abstract spring

6"x12" oil/panel

Just enough time for some sketching. Basement flooded and I have a lot to clean up before the show season starts next week in Richmond. Mold galore. Yippeee...

28 strokes part 4

6"x6" oil/panel

I continue with the 28 brushstroke exercise. This time done over a painting. I seem to be completely engrossed in the horizontal line compositions. This will change no doubt, but for now I must follow my intuition. Note: when painting over old work, strokes could be many fewer to create a believable work. This exercise is enlightening and brings awareness to the temptation of predertermining strokes and loading the brush with color. Too close to craft work ie..painting flower petals with one stroke. I am abandoning this exercise. I learned a lesson.........Paintings develope through continual interaction and reaction........... 

More Spring

20"x24" oil/canvas

Continuing to paint over old work. I'm concentrating on colors seen throughout the day. Composition resonates in my unconscious.

I have a bunch of linen on birch panels coming that will be dedicated to plein air work. Light is lasting longer and I need to be in the elements.

Yet again.......

20"x24"oil/canvas

If you remember my ode to a Christmas tree last December(?) there were what appeared to be trees about to be burned in a fire disaster.Note the 2010 signature. Well I've drenched it with paint. To combine the imagination with observation would be ideal. Leaving things in that couldn't possibly occur in nature is quite tempting. I'm guessing I won't have much luck at the next OPA competition!

More spring coverups

24"x24" oil/canvas

Another painting over a painting. I'm pushing the idea of spring through abstraction again. I might tweak this one. A counter angle in the sky might do wonders. Need to contemplate this one. I'll ponder it while we are under a tornado watch.........

spring time

11"x14" oil/canvas

The trees are budding. I took a winter landscape and turned it a season. The show schedule is coming together and the work is starting.

no strokes

40"x30" oil/linen

Almost no strokes in this one. I used a big brush and scrubbed in the paint. This is a view from the local recycling plant. Yes it is in a rural area.

I'm enjoying the dynamic of the 28 stroke series then allowing freedom of brushwork.

28 strokes part 3

6"x6" oil/panel

Hopefully, you see the hand of the artist in this series. 28 strokes. Yes, it is hard to understand, Yes, I am hard to understand. Feel free to standover, but please keep a distance.

28 strokes part 2

6"x6" oil/panel

What started as an idea has become a full blown direction. This is a self portrait done with glasses off and 28 strokes. I'm all but blind without my corrective lenses. I couldn't even see my palette properly. I mixed warms where cools should have been and vice versa. The energy that is being created is overwhelming. These things are tough to do! But I'm only 2 in and getting ideas!

28 strokes part 1

6"x6" oil/panel

Since I have a boat load of small panels I decided to challenge myself. The challenge is create a piece with 28 brushstrokes. I'll vary brushsize however will not stray from 28 strokes. This creates an interesting dilema to say the least. The darks must go down first then carved into. A stroke consists of the brush never leaving the panel. Crazy is as crazy does..... These will appear at random

Fort Hunter

20"x24" oil/linen

A local historical area. I've attempted to tackle architecture again while maintaining free brushwork and allowing light to play the lead role.