4/29/26 drawing/collage, 12×14” colored pencil & crayon with collage
12:41 PM: this morning i made a 12x14” drawing/collage titled 4/29/26 drawing/collage. it’s a delicate girl, created with mostly colored pencil & crayon & a few collaged pieces of paper which already had some marks, creating those much loved unpredictable shapes and spaces.
this is one of th drawings i found in an old sketchbook on my studio shelves
1981 NYC drawing,
4/28/26 rock drawing, 11x15” 8:42 AM, pencil on arches watercolor paper
9AM: mikela forgot her phone over at the house, so i taped a piece of drawing paper to a piece of foam core, took a couple of pencils and walked over to pick up her phone. then i started going up the trail we usually take for our daily walks. my intention was to walk over to the creek and make a drawing. but i stopped after a bit because i spotted a rock formation asking to be drawn.
2 shots of yesterdays sky at 3:42PM
i brought a stabilo 8008 and a caran d’ache sienna pencil and made a drawing before returning to the studio. mikela had a good intuition about getting her phone, as she received a work call just after i returned.
goldfish swimming, 15x19.5” oil on portrait linen, on day two.
goldfish swimming, day 2….if you look at yesterday’s version, you will see that it was way too dark, and today i’m working on lightening it up.
4PM: i made some small but important updates to figures in motion towards the end of my painting day, following my work on the new goldfish swimming.
Figures in Motion, `18×18” oil on portrait linen, day 3
i started a new painting titled goldfish swimming today. unlike figures in motion, it was painted with large bold strokes of the brush; a delight to paint!
goldfish swimming, 15x19.5” oil on portrait linen
goldfish swimming 1, ˆ15x19.5” 4/27/26 oil on portrait linen, as she looked at my painting day
2:07 PM: i strated a new one today: goldfish swimming 1. due to the nature of the subject, i was able to be much freer in my strokes.
Figures in Motion, `18×18” oil on portrait linen, day 2
DETAIL of figures in motion
this new painting contains figures that have appeared in many of my recent paintings. but they’ve never been in the same space together. what their individual roles are is up to you, the viewer. but they have in common the fact that they are all captured at a moment in time when they’re engaged in something involving the movement of their bodies, mostly dancing.
as you may have noticed, i get off on putting together people who have never met and never will, other than in my paintings. each of them are caught mid-motion, each playing their part in a dance they never signed up for. by looking at and contemplating them in this setting you are creating a story. your story of what’s going on.
due to the special nature of the portrait linen i used for this work, they….these diverse figures, are part of a painterly event. as i’ve said before, this portrait linen allows for painterly marks that would be impossible on other surfaces, accepting every slight movement of my arm and hand like a lover reveling in her partners touch.
at work this morning on Figures in Motion, 20×20”
10:42 AM: i took fgures in motion to the next stage this morning.
4:25 PM: i did a studio cleanup, so i got a late start. this is stage one of figures in motion, 18x18”
figures in motion, 18x18” oil on portrait linen, on day one
5:59 PM: i kinda liked the rework of the 2019 painting, but not totally. so i rubbed it out and i’ll see tomorrow what i’m going to do with that canvas.
1:26 PM: i’ve been looking at this 2019 painting for weeks now. i found it in my storage space and set it down next to my steps, casting glances at it whenever i was close by. today i decided to rework it. i’ve become used recently to working on the xtra fine portrait linen, and this one was painted on a linen canvas with a lot more tooth. once i adjusted to the new surface, i painted over most of the 2019 painting, using grey and deep blue. the original was a creek-scape, so there are two tree trunks, which i left intact, along with some stones.
i’ll sit with it for a few days and seehow i feel about it, but my initial response to what i did is positive. for sure, it’s far easier to look at; far simpler, with a robust composition sparking the imagination.
2019 creekscape, 20×20” oil on linen
ABOVE: crazi goldfish before aNd after todays modifications
12:08 PM: this morning, following the excellent presentation by district attorney candidate michael doughtery, i got a ride back to the studio, as mikela needed the car today.
i felt crazi goldfish was far too busy, and worked back into it mostly with dark grey. this left the figure at the top and the goldfish in the bowl to emerge without distraction. i’m going to leave it as is and work on something else.
4/22/26 crazi goldfish, 7x11.75” oil on linen
2:59 PM: this afternoon i was moved to make a new painting over the scraped and whited over branches with rock painting. it now belongs to the recent series featuring goldfish and has, i believe, a compelling composition, allowing the eye to roam from the female figure at the top, to the grren leaves, to the swimming goldfish and the round table below. i think it has gained from what i learned making all the previous versions.
4:03 PM: the blacks and the blue on the right were too dark, so i went back in and lightened them.
11:09 AM: i was going through some collages and came across this one. it carries really well from a distance and, as i’m looking at it now, is one of the best in this series of collages. i couldn’t find a title, so i named it collage #8. dimensions: 7x11.75”
collage#8, 2026, collage on paper, 7x11.75”
bottles and leaves, 15x17.5” colored pencil on arches paper
1:44 PM: this morning i made one more 15x17.5” drawing of the studio interior, in colored pencil, which is like a companion piece to the one i made yesterday.
4/21/26 studio interior II, 15x17.5” colored pencil on arches paper
3:32 PM: this afternoon i made one more 15x17.5” drawing, titled bottles & leaves.
bottles & leaves, 15x17.5” colored pencil on arches paper
3:27 PM: this afternoon i created one more 15x17” still life, titled bottles & leaves.
2:12 PM: today i made a 15x17.5” work on paper in colored pencil.
view from the north door, 15x17.5” colored pencil on paper
2 days ago i wrote this poem before falling asleep, which is mostly when i compose new poems. there are a growing number of them, and may eventually become a book of philip’s poems.
