CANADIA BURNS STILL

My beach project miraculously survived the winter largely intact. So I've gone down maybe a half dozen times to continue the exercises of Sisyphus. This is where it stands as of June's end. While working the sun emerged out from behind a cloud bank complete with the rays reaching down to the horizon. Moments like that are an extra little bit of magic in a magical place.

 

Seriously

 

When not working on figure painting, I torture myself with the much more labor intensive works that I refer to as being architectonic...deconstructed and then reconstructed architectural forms, originally, then adapted to natural forms, starting with fish. So here are a couple of recent ones. 

The first one originated with a trip to hike in Colorado over the Spring break. While traipsing around I kept coming across old mining equipment and train/locomotives and such. So the mechanical piece below is a result...the second such experiment..."The Works"

The next two pieces are derived from some dead fish photos that I've taken over the years and have appeared in numerous paintings. There is a mechanical quality to fish that works well with the obvious organic qualities. A nice combination. So it goes.

This piece was based off of photos of lobsters, horseshoe crabs, which are insanely interesting as forms, and blue crabs. Just playing.

Bodies of Music

So, within the process of becoming a decent figure painter in watercolor, I started to play around with a thematic series involving musical instruments...Guitar, violin, sound bowls for starters. The forms are complementary to the human figure, so I just played with that idea for a while and this is what I've come up with so far. We'll see what comes next.

 

A Long Hard Pull

The school year is almost over. It was a struggle this year. So many problems. The mental health issues of students were like a thick fog over everything. Hopefully some of them get out from under it before too long. 

Finished this commissioned piece based on images from the south of France. Still enjoying the challenge of these types of works. Went out to Colorado over break and did some hiking...mostly knee deep in snow. Not the best conditions, but I really needed to get away. Saw a bunch of old mining equipment and some of locomotive/train cars and did this piece as well. 

Still working on the figure project. Slowly coming together.

So, the end is in sight and hopefully there are greener fields ahead.

 
 

Moving On

A couple of paintings for the new year. It is traditional to begin the year with a painting of dead fish in many cultures...or it should be. To honor that ancient, venerable tradition, I offer this painting, but with a twist. It also includes butterflies, which in many cultures symbolizes unrealized potential...or it should.

After a brief summer visit to Ireland, I put together this painting of Dublin. I am currently working on one of France and lots of figure painting. I will post some of them at a later date.

  

This has nothing to do with art, but how can so many stupid people get elected to national office? Have Republicans just given up on their party? From Trump on down, you couldn't make this kind of crazy shit up.

 

In the End

The year is coming to an end so I thought I would get in one last post relating to the projects I am working on. The first two images are from a series of paintings of a dancer in motion. Using. drapery and filming movement and working from stills, the ultimate end result will be to put together a multiple figure composition. I have a new appreciation of any artist who constructed multiple figure paintings. The challenges are quite difficult. Slowly getting there.

I've also done a number of paintings using controlled direct raking lighting. Have been getting some nice dramatic results.

 I am also continuing to work with the fragmentation technique that I was using for architectural subjects and using it on organic/natural subjects. A landscape version, as it were. Very labor intensive, but I am enjoying the results. 

So that is how I'm spending my time in the post-soccer era. I feel like I am making progress, but you can't always say for sure until there is a bit more water under the bridge.

The Return

COVID sort of shut down the gallery scene for two years, but it appears to be back up and running again and I had the good fortune of landing a small show at the Kada Gallery...16 pieces, mostly new works from this latest iteration of a techniques I've been developing. Mine are the ones in color. Top two photos are of the gallery.

Just finished these two pieces after the show. The top one is the lagoons at Presque Isle and the bottom one, a small piece of Dublin. Staying busy with the figure as well.