Armadillo wearing a hat

More photos from the Museum of Natural History. Here we have a prehistoric armadillo, or relative of armadillo, wearing a little bone hat. Why did it evolve this little bone hat you ask? Maybe it lived in a place where rocks fell on it's head a lot.

And my inked in drawing for Tired Angel. I made the mistake of using a red watercolor pencil to draw the image. This red color is very intense and smears a lot so I'll have to cover over the red with white gesso or it will smear into every damn color I try to paint over it. Live and learn.

Tired angels and giant sloths

Here's the beginning of my new painting, Tired Angel. Just a drawing on canvas so far but we shall see how it develops.
In the meantime, I've been reading a book called The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman. This is a pretty depressing, yet compelling story of what we have done to the earth and how long it will take, if ever, to recover or simply 'Digest' the mess we have made. It's keeping me up at nights. So one day last week I went to the Museum of Natural History to see all the giant mammals that are now extinct in North America. I was sorry to discover that the museum has 'modernized', meaning it plays to the lowest common denominator (but best paying customer): Kids.
The large, dull Victorian style hall that was crammed with skeltons of extinct mammals is gone, replaced with a whole floor that leads from dinosaurs to those mammals. Lots of interactive stuff but not enough actual animals! OK, I confess, I hadn't visited that old room with all the cases in maybe 20 years. Still, when I actually Wanted to visit it, it was gone. The new approach is interesting but controlling. The museum is pushing the information it wants you to have. But what if you have other questions?
ANYway, I did find the giant sloths. Here's one. They were maybe/probably wiped out by man arriving in the new world. They must have been quite tastyl

Woman with Frogs

This is a very small painting that I did for the BWAC auction. It's just 6X12 inches. The subject is based on sculptures and frescos I saw in Romanesque and early Renaissance churches. I painted the same subject in a painting called "Retribution" which a man bought to put in his office. I wondered about that: did he really look at the imagery in the painting. Besides the woman with frogs hanging off her breasts, there was Salome with the head of John the Baptist, a centaur shooting an arrow at a mermaid (another favorite of mine) and some devils hanging a man from a tree. You can see it on my website.

Special Delivery: final version

Here's the final version of Special Delivery. It's my favorite painting in this style...so far.
I spent one evening taking pictures of all the apocalypse paintings but I must say I'm a bit frustrated with the results. Is it my camera or me? Sections were out of focus and my placement of the lights was definately off: there were spots in the dark and spots with glare. YUK. Another thing to learn.

Franks and other deliveries

I wish I had taken a picture of the ugly phase. I guess I was painting too fast and I missed it. That manganese blue is hard to handle. It was so over powering. So I toned it down with some acra crimson to create a more purple color. I did use the managanese for the green. It's definately a blue-ish green but I'm working with it. The painting is all laid in except for the fun detailing and inking.

Here's another NY picture. The classic frankfurter vendor outside of MOMA. I wonder if the taxi's will really go on strike today. The whole thing mystifies me. Perhaps it has something to do with the Apocalypse?

More of everything

Here's a close up of some of the Serra wall that I saw last week at MOMA. Need I say that the texture and color are beautiful?



Here I've added the dark, or one of the darks. I'm using Manganese blue for the first time. I've mixed it with Napthol Red light to get this color. It will be interesting to see how it looks when I lighten it up in it's pure form

Start of Special Delivery

Here's the start of my new painting, Special Delivery. I may or may not leave the plane. Time will tell.

And here's where I've been in all this time. My sister Carmen visited and we went all over NYC. This is the Richard Serra sculpture at MOMA. It looks so much better here than it did when it was in front of a building many years ago. Then, in our pre-terrorist days, it was obstructive and just ugly metal. Now, it's beautiful, lyrical and almost delicate. An urban labyrinth. Contex is everything, as they say.

Detail

Here's a corner detail of my recent painting. The lighting, as usual, is wrong on the right side but you'll get the idea.
I've gone thru hell with this painting...but not about the actual painting. It has to do with a show I'm going to be in where they asked for a 'narrative' about the piece. Somehow, this has become a huge imposition in my head and I've been agonizing, not sleeping, babbling to myself over it.
Then, last night, while not sleeping, I realized this blog is a sort of narrative and I could use parts of it. Went right to sleep and had a dream: the end of the world, of course.

