Luscher Fields 11x14
The heat of August is behind us, and ahead awaits the endless rain and gray through which we will need to navigate for the next six months or so. It is a melancholy time of year because of this semi-dread, but it is not without beauty of light and color.
September River 16x20
This summer I have strived to make it outdoors with regularity, and that may be coming to a close, too. I will miss the camaraderie of painting friends and the challenge of finding a semblance of the color before me. It has not been about picture making, but about study, and though I can study all year round, there is nothing quite like standing there before raw Nature with nothing but a paintbox.
plein air 14x11
plein air 14x11
The above painting was done on the boat, anchored up close to Phantom Bluff, trying to stay in the narrow band of shade so that I could at least see what I was aiming for, but the perspective made it tough to make anything of it.
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 10x8
The above sketchbook study was made from an old black and white photo from shortly after college, a time when I was a bit disgruntled to have left the comforting womb of academia and been thrust into a world that didn't seem to give a damn about my needs and wants. Looking back, I wish I hadn't been so serious, so disillusioned and so contrary. It takes some of us a long time to learn that like reeds, we need to be able to bend with the wind. And yet all the advice we might offer from the benefit of age still falls on the deaf ears of the young. Life must work best that way.
sketch of an idea 8x10
