Dianne Mize: Bagatelles and Meanderings...

Transition

2010-07-16T10:33:00.003-04:00

This is my final post to this blog.

In its place, I have begun a new blog HERE. Join me in this new phase of my Journey. And thanks for your continued support here.

Dianne

A Poem

2010-05-22T09:08:00.003-04:00

This morning I wrote a little poem about the mother moth from Wednesday's painting.
Here it is, raw and unedited:

Lured towards light she fliters and soars, then lands

upon the bark that shields the sap for new spring foliage.

Replete with life, a new generation, she halts,

clutches bark with graceful pause while sap flows upward.

Her sojourn ending she rhythmically lays her eggs,

batches of tiny bubbles cradled within her body's curve
then dropping downward.

There her body lingers while she exhales her final breath.

Pale green leaves sprout from barren twigs attached to limbs

joined to the long, upward trunk of an old tree in our yard.

Roots reach outward just under the earth--roots that feed

sap to the nascent foliage, destined itself to fall to the ground

in autumn, long after the mother moth gave birth.

Have a restful Saturday.
Dianne

Motherhood

2010-05-19T10:19:00.000-04:00

Brian (who is helping me with some home renovations) and I discovered a huge moth attached to a front porch screen, apparently just after laying her eggs. I grabbed the camera and got dozens of photos of her. Good thing because a little later on, I found that she was dead.

This morning I finished this small watercolor of that moment:

"Motherhood"

8" x 11" Watercolor on Arches CP

Just before I had put the finishing touches on the painting, another kind of moth had taken perch on it. Here's what I found:

It is these wonders of nature, even those that have their destructive side, that keep me going.

Enjoy this day,

Dianne

This Spring

2010-05-17T10:56:00.000-04:00

"This Spring"

Oil on Canvas 8" x 10"

All spring, the light shows in our woods have been exceptional and numerous. To capture one of these, I sat up my portable easel at the kitchen window, out of which hangs the hummingbird feeder. As I was blocking in the woods, a male hummer appeared and instantly became the subject of this little painting.

If you know hummers, you know how quickly they move, one minute here and then next gone. I quickly blocked in a gesture drawing if him, got the basics of it before he took off. Thinking I'd need to nail him to photography in order to catch him into the painting, I set up the camera on a tripod, set it on movie mode and waited until he appeared again. During the next couple of hours, both he and his mate took turns slurping from the feeder, giving me several minutes of action.

I realized, though, that if I were astute enough, I should be able to capture him in a painting just by grabbing what I could each time he appeared. Meanwhile, the rains began, causing me to lose my light for several days. I WAS however able to paint the hummer on location rather than from a photo, this by just being ready when he appeared and grabbing any information I could when he'd come to eat.

The sun appeared for a few hours yesterday, enabling me to catch the light that started this whole thing to begin with. I'm still not sure if it's finished, but I'm declaring it so, at least for the moment.

Enjoy your day,

Dianne

River Mist Re-visited

2010-04-28T10:12:00.001-04:00

You've seen this before, but in an earlier version:

"River Mist" (Revised)

Watercolor on paper 13" x 18"
(Click on image for a larger, clearer veersion.)

On these spring mornings, I've been watching the light show from my back deck--light dancing within the tree foiliage, morphing every minute into something more spectacular than the moment before. Having soaked these in day after day, I became unhappy with my previous version of "River Mist" so went back to it this morning adding light. So here's where it is now. We'll see if it stays there or moves somewhere else.

This week has been for me one of reflection. Sunday Howard's Life Celebration was as close to perfect as any event could be with an ideal gathering of humans who love us, on a most excellent spring day, at a choice location and with a feast worthy of royalty. Unlike most memorial occasions, this one left us all with uplifting memories forever etched.

River Mist

2010-04-21T11:35:00.000-04:00

"River Mist"

Watercolor on paper 13" x 17.5"

We're having Howard's celebration of life on Sunday afternoon, so this week is a pensive one for me. Much of my thought has been focused on what it is about the Tallulah River that kept calling us back to it. Somehow I think that might be connected with the river's endurance over centuries--perhaps millions of years. Add to that its dichotomy--peaceful while turbulent, solid while evolving, certain while mysterious.

Fallen Tree

2010-04-15T10:35:00.002-04:00

"Fallen Tree" Oil on Board 5" x 7"

Again my subject comes from our Tallulah River. But this time it was that fallen tree that motivated the painting. What caught my eye was how it reached across the river, a bridge for critters looking for a path to the other side. And while working on the painting, I kept thinking that its roots will sprout new growth this spring.

What a journey since my last post!

I suppose I've not shown you what's been happening because I come from the "old school," not wanting to show a piece before it's finished--that is unless I'm purposely showing a work-in-progress. But now is not the time for demonstrations: I'm simply finding my way back into painting. So that's why this blog has been quiet for so many days. I've not been idle, but rather searching past discard after discard--gathering the forgotten, reaching for process, kindling focus--attempting to rediscover how to function as an artist.

I've thought about the zillions of times students have poured out their hearts to me because they had lost their way as artists. A long debilitating illness, a family crisis, career demands on their time--a myriad of other's real causes have entered my awareness and innocently (though attempting to be wise) I have offered my suggestions for finding a way back.

Innocence is a kind of ignorance that experience alone can inform. It's the difference between theory and reality: too many printed pages have given way to theory and opinion, but beyond being mere exercises of the brain, they're worthless without experience. No matter how intellectually stimulating, such expositions are nothing more than exalted innocence clothed in uninformed rhetoric.

I trail off (blogs are allowed to do that, no?). What I'm trying to say is that during these days I'm finding mere emptiness in my own past advice to others. Each experience is unique as is the person in possession of it. Nobody can know what that another person needs beyond love and support; indeed, it is the wise one that can give loving support neutral of advise.

Memories

2010-04-01T08:09:00.001-04:00

"Memories"

Watercolor on Paper 13" x 9.5"

No price yet

Days we spent on the Tallulah River were among our favorites. Most times our trips there were spontaneous, a spur of the moment decision on a morning--a quickly packed lunch, dogs, painting equipment and camera loaded in the van and off we'd go.

This section of the river, the south end of a U-shaped bend, always caught our attention. Scraggly during winter months, lacking color in autumn, rather blah during the summer and last luster in springtime, it is nevertheless a magical spot where waters wildly rushing through huge boulders just north have calmed down, now flowing in gentle quietness, the hush of a small brook.

What's In The Teaching?

2010-03-29T16:48:00.001-04:00

Yesterday morning it occurred to me to pay attention to a bit of my own teaching:. Without exception, whenever a student would ask how to get past an artistic block, I'd say "draw, draw anything and everything." It's not the results that matters, but what happens during the process.

Drawing can help me transcend stuff. By locking my eyes on whatever happens to be in sight and respond with the intention of discovering nothing more than shapes, lines and values, I can take an amazing journey. It requires being quick, keeping the mind clear of clutter, not allowing any thought to interfere. And once a drawing is on the page, it is important not to judge it, rather to accept whatever happens as unlocking the mental and emotional clutter, clearing a path for the next step.

And so that's what I did here:

It might take a dozen sessions like this to get me in a good place to paint with the ease again. That painting that was in the incubator went south, so what we might get to watch for a while is process.

Painting in the Incubator

2010-03-21T19:38:00.000-04:00

My road back into painting is taking a bit longer than I had hoped, but I am making progress and will regain my momentum. Currently I am almost midway into a half-sheet size watercolor painting, another one from our Tallulah River. Because fatigue is still a problem, my skills are a bit rusty and I remain too easily distracted, the painting is developing at a snail's pace.

But I am demanding patience of myself even though my intention is have something new to show you sooner rather than later. Meanwhile...

The Road Back

2010-03-12T08:39:00.000-05:00

"The Road Back"

Watercolor on Paper 12" x 9"

NFS

Getting back to painting is like returning home after a long absence. All the furniture is where I left it, ambiance is familiar, floors, ceiling, walls, windows and doors just where I left them, but there is a strangeness in the familiarity, a strangeness within me. I have come from a world of experiences, bringing them home with me, now about to make them an expression of all that "home" means.

Painting if anything can be a route without detour within which experiences get assimilated: images I respond to express my quiddity. I am more than when I left, more defined by all that has happened.

This little watercolor is the first expression of my road back. Over the years, Howard and I spent huge hunks of time on the Tallulah River. For me it became a metaphor of timelessness, of nature always having the last word, of my human frailty, of the consanguinity of our being. And so to go back to the river now is to go home.

Monday, March 8, 2010

2010-03-08T10:15:00.001-05:00

I have returned to my studio and am beginning to work again.

With Howard's death bringing this major transition in my life, I'm giving my blog a new title and new design rather than try to pick up where I left off. I have no idea how long this will take, but you will know when it's finally ready to go.

Meanwhile, thanks for hanging in there with me.

January 30, 2010

2010-01-30T22:08:00.000-05:00

Our struggle is over. Howard passed from this physical life Thursday morning after a long, hard fought battle. My heart is broken but I am at peace.

Now I need some time for healing before getting back to my painting and blogging, but that will happen. Meanwhile, thanks so much to all of you who have sent us messages of support. Our extended family here as been nothing short of amazing.

Christmas Eve, 2009

2009-12-24T09:08:00.002-05:00

Howard is struggling, though still very much with us. This Christmas Eve we're delighted to have our little tree lit and to be able to gaze through our woods to enjoy our neighbor's Christmas lights.

Blessings to you all.
Dianne

October Update

2009-10-19T12:34:00.004-04:00

In July my intentions were to write to my Compose blog when there was an occasional available moment, but there has been no time for that. Howard is a poet and before become so ill had just finished compiling a manuscript of recent poetry for publication. There was no energy nor time left to seek out publishers so we both decided to publish it as a website. That has been the project of my focus since early summer. And it's been worth it. Now Howard's poetry is available at howardghanson.com and we both are so proud of the project.

Already having lived six months longer than expected by the doctors and still in the care of hospice, Howard continues to inspire me with a human spirit totally unaware of how fragile a body it lives in. We continue to cherish life rather than grieve impending death, laughing generously and enjoying one another's presence.

Update and More Immediate Plans

2009-07-11T11:32:00.003-04:00

It has now been three months since hospice became a way of life in our home. Howard is a real trooper, demanding in every way quality of life and refusing to be bedridden regardless of so very much loss of independence. Care must be constant, but already there have been multiple gems in moments of struggle. And laughter continues to play a key role in our lives.

There is no time or energy to paint, not yet. But I have decided, beginning next week, to resume my tutorials on my Compos e blog. I have relinquished my writer's position on Empty Easel, at least for the time being. Dan has graciously offered for me to resume those tutorials whenever I can, but I won't be doing that any time soon.

Meanwhile, I look forward to getting my thought processes artward. Stay tuned.

A Brief Time Off Line

2009-04-12T12:41:00.002-04:00

Dear Friends,
I wanted to let you know that I have not disappeared, but I will be off-line for some time to come. My soul mate and life partner of the past 28 years is now in the care of Hospice here in our home, and this is where my focus and energies currently are. Until I can get back to painting and blogging, do enjoy what's already here.
Thanks for your visit.
Dianne

What Is Enough?

2009-03-22T13:22:00.004-04:00

"Snack Time"
16" x 12" Oil on Canvas
Sold

Bagatelles:
"So how many squirrel paintings are you going to do?"
"As many as I consider enough."