Gelling

I changed the background to a darker yellow with a little orange in it and the whole thing has brightened up considerably. I don't hate it anymore. Also, I finished the basic colors of the building. There are still detail colors and I still might add some animals to the right side. By the way, the blue river is really much darker.

Ok, on another note, here's a giant locust, dead thank god, that I saw in prospect park recently. The Apocalypse may really be coming!

More color

This photo is too light on the right and too dark on the left, but you get the idea, don't you? MORE color. I'm still playing with the idea of changing the background.
I'm sort of depressed today. Do you have days like that? Why am I painting at all? days.

Coming Along

In the middle of the night, I came up with the perfect title for this painting. Damn, I sure wish I could remember what it was. Work Ethic is my working title and I may have to go with it if my thousands of fans don't write in and give me alternatives. Oh, wait, it was something like: To have and have not.
I'm thinking of adding some more details to the river side. Maybe animals.
Mai-Liis says they are amusing but I'm still finding the world of the Romanesque sort of mysterious and impenetrable. The blank staring faces saying so much more than what they represent. In several manuscripts, I've seen that someone scratched out the faces of evil: the devil or that bad guy in the painting. Scratched them out. Why? In anger? For protection? And who? Did the ordinary person have access to these manuscripts? Did a monk do it? What was he or she (OK, more likely He) thinking?
Well, I have a title for a painting with a scratched face: Take away evil.
But right now, let's focus on Work Ethic. Help!

Pill Box Hats finished

I've finished this painting, even done the sides. I don't think the color here is 100% perfect. I have trouble photographing the blue, which is really sort of a dull blue but kept coming out as a strong cobalt blue.
In reality I had put several layers of color before I found the one I like. This blue is over a darker purpley blue which is over that spinach green.
If I wasn't so lazy I would get out my photography set up: the tripod, the lights, the white card, blah blah blah. I will do it when I send the art to Amber, who does my website, but I think you'll get the idea here.
Don't have a name. Any ideas?

Old Stuff/New Stuff

I've started the blacking in of the Locusts picture. And, as you can see, I've changed the spinach green to a brighter blue. Now for a name...Locusts Two?
In the meanwhile, I've been postponing beginning this large painting. It's 48X36, with a lot of detail and color. Originally an ode to the saints who guarded the 12 portals, I've let two of them off to go fishing. Also, I've got to work out the center image of the city. In the original it's an angel herding the lamb of god. No more Lambs! Even though they are cute, I'm trying to get away from the religious stuff.

Spinach

The new locust painting is coming along, nearly finished. But now that all the main colors are laid in, I'm not sure I like that dark green. It sort of reminds me of cooked spinach. I'd like to change it to my original idea, which was a grey blue. Stay tuned.

More Locusts

Don't get all jittery about the red, Cadmium Red medium, to be exact. It's just a temporary layer.
Lots of strong, in your face colors. YUMMY!
In the meanwhile, I'm starting another painting, to keep 2 going all the time. This one is biggish too: 36X48. Sure wish I could work smaller...but this IS small for me.

Lollygagging

I have been procrastinating.
I reached a sort of milestone with the start of the BWAC Big show (bwac.org). My New work is up and I can take a break and agonize about it...which I didn't have time to do before.
I've also started this new locust painting. It's a slightly different style and I'm very insecure about it. The other colors, I think. will bring the painting together.
In the meantime, as part of the lollygagging (or is it lollAgagging?) I took a long walk in the city with my sister. We passed this colorful bus.

I need a new name!

NO, I don't need a new name, but this painting does. It sort of developed on it's own, spawned, you might say, by the crazy talk of Linder and Mai-Liis.(See comments for July 15th). Linder also sent me this photo below of....of....well, you decide. She is definately being plagued by giant black bugs.
So yesterday, I added keys to the tiny green paws of the green things in the painting and then, what are keys without a keyhole, I made a tiny doorway in that blank spot at the bottom. I have that 'horror vacua' syndrome.
One thing I haven't mentioned are the borders of the paintings. I really enjoy doing these. They are my versions of the intricate, patterning and colors that are in the manuscripts.

Eat Your Greens

Eat Your Greens may or may not be the title, but here's how the painting is coming along. I had to put many layers of color on the horse like animal but he is finally the way I want him. And I still have to work on the border.
The final step is to add the black lines again, which this painting is particular really needs to bring out the shapes. That's because some of them are in the same value as the red. Yes, I did that on purpose.

