Shady Green Space, acrylic, 2007?, 14x22

Nevis Pine Trees, watercolor, 2008, 9x12

Today is the show.  Tomorrow too.  Let me know if you need the details.  These are two paintings that have lived at Dee's house for the last two years since the last show.  I had forgotten about them!  I like the sense of form and the yellow/blue.  That one branch really did curve like that.  I thought of changing it, but decided it added an interesting ambiguity.  And some visual contrast.

I went to a staff development event at the Walker Art Center on Friday last week.  They taught us about the new elements and principles of art.  Time, Appropriation, stuff like that.  It left me wondering what to do with that information.  Is my art irrelevant?  They said that the old elements and principles of contrast, balance, emphasis, etc. are still important and these are just additions.  So that made me feel a little better, but still.  I have to ponder this a bit longer.

Wordless and Done, acrylic, 20x30, 2007?

One of the Wm. OBrien sketches, pastel, 9x12, 2006?

Big Fish?, acrylic, 36x36, 2009

The show is hung.  Now I am trying to get organized with things like labels, receipts, and I am putting more unframed pieces in plastic sleeves.  Here is some free advertising for clearbags.com.  Great place to get clear plastic coverings of all sorts.  That saved me SO much time.

I'm trying to create a catolog of my work.  I have started this project many times and change my mind about the specifics often enough that it never gets done.  These three pieces are connected in my way of thinking about my work, but I do not think they are connected in the way a catalog would organize my work.  The first one is about the feeling of exasperation at trying to explain something that no one understands, or finish something that will never be truly finished.  The second one is about barriers and how life keeps moving forward.  The third one was my get-out-my-frustrations painting for a long time.  Eventually it started to look like rocks in a river.  As I worked with it, it started to look like fish.  Is that one shape a fish or a rock?  You tell me.

Happy Accidents

Long Lake Solitude 2, watercolor, 9x12, 2010

Branson, watercolor, 9x12, 2010

I like to see what different types of marks remind me of.  I also like to use those watercolor accidents and let them become the focal point.

More Trees

Off the Trail, pastel, 9x12, 2010

Scary Tree, watercolor, 7x11, 2010

I'm trying to post as many of the show pieces as I can.

Now I will read to my son.

Preparing for a show

Fall Retreat, watercolor, 9x12, 2010

Breezy Point, watercolor, 9x12, 2011

I've been going through my work and deciding what to keep, what to toss, and what to show.  I have a large stack of work that I like and is important to me, but too personal.  Maybe I'm not ready to show that work, or maybe it is not meant to be shown.  I had a teacher once who looked at one of my drawings and said something to the effect of: This is good, but it's not for public consumption.  It is showing you a direction you need to go.  I believe that was good advice.  So I have a special place to keep those and I take them out and look at them once in awhile and they inspire me.  Both of the pictures in this post have things in common with some of those pictures.

I almost just deleted that whole paragraph because how rude is that to talk about the work you are not going to show.  I figure people who create art might understand.  To the rest of you I appologize.  If everyone made art, if our society valued creation like we value exercise, perhaps I would not need to appologize.

Next I need to do some framing and organizing.

1988

untitled, oil paint, 30'x40', 1988

I made this painting in 1988.  Yeah......  I often complain of not having time to paint and yet do I paint?  What am I doing instead?  Living my life I guess.  All these things I do are important things, even the relaxing and the visiting and the driving kids around.  If I painted more, I would have to neglect one of these other very important things. And yet, without painting more, I know I am not able to get to the level I want.  I know it takes a while to get into a mental space where I can improve and I know I am not going to have that much time, so I don't start to avoid the frustration of having to stop.  Sure, I could continue to do happy little landscapes and people like happy landscapes, even I like happy landscapes, but there is more I want to do.  Yeah, I know, quit my whining and paint.

I'm Back

These are some works in progress that I started today.  It took me over 15 minutes to do the whole process of taking photos, editing and uploading.  I wish I could do that faster.  The kids are hungry and the water has been boiling on the stove for some time now to cook the noodles for spaghetti.
At least I painted SOMETHING today.