Recent Work #3

The Brothers-in-Law, Fly Fishing

16" x 12" Prismacolor pencil and Dr.Ph.Martin's watercolor inks on Arches 2017

My Father's famous line, "I'm like a Lemming, I always return to the sea."
That's him on the right and my Mother's oldest brother on the left.
Happy times.

Recent Work #1

Love Song

12" x 16" Prismacolor pencil + Dr. Ph. Martins watercolor inks

 on Arches, 2017

An extremely popular blues rock band on the SOFLA circuit, they fell in love.  Only recently, they got married. This is my wedding gift to them, my daughter the law student is doing the framing.  
You may ask"Why frogs?" One of these lovely rockers is my younger sister who collected toy frogs as a child which she called Blizzies, thus the Blizadelic Unity and thus, frogs.

Divine Grace

Mr. and Mrs. Mac, woodpile, South Africa

   I was so moved by the tragedy that occurred last spring in Susanna's garden, I had to paint the tale's very happy ending Su sent to me a short time later.  This is Divine Grace at work.

You'll have to read the whole post and comments to understand what happened.

Su's words: "...Out of that tragedy, something rather profound emerged.
One of the eekers, McGyver who is a master escapist (names are important) was released from the cage the day before as he was bullying the others.
Hence his freedom and escape from torture. Iona clearly got you have more chance of surviving if you have freedom of movement.

Anyway Mac lived in the stickpile in the garden, with the rabbit and the chicken but was alone. A friend came to visit with the most beautiful lady, black and spikey - name Mrs Mac and they are chirruping in delight in the autumn sunlight. ..."

Moving Day

Dog in the Pattern, 12" x 16" watercolor inks on Arches

It was impossible to make sense out of everyone running around packing up the entire household and burly strangers barging in and out, hauling away her whole happy dog life into waiting trucks.  It was bad enough every summer when the suitcases came out, but this was outrageous, incomprehensible!

But today was different, everyone was busy, frantic, excited, looking forward to something apparently wonderful and including her in the activity wherever possible.

She chose to take a wait and see approach. Yet, still, there were moments ...

The Lightkeepers' Quarters

The Light Keepers' Quarters, watercolor inks on Arches, 11-12/14

Of course, this particular documentation goes with this one, as promised earlier during this brief, wet and smokey Autumn. 

There is still more coming. I never tire of ancient rural architecture and the wide open spaces remaining - thankfully, geologically buffered from the long running habitat wars.  We like to think the waves of the Pacific will never stop and so it is with this series, all of which takes place on the still magnificent, challenging, powerful, ever changing and often extremely dangerous western coast of the American continent.

I would like to reincarnate as a Mermaid, its in my DNA, in order to document the incredible changes ahead. My late Father, the Commander, Hellcat pilot, sailor, life long navigator, once said to the child me, "I'm like a Lemming, I always return to the sea." 

So be it.

In honor of Mr. Fixit's upcoming birthday

You might recall this sweet Beagle from my other blog, see Love is All at the bottom of the page.  Or, this post from 2011 here in the gallery... Same size, same Dr. PH Martin's transparent inks on Arches.

Mr. Fixit and Bitsy

Soldier's Mountain

18" x 12" watercolor on Arches © 140lb cold pressed July 2013

The Farm, Arizona:

I fell in love with one of the horses and came to find he joined the farm by traveling from the other side of this mountain, leaving behind a situation of neglect akin to abandonment.  His owner was eventually located and gave him freely to the farm forever where he is happy to be at peace with the retired Pot Belly Pigs, free range chickens, a lovely female of his own species, four dogs, five cats, three chipmunks and the Watusi herd who visit every evening to catch up on the latest farm doings.

I was stunned. What a story!

Imagine this beautiful guy soldiering on in triple digit temperatures, over the cliffs and peaks with all the dangers the southwest desert environment presents?  To see him now in his current location, you'd see him well fed and well watered, hanging out with his girlfriend, kicking up the dirt in joy and surrounded by love, constant attention, shade from the elements and lots of space to play. The layout of the farm is simply one huge yard with the humans' dwelling in the center, so you will often wake up in the morning with Soldier looking in your window.

NE Workshop

NE Workshop as seen from kitchen window

I keep coming across works that were never displayed here, living in my portfolio unseen.  Now is as good a time as any to share them.  (Either that or they were left out of the recent gallery revision, another likely possibility.)  This one is California, Fall 04.  You can tell its Fall by the pattern of leafless Oak branches.  It always caught my eye while washing dishes.  Art is everywhere.


18" x 24" watercolor inks on Arches

Sodabox at High Noon

18" x 24" watercolor on Arches

This one's for William Carlos Williams 


so much depends 

upon 

a red wheel barrow 

glazed with rainwater 

beside the white 

chickens.

For Hot Springs Wizard

With my CD portfolio and physical portfolios packed up safely during the relocation process, the only way I can ensure a seamless link to get a photo to Mister Wizard is post it here.

