things and make a fuss about them when others tend to look through or past those same things."

Making visual art is something I do. Although I've used various media to make what I call "designs", the majority of what I do is with oil paint, watercolor, charcoal and pastel and best described as realist-based, expressively altered interpretations of the world around me.

Sometimes "the world around me" consists of objects or activities which catch my attention and provide tangible material to interpret and represent while on-site. On other occasions I rely on my memory of the observations or activities and render something without the benefit of access to the object, individual, event or action or even a sketch of the subject. In addition I often attempt to interpret literature, short stories, poetry, the written word, and render an image based upon my imagination and interpretation of the descriptive language provided by an author. (Ray Carver and Anais Nin are my authors of choice at the moment.)

It seems to me that most events, occurances, including individuals going about what individuals go about, and all sorts of other things, said and done, are capable of being understood in more than one way. The wind, a sudden breeze, came from what direction? The movement of the ocean suggests a rising or falling tide? The haze over the forest is smoke from a smoldering fire or humidity or a combination? It is that we do not rely only on our eyes, the primary tools we have for recognizing the visual world, for understanding our individual experience. What you see may not give you much information about what you are going to get. That handshake passing the rhino virus, for example. In fact, what you get may have nothing to do with what you actually see.

We have to inform the visual impression with additional information to make sense of what we "see". Maybe "seeing" doesn't equate with understanding? Maybe "what you see" is "what you get" if you don't look any further, if you reduce "seeing" to acquiring colors, depth, perspective, light. Maybe the expression ("what you see is what you get") is simply an invitation to look and look and look and look some more? Maybe it is a warning; that you should, for example, know more than just what you see if you are going to be informed? "Interpret the signals of sight at your peril!"; that fire is hot and if you try to walk through it there is danger. But you may not see heat, only flame. To put the flame with heat you have to use your mind, your intellect.

So, the real lesson might be: an informed interpretation of things visually perceived will help an individual acheive some additional understanding of the surrounding world.

The end result of my art-making activity on any one occasion is then, generally, an expressive rendering of what I saw or what I remember of what I saw or what my imagination informs my minds eye of what I've seen. To some extent these things may occur simultaneously but I tend to prefer to think of them in isolation. To further complicate this already somewhat tedious analysis, I should also say that I have rendered at least one scene, placing myself in the position of viewer, where I observe myself, without the benefit of a mirror!

When viewing my work, though, it may not be easy to distinquish the on-site rendering from the piece completed with only reference to, for example a short story, injected with a high dose of imagination. So, I guess maybe "what you see is what you get", that is, what you are looking at is what you are looking at but a viewer may not apprehend all of what she's "getting"!

But does that make a difference? Maybe it is simply a philosophical question but I believe the question is important if we seek understanding dispite ambiguity in the world.

While jay walking, it may be important to be able to judge how fast the oncomming vehicle is traveling as you stride across the roadway. Presumably, the more reference points available the more accurate the estimate. Parked cars along the side can reference the moving vehicle and with those points ambiguity lessens.

New pictures/May 2009

2009-06-21T22:31:00.005-04:00

Life Drawing Exhibit/Recent Sketchbook Stuff/More

2009-05-12T15:30:00.010-04:00

The drawing group I joined several years ago is having an exhibit of figure related work and I submitted two pictures, both of which I've never photographed or I'd post them here. One is a recent (2008) 11" x 14" female nude in oil on Masonite and the other a watercolor (1998). The watercolor was done from my memory of the musical "Chicago" which I saw performed on stage in Boston just before I did it. I'd have liked to submit more and actually some things done in the group but work on paper requires framing (I think) but the time and other resources just weren't there.

The two sketches at the bottom of the post were done this week and last. They are , respectively, the front door of the Duxbury (Massachusetts) Historical Society building and a shaded sidewalk in Deerfield. I showed them today to the editor of a local weekly newspaper who remarked that they had an "old style" feel to them.....I'm in agreement but I don't particularly like to think that's what I do!!