These little guys fascinate me. They've continually outsmarted me about the bird feeder. Finally, I started putting shelled corn out on the ground beneath it and that keeps them relatively happy. Even so, now and then a defiant one among them will head for the feeder, right past my latest, most ingenious baffle.

I've always really liked a smarty pants.

Meanderings:
We won't have an Empty Easel tutorial this week. Dan, our editor, is up to a new venture, something exciting for all of us. I don't know yet what it is either.

And our challenge group has a new name--Moses Botkin Challenge Group.

And soon I'll be introducing--with a new website--our new local art guild.

So Spring's in the air in more ways than one. New things are being born already.

A Sure Sign of Spring

2009-03-18T09:41:00.005-04:00

"Lady In Waiting"
14" x 10" Oil on Canvas
$230

BAGATELLES:

The female cardinal doesn't get enough attention. Greeting cards, calendars and the like love to feature the adored male cardinal, but far too few see the beautiful in the subdued colors of the female.

I've been watching her for several days now. The couple has already bonded, so now they're getting busy nest-building to raise a family. She has a special loveliness at this time of the year. Since the colors aren't out yet, she still blends with the ground except when sunlight catching a portion of her feathers. Still it's more than her color. It's almost like she, along with all our feathered critters, awaits new life that Spring always brings.

MEANDERINGS:
Who's not ready for Spring! Seems to me the last few weeks of winter are times when paintings goes into limbo. This year that has been especially true. I thought at the beginning of winter that the lovely winter variations on gray would see me through the season, but they wore thin several weeks ago.

It's not so much wanting to see green again though I do look forward to it. I want to see life again--people working in their yards, kids playing in the park, flowers blooming everywhere. And I'm looking forward to watching baby buds flesh out into leaves, watching feathered parents as they feed their young, looking for the first hummingbird to appear and hearing Canada geese squaking as they fly overhead. Yep, I'm in Spring Watch mode! How about you?

2009-03-15T12:46:00.006-04:00

Will Spring Actually Arrive?

2009-03-08T09:33:00.005-04:00

"Spring Promise"
14" x 10" Oil on Canvas
For pricing information go HERE

Bagatelle:

I'll say the obvious: this is not people not the hands that I alluded to a few days ago. That will have to wait because I got bogged down. For now, it's about the advent of Spring.

We believe in feeding the birds, so regardless of the economical meltdown, the bird feeder stays filled. And this time of year I spend a lot of time looking out our kitchen window, keeping an eye on who's making an appearance.

One of our earliest and most devoted visitors is the red-bellied woodpecker. His name makes no sense at all--it's his head that's red, not his belly. But that's what Peterson's calls him. And because he's getting more and more of my attention these days, I decided to paint him.

Meanderings:

Artists get accused of having this thing called a muse. That's the inner voice that steers our ideas and heads us down roads, sometimes familiar and sometimes totally unexplored. That's one reason we keep at it--we're curious about what we're going to find.

In my beginning journey of looking at people relating to one another, I've discovered I've entered into uncharted waters requiring lots of study. When this happens, it's a good idea for me to keep at least two themes going at once.

I'll blog more about what I'm discovering as the journey unfolds, meanwhile with the promise of Spring's arrival, you can guess what my accompanying theme is becoming.

Sketchbook Studies

2009-03-01T13:27:00.002-05:00

Bagatelles:

Here's one of yesterday's studies from my sketchbook:

"Study of medical rescue from news broadcast"
Dianne Mize

I do these things watching TV news. The trick is to grab as much of the action as possible from the time it appears until it's gone out of site and out of memory. To warm up, I often do quick studies from some magazine or newspaper.

I've always loved looking at quick studies. One of my favorites is from Rembrandt's Notebooks entitled "Woman Sleeping".

"Woman Sleeping" by Rembrandt van Rijn"

It's amazing what can be captured in a few gestural strokes and Rembrandt's mastery enabled him to give such life to those strokes that I never tire of looking at this drawing.

Here's another recent page from my sketchbook:
These are quick ballpoint pen sketches from photo references. The game with both of these was to grab as much as I could from memory before going back to the reference for more.

Both the exercise at the top and these are good training for the eye, the mind and the hand. I am in a habit of grabbing my sketchbook and a ball point pen whenever I perch myself in front of the TV for a newscast. I probably won't show many of these on the blog and Lord knows they'll probably end up in the recycle bin years down the road, but they serve their purpose for me and that is to keep my mind, eye and hand totally in touch with one another.

Meanderings:
I am discovering that beginning a new series can take many turns. The current painting would have been finished yesterday if I hadn't decided to change its emphasis which meant pretty much making a second painting on top of the first. That's the reason you got sketches today instead of a finished piece.

Blogging does add a certain pressure to being an artist, at least it does for me. When deciding to change the emphasis of this painting, I argued with myself that I really needed to post something on the blog, but then I argued back that I'm not painting for the blog, but for my artistic discovery and growth. Well, then--that's settled.

Progress Report on "Hands"

2009-02-26T10:16:00.003-05:00

Meanderings:
I'm not quite ready to show you my next painting, but I do want to give you a progress report.

This new subject, humans relating to humans, has captured my imagination in an unexpected way. Like any new series an artist begins, you never quite know WHY you select a subject. In fact, most of the time we don't really care why--we just paint what fascinates us. I chose the humans theme because I've always been intrigued by human body language and by how sometimes the artist can dig into reality behind our self-imposed masks just by tuning in to our body language.

So I chose a larger canvas for the piece I'm doing now--a painting I've already entitled "Hands." Larger takes longer, right? Well, it surely does for a snail-paced painter like me. Today the painting is about two-thirds finished. It's almost reached the point where it calls the shots instead of me.

So why don't I post a WIP photo? Because it goes against my grain to serve food half-cooked. Meanwhile, I hope by the weekend that "Hands" will be finished and ready to post. As I always say, stay tuned...

Papa Knows

2009-02-18T12:01:00.033-05:00

"Papa Knows..."

18" x 14" Oil on Canvas
NFS

(Click on image for larger view.)

Bagatelles:

When my youngest nephew was about six months old, on his first Christmas he became ill. I remember my brother, Bill, closely holding his crying baby saying, "Daddy knows, Daddy knows..." For some reason that has stuck with me. Here 24 years later, Bill is now a grandfather. At Christmas I caught a photo of him comforting his tired and sleepy two-year old grandson, Ryley. That's how this painting came about and thus the title "Papa Knows..."

"Papa Knows" is not meant to be a portrait, but an expression of adult-to-child compassion. There is, however, a pretty darn close resemblance to Bill, as well as to Ryley's back side.

Meanderings:

There's a fine line I don't want to cross when doing a tender subject in painting--becoming entirely too sugary sweet. I wanted to give a direct expression of a grandfather comforting his grandson without getting all gooey about it. Being emotionally connected myself, it's hard to know if I pulled that off. And that begs the question "should an artist even try to detach emontionally from her subject." I don't think so. I think if we have our attitudes in the right place and are responding honestly to our subjects, it will take care of itself.

The other side of this is what the viewer brings to the painting. Some will get it. Some will write it off as too sentimental. But as artist, I respond. The world decides. And that's just how it works.

2009-02-15T11:00:00.014-05:00

Giving The River a Rest

2009-02-09T19:42:00.007-05:00

"Approaching Sundown on the Tallulah"
16" x 12" Oil on Canvas
For purchase information go HERE

Bagatelles:
From this nook on the Tallulah you don't see the sky, only boulders and trees growing among and, seemingly, out of them. This painting is set at about five o'clock in the afternoon. In these mountains in the winter months by five p.m. you begin to feel the sun's already setting, especially on the rivers and creeks.

Much of the waining sunlight was blocked by the hills, but just a glimmer was filtering through the trees and barely hitting the rocks. That sort of time creates a feeling of emotional ebullience. You just want to hold onto it.

Meanderings:

Since my early days of painting (we won't say when THAT was), I've loved painting rivers and lakes. My favorite solo show was in the nineties and entitled "In Praise of Mountain Waters." That title expresses how I feel about all our mountain waters. But sometimes you need a break from even the subject dearest to your heart.

With spring promising to appear again, I'm switching my attention to "people relating to people". This theme has always been a fascination, but I've not given it much attention in my painting. So now, I've diving toward it. The first canvas is already massed in so here we go.

In other news---our Challenge Group is geared up to unveil its first group of paintings this coming weekend. Stay tuned.

First Anniversary: Wow!

2009-02-08T06:00:00.013-05:00

Meanderings: This is going to be a bit long

This blog is one-year old today. Amazing. Why did it take so long for me to begin blogging?

It was thirty-five years ago that I ended my years' long migration and settled in these north Georgia hills. The Academic Dean of Piedmont College had asked me to revive the school's then-defunct visual arts program and so began a bit of stability to my previous ten-years as a artist teacher roaming from school to school, idea to idea, attempting to find a place that fit.

Ten years later with the college's visual arts department thriving, it was time for the next leap--to begin my own art school for adults, a journey which deepened my inner conviction that every human being on earth is born individually unique, that the job of any teacher is to tap that uniqueness and give it substance for growth. (I have never believed very much in talent, but I strongly believe that each of us potentially is gifted in something, that we ourselves determine the destiny of that gift.)

Our school flourished for 24 years before the time arrived for me to retire into a newer life. Seven years prior to my retirement we merged the school into the Sautee Nacoochee Arts and Community Center's programming. That merging gave the school a place and potential environment in which to continue after I would retire.

I honestly thought teaching would end with retiring. Little did I know that I would discover the world of blogging and that it would become my next tutorial medium. And my honest intention was to devote my entire energies and attention to painting, but after a year of doing that I discovered the ole teacher wanting to get busy again.

So now I begin each day painting for three or four hours. Later in the day I work on my two weekly tutorials--one for Empty Easel, the other for my Compose blog. And the second Tuesday of every month, I meet with a select group of my former students which has officially become the Second Tuesday Art Guild. (More about this group in the Spring.) It has all fallen into place beautifully.

So for several years while most of you have been habitually blogging, I was totally unaware of such a world--a community. Unaware until early 2008 when I read about a daily painter called Juston Clayton whose blog led me to other painters and gave me the idea of using this medium for sharing images of my paintings. That was just a year ago, folks.

So for those of you who wondered where in the world this art tutor suddenly came from, now you know. While you were building your own identities as artist bloggers, I was, unknowingly, finding my way to the front door. And I must say that here I have met some of the finest and most interesting human beings on earth.

I enjoy sharing my work and my thoughts, but I treasure my visits to your world, watching each of you grow and sharing in your stories. May we all continue to grow into our individually unique voices while our friendships deepen and thrive.

Winter Waining

2009-02-05T09:01:00.005-05:00

"Winter Waining"

12" x 16" Oil on Canvas
For purchase information, go HERE

Bagatelles:
Monday was Groundhog Day. Our state groundhog said we'll have an early spring, but the national groundhog predicted six more weeks of winter. Our family has voted the state groundhog "correct", the national groundhog "incorrect".

Our household is growing weary of winter! Every February is the same: winter starts getting really old and I start craving greens. Funny thing is we've got greens all around us--magnolia trees, mountain laurel, holly trees, pines, hemlocks--all these right in our back yard, but among the winter grays and cold temps, they're hard to see.