Glacial Incidental vacations at Sunrise Mountain | Watercolor and Prismacolor pencil mix on Arches |  24" x 18" | 2007-08

The original work in reality is large for a watercolor, owned and on display in my hostess's office building in Las Vegas, which is a real live busy U.S. city in spite of its famed casino scene.  Its an efficient place, a metaphor for life in the 21st Century where vehicular accidents are instantly removed from the beltway by the time long ribbons of slowed traffic resumes its ceaseless going to and coming from leaving a sort of empty space where something ... happened.

The objects illustrated in the artwork are rocks collected with a student geology major while taking a desert sabbatical in Nevada in 2006, brought back to California the same year where they were expanded by the inclusion of a distinctly egg-shaped, smooth surfaced - unusual and rare (most of them are piles of huge boulders above ground or discovered on seafloors and lakebeds) Glacial Incidental, which is what these granite and limestone boulders and boulder-spawn left over from the Pleistocene are called.  Smoothness and roundness of the GI is not a common feature at all.  Think of the battering and long distances these rocks and boulders were pushed from the seacoast far inland as the oceans rose up and traveled eastward.

Now, back in Nevada five years later to the day, which that in itself is interesting, how cyclical the journey is, I come to find the Nevadian rock collection to perfectly resemble the exact mountains where each was gathered. Hmmmm.

Things you may not have seen ...

Ticket Depot for the Shambhala Express

Dogs of the Desert #1.

Or you may have seen.
Or things you might not have had an opportunity to see lately.
I found them in my stack of CDs while searching for a request and have put together a little exhibit for people who are new to the gallery and people who just want to see them. 

As always, for larger view, right click on image to open in a new tab.

Reflections

beavertails

One-hundred and twenty-eight Novembers

All things must pass

I used to be shining and new

This goes back to 2008, the holidays, my visitors and I were exploring back roads and happened upon a so paintable scene, I'd passed this view often, but the presence of high-bouncing, familial DNA vibrations offered sudden new ways to look at known situations, places and truths. That's only one of the reasons we gravitate to one another, but possibly the most important one.  The brakes were slammed on and everyone pulled out their digitals and started shooting, coat collars turned high, snapping in mittens.  My product of that moment became known as Agave.  Su wrote a poetry piece in a comment that so perfectly captured the essence of that image, it came back to me often, until one day this August, wandering back roads again, looking for paintabilities, I found the psychic partnership just waiting to be connected.  Most amusing was the presence of an Indian Blanket, Gloriosa Rudica, a daisy subspecies.  I heard her say: You ruined me last time.  This time, let's do it right.  She heard me say:  If I had been a male, no problemo with the wheels, you know boys and cars ... but this time, I think you will be satisfied I am one of you.

I used to be shining and new ...

16" x 12" watercolor inks and gouache on Arches
Aug | 11

click to enlarge

Love is All

Love is All

aka Patterns
(see drawing above)
aka Copper & Gold
16" x 12" watercolor inks on Arches

Bitsy had another life before she met my brother and sister in law, they rescued her from a shelter. Bitsy is one lucky girl, especially with three kids to play with her when she isn't napping with her better, her rightful, loving Mother.


(click HERE to view enlarged image in a new tab. Once there, click the plus "+" sign to view detail.)

food wagon at the Sphinx

Chemical Skies

While we wait for the Sphinx and Pyramids to reveal their long awaited secrets, our newest exhibit comes from sorting through hundreds of CDs to liberate works unpublished on the blog and gallery.  Exhaustive sorting is rather like a combination of robo signer and meticulous consumer, sometimes having to re-review and study from every possible angle.  There are mostly digitals here, just as Chickory's having gotten a new camera expanded her already prolific range, the timing on these works tells me that is exactly how many of these came about.

There are titles, but those are for my filing purposes, you will have better ones because you will see things differently, please feel free to suggest your own.  I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts.

We'll see how many images I can get into a post without having to make another. The desired outcome is to have the images show up without taking all day for them to open.  In most cases, you should be able to click on each individually to view a larger version by right clicking the image and selecting view link in new tab, I said most, not all.  A small few of these images are higher resolution reposts.  I'll be doing the same sorting and culling over the next few days and will put up the most interesting of whatever I find.  Following this project, the plan is to present an upcoming exhibit on the Art of Others, a few favorite works from our artist community who thoughtfully keep me updated.  Stay tuned.

Lenticularia

In summary, I will just mention that to date, no better filing system was devised in my selection/review process and if you are also as technologically challenged as this indicates, we are doomed to shuffling our ways into whatever lies ahead.  One love.

Work is never done,  watercolor on Arches

                      Inca Spiral cropped detail from The Peruvians, washed watercolor on Arches

2084 AD

Allen's Female at the Outdoor Cafe

Cat Stevens Live

TV in Every Room

Showoff

A Saw Zaw Kind of Love, watercolor on Arches

Happy California Cows, watercolor on Arches

Proud Marys workin' for the man ...

