Silent City

Silent City

Coronavirus series

20x16 oil on panel

The speed with which cities shut down in quarantine was shocking. It went from a novel event that a few countries were going through to a sight seen around the world, creating scenes that were utterly unique and haunting.

This enormous intersection, built to organize a huge volume of traffic sits empty. Numerous lanes for cars, trucks and bikes are still and the two lone pedestrians seem to emphasize how tiny each individual is in the complex systems we've built. Looking at the scenes of shuttered businesses and empty streets it sinks in that it's going to take a while to build back from the overall silence the pandemic imposed on the world. 

20 Seconds

20 Seconds
16x20 oil on panel

Coronavirus series

As the pandemic jumped from continent to continent governments around the world told their citizens to wash their hands frequently for at least 20 seconds. Those of us in the west were told that was equivalent to singing the Happy Birthday song twice. We saw videos of how to clean between the fingers, wash the thumb and up and around the wrists. Videos showed police in India washing their hands while doing a dance routine to a Bollywood soundtrack and we saw photos of chaffed red hands suffering from constant scrubbing.

The fact that simple soap and water is our best preventative measure is wondrous in its simplicity and at the same time it's deeply troubling that it is all we have.

Coronavirus Series, Masked

Hello again!

I haven't shared any of my work for over a year. I've been painting a lot, but the series was about an emotional earthquake in my life, and I considered my paintings to be more therapy than anything else. I focused on recording my feelings in a visual way which took me in a different direction with my painting. The pieces were raw and so was I, so I kept them to myself sharing only with a handful of  brave friends.

Who knew that I was training for recording the images of a world wide pandemic? I have in the past month begun a series of the startling and quickly changing images that the coronavirus has brought.

Masked

16x20, oil on panel

This is the first in my Coronavirus series. I saw this man in a busy urban setting and was rocked that someone in a city in our county felt the need to wear a mask. By the time I was half way through the piece the person that stood out on a street was the one NOT wearing a mask. My head spun. 

The images have been coming so fast that I can't keep up. I planned to do an elbow bump painting, but within a week we weren't getting within six feet of one another and we were pulling on gloves to pick up things that others had possibly touched. 

My files are full of ideas and I'm painting virtually all the time. There are currently 3 finished pieces and 3 under way. I will share once a week or so. 

Thanks for checking back in with me. Let's all be helpful, kind and careful with one another. It's hard to understand what others are going through, now more than ever.

Rotterdam trio

I spent a couple of weeks recently in Rotterdam where my daughter now lives and works. After she headed out to work and I had enjoyed a second cup of coffee and read all the news that one can bear,  I would pull a chair up to the wall where I had taped a sheet of gessoed paper and break out the small assortment of paints and brushes that I had tucked into my suitcase.

And there I would sit and happily paint bright bits of Southern California flora until I got the call that she was on the streetcar headed back into downtown. I'd throw on a coat and scarf and head down her steep and narrow stairs to walk to whatever restaurant we had chosen for the night.

I found that having spent the day emerged in the bright colors of So Cal I was always surprised to find myself  in the soft light and moist air of the Netherlands!

I found painting on Rives BFK paper that had been gessoed a couple of times great, and certainly lots easier to travel with than wood panels! I think I'll do more painting while away from home in this way. Its a great way to balance all the wandering and wondering that I'm prone to do in new places.

I left these three 9x12 paintings behind to remind my girl of home!

Desert Baroque

Baroque
16x20 oil on panel

After focusing on smaller paintings while tinkering with my technique I was eager to take things larger. I'm not sure I'm done with this painting, but I promised myself that I'd set it aside and not touch it for a bit. I like it and want to leave it in a bit rougher a state than I traditionally have. I enjoy the blocks of color, the distinct shapes that become form. I want to resist my urge to refine this to near photographic reality. I believe the feeling has been captured and I want to leave it there.

I started with a drawing of the opulent blossoms on a succulent at our doorstep. I kept all lines straight 

A poor photo taken at my easel, with my own shadow cast across the image. I started the painting with my focal point, the cascading section of the blossoms that caught the light.

My next step was to move to the opposite end of the value scale and establish some of my darkest darks.

Now I begin to work on the all the areas in between - the parts of the luscious blossoms that were in shadow.

More

And more 

When I completed the image I felt that the dark of my background was too deep, so you can see here that I altered that and then spent some time looking at the details of the plant forms and strengthening the shapes created by light and tone.

The finished image is at the top of the post.

I've been painting, just not posting!

I've been altering my style slightly, which has required retooling my process, habits and the way I look at my subject. It's required a lot of focus, a lot of small paintings and a sense of humor. 

I returned to my favorite subject - the endless beautiful forms found in plant life - while I push myself toward abstracting the shapes they present. Some times it works better than others, and I have to remain fully concentrated or else I find myself blending value shapes as I have in the past. 

I'm deeply engaged with this, and like where I'm headed. Hope you do too!

A great workshop with Catherine Kehoe

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a week in a the beautiful Winslow Art Center Studio on Bainbridge Island, Washington studying with Catherine Kehoe (www.catherinekehoe.com) . She is someone who's work I have looked to for inspiration for some time. She is able to describe reality without detail. In doing so she captures the essence of a scene or a person by distilling what she sees and records. Consequently, her work is pure, beautiful and timeless. 

I have tried to adjust the way I paint a number of times and have found that the habits I have formed over the years are so powerful that even changing direction slightly is very difficult. You might say that that's OK, that's the way I paint, but I would like to feel that I can choose how I want to approach a subject and not have my habitual style dictate the outcome. 

Kehoe's workshop couldn't have been more perfectly designed for my interests. First she separated us from our familiar methods of drawing, then she had us view our subject as a design distilled to 2 values. Only then, on the fourth day were we allowed to paint  - with a limited palette, using only straight lines and flat shaped of color. On the fifth day she turned us loose with color and allowed a full pallet. 

When we arrived there was a crowded still life along one wall of the studio

We selected a composition from the jumble

And we spent hours developing a drawing using relational lines, always drawn with a straight edge. After completing the drawing we broke the drawing down into 5 values and transferred the drawing onto another surface (which is why this drawing appears to be done in ink, I used a pen to transfer the image)

We then worked with sheets of paper painted with 5 values of acrylic that had been cut into random geometric shapes. We glued them down in layers to create the image strictly in value and in flat, straight edged shapes

Another drawing done Kehoe style

This time we transferred the drawing to another surface and used paint in 2 values to describe the design of light and dark in the composition 

And the resulting painting

Another drawing, looking only at major shapes defined by value changes

The 2 value study  

The painting that grew out of the 2 studies.

I found the numerous deliberate steps really effective in separating me from my customary habits of thought and action. Catherine Kehoe proved to be a great teacher as well as a great painter and just the right person at the right time for me. In the last couple of weeks I have been experimenting in my own studio with the information I brought home from Bainbridge Island and am finding exciting new paths, which I look forward to sharing with you later!