8:18 AM: my first hit when i viewed yesterday’s branches with rock was that it was way too dark and, frankly, boring. so the first thing i did this morning was to scrape whatever ws fresh enough to get off and rub some turp on it, revealing some blue from the previos painting. then, just now, i applied some white oil paint…
so now it looks like this, and we’ll see what, if anything happens later today.
BELOW: before & after
1:50 PM: i whited over yesterdays image using rose tinted white oils and made a still life of some branches and a crestone conglomerate rock i picked up outside the studio.
branches with rock is predominantly greys and ochres. just enough of the underlying composition peeks through. these, plus a few more dead branches and pine cones were all gathered just outside my studio door. the preliminary pencil drawing was made on april 16 and can be viewed in that post. van gogh, were he here, would approve and recognize the connection to his drawings and paintings, which i’ve studied deeply.
the rocks and branches we see on our daily trail walks are everywhere here in the baca grande region of crestone. they can only exist at this 8,000 ft. altitude, in our san luis valley. covered in snow for half the year, they emerge into the light of day in mid april
branches with rock, 15x17.5” oil on xtra fine portrait linen
rock & pine cones, 14x17” colored pencil on bristol paper
1:31 PM: today i made a colored pencil version of yesterday’s morning drawing.the pieces of bark, broken branches & dried up pine cones were found beneath the bristlecone pine tree just outside my studio, as were the rocks. textures on the bark of the broken branches form beautiful patterns only nature could create.
1:26 PM: i made a colred pencil version of the drawing i made yesterday.
10:16 AM: i gathered some pine bristles, dried broken branches and a rock from just outside my studio and made this drawing just now.
musical bird, 15x17.5” oil on xtra fine portrait linen, at the end of my painting day today
1:58 PM: this afternoon i started a new painting, titled Musical Bird,” 15x17.5” on xtra fine portrait linen. there are 4 or 5 things going on here, which will eventually blend into one image: my hand, drawing and holding a pencil; a man playing guitar, looking down from our second story; some dried out bristlecone pine needles; a piece of dried out pine branch; and an orange headed bird. right now i’m tuckered out and ready to go back to the house and lie down. to be continued tomorrow morning.
dried out bristlecone pine needle
2:45 PM: an odd day, i must say. my old macbook pro died, so i switched to this one; the M$ Pro, which has a larger screen and a much cooler liquid retina XDR display. why did i wait so long? just lazy, i guess. so when it finally bit the dust, i opened squarespace on this one and never looked back!
the other odd thing about today is that i painted over the two paintings you see here, turning them into really crappy pieces and when i got that out of my system, i scraped and wiped them both, returning them to their old selves, albeit with a bit of a faded look due to all that scrubbing.
OMG, this keyboard is so far superior!!
so here they are post-scrapping/rubbing and ready to do whatever it is i’m going to do tomorrow morning.
BELOW left: goldfish in tub, 15x17” and RIGHT: in flight, 12x14”
a recent photo taken in my studio with a grouping of recent paintings
above is this is the only colored pencil drawing i made this evening during mikela’s zoom
6:20 PM: this evening mikela has a zoom focused on political issues. so i’m sitting in the room making drawings with my new Asvine transparent fountain pen, which was just delivered this afternoon and i’m already in love with!
2:26 PM: once i completed work on In Flight, i got started on walk & fly, which has the same dimensions: 12x14” here’s how she looks at the end of day one.
walk & fly, 12×14” oil on portrait linen, at the end of day one
In Flight, 12×14” oil on portrait linen, as she looked following this morning’s work
11:50 AM: this mornign i was moved to do more work on the 12x14” In Flight. reds, blues and blacks were added as well as ochre trousers on the dancing figure.
11:53: while listening to a series of BEETLES classics on youtube, i made more changes and improvements to passing though. here she is.
so how, how did she emerge? Dunno, but my best guess is that, over time ripening has occured; soul ripening. and along with that, the eyes see what they didn’t used to and the hand with the brush moves to the soul’s music, boom, batta boom, bam, batta bam.
know that yesterday my voice therapist recommended singing daily for 10 minutes. so i put on The Beetles on youtube, began singing along, did some more on passing through, …..
passing through, 12x14” oil on portrait linen, moments ago
6:36 PM: i did a bit more on in flight today, but, as small as it is, it needs more…on second thought, maybe it’s resolved!