Frittering my time away

Today is my brother's birthday so I frittered away a few hours making a card for him. I wanted to give the impression of tiles since he's working on tile tables right now, but I think it looks more like the cracked earth of the desert.

The Right Red

I put 3 layers of red before I liked the result. Quin Magenta, which is a beautiful red, Napthol Red light to warm it up and then a mixture of the Naphtol red and cad yellow light, glazed on to brighten it up. I wish I could have saved more of the quin magenta spots but I could not 'recreate' them by mixing white into the quin magenta. That produced a sort of light purple.
Question of the day that I have been mulling over. How true to stay to the original images? I'd like to remove the Very Very Christian iconography in some of the images. I feel it limits the audience and also does not represent who I am. Thoughts?
Mai-Liis says the paintings are funny to her. Are they funny to you?

New work and little guy abandoned

Sadly, I have put Little Guy aside, once I realized, didn't you? that he looked like a Simpson character. I'll have to rethink that whole image.
But I have started a new piece with LOTS of Red in it. To get the red I want, I have first laid down a layer of Quin magenta. Then I'll glaze or scumble over it with a more orangey red: Napthol light with a touch of Cad yellow medium.
The image is 3 creatures eating what look like locusts frogs. Any ideas for a title?
The whole thing is reminding me of something that happened to my sister Linda last week. It seems she is having her own personal Apocalypse out in the desert. Huge insects, the size of pigeons, have been invading her home. She had them exterminated and a huge black BEAST emerged from her fountain and flew off. Now it is loosed upon the earth!

The Gospel according to Little Guy

This one is definately in the ugly stage. My colors are all over the place. This is the first piece I'm doing from my head so watch the colors change as I work. It's 12X24.
As for Locusts Pocus, it's almost finished. I just want to add some wording. You'll see it in the next few days.

Locusts pocus, 2

This painting definately went thru an ugly stage. The colors looked too discordant and silly to me. But I stuck with the program and it's coming together. The "program" is to use 3 colors and black and mix my colors from the 3 to make orange and green. In this case I wanted an unusual blue. I had to use prussian blue and bright blue together. The colors definately don't match the original. Anyway, I really don't know what the original looks like, since I'm working from books and interent stuff.
OH, by the way, this is a BROOKLYN blog. I mention it because there was a story in today's paper about how many blogs are from Brooklyn. On the Brooklyn theme, I delievered my paintings to Red Hook yesterday for the BWAC Big Show. 3Against1, and the Losing Team are on the wall, and my auction piece is Blow. You can see them all here on the blog.

locusts pocus

It took a LOOOOONg time to think of a name for this one. Locusts that turn into horse like animals and have tails like tarantulas...that's a little long, don't you think?
This is from the one of the Beatus commentary's on the Apocalypse. I'm in the process of reading up on Beatus. It seems the Bishop of Toledo called him the Antichrist so Beatus said, "NO, YOU'RE the Antichrist". And it went back and forth like that, in those wild and crazy 700's. Meanwhile, Beatus wrote his Commentary's, which I have yet to read a word of.
By the way, Beatus won.

Locusts and Little Guy

The Locust painting is drawn in. Here's the canvas with the black lines. I usually end up painting over the lines and I redo most of them.
I like to have a second painting in the works too. This is one of my Little Guy paintings. It's the first one done in this style that is totally from my own little brain. Little guy sits on top of the world and speaks. Faithful dog listens. Serpent attacks. The Angel and devil are obvious symbols. I'm in two places: the little figure that the angel holds and the figure at the lower right. Of course I'm planning to make changes as I go along.

Weird locusts

A small sketch of my new painting project which is about these locusts that look like horses. What more is there to say?

Two works finished

Woops, got so carried away with painting that I didn't keep up with all the step by steps. It was the NYC heatwave. I couldn't go out so I just sat in front of my easel. Sometimes, for variety, I stood in front of my easel.
Here's the two pieces: The Losing Team and Blow. I'm loving doing this work but today I must go out and buy more paint. I'm using a lot more paint with this technique than I used to. And brushes: I'm messing up my little brushes, which I never even used before.
I'm curious if anyone will figure out they are apocalypse paintings and/or assign hidden meanings to them.

