July 24 Sky

....just settling in to make today's painting...which will be a simplified night view of a Maple...made from a quick diagram while walking last night.

Here's a small impression of a particular character of sky. There are many of these that I've been meaning to make....so many ways the sky takes on its particular appearance. This may be a start of a sub series.

July 26th

The road that's walked almost every day.

Sky Painting

As usual, the paintings have continued at about the rate of 1 per day this summer. Here, a little sky painting done from a very brief line sketch and memory....experimenting with some shadowbox framing.

June Valley

The view west from the hill I painted the other day.....I was drawn to the long, low horizon with the little white house peeking out...the certain, healthy greens of June....so optimistic. The sky gave me trouble at different stages. I can't tell now, but I may have stayed too long at the party on this one. The grey in the sky was kept, then totally removed...but it was necessary so I put it back. I use Payne's grey a lot but Payne's did not work in this situation....it needed to be blued in a certain way. By the time I figured out the colour so much time had passed.

Garden Hill

This is a special hill that has been painted many times, in all seasons and all weather conditions. On the day this was made, I made a trip just to this site with the intent of painting this subject. That's not usual for me....usually I have no idea what will happen or what I'm looking for.

My preference is that the process maintain a very easy flow and a good sense of mystery. I don't really want to know too much about what will happen....when I DO end up knowing too much, making the painting can turn out oddly oppressive and less alive. I like pleasing surprises at every stage. Here, the last stroke to the painting was the horizontal bit of white on the top of a cloud mid right sky....it lent solidity to the whole painting.

At a certain point, the painting is about mechanics....how much of this to how much of that? It turns out I am really a painter of blobs....I like making a paint blob and moving it around....whatever else the painting is, it's a pleasing arrangement of blobs.

June 26th

I was walking by the field adjacent to me....a place I don't often walk. It was evening and there was much mist in the air, and the foreground field was a yellow that didn't seem appropriate for this time of year....I don't know what the crop is. Just the relationship of the yellow, grey of the sky and dark of the trees (I wrote black on the diagram) created a sensation. I diagrammed it quickly. It was all blended more than this...intermingling with lots of thick air.

It helps to make these little diagrams. I never know how I will work....perhaps from a photo, perhaps from a more complete and complex sketch, or maybe from a chicken scratch like this....but only if the memory is strong enough to hold the image over a few hours or a night.

Larger Landscape Paintings

I was pleased to do these 2 larger paintings (22" x 30")....I don't always have that much time....more are likely coming this summer. As well, I plan on doing more oil paintings on panel this summer.

Another idea I've been playing with for a long while is buying an Epson printer and making 8" x 10" prints with archival inks and paper, giving people a chance to get the images even more cheaply. I still have to do some thinking about this but I like the idea....

First Green

I managed to paint some larger pictures at school over the last while. I used them as demonstration pieces for students....they seem to quieten down and perhaps pay more attention when they see me engrossed in a painting problem of my own. I am still keeping them there on display for the kids, but I'll bring them home soon.

Not surprisingly, my methods don't really change from the larger (22" x 30") pieces to the smaller pieces. Everything I do remains a one-sitting deal.....it might be an hour or it might be 3 hours work, but it has to get done in one sitting and the sense of flow needs to be felt in the process and evident in the looking.

It used to be this way when I was making larger 4 x 6 foot canvases as well, except then I was painting at night.....and it would take from about 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. to finish the thing.

Back Acres, Mid April

6.5" x 7.25" acrylic on gessoed paper. A very pleasant spring day.

The appeal of painting what is there is that you can never really know in advance what particular combination of colours and shapes can unlock a strong mood or sense of rightness about a place. Subtle shifts make all the difference. I've been paying much attention to these spring yellows of the fields in the last number of days....there is a whole range of yellow that can be used, each different enough to vastly change the overall result.

But while all this activity may go on into the future, and any particular picture may have turned out any number of ways, there is only one piece or maybe two, from each day, chronicling my particular time and place. 1000s of things were possible, but this was April 11/2010, 2:50 p.m.

Art on the Move

Many Thanks to Ann Yu for sending photos of my little fridge magnets and small paintings in her Los Angeles home. I love seeing how people present the work and how they place it in their environment....it makes the whole process seems more alive and meaningful. I get a real thrill out of such photos!

Lost Dog Hill...Spring

I'm standing on the summit of a hill in the field next door. Just at the point in spring when some new green is ready to emerge...

Hurt, Johnny Cash

Click on the title, for a moving rendition.

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