View of Pushkin Gallery last week (quick)

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

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

"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

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

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

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.