Back in the Saddle

After being out of the saddle for weeks...maybe more, I've finally started another painting. It's 24 X 48 and more border than painting. I'm planning to put a lot of figures in the border and a scene of angels fighting a dragon in the center part.

The American Antique Fair

I went to the American Antique Fair yesterday. I went specifically to see these Memory jugs, which were glass jugs covered with some sort of putty with objects embedded in it. Very interesting although the effect was sort of muddy. From the 1920's.

Also there were lots of nice examples of Tramp art. Here's several frames.

Also, this strange diorama of dolls, about the size of hope chest. The sales person offered it to be at the bargain price of $18,000. What a deal!

Here and There

I've finally finished this 'small' painting of 12X24. I named it 'Here and There'. Can you figure out why?

Beastly improvements

I've been working on this little painting SO slowly. But here it is almost complete...at least stage one of complete. Now I'll think about what to add to make it more lively. What? You think it is lively? No, it seems to need something, or someone else.

The Gift of Vegetation

Still lollagagging over finishing my painting and in the mean time, I did another pen and ink. This one, The Gift of Vegetation, is 8X10 on Stratford Bristol Board, the good kind. I'm using a Hunt's 512 nib. It's actually not for drawing but I like the thick line and that it holds a lot of ink before I need to dip again.
As with my other pen and ink, I'm not preparing any image; I just start on the paper and see what happens. I still have that Horror vacuae thing going: I like to fill up the spaces.
Oh yes, Happy New Year 2008. Remember, whatever you do today, you'll do for the rest of the year.

Out of Ugly and Christmas in NY

Finally worked on the Beast in the City and got it past the ugly stage. It's a real leap of faith, or to use a different metaphor, it was like slogging thru devil molasses.
In the meanwhile, to distract myself, I went to the Metropolitan. On the way there, I saw this lion, forced to dress up by it's captors.

The ugly phase and homeless socks

I do believe there comes a time in every painting when it goes thru the 'ugly phase'. Here is this painting in that phase. Of course, ugliness is in the eye of the beholder but for me, the colors are so yukky that I have to just keep going based on faith.
In the meantime, to keep my mind off of the painting, I took a walk in the city with my sister. It's sad to see anyone homeless at this time of year but this was especially poignant: a group of homeless socks, huddled together from the cold. Won't you take one home to hang over the fire? Actually, all these socks had a story to tell. Some are the mates of the better sock that was chosen to hang for Christmas. Some of them said they would rather take their chances on the street than be forced to have a nail stuck thru them and hung for the amusement of some jaded child. Some of them were toeless veterans. When I got home I kissed my socks, knowing how lucky they were to have their own pampered life.

Guardian Angel

Taking a break from my painting, I made this pen and ink drawing. God it was fun to do. Can't wait to do more. I used Stonehenge Rising paper.

My "Little" Painting

I'm trying to work smaller, so here we have an 18 X 36 painting. But I'm sort of stuck on the imagery of it. Maybe you can see some light pencil work I put in, but I'm not committed to anything yet, except the inked in lines. It's hard for me to think small and to draw small.
Beast in the City is the working title.

Morgan Library's Van Gogh show in NYC

I went to the VanGogh show at the Morgan yesterday. It is there till January. Lots of letters, sketches and paintings. There was a booklet to read the letters in translation. Actually, you can see seven of the letters with the sketches and the translations on line at:
>http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/exhibOnlineThumbs.asp?id=OnlineVanGogh<

Reading the letters was like hearing Van Gogh speak in his own words. It was pretty exciting for me after what has seemed weeks of caregiving, to hear intelligent conversation...even if it was one-sided. He wrote, over the years, about wanting to paint the starry sky. He finally did it in the last year of his life.

"But when will I do the starry sky, then, that painting that's always on my mind? Alas, alas, it's just as our excellent pal Cyprien says, in "En ménage" by J. K. Huysmans, the most beautiful paintings are those one dreams of while smoking a pipe in one's bed but which one doesn't make. But it's a matter of attacking them nevertheless, however incompetent one may feel vis-à-vis the ineffable perfections of nature's glorious splendors."

Linda's sculpture

I've been taking it easy but my sister Linda sent me these images today of some new work she's doing. WOW!

Watercolors

After going to the Brooklyn Museum with Andrea to see a show about watercolors, I've been feeling inspired for the last few days to make these little sketches.

Edgy Painting

Simon, from the ArtAnon group, brought up the issue of the edges of paintings. Hey, I hardly even measure my paintings, much less remember to include medium, and such. But in the case of my recent work, I have so been working on the sides of the paintings. In fact, this is both tedious and fun at the same time....not sure how that works. This canvas has a rather deep side to it, 1 1/2 inches, so I had to do quite a bit of work on it.
And by the way, the whole shebang is 30 X 40 inches.

Cruely to Animals..the end

I dragged my feet, but finally I've completed Cruelty to Animals. I was disturbed by the amount of blank space in the painting and fixing that became a lot of fun, as you can see if you compare the previous post and this one. I painted in the same way that I used to draw as a child, making up a story as I went along. I love the end result. The words, if you can't quite read them, are: Beatum Beastia, Beastia Tui and, at the bottom, tit pro tat.
One day, I took a long walk with my sister. We saw these lonely piers.

The Beasty boys

I worked on Cruelty to Animals a lot yesterday. I added some decorative touches and got the borders started. I think it's starting to look lively. I've got some text to add.

Catching up

I haven't written in many days. I've been in a sort of suspended state of animation. LaLa land, also known as Paris. No, not the real Paris....I've just been intensely day dreaming. I'm reining myself in and trying to return to this earth. I've been working on Cruelty to animals. I made a lot of changes in it but I'm not sure about the colors. I'm going to do the border and then decide.

Besides my fantasy Paris trip, I went to the real Metropolitan Museum of art to see the new Greek and Roman rooms. It was incredible...I only got thru maybe one half of the Greek. I especially enjoyed the paintings on the plates and vases. Here's a snake challenged image.

AnotherTry at Digital Angel

Ok, this time I switched to RGB or whatever, colors. OKAY! Look at the difference. Here's something even weirder that I discoverd. Click on the first digital angel, the one with the garish colors and it comes out normal What a quandry!

Digital Angel

Today I felt crummy. Either the common cold or West Nile fever, one or the other. So, rather than work on the new painting, I decided to see what I could do with Photoshop. Still needing to play with the colors more. but here's my first effort.
OK, this is too too weird. This image looks NOTHING like what I did and what I see on my computer screen. The colors are not just off, they are completely different. UGH, a photoshop mess.

Tired Angel: Finito

I feel very happy with Tired Angel. It took so long to complete and yet it's not a drag at all in the end. So I wasn't holding it up because of a vague dissatisfaction, like sometimes happens. I really do have to take better pictures.

Here's my sketch for a new piece, Animal Abuse. I haven't decided on the size. Usually I like to jam a lot of stuff into as small a space as I can paint, but this is kind of minimalist...for ME, and I might just go for it: do it as a 30X40. I have to add that I have a LOT of 30X40 canvases.

Tired Angel, almost finished

This is such a small painting, 18x36 but for some reason it's taking me so long to finish. Maybe I'm tired.