Water media

20" x  36"

Watercolor and gouache on foam board.

Newer drawing

18" x 24"
Charcoal and pastel on paper

2009 Charcoal

Drawing with charcoal + gouache

Expressive

18" x 20"
Oil on canvas

Watercolor/gouache/charcoal figure

I did this in October and just got a good photograph of it to share.  Watercolor, gouache, charcoal on mat board.

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

Fairly fast ink figures

 

 

If I remember correctly, these were three to five minute sketches; done in 5" x 5" sketchbook.

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.

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.

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.

Figure

Quick brush; pushing to be expressive...maybe this is where I will "settle" my work?

I've been making a conscious effort to be loose with my brushes and, to the extent I remain committed to that objective while I work on something, to also simplify lines, curves and "definition" by making quick gestures. Trouble is, sometimes I find myself putting layer after layer of stuff on (no examples of that here). Maybe if I don't post the "layered" work I'll stop doing it!! Unlikely. Anyway, here are some life drawing images in watercolor and gouache.

New pictures/May 2009

Recent charcoal drawings/figures

Charcoal drawings may be an end in themselves or preliminary to a work in another media. Actually, I like to hold on to all of my charcoal pictures and have so many hanging in a closet, poorly stored in the basement and in huge improvised cardboard "portfolio" folders that I think an inventory should be started sometime soon. Maybe toss some out? That will be difficult, I think.

The image of the group sitting at a table is a progression of the Carver-based painting I hope to execute, or at least begin soon. Something about it confuses me; the table legs are too short or the table top should be lower or the chair legs are too short.....maybe all three of the above.

Anyway, it's "What we talk about when we talk about love." If I knew how to send this posting to his first wife I'd do it; I think she might appreciate how someone attempts to interpret her late ex-husband's word-pictures.

The reclined figure (pastel/watercolor) is quite large (30" x 40") and is as yet a work in progress which I am hopeful may be finished in time to exhibit at an upcoming figure show at Artspace in Greenfield.

The other drawings are from the life group I belong to and draw with every couple of weeks. For the most part they were done in fifteen to thirty minutes on white acid free drawing paper.

Pastel nudes on paper

So, ya, it has been way too long since I have posted anything here. It's not that art-making has been off my radar; indeed, quite the contrary. I think that my new-painting pace has slowed a bit since the summer months but I've been busy with the pen and ink in the sketchbook and with revisions/adjustments to work I thought I'd completed. I have several ideas in the works-including the "What we talk about when we talk about love" picture(s) which is/are now in an advanced stage of charcoal rendering and will soon find a way to some shape or form of canvas. (I'll move on next to watercolor and become frustrated because I'll want to mat and frame.) SO, maybe I will just jump right to a canvas.

Searching for new studio space has become a priority. As of 22 December I will need to relocate from my present situation at 83 Newton St. Studio-mate/sub-lessor sees the need for more space and less of my presence........I'll miss the convenience of a close-to-home space with a sufficiently neutral ambiance that I can actually work when I am there! And I have just gotten good with the wood stove so that 30 minutes after the first match I've got a comfortable place. Oh well.

There may be a good substitute on the horizon; I will look at new space in an artist-populated Class D building close to home next week. We'll see.

I told a cyber-friend that my next (this) post would be nudes upon nudes. She's an artist's model in Brooklyn and writes an exceptional blog called "Museworthy". The images which accompany this posting I offer her as well as to those who would stumble upon this record. Museworthy's writing is worthy of attention. What's on her mind finds its way to the accessible digital world in a refreshing style and tempo. Honestly, I don't know how someone as busy as she is with her musing and related activities can find the time to present such a remarkably thoughtful journal with spectacular historical perspective and accounts of her own work and heart. Read it!!

Images #1, #4 and #5 above are pastel renderings of an artist's model I had several opportunities to work with both in group life drawing settings as well as in my studio. Cindi acted as sort of a "den mother" for several models (she explained the how and what the work was about to the novice model) and she was something special for artists, also.

The artist/nude model transaction may be unique in the context of social interaction. Clearly, a rendering of the subject is the objective but it is undeniable that the offering and acquisition of the nude is an exceptional, though traditional, exchange conducted by, at least in my experience, otherwise strangers to each other. In the ideal exchange both parties disrobe: the artist in a "figurative" way, the model in quite a literal fashion. If you accept the proposition that, regardless of the subject, the artist paints "himself", i.e. the self "he" "knows", the self "he" seeks to know, or the self unknown to "him", the nude rendered may reveal as much or about the artist as the subject. I think that art, assembled in a setting where artist and model have a remote posture vis a vis the other, has the greatest potential for success. Cindi endeavored to facilitate such work, I think. She precipitated a flow of expression I don't always find in some of my other work. The faster the rendering, the less thinking, the better.

Summer slipped away

It's been since June that I've posted to this blog of mine?!?! The time seems to have slipped away but I plan, at least, to revive my activity here...well, I will revive my activity here! This place provides a reference point, along the path of my artistic activities, which I find helpful to turn to and work on.

So, during the summer months I've allowed myself a break from Brushwork to, ah, get some sun, clean my brushes, contemplate? I guess, to a certain degree, but I've mostly been painting, planning my future work, looking at various gallery websites as I consider how best to market the work I am now organizing along something of a planned theme...and while doing this I've also tried to keep a journal record of all of it. I've participated in two summer exhibits organized by the Deerfield Valley Art Association: a summer show open to all members as well as a "new members" exhibit, which is still running at the Association's temporary home in Turner's Falls, Massachusetts through September 28th.

In July I spent a day or two at Old Deerfield painting and taking photographs for future reference. I've completed five oil pictures inspired by my visits there and anticipate several more will evolve from that effort as well. I am organizing twelve to fourteen pictures as more or less a "collection" of similarly executed pieces done in the realist style I enjoy working through these days. Not that I've perfected this style or indeed even settled upon exactly how I ought to render the image I decide to begin to execute.......there is something ambiguous about being a painter; something ambivalent about "style". (I will photograph and post the work here shortly.)

The owner of a local cafe has asked me to exhibit in October; I'll push myself a bit (not really, 'cause I love doing it) to have ten or twelve new pieces (since July) and chose five or six to show.

While considering my "portfolio" these last few months I've tried to evaluate my own work and set up a presentation package to present to potential agents, representatives or gallery managers. Self-evaluation of work product is really a tough challenge but I think the exercise might have been productive.