Pastel on paper

 

c.9" x 12"/Pastel on textured paper

So this is maybe ten years old and something I did while working outside with a group of other painters I'd occasionally work with. 

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.

Westport Point, Massachusetts

18" x 24"
Pastel on 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.