"Viewing the Stars"

3.75"x3.75"

gouache

(sold)

"Fear by the River Flow"

7.5"x7.5"
(sold)

These gouache paintings are impossible to accurately reproduce, the subtlety of color far too sophisticated for scan lights. The large dark blob is a lighter rust, the lines softly opaque. I originally named the piece to fit the foreground but now have changed it to address the figure in the middle ground.

Trashing the piece mid progress releases something uncontrollable that if slightly tamed later on can bring one closer to the truth of things.

I didn't have paper so I grabbed the ph-balanced foam core nearby. Putting a painting on one side caused the sheet to curl so I put paint on the reverse to even it out. Of course that meant I had to make the splotch of paint into something.

(A generous friend loved this, so now it's hers.)

Paintings Flying About and Landing

"Blue Migration" (detail)

The after affects of an Open Studio are here: Someone has bought "Blue Migration". Now I feel like the little guy, flying alone in a calm space, heading off into new horizons.

The new owner is allowing me to keep the blue painting in my studio for a while. When I create large pieces I learn so much and pull on that info to create new works. When the painting leaves the studio I feel like I've lost a major resource. Since "Blue Migration" is so new I appreciate the new owner letting me sit on it for a while. 

I keep one of my most interestingly painted canvases in my studio at all times just for that reason... as an inspirational resource of what is possible. ("Confronting Brown")

(detail)

This is the part I look at for reference material. Whenever I see other people paint like this I get such a high! I do it in tiny form now (in gouache), and hope to get back into large versions when I am able to paint with oil again. There's no ventilation in my new studio, so I'm avoiding oil fumes. Maybe if I do the messiest work elsewhere and then bring the painting to the studio? 

Meanwhile, I work with acrylic paint, as you see in the blue above.

Opening a Studio

This past weekend I was privileged to have dozens of strangers walk into my studio, view/interact with my work, and then kindly talk to me about how the art related to their own lives. As those who view my work know, I draw from a multitude of perspectives. Listening to the individual guests tell their personal stories and experiences was like having the people of my drawings come to life. Totally jazzy for me. Thanks for visiting and sharing everyone. What an uplift! (See January 7, 2014 post.)

Looking Inside and Through Life

Detail from "Blue Migration"

"In the Pink"

9.5"x6.75"

Gouache

Finding Carmel

"Spring's On It"

5.5"x7.25"

gouache

(click to see true size)

"Parachuting Ideas"

10"x8"

"Patient"

18"x24"

Acrylic

This is in honor of 6 real individuals who have or are traveling through deep illness. One has died and another, a 15-year old, has a limited projected life span. A third is fighting cancer. The remaining three are struggling with illnesses that are not life threatening but take concentrated efforts to avoid physical pain. 

What is remarkable about all of these individuals is they were/are striving for happiness no matter what, and achieving that happiness is the purest essence of human healing. Just as the able bodied can be horribly unhappy, the crippled and endangered can fight the pain and mindfully live in a space of joy.

How does an ill person achieve this joy? It is a scientific fact that our brains secrete happy juices when we do three different actions: Play, Care, Search. I call these the "healthy picks (pcs)." When I think back on the happiest moments of my day I like to ask myself... was I playing? ...caring for someone? ...searching for a new angle or topic of thought?

The 6 real individuals above were/are experts at positive thinking through use of playing, caring and searching. As long as the mind is interested in these three activities our positive brain juices reward us with good feelings and these in turn create more good feelings. Then we can go dance in the streets with Pharrell Williams even if we are on our backs in bed with no physical ability to prance vertically to the music.

It's all a matter of using our imaginations wisely. As an artist I have chosen to paint a caring image about illness. It involved a long search for me to find the right way to portray a balance of pain on the figure's face with the joy that is in her spirit. I began this piece in 2012 when I met the 15-year-old. Understanding exactly what I saw on her face took me over a year to distill.

"Blue Migration"

30"x40"

Acrylic

(sold)

Painting Birds in Flight

As mentioned earlier in this blog, I am at present working on a large blue/white painting. My intention was to create something diffused, rather indistinct, but when I looked into my first layer of paint I saw so many birds I immediately tried instead to capture the avian chaos. One of my main frustrations about bird illustrations is that while the birds are clearly recognizable, a sense of movement is almost always missing. I am not so much interested in distinct differences between species as I am in wanting to capture birds doing their thing on land and in flight, their bodies abstracted into a flurry of shapes suggesting movement forwards and back through time and space.

I have lived with a bird watcher for 28 years and it seems osmosis is finally having its way with me. And with such a flurry of energy! This is a very confusing piece to tame! So far I've found within the rough first layers of paint at least 80 large or small bird shapes of multiple species and artistic genres. (Examples: Perigrine Falcon, Kingfisher, and swan.  Representational, cartoon, and abstract.)

Because the piece is expressively abstracted the viewer has the opportunity to discover wings and feathers or beaks and talons within shapes that a moment before might have looked like gently rolling hills or shifting rocks and twigs. An iceberg becomes an upside down white bird breast becomes an iceberg again. A beak becomes a skull becomes a beak of a bird facing another direction. I'm having so much fun finding all of these points of perspective in the detail that I am wondering if the chaos of flight can actually be handled as well. Maybe this painting is too complex to be tamable. So many dripping avian splatters (bird poop) and whooshing flight lines and then the question of how to make an airy atmosphere feel grounded enough, safe enough, for the viewer to venture into. Part of me doesn't want this painting to be tamed. It's too much fun to fly around in while I'm solving problems with my paintbrush.

"Uplift #1"

(sold)

Love this frame!

Perfectly off kilter for the theme of this piece.

Just Stopping off to Draw a Teaser

"Learning How to Fly"

2"x6.5"

Finding Form

Where am I when I am not posting?
Sitting in my studio, trying to tame the chaos.
Here is a very early stage of the canvas I have been working on for the past three weeks.
Me being me, this painting will end up a very detailed whirl of events, and most likely full of color.

Pondering Four Art Gallery Show Themes

As of today I will be in four different group art shows. Three are located in California cities and one is in Chicago. The themes are "Equilibrium," "New Beginnings," "Our Natural World," and "Small Works." My mind wants to bend backwards and wonder what thought patterns inspired these topics. Why do we feel a need for balance? What have we lost? What is unnatural in our world? Who among us are comfortable with looking closely at the details of where we are right now?

Still Unfinished Business

(detail)

I continue to add dimension to this work in progress.

"Uplift #2"

5"x2.25"

(sold)

(Detail)

"Uplift"

4"x2"
(sold)

Original is slightly larger than image above.

Here's a detail as seen through a magnifying glass. The fun for me is discovering forms and figures I didn't even know I was creating because they were so small when I drew them. Under magnification all kinds of interesting possibilities appear. It just takes a positive attitude and the tools and energy to look.