Four New Abstracts

It's been a tough season for finding the time to paint. My big project of late has been getting our house ready to put on the market. The kids have flown the coop for the most part and it's time downsize. A tremendous amount of work. Having said that, I have found the time to get a few paintings in. Here are four from this tumultuous period of time.

Excelsior - Acrylic on Canvas - 30"H ×39"W - More info

Morning Glory - 39"H × 30"W - More info

Lexicon - 25.5"H × 34"W - More info

Fractal - 35"H × 36"W - More info

Word Drawings - July-October - 2014

I continue to work on word drawings as the mood strikes me. I have done quite a few of these and lately I have had to be careful not to repeat myself both in the word content and how these drawings are constructed. I have been finding my mind going down familiar avenues and have to work to break free of that. Here's the latest batch.

Obnoxious Chemicals  8-1-14

Big Data  9-16-14

Night Shivers  9-20-14

Bullet Adverse  9-1914

Stinky Cheese  10-3-14

In No Uncertain Terms  10-6-14

Hen House   9-16-14

Sketches to Watercolor III

Here are some watercolors from late spring and early summer that I fit in around the edges. Also the sketchbook drawings from which they emerged.

Tightrope

Anatomy

Obstacle

Bird Trainer

Common Ground

Word Drawings - June and July - 2014

I've continued this series, fitting a word drawing in here and there in my morning drawing sessions. I've almost completed an entire book of these drawing. As you may recall, this series was a reaction to the disappointment of purchasing several of these books with inferior paper. Whole story here. One down, two to go! Anyway, here is the latest installment.

Season of the Witch - 6-23-14

Stargazer - 6-25-14

World Cup - 2014

Cause and Defect - 7-21-14

Squall Line - 7-22-14

Futile Crescent - 7-24-14

Yarn Theory - 7-25-14

Derring Do - 7-28-14

What Was I Thinking?

Here's a new painting, a last bit of canvas on the roll painting, whose dimensions were determined by happenstance. As I got into this painting, it was reminding me of old camp blankets that I had seen as a kid. Maybe not design-wise, but the color combination stirred something in the nether regions of my mind. It recalled the scent of mosquito repellent and burnt marshmallows on a stick. So I thought I would google those blankets to see if I could find one similar to the one that I remembered. No such luck. I'm hoping that somewhere out there is a blanket that jives with my remembrance. A better look and more info here.

Blanket - Acrylic on Canvas - 18"H × 66"W

Close but no cigar.

I started this painting during my stay at the Vermont Studio Center (click here for that story). Here's what it looked like at the start.

Two Diptychs

I have been a bit lax when it comes to ordering art supplies. In fact, I recently ran out of canvas. In an effort to continue to paint, I decided to look through my paintings, pick out the one I liked least, cut it up and paint several smaller canvases. Because they were smaller, I was able to put up 2 on my wall at a time. The idea of creating diptychs was a natural progression,

Aftermath - Acrylic on Canvas - Each panel 12.5"H × 19"W

 Owl's Head - Acrylic on Canvas - Each panel 12.5 "H × 19"W

And here's the original painting formerly known as Fiesta. It was an earlier effort and in my estimation, not quite up to snuff. It's interesting to sees that some of the original marks are evident on the finished diptychs!

Word Drawings - late May - early June - 2014

I took a little respite from word drawings in March, but lately I've had the notion to continue. These drawing develop very organically. They start with a word or phrase and the ensuing design and subsequent verbiage develop from there. I've long been intrigued with Adolph Gottlieb's pictographs and the fact that each mark he made on the canvas was a reaction to the last mark. Even though these drawing are very different, I try to operate in that spirit. So here's the latest batch, ink blobs and all.

Nervous Laughter

Guided Missletoe

Monty Pylon

Hogwash

Age of Unreason

Sneeches on the Beaches