Graphite and watercolor

This looks to me like something done in the 1940's by someone else.  Ever had that experience?  Not too original I guess but I do like the colors.  It was done so long ago that I almost feel I could be objective about it!

Work in progress

20" x 36"

Watercolor on foam board.  About to revisit and I'll post the work going forward.

Making pictures

18" x 24"/pastel and charcoal on heavy Bee paper

Clearly there was thought put into this but as I look at it the calculations disappear from my memory.  I think that's a good sign that something ethereal, transient yet strong was involved in the process of assembly.  How lucky for me!  At least that's how I look at it.  Making pictures likely has something to do with trying to hold on to time or maybe more precisely to a moment....which is time, I know but when I think of "time" it is usually in chunks so I'm trying to differentiate, be precise.  Photographs can hold the future off or hold the past too I suppose but I don't often put a camera in my hand when picture making. Maybe it is something about it's precision...even if the image is manipulated and looks distorted, out of focus, untrue to reality or abstracted in some way.  The required calculations are made on a level of consciousness that as a mark maker I don't have to be involved with. Or so I'm thinking.  Maybe photographers have totally uncalibrated results, too? 
I wonder if the exercise of comparing hand rendered art to photographic art is worthwhile?  Certainly, I think, the immediacy of a gesture with charcoal, pencil or pastel in hand and the resulting mark(s) is different than the capture/impression of pixels...it seems almost that the difference is like a vacuum cleaner to a broom.  The camera sucks in all the available stuff; the broom is guided as it collects.  Interesting comment from someone who knows nothing about photography, huh?
I like trying to figure stuff out but maybe like some, try working at it with less than an adequate amount of information! 
I do know from looking at this piece that I got myself perfectly.  If the lens were pointed directly at me it couldn't have captured a better representation.

Watercolor and gouache on foam board

Recent picture which has color and a loose composition.  I really enjoy working on this surface and find myself using things beside brushes to make marks with.

Watercolor and gouache on foam board

Charcoal portrait with Red

Soft pastel and charcoal/18" x 24"

Nina's Nook Exhibit

18" x 24"/Charcoal and pastel

12" x 16"/Oil on board

The lower image is a view of a larger work on display at a local gallery exhibit of erotic art.  Not sure but I feel it is at the margins of what I understand to be erotic representation but none the less I was pleased it was chosen to be included in the collection of work produced by local painters, photographers and sculptors.
The venue is Nina's Nook, a unique space located at 125A Avenue A, Turners Falls, Mass. 01376.  Turners is just a quick jog off of Rt. 2 between Gill and Greenfield.  More about the exhibit, gallery hours, etc. can be found at www.ninasnook.com.
Above is one of several pieces on paper I did some time ago.

Drawing with charcoal and pastel

Pastel and charcoal on paper

This piece is about 18" x 24" and was done recently.  She's seated on an invisible chair and surrounded by an aura or field of extra energetic random squiggles which seem to keep her from falling.  More really soon.

2013/First Post

So, this is a watercolor I did about four years ago.  I worked from a charcoal drawing I'd done about three or four years prior to this rendering.  It's a favorite of mine and many family members; it suggests or reminds us of a particularly challenging and stressful period during which medical treatments, hospitals, and hope saturated our lives.  That hope and treatment brought rewards and viewing this image rekindles a place of strength, warmth, optimism and successfully pushes worry to the side while it's delicacy acknowledges that we are all frail when living in time.
Although I've been silent here for just about a month I've spent time working on several larger pieces.  I've not neglected the art but have not done much of a job recording my activities.  That will change in the days to come!  I have lots of work to present and will, I hope, have lots to say about it, too.
Oh, and the image above is one I'm hoping will displayed in a local figurative show which opens shortly.

Work on paper

18" x 24"

I'll post some oils from November soon.  Saved too many drawings!

More from "Productive November"!

