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.

Memory in ink

This drawing is so difficult to view that I may decide to remove the post.  I did it today over coffee while sitting in a little lunch spot/cafe. I thought about trying how to adapt my work in oil to this loose, expressive drawing style or technique.  Maybe mix the paint with some medium to dilute it enough that I can easily make similar marks with a brush?  Maybe a little bit of color, too?  We'll have to see what unfolds.

Two pieces

Suburbia/violence/haunted still?

I don't really want to offer much about this. I like the work or I wouldn't post it but the "inspiration" was an exclamation point, punctuation mark, in character formation with negative implications and energy which survives to this time in my life.

Recent pen and ink drawings

"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.