Another friday afternoon.

In process.

This isn't just another Friday afternoon. I work on my new website but naturally chickened out when it came to publishing it. I wish I could call a computer fairy to do it all for me. But I did get something done.

I also forged ahead and started a new board, two actually, which you can see here. When I was in Seattle, the artists in the  galleries produced the same painting over and over again with minor variations. Good or ill, it's the way the industry is these days. On the positive side, one could say that one idea represented in 20 canvases shows that it's a good one. On the negative side, I'd start banging my head on a wall if I had to do it. Maybe I can't, as I've tried to reproduce the master piece I completed just before I left for Colorado.

Fortunately, a friend is coming down to the studio and I'm going to have a little time to blow off some steam. Happy weekend everyone, I won't be in the gallery tomorrow as I have to pick my son up from camp.

Lost my ability to paint some where in Colorado.

Sensory Pillow, mixed media on board, 18"x24"

I have spent this week in the studio wrestling with two paintings and my new web site. I have two weeks before my old web site expires to make a new one. There's a blog on the web site so in two weeks look for a link to the fabulous new site where I'll continue to blog and let blogspot go.

This painting was a lesson in humility. I'm not sure why not but the materials weren't behaving as they should, I couldn't create any interesting shapes and I was feeling pretty frustrated. Of course, everything finally came together when I had the balls to eliminate the extraneous marks that weren't doing anyone any good. I swear, every time I used that chocolatey brown I could smell good Belgium chocolate. Man, I miss chocolate. It's probably a good thing that I can't eat any because I had no other avenue to deal with the feelings of failure but to keep at the painting until I could paint my way out of the corner I was hiding in.

Just a quick post.

I got back from Boulder, Colorado just last night. I couldn't wait to get back in the studio and to get back to making art. Once in the studio, however, boy did I fiddle around. It's like a pet that has to turn around a few times before they can lay down. I did this painting using water color sticks. They don't glide like the waxier crayons do but they are thicker and full of pigment.

I am doing horses because copying photos of people does not interest me but horses are enough removed from reality for me not to get stuck and worry about whether I'm getting it right or not. It's easier to de-personalize the shapes.

Vacation time.

I'm on vacation in Boulder, Colorado, where I was born and grew up. We drove out through Utah and some other states which I cannot remember. It was very hot. We did stay in Glenwood Springs and swam in the coolish pool. The Colorado River was eleven feet higher than normal. It took out parts of the bike path. It's taken me a few days to regain my feet but I did some art as you can see, hopefully on the left.

This is how green it is in Colorado. We moved to Bellingham, WA because I was tired of the drought here. The past couple of years it's been looking like the Colorado that I grew up in, instead of the desert it was a few years ago. Here, with the high altitude sunlight, you can see all the way to the horizon.

This painting sings to me.

It's funny how the one remove of a photo of my painting start allows me to evaluate it more objectively. I was so enamored of the marks and shapes that I was making that I was down in the painting, swimming around in it.

With the photo, I can see that the bottom right dark shape needs to go away. The composition is too round and dizzy making. I've finished the other painting but you'll just have to come see it at Art Walk. I won't be there, I'll be in Colorado but it'll be nice to see the paintings without the artist hovering anxiously over your shoulder.