Officially fall

Near Conway, Massachusetts
Oil on canvas
24" x 36"

I've fussed with this picture for so long....well maybe eight or nine months...that I think I just have to stop.  While on a drive last October I stumbled upon some really pretty scenery in Conway, took lots of photos and did maybe a dozen oil and watercolor pieces, including this.  It is the largest and for that reason, perhaps, it has occupied my attention far more than any of the others.  Maybe it looks that way?  Has had too much attention?  Not really sure it's integrated and balanced well; some of the phrases maybe don't go with others.....the foreground is maybe in a different "language"?  An artist friend, whose opinion I value, offered early on in my work on this that it looked like three pictures!  I think I've reduced it to no more than two!

Having a difficult time with this

Too tight, bland without any snap, so I'll put it aside for a bit and get back to it later.

Landscape in progress

Recent Painting

Conway
18" x 24"
Oil on canvas

Standing Figure
20" x 16"
Oil on Canvas

I think these represent a bit of a new direction for me.  They have modernist and expressive elements I'd like to cultivate and grow in work going forward.  The landscape is finished and I've launched some other canvases in a similar style.  The figure is nearing completion.

Sketchbook

Conway View

There is so much inspiration within the Bullit Reservation.

Landscape

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.  

12 x 12

Recent work/oil/charcoal

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

Near Bullit Reservation

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.

Fall