Some work from Sunday

Graphite, watercolor and gouache. Both pieces are about 5" x 8" and done on mat board. Quick studies with color added after the initial "outlines" were made. Personal preference for the yellow background; something about the attitude (real or imagined) depicted.

Pictures in progress

The top one is a fall scene I started recently and have set aside long enough...want to get back to it; the lower one I have been working on very slowly (ten months or longer). Both are oil on canvas board c. 18" x 24".

She reminds me of Wyeth's Helga

Wyeth, in something that I recall reading, referred to himself as making abstract work. That may or may not be a difficult self-observation for some to swallow. I can see it, I think; his work was so amplified, super-real at times, that it seems he went beyond duplicating what was before him. The lines (which of course don't exist in the observable world) that he was required to make to construct the image expressed a quality in the subject separate from the subject itself. I think that is abstraction. When I made this I was attuned to what I felt; an energy, attitude or emotion, an ethereal expression.

Shelburne Falls in October

Beautiful day, as I remember. Maybe 2 or 3 p.m. on a quiet dirt road near some farms and orchards. Pulled the car off the road and worked as fast as I could....sometimes the less thinking the better. Actually, with respect to making pictures, minimizing the thinking is (or should be)
for me a top priority! Watercolor on board, c. 6" x 8".

Venus in Transit and another

Expressive portrait with graphite, charcoal and gouache;

Venus in Transit following its most recent revisions and adjustments.

Fall

2011 Post #1

Although my postings have been few since August 2010 (actually only one)
my work has continued....although most of it remains unphotographed. I have managed,

however, to make some images and have added them here. I did some pictures in October in Shelburne and the watercolor/gouache directly above is one from that effort. It was made while a shower passed through the area.

The remainder of the work, with the exception of the two pieces at the top, are of recent vintage and incorporate charcoal/watercolor/graphite/wash in combination or alone.

Pastel and charcoal (#1); charcoal (#2).