Losing Team

Here's what I'm up to with the Losing Team. It says: "You find yourself on the losing team", on the upper curve of the yellow part. I traced the curve, then I scanned it into Illustrator and picked out a suitable typeface. I used the pen tool to create a curved path that matched the scanned curve and wrote the words. Had to do it 3 times: the first time the words were too big, the second one, I lost, and finally got it right. Lesson: next time, do a bunch of different sized types. I also decided to paint the halo around the lamb in gold.
And also, here's the finished drawing for Blow. I have to decide on the color scheme.
My next project will be the locust that look like horses and eat you. I bet you can't wait to see that one.

Blow

Here's the smaller piece I started. It's about 12X16. From the Escorial Beatus, if you are interested. It's one of the trumpets blown but I forget which one...the second? Anyway, I liked the tones of brown. Sorry, the photo is a little skewed.

3 Against 1

OK, I cheated a little. 3Against1 is already finished. It took....maybe 2 weeks to do. It's not that hard ...sort of coloring in the lines. Maybe I shouldn't admit to how easy it is? I drew this one 'sort of' free hand. Meaning I did graph it out but changed the figures as I went along. Artistic vision or lousy math? I don't know but I can never fit the image in the grids I make.
But I'm having so much fun doing these paintings that I've started 2 more...REALLY and truly just started them yesterday. Here's one of the beginnings. I think I'm calling it: the losing team.

Final Version and something new

Ok, here's the final, I think, version of The woman and the Dragon. I had to do some final touch-ups on the outer frame. I tried making it look old and antique but it just looked like a dirty canvas. So I redid the whole thing in white and painted the edges in Paynes grey. I also studied some other versions of the same image and realized that my instincts had been right. That wasn't St. Michael on the upper left: that's the woman. So I had to redo my little narrative that I had written in the spaces where the original had Latin 'stuff', to include the woman's part of the story. And I added a little guy in the lower right corner, for my own amusement. So I think it's done.
And here's the next piece I'm working on for BWAC's Big show. To me, it's not so big: 60X36,

Silos Apocalypse, Part 2

I've continued to work on the Silos painting, and here's the lastest update.
Last week, I went to the Morgan Library with my 2 sisters to see a show about these apocalyptic paintings from Spain so I got to view in closeup how they look and also, how they were done. It's appears to be tempera or gouache and they covered mistakes with white paint, which has held up quite well over the years. They had almost an identical image, with the seven headed beast. Also, they were not as small as I had thought they would be...maybe 24 inches long.
So, here's the update. The painting is not quite as bright as the photo. I'm still learning as I go. Yesterday I had to cover a lot of the detail of the faces that I had done because I needed to white out the too thick lines and other mistakes. But it's all good, as the medieval monks used to say.

Pier Show 2007

Here's my two paintings for this year's BWAC Pier Show, in Red Hook Brooklyn. Yes, I am a little discouraged that they haven't sold. The large one is really beautifully colored....oh, am I supposed to say they are both beautiful? Well, you always have a favorite child. I do like the other, it's the mermaid image that I saw in France. I did a lot of glazing on it to get the shadowy stone column.
Are artists supposed to be ego maniacs who never say they are discouraged? Certainly I HAVE met a lot of artists like that but I'm not discouraged because I think the paintings are not worthy. It's something about the energy of the show. It seemed very low key at the opening. Que pasa?

Silos Apocalypse

I started work on this idea of mine that I've been mulling over for some time: to paint large versions of those wild and crazy medieval Spanish illuminated paintings of the apocalypse. I chose St Michael Fighting the Dragon from the Silos apocalypse.
This is the preliminary drawing, done directly on the canvas, which is 28X42. I mention the size cause it is much bigger, of course, then the illuminated painting. I just went for it and drew directly onto the canvas with no preliminary drawings. When people say this in books and articles their work always seems suspiciously neat. Whereas I've already run into trouble trying to cover my 'happy mistakes' so as to have that pen and ink look of the original. Not that I'm trying to recreate the original. For one thing the proportions are off, so things are a bit stretched and squashed. But I am having fun!
I decided to just go for it after reading a quote from an artist yesterday who said she chooses what to work on based on the idea: If this is the last piece I do, what do I want it to be?

Dream City

Haven't posted in a LONG LONG time but here's a watercolor from way back when. Painting in watercolor was extreme painting:taking me months to complete and driving me crazy with uncertainty. You know: the blah stage, the ugly stage, the too-beautiful-to-touch stage. Plus spending all that time on my inner life was quite intense.
I did love the results. This was one of my last: an abstract city, loosely based on my true dream city, Gerona.