Last Three Still-lifes of 2019

Waiting for Toast  11 x 14  Oil on canvas panel

Apple on Orange  8 x 8  Oil on canvas panel

Big Apple Blues  8 x 8  Oil on canvas panel

And it was all yellow

  
Lemon on Orange  10 x 8  oil on canvas 

Rift  8 x 10  oil on canvas 

 









Lemon on Lime  10 x 8  oil on canvas 

Yoga  10 x 8  oil on canvas 

A Star is Born  10 x 8  oil on canvas 

On The Green  10 x 8  oil on canvas 

Lemons on a Ledge  8 x 10  oil on canvas

Fields of Gold

Low-lying Clouds (sold)

Low-lying Clouds  12 x 12   Oil on canvas

Greenacres series

Greenacres  12 x 12   Oil on panel

Willow at Greenacres   12 x 12  Oil on panel

Greenacres 3     16 x 20   Oil on canvas

Remains of the Day 1 and 2

Remains of the Day  24 x 30    Oil on canvas

Remains of the Day 2    30 x 40  Oil on canvas

Two Palms

I started painting and drawing palm trees when I was in
eighth grade in Boston where I grew up—not a palm tree
in sight! Even dreamt of living the sailing life, exploring
tropical islands on a 50-foot sailboat. These are Los
Angeles palms but there are many varieties right here in
San Antonio.

Sunrise Pansies

It's pansy season in South Texas. These valiant little flowers love the
winter here—high 20s - 30s at night and even during the day. It doesn't
snow here very often but when it does, their little faces look happy
peeking out from a snowy blanket. I have no idea how "pansy" became 
synonymous with "delicate" or "fragile."

Esperanzas

There are a few versions of this underneath—esperanzas
are trumpet-shaped flowers and all my efforts to portray
them as they really look ended up feeling static. At some
point, it felt that this was really about complementary
colors—yellow and purple and about brush strokes. Mixing
greyed-down yellows and yellow-tinted purples seemed
like a fine-enough intention for this one painting.

Bringle Bottle (Blue)

Same bottle . . . When I paint a subject for the first time,
I find I could head off in multiple directions which, of
course, can't be done on the same canvas. Sometimes the
new iterations are better, sometimes just different.

Hadn't realized until after my last post that I'd been away
from my blog for two years! I did continue to paint, though.



 

Bringle Bottle (Gray)

This "model" is a porcelain bottle by Cynthia Bringle,
a wonderful Penland ceramist. I think I bought it
around 1980 from a Denver gallery. This painting
is in a small works holiday group show up now at
the Hunt Gallery in San Antonio.

Unsuspecting

I loved David Shevlino's workshop and everyone in it! David
is a very generous teacher and all-around nice guy and every
one in the group was so dedicated to improving their work.
My intention was to get looser and more interpretive but
learning to paint figures was a challenge in itself. So while my
looseness level hasn't progressed much, I learned a lot.

His workshop really bounced me out of an obsessive mindset—
I'd been feeling I didn't have a compelling subject and wasn't happy
with the way I "should" be handling paint. Trying to learn from an
artist I admire, all of those thoughts flew out the window and I just
concentrated on painting without judging. Maybe the looseness I
aspire to will just appear on its own?

Waiting

I think this is my fifth attempt at trying to paint from this reference
photo. I took a lot of shots of this model (my daughter) in this setting
and want to continue working from them. Painting the figure in a non-
traditional way is really challenging so I signed up for a David Shevlino
workshop hoping some of his looseness and magic will rub off on me!

Some Animal Paintings!

The Artist

This painting is one I managed to fit in early on in the animal-
painting marathon. I used a black and white reference photo of
the artist Francis Bacon. When I first saw his work in the late
60s, it intrigued me and also repulsed me in a way but I was drawn
to it for its intensity and originality. I've always wished I could be
that bold and push past what seems safe and acceptable. While that
wish doesn't seem to materialize, I enjoyed trying to infuse my
impressions of him onto a portrait.

Still photographing the animals and will post some at some point.
Thanks so much for viewing and for your very nice comments!

Rancho de Taos Church

Can't believe I haven't posted since April! Time flies. This one
was done in May as an exploration of color, invented, exaggerated color.
I used a reference photo taken by a photographer friend, Peter Szarmach.
His work can be seen at www.composingbeauty.com 

I've been painting a lot—25 5 x 7 animal paintings for my daughter's
wedding. I feel like I've been painting them for months (because I have).