The top drawing (charcoal and pastel) seems to me energetic and simultaneously still.  I'm captured by the ambiguity and feel satisfied that I have recorded myself in a moment I wasn't fully aware of at the time I did the picture.  Not to sound like a tired beer commercial but it actually doesn't get better than that.  Reminded of what I didn't even notice!  Or didn't dare consider?  A little like living on the edge.  That explains the energy part.
The oil portrait might have something going for it, I'm not sure.  This is how it looked about two weeks ago; I've made revisions since.  Although it isn't as loose as I might like, I've obviously taken license with color and line to fracture some of the reality....the structural, material reality...in an effort to plumb myself in the dynamic and capture something ephemeral. In my mind more important, more significant, more elusive, more satisfying than a life-like rendering.  More satisfying?  Well, maybe my satisfaction is in trying to obtain the short-lived experience and making it last.......which isn't all that different than what the representational realist has in mind but I want to remember how I felt, my emotion, my awareness.  That seems much more "active" if you will.

New

Oil on canvas

Pastel on paper

Oil on canvas
18" x 18"

Here are two new ones and a better photograph of a work I posted here earlier.
I think I'd describe all of these as expressive pieces, i.e. in a style inspired by the various schools of expressionism.  I really want to expand, experiment with, study and create in this style of image making....so much to do and so much opportunity to grow!

Productive November

Well, this month of November has been a very productive month on so many levels.  Just got a new job (working for an accounting firm), had a wonderful family Thanksgiving celebration and have made lots of art, lots of pictures and drawings.  Not going to rank anything, just pleased all around.

Oil on canvas
18" x 24"
Near Davenport Farm

Pastel on paper
18" x 24"

My limited posting here in the month of November (also had a birthday!) just means I've had myself involved in multiple activities and my neglect in posting shouldn't suggest that I haven't been busy in the studio......so, I'll present anyone who stumbles upon these pages or has remained curious about them with some new images and perhaps a comment or two now and then.

I have lots to show for the next several weeks.

A feeling too rare; incentives

18" x 24"
charcoal/pastel/bee paper

These two images have, both of them, enlivened my picture making practice and I hope set me firmly on a path more consistent with my seemingly waxing and waning desire to make expressive pieces in the tradition of the modernist, expressionist painters I so admire.  The portrait/figure above was a short exercise recently undertaken and one I am entirely pleased with.  The photo I've posted isn't too bad, save for the visible clip; can't say that about the oil.  Sorry!

Oil on canvas
18" x 18"

The landscape is a representation of a beautiful view on property where we lived  for about ten years in Duxbury, Massachusetts beginning in about 1996.  I recently found a photo I'd taken sometime ago and was inspired to use the scene as the foundation for the piece.  I've started several others with reference to that property and some from recent photos of the area where I now live.

Morrissey/Manchester/Sunday

Given the probable confluence of events over time, my time anyway, it is likely I won't see Morrissey perform in Manchester, ever but when I watch this I wish, wish I could have that experience.  I wouldn't say he informs or inspires my work but I embrace his barrier bending and breaking and I derive an energy and widened perspective from who I think he might be, what he does and those who would surround him.......almost makes him sound like a god!!

Oh, and here's a picture from a recent Sunday likely done while listening to, well, you guessed it!!

Newer drawing

18" x 24"
Charcoal and pastel on paper

Charcoal/pastel figure

18" x 24"

Recent Effort

Gouache on clayboard
c. 18" x 24"

Mixed media/sketch

18" x 24"
Charcoal and water color
on paper

I've been cruising around gallery websites and reading about marketing strategy for would-be professional picture makers.  Don't know if I should feel discouraged or not; there's a certain "finish" lacking in a large portion of what I do and nothing seems to go in a straight line.....I guess that's what I see on the gallery sites: a polish or finish to the work displayed and lots of the same technique.  Anyway, I like doing what I'm doing and I learn from the work and I think I grow in the process of it all.

More ink

Ink on paper

Sketchbook/ink figure

Did this in 2011 sometime; just scanned it the other day.