I stopped talking and started doing.

folio for new book

I have been wanting to make an art book for a couple of years now but haven't quite dared to commit myself. Also, words don't flow quite as freely as images do for me but I want to use verbiage in my art, I'm not quite sure why. I think because I work on a few levels at once in my personal life, I want that to exist in my art as well. Images appeal to a deeper more common level than words do but we all use words everyday.


I had heard that gravitation was not a provable theory so I was doing research on it to understand whether that was true or not. I think I was mistaken about that but as a concept it is evocative of emotional states. Then you get into the idea of spacetime, which is fascinating. I can see space being curved but not so much time. Gravity is not a force that acts on objects but they follow the curve of spacetime. If a reader feels that I have misconstrued the subject, feel free to draw me a picture about it.

A painter's playground.

This method of uploading one's blog is new and fancy. I'm not sure what I think yet. I did two paintings today but I'm going to save the other, in case I have a dry spell this week. You never know.

I set out to work on a new book. I have some text ideas and visual ideas but it just wasn't coming today so I went with what would come. These are on flimsy paper so I almost ripped it but acrylic makes paper amazingly resilient.

I saw Tom Semple's paintings in the Firehouse Cafe and I thought I'd try a more muted palette, thinking that if there aren't such drastic value changes, I could still fool around with energetic shapes and strokes. Can't seem to restrain myself.

First the drought, now the flood.

I painted this from a half-done drawing last week, my first week open at the studio/gallery. My head was reeling from what I had just committed my self to and I just wanted to sit there and catch my breath. After a while, I felt compelled to put brush into paint and move it around, though I didn't feel capable of creating anything worth while. I started this and then finished today. Sometimes I do better when I tell myself that I'm just fiddling around. I don't know if this is great but it did turn out better than my recent efforts when I was trying to accomplish Great Art.

Taking the photo is like stepping back to view what you've just done. In this photo, his right hand looks a little silly. Maybe it's a little too big but it is closer to the viewer than is his face... don't know. I'm too close to tell.

Drawing

I have been doing a lot of drawing all week, attending the various daytime modeling sessions that are available to me in Bellingham. I realized last night, though that my self-imposed deadline for practicing my skills is almost up. It was in October that I resolved to concentrate on figure drawing in order to have a bank of skills from which to draw.

Now that I'm 'settled' in my new space, it's time to start seriously painting. I don't really feel settled, it's kind of public. Mostly I'm making excuses to myself. To the paints! Tomorrow will be soon enough!

New Gallery.

I have opened a gallery in the Bay Street Village building near the Blue Horse Gallery in Bellingham, Washington. This is my first week open. It's not as if I had a lot of things to do, move a few things in, get licenses and talk to new people but I'm wiped out. It's the talking that did me in I think.

No sales, but then I didn't really expect any. A few people took interest in my paintings, at least. That was encouraging. I think my market is in more urban areas so I'm looking at this venture is a warm up for when I move out into the big world. I did manage to do a little painting yesterday and to attend a couple of model sessions this week and that's keeping me from feeling as if I've completely gone off the rails.