For this little painting, at first I wasn't interested in the barn but the pine tree. I wanted green! And the early morning light really didn't become a part of the equation until I was halfway finished and realized I was painting it. It was about then that I noticed that the barn was pretty neat, too.

Meanderings:
I had a real wake up call recently. I have accepted an invitation to a challenge group (see sidebar) where individual members take turns naming a subject (or object) that each artist will paint, not to be shared at all until the unveiling date when each group member will post ALL the paintings on their blogs. Our group leader named the first subject.

It was something I'd never heard or nor had any idea about. Our group leader mailed me one and there I found myself confronted with doing a painting of something about which I was totally ignorant. The next several days were spent getting acquainted with this subject before I could have any idea how I could relate to it in a painting.

Stay tuned on February 15 to find out what the subject is and how each of us interpreted it in paint.

In Other News: Pat Weaver is one the artists whose work, in Compose and Empty Easel, I use frequently as a strong example of good composition. Just down the road from here, Pat's giving a workshop March 30-April 3 at the Sautee Nacoochee Center, sponsored by Art Immersions (who brings to our area Charles Reid and Maggie Price, among others and sponsors this blog.) This is a real opportunity to crawl out of winter hibernation, trek up to our lovely north Georgia mountains and begin the birth of spring with an exciting week of studying watercolor with one of the best. Go HERE for details.

Tallulah Quiet and Cold

2009-01-26T16:55:00.001-05:00

With this post, I'm beginning a slightly new method for organizing each of my posts. I'm going to take seriously the title of my blog--"Bagatelles and Meanderings"--by talking a little bit about the painting or drawing, then talking about what I'm thinking about.

Here's the first go at trying that out.

Bagatelles:

"A Quiet Tallulah in January"

11" x 14" Oil on Canvas
For purchase information go HERE

I've commented before about the diversity in the Tallulah River. In some areas the waters are raging with such noise that you can't hear a conversation. In other areas, the waters are calm enough to hear the birds rusting in the trees. This bend in the river is one of the few quiet places along its route. But in January, most days on the river are chilly.

Meanderings:
I've always pondered what happens within the artist that makes a painting different from a photo. This morning while painting, I became aware--though not for the first time--that I was being guided by the scene.

As I squint my eyes, I am guided by the patterns, their sizes and directions and connections to each other. I sort out color variations--some cool, some warm. Then as I open my eyes, I see textures and edges. I become aware that my brush is figuring what it knows that will make those things happen.

So as artist, I've developed skills I spent a long time learning. While learning those skills I was also learning about composing. And all the time I'm learning how to become a whole human being. I'm still learning these things.

So this scene in front of me this morning was guiding me through a place I love, allowing me to see images and patterns from that place, to extract and filter them through the motion of my hands and spill them onto a surface.In other news: one of my new goals for 2009 was to find my voice in watercolor. To that end, I have been doing watercolor studies almost daily. Here's a little tree study done a couple of days ago. I might make it for sale later.

Tallulah Boulders in Winter

2009-01-20T09:00:00.004-05:00

"Tallulah Boulders in Winter"
12" x 16" Oil on Canvas
For purchase information go HERE

It is complete. Not finished, not all finished--just complete. It's not finished because I'm not through with the Tallulah river theme. I may never be. That river has been such a strong metaphor for me for so many years, I suspect it will hang around yet for awhile. You saw the quite cold of the painting before this one; now the rushing waters among those huge boulders which formed so long ago few humans can conceive of their age. I can't. I can think about it but I can't fully comprehend it. Were there humans on earth when they formed? We don't know.

Weekend Drawing: Bell Peppers

2009-01-17T12:38:00.007-05:00

"Bell Peppers" 9" x 12" Woodless Pencil Graphite
on Acid-free Drawing Paper
For purchase information click HERE

I love to draw bell peppers. Even though we associate a certain shape and form with them, their variations of shapes and sizes are endless. And there are discoveries to be made from every point of view and in all kinds of light. So when I get myself backed into a corner in a painting, I'll often turn to drawing peppers.

The painting currently on my easel is a visit to some of the huge boulders on the Tallulah River. Because we're in deep winter right now, the boulders are mostly gray. I have wiped down this painting three times now, each time not happy with what happened with the color. This morning, though, I believe I might have discovered what I need to make it work, but I need at least another session or two before it's finished.

Whenever this happens it's always because I'm not paying close enough attention to the subject. I know as well as I know my own name that whatever I need for a painting is out there in the subject. It's up to me to find it and sometimes my eyes and mind began to wander around, never quite focusing on seeing what's there to see. That is, without exception, when I get into trouble. And that's exactly what happened this time.

The important thing is to not spin tires, but to back off a bit and regroup. When starting any painting, we're going to get either a success or a stinker. To catch a stinker early and turn it around requires decisive action. I cannot worry about wasted paint or wasted time--to do so and try to push ahead because of the worry causes even more wastes. No, the better thing for me is to wipe it down and start again.

Many times while wiping it down I'll discover something wonderful and can build on that. It's all a part of the process.

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In other news, I thought I'd been hit in the pit of my stomach yesterday when I read the news of Andrew Wyeth's death. In his determination not to sell out to the trend of his early days, he remains one of my true heros. I remember when I was a college student in the sixties, he was bashed by Art News magazine, ridiculed by the mainstream critics and called every imaginable insult. I am so happy he lived long enough for the tide of the art world to turn in the other direction when he finally became appreciated.

Wyeth reminds me of Gandi and so many other pathfinders who have held true in the face of vast negativity. I am sad that neither of them is still among us.

Cold Day on the Tallulah

2009-01-11T13:10:00.005-05:00

"Cold Day on the Tallulah"

12" x 16" Oil on Canvas
For purchase information go HERE

What I love about the Tallulah River is its diversity. In some places it is as quite as a flatlands' stream, in others it roars mightily. Huge boulders millions of years old lay in its path in most places while a quiet fjord or lazy pond take the role in others. It's just a majestic river wherever you are.

What's lovely about the Tallulah is that you can drive on a little dirt road parallel to it for miles. We always roll down the car windows so we can hear it as we creep slowly along its edges. This spot is down just a ways from a wide fjord where we cross over to picnic, paint and let the dogs play in the water. Don't let me mislead you: it was too cold to do much painting so I did some studies, took a bunch of photos and did the painting in the studio. I don't get excited about plein air painting in extreme weather conditions.

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In other news, I've been invited to participate in a Challenge Group. I have listed the other group members on my sidebar so you can visit their blogs and see what fine work each does. The way it works is that members takes turns naming an object which each artist then finds and paints. On the 15th of each month, we will all post all the results on our blogs. We will debut on February 15.

Winter Sunset

2009-01-07T12:51:00.004-05:00

Winter Sunset
11" x 14" Oil on Canvas
For purchase information click HERE

I hope your monitor shows these colors accurately. Of course, there's no way to know how the various multi-million monitors on earth will view any painting we artists post. Posting a painting is, within itself, an act of faith. Anyway, sunsets are tricky at best.

But I got caught up in this simply because it was there. These colorful winter sunsets don't happen often, but when they do I lose any kind of better judgement. The brilliant colors through these bare winter trees bring out a rare color moment. I'm not sure I totally captured it, but I think I at least said something about it.

In other news, I really could not stand that ugly "buy now" button, so I'm trying a system where interested buyers can click and be taken to a web page for the actual buying process. Might work. Might not. Maybe it's worth a try.

10,000 Hits and Winter Grays

2009-01-04T13:00:00.006-05:00

"Winter Grays"
Oil on Canvas 20" x 10"
For purchase information click HERE

You've seen what our place looks like in the fall. In the winter, it is completely opposite. We sat our little house down right in the middle of the forest, daring the builders to cut unnecessarily even a single sapling. As a result, twenty-one years later, we can look out any window and see trees in every direction. From several of our windows, we can eve reach out and touch a tree. So there's plenty to study from during every season.

I like the light patterns and how they change from early morning through sundown. Sometimes they can be stunning, at other times they're almost undetectably subtle. All that within the winter grays is what I want to capture before the spring greens start appearing.

This little scene is at the edge of our property, alongside the road where the afternoon sun makes a direct hit. People talk about the dull, gray winters but the more I study our winter woods, the more colors and variations I see. Here, especially, the trees in the four o'clock sun were nothing short of amazing.

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In other news, during the past several hours, this blog hit the 10,000 hits milestone. I started blogging in February, 2008, not so long ago as blogging goes, so I feel like having received 10,000 hits is not bad for a newbie. Hopefully in another year, we can see those numbers multiply.

Thanks to all of you who've kept coming back as well as to those of you who are here for the first time.

2009 Goals

2009-01-01T10:00:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year and many thanks to all of you for your support and enthusiasm during 2008. I don't like making resolutions, but I do like setting goals. But I don't like setting so many goals I can't keep up with them, so realistically, here are my goals for 2009.

1. To study the human figure every day--I'm fascinated by people and how body language communicates, but I've not given nearly enough time to building the subject into my painting vocabulary.

2. To cut down by a third the time it takes to make a painting--I'm not happy with my turtle-slow painting process. I believe I can cut out a lot of slack by deleting hesitation. Written on the head of my easel are these words: Squint--Observe--Select--Aim--Stroke. I'm adding to that "and get on with it."

3. To find my nitch in watercolor--Even though 2008 has been devoted to oil painting, over the years I've done quite a bit of watercolor. And though I love the medium, it's been on rare occasions that I felt it was mine. This little piece (pardon bits of glass glare) done eight years ago came very close to feeling like me, as did several little still life paintings done about the same time. I want to re-claim that and secure it.

4. To double my observation skills--I really mean it. The more I observe, the more I realize I'm missing. I want to see color, edges, variations, angles of light, nuances and whatever else I find that still is so full of mystery.

Winter Solstice

2008-12-27T19:41:00.010-05:00

"Winter Solstice"
11" x 14" Oil on Canvas Unframed
$300 + $12 S/H

Back to Tate City. Our favorite mechanic moved there with his new wife a year or so after the death of his first wife who had been my student. He's the only person we've known who lives in Tate City yet we feel the place belongs to us. We claim the river, too. Hours and hours of communing with that river just makes it become a part of your life.

Over the years I have referenced the river over and over and I'm still not finished with it. This little painting is an introduction to an upcoming series about Tate City and the Tallulah River. Other things will find their way into the process, but the major thread will be this part of our mountains which I still must explore.

I began this painting during the transition from autumn to winter and during the celebrating of Christmas. It wasn't until this morning that I knew how to finish it.

This Old House: A Drawing

2008-12-26T12:59:00.009-05:00

"This Old House"
11" x 14" Woodless Pencil on Paper
Original NFS
8" x 11" Digital Print on Archival 140 lb paper
$30 plus $4.50 S/H

This is something new I'm trying. First, as you see, I broke through my aesthetic best judgment (I'm still kicking and screaming) and am displaying a "Buy Now" button. Second, I'm offering digital prints of some of my drawings. Later, if this works out, perhaps I can offer giclees of both drawings and paintings. In addition, I plan during 2009 to set up a "Under $100 Store." This will probably be a page on my website linked from this blog. This is still in the planning phase so I'll let you know when it's ready.

