Tango

This dog portrait is so much larger than what I am used to; it feels funny painting on this scale. (Not that big- 18 x24 maybe? but big for me) I am using such dirty, scrappy paint for this. I think I will do this dog a favor and scrape my palette clean, give her some fresh paints.

Edinburgh

Just when I thought it was safe to go back into the studio. New canvas, new size, same old oils (though I am trying a  non-flammable, low odor paint thinner to replace my beloved but toxic, stinky and highly flammable  turpentine.)

I can't quite reconcile the visual memory of this place-  the roads, the quilted landscape -with painting it. 

Though I don't really like it,  I am feeling a little Milton Avery-ish with this first wash. Each painting seems to be a little art history tour for me, lately.  Forget the seven faces of eve, I am the 200 chapters of Jansens.

Tango

Goodbye to Edinburgh (for good.) Hello to Tango (for maybe). Oil on canvas and much bigger than my usual dog portrait. Early, early stages (can you see Edinburgh peeking through?)

Just kids

Just finished Patti Smith's "Just Kids". Just in time for one of my own kid's graduation. This time / space thing has me stumped.

Patti certainly had a lot of cosmic convergences in the 70s. After reading the book I thought Patti lived in somebody's new york...but not mine.

natura morta

Ever since I pulled out this vase I have been thinking about Morandi. (And those handmaiden sisters of his.) So I had to take a shot, even if it was only a 2 minute quickie. Thank god my palette is always full of half dried paint- a little turp and you're good to go.

I don't think I will be going back to natura morta anytime soon. No patience, no inclination, no handmaiden sisters making sure the world turns while I sit in my studio and stare. But even though I can't do it, I do love the muted stillness of Morandi.

 Giorgio Morandi, Natura Morta (Still Life), 1964, Museo Morandi

9

Habit of seeing

 

 It has probably been 20 years since I looked at something and tried to draw it. I think I have lost the habit of seeing a thing in space. I did enjoy the feeling of charcoal against rag paper, though.

Conflict and Tinkering

                                          Richard Diebenkorn, Cityscape, 1963, SFMOMA

"The strength, and the curiosity, of his work also involves the contradiction inherent in the idea that indecision, conflict and tinkering could become the essence of such sensuous and seductive painting."

Thinking about David Park leads me right back to Diebenkorn. (The above quote is from Michael Kimmelman's NYT obit. It is a  wonderful, insightful art appraisal -cum-obit.)

Conflict and tinkering and art.