Facing West

I've done a lot of paintings recently but haven't wanted to post any
of them. Or show them to anyone. They just didn't look like me or
I didn't recognize anything of me in them. And then it seemed I should
just accept that this is me, this is the way I paint. So I did and slowly,
it dawned on me that it was the paint itself or lack of painterliness
that was bothering me. I was using more and more paint with a
little walnut oil but the paint still seemed brittle and flat when it dried,
not juicy. This is painted over a previous image as an attempt to just
putter. It was fun to drag dark colors into and over lights and not worry
about overshooting edges, just keeping everything soft, finding an edge
if the composition seemed to need it. Most fun I've had in awhile.

Sunny Corner

I found it easier here to think in terms of composition
and light and not worry about details. Wise artist friends
have told me I should allow viewers to supply details
or complete unfinished areas in their imaginations. I
try to be conscious of that while painting but don't always
practice what I'm intending . . . This will be one of my
offerings in an upcoming holiday show at the Hunt Gallery
in San Antonio. It's on Saturday, December 5th from
1 - 5pm. There will be drinks and munchies and maybe
even some very good deals!

Galveston Wharf Building 6

Same building as in previous posts but this time, I
hoped to create a "white" painting. My intention was
to spell out very little but it may still need more work.
The actual painting looks better than this photo—it was
hard to shoot and color correct.

Galveston Wharf Building 3 and 4

Same building in Galveston as the previous post . . . this building
has different architectural elements and many windows, some of
which are arched and some a hybrid arch. Some areas of the facade
are pretty clean while others are dark, dirty and rusty. It's one subject
that can be cropped so many ways to look for different compositions,
colors and to play with scale. This old girl probably has a lot of
interesting stories to tell.

Galveston Wharf Building 1 and 2

These are two 8 x 10 studies of an old neglected building in Galveston,
with 2 more in the works. I've been working on several larger canvases
but am not yet satisfied with how they're developing. Switching gears
usually disrupts whatever single-minded obsessive rut I seem to fall into.
There are several layers on these, some where everything is spelled out,
then scraped and softened, then repainted. Sometimes I get too focused
on what I'm observing and don't pay enough attention to what's happening
on the canvas. Working in layers feels natural to me but it was mostly to try
to get things more "right." Now I'm watching the layers create optical grays
and a skin or patina so that the paint itself seems as important as the
subject. These may need more work but they'll be set aside for a bit and
looked at again later. (The other rut I'm prey to is overworking and ruining!)

Another Day in Paradise

It was fun to concentrate on color and making marks and not think 
at all about accuracy. I take photos of buildings all the time but I'm
not really interested in reproducing them on canvas. I've wasted a lot
of time moaning about not having a subject I'm excited about.
Then it struck me that I could assemble different architectural features to
give myself a structure to hang paint on. I drew a b&w composition in my
sketchbook and used it as a model. Color was made up and maybe it's
too simplistic but it's an experiment to alter my thought process, practice
straying from reality and try to get closer to a marriage of representation
and abstraction.

Galveston Beach Side

This was not a very interesting scene, taken from a motel
parking lot, but I love palm trees and love painting them so
I snapped it. I thought it was finished months ago but it
was pretty blah. Reworking was an opportunity to use my
imagination which I forget to use sometimes because I tend
to get hung up on accuracy and trying to be faithful to a scene.
Going forward, my intention is to focus more on color, texture
and paint manipulation. And to make stuff up!

Piper-----sold

This painting was included in a gulf coast-themed group show
(done from a photo taken in Galveston).

Working Galveston

This painting is from a photo taken on the working side of Galveston
Island. It will be included in a Hunt Gallery group show based on the
gulf coast, opening May 14th. It was a very complicated scene with
so much going on, I kept getting lost. It was great practice on editing
and simplifying.

New Morning and Crossing

 New Morning 16 x 16  Oil on panel

Crossing  22 x 30  Oil on canvas

Headed Home

It's not often that I'm stopped in traffic on the freeways of San
Antonio. It was dusk with car lights coming on and the city
buildings haloed in the distance.

Patchwork City (Sold) and Laundry Day

Patchwork City  22 x30  Oil on canvas

Laundry Day  16 x 16  Oil on panel

I was taken with this scene because of the light and pattern. All
the geometry provided the opportunity to think more abstractly and
experiment with textures. This is one of the paintings in my recent
exhibit—it was really great to see the work framed, lit and presented
on gallery walls.