My students will recognize this image as one of many of the old abandoned houses found here in the north Georgia mountains. I always think of these places as once alive, once a home to somebody, a hub of activity in the daytime and a refuge at night. I've always been drawn to them as if by some ancient voice calling me to pay attention.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

2008-12-23T10:00:00.001-05:00

Since my heritage is Christian, like many Americans I grew up with Christmas being a special season. As a child I anticipated with excitement family gatherings and that special Christmas morning when my brother and I would leap out of bed by dawn and run to the living room where we had hung our stockings. I can see us now peaking around the doorway to see what was there.

Early in our childhood, our mother made for each of us huge Christmas stockings, each with our names stitched on the wide white band at the top. And we each had ownership of a certain spot on the fireplace mantle where our stockings hung. It never failed that when we gazed around that door into the living room we saw those huge stocking bulging and running over with fruits, nuts, candy and favorite stuff. Parked on the floor in front of the stockings were our gifts from Santa.

To this day, in the latter half of my sixth decade of life, I enjoy reliving those Christmas mornings. I also cherish the memory of how we went out into the woods and found a Christmas tree. By early fall, we were spotting which tree would get the honors and what a thrill it was to finally gather it and bring it in to be decorated.

In my adult life, we have a little perpetual tree which spends most of its life tightly closed in plastic and stored in our outdoor storage building. Each year I look forward to waking it up and putting it to work as the gathering place for gifts and the emitter of special lights during the Christmas season. There is something about the lights, the radiant sparkle that makes me want to sit quietly and contemplate one thought: what if...

Wishing Perpetual Peace and Wisdom to Inhabitants of This Earth
and to those who are celebrating in December
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

In Search of a Morsel

2008-12-18T10:27:00.006-05:00

(Click on image for larger version)
"In Search of a Morsel"
20" x 10" Oil on Canvas
$400 + $20 S/H Buy Now

Finally, the sun came out and, at last, I saw what I was looking for--how the sunlight reflects off the leaves in that particular spot at that time of the morning. It took only a few strokes. Can you believe it! I've waited for three days just for a few strokes! It was almost a letdown. Well, not so much a letdown as a surprise. I hadn't really calculated what I was looking for.

Perhaps I'm beginning to learn to be a painter. There was a time when I would have calculated and would have guessed what was there. I would have intellectualized the process rather than responding to it. It's a joyful feeling today to realize that I waited to see it so that I could respond to what I was seeing rather than intellectualize it and "know" I was right. I honestly didn't realize that was what I was doing.

What a fantastic Christmas gift!

Weekday Drawing: Susie

2008-12-15T08:15:00.006-05:00

"Susie"

10" x 12" Graphite Pencil on Paper
$300 Email to buy
Email to commission a drawing of your favorite four-legged kid

This is Susie who died of old age five years ago. I did this drawing from a digital photo, one of many I took of Susie. She was a border collie-lab mix who was with us from the time she was five weeks old. Though shy about meeting new people, she was a loving sweetheart who continued to be a lap dog throughout her life.

After it stops raining here, I will post the new squirrel painting. I got slowed down because this particular squirrel is pilfering among leaves on the ground, but in the sun light. It was overcast all day yesterday and raining today, so when the sun comes back, I can finish his environment.

Meanwhile, we continue to prepare for our family Christmas celebration. And our family was joyfully blessed on December 6 with the first of a new generation, Jaxon Thomas Mize. He's my grand-nephew. Here he is getting ready to come home from the hospital.

He's Back!

2008-12-09T08:12:00.008-05:00

Refuge

11" x 14" Oil on Canvas
$300 + $12 S/H Email to buy

For quite a while I watched this standoff. The squirrel seemed frozen in place on the tree limb because of the neighbor's kitty at the foot of the tree. Neither moved. It was like a movie put on pause. All this within eight feet of our kitchen window. And if the scene itself weren't enough, it was early morning. All the leaves are finally fallen allowing the sun to come through with bright orange-pink patches on edges of trees and limbs. Just a bit of that light was approaching the squirrel, but his concern was the kitty and the kitty's concern was the squirrel. Who gave up first? The squirrel leapt to the carport roof out of the kitty's site so she went looking for the next exciting venture.

Twitter
If you dropped in this week checking to see if I'd yet posted a new painting, you might have noticed in the upper right column the new Twitter section. I decided to do this because my process is slower than I'd like. Even though I'm painting three or four hours every morning, most likely it will take several days (if not a week) to complete a painting.

In my early blogging days, I worried about that because it seems to be a blogging standard to post something new every day. But this blog is about my paintings and my thoughts about them so a daily post is not always possible. I discovered Twitter as a good solution. It will allow me to enter a message every day, reporting on a painting's progress or just what I'm thinking about. If you want to see all the entries, simply click on "Follow me on Twitter" at the end of the entry.

Tag Again

In the comments of the tag game I played HERE , Sharon Wright tagged me again and I forgot to answer it. So hop over and meet Sharon. I thoroughly enjoy her blog as well her art work. But again, I'm going to be the spoiler and opt out, especially since I played it already. But it does make me smile to be tagged because I know it brings more visitors to the blog.

Last of the Summer Greens

2008-12-01T08:49:00.004-05:00

Last of the Summer Greens
11" x 15" Oil on Canvas
$300 Email to buy

Weather forecasters are threatening us with our first snow of the season. That might seem funny to those of you who live in areas where snow starts in the fall and hangs around until spring, but here in the lower north Georgia mountains, snow is an event. There is no real pattern. Some winters we see no snow at all; others we see quite a bit. So if it materializes, watch out for a snow painting.

Meanwhile, this is the same deer as pictured in my last week's painting. I followed her with the camera until she moved out of site. It wasn't so much the deer as how the light was splashing on her and on random areas of the ground. In this painting she had just moved out of the light to nibble some low lying plants that had still survived the frost.

It was early in the morning and most of the leaves had fallen allowing more sunlight to shine through stronger than in the summer. It reminded me of the light I was chasing last spring. Good stuff!

More Tag
I've been tagged again! Let me introduce you to Diana Moses Botkin.
But I've run out of tag stream, so Diana, I hope I'm not being a spoiler if I pass on playing this time. I've got a snow storm to watch for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T22:03:00.001-05:00

I wish for each of you an unusually Happy Thanksgiving.

Sneak Preview

2008-11-24T13:21:00.013-05:00

(Click on image for larger view.)

"Sneak Preview"
12" x 16" Oil on Canvas
$450 plus $12 S/H Email to buy

A few mornings ago, I spotted a deer in our back yard. That's not unusual, but the play of light was. Add all that to one of our maples that refused to give up her summer foliage.

So there it was from our kitchen window. I could see through the maple limbs the deer and that blast of early morning autumn light behind her. So for the past several mornings, I've been painting from my kitchen window though I admit I caught the deer on camera. It has taken longer than usual, hasn't it?

The painting strikes me as odd for some reason. Maybe it's because I've got three ideas going at once. Maybe that's too much. Maybe it's not. I guess I won't know for a couple of days whether it really works, but for now it begs me not to touch it with another brush stroke. So, as always, I will obey.

Playing Tag:
The latest blogger tag came from one of my favorite artists and bloggers, Theresa Rankin. So I decided I'll try to play. Here's how it works.
You need to:

Put a link in your posting to the person who tagged you. (Okay, I did that. Go check her out.)
List 7 unusual things about yourself. (Mmmm. Unusual, as compared to what?)
Tag 7 other bloggers at the end of your post and comment on their blogs to let them know. (This time I'm tagging worthwhile bloggers whom I've recently discovered. I always wonder why these tag games require so many bloggers. Three, seems to me, would be more user-friendly.)

Here are my facts. Don't know about unusual, but they're at least facts.

I am dyslectic. I was not diagnosed until my second year of teaching college.
When I was a kid, I had a pet flying squirrel whose name was Ritz.
I have an undergraduate minor in music. For years I played the hammered dulcimer. I had to give it up because of a shoulder injury.
I hate flying. I will not again get on a plane.
I love trains. My fondest traveling days (when I was in graduate school) were train trips from north Georgia to Vermont.
During the past ten years, among our doggies and one kitty, in our menagerie were four flop-eared rabbits (Pete, Molly, Lucy and Wilbie), a green tree frog (Dillard) and an African Claw Frog (Lily). Sadly, they've all gone on to critter heaven.
I don't like jewelry though I will wear a watch just to be on time for appointments

And here are my newly discovered bloggers:

A Look Back

2008-11-16T08:14:00.009-05:00

"Autumn Prelude"

11" x 14" Oil on Canvas
SOLD

Back in late October, I captured a set of photos and did some color studies of this wonderful maple in our side yard. I've always been fascinated by bird's-eye views, but this one kept getting my attention. I wanted to discover the subtlety in colors caused by the leaves' changing color as well as how the light was striking them. It's one of those mysteries that continues to keep me on my toes.

Most of our woods' color is gone now. Only a few late red maples are still brilliant, and they look even more so against the graying of the woods and the bits of blue sky that we will see now until spring. I wanted to look back one more time and use my photo and sketch references to try to capture that early light of fall.

On Another Note
Tekakwitha Gallery has asked to hold over my show through the holidays. So if you're within driving distance and missed the show, you can still see it on weekends through Christmas.

Tanglewood

2008-11-10T12:34:00.006-05:00

Tanglewood

11" x 14" Oil on Canvas
$400 plus $25 S/H Email to buy
(Click on image for larger version)

Odd title, huh? It refers to the tangle of color. This painting began several days ago when the fall leaves were at their height. I interrupted it to do color studies and take photos of our woods, knowing full well that this golden world we were living in would soon change to something else. And I was right. Already, the color of light is less golden and more burnt sienna. When the painting first began, the floor of our front porch was golden as was the carport floor. Today it seems more magenta.

Answering Questions:
In the comments about the last painting, Judy ask: "I'm wondering if you could give some advice on how you get the tree trunks to look so good, rounded, yet not pasted on, and so natural looking."

To make the tree trunks rounded, I'm careful that I have a gradation of light to dark. To keep them from looking pasted on, I am careful with the edges so that they have broken areas and variations found on tree trunks. Another little trick I use is that once their painted, I rub the back of a palette knive over the edges to merge them into colors adjoining them.

Feel Free To Ask:
Feel free to ask whatever questions you might have. I am happy to answer them.

Nature's Cathedral

2008-11-09T12:44:00.006-05:00

A new painting is almost ready except for some glaze work. For that it needs to dry overnight. Meanwhile, I want to share with you some photos of our world.

This week the fall color in our woods has been nothing short of amazing. Every day, new colors have burst into being while older colors intensified. Two days ago there was rain and wind, bringing much of that color to the ground. It's just too beautiful to get out the leaf blower, so I think I won't.

This view is from our driveway. The window in the middle is one of my studio windows.

Here I turned around and shot in the opposite direction.

Here we are at the top of the driveway, looking down at our house.

I'm standing at our mailbox here shooting our neighbor's driveway.

I captured this right after the leaves began to turn a couple of weeks ago.

I hope I won't forget the play of colors out there right now, not to mention those that have already gone. The tree trunks themselves are reflecting oranges, purples and magentas and sometimes green where the light hits them directly. We're trying to figure out where the bright green light comes from.

I have taken 292 photos thus far. And I've done more color studies than I can count, all in an effort to discover what's there. And I'm still not sure.

