Productive November

Well, this month of November has been a very productive month on so many levels.  Just got a new job (working for an accounting firm), had a wonderful family Thanksgiving celebration and have made lots of art, lots of pictures and drawings.  Not going to rank anything, just pleased all around.

Oil on canvas
18" x 24"
Near Davenport Farm

Pastel on paper
18" x 24"

My limited posting here in the month of November (also had a birthday!) just means I've had myself involved in multiple activities and my neglect in posting shouldn't suggest that I haven't been busy in the studio......so, I'll present anyone who stumbles upon these pages or has remained curious about them with some new images and perhaps a comment or two now and then.

I have lots to show for the next several weeks.

Charcoal/pastel

Charcoal and pastel
on paper

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.

On balance

Watercolor on foam board

In Progress/oil abstraction

Oil on canvas
18" x 24"

I wish, sometimes, that I wasn't all over the place....in the sense that I have to move from this to something based more on what I'm looking at and vice versa.  I did this with abandon (weird comment since as I look at it it seems so tight!), with a bravado and flourish as if I were waving a conductor's baton.  At least that was so as I initiated it with thinned cobalt blue, pushing out foundation lines to build upon.  I'll show the finished piece soon.
So I'll close with the admonition (to myself!) that I should just be pleased with what it is and never mind what it isn't!!

The Arts Map: Connecting Artists and the Community

The Arts Map: Connecting Artists and the Community

Morrissey/Manchester/Sunday

Given the probable confluence of events over time, my time anyway, it is likely I won't see Morrissey perform in Manchester, ever but when I watch this I wish, wish I could have that experience.  I wouldn't say he informs or inspires my work but I embrace his barrier bending and breaking and I derive an energy and widened perspective from who I think he might be, what he does and those who would surround him.......almost makes him sound like a god!!

Oh, and here's a picture from a recent Sunday likely done while listening to, well, you guessed it!!