coming and going

Hey, it worked! The power of optimism and envisioning the future:

I called my gallery here in town and asked if he'd like to show some of my older landscape paintings, and he said "sure" and so I brought 7 paintings (on 13 canvases, some di- and tri-ptychs) to the gallery today, thus creating a little more space in my storage area. How nice! Now I will envision people coming into the gallery and enjoying the paintings, and eventually buying each one.

Also in the last few days I have worked on this piece:

acrylic on stitched canvas - 16 pieces @ 12x12" each
Not quite finished but getting so close!

the future

Revelation: I am a serious studio pack rat.

We are in the final stages of the shift. Tonight we moved a U-haul's worth of shelving, cabinets, tables, and paintings. I have decided to donate or destroy any work that has not sold and that I don't want to keep, and I'm sure I will not have to buy art supplies for many years!

Envisioning the future: shelves and cabinets emptying as the paintings find new homes and the supplies are used up. These empty shelves and cabinets will then also find new homes, the studio will become spacious and I will avoid cluttering.

This is the idealized version of the future from here where I sit at 3am, exhausted but feeling optimistic.
:)

layout

growing

A small potential difference:

Stitching bits of photos into the canvas!

Also I have re-discovered the process of drawing with a ruling pen and ink. Add a little brushwork, and we come to this:

Not sure about the tree bit at the top here... trying to continue the tree branches in the photo, but I think it is screwing up the depth perception. Maybe need to just knock it back a bit, lessen the contrast of tree branches against sky - or maybe lose the trees altogether, white out. Well, I will let it sit for a bit before making irrevocable decisions.

Meanwhile: isn't this fun, though? I'm feeling pretty excited about the photo bits and loving the process of drawing again.

old becomes new

These are oil paintings which I began in 2010, then put away for a year. In the last couple of months I pulled them out again and finished them, since we are moving out of the downtown studio and I don't want to paint with oils here at the home studio.

The Excavators
34w x 37h


Afloat
93w x 31h
finished these with some oil pastel, really liking the effect of the drawing lines over painted surface.


A Time Of Multiples
25 x 25"


Deluge
34w x 64h


Resonance III
24w x 30h


Now just a few more loose ends to tie up and the downtown studio will be a thing of the past!

Urban Spaces series 3

Two more 11x14" in progress:





And three more finished:







I'm quite enjoying working with this photo-collage process!

Jim

Jim is the husband of a former studio-mate. He had not done a formal sitting before and was very happy with the result. Me, too! This portrait catches some of Jim's character - besides maintaining a business career he is a jazz singer, can be quite flamboyant, and is a very kind and intelligent man. It was fun getting to know him a bit better as he sat for me.

oil on canvas
16x16"

my palette

Isn't it interesting : I often have difficulty painting a man's portrait, but this one turned out quite nicely. I think Jim's personality has something to do with that. :)

Levels

mixed media on stitched canvas
78w x 39h