Early November: Our Front Yard

2008-11-03T14:28:00.005-05:00

"Early November"

12" x 16" Oil on Canvas
$450 plus $25 S/H email to buy

This is our front yard. It's what I see when I look out my studio window while sitting at the easel. We thought our woods were determined to remain green, but overnight the colors appeared. No matter what window you look out, there are now golds, yellow-greens, red-oranges, magentas, purples, blues and yes, still a bit of green.

First Autumn Painting

2008-10-27T17:18:00.004-04:00

"Touch of Gold"
11" x 14" Oil on Canvas
$400 plus $25 S/H Email to buy

This is our neighbor's tree. Those are our woods behind the golden tree.

The autumn colors here in northern Georgia are doing odd things. In places they are brilliantly gold, magenta, olive and fuchsia. In other places, they're still summer green. It's almost as if nature is holding on to the last color of summer, not wanting the cold weather to come in any more than we do.

It is unusually cold for an October day making the colors seem all the more brilliant.

A Fifth York, Autumn Begins

2008-10-23T10:47:00.014-04:00

"York Falls, Autumn Begins"

Oil on Canvas 12" x 16"
$450 plus $25 S/H BUY

I went back to York Falls yesterday hoping to find brilliant color; instead, I found only subtle changes but enough leaves fallen to let in a blast of light on the upper part of the falls. Any bit of brilliant color was high above the falls, so high that I thought at first it didn't relate at all, but the longer I looked, the more I realized that there was a subtle golden glow. I had already begin this York painting, in fact it was about two-thirds finished when I came back and added the autumn light.

Fall is tardy here in north Georgia. Like so many autumns in the past, some places will have brilliant color while others will still be green, but the greens look very tired. It's raining today so maybe that will stimulate the color.

This is the fifth York. This morning I'm wondering if it's my York swan song, at least for a while. I'll go back, do some drawing and find out.

Yet Another York Falls

2008-10-18T13:02:00.006-04:00

"York Falls, Fourth Day"

11" x 14" Oil on Canvas
$400 plus $25 S/H Email me to buy

No weekend drawing because I knew I was on the verge of finishing this new painting. If you've been keeping up with this series, you know this is the fourth York painting. By the way, on my Compose blog, I have posted a page from my sketchbook for those who expected a drawing. (It's a ways done the page.)

When I began this piece, I told myself I'd move on to another theme after this one, but I'm still too intrigued with that falls to leave it now. I must do at least one more. Anyway, who's counting?

There are so many areas of the falls doing such amazing things, not to mention what the light was doing on this particular day. And folks tell me York's getting some color, so I might go grab a bit of that to add to the mix.

York Falls, Third View

2008-10-13T18:31:00.006-04:00

"York Falls, Third View"

16" x 12" Oil on Canvas
$450 plus S/H $25 BUY

I never know which is going to be the last brush stroke. I settle into adding accents and highlights, thinking I'm on a roll when suddenly I realize I've made the final brush stroke. It's almost as if the painting yells "Enough!"

There is a foot bridge across the creek just below York, the only place to get a direct view of the full length of the falls. It is from there that I caught this view. Two minutes later and the sparks of light shifted to other places. I chased the light with my camera for about half an hour. At certain times of the day, it's places like this that defy plein air painting. Shapes literally change with the light shifts.

Color is beginning to appear here in north Georgia. It's an exciting time. The light this evening was absolutely stunning.

Weekend Drawing: Argus

2008-10-10T12:48:00.004-04:00

"Argus"
October 19, 1997-January 31, 2008
Study: Graphite on Paper
NFS

This is our Argus whom we lost on January 31. To see a tribute to him, go HERE. There's never been a sweeter dog.

This is a quick study. I took hundreds of digitals of Argus and started a watercolor series about him, but it remains unfinished. Some of the paintings are posted on the left side of the slide show on his tribute page.

Quick studies do two important things: (1) they grab the essence of the subject, (2) they focus the artist's attention. The results is often an expression of the subject that can say more than a detailed painting might say.

A quick study is a quick impression that is done in a very short span of time. This is a two-minute drawing.

York Falls, Second View

2008-10-07T13:10:00.009-04:00

"York Falls, Second View"

12" x 16" Oil on Canvas
$450 plus $25 S/H BUY NOW
(click on image for larger view)

York Falls is a magical place, especially when nobody's there. My last visit there was perfect. The light couldn't have been any better, the weather was right, the atmosphere was crisp and aside from my buddy and a fellow walking his dog, nobody was around. At a time like this, it's silly to try to rush for a plein air painting. Soaking in the sounds, smells and colors is quite enough to carry me through a series about this amazing little falls.

Weekend Drawing: Young Woman in Hat

2008-10-03T20:43:00.007-04:00

"Young Woman in Hat"

8" x 9" Graphite pencil on white drawing paper
$400 plus $25 S/H Email to buy

For years I've been intrigued by the power of lost edges, with how much can be done with how little. In this drawing I am exploring just that. I told myself I would stop when the drawing said all that needed to be said and I think I did.

It's good to be shifting to other subjects in my drawing. I'm knee deep into the York Falls series in painting and am loving every stroke, but I feel refreshed drawing people and flowers and fruit and buckeye pods. Though I confess, I have a conte drawing of the falls on the easel.

It's a good life!

P.S. Who's the woman in the drawing? She's a former student of mine. Loves funky hats.

York Falls Series Begins

2008-09-30T13:06:00.010-04:00

"York Falls, First Day"

Oil on Canvas
11" x 14"
$400 plus $25 S/H BUY NOW

Finally, the York Falls series is on the way. Twice before I have attempted this magical place, once with watercolor and once in oils, but for some reason, couldn't get the series off the ground. Now, I think, I'm on a roll. You have to be ready.

Here is one of my photos from next to the last week in September when the light was just right. I had been dodging showers and bad weather for nearly a week, but the wait paid off.

I spent a chunk of time gathering material because I knew by rush I was feeling that a series was stewing. I couldn't have been there at a more perfect time.

So prepare yourselves. There's more York coming.

Weekend Drawing: Virtual Sketch Date 1

2008-09-26T12:59:00.005-04:00

"Tree Peonies" from photo by Sharon K.M.
Virtual Sketch Date project
9" x 9" White conte' on black paper NFS

I thought it might be fun to do something a bit different, and so here it is. It from a photo by Sharon at the wonderfully titled blog "Flat Sounds of Wooden Clogs." I'm participating in this month's draw-out sponsored by Virtual Sketch Date. This is my first time to join in on the monthly drawing and it was so much fun that I will probably be doing it often.

This morning I started a new painting which launches the York Falls series. I don't like to predict when a painting will be finished because I like for them to evolve slowly and naturally. There are so many exciting nuances from my York Falls references that I don't want to miss a thing. In fact, this morning while painting, I was thinking this could go on for a long time. But one never knows what the creative muse will do next.

In other news, to answer several of your inquiries, I was slowed down five weeks ago with a baby black widow spider bite on the top of my right foot. I've been functioning in slow mode and not attending to blog visits and wet canvas discussions at my usual pace. I did manage to keep up with the weekly Empty Easel column and to keep painting. Most of the poison is gone from the foot now and I'm getting back into my normal mode, though I expect it will take a while to catch up. Thanks for asking. It's all okay now.

Soque River at Pitts' Park

2008-09-23T09:31:00.005-04:00

"Soque River at Pitts Park"
Oil on Canvas 10" x 14"
SOLD

The Soque River has some beautiful spots as it flows miles and miles parallel down Hwy. 197, but where it flows into Pitts Park is not one of them. Pitts is primarily a playground for kids of all ages, not a bad little park actually, so it's hard to understand why the river at its edge is so desolate. But it is.

The river has overflowed its banks at the park so many times it's created quite a large sand beach which is fun to stroll along. But from all the overflows, a few trees on the river bank have lost their rooting and either lean over or lie in the river. Debris has collected in little coves. It looks forsaken and forgotten. It's depressing.

But I couldn't paint it depressing. When I looked at what the light was doing to stuff, it called to be painted, but the character of the place itself couldn't channel through my paintbrush. And I'm mighty glad it couldn't. Life is too short and too full of wonders to give praise to the negatives around us.

Drawing on Sundays

2008-09-21T10:38:00.005-04:00

I've decided that each Sunday I'll post a drawing. With all my emphasis on painting in this blog, I've neglected giving drawing adequate attention. Above is a little ink wash study from York Falls, a subject I'm about which I'm beginning a series. Last week I went to York and got a whole bunch of resource material, enough to keep me busy for awhile. So after the painting I'm finishing today, you'll be getting a real dose of York Falls.

And Sundays will be drawing days.

Catching Up and Light Games

2008-09-13T16:28:00.012-04:00

"Light Games"
16" x 20" Oil on Canvas
Do click on the image for a larger version; it doesn't fair as well smaller.

Yep, it's been an entire week. My cart got in a ditch and only today did I dig it out. To begin with, I ran out of small canvases which means I've got to order more (living in the boonies and all), but that was not the problem. The real problem was what I chose to paint. I zoomed in on a distant portion of the river. Didn't think it through, just started painting. Well into the painting I realized that it looked mighty odd, then it hit me: I had NO reference to anything being in front, nothing to show it as distance. I know better than that. Doesn't it just get you in the gut when you blunder like that?

So it's taken me three days and change to figure my way out of this one. And whether I did or not, I'm finished. What was fascinating me about that distant stuff? What got me in that ditch to begin with? I got fascinated with the games light was playing and didn't look for anything else.

And in other news...

I've got some real catching up to do and I'm going to take the liberty with the rules of the process. First, many thanks to Terry Rafferty for the Arte Y Pico Award and to Vicki Ross and Sue Smith each for the Brilliant Weblog. Each of these artists' blogs is worth a visit. Check them out; I promise you will return.

I'm suppose to pass this on to--let me count, it would be 19--other artists, a bit overwhelming right now. So rather than to pass these on in the traditional way, and in all due respect and with apologies to the founders of each of these, I'll come back to this post later in the week with some picks.

Chestatee Rapids

2008-09-06T15:33:00.011-04:00

"Chestatee Rapids"

Oil on canvas 12" x 16"
$500 + $10 S/H
(For larger view, click on the image)

I don't know why but I'm easily captivated by the sound of a river's rapids. There's music there and if you listen closely you can hear it, not just splashing or roaring, but songs of ions. This is the Chestatee again, not long after a rain, just downstream a bit from "A Gray Day" and upstream from "Chestatee in a Hurry".

A Gray Day

2008-08-28T07:01:00.006-04:00

"On A Gray Day"

14" x 10" Oil on Canvas
SOLD

The question is why can't something wonderful be found on a gray day? I've been so excited about how the light effects things early in the morning that when the rains set in, I caught myself declaring a wash (pun intended). Then as I prowled around my computer file of photos from the Chestatee River, I found several designated for the trash bin because they were taken on a gray day. What a false assumption! An exciting array of wonderful stuff can be found on a gray day. With tropical storm Fay's torrents of rain blasting down on our roof, this little piece emerged.

To The Chestatee Again

2008-08-20T09:51:00.009-04:00

"Chestatee In A Hurry"

16" x 20" Oils on Canvas
$600 BUY

Over the years--many years--I keep going back to rivers. Hanging in our living room dated 1990 is one of the paintings where this theme began. A solo show that year was entitled "In Praise of Mountain Waters" and I still feel like praising them. The Chestatee, Tallulah, Soque and Chattooga are all north Georgia (USA) rivers that speak to me and keep making me want to paint them. And so I will.

