September

I Started this entry way back in August and this is the first time I have actually been able to take time to finish. Today is October 8th so it has been quite a while. It still is a problem for me to place images where I want them to go and wonder if there is a way to do that.

The painting of the porch is one I did probably about 15 years ago and recently pulled out from the back of the closet I store a lot of my paintings in. Since then, I have completely repainted the entire surface. The colors now are so much more vibrant. In the older version, for some unknown reason, I greyed the colors down so much that they didn't really look blue. I also fooled around a little more with the perspective, and it is one of the problems I had with this painting from the beginning. I have actually repainted the perspective a number of times, changing the lines of the stairs and the clap boards. I think it's right now. One instance where perservarence paid off. The landscape, I painted for the Downeast Sails Uptown show and it was one of those paintings that pretty much painted itself. We were supposed to paint something, that in our opinion, represented Downeast. Nothing further represents, to me, Downeast than tall pine trees against a blue sky. It is so typical of our coastline and I just love driving on Rte 9 to Eastport in the Summer and seeing the pines, the blueberry barrens and the blue sky.

Since most of my energy has been focused on the art festivals I do in summer, I have not been able to complete many paintings lately. These are some I have completed this summer and some I have been working on that are not done yet.

Moving into August

I'm sitting here waiting for my student to come, she is usually early, and I decided to make an entry. Most of my paintings are packed in the pick-up truck for the shows I do in summer. It's convenient not to have to pack and unpack everything each weekend, but it does tie up the truck for the duration. I haven't started any new paintings lately and am wondering if it's why I have an anxious knot in my gut. Being an artist is a mixed blessing. When I'm creating and in that special place, the world drops away and my focus is thoroughly on what I am doing; but when I'm in a place where I'm not creating, I become tense, with a yearning to be back at my easel. I have talked to others and it is apparently a universal problem that we face as artists. The above images are paintings I did from photos that I take. Sometimes I edit the composition quite a bit, but did not have to in these. You can see that the color and mood have changed dramatically, though.

July

Apparently, monthly seems to be what to expect from myself to make an entry. I've been travelling, doing shows and painting which seem to be what it as all about for me right now. I'm posting a couple of finished paintings. If anyone is reading this, I would love to hear from you. These are three of my newest paintings. The clothes line image went through a few changes before it got to this stage. I added another chair and repainted the entire surface a number of times before I was satisfied with it. The coastal scene presented some struggling before I got the water to do what I wanted, it could use a little more tweaking, but I think I'm calling this one done.

I like the new templates available and changed mine to awesome. One thing I have a problem with is getting the images to go where I want them to. If anyone reads this and knows how to do it, make a comment.

June

Already, it is June!! Here are a few paintings, some not posted before and some that I have now finished. The still life is now one of my favorites. It is so simple, just a few objects on a plain grey background. The background had to painted a number of times until I got it just the right color and value. I wanted it to stay neutral but still have some pizzaz to it so I used violet and gradually greyed it down with yellow. The objects really stand out against it. The next still life I do, I plan to have in front of a window with a landscape outside... I've seen it done by other artists and it always makes an impression on me.

I'm still here

It's been a long time coming, but at last, I am able to make an entry. It's funny because I think about updating my entries often, unfortunately, a person has to discipline oneself inorder to do it on a regular basis. I don't promise myself to be more faithful to writing or apologize either, to myself, for not making entries because that would turn it into something I don't want it to be. So here it is, my latest entry. I have been painting almost every day, weekends not withstanding. Weekends are family time.

My summer schedule is taking shape and I will end up doing 7 - 10 outdoor festivals in addition to the galleries I show in, so it will be a busy summer. Here are a few of the paintings I've been working on, none are done yet, but will be completed in the next couple of weeks.

Doing summer shows is a nice break for me, even though it's a lot of work, it is interesting to talk to people who come out to

see the work.

It's been awhile since my last entry, almost a month, so it is time to catch up on what has been happening these past few weeks. I have been working on a number of paintings and one in particular is of interest because it is the result of not being able to resolve another one I had been working on. If you remember, the still life with the blue check tablecloth was a painting I was quite obsessed with, I wanted to get the cloth right. The checks involved a lot of perspective and value changes inorder to get it to read correctly. Well after painting it, repainting it, and painting it again, making changes in color or folds in material, I came across a quote from a poet, at a meeting I was attending that stated, simply, during the process of writing a poem, the poet has to be just smart enough to know what the poem wants inorder to reach it's completion. This line of thinkings can also apply to painting, so after much stressing about that god forsaken cloth, it struck me that I wasn't listening to what the painting was telling me. The above painting is what resulted from the blue checkered still life that I suffered over for weeks, it went down on the canvas in a matter of hours, and even though there are a few details to work out, the painting seems to have almost painted itself.

A New Year

Well, my visit to California is drawing to a close and I will be flying back home tomorrow. A long tedious day is anticipated, but the trip is worth the inconveniences of travelling by air. I am very happy to be getting back to my studio and family on the East Coast but will miss my family on this side of the country. I haven't done any art work while here, and that is the way I planned it. Just wanted time to spend with my family and do some sightseeing. Now that I'm coming back, though I am very excited to be thinking about getting back to work. I think I've got some good reference material so some west coast art might be showing up on my blog.