In Like a Lamb-Out Like a Lamb

The end of March was a scramble to get a second painting ready for the Spring Show and this is what I ended up with. I've spent some time recently interpreting beach sculpture-related imagery into paintings. The end result I'm not entirely sure of at this point. The piece I submitted to Harrisburg was significantly more interesting, but this has a few things going for it. I like the colors and repetitive circle motif, but what I'm not sold on is the irregular stones on the right side of the painting. I'll have to give it some time to work itself out. What I like about the feel of these last two paintings is that they have a kind of Japanese garden-zen-wabi sabi-Lake Erie feel that can be somewhat meditative for me, in the same way that looking at Jackson Pollock's or Mark Rothko's can be. Or for that matter doing the beachworks. This is the effect that I wanted to get and at least in some ways it works for me. I've been painting the frames gold on black and the gold band around the frame does not connect, but is rather open at the corners. This is to lend an air that the painting is not entirely contained by the frame, but rather extends beyone the defined space, escapes as it were. Just some thoughts... A couple of sketches on the beach that I altered after drunken revelers damaged the original version by setting a fire on it. It is that time of the year when pyromanic, beer-swilling, littering morons migrate to the neighborhood beach. Storms keep washing away the wrong things.