Goodbye to all that

Sod Fog

Little Harbor, outside the capitol of Arawaka, watercolor batik on Arches

    Babylon, What Else 

 

Farm in Fog to False Spring - the transition

False Spring
watercolor inks on Arches
24" x 18"
2010

False Spring aka Farm in Fog came to be after seeing it in person on a chilly February afternoon, in light rain and grey mist. I pulled out the digital and began the first phase of my system: Photos, thoughts, more thoughts, stare at photos, bring back the memory and feel again how it felt emotionally and physically finally masking off the Arches paper and get down with my friendly plain old Number 2 pencils.

As the drawing developed I became enchanted with the chimney, you'll note it is a corner arrangement likely opening into a kitchen fireplace for warmth and cooking, with another, maybe smaller fireplace in the sleeping quarters. There was no propane tank to be seen anywhere in the real life version. I so like the idea of one corner chimney for two separate, but similar needs.


The stages of development shown here are in order, there are many more photos, but these are the most "postable" of the total group that define each of the phases involved. I like the second stage very much, before it is placed in a specific geography, it could be Nantucket, that could be an ocean beyond the shed, it could be a "lonely somewhere" Edward Hopper might have thought to sketch. Its always like that after the drawing part, before more saturated color and background details are applied giving it life and a place uniquely its own.




My favorite time is when the unexpected occurs which is typical of watercolor no matter how often you work with it. You get to know a bit about how to control it if it is your main medium, but its always got something new to show you. There are a lot of artists who like to know their medium's limits, which is good, it allows them to preview mentally their statement. Personally, I prefer the way watercolor insists you solve the situation at hand, relentlessly, you must surrender to it and rule it simultaneously, knowing ultimately it will have its way and you will be okay with that.

There is something else about choice of medium that should be mentioned. Whatever "medium", and we will use that term meaning vehicle for expression, you or I use, does not really matter. Its just another way to say the same things said frequently in a more descriptive language - as in music or literature, poetry, philosophy, film, theater, three dimensional art and so forth. It might be that whatever is closest to you at the moment you get serious about what you have to do to survive within the journey of our common humanity is the medium of your surrender and most frequent use, since through it you have learned to speak a nonverbal language that communicates on a higher plane than common words strung together for conversational coherence.

Now its starting to look something like the original intent, but there is more to be done. Its good to put it aside a few days and do something else unrelated, so that when you return you are seeing it new all over again and forced to revisit your mind's eye. What can you do to satisfy all the criteria remaining true to the original vision while adding your own take to the mix? The days and hours spent focusing on other things, issues, people, chores, studying Nature, wildlife, walking, collecting rocks and feathers, reading, have their impact too. Sometimes you don't see it until revisiting the completed work, months, sometimes years, far into the future. Suddenly, you will remember other things that were happening at the same time you were painting. Its unavoidably another part of the image, the you part, the artist and the events, near and far, that took place while you worked.

You'll know instinctively when your task is finished and the criteria met. I usually place it on the mantle and live with it for a while. This is usually when a different title occurs because a transformation has taken place. The ending of the transformation is almost as good as the middle which is as good as the beginning.

Finally, off comes the masking tape and it's slowly X-acto-ed from the Arches watercolor block, signed and dated. Simultaneously another one has already begun. It is most productive to have several going on at once, then you can paint while the others are drying.

teardrop

Watercolor on Arches
14" x 20"
2006-07

A repost on request. Thank you Chickory.

Many goodies live in the archives, but since I did 65 posts in June 09 alone, I wouldn't be in a hurry to recommend sifting through the monthly lists. I'm probably the only one who knows the names of the works well enough to know that for which I would be searching.

Any time anyone wants a repost, you've got it. Just let me know.
It does none of us any good to have these works sitting in the archive trunk unseen.

Rasta Soon Come

An Exhibit for our Rasta

Meeting the Force head on, answering the call to serve Livity:














Above: click to enlarge in new tab

Arawaka

And Jah provide the bread right side view

And Jah provide the bread porch view, because everybody has a porch to gather under and talk about God.

Below:

The Flag of Arawaka

Outside Woman, Outside Man and hey, maybe he'll fall in love, too?

elay ballet no.2

This is a repost of last week's entry which was lost in the uploading of another photo file. Sigh. Disappointed our comments are gone. Its almost as if we are not to ask the questions that weigh so heavily on our minds.

To the left is the rough colored pencil sketchbook concept of the painting I am doing as this is all unfolding. The painting never comes out as planned because you cannot plan watercolor. It flows on its own like beautiful rivers of living color.

I apologize for the missing comments. The question of recentering oneself in the NWO is a valuable and little discussed subject deserving far more attention than it receives.

the Watusis

August 16th, Sunday, 2009, was about as perfect a day as it gets, containing within a sunlit space in time the full range of emotions underscored with plenty of "We are on our own now" Polaroids. As a wrap from God's film crew, my friend the Radical Rascal, pulled over alongside Heaven and the Watusi Longhorn came rumbling up from the wash to greet us.






The Watusis 2007
24" x 18" watercolor on Arches

Hope and Trust

Hope and Trust

Watercolor on Arches
16" x 12" 2009



I did one similar to this in 2003. I think I might have torn it up. Lately, it seemed to want to exist. When that happens, what can you do?

Flickers and similar birds