Water media

20" x  36"

Watercolor and gouache on foam board.

See any beasts in the trees?

Several years ago a friend showed some of my work to a NYC portrait artist and he remarked.... "ah, a Fauvist!"  I was familiar with the term and the movement and appreciated the critique but I was maybe not so pleased with the idea of fitting into a category.  I wasn't aiming for any particular style and much as I do today felt like making pictures is an opportunity to explore and experiment. 
That was then.  Lately I've expanded on that colorful, abstracted sort of style and have begun assembling a series of pieces, almost all are landscapes, which I'd like to grow in number.  I hope that in the process I'll learn more about color and contrast and make some things which are beautiful.
The piece below is something I struggled with for quite a long time...months I think and have only recently begun to enjoy.

24" x 30"/oil on canvas

Landscape in progress

Gouache on foam board/#45

Something new

#24

New Art

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

On a different note!

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.

Idea for big gouache picture

Finished picture, plus

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.

She reminds me of Wyeth's Helga

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.

Just fun!

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".

Spring/Renewal/Growth/Change

The top four pieces were done within the last week or so and are clearly a departure from most all of my previous painting. They are a combination of water media: transparent watercolor and opaque media. The figure in a wrap (charcoal) was done just a few weeks ago at the Sunday morning life drawing group I attend. The second figure was done at the same venue but about six weeks ago. The pastel road/woods/field scene was completed during the spring of 2007 and I just photographed it to scan the other day. It is a location I particularly enjoy in Shelburne Falls. When the weather is good I like to set up my easel on location and either paint or work with pastel.

The abstract/subjective works were based on sketches I did previously; I posted two examples just prior to this posting. I haven't worked in that fashion too often, that is, to prepare something of a preliminary rendering to execute in another medium. The techniques used in one medium don't necessarily translate easily in another! So, I took some liberties....and why not, it's my work, huh?