More Simple Landscapes in Progress

Simple Landscape 2 in progress, acrylic, 18x24, 2012

Simple Landscape 1 in progress, acrylic, 24x36, 2012

Should it really take 20 minutes to create a post?  What am I doing wrong?  Too much agonizing over photography and editing to try to get the color right.

Painting today was short, but I enjoyed pushing the paint around.  Showing up at the easel.  That is what it was all about today.  Feel like I'm coming down with something.  Headache and nausea.  Hopefully it will not still be here in the morning.  Gotta drive the kids to band in the morning and then teach other kids about Chinese art, and then Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry, and then Winslow Homer.  No wonder I'm feeling a bit scattered.

Simple Landscapes

simple landscape in progress, 36x24, acrylic, 2012

I feel a need for wide open space.  I do not have it here in my house.  I spent some time at school yesterday trying to create it there.  There are about 2 hours of daylight left in the day, maybe a walk would do me some good.

Chessboard, 36x24, acrylic, 2012

I got a new easel and 3 big canvases for Christmas, I think the chessboard one is finished.  I was thinking about the relationship between the bishop and the pawn, thinking at first that this arrangement provides a possibility that the pawn could take the bishop, but only if the bishop is prevented somehow from attacking the pawn, perhaps by some other piece, but it is quite clearly wide open space, no one else around.  If it is the pawn's first move, it could move two spaces to safety, but then it is stuck there.  Why did I choose a bishop?  Because of some connection to religion?  No, because they move diagonally, and it makes a more visually pleasing arrangement.  But it is called a bishop, so the religious connection is there, whether I want it to be or not.  I really like this one.  But I do not know what to do with it.  I can't imagine displaying it anywhere.

Distance

Distance, watercolor, about 4x4, 2009

When I painted this, I was at a friend's cabin and the scenery was beautiful, but I did not paint the scenery.  I sat outside and painted from my imagination.  I used the paint in a more opaque way than usual for me.  I left the white spot near the base of the tree because it felt right to do so.  The title distance comes from both the close-far feeling in the painting, and the fact that it reminds me of how sometimes I just need to remove myself from others for a little while.  

I almost did not put this one in the show.  I'm not sure why.  But I did and it was one of the first to sell.  Interesting.

Chess

Chessboard (in progress), acrylic, 24x36, 2012

sketch for chessboard, pencil, 6x9, 2011

Board games seem to be a big part of the lives of people around me.  I enjoy playing a board game now and then.  Those near and dear to me play more often than I choose to play.  I think the forms of chess pieces are interesting and the distorted grid has intrigued me for some time.  Lots of metaphorical possibilities with this one, I will think on that more as I continue to work on it.  I think the sky is too dark, but I like the purple/yellow grid.  

I fell away from blogging in 2011.  I think I was questioning if it is worth the time, and even questioning if painting is really how I should be spending my time.  I'm hoping to post weekly in 2012.