year end review

As 2016 comes to an end I'm looking back over a years worth of picture making.  Lots to appreciate including simply having the opportunity to proceed with what I love doing.  Personal expansion and understanding top the list of gifts from all of this.  Not to sound too selfish or self-centered but I am the one doing it, eh? Learning to be critical of what I do is important I think.  I sometimes don't want to look at "gains" and I don't know why I might prefer to hide such things from myself.  Maybe it detracts from the process?  Alters the process?  I'll take that up with my artist mentor when we meet next!
I had several opportunities to show my work in 2016 and feel confident that those opportunities will expand going forward.  That was a dividend in 2016 I enjoyed.  Not too many thorns to feel remorse or sadness about in this work this past year.
Picture making can be solitary and picture sharing resolves or completes a connection with others. I've come to appreciate that cycle more this past year.  I want to grow that feeling and learn more from it in the coming months.
The work above is representative I think of some new turns I've taken and things I have enjoyed doing.  I think they are successful and show me who I am becoming.
Thank you for following, for participating in my work.

I worked on these yesterday; two are done not so sure about the other

30" x 20"

Gesso and acrylic on mat board

Recent

Work from today

In progress

The palette/the purpose

Lately I have been reflecting on the art I'm doing and have done.  Looking to the future I suppose. I've been working with a mentor, a recognized and respected artist, with the hope that I will become more  directed and perhaps feel some security knowing I have made purposeful choices as I proceed with  my drawing and painting.

One thing is for certain, the work of a painter requires a commitment of time if any real growth is going to occur.  And growth is something I want.  Along with locating my particular voice.

To the extent that art making for me results in the development of personal skill I am happy for that achievement.  But if I can foster a unique expression, one that only I can reveal, I would feel accomplished.  Until proven otherwise I think all persons have a unique voice and vision.  My search is continuing!

Acrylic, charcoal and graphite
on paper/2016

from today/detail

Moving ahead, slowly

40" x 40"
Oil on canvas

Channeling Francis Bacon?

Ink and acrylic on paper

Acrylic/oil on paper-in progress

Struggling to abstraction??

I am challenging myself to find a way to break this down, to break away from perspective and proportion, to alter the objective view in a way which reveals something of myself and my place in the world.  In the process I am attempting to expand (or obliterate?) the details, the minutia, to a point where something essential is revealed.  In a way it's almost like an exercise in philosophical reasoning, I think.  In some ways, for me, reading philosophy is like absorbing the history of man on earth, in a condensed version where ultimate questions dominate and from the complexity a truth could be revealed.  If I'm lucky enough to understand what I've read!!

This work is very slow.  I'm wondering if I do myself a disservice by plodding along?