Only Only ( Finally)

"Only Only"
25" x 25" oil on canvas

I know, it looks a lot like the other ones. This is the final painting though and is sort of a "best of" version of the others... a car from this painting, a window from that, etc. These are exceedingly hard to photograph, this is fairly accurate though... I spent some time in Photoshop making it look like the painting. The next painting will not be a night scene... I promise.

Maybe Next Time

Broken Pots
2009 oil on canvas 10" x 20"

I am re-visiting a subject I haven't painted in 29 years. When I started at MassArt in 1980 I thought I was going to be a graphic designer, but I quickly got bit by the painting bug. My first series of paintings were of broken terracotta flower pots my mother had lying around. This is the subject where I learned the basics of oil paint. Although those paintings are definitely student work, I can look at them now (still hanging on my mother's wall) and also feel the excitement I felt at having made them, and the possibility of the next paintings being better. Little did I know then that the better paintings are always the next ones.

Only Evening

"Only Evening"
pastel and acrylic on matboard
25" x 25"

Yes, another view of the intersection, although this time it's evening and the world is still barely lit by the sky. Also, this is a pastel on dark blue matboard. I don't make a lot of pastels, although I have a complete set of expensive french pastels I salvaged from a trashed display case several years ago. The retail display had an actual piece of each pastel hot glued into a plastic covered recessed well under each color's bin. The art supply store I worked in was throwing it away... I took it home and spent an hour or so removing each piece of pastel. Well worth the effort as I now have one of every color. I've messed around with them over the years, but never produced anything I really liked... also the feel of the pastel, the dryness, the way each color breaks so easily never really appealed to me. l aways came covered in dust. That said, I had a good time making this one.

(update for those who were here before: this is a new photo, the previous one was not accurate. )

OK, OK I said I was done before... really this time...

Only Raining (Again)

oil on canvas 25" x 25"

Same Old Haircut

Same Old Haircut oil on canvas 4 3/4" x 6 1/4"

I've been told this one looks more like me. There's quite a lot of paint on this little canvas. I was looking at Wayne Thiebaud recently, specifically his use of white for backgrounds and the thickness of his paint. What a great painter!

Two Little Paintings

East Main Street, 01301- 3:00 to 4:00 pm November 7, 2009
10" x 10" oil on 8 ply ragboard

This was a fun little painting to make. Again, this was done from the top floor, north-east corner window of the newly christened Arts Block in Greenfield, MA. This is that really fleeting time of day when the sun is low in the sky, raking across the landscape and intensifying all the colors. The window of opportunity to paint this is very short, as the shadows are moving faster than mid-day and have a very profound effect on the image. Consequently, even with the way I paint, this is heavier and thicker than usual. Color, value and mark-making decisions are made very quickly and corrected faster and usually right into paint already applied, as opposed to removing paint with a pallet knife or rag... Detail is sacrificed to the gods of color.

Multi-tasking Self Portrait
4 3/4" x 6 1/4" oil on canvas on gatorboard

I was working in the shop all day Friday and at about 4pm I had enough and went upstairs to the studio. I have several small panel pieces that I had cut off of a larger one used for the Coffee at Night painting, and decided to do a self portrait. Not long into it, the phone rang and and I had some business to do, but kept right on painting. Later on the phone rang again and scared the life out of me.

Only Raining... again

Only Raining 25" x 25" oil on canvas

Well, I wasn't happy with the painting and went back into it.... hard. You'll also notice that I did'nt crop it like I was going to.