the acropolis on the studio floor after todays work. i can hang it tomorrow and take a better photo, when it’s dry & won’t drip
1:10 PM: i did a lot more work on the acropolis today, introducing the by now familiar figure of the jumping skateboarder.
the acropolis, 35x37” as it looks at the end of my painting day today
2:46 PM: i did a bit more work on the acropolis, then flipped it 180 and worked into it, with a bit of scraping & some of my favorite pink. that’s it for today!
the acropolis, 35x37”, oil on linen, as it looked moments ago
12:49 PM: it was suposed to be a snowy day, but the sun just broke through…so go figure!
i started a new painting a few hours ago which, at this early stage, is a view of the acropolis from a photo i shot on one of our many trips to athens to visit my son & grandkids. at some point, sooner than later, it will no longer be recognizable as a view of the acropolis with figures of tourists on the rocks, but as always, this first layer will inform and energize what’s next.
the orchid photographed on my studio wall today.jpg
10:46 AM: now that the oil paint has dried enough not to run down the canvas, i was ablt to hang it and take a much better shot than yesterday, when i had to shoot it lying ion the studio floor. it’s a cloudy, snowy day, so i had to use artificial lighting & it shows a bit darder than it really is.
the orchid 35x37” oil on linen, as it looked today at the end of my painting day.
2:09 PM: i did more work on the orchid and stopped about an hour ago, when i ran out of juice. here she is lying on my studio floor till she dries enough tomorrow for me to hang it on the wall & take a good photo. as of now, the only thing remaining of the orchid is that bit of mauve blossom towards the upper right of the composition.
we’ll see how much i can get done tomorrow, when the skies will be dark & i’ll have to use artificial light.
12:50 PM: i dove back in to the orchid this morning, there are very few remaining indications that this was, until yesterday, jazz 14! i’m in the midst of working, so here are 2 pics of me at work moments ago.
as many of you know, i’m crazy about weather, so the forecast for a possible 18” of snow tonight through tomorrow night is very exciting. if it materializes, that will put us close to average precip. for the year. right now we’re in light to moderate drought.
2:17 PM: mikela bought a very beautiful orchid last week and put it on our kitchen counter. i’ve been looking at, or, more exactly, studying it ever since. this morning i shot a few photos, from above of course.
i printed one out this morning, after obeying orders from my printer to update the firmware. and then i launched into the orchid, 35x37” which is being painted over what used to be jazz 14, which i whited over last week. hard to keep up, eh?
i haven’t ever painted a flower this big, so it’s an exciting adventure, which is making me want to do more.
the drummer: i had the drummer lying flat on the cement floor all night, so this morning it was dry enough to hang on the wall without drips occuring, and i was able take much more accurate shots.
the drummer, 35x37” as she looked at the end of my painting day today.
1:58 PM: following the work i did earlier, i went back in the the drummer. my challenge was the fact that it had become far too busy. by the end of the day yesterday, so i knew i was just going to have to leave it until today.
my first move was to mix up some pink oils in an old yoghurt container, consisting of titanium zinc white and two different reds. i applied it with one of my medium wide brushes, going around the figures i wanted to keep and painting over the ones i didn’t. yesterdays paint was, for the most part, dry enough to be able to pull that off without too much schmiring.
i have to keep it flat until the paint dries enough tomorrow to be able to hang it on the wall, which i did for about a minute to take a quick shot. you can see the resulting drops on the jumping skateboarder, which i like.
BELOW: the drummer yesterday & today
12:49 PM: i had a collage on paper sitting on my counter for months, and every time i glanced at it, i thought :”i’ve got to do morework on this.” so today i did. it may not be the final version, but it’s a whole lot better than it used to be!
the drummer, 35x37” oil on linen, day 2 as it looked moments ago, at the end of my painting day today
3:22 PM: each day that passes since my lanap surgery last thursday finds me with less pain and more energy.
so today was spent taking the drummer to her next stage. there’s a lot going on here; perhaps too much. we’ll see in the morning. but there are passages i think work, and constitute a breakthrough of sorts. patterning has always been a core element in my work, as have views from above and the combining of different figures from very different sources. here, in the upper portion, we find the addition of a creekscape, with aspen trunks moving vetically through the composition and backing up to the olympic skateboarder diagonally above the drummer. it’s evolving in spurts, between snacks of mashed avocado on bread stripped of it’s crust, which i can’t yet eat.
the negative spaces in the olympic symbol read from afar as playful green dots, and the newly introduced figure of a viola player standing upright with his instrument seems to observe the play of form and color.
BELOW: the drummer on days 1 & 2
5:12 PM: after a cloudy, cold day with occasional flurries, the sun broke through at sunset.
the drummer, 35x37” on day 1, at the end of my painting day today
1:58 PM: after stretching jazz 20, i started a new painting: the drummer, dimensions 35x37” i’ll continue work on this one tomorrow; right now i’m calling it a day, earlier than usual as i haven’t fully recovered from the gum laser surgery and am still on a liquid diet.
jazz 20, 35x37” oil on linen, 2023
11:32 AM: now that i made some tweaks to jazz 20 a few days ago, i delared it completed and strtched it this morning. i think i’ll bring it over to the house this afternoon and see how it looks hanging there. here it is on my east studio wall.
jazz 14, 37x35” as she looked at the end of my painting day today
2:59 PM: although i’m only in the second day of recovery from my LANAP laser gum sergury, i felt enough energy today to do some painting, so i continued work on jazz 14, which has gone through many stages recently.
i whited over it this morning, and then worked into it, focusing on the now bare breasted female figure with her red hat. the addition of some red, blue & green lines on either side and at the bottom of the composition, viewed from a distance as i’m now doing, give a richness to the largely greyed out composition, allowing us to focus on the central female figure while not forgetting about the composition as a whole.
the swirl of strokes above, and the ghost images of previous versions add mystery to the painting as a whole. the newly added blue wavy lines to the right of the figure give us a hint that the female figure and her husband are overlooking the water; in this case, the river running through alamosa.
jazz 20 following my tweak to the yellow paddle.
11:44 AM: i had a LANAP gum surgery yesterday, which was far more intense than expected. it’s going to take a few more days for me to get to the point where i can resume my normal painting schedule. so today, all i did was to briefly work on the paddle of one of the two figures in jazz 20, which i made a bright yellow, as it appears in the photo i had shot.
jazz 20 following todays work
jazz 14 following todays work
1:57 PM: this morning i continued work on jazz 14 and jazz 20. both are still in process, and i’m feeling good about the direction they’re taking.
the bright pink background in jazz 20 has been whited over and awarm grey introduced around the paddlers. the tennis player on the right is now just a ghost image, as is the walking figure in the plaid shirt in jazz 14. both paintings now have a softer appearance, making it easier to focus on what have now become the main characters and allowing, for example, the red of her hat in jazz 14 to gain importance in the composition.