I got to the Chestatee after a long, hard rain. The waters were beginning to turn muddy from runs-off upstream. In places, it was roaring so fast you couldn't hear your own voice. That's when I take it all in and let that roaring river wash out my cluttered brain. There's no cleaner feeling!

On another note, I'm now on the writing staff doing tutorials for Empty Easel. My articles are usually published on Tuesdays and are all archived under "Art and Painting Tips." Check it out and let me know what you think. Also, if there's some compositional issue you'd like for me to address on EE, shoot me an e-mail.

Re-vamped Palette

2008-08-16T09:40:00.008-04:00

Over the years my palette has evolved, expanded and contracted. This weekend I have re-arranged it again, deleting several colors which I discovered I was rarely using. Here are my results clockwise. On the left are Gamblin viridian, Grumbacher cobalt blue, Daniel Smith French ultramarine blue, Utrecht dioxazine purple, Utrecht alizarin crimsom, Utrecht burnt sienna and Gamblin Venetian red, . Along the back middle are Utrecht napthol red light, Gamblin cadmium red light and Utrecht yellow ochre. On the right side are Utrecht cadmium yellow light, Gamblin hansa yellow light, Holbein titanium white and Permalba white.

The brand is important because of color, texture and transparency variations from one brand to another.

The box is a Masterson 12" x 16" Sta Wet. In it is a 12" x 16" sheet of glass under which lies a two-toned neutral gray sheet of paper. The left side is toned at about value 6, the right side is about value 4. On the right hand side are my two medium cups, actually small pimento jars. They sit in a holder which I made from coat hanger wire. In one resides Liquin, in the other, Turpenoid (blue label).

The palette box has a cover which seals much like Tupperware seals, keeping my paint supply relatively fresh from one session to another.

May Morning 8 A.M.

2008-08-14T08:01:00.005-04:00

"May Morning 8 A.M."
Oil on Canvas 12" x 16"
$400 plus $20 S/H Buy Now
(Click on image for larger version)

This was one of those mornings when I was chasing light. When we move into daylight savings time, it's barely sunrise by 8 a.m. in early May. For several mornings, the lights and shadows were doing such playful things I ended up shooting more than 500 pictures within two or three days.

I'm no plein air purist, but I do love painting in the field. However, I'm not about to miss a fleeting opportunity that I can grab with the camera. These light patterns are constantly changing, so much so that within five minutes there's something entirely different. The only way to round up those images is with photos and notes.

If you're a regular reader you know how plentiful our bearded irises were this year. Time after time I tried to grab what the light was doing to them. I made notes in my sketchbook knowing the photos would capture only a half-truth. And here in August, I'm still haunted by those images. In today's painting I tried to capture the hush of early morning as I remember it within that iris bed.

Thank You, Sharon Wright--Arte y Pico Award

2008-08-13T12:22:00.004-04:00

One of the lovely things about blogging is the community that develops among bloggers who appreciate one another. There are so many artists doing outstanding work which they publish on their blogs. I am daily inspired by many of them.

That Sharon Wright picked me as one of her recipients for the Arte y Pico Award is a real honor. Sharon herself is an artist whose work I admire. So today, instead of my posting a new painting (which I had planned to do), I'll use the post to say thank you to Sharon. Why not pay her a visit. You will be delighted.

And now I get to pick five bloggers whose work inspires me:

Rob Ijbema
Marc Hanson
Colin Page

Martin Figlinski
Qiang-Huang

Here's how it's suppose to work. The designer of the award puts it like this..."The Arte y Pico Award has arisen from the daily visits that I make to many blogs which nourish and enrich me with creativity. In them, I see dedication, creativity, care, comradeship, but mainly, ART, much art. I want to share this prize with all those bloggers that entertain and enrich me day to day. Doubtlessly, there are many and it will be hard to pick just a few.
The Rules:
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.
2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.
3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award, and a link to Art y Pico so everyone knows the origin of the award.
4. Show these rules and the paragraph (above) explaining the awards origination.

10 A.M.

2008-08-07T09:47:00.011-04:00

"10 A.M."

Oil on Canvas 10" x 14"
$300 plus $10 S/H Buy Now
(Click on image for larger version)

This one was tough.

After having enjoyed a fair amount of praise for "Irises and Light" back in May, while painting I found myself time after time trying to do a repeat performance. What a struggle! At the time I painted "Irises and Light", my intention was to do a series about how our irises caught light at various times of the day. But I got so much praise, I knew then and there that if I did another painting about irises, I'd trap myself into trying to repeat what I had done before. Deadly! It's an unconscious thing that happens to any artist. And to avoid it, the artist has to dump the praise and start fresh as if success had never happened.

I'm going forward with the series now that I've thrashed this thing out, but at times this little painting felt like an albatross around my neck. At times I wanted to ditch it, at other times it got my adrenaline up. Finally, together, the painting and I reached a resolution.

If you'd like to see a step-by-step WIP of this painting, to HERE.

New Sponsor: Art Immersion Workshops

2008-08-04T15:36:00.002-04:00

I am excited that Art Immersion Workshops has chosen to sponsor my blogs. Check out the site. You might find a workshop you want to attend and you'll love our area of the Georgia mountains.

In the Thick of It

2008-07-31T09:09:00.011-04:00

"In the Thick of It"

Oil on Canvas 10" x 14"
$400 plus $10 S/H Buy Now
(Click on image for larger version)

First, a big thanks to Empty Easel for making me the Featured Artist on yesterday's edition. If you're not familiar with Empty Easel, you're missing a real treat. What a wealth of information!

Now to today's painting. These cows, obviously a mixture of this and that as far as cow breeds go, were down the road from the Sautee Hereford Ranch. Frankly, the middle cow was an ugly mixture of dirty, smutty gray and droopy white. I painted it like that, but it was entirely too ugly so I changed it. Poor cow! And they were so deep into weeds that I could hardly make out their features from tummies to feet, but that's what caught my eye. It felt like I feel when I get totally overwhelmed.

The light was tricky, too. It was getting toward late in the afternoon with odd shadows coming from clouds as well as scattered trees in the pasture.

I failed to get a step-by-step of this one. I was deep into the painting before I remembered to take pictures, but I will do my best catch the process next time.

"Perpetual Lunch"

2008-07-24T16:34:00.011-04:00

"Perpetual Lunch"

10" x 14" Oil on Canvas
SOLD

(Click on image for larger version)

I'm still with the Sautee Ranch Herefords. It was about four in the afternoon, a couple of hours before my previous painting. The light was glimmering on the grasses and bouncing off the cows. There was a slight breeze, hardly a sound except munching of grass and the swishing of their tails to shoo away flies. It is one of those times when you choose to paint it without question.

If you'd like to see a step-by-step WIP of this one, click here and then click on slide show.

Sautee Herefords at Dusk

2008-07-19T21:05:00.019-04:00

"Sautee Herefords at Dusk"

9" x 12" Oil on Canvas
$300+$25 SH BUY

It was nearly dark. The cows were grazing in a shady part of the pasture. They were almost invisible, their shapes merging with the darks of the background trees except for a few bare bits of light stricking their fir. I could hardly see them. How do you paint that? I had to try.

Most folks don't like dark keyed paintings and if you've frequented this blog, you know my real passion is the morning light. But there was something special about the quiet of the ending day, the smell of cow manure and freshly bit grass along with the dying heat of a summer day. Sometimes you have to paint it just because it's there.

I have a brief step-by-step here.

Sautee Herefords Finished

2008-07-17T09:49:00.012-04:00

"Sautee Herefords Roaming"

9" x 12" Oil on Canvas
SOLD
(For larger version, click on image)

Here's the completed version of "Sautee Herefords." If you'd like to see the step-by-step of the painting, go here and click on "Slide Show".

This painting is, in a way, a transition for me. Some time ago, I moved from a paper palette to glass. Recently, I've inserted a neutral gray in two values underneath the glass. Such a simple palette revision is enabling me to better control color mixtures in lights and in shadows. With my new system of using acrylics for the block-in (earlier post), the revised palette is opening up a new journey for me. Stay tuned.

Work In Progress: Sautee Herefords

2008-07-16T10:21:00.006-04:00

Sautee Hereford Ranch is an enchanting place to roam about. The cows won't stay still long enough for plein air painting, so a lot of picture taking and studies have to serve as reference. But you take it back to the studio with you--the smells, the sounds, the feeling of the air--it all becomes part of your inner workings and comes to the surface while drawing and painting.

I thought you might enjoy seeing what I do every day since I post only every three or so days. Once I decide on a subject, the first day I draw, do studies, and come up with a composition by doing a notan. I might also begin my underpainting to establish value or it might come the second day. Once the underpainting is established, I go right into the placement of color, first darks, then mids, then lights. Then I have to let the painting settle for a while, put a little distance between me and it, before I do the finishing touches. Above is a page from my sketchbook where I'm studying and deciding on the composition for my next painting; below is my work-in-progress. (click on the image to get a larger view).

All the colors have been blocked in and the edges have been softened. Tomorrow, I will finish it and post the finished painting along with a step-by-step of how the painting evolved.
I'm working on canvas taped to a masonite board. The marks on the tape are my reference marks. The ones along the vertical sides are divisions of thirds, those on the horizontal sides are rabatments and the center. More about that later.

Chestatee Waking Up

2008-07-14T09:49:00.008-04:00

"Chestatee Waking Up"

9" x 12" Oil on Canvas
$200 plus $10 S/H BUY
(For larger version, click on image)

Sometimes in the early morning after a rain the night before, the sunlight can almost obliterate definition. If you're outside looking into these light and mist bathed areas, you're in context with the place and so you know, or mostly know, what you're seeing. But how do you paint that so the painting shows the feeling of that experience without being too much like cotton candy? (I so much dislike Mr. Kincade.) I thought I'd give it a try with this little piece. I'm too close to it to know if I succeeded.

I'm using a new approach to painting now, I'm setting up the initial underpainting in acrylics. This allows me to set a color tone in the value I want it, then go right into painting with oils. If the oils part starts going south on me, I can wipe it off and still have my underpaintings. Now that's just too cool and a lot more fun.

I've included a step-by-step here so that you can see how my new process works. Click on "slideshow" in the upper left for a better idea of how the thing developed. You can speed up or slow down the slide show by hitting the little + or - at the bottom of it.

The site is along the Chestatee River near Dahlonega, Georgia, USA.

How Many Ways Can You Say "Good Morning"?

2008-07-09T12:18:00.012-04:00

The shortest poem in the English language is entitled "Fleas".

"Adam
Had 'em"

Simple rhyme, each lines with two beats, emphasis on the first beat in each line. It describes what Adam had without using the word. It is by suggestion that we know why Adam was always scratching. (Bet you are, too, by now.)

"Good Morning from Goshen Valley"

9" x 12" Oil on Canvas

$200 plus $10 s/h BUY

Iambic pentameter is a line of poetry made up of ten beats per line, five pairs of unstressed then stressed syllables, reminiscent of a heartbeat. It is one among many ways of organizing a poem. Shakespeare, like many of his peers, wrote poetry and drama in iambic pentameter. Within the structure, Shakespeare found ways to soar, be creative, do the unexpected.

