Happy New Year!

Big Rose tries again, she didn't like my criticism. Now she looks hurt. The paintings are talking back, this might be a rough year.

Big Rose wishes you the happiest most blessed of New Years even though this is 2012 and no one has any idea what's going to happen. The world could end, ya know.  Rose looks a little oblivious doesn't she with those superficially bright colors. Pink, Blue, Pink, Blue.

Pink, Blue

Pink, Blue, Pink, Blue, Pink, Blue, Pink, Blue, Pink, Blue. Compassion and serenity, the spiral remembers.

Rose Spiral

This is a far cry from the last image, and I'm not overly attached to roses as a flower but when I saw they had a spiral inside it made a difference. Pink, Blue, Pink, Blue. There's something there or is it just me?

Pink and Blue With Grit

This is my first posted large drawing about 3'x 3'. Pink and blue in the last image was soothing, uplifting. Not this one. Much more intense but still plant forms. I didn't post a small painting today thinking it might be nice to just post the big ones instead as I get them done.  I am hoping for 2 big drawings a week.



Large drawing about 31/2' x 4'.

Pink and Blue

Pink is the color of love. Blue is serene and calm. Put those together and they uplift and soothe usually. The flowers help too. You can't really go wrong with this combination.

Spiral Vision

It seems like I keep coming back to this. What is it like to have spiral vision? I think the yard knows.

Merry Christmas Spiral

A really nice day alone. No TV, no visitors, and a bottle of New York wine. I am grateful and hope for all a peaceful day with friends and family.

Christmas Flowers

A gift from my daughter. I am falling into Christmas, and as long as there is silence I am OK. For me silence is Christmas.

Last Poinsettia

The last Poinsettia, I think I am ready for a new series and some bigger drawings. That will be what the New Year brings to the blog. Thanks to all of you who have followed what I have done for the last few months.

Poinsettia After Mall Visit

This one is really self explanatory.

Poinsettia Stress

Anxiety even in the plants. Whatever we feel everything around us feels too.

Christmas Dread

It's almost more work to opt out of Christmas than it is to just go buy the presents. Either way I have come to dread what I used to love.

Orange Poinsettia

I like it when it seems the ink is burned into the paper. An orange engraving.

Leering Poinsettia

I'm not really sure why this Poinsettia is so confrontational. I think he is scoffing at our Christmas insanity. Anyway I hope that's it.

Anxiety

I'm not sure this is exactly the feeling but it must be close. I have to drop off my computer today so right now I am not sure if I will be able to post for a few days. Going back to a busy mall in the middle of the Christmas season is not an appealing prospect. I feel some anxiety even if the Poinsettia doesn't.

Tilted Poinsettia

The Poinsettias are playing with me. They do whatever they want in my imagination. Maybe they think I'm too serious. I am not sure I can last until Christmas.

Fade Christmas

My computer will be down for a few days. I will try to find another way to post but in case I don't I will be back on line with a week.

I feel Christmas unraveling around me. No one this year seems very happy about it.

Christmas Fade

I had to venture out of the house today. The traffic was bad, the stores crowded and all I wanted was to be on the porch. I have become a Christmas porch sitter. I really recommend it.

Florida Poinsettia

Its been damp all day and I've been thoughtful. This Poinsettia looks like a palm tree in soft rain. There is smoke hanging in the air from brush fires.

Chinese Poinsettia

The Chinese paint the world as a living force, not dead matter. I would love to paint like that. But to paint like that you would have to live believing that.

Blood Red

Poinsettias have the strongest color, it pierces vision and makes an impact. I have gotten to know my flowers. They are intense and not really friendly. Their beauty is superficial. It's their visual aggression I like.

Dark Center

 A huge black hole sits in the middle of our galaxy. A certain darkness may lie at the center of all things. I wonder if the Buddhists would agree.

Olive's Flower

Olive's spirit is in the bottom right hand corner looking into the darkness and peace that is her death.

Dragonfly Poinsettia

Today, I saw the rare and beautiful Dragonfly Poinsettia take off with its red wings to fly around the yard. After a few minutes it came to light back on its stem as if it had never left. Being lucky to see it, I was reminded that we too readily believe that the world conforms to human expectations.  In spite of us, Gaia has her own energy and life. The mystery is in that negative space of our understanding.

