"Skyward"

30x30x1.5", acrylic and mixed media on canvas

This was another painting that started differently. I was painting along, fighting with it (as I've said, some paintings are fighters), then got frustrated because it just looked wrong. So I started turning it, looking at it this way and that, until I saw an image I liked. I started to bring that out, and this is what happened. And it's kind of unusual. You don't usually see the eyes out of the frame like this. But that's one thing I like about it. I also like the crackly textures in the face. And the drippies (but then, I always like drippies).

"Two More Hours"

20x20x1.5", acrylic and mixed media on canvas

Since I love texture, I'm always trying new things. For this one, I stapled some strips of cheesecloth across the painting. Then I started to paint and didn't like them -- they wanted to take over -- so I cut them apart then used a medium to immobilize them. Then I scribbled with water pens and painted, leaving pieces of fabric at the edge.

In my striving to be loose, I find that I sometimes start a painting, then, not feeling right, I turn it. And turn it. And turn it again until I can see a composition I like, or I can see how my image will fit on the canvas. I did the latter thing here. I also had some cobalt blue and teal on my palette, and they added an element I like. Almost like graffiti.

"The Unendurable Intensity"

24x24x1.5", acrylic and mixed media on canvas

I'm a lot about texture, and this one has a lot of texture material, both gravelly as well as cardboard. Now, I have abstracts that focus on the texture as part of the composition. But in the figurative work, while the texture is present, the focus is on the person. And I like that you can't see her eyes.

"Inhale, Exhale"

18x36", acrylic and mixed media on canvas

I started experimenting with turquoise and found that it's a powerful color! I kept having to return to the area where I painted it and try to cover it up. Eventually it calmed down to the point where it's just present. Meanwhile, this emotional painting emerged. 

Also, after taking the picture and cleaning it up, I suddenly see new things in it. Do I change them? Leave them? I think I'll live with it and see what happens.

"The Game"

(Not available.)

30x40", acrylic and mixed media on canvas

One weekend a couple of years ago, when a few of us were touring wine country, I surreptitiously took pictures of people. This came out of one such picture. I think my two favorite things about it are the way that the focal point is way off center, and the eyes behind the sunglasses, which I invented and which came out surprisingly well!

"Abstract Figure 2"

14x11", oil on canvas board

This was another fast painting done in class. The straight edges and lines come from using a color shaper, which is sort of like a palette knife, but softer. Someone in class wanted some additional color, so we added a scarf to the pose. Maybe I should have titled this "The Striped Scarf" or some such.

"Abstract Figure 1"

14x11", oil on canvas board

This was a fast painting I did in an abstract figurative class that artist and teacher Michael Azgour taught at the Pacific Art League. So, in class we would have warm-ups and exercises, of course. In one we would have only a limited amount of time to fill the entire canvas. Then, in this lesson he also suggested that we add a geometric shape (in this case a grid) and use elements of it to abstract the figure. I'm not sure I integrated the grid and the figure, but it did keep my painting looser.

This is painted from a live model, and there is an immediacy that I like, and the rapid brush strokes (and some pencil scribbles) worked. In this case. You often end up with dimensions that are way out of whack. I assume that the better you get, the more often you get accurate dimensions. But even very experienced artists say they do a lot of throw-away paintings. Or paint-overs, I guess.

"Figure With Shadow"

8x10",  oil on canvas board

This is another one of those paintings that I like, but I don't quite know why, and it's not a good likeness. But it has something. I think there's a freedom to it. I'd recently been looking at my Nathan Oliveira book, and an abstract figure occurred by and by. It does have a few things I normally do, like all the scratches for texture, and juxtaposing green and purple. 

"Not Yet"

30x30x1.5", acrylic and mixed media, SOLD

This one has soul. There's some stillness to it, and discomfort. And some mystery.

I seem to want to make three kinds of paintings: small still lifes that are also skill builders, abstracts, and abstract figurative, as with this one. A few people had trouble figuring out what it was at first, but that doesn't bother me. It just feels right.

"Shadow Puppets"

6x6", oil on canvas board 

This is the next in my series of figs that I used to learn to paint in neutrals. When I use neutrals, they seem to come out dark. I might have to think about that. There's a bit of palette knife work here, too, as with the prior one.

I've been thinking about neutrals, and the most neutral color is grey. But a warm grey is brown, so grey and brown might be just cool and warm versions of the same neutral. Strangely, while the best-known color palette (there are many) divides colors into three primaries, there seem to be only two neutrals. I think it's because the three primaries contain one cool (blue) and two warms (red and yellow). It you neutralize blue, it goes cool grey, of course. But if you neutralize red and yellow, they both go brown. Now, they're a little different, but much more similar to each other than they are to neutral blue. (I haven't run into this in any books. So maybe I don't read enough, or this is whacked.)