28 July 2010

two boys

three commission paintings recently completed of two lively boys.


jared - watercolor on Arches CP 300gsm, 10" x 14"

the active one. always smiling and running about. i've cropped out the bicycle he was riding.


caleb - watercolor on Arches CP 300gsm, 10" x 14"

the thoughtful one. this is a characteristic expression, so i was careful not to give it a melancholy turn.


two boys - watercolor on Arches CP 300gsm, 14" x 10"

the two in a very simple, colorful portrait. nothing fancy, but perhaps a good sense of their spirit.

also started a large (41" x 60") painting of water, based on photographs i took during my venice trip. it's a large project and fairly complex, so i'll be posting images of the work in stages, to explain how it's going.

sunny day. time for some studio time, then maybe a movie later with my sister, in town for a locum. jan is off in viriginia at a biologist's conference.

06 July 2010

unpacking

jan and i recently returned from a week in jackson, wyoming, where we had spectacular weather and lovely hiking. we went to the national museum of wildlife art, which is somewhat as dreary and hackneyed as it sounds, but they had an enchanting display of maurice sendak's drawings and paintings, and a superb collection of paintings by carl rungius, whom i had not known. much to learn in rungius about color in light.

i spent the afternoon today unpacking the studio. i turntabled a selection of favorite guitarists -- metheny, mclaughlin, van eps, beck -- and sorted through my collection of books, boxing up a few dozen as discards, including a hefty and very reverent hagiography on picasso.

i unpacked paints and supplies, cleaned dishware, gathered up cobwebs, and watched birds scratching for seed in the fresh mowed meadow grass.

i sorted through photos, selecting a few as next projects.

tomorrow i begin work on a very large water painting (a painting of water, nothing else), and a new portrait of my wife and leah, our massage therapist.

i have been in a way digesting and ruminating.