Scraping Back The Line

You can scrape back the painted line between figure & landscape. The forms may be simultaneously blurred & strengthened by pulling color through color.

When you want to leave behind composition as a problem to be solved, it helps to think of color, form & surface as elements of centrality.

Pynchon was writing about a specific era, but he could have been describing a landscape or a figure as "...this little parenthesis of light."

Ideas like these get in the way of painting & are useful in that way.

"D's Back" - mixed media on paper, 8 1/2" X 5 1/2"

"Fields & Hills" - oil on canvas, 18" X 18

"Backyard Table" - oil on canvas,  14" X 11"

"Lagoon-Figure Study" - mixed media on paper, 12" X 9"

"Painted Fields" - oil on canvas, 12" X 12"

"Hillside Road" - oil on canvas , 8" X 8"

"Arranging Her Hair" - mixed media on paper, 12" X 9"

"Woman With A Cup"- mixed media on paper, 8 1/2" X 5 1/2"

"Farming Lavender"- oil on canvas, 12" X 16"

"Head Twist" - mixed media on paper, 8 1/2" X 5 1/2"

"Garden Right" - acrylic on paper, 12" X 9"

"Footstool" - mixed media on paper, 8 1/2" X 5 1/2"

"Blue Hills" - oil on wood, 12" X 12"

"Leaning Back"- acrylic on paper, 12" X 9"

"Listening"- mixed media on paper, 12" X 9"

"Beach Walkway"-oil on canvas, 18" X 18"

"Lagoon Figure"-oil on canvas, 20" X 16"

"Left Thought"-mixed media on paper,  12" X 9"

Beach Sketchbook

Working in a sketchbook is a continuing practice for me. The majority of the drawings presented here were done in minutes, with little or no revision. All of them were done on the spot. Structuring the two mixed-media landscapes did take more time & effort; even so, the intent was the same. Whether I was drawing linear figures or shadows on hills, the aim was to shape the form from the motion.

"Beach Player"- colored pencil on paper, 8 1/2" X 5 1/2"

"Call From The Beach"- colored pencil on paper, 8 1/2" X 5 1/2"

"Point Loma"- mixed media on paper, 5 1/2" X 8 1/2"

"Point Loma"- mixed media on paper, 5 1/2" X 8 1/2"

"Family"- colored pencil on paper, 8 1/2" X 5 1/2"

"Boy With A Hat"-mixed media on paper, 8 1/2" X 5 1/2"

"Child In Blue"-colored pencil on paper, 8 1/2" X  5 1/2"

From May-June

You can paint in parallel with your life or in spite of it. Happy or lost, every day you pick up the brush. The results vary--as you can see here--& spring turns into summer.

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"Figure & Umbrella"-oil on canvas, 14" X 12"

"Sprawl"- mixed media on paper, 12" X 9"

"After The Accident"-oil on canvas, 11" X 14"

"Spring Pose"-mixed media on paper, 12" X 9"

"Red Slacks"-oil on wood,  12" X 12"

"Figure In A White Blouse"-mixed media on paper, 12" X 9"

"East From Scaroni Road"-oil on canvas, 18" X 18"

Interrupting A Line

In painting & physics, there's no pure recording. Like it or not, we're in everything we do. This holds true for landscape painting just as much as for geometric abstraction. Whether you're painting skin or sky, whatever you do to interrupt a line only serves to continues it.

"Still"-mixed media on paper, 12" X 9"

"Back-Cross"-acrylic on paper,  18' X 13"

"Extended Pose"-acrylic on paper, 18" X 12"

"Warm-Weather Pose"-mixed media on paper, 12" X 9"

"Where She Travels"- acrylic on canvas, 18" X 14"

"Folded Hands"-acrylic on paper, 15" X 13"

"Back-Twist"-mixed media on paper, 10" X 7"

"Figure In A Curved Chair"-acrylic on paper, 15" X 13"

   

"Left In Thought"-acrylic on paper, 20" X 15"

"Coast Road South (Blue)"-acrylic on canvas, 12" X 12"

Surface

I finally figured out that the surface is where the depth is. In spite of the variety of approaches, the concern with surface quality threads through all these images.

"Long Scarf"-mixed media on paper, 11" x 9"

"Garden Skirt"-acrylic on wood, 12" x 9"

"Mark Painting"-mixed media on paper, 10" x 7"

"Garden Table 5"-acrylic on wood, 12" x 9"

"Scarf & Headband"-colored pencil on paper,  8 1/2" x 5 1/2"

"Red Scarf"-acrylic on wood, 12" x 9 1/2"

"Figure In A Chair"-mixed media on paper, 12" x 9"

"Call & Gaze"--acrylic on wood,  12" x 12"

"Profile Figure"-mixed media on paper, 9" x 8"

"Cost Road South"-acrylic on wood, 12" x 12'

"Lagoon Curve"--acrylic on paper, 9" x 12"

Study for "Figure & Agave 5"-mixed media on paper,  12" x 9"

"Sleeveless"-acrylic on wood 12" x 9"

Visible Thoughts

The private language we speak to ourselves is also written in form. The fields fan out to the water and express themselves. The back of a figure says something that can't be understood head-on. A man struggles to walk. A woman sprawled across a table dreams a landscape. On a larger canvas, visible thoughts find a pathway across a wide forehead. They let the body and the garden it occupies become something like a stained glass window.  

"Coast Road (West View)"- acrylic on paper, 9 1/2" x 13"

"Woman With A Halo"- acrylic on wood, 10" x 10"

"Man With A Cane"- colored pencil on paper, 8 1/2" x 5"

study for "In The Garden" series-mixed media on paper, 12" x 9"

"Figure & Agave 3"-oil on canvas, 60" x 48"

Finished/Unfinished

When is it finished? A question that comes up often these days as I try to turn drawings & studies into full-scale oil paintings. The incomplete nature of an image can show through as visible under-painting, unedited marks, a full compliment of mistakes. To the viewer, this might appear to be a sign of laziness, or (if there's still a positive connection to the piece) an alternate pathway to reconstruct form.

You can stand behind your work, or you can stand just a little to the side of it. I think of all the selections presented here as being both finished & unfinished in some way.   

"Figure & Agave Study"-acrylic on paper, 13" X 9 1/2"

"Laguna Road 2"-acrylic on wood, 8" X 8"

"In Thought"- mixed media on paper, 10" X 7"

"Laguna Road"-acrylic on paper, 13" X 9 1/2"

"Leaning Figure"-acrylic on paper,  13" X 9 1/2"

"Figure With A Headband"-mixed media on paper, 12" X 9"