Background

The background is difficult with the flowers. I don't want it to look filled in and left over. Too dark and its overpowering, too light and all one sees is empty space next to a strong flower shape. Finding the right color is hard too. Good design dictates that negative and positive spaces interact and complement each other.
Here, the dark background feels sinister and a bit ominous.

Bloom

Because I painted her, the flower and I have a relationship. The image is the picture of that interaction. The painting is not me and is certainly not the Poinsettia, it is something else, but what exactly?

Twirl

They like me better than Walmart.

Rejected

I bought the rejected half-priced Poinsettias at Walmart because I thought they looked slightly crippled but more interesting. These seem to be trying to move in rhythm to some imaginary beat.

Where Have All The Poinsettias Gone?

The Poinsettias are all in Walmart. I saw them yesterday.

Christmas is an up and down time. It's over in the blink of an eye, and yet never ending. My flowers will tell the tale of this Holiday Season and how I really feel about it.

Poinsettias

Its the Christmas season whether we like it or not and the start of a new month and a little different direction for me. I am going to paint Poinsettias until I can't stand to paint them anymore. I want to work from life while I start my bigger drawings which I'll post in addition to my small daily sketches.
This looks a lot like open heart surgery.

Simple

I worked all morning on an image that became more complicated and overworked with every passing minute. Finally I realized it was hopeless and reached for a rejected background and with a few strokes painted the trees against that textured space. A simple, direct image is more compelling. If it seems that the artist is trying too hard then nothing in the piece can redeem that rigidness. It has been said that an image is only as strong as its weakest part. However, there are exceptions. Great work is held together by vision and/or passion not component parts and those override every weakness.

Night Weeds Too

The plants in the yard become alive at night. In the daytime they are easily recognizable, but at night something happens and they become themselves.

Night Weeds

The dark areas are ground earth minerals applied with water. The density of these minerals gives a richness and depth that watercolor alone lacks.

Water Dream

If you look at it just right you will see a manatee swimming under my dock.

Hippo

My initial process for developing a new visual language is almost complete. It's time to add the second phase. The first series creates breath and the second depth. I will be talking more about "process" soon as I enter this next phase of the project.

Opening

I am having to think carefully about what my work is about. I started this project because I was in transition and have no clear direction although I have many years of work behind me. Finding truth in an image is a life's work. It can't be done without penetrating effort and it isn't about process, technical ability, interesting images, entertaining stories although these can be a vehicle to something profound but in and of themselves they are nothing. Every good artist has something important to say and searches for the means to say it. We have to be dedicated to the truth in all things, and only then can we begin to find ourselves.

River Sunset

This is as close as I come to a festive painting. It is the river again and a sunset through some gathering mist. Florida light seems so clean and pure. Every pastel color flourishes here. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Hidden Spiral

Even as I experimented with these new monoprint techniques, I caught the spiral patiently waiting.

Utah Ground

The desert is back, the dryness and austerity. I still have no direction but I will take it one day at a time.

Ground Minus Zero

I have lost control of the images. The yard has proved stubborn. There is also less time to work. Tomorrow I'll sort this out.

Open

I like the way this image opens up like a seed.
I still want to do some "ground up" images, but so far there's more talk and less walk. I still want to tell the story of the yard.

Ground Zero Plus One

I don't know where this is headed, but really I'm just digging around in the dirt.

Ground Zero

The spiral is gone because nothing lives forever, but the ground has changed. There is something there that I have not seen before and what is going on I am not sure.

What's This?

I've started over, opened up the process again when I could feel the spiral images ending. It's hard when anything is new, like being on an alien planet without any gravity. I have to invent a different world but using the same language. THAT is part of the process. As for this image, I don't know what its about, but that's OK.

End

Memory of A Found Object

Memory of That Which Was Lost

What if not only the thing is gone but its memory too is lost?

Spiral Memory

Does memory takes shape where longing leaves off? Maybe it is the abyss of dreams.