Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Main Street, Greenfield


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".




Sunday, March 22, 2009

Recent charcoal drawings/figures





























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.