The next two in ascending order are scenes from Gloucester, Massachusetts; the house done while sitting on the adjacent beach and the boat from a photo, I think. Both done several years ago.

At the top of the page is a sketch in ink and gouache done on location a few years ago in Marion, Massachusetts while sitting in my car.

Opportunites and losses

2009-05-05T10:33:00.004-04:00

The Rocky Neck Art Colony in Gloucester, Massachusetts offers a Residency for visual artists running from mid-May to September each year. They have a great studio facility on Smith's Cove with living space for the artist in a location I really enjoy. Maybe five (5) artists are selected and each has about a month at the Colony's studio to work without the usual day-to-day distractions. I've applied for one of the Residencies at least twice, including most recently my April 2009 request. Sadly, again, I received a letter last week indicating that a residency was not going to be offered to me. Disappointed, yes but not really discouraged. Motivated by rejection? I don't know...maybe. I didn't apply because I was searching for approval of my work but approval is an inherent part of the application process!!! Not securing approval doesn't change how I feel about what I am doing. I think it makes me want to be a bit more directed about how I present myself, my work, my story. That's what I want to take from the experience of rejection ; I'll keep growing my work the way I want to grow it.

The sketch above is a view to Rocky Neck

******

Several days ago I arrived at the Leverett Crafts and Arts building, where my studio is located, to discover a table in the hallway loaded with art supplies and seven (7) magnificent c. 34" x 38" museum-style frames complete with glass, mat and mounting board....all in fine condition.....with a sign on the table in large black letters reading "FREE"!!! How could this happen and what does it mean, I thought to myself? Well, what it meant was that I had just gotten a gift beyond gifting!! I have accumulated 100's of drawings I'd like to be able to show and now I had the vehicles, devices, gadgets, tools to show them!! Wow! I felt a bit greedy as I carried them up the stairs to my second floor space, occasionally wondering if I had some obligation to share them with others and feeling that now I knew what it was like to be a pirate.
I'll fill them with pictures and show them. I'll be careful with them while they are in my custody and I'll pass them on to another just I received them!!!
After storing them and while working on a painting I could hear footsteps in the hall. I went outside and asked if by some chance the "gifts" I'd secured had been placed by the woman I'd just introduced myself to. "Yes", she said. She was moving from her studio and couldn't take the frames with her; I thanked her and offered that they were obviously valuable and that I should pay her...of course knowing that I had no money to do that.
I'm appreciative of her gift and will remember the gesture of Petula Bloomfield, artist, supporter of the arts, angel in the perpetual world of artist needs. Thank you, so much!

********

Although nothing has been finalised, the editor of a local weekly newspaper, the Montague Reporter, has indicated an interest in publishing some of my illustrations. We're meeting later this week.

Figures/Landscape/Watercolor abstraction

2009-05-03T21:24:00.015-04:00

Most of the images in this posting are recent; some within the last few weeks or so. Although it has been many days since anything has gone up here, in fact the art making has been going on pretty much non-stop. I seem to be getting lots of studio time but I could always use more, or so I think. The majority of what is here is charcoal, one pastel; most of my time, however, has been spent on an large (36" x 24") oil picture. The oil work was begun in my studio several weeks ago and is based upon a smaller oil I completed late last year.

During the summer of 2008 I spent a couple of days painting on location at Historic Deerfield. I took lots of photographs while there and have done lots of illustrations: an 11" x 14" oil picture (which was sold at an auction this past February at ArtSpace in Greenfield! ) of essentially the scene I am re-working on a larger scale, as well as a smaller work-in-progress and an 11" x 14" oil of a building in the village.

The current project has been a challenge in every sense. At the top of this post is a view, taken with my cell phone camera, of a portion I was working on today.

The drawings are just what they are....not necessarily preliminary to anything I've planned except that the pastel is serving as the reference piece for an oil-in-progress.

