Pure Love

For more than a week; I have been grinding away at painting this sky and along the way I figured out that, I do paint like I draw. If one brush stroke is good then one hundred is great…. even if it’s only the size of my thumb nail. There is no ending in me of stopping this habit of mine. I just keep layering one color  after another or  a different tone of the color…. over and over again, my building process is a slow one. Sometimes it feels like I am covering up what I just painted, and I did, but a minuscule sliver of light or dark is peeking though. I will see an arrangement of brush work that I find irresistible to my eye, but I want more from that space or  maybe; I just love making marks or lines, strokes…. I don’t care what it is called… I love doing it and can’t stop myself.  I stand back looking at my  budding creation and I believe this is why I pick time consuming subjects that will allow me to give into my craving, or love, of being in that highly satisfying creative mode that I acknowledge I have an addiction too!

Upside Down

So, I have been working on this sky in my latest painting and I was somewhat pleased with how it was developing, but felt the painting was missing something. That’s when I noticed my brush strokes…very tight…here I was heading in that direction again with this painting. Now that I am using color, I wanted to loosen my style up. My black/white drawings where done in a photo realism style, I had envision that direction because of the lack of color. On to the 2^nd something, I felt my clouds where earth bound, not truly high up, floating in my painted sky. After some thought, it occurs to me to flip the canvas over…as the whole perspective changes, I am in the sky! My tight, fixed strokes relaxing and switching over to an impressionist style, the clouds take flight…

Night to Day

I have a history of getting up before the light of day is here because I want to wittiness the last of the nights shadows gradually fading, then merging with the first  new rays of light. What an artistic privilege it is to live on the edge of the East Coast, in spite of the hurricanes, mostly because the light here is very unique. I am bias about it but,  I feel the light is exceptional,… the luminosity, the brilliance of the sun's light expands, grows in this space because of this enormous  moving mass of the ocean's water. The light is bouncing and jumping around on its waves  and the elements of water  transforms the light in extraordinary ways,... a much different light as it hits the land, buildings, vegetation and the terrible light pollution in our cities,... as the light is absorbed and then distorted. As an early riser, I get my extra dose of energy to paint, so no wonder I am working on a sky series now!



Old is new again.

The last time I did a large drawing was 4 years ago. I have spent the last several years making miniature drawings and a few watercolor paintings for exhibitions and selling. The “Balance” drawing series was around 4 x6 inches. Even “The Sketchbook Project” was small, the paintings were inside a 5 x 7 book. I am taking those small drawings and paintings to bigger size; 8 x 10 to 24 x 36 inches big. I am using acrylic paint on canvas, a familiar medium but one I taken a break from for…a decade plus. Now  I have to dig deep to remember what I used to do, acrylics dry fast, they need additives at times, blending colors to building layers, and all on a  much bigger scale. Currently I have 6 paintings relating to three different series that I am rotating on my easel depending on what I have mixed up on my tray. I wonder how many pieces I should paint on at one time?... Because the world globe that I saved from the garbage on the street, needs some gesso on it!