You might say that repoussoir in painting is analogous to iambic pentameter in poetry. The trick in both is to use the structure creatively by getting beyond it. Use it to organize but not be obvious. In this painting, "Good Morning from Goshen Valley", I'm trying to do that though if you compare it to my other recent landscapes, you see how similar the structures are.

The site is Goshen Valley on the Unicoi Road in the northeast Georgia mountains, my stomping grounds.

My New Blog: Compose

2008-07-04T12:55:00.006-04:00

Today I am launching a new blog which will be dedicated to visual composing, a favorite subject of mine. The blog is called "Compose" and can be found here. I hope you will join in the Comments section.

Of course, I will continue posting paintings and comments here.

Tate City, Population 32, More or Less

2008-07-02T12:41:00.018-04:00

"Downtown Tate City"

9" x 12" Oil on Canvas
$200 plus $10 s/h BUY

Somewhere between Persimmon Road and the North Carolina border is Tate City, elevation 2480, population 32 or something like that. To get there you travel some fourteen miles adjacent the winding, rolling Tallulah River which at some point becomes the Coleman. If you're not good with the bushes, you'd better make a potty stop early on. To the right here is a photo of Tate City Mall.

When I captured photos and studies for this little painting, it was late in the afternoon and the light was intoxicatingly beautiful as it most often is in that area.

Light is an odd bird. While creating brilliance, it's most exciting revelations are in the shadows it makes. Within those shadow areas is the artist's dream of never ending discoveries, places to explore and places to play.

Lake Burton and Repoussoir

2008-06-29T13:00:00.015-04:00

"Early Morning on Lake Burton"

9" x 12" Oil on Canvas
SOLD

Here's another variation on the repoussoir (prounounced ruh-poo-swahr)in the third painting of my skies series. This is at Lake Burton, a large man-made lake nestled in the North Georgia mountains. That's Charley Mountain in the distance. We can be at the southern side of the lake in half an hour, choosing our time when to go to avoid tourists so there are quiet moments without the buzz of boats. We're far enough away to be totally unaware when tourists' season hits.

The repoussoir strategy is intriguing me. Perhaps I will try many variations to test out how many ways I can find to use repoussoir to enhance an idea. Here's the notan.

Repoussoir and the Sautee Valley

2008-06-26T13:08:00.008-04:00

"Long Before The Rain"

9" x 12" Oil on Canvas
SOLD

Notan

I'm experimenting with with composing strategies. This is a another classic strategy where images in the foreground call attention to the center of interest or the content of the painting. James Gurney has a good discussion of this here. I'm intrigued by the timelessness of compositional structures in painting, in music, in poetry, in theatre. The sonata can hold within it's boundaries infinite possibilities as can the sonnet, as can the repoussoir.

This is another scene from our Sautee Valley with Lynch Mountain again in the distance.

The Sonnet and Sautee Valley

2008-06-23T12:15:00.009-04:00

"After Another Rain"

9" x 12" Oil on Canvas
$200 plus $10 s/h BUY

Notan of the classic structure

Sometimes a poet finds the sonnet and only the sonnet will communicate what the heart is trying to say. Sometimes the painter finds that only a single classic structure will impart the impact of a moment in time. This is one of those moments brought to you within a classic compositional structure--a vast light shape at the top, a smaller darker shape at the bottom with the dark shape holding a slightly concaved arc. It's been used hundreds of times by dozens of artists and is the best game in town for communicating an active sky.

The location is our Sautee Valley just after a rainstorm. That's Lynch Mountain in the distance. A buddy called me on the phone to make sure I saw the sky. We do that around here.

Ready To Leap

2008-06-21T15:43:00.007-04:00

"Ready To Leap"

8" x 10" Oil on Canvas
$200 plus $8 s/h Buy

I know of nothing more quieting yet invigorating than chasing after an image with a paint brush in my hand. Something gets my attention, I want to paint it. Nobody else might give a hoot about seeing it, but I want to paint it anyway. So off I go and time both stands still and flies. I'm amazed when I think I've been painting for ten minutes, but three hours have passed.

There's an oak tree about six feet from the back edge of our carport from which the squirrels often leap to the carport roof. This little guy was just about to make his jump when I caught him. If you'd like to see a step-by-step of this little painting, go here and click on "slide show."

Another Morning Miracle

2008-06-17T12:40:00.013-04:00

"Morning Miracle"
8" x 10" Oil on Canvas $100 plus $8 s/h Buy
(Final Version)

(Earlier version)

We know folks who hate squirrels. We know folks that resent intelligent people. Intelligent people can get themselves into hot water in a hurry just by asking a question that might rock a boat. Squirrels can be pretty damned pesky, outsmarting even the most clever baffle to the bird feeder. This little fellow was sitting under the feeder yesterday morning just as the morning light was going from dim to slightly bright. He's outsmarted me more than once, finding a way into the feeder past my newest, most ingenious baffle. I think he proves to be one of nature's real miracles. See how I painted him here.

(P.S. Later in the day) I must have been having a Picasso moment. I looked at my squirrel this afternoon and noticed his hands, arms and feet are not finished; you can't really see them. So, I'll be finishing him and posting an update. Hope you'll stop by again to see whether my Picasso moment passes. :)

(P.P.S. Next day) Okay, I got him where I want him. Any more definition and he'll die. I left both versions here so you can admire the one you like best. Picasso? Who's that? Monet? Now that's more like it!

White Butterflies?

2008-06-15T12:24:00.006-04:00

"Like White Butterflies"

Oil on canvas 8" x 10"
$100 plus $8 s/h Buy

It was a cold April morning. The wind was up, coming in gusts, the sun was shining and the dogwood petals were flopping back and forth like nervous butterflies. How do you capture that? Lights and shadows flickered like lightening during an evening storm. Colors were merging and shifting and not one image would sit still long enough for even a photo to grab its essence.

Maybe scenes like this that defy interpretation explain one reason abstract painting got its strong hold. Art historians tell me that's not so, but it makes sense. People looking at paintings expect to see something, an image or a collection of images, but sometimes even nature won't let us do that. Nature was the original abstractionist. Stare into the bubbles of a strong rapids and see what's there. I dare you.

A painting should never have to be explained, indeed it should speak for itself. I'm not sure this one does. I'm not sure that even I would be able to read it if I hadn't experenced the moment myself. My folks here at home don't care for it, but there's something about it that continues to intrigue me. What's your take?

Wind, Light and Dogwoods

2008-06-13T12:40:00.007-04:00

"Wind, Light and Dogwoods"
8" X 7" Oil on Canvas
$100 plus $8 s/h Buy

I just might paint dogwoods all summer. Each painting teaches me something new about how light and shadow behave. I think what keeps pulling me back to these things is that white is not a color, rather it is the presence/absence of all colors. Within itself it is entirely neutral, colorless, yet it reflects whatever is around it, and sometimes there is a reflection on top of another reflection, creating an array of subtle colors. The same thing where shadows fall on white. Fascinating stuff.

And doing these paintings has made me impatient with the term "middle value." These in-between values are where things get most exciting; there is nothing "middle" about them. I think I'll end up calling these value areas "central" values rather than mids. They are where the show goes on, where the story is told, where the truth lies. Lights and darks simply give them a structure and contain them, bring them into focus and enable us to see what's going on in those alluding, mysterious centrals.

It's a lovely life, being a painter!

Alla Quadra Prima

2008-06-08T09:42:00.015-04:00

"Light Bath"

8" x 10" Oil on Canvas
$100 plus $8 S/H Buy

It's the ending of a painting that get's to me. I love most of Beethovan's stuff, but lord, how he can draw a piece out with about a dozen endings. Sometimes I yell back at him--okay, that's it. And I do the same to myself. I can drag out a painting far beyond where I could have declared it finished. I worked hard not to do that on this one, but I confess it was signed three times ago.

I've tried to be a finish-a-painting-a-day painter. I admire the fertile brushes of Carol Marine and Susan Carlin and Karin Yurick and Justin Clayton and Qiang Huang. I check in on these five every day to see the next episode, but I just can't pull it off. I could say I do a painting a turtle-day.

I take a while drawing, doing studies, finding my notan. Then I whisk away another chunk of time getting the introduction, the block-in. Then I mull, wax and wane over the development, and there's another chunk of time with the winding down, the ending. Before I know it, days have gone by rather than hours. Alla prima has turned into alla quadra prima. But then I'd not want to declare one finished before it's denouement. So there you are.

For the progression of this one from beginning to, yes, the finish, go here. Then click on "slide show" for the feeling of it's development.

Taking a Break

2008-06-02T19:33:00.006-04:00

"Taking a Break"

Oil on Canvas 8" x 10"
$100 plus $8 S/H Buy

We were painting en plein air. Gail found Donna's swing and took a break. Annice grabbed a photo of her which was my major reference. It was midmorning in May on the edge of my favorite haunt, the Chestatee River. The light was playing all sorts of tunes with the late spring colors. Even the ground was happy. I was so busy painting the river that I would have missed this altogether, so there is merit in sharing photos, but I recommend there be first hand experience with the event.

I need a vote. Do I need a stronger suggestion of features on the person's face? Folks here say no; I've been thinking I do. What do you think? (If you're new to blogging, you can leave me your vote by clicking on "Comments" below.)

Early Morning Woods

2008-05-27T09:55:00.007-04:00

"Early Morning Woods"

Oil on Canvas Panel
8" x 10"
$100 plus $8 S/H
Click here to buy

It's that light again. I keep coming back to it whether woods or flowers or the back of my hand. Time was when I'd spend a chunk of time analyzing why I'm doing this, that or the other, but I've decided what matters is just to do it. You can analyze a thing to death. So, when something says paint me, I paint it. That simple.

If you want to see how this painting developed from start to finish, go here.

Jays Today?

2008-05-24T20:52:00.005-04:00

"Decisions, Decisions"
Watercolor 8" x 11"
$300 Buy

I'm cheating. This is a watercolor I did last spring, but I'm showing it because there are jays in our yard at the feeder, three of them. But the odd thing is last spring, there was only one. Well, one that we saw at a time. I took a series of photos as he moved around, then composed this little painting along with two others. So this spring, all three of the little rascals show up.

Okay, I fess up. I'm just not happy with the painting I just finished, so I'm doing my jay bird thing because I hear that a good blog is one that stays fresh, keeps publishing new stuff, don't you know. If you want to see the one I'm not happy with and how it came into being, go here.

Back to work.

More Morning Light, More Irises

2008-05-18T09:19:00.011-04:00

"Irises and Light"
Oil on Canvas Panel
8" x 10"
$100 plus $8 S/H
Click here to buy

I'm still charmed by the early morning light. I can't wait for it to roll around every morning and am sorely disappointed on cloudy or rainy days when it refuses to entertain me. This painting is about that light first. If you'd like to see how it evolved, click here.

While the irises were blooming, the light perched on them, then moved so fast there was hardly time to compose a shot. Certainly there was no time for plein air painting, so I took a zillion photos. And now they can still talk to me even though the irises are long gone.

The memory of something meaningful hangs around for a long time. We artists of this era are super fortunate to have digital cameras so that we can capture an image and go right to the studio with it. But without the memory of how things smelled, the early morning sounds of nature, the slight breeze now and then, the photos would be void of any purpose. It takes being there, whether physically or mentally, to capture the essence of nature.

