kometes

Ink and watercolor on foam board/c. 9.5" x 8.75"

Webster's says that the Greek word for comet is kometes, comets of course those sparkling sky travelers with a tail that precedes them or so I've come to understand.  Hard to imagine the object essentially moving into or toward what appears to the eye as "exhaust", if you will.  Certainly it is the flare/flair of light that attracts the attention and the cone shaped light like the product of combustion for those with feet on the ground.
So my lines curve and shoot about from my hand; my hand directs the brush as if the movement were the "product" of my mind.  In fact, sometimes it feels like I, me, my mind, is simply the observer and I am chasing the process and seeing the result while it forms as I rush into it. 
The lines or rays flowing from her eye, like the brilliant waves of light from a comet, herald her arrival.

More ink

Ink on paper

Sketchbook/ink figure

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

What a month! But still some time for art!

Belated birthday recognition for Gustav Klimt- the 150th anniversary of his birth was Saturday July 14th.  His decorative work, i.e. patterns, lines, zig-zags, circles, color combinations, all just so imaginative, I feel.
So, been absent here for a long time....maybe a month.  In the interim had to replace an automobile, begin a job search and prepare for and execute the wedding festivities for the youngest of our daughters!  It was the last activity which brought the greatest happiness, delight, energy and joy...overwhelmed the other stuff by lots!!
Faith was married by the ocean in Marion, Massachusetts on June 30th. with the reception just steps away at a beautiful facility, part of a club my family has had connections with for decades.  Danced and had fun 'til they insisted we leave to allow the staff to set up for the next day's events.  Music provided by Shirley Lewis,  a Boston blues institution who at seventy-five made the house jump!  Great party!!
Spent two weeks at the beach in Marion, freed from the constraints of employment, swimming, doing the wedding stuff, having friends and family visit.  Just Great!  And, today I got my first unemployment check!  Could life be better??!
Not gonna go into the job stuff  'cept to say that looking for work is a challenge, so if anyone wants to make an offer on a picture.......
With all of that I still had some time to do art.  Walked the beach on Sippican Bay each day and retrieved bags of shells.  I'd sit at a table, arrange them in some fashion and find my pens and sketchbook.

Here are a few samples.

Painting idea/drawing from Sunday

Pen and ink figure from Sunday; image above is an idea for a picture I'd like to do.....I think.

Sketchbook

Finding more lines

Two pieces

Ink figure

Sketchbook/Conway/Fall

I'm working on a picture of the scene represented by the two ink drawings at the bottom and have been using them (and the exercise of doing them) to understand the value possibilities and where I'd like to head with color, too. I took some photos one day while driving around Conway and Ashfield and have decided to try and do a series of watercolor pictures. Above them is a watercolor sketch of that scene; the other an ink and watercolor sketch of another piece I plan to do.

"What we talk about when we talk about love" and other images

These sketches are preliminary to a picture I hope to complete based upon Raymond Carver's short story "What we talk about when we talk about love." Carver is a favorite of mine, both his poetry and short stories. To me, he wrote like Hopper painted; often the subject is something from the everyday but from a particular point of view, a sober even somber view of the mundane. Carver's life was fueled by alcohol and apparently in addition to self destructive tendencies he occasionally became abusive, violent. "What we talk about...." includes conversation between the four characters, drinking heavily as the sun sinks in Albuquerque, about what it means to be in love and how lovers behave with and toward the other in the couple. The two couples in the storey bring their individual experiences to the table. There are stories of divorce, reconciliation, drinking, violence and the ability of the spirit to somehow sustain love through it all.

The sketch at the lower left with the table and shadow lines is what I hope will evolve into the final setting for the scene I hope to paint. The drawings above are my first sketchbook attempts at representing the characters; I've moved to a larger format and started a charcoal rendering I hope will help me finalize shapes, positions and facial expressions.

Sketching and painting

My current remunerative employment provides not much visually but does offer a sufficient amount of free time that occasionally I can grab a pen and my sketchbook. Usually I'll rough something out and then, when away from the Men's Department, add some color with pencil or sometimes watercolor. Above is an example.

As I try to develop a consistent approach to my work...which for me is a challenge because I enjoy experimenting with materials and styles of representation... I often think that I should work exclusively with a combination of watercolor and pastel. In several pieces I have used watercolor to create a basic image and then done an overlay of pastel in an effort to "focus" the image. Two examples are posted here: a figure and a "landscape" by the sea. The water scene was done mostly from my memory of a place in Rockport, Massachusetts I like to visit and the figure was done at my studio frm life.