The sketchbook pages are exhibits of what I think good picture makers must (ought to ) do! Actually, I'm not so sure how helpful "planning" might be or "study" is. Although I might get one or two ideas from a mid-painting sketch of a work in progress once I take the idea and try to do something with it I rarely go back to the study to see if there is anything else of value to me. And I often make notes I don't look at again!! Maybe it is just process.

Main Street, Greenfield

2009-03-31T19:01:00.005-04:00

This is complete, finally!! I've painted and re-painted, over painted, under painted and stared at this long enough. I actually like it at this point, having altered every aspect and plane of the thing at least six times, changed shades of blue from ultramarine to cerulean to Prussian to mixes of each. It sort of represents a place where one confronts alternatives, choices; you really have to do that alone and it looks like "alone" to me. I wonder, right now, if I've painted any alternatives that aren't immediately apparent?
It measures 12" x 12" and is oil over acrylic. This original is based on a sketch I did some time ago which appears in an earlier post. I think I'll do a series of views of Greenfield's Main Street but use a larger format....maybe 20" x 30".

Recent charcoal drawings/figures

2009-03-22T23:01:00.010-04:00

Charcoal drawings may be an end in themselves or preliminary to a work in another media. Actually, I like to hold on to all of my charcoal pictures and have so many hanging in a closet, poorly stored in the basement and in huge improvised cardboard "portfolio" folders that I think an inventory should be started sometime soon. Maybe toss some out? That will be difficult, I think.

The image of the group sitting at a table is a progression of the Carver-based painting I hope to execute, or at least begin soon. Something about it confuses me; the table legs are too short or the table top should be lower or the chair legs are too short.....maybe all three of the above.

Anyway, it's "What we talk about when we talk about love." If I knew how to send this posting to his first wife I'd do it; I think she might appreciate how someone attempts to interpret her late ex-husband's word-pictures.

The reclined figure (pastel/watercolor) is quite large (30" x 40") and is as yet a work in progress which I am hopeful may be finished in time to exhibit at an upcoming figure show at Artspace in Greenfield.

The other drawings are from the life group I belong to and draw with every couple of weeks. For the most part they were done in fifteen to thirty minutes on white acid free drawing paper.

New Studio! New work!

2009-02-26T11:42:00.006-05:00

Not so new now, since I've been there for the month of February plus a few days. After a reasonably careful artist-like search I was able to locate a really nice space to share with another painter at the Leverett Crafts and Arts building in Leverett, Massachusetts. Studio A-5, to be exact, on the second floor, facing east with a view into woods now covered with snow. Nice, quite artist's community of painters, potters, jewelers, instrument makers and the like. There is a large and open gallery space (Barnes Gallery) for exhibits and my sense is that LCA has a focus on being the center for arts in the local community by offering classes and work space. I am excited at the prospect of being there!

Just above is a picture of my space taken a few days ago as well as a close-up few of a painting I am working on this week. No title, yet, but "Nails" has a good chance, huh? It is oil and acrylic; the oil has been applied over some of the "original" acrylic under painting. As between the two mediums I find oil to be much more flexible, easier to move around and most appropriate for the way I like to paint.

The scene is of Greenfield and started from sketches I did of a portion of the block on the south side of Main Street opposite what was then Cafe Koko. Actually, I did the sketches while sitting in Koko's drinking iced coffee.

It is approximately 12" x 12". Nails is a fingernail salon; next door is a Korean restaurant.

More sketching than painting?

2009-02-25T22:58:00.007-05:00

Progressive views of pen and ink renderings, Main Street, Gloucester

View of Gloucester side street

Old Deerfield view

Will sunflowers and sunshine ever return?

2009-01-28T22:23:00.007-05:00

The sunflowers were done in 2007, maybe toward the end of the summer; the boats in 2003 (or so). After a season of snow unlike winters of recent memory, I'm ready for longer days, warmer temperatures and the colors of spring.