Swift

Swift
Watercolor, 4 x 6"
Matted and backed to 8 x 10"
$85
to purchase this painting, email me

I absolutely love the way the colors worked out in this piece.  That's about all I have to say except that I am already so tired of being cold and it isn't even February yet.  I should read more of my South African friends' postings.  I understand that they're sweltering down there. 

I'll put on some Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar music and do a Hula dance to warm up. In fact, I'll find something of the sort to share with you at My Great Day. 

Please visit my Cats in Need of Captions.  

Roll

Roll
Watercolor, 4 x 6"
Matted and backed to 8 x 10"
$85
to purchase this painting, email me

One of my favorite themes is looking straight out to sea. Although I have had the great fortune of spending countless hours doing so, the actual view in reality is becoming a distant memory.

My pen and ink cats in search of caption contest continues at the Studies and Sketches blog for the next week. Come on over, leave a caption, maybe win a little prize!

Returning

Returning
Watercolor, 4 x 6"
Matted and backed to 8 x 10"
$85
to purchase this painting, email me

This is called Returning because it is a recurring image reminiscent of Approaching Red. In fact, the first watercolor study for this Landscape into Art project that I made in my Moleskine notebook was for Approaching Red and I'm looking at that study right now, framed above where I'm writing. There have been variations since, like Canary Range. When I look at these, I feel that I am looking at a place I once lived though, as Lorenz Hart wrote, "who knows where or when?"

My silly cat contest continues over at Studies and Sketches for the next eight days.  Come leave a funny caption and you might win a little prize!

Edge of the World

Edge of the World
Watercolor, 4 x 6"
Matted and backed to 8 x 10"
$85
to purchase this painting, email me

At every moment, somewhere on earth, the sun appears again. Even in moments of extreme uncertainty, I find this a comforting thought.

Today, I begin a series of 9 cat posts at my drawing blog. Each cat is looking for a caption. I might feel really stupid if no one comments so, hopefully, someone will!

Clear Heart

Clear Heart
Watercolor, 4 x 6"
Matted and backed to 8 x 10"
SOLD

As I worked through this painting, I kept avoiding the space that perfectly formed a little heart and finally decided to just leave it open, near the center. An open heart... what better center could there be?

Golden Fold

Golden Fold
Watercolor, 4 x 6"
Matted and backed to 11 x 14"
$85
to purchase this painting, email me

When I switch paper, there's usually a period of adjustment in which I work with simple shape and subtle color.  I tread lightly into new or forgotten territory.

PS As Casey mentioned in her comment, "Feels like a new day!" It IS a new day indeed! I could feel it when I woke and now, I see that this is as appropriate a painting as any to mark this new dawn of our country.

Glimpse of Avalon

Glimpse of Avalon
Watercolor, 8 x 8"
Matted and backed to 11 x 14"
$150
to purchase this painting, email me

I might be standing on the edge of the Isle of Man, just after the sun has set, catching sight of an apparition.

This is the last of my 8" squares for a while. In my next posts, I'll be moving to a smaller format on different paper.

Three Sisters Redux

Three Sisters Redux
Watercolor, 8 x 8"
Matted and backed to 11 x 14"
$150
to purchase this painting, email me

This is undoubtedly a companion piece to Three Sisters. Different season, viewpoint and paper, but the form is unmistakable.

Party Grove

Party Grove
Watercolor, 4" x 6"
$75
to purchase this painting, email me

This happy little fantasy was made last fall but looks as though it might have come out of the same palette plate as Party Dress, made just last week. A little more color cheer to brighten your days.

Party Dress

Party Dress
Watercolor, 7 x 5"
$100
to purchase this painting, email me

I thought at first that this was too spring like to post in January. Now I think that it's just the thing — a burst of color in the bleak mid-winter.

Daily posts of landscape sketches at Studies and Sketches

Visit My Great Day.

Ice Floe

Ice Floe
Watercolor, 6 x 6"
$75 (no mat)
to purchase this painting, email me

I love order, especially in presentation. I love coherent series of paintings that demonstrate orderly forethought and creation. That said, I am surrendering to the lack of coherence and order in my presentations on this blog from 12/24/08 through the end of January (I'm predicting here). This passage is a normal (and regular) part of the creative process and there is a lot going on behind the scenes.

Report from the studio....

I played around with some pastels and, as much as I love the medium, it is too, too messy for my personal liking (or requires noxious fixative chemicals that I don't want to use). I am luxuriating in taking time over four water soluble oils of various sizes. I'm sorting through art work never aired publicly, cleaning up generally and throwing out what I can. Also am giving in to hobbling around for a while. And rearranging the inner workings of my blog.

Keep an eye on my Studies and Sketches blog where I'm posting daily.

Also, I'm posting some forgotten articles on the history of Landscape painting at My Great Day.

More soon...

Promise

Promise
Watercolor, 12 x 9", no mat
$125
to purchase this painting, email me

Welcome to the New Year! Isn't this an exciting day? I love the first of January. It's a blank page, a clean sheet, a new leaf and everything seems possible.

I hope that you all enjoyed lovely holidays and that you had lots of time to relax. I always think that I'll finish all of my year end tasks by December 31st but you'd think I'd had enough experience by this time to remind myself that most of the turn around tasks are not finished till some time in January (usually, the end of that month!)

I'm not one for new resolutions on the first of the year (I make them regularly) but I've been thinking of how easily we fall into habits. My art work is going through some sort of change and I find that I've become a slave to my own conventions. I keep wanting to repeat myself but something new is trying to emerge. So, after quite a bit of trying to work through the changes with an alarming amount of waste, I've decided to give myself a painting break. I am in the process of really cleaning up the studio and packing the paints and tools that I use every day away into the storage room. I'll follow by putting away my paintings so that I can't see them. Then I'll be working on some larger pieces in different mediums and maybe some smaller pieces too. After a few days without painting, I can feel the energy building up and am jonesing to sit down at my regularly proscribed time, set out my water, pick up the brush and go.

But I'm surrendering to this self imposed rest period from painting which just happens to coincide with a physical rest period due to an ankle injury from a bad fall before Christmas. It is almost impossible for me to just lay around with my leg elevated but, after more than a week with no indication of healing, I will have to attempt the impossible! (Not to worry, as I am a veteran of ankle injuries, I know the rules and regulations pretty well.)

All that is to say that, while I'll be posting here at least bi-weekly this month, I'm posting daily at my Studies and Sketches blog. So come visit there this month as I post a review of a sketch book with intermittent work from the past 2 1/2 years.

Visit Studies and Sketches and listen to some good music waiting at My Great Day.