The Four Seasons

City Sunscape 

(acrylic on raw canvas)

14" x 32"

A Small Construction Job

Sammy thinks the tent and walls look cozy and she will be fine taking a nap in the shade it provides. Time and patience allowed us to put everything together properly despite extra parts and incomplete directions. The mesh panels will hold up to 18 pounds on each hook (in kilograms that's... ha, for sure, as if). Each wall will hold as many 18 lb. pieces as their size will allow. Fabric will cover the mesh panels (I am in the process of sewing them now) so the rear door allows for ventilation. The french wall that sticks out beside the door cost a little extra but it looks good and actually creates an area where I can set up a table for sales and a chair, while still having space to hang art on the other side. Let's do this thing!

Arbor Radiance

(acrylic on raw canvas)

38" x 22"

This is one of the larger pieces from the batch of paintings I just finished.

Summer Print

Warm Summer Fields

(linoleum block print)

8" x 6" 

Warm Summer Fields

After much debate and counseling I have finally decided upon the design for the last print in the seasons series. Smack in the middle of summertime it is super hot,  fire orange seemed an appropriate color to represent the heat and drying effect that it has on our environment. Ironically, maybe not coincidentally, I noticed how similar the ink color was to my linoleum cutter and brayer handles. The were purchased for college in the early 90's and clearly made to last. You spring chickens have the garnet ones or the new magentas with the twist off cap (neither made as well as the old school orange ones). I'm glad to have them around and somehow immortalize them in my summer print... only an artist! Notice the entire series on the monitor, I tried a few combinations before deciding upon this particular set of colors.

Now Onto the Prints

Getting consumed with one show can easily create a backlog of work. For the last year I have been participating in print exchanges with Four Ocean Press in Oakland, CA. You send in 26 prints and receive a print in return from each artist in the exchange. So far, autumn, winter, and spring are complete... summer was due right smack in the middle of preparations for my current solo show. Here's the first three in the series... Autumn Rays, Early Morning Powder and Spring Arriving. Each are hand-pulled linoleum prints (8"x6"). I'll upload some of the progress on the final piece: SUMMER! Check out the link on my page to their website, where they keep an archive of all the exchanges and have added photography to the fun. "I'm Stuffed" was my entry into the Food Exchange... it is part of an ongoing series "It's A Grind" (an homage to the bitter housewives of the world). There are more samples from that series on my homepage (also linked below).

Finished for the Moment

Top: Woodland Mountains (26"x48") acrylic on raw canvas

Bottom: Autumn Sunset (14"x32") acrylic on raw canvas

Mental stimulation that follows completing a project sometimes gets clouded with the exhaustion surrounding the deadlines and shrinking pockets of time to work. With new pieces ( hanging at Grace Gallery in Marietta's Mt. Bethel Methodist Church (congregation 8500) the process of regrouping begins immediately. Relaxing for a day after frantic last minute preparations suddenly gives focus to my taxed brain.  A stream of new ideas, concepts and projects inundates my thoughts. Ready to start a new cycle of "paint or insanity" I find strength and confidence in success which has been sprinkled with devotion to a risky field of work.

Here are the miniatures with a few more colors added. They are farther even farther along, but I'm running out of time before the Grace Gallery show... so not a lot of random photographing. I have completed a couple of other paintings as well, they are larger and in earthtones as opposed to the bright tropical colors. Don't get me wrong... the earthtones are bright too, I'll get one posted soon.

Getting Ready

I've been busy planning and painting for my show coming up this summer. I am working on about 15 new pieces that will be shown at Grace Gallery in Marietta. The pieces in the foreground of this picture are individual pieces all similar to the painting on the computer screen.