More sketching than painting?

Progressive views of pen and ink renderings, Main Street, Gloucester

View of Gloucester side street

Old Deerfield view

Will sunflowers and sunshine ever return?

The sunflowers were done in 2007, maybe toward the end of the summer; the boats in 2003 (or so). After a season of snow unlike winters of recent memory, I'm ready for longer days, warmer temperatures and the colors of spring.

Pen/ink/pencil of Greenfield and Gloucester

The Lady Killigrew Cafe, next to the Book Mill in Montague, is a favorite location for coffee or a beer; so was Cafe Koko which recently was forced to close its doors. There is a certain imperfection about them which caught my attention; sort of rough around the edges, a quality shared by both Greenfield and Gloucester. I think both communities will continue to provide me with subjects and inspiration. Happy 2009!!

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.

New Work

The two finished oil pieces directly above were the result of visits I made to Old Deerfield during this past July and August. I set up my easel and began the sidewalk-scape looking for much more detail than the final result reveals. It was a hot but comfortable day, a bit of humidity in the air, enough that distant points in my field of view faded some. The image I've presented here isn't the best quality reproduction....some of the colors just don't look like the real thing...but a bit of the mood comes thru and I like the piece and want to share it. The Hopper-like look in the building/shadows picture just kind of evolved. Again, I began the piece (using a reference photograph taken in Deerfield during one of the visits described above) looking for more detail than the final piece has. It was started and finished in my studio; never was set up on location. The color as presented here is not true to the original. The yellow being a yellow-green in the original piece. So much for my attempt to photograph my work and scan it to this location! When I use the skills of a professional the results are much better.

The pen and ink sketches were completed recently and were done from photos.......don't know why the weren't completed from life except a lack of time at the time!!!

The trees at the top are a work-in-progress; oil on canvas. The subject are a cluster of trees I've painted many times; an earlier posting of a pastel is on a prior page. Now, I am painting this picture using reference to the earlier pictures.

"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.

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.