Category Archives: My Art

Final Post on Day 7 ~~ Shells and Pearls

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It was Day 7 (and I was in a chatty mood): Hmmmm. Here’s a little still life I did day before yesterday. Dear cousins want oysters & pearls for their daughter’s new office. This was the first take; am now working on something bigger with a single oyster. Will share when it’s done.In the meantime, what are your thoughts on my current dilemmas: I set the oysters up on a white tablecloth (bottom photo), but the first cut was perhaps too monochrome & bland; so in the next pass I pushed the cloth toward lavender. I think it may now be ‘too too’. The background behind is probably too similar. Finally, the cloth, as painted, is wonky & needs to be reshaped & redone in any event. Ideas, y’all???

Shells and Pearls. Oil on Arches Huile Paper. 10 x 12.

2020.06.01. Reprise of yesterday’s facebook post ~~

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I’m heartsick at the events of the last few days. Clearly there are more than enough bad folks to go around, but DAMN. Black folks have had a rope around their necks or a knee on their throats or a bullet in their backs for far too long. I heard wonderful Van Jones on TV last night, describing ‘the talk’ that each black parent must gave to their young children of a certain age, and these words stuck out: your skin is your sin. I had to make a quick painting this morning before heading into an art workshop filled with ole white women making fabric sculptures of themselves. How quaint.

Your Skin is Your Sin. Oil on Arches Huile Paper. 12 x 9.

2020.05.29. New painting ~~ Great Falls on the Potomac River

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New work to share! Here’s what’s on my easel, about to be signed. Sons Sam & Will, with their families, and Pat & I visited the Virginia side of Great Falls on the Potomac River last Christmas. I finally got around to making a studio painting of the magnificent scene!

I’m not great at landscapes, but I think I made real progress on this one!

Great Falls on the Potomac, Virginia. oil on linen. 20×16.

Day 4 of the Challenge ~~ California Dreaming

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For Day 4, here’s another recent painting — based on an early morning drive south of Half Moon Bay in California around Christmas. I loved how the masses were knit together in form and color by the nestling mist — and the interesting, barely-there trees out on the cliff point. I’m still ‘California Dreamin’. With this coronavirus stuff, I don’t know when I’ll be able to fly out there again. Road trip???

California Dreaming. Oil on Linen. 16 x 12.

This is the second painting I entered in The Tonalist Society competition.

Day 3 of the Challenge ~~ Decayed Beauty

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My Day 3 painting hearkens back to a trip to Havana a few years ago. This striking statue guards the ornate staircase of a decrepit mansion, now serving as home to a dozen families. We trekked up four floors to reach an avant garde ‘paladar’ (privately-owned restaurant permitted by the government in an experiment in capitalism). It was good, but not as memorable as this ‘Decayed Beauty’!

Decayed Beauty – Havana. Oil on Linen Panel. 16 x 20.

Day 2 of Facebook Posting Challenge ~~ the Candle

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For day 2 of the challenge, I posted a more recent piece which includes some of those gorgeous pines(?) in downtown DC. I call it ‘Lighting a Candle’ . . .

Lighting a Candle. Oil on Linen Panel. 16 x 20

A new art society was formed in the last year or so ~~ The Tonalist Society, which encourages and recognizes artists who work in a ‘tonalist’ style. As you can tell from earlier posts in this blog, I admire the work of Terry Miura and Marc Hanson who often paint in this style. I decided to enter two paintings in the first annual juried show. This is one of the two.

Sharing Recent Facebook Painting Challenge

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During my hiatus on the blog, I posted from time to time on Facebook, so I’m going to update my postings here to include that material ‘for the record’. A painting buddy challenged me to post seven paintings in seven days. Here’s what I offered for Day 1:

Challenge accepted. I’ll start with one that’s different from my usual style ~ some abstracted shells done in a class at the Yellow Barn last year.

Shells Abstracted. Oil on Arches Huile Paper. 15 x 11.25.

Getting Back in Touch!

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I’ve been busy on other things for quite awhile (largely grantwriting for the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, MS), but want to catch you up on my art doings, such as they’ve been since my last post.

Here’s a fun iPad/ArtRage portrait I did of grandson Ben sitting on a big boulder. I loved the pose and colors. Palm trees are also a favorite of mine, but they’re a particular challenge.  And foreshortened legs and feet?  Another opportunity for close observation ~~ and a little fun exaggeration.

On a Rock. Original iPad Painting. 5:7 aspect ratio.

Paintings 24 & 25. Mock ‘Frescoes’ of Gouache Painted into Damp Plaster

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I’m currently taking a class on mixed media and was intrigued when teacher Susan Hostetler mentioned “mock frescoes”, made by painting gouache into still-damp spackle or joint compound slathered onto cardboard or other heavy substrate.  I decided to try it.  My first attempt was a simplistic sugar bowl sitting on our kitchen table.  My quick contour was misshapen, so I touched it up with some water-soluble pencils, moistening the marks to blend them into the gouache.

I then plopped down a seashell (interesting shape though dull colors) and tried again.  I was happier with that one, though disappointed when a little flake popped out sometime later.  Maybe a fixative would deter this type of defect — will have to research it. . . .