Morning Iris

2008-05-10T09:14:00.011-04:00

"Morning Iris"

Oil on Canvas Panel
SOLD

For the first time in twenty years, our irises produced in generous multiples. Because we live in deep in the woods sunlight is scant and in constant movement, not great encouragement for flowers. In previous years, we were thrilled if two or three bloomed; this year we had dozens and I got carried away. There was no way I could paint on location because the light would change by the minute, so I took zillions of photos, day after day after day. And that's my iris story.

This little painting evolved from a single iris into what you see above. If you want to see how this evolved, go here. If you like, you can click on "slide show" and get a better feeling for the progression. Note: Except for the finished piece in the slide show, I neglected to color-correct photos of the sequence, so they're somewhat cool compared to the finished painting.

Diversion

2008-05-07T13:05:00.008-04:00

Work in Progress.... Block-in phase of "Money Plant"

A money plant is kicking my behind. No misread, a money plant. It's a fascinating plant that produces clusters of voilet flowers in April. These turn into circular, flat green seed-pods in May and then in the fall the pod turns brownish, and in winter changes to almost a translucent warm silver. It's the April edition that has me challenged.

My block-in caught that early morning light beautifully. Above is how the block-in looked. Promising, exciting start. So I made the mistake of knocking off and doing chores before bringing it to a conclusion. Bad move! All that light went south and I've yet to figure out why. Thinking it was bound to emerge, I have pushed and pushed until I can no longer see what's happening. Maybe I'll publish where it is now; I probably won't.

We artists do manage to get ourselves backed into a corner. The trick now, is to get out of it. Stay tuned.

First Light: Dawn in the Woods

2008-05-03T09:46:00.008-04:00

"First Light: Dawn in the Woods"
Oil on Canvas Panel
8" x 10" SOLD

There is nothing special about the subject here, just tree trunks, limbs, leaves and some sky peaking through, nothing except how that early morning light dances and teases our sense of color, the way it so invigorates me. The challenge of this little piece was to communicate what I saw and felt without overstating it. I don't yet know whether I accomplished that; I'm still too close to it.

What I do know is that very little green is showing through in this painting. The colors playing the strongest role are purple and orange. Purple allows me to communicate "green" without screaming "green". Orange allows the light on the tree to glow. Both colors played a large role in communicating tree trunks and limbs. And you wouldn't believe how much gray made of black and white there is.

I like to finish a small painting in one sitting, or two at the most. This one, as did the dogwoods just prior to it, led me on a wild goose chase for four days. There's no taming the painting process.

Spring's Early Morning Light

2008-04-28T12:15:00.006-04:00

"First Light: Spring Dogwoods"
Oil on Canvas Panel
8" x 10"
$100 plus $8 S/H
Click here to buy

Here's the first of a series of I'm working on about that mysterious early morning light in the early spring here in north Georgia. I thought I was going out to capture dogwoods in bloom, then I realized I was chasing the sun. I began at about 6:45 a.m. when there was barely enough light to shoot with, but nothing like enough to create shadows, and I continued to chase the sun until around 8:30. What I discovered was amazing: during a short period between 7:30 and 8:15, there is a glow to the light that dissipates into a different kind of light afterwards. I think of that glow as simply "early morning light," and I tell you, there's nothing quite so beautiful

Here in this little painting, the theme is not dogwoods, but my early morning light. Dogwoods just happened to be the subject that best translates the atmosphere as I was feeling it.

That Early Morning Light

2008-04-26T17:02:00.004-04:00

Where have I been for the past week? Struggling with computer problems when I'm not trying to capture that early morning sunlight so amazing this time of year. Yesterday, I threw together this little study in less than 30 minutes because that's all the time the sun would give me. It's at its loveliest between about 7:30 and 8:15 a.m. After that, it all levels out and it becomes a different sort of light.

I'm working on a little dogwoods painting trying again to capture that delightful light, but in addition to plein air studies, I went out and shot some digitals which I'm referring to on my laptop. Perhaps tomorrow it will be finished, meanwhile I thought I'd share this little study.

I broke my own rule by placing that tree trunk right in the center, but it is after all a study, so I forgive myself for that.
P.S, It is a bit of of focus, isn't it. I'll replace it soon with a better focused shot.

Back to the Chestatee

2008-04-17T08:39:00.005-04:00

"A Drink at Chestatee's Edge "
Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"
$200 plus $20 S/H
Click here to buy

Whenever spring foliage begins to show those luscious yellow-greens, I like to head for the river. Tallulah River is a favorite because of the huge boulders and cascade of waterfalls, but Chestatee River is quieter, though noisy and active at intervals. Funny thing is I've spent so much time on these rivers that when I look at a set of digital photos, I can hear the waters and smell the air.

This little painting came from those sounds and smells right after some rainy weather which caused there to be a thick mist hovering over the Chestatee. I don't know what there is about the early morning sunlight breaking through a mist, but it's an adrenaline rush for me. Just like standing at the ocean's edge or hiking to the top of Tray Mountain and looking out over the hush of the valleys. You can almost hear the earth breathing.

Notan: Think Yin and Yang

2008-04-12T08:02:00.012-04:00

Think Yin and Yang. Think notan

Yin and Yang are "two opposing and,
at the same time, complementary (completing) aspects of any one phenomenon. Notan is a sort of yin yang with a western slant.

Each time I begin to paint, the first thing I do is find the notan of the subject. That means that I squint my eyes and find how all the darks can group themselves together into a pattern where all the parts connect either literally or visually. Once I find the pattern, I do a quick little sketch, no larger than 1" x 2" where I use a black marker to map out all the darks. The white that remains, of course, will be my light pattern.

Above to the left is my subject, a digital photo of my front yard early one morning after it had rained all night. To the right is my notan. Here is my finished painting:

"A Sip of Water" Oil on Archival Canvas Board

11" x 14" Sold

Notan is a surefire way of guaranteeing a successful composition, but it does not control what happens during the painting process. See that deer? She invited herself along with the puddles of water. They found themselves necessary to complete the meaning of the painting. Ah ha.

To see the step-by-step process for this painting, go here.

2008-04-09T12:57:00.006-04:00

"Hidden Cove, York Falls"
Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"
$100 plus $8 S/H
Click here to buy

I love secret places. York Falls, nested in a gated community at Sautee, GA, has a bunch of places where you feel like you're the only person there and nobody else will find it. Of course, that's an illusion, but that's how you can feel. And the sounds of the falls just accentuate that sense of grand solitude.

Painting itself is very much a secret place. While in the process of creating a painting, there's a silencing of the outside world, a hush of all but what engages you. It's a grand place to be and the wonder of it all is that you can enter that place each time you pick up a brush and paint.

And oftentimes that world will continue within you throughout the day of doing chores or taking care of other things. Maybe that's why artists will often get labeled "strange" or "preoccupied" or "a bit off in the head". Sometimes it's an effort to allow the world of reality back in after an especially fascinating time spent in a secret place.

2008-04-05T18:56:00.008-04:00

"Sautee, Summer Farm"
Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"
Sold

This little scene is from the Sautee Hereford Ranch, one of my favorite places to romp and take pictures. I've not done any plein air painting there because I'm too busy trying to capture cows doing their cow things.

Of all the varieties of cows, herefords are my favorite to paint. Their sienna colored fur can range from yellow ochres in direct light to deep purples in the shadows. So instead of just reaching for burnt sienna, lightening it with white and darkening it with black (which would be flat and dull), I use the full range that extends from yellow, going through orange and red to yellow's complement, purple. Hansa yellow, yellow ochre, cadmium orange, burnt sienna, alizarin crimson and dioxazine purple. All that to make the orange of a cow! The white gets a bit of yellow orchre, cadmium orange into white for directly lit areas and white with ultramarine blue and a bit of burnt sienna for the shadowed areas. Okay, that's enough color theory for one day.

2008-04-02T12:20:00.008-04:00

"At Chestatee's Edge"

Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"
$200 plus $20 S/H
Click here to buy

It's a natural thing for me when painting in oils to yearn for the Chestatee River (near Dahlonega, Georgia) which has become my favorite plein air haunt. This little painting is taken from a quick sketch I did last time I was there. I had taken some digital shots, too, which I used for reference.

Since I rediscovered the notan a few years ago, using it has transformed my approach to painting. It demands of me that my first step is to discover the light and dark patterns as two value areas: one white, one black. In my modus operandi, my next step is to tone my canvas in a turps-thinned transparent color neutralized within the local color of the scene. Then I lift out with a rag and brush the light side of the notan. I can start painting immediately once this is done; oddly, if I set up the dark colors rapidly first, the painting will most often paint itself.

Back to Oils and the Dogwoods

2008-03-31T16:08:00.006-04:00

"Wild Dogwoods, Our Woods"

Oil on Canvas
8" x 10"
$150 plus $20 S?H
Click here to buy .

After spending the entire year last year working in watercolor, it feels good to be painting with oils again.

The dogwoods surrounding our house in the woods are just beginning to show tiny hints of leaves, but I couldn't wait; I went back to last year's digital photos and found bunches that I had taken when they were in full bloom. Who knows, I may get on a dogwood binge. Or not.

Dianne Mize: Bagatelles and Meanderings...

Transition

A Poem

Motherhood

This Spring

River Mist Re-visited

River Mist

Fallen Tree

Memories

What's In The Teaching?

Painting in the Incubator

The Road Back

Monday, March 8, 2010

January 30, 2010

Christmas Eve, 2009

October Update

Update and More Immediate Plans

A Brief Time Off Line

What Is Enough?

A Sure Sign of Spring

Will Spring Actually Arrive?

Sketchbook Studies

Progress Report on "Hands"

Papa Knows

diana moses botkin

Giving The River a Rest

First Anniversary: Wow!

Winter Waining

Tallulah Quiet and Cold

Tallulah Boulders in Winter

Weekend Drawing: Bell Peppers

Cold Day on the Tallulah

Winter Sunset

10,000 Hits and Winter Grays

2009 Goals

Winter Solstice

This Old House: A Drawing

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

In Search of a Morsel

Weekday Drawing: Susie

He's Back!

Last of the Summer Greens

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sneak Preview

A Look Back

Tanglewood

Nature's Cathedral

Early November: Our Front Yard

First Autumn Painting

A Fifth York, Autumn Begins

Yet Another York Falls

York Falls, Third View

Weekend Drawing: Argus

York Falls, Second View

Weekend Drawing: Young Woman in Hat

York Falls Series Begins

Weekend Drawing: Virtual Sketch Date 1

Soque River at Pitts' Park

Drawing on Sundays

Catching Up and Light Games

Chestatee Rapids

A Gray Day

To The Chestatee Again

Re-vamped Palette

May Morning 8 A.M.

Thank You, Sharon Wright--Arte y Pico Award

10 A.M.

New Sponsor: Art Immersion Workshops

In the Thick of It

"Perpetual Lunch"

Sautee Herefords at Dusk

Sautee Herefords Finished

Work In Progress: Sautee Herefords

Chestatee Waking Up

How Many Ways Can You Say "Good Morning"?

My New Blog: Compose

Tate City, Population 32, More or Less

Lake Burton and Repoussoir

Repoussoir and the Sautee Valley

The Sonnet and Sautee Valley