Bold color

c. 20" x 24"/oil on canvas

Not too subtle.  Bright.  Loud.  Bold.  She appeals to me!

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.

"path to another's time"

36" x 48"
Oil on canvas

This is done......I say that knowing my pension for returning to pieces, so we'll see.  But I do actually think it is, for now, a finished item.  And I plan to enter it in a competition this week, a show at the South Shore Arts center in Cohasset which begins in November, I think.  Revealing that intention however is likely the kiss of death.  Seems each time I announce my next move vis a vis getting the work seen the judges decide otherwise.

Landscape in progress

Conway View

There is so much inspiration within the Bullit Reservation.

Expressive

18" x 20"
Oil on canvas

12 x 12

Portrait

18 x 20
Oil

I've pushed paint around on this picture for far too long.  I think she's done...maybe a few little jabs with the brushes but maybe not, too.  I want to do more oil portraits, get my hand, arm and head (mostly) to loosen up and get out of the tight zone!!!!!! I like the detail here and I dislike it too.  Ah, the totally ambivalent painter.

Charcoal and oil

While speaking with an artist acquaintance last week the subject of working in a series became part of our conversation.  For whatever reason I have chosen to work on individual pieces with a rather random, perhaps whimsical approach.  The fellow I was speaking with offered a suggestion that I think I might try to implement.  He offered that if I were to choose a subject and purchase a sufficient quantity of paper or canvas I'd have an easier time and an opportunity for efficiency in the work.  He offered that many gallery directors prefer to exhibit a series of related works.  That certainly sounded reasonable.  So, I think I am going to work on that.  Maybe I'll start with 25-30 or so sheets of exceptional paper, lots of really good charcoal and a few soft pastel sticks.  

Work in Progress

For me, a massive oil.  I keep looking and wondering if I can do it.  36" x 48"; maybe a half-dozen times to the canvas, including almost eight hours yesterday....and I'm absolutely unsure of where I am headed with it.  So far, not too frustrating.  Not sure about it but I'm "listening" and for the most part enjoying the search for balance and tempo.

Small oil/Deerfield

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.

"Why don't you dance?"

I think these are more or less finished. Images constructed from a combination of ingredients: Raymond Carver's short story "Why don't you dance?", a large dose of imagination and some refrences to my memory of shapes, light movement, figures.