Blue Hills

Small acrylic on paper, soon to be listed on Etsy. Looking south, Lake Ontario is far in the distance.

Diagrams

I'm not sure why I feel compelled to save these little diagrams, but yesterday I took some time to cut and paste a drawer full into this book. Maybe I think they should be saved because each little drawing represents a very concentrated moment.....first a motif gets recognized....then a decision is made to stop everything to record it....then the diagram is made on paper I carry in my breast pocket, taking maybe 30 seconds or a minute. I make these diagrams every day. Many are turned into paintings, and I always feel a tinge of regret if I don't have time to make the paintings. If a day goes by without the painting being made, the drawing won't be remembered and used.

Kim Frohsin

Lemon Slices: Black Stripe, 9 1/4 " x 14 1/8", acrylic, ink, gouache, paper, by Kim Frohsin

The artists I am constantly drawn to, like Kim Frohsin, are able to do a great deal with what are really ordinary things in the world. If you visit Kim's site you will see a series of wonderful compositions on lemons, paper airplanes, studio models, human heads, horses, dogs, slices of wonder bread, fortune cookies, and other things. She has highly advanced observational drawing skills born of long practice, an ability to balance shapes in an always beautiful way, and deep understanding of colour theory....her colours always sing, creating both surprise and a sense of visual rightness fitting with the observed world. She looks very closely....the light always seems right. Her forms have weight but are not modelled; rather the whole work is built primarily of colour shapes that lock together wonderfully. There is complete ease with materials and again, you can be sure this comes from years of practice. I appreciate the small scale...it seems to let ideas flow even more easily. One sees both the reality of the objects she depicts, and her rich expressiveness of line and colour, welded perfectly together. This is a beautiful simplicityy born of much study.

So what is new, important, or appealing about this? Through this steady encounter with the world right at our fingertips, everything seems continually reborn. Nothing is set in stone....there is still so much to find. I always enjoy seeing what Kim Frohsin produces.

Home Field

9" x 7" acrylic on gessoed heavy artist's paper. After doing the little magnet images, this felt large! Home field from the county road.

Wealth

I am wealthy in fridge magnets.....and cats....the cats just keep showing up here.

The magnets are all listed on Etsy. I expect the collection to keep growing (magnets...not cats!).

Prime

Today I am very rich in little panels. Tomorrow I might show you what a fridge door full of painted ones looks like.

I took a break (sort of) from making these today, and made a larger painting instead. But I still couldn't resist making 2 small ones after the bigger painting was done.

Totally SHAMELESS Artist

I missed the class at art school when we were told that great artists aren't supposed to do cheapazoid things like putting your art on fridge magnets. These are little paintings that have in fact been turned into fridge magnets....so shoot me!

I won't be making a million of them...but maybe 100?....200? My theory is that fridge owners don't have nearly enough fridge magnets.

A Few More....Tiny Paintings

Very Small Paintings

From a recent series. I like these odd tiny things...they are all 2.75 inches square, acrylic on masonite panel. I like making and priming the panels....it's pleasant precision work. These are a few examples from the many made so far. Most are landscapes with some portraits and still-life thrown in as well.