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.