Archive for February, 2009
Bird’s Eye
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
Above: Bird’s Eye, 12 x 12 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted, finished Oct.13th, 2009
Bird’s Eye, 11 x 11 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas. Signed on the side, so a signature iss superimposed on the front. March 3rd: above, February 28: thumbnails below
St. Catherine’s Sunset
Friday, February 27th, 2009
St. Catherine’s Sunset Ontario, Canada just north of Niagara Falls, 11H x 11W x 3D inches acrylics on canvas, sides painted. The signature is on the side, so one has been superimposed here on the front.
There is no one method for starting a painting. When faced with a blank white surface, sometimes our mind can go blank too. When that happens I use a base color that inspires energy. Here, water and paint were dripped down a wet surface of Hansa Yellow Deep. Painting intuitively with a wide raggedy old brush, the fraying bristles are used to advantage, and those marks direct how the painting proceeds.
This painting is dedicated to my Mom, born in St. Catherine’s, Ontario, Canada whose birthday was two days ago.
Reflections
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Reflections, winter in Coppell, TX, 11 x 11 x 3 inches, acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted. Most of the Magic Square series paintings are signed on the side, so the images on the blog show a superimposed signature.
Jack Pine
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Jack Pine, 11 x 11 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas and detail of right side; all sides painted. Signature is on the side, so one is superimposed on the front.
Redbuds
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
Redbuds finished April 11, 2009, took off all remaining masking fluid. 11 x 11 x 3 inches, Acrylics on canvas, gallery wrapped sides painted.
Redbuds is the first of sixteen 11 x 11 x 3″ paintings of various aspects of trees, to hang together as a group or flanking other paintings. This one uses masking medium to block out areas of white. The first layer of dried medium was removed in the above thumbnails. Afternoon post, left: Adding another layer of masking fluid, seen as yellow.
Feb. 25th: below left, looks better turned on its side but it could be hung either direction, mask was removed then the painting was overworked unintentionally – all the marks that were the whole point of using masking fluid are hardly visible. So on Feb. 26th: below right, more mask was applied, then white painted between branches. The intention was to remove the mask again and reapply over the white areas, but it looks so interesting I’m going to wait a while ..may just leave it as is now.
Later Feb 26th below: may be finished - thinking of a compromise - I tore away a few select areas of the dried mask and left the rest on as texture.
Dancing With Trees 03
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
Dancing With Trees 03, 85 x 45 x 3 inches acrylics on canvas, wrapped sides painted, framed. Signature piece for the Dancing With Trees (formerly ‘The Majesty of Trees’) solo exhibition. There is no black in this painting; the darkest areas are dioxazine purple. Aside from a couple of areas that are still questionable this painting is now finished. Specifically: I’m not sure about adding shadows and contrast on the bark of the main trees because it may take away from the cheerful expression of colors.
Progress in previous posts: January 19th and 30th
I’d also like to change the name of the exhibition to Dancing With Trees because I discovered there is a book with the title ‘Majesty of Trees’; I don’t want it to seem plagiarized, but also the new title seems overall more suitable for the collection. All the proposals from now on will be entitled Dancing With Trees , but the show still opens under the original one.
* Thanks Karen for your perspective, I really do appreciate it *
Tulip Season
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
1) 2006 2) 2009 in progress 3) finished today
Finished today: added some life to Tulip Season, 14 x 11 Oil Pastels on paper. Except for the fact that paper has a limit to how much it can be reworked before it starts stretching, I could keep revising these drawings in the Paper Places series continually. Some of them are finished in a day, and truly finished. Some drawings seem OK when they are finished, but have areas that are not quite “there” yet, so I’ll leave them for a month or a year or two then take them out and rework the whole piece. It’s great exercise playing with color and composition. Some are taken too far, which is kind of a shame as far as not having a result for the labor, but with regard to learning: effort is never wasted. Change characterizes this series; change of place, change of time, change of styles, changing what’s already been changed…
Please pass the peace
Saturday, February 14th, 2009
Garlic Chive seeds
..and click here for some joy that has just come my way from Virginia Wieringa. This video emanates true human spirit, where there are no barriers of language or land or any of the other superficial stuff we create around us that we think will make us happy; joy is simple. It’s right there in a goofy dance.
..and click here (and scroll down a bit on that page) for some laughter that just came my way from Chris Bolmeier. Regarding Art, love and laughter: we need to be no more or less than ourselves to inspire one another. One person inspires so many.
On Cloud Nine
Sunday, February 8th, 2009
On Cloud Nine Left: The view from the road to the Giant Redwoods in the John Muir National Forest, western coast CA. Right: A forest fire still smouldering in October 2008, Mariposa Grove, Sequoia National Forest, central California.
Some new photos of the Giant Sequoias have been posted on majestyoftrees.com
Please curb your dogma
Saturday, February 7th, 2009
..Please curb your dogma..is what the large sign reads outside the Horizon Unitarian Universalist Church in Carrolton, Texas. The Artists On The Horizon program offers Artists an opportunity to show and sell their work in an open, receptive atmosphere. Now on exhibit: a series of interesting collages of paper that incorporate elements of painting, drawing and sculpture by contemporary Artist Bryce Lafferty. The Paper Places series shows March 1 – 31st. Left: Lake Cote Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica.