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Wednesday, June 21, 2000I finished yesterday's painting of two yellow delicious apples. I was racing against the darkening sky, a rising storm, and a screaming headache, but I believe I was successful in finding the gentle transitions that helped make this into a balanced, well articulated and cohesive piece. There definitely was not the intensity of light that I usually have from the western windows, although it did present some challenging variations to my past setups.
This also is the end of a solid and productive spring season. My growth as an artist has been tempered by long hours in the studio as well as the continuation of my involvement with a growing network of artists and patrons of the arts that I've met at the exhibitions, online and in the machinery of my day to day routines. As I turn the page to a new season of journal entries, I look forward to continuing this new and colorful series as well as discovering where my studies will take me next.
Read on...to Summer of 2000
Tuesday, June 20, 2000I started another painting of a pair of the yellow delicious apples, this time by the east-facing windows. The light seems more muted, and I am working harder to find the same vibrant colors on the same apples from yesterday's painting. The light is completely different, and the shadows are cast almost directly behind the apples. This is yielding an entirely different exercise in rendering the forms and colors. There is a soft and subtle gradation within the shadows which is escaping me, although tomorrow I shall resolve this issue and complete this painting. I hope these last few paintings will be dry enough to frame and display at the Manayunk Outdoor Arts Festival this coming weekend.
Monday, June 19, 2000I finished the painting of the three yellow delicious apples. When a painting session is going particularly well, I find myself becoming overwhelmed with appreciation of the progress, to the point that it becomes difficult to make broad sweeping decisions and adjustments. The most draining aspect of a painting is not the painting, but specifically "not painting". To find what works and move on, to maintain the objective eye in pursuit of the entire image, to make marks that support the painting as a whole, and not to be caught up on the attractive little details that are prematurely "good enough". I strive to unpaint as much as to paint, to deconstruct and reconstruct with the object being to understand the setup in its entirety. I feel that this painting does still have some engaging rough areas, and to have brought it into yet more focus would have turned it into an entirely different kind of painting. I am still thrilled with the vibrant colors of the apples against the muted grays of the foreground and background. I also feel that I've succeeded in that what were once three similar apples have been observed and explored to the point where they each have completely different characters. I will probably try yet another study of these apples tomorrow, using the east windows and different background and foreground colors.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Sunday, June 18, 2000What was a great start to a painting yesterday has today become another neutral ground on an extra canvas. Three of the six roses had wilted during the night, and I realized what a battle I would have had in rendering the fairly nondescript flowers to actually read as roses. If anybody has any input on how to keep roses from wilting, I'm all ears. In addition, I don't feel that it would have represented a logical step in my development to have so much of the energy involved in a painting be taken up with such issues as the delicate rendering of such delicately colored flowers. I may attempt a similar endeavor again at some point in the future.
While I was at the farmer's market yesterday I also picked up some brilliant yellow apples (yellow delicious, I think they are called). I started a large canvas using three of these apples sitting calmly in a row. This first day of painting has been lively and exciting, and hopefully I will have adequate sunlight to finish this piece tomorrow.
I also figured out how to broadcast a much higher resolution image on the studiocam, and in the future I will allow more of the studio to be viewed while I work. Each screen takes longer to rewrite, but the image is rich with detail and focus.
Saturday, June 17, 2000I finished yesterday's painting. I feel that in its elegant simplicity this is a successful painting. There are some odd areas that could seem to need more work, but none of them seem to stand out as unresolved for the level of finish I was pursuing.
Click on the image to see a larger version.After completing this painting I raced into Lancaster to pick up some pale roses at Central Market. I decided to start a fairly ambitious composition of the entire bouquet of six roses in a clear glass vase. At this early point I am allowing the colors to be fairly muted, but I feel that this may be the foundation for a quite powerful piece in both its size and simplicity.
Friday, June 16, 2000After 4 days of constant rain and darkly overcast skies, the sun finally came out again. As a warm-up I started a small canvas of a green apple and a strawberry. Typically my first painting after a show is barely worth saving, and I have several canvases with nice neutral grounds as a result of these failed attempts. Just to toss things up a bit, I rearranged the studio so I now have a morning setup by the east-facing windows. Everything is now lit from the other side, and the different qualities of light and reflection will take some getting used to. I immediately found some wonderful subtle and simple transitions within the setup, and of course in the name of progress I wound up destroying most of them with mud and toil. Tomorrow I will concentrate on reworking and re-simplifying these areas, and further developing the colors overall. For the most part, however, this painting is almost finished.
Sunday, June 11, 2000I just returned from an exhausting five day show in Philadelphia. This was a wonderful show, and I had an excellent time. During the show I had many members of my family drop by, including my mother, my brother Daniel and his wife Lisa and even my great uncle Sonny and his wife Carol who drove in from Princeton, New Jersey just to see me and my work. I caught up with some old friends and made many new ones, among them the retro-pop artist Jeff Schaller, the lovely and talented student Katherine Fraser, artists Michael Barber, Joseph Adamos, Donna Neithammer, Patricia (I'm sorry I forgot your last name) and many others. And on the final day I spent some time with Kerri and Laura, the sweltering-heat-and-oppressive-monotony-relief babes. What a blast.
My work was embraced and absorbed by the people of Philadelphia. Many paintings found new homes, and now my collection has been seriously thinned out. I am still in shock after seeing so many of my favorite pieces being purchased over the course of the show. The act of creation has once again fallen to the forces of entropy, and the dispersion of the composite elements has begun all over again. I find something of myself in each of the people that connects with the painting they feel they need. Whether it is some emptiness that finds an undefinable completion through the work, or an appreciation for colorful and playful order among the chaos, I feel that I have allowed some part of myself to live and bloom with color into their lives. And I thank you all for allowing me to do so.
Tuesday, June 6, 2000I have not been painting as both today and yesterday have been dark and wet. In addition, I've been busily preparing to spend the next five days at the Rittenhouse Square Art Exhibition in Philadelphia. I will return on Sunday night, hopefully ready to land on my feet and be back in the painting studio on Monday afternoon.
Sunday, June 4, 2000I finished the painting after several subtle adjustments. As this painting went into its fourth day of development, many areas were threatening to spin out of control by being overdone. I feel that I managed to keep my hands, paint and decisions loose enough to maintain some quite lively and playful elements. Click here to see the finished painting.
Saturday, June 3, 2000I returned after a long and uneventful exhibition in time to work on the painting for about an hour in the dying light of the early evening. This is almost finished, except I would really need to see it in a stronger light to ascertain that it is sufficiently balanced in color and resolution.
Friday, June 2, 2000I continued work on the painting, but my session was started late because of the pathetic machinations of modern life, and the session was cut too short because of the unpredictable mechanics of nature. I applied a huge amount of paint in order to keep the painting in a lively state of development, but unfortunately it is not finished. I will be taking part in a small exhibition tomorrow, so I will attempt to get back to work on wrapping up this painting on Sunday. A violent storm is bearing down on Mount Joy right now.
Thursday, June 1, 2000I started a mid sized painting of a green apple, a brilliant red tomato and two Greek olives. I initially was going to treat this painting merely as a large study just to get things moving again, although it already has the makings of a solid and colorful piece. I feel that there is once again an odd juxtaposition of shapes and colors. It seems as though the olives seem to provide an interesting anchor to what would otherwise be a fairly static composition.
Wednesday, May 31, 2000As usual, in my first day back in the studio in over a week I am having great difficulties. I arranged and rearranged several pieces of fruit and vegetable only to wipe off the canvas after several hours of struggle. An ever growing wave of distractions has kept me from painting, and now I am still grappling with getting things settled so that I may clear my head enough to get back to work. Last week I had the transmission in my van completely toast itself while the legendary H. Philip Lauer was visiting, and of course this happened only one day before a big three day show in Harrisburg. We still managed to have a great time together. With help from my family and friends I was able to make it to the show, if only to spend two of the three days getting drenched in a constant rain. One of my favorite paintings found a new home, and I made many more friends and contacts throughout the weekend. The van is now back on the road, and tomorrow I will be back in the studio, hopefully starting a new painting.
Sunday, May 21, 2000Today I decided to start and finish a smaller painting. With several poppies from my mother's garden I made use of the late afternoon sun that finally came out after 3 days of rain. This was somewhat of a departure from the series I've been working on, mainly because tomorrow I will be spending the day in New York City at the International Contemporary Furniture Exhibition and I would not have had two consecutive days for a more involved endeavor. And rather than waste the first good sunlight I've had in several days, I decided to see what I could learn about brilliant glowing red. I feel that this is not necessarily the strongest composition, and my tendency last week would have been to merely place another object on the table next to the carafe. I feel that there is a certain weightless quality in the lack of balance of the large floppy flowers as they hang over precariously from the carafe, and to balance the composition with yet another object would have helped to suppress that sense of air and weightlessness.
Saturday, May 20, 2000I might be finished with this painting, although today was so dark and overcast that I may not be seeing some areas that obviously will need more work. If tomorrow is any brighter, I will have a closer look at this piece, otherwise I believe it stands on its own as a fairly strong painting. While I felt as though I was going too far with the rendering and articulation of some of the areas, I believe I successfully juggled some other areas with big and powerful decisions, enough to hopefully balance it all out.
Click on the image to see a larger version.In the past week I have executed three similar paintings, all of them strong images with a profound and almost minimalist simplicity. All of them seem to celebrate the spaces around and between the objects, each one speaks to me of a human dialogue. As though a piece of fruit could turn its back on another, or as though a tomato needs a personal space, I feel that I am approaching still-lives almost as portraits of people. As I look at my rapidly filling studio gallery, I see a lively and colorful view of simple studies that have embraced a certain humanity for me. I repeatedly return to the solitude and silence of my workspace, yet I have projected myself and the conversations and personal situations that reverberate in my head into these paintings. My own experiences and the experiences of those closest to me have inadvertently become the foundation of this current series of work, and I feel that more and more of this is making sense to me with each passing day.
Or maybe I'm just losing it.
Friday, May 19, 2000I started a mid sized painting today of an apple and a strawberry despite dark and overcast skies. If tomorrow becomes brighter, I will swiftly alter the painting while finishing it. If it remains overcast then I will be finishing a fairly dark and subdued painting. It is quite a challenge to find cues of shape and definition within the dark side of the red apple, and as a result I will be using many of the reflected colors to help shape the piece of fruit. Hopefully I will be able to do this without rendering too much of the life out of this fairly energetic beginning.
Thursday, May 18, 2000I finished yesterday's painting. I feel that it is a very successful painting, although for some reason this particular color of background always challenges my abilities to find color within the colors. This almost reads as a monochromatic painting, as the only colors seem to be varying degrees of saturation of each other. At first this seemed as though it would be a strangely off balance composition, but it seems to work well. The Greek olives were fun to paint with their oily shine on the rich violet green.
Click on the image to see a larger version.Ah yes, and today I was just notified of my acceptance to the Mount Gretna Outdoor Art Show in August.
Wednesday, May 17 2000I started a much larger painting of the same two tomatoes accompanied by a pair of Greek olives and set against a warmer background. I am attempting to extend my window of opportunity of afternoon sunlight by hanging a sheet of translucent plastic over the window. While it does diffuse the direct sun nicely, it seems to project an exceptionally warm glow to the room. Maybe somebody can educate me as to why this is so.
I will hopefully be finishing this painting tomorrow.
Sunday, May 14, 2000 Mother's DayAfter breakfast with Mom I immediately got back to work on yesterday's painting. It was nice to be able to focus on the various qualities of translucence and reflection within the colors of the tomatoes. I picked these two tomatoes because they were almost identical, yet there was great variation of colors based on which one was in the shadow of the other and which one was reflecting the brighter side of the setup.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Saturday, May 13, 2000I started a fairly large painting today of two tomatoes. I had a revelation last night about how it seems that so many of my paintings are about the objects, and not about the space that defines those objects. I decided that I wanted to really make the objects embrace a personality through the way they command the space around them. Rather than showcase larger than life tomatoes, I kept them from dominating the canvas, yet they seem to still maintain a certain power and presence. I feel a certain connection to this portrayal of an object against the expansive vista of air and horizon. There is something tangible about the spaces between these objects, just as the spaces between people seem to be the defining factor in the nature of their relationships, rather than just the people themselves. I shall finish this painting tomorrow.
Friday, May 12, 2000In frustration I destroyed the painting today. I never felt as though this piece was getting off the ground, and it's tough to make the decision if it was my approach or if the painting itself was not well started. I feel that I'm going over old territory, that I was starting a piece I've already done before. I will need something different for tomorrow, something that feels fresh and new and challenging. Tonight I must clear my head, tomorrow will be a new day.
Ah yes, and happy birthday to my brother Daniel and his wife Lisa.
Thursday, May 11, 2000I started a painting today.
Tuesday, May 9, 2000I just got back from my long weekend in Virginia and North Carolina. The Arts in the Park Show was enjoyable, and the fans of the arts in Richmond have made me feel both at home and inspired to get back to work. Aside from finding some good homes for several of my pieces, I had an opportunity to cultivate some excellent contacts and friendships with some of the other artists. On Saturday night I had dinner with the sculptor Marshall Burns and another abstract artist Miranda and her husband Bob. Marshall became an amazing source of insight and information throughout the weekend. I am honored to include such a warm and compassionate person in my ever growing circle of respected friends and artists.
After the show on Sunday I continued south to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to visit my brother Darren, his wife Judi and my two little nephews Tyler and Elliot. It was nice to relax in their opulent and luxurious home, and I dropped off some of my work for a gallery opening they are having this coming weekend. If you're in the area of Chapel Hill on Mother's Day weekend, you should definitely drop by. Contact me for details.
I shall sleep well tonight, and tomorrow I shall paint.
Thursday, May 4, 2000I finished yesterday's painting. I found myself discovering some subtle yet powerful effects in my pursuit of the glow of this setup. My biggest attraction to this simple composition was the all encompassing brilliance of luminosity that seems to pervade this arrangement. I found what appears to be a halo of light around some of the objects, and I was able to actually assign specific colors to the glare that seems to blur certain areas together. Typically I would lose an edge to help an object to turn in space, but now I feel that I can see where the edge is lost as a result of light and glare. I find I can see the actual color, but with experimentation I can search and find the colors that occur in the transition of glare within the colors. This seems to be a step toward realism while at the same time giving me some powerful abstract elements in the gesture of the strokes within these transition areas.
Click on the image to see a larger version.Tomorrow I will leave for the weekend for the Arts in the Park show in Richmond, Virginia.
Wednesday, May 3, 2000I immediately jumped into a larger painting of the pear flanked by a pair of strawberries. I'm planning on finishing this painting tomorrow. I'm a bundle of nerves as I get ready to go on the road this weekend for the 2-day show in Richmond, Virginia, and I'm attempted to focus my anxiety onto this fairly simple composition. So far it's been a lively painting, and I feel that I've ripped out a fairly heated foundation of energy and observation.
Tuesday, May 2, 2000I was finally able to get back into the studio after a small show last weekend at Lebanon Valley College, many dark rainy days and what seems like constant interruptions. As a warm-up I decided to execute a small painting focused on an odd green glass vase I picked up in Philadelphia several weeks ago. Despite many distractions I feel that I was able to resolve a simple and solid painting.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Saturday, April 22, 2000Despite it being fairly overcast all day, I was able to complete the painting. This piece did not maintain the energy and brilliance of some of my last few paintings, but I do think it is, for the most part, successful.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Friday, April 21, 2000It was dark and the rain fell heavily all day. At around 6:00 there was a brief clearing in the sky. I had about an hour to push and pull some of the colors, although I did not manage to accomplish enough to call this painting finished.
Thursday, April 20, 2000I spent another day with the odd flower arrangement. Although I am making great strides toward resolving some strong areas I do feel that this does not seem to contain the necessary elements to support a solid rendition of form and depth. Despite the forecast of overcast skies, I will attempt to continue work on this painting tomorrow.
Wednesday, April 19, 2000I came into possession of a large multi-colored bouquet of flowers, and as a result I spent much of the day arranging and rearranging setups with various vases, backgrounds and flower combinations. I settled on an odd assortment of daisies, chrysanthemums and some small vivid violet accent flowers in a clear glass vase, with a strawberry just for the sake of some brilliant red. I had always avoided clear glass vases in the past due to the lack of cues to define shape, shading or even the diffraction of light in the shadows. I made an energetic start, but it will remain to be seen if I can pull a balanced and articulated painting out of this arrangement.
On a side note, this painting is being built on top of a previous painting from the first week of February, the still-life of daisies with a coffee cup. That particular piece did not help to represent what I considered to be a cohesive body of work, and I was increasingly agitated by seeing what I felt was a weak and overworked painting. While even this piece does not yet embrace the boldness and simplicity I would like my work to project, I do feel that it is a strong step forward in my development as a painter.
Sunday, April 16, 2000I started and finished a small painting of a lemon and a strawberry. It was fun to play with such brilliant colors, although I am still intrigued with how much variety there can be in the rendering of a yellow piece of fruit. Of course lemon yellow becomes an excellent departure point when rendering a lemon, although every single color on the palette winds up coming into play for the shadowing.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Thursday, April 13, 2000I finished the painting today. I do feel that it progressed well, but I think I was having difficulty maintaining a certain level of simplicity within the colors of the green apples. The transition from gold to green is somewhat evasive for me.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Wednesday, April 12, 2000I started a small painting of two green apples and a strawberry. In this earliest stage of this painting I feel as though I have captured an interesting dialogue within the odd spacing of the objects.
Sunday, April 9, 2000I finished the painting of the red pear and the green apple today. It was a good day of painting, although I do believe I was just on the verge of overworking this piece.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Saturday, April 8, 2000I continued work on the still-life, but the sky grew extremely dark with an oncoming storm and I unfortunately had to cut the session short.
Friday, April 7, 2000I made some progress on the painting, although I was having a hard time committing to the composition. I repeatedly made subtle changes to the layout. At first I was zoomed up too closely on the pieces of fruit, and they felt as though they were crowded into the frame, as well as to each other. I then zoomed back a bit to allow them some more room, and then I zoomed back one more time to give them even more room as well as some room from each other. It is surprising how such simple changes can effect the overall feel of the entire painting. I'm interested in the composition being dominated by the subjects, although I am also interested in allowing a certain amount of air around and through the painting, just to allow a little more of a course of movement for the eye. These are sensitive issues, as they almost give in to the ever-present shortcoming of painting a painting, and not providing a potent stage to properly present my subject of study. These changes were roughed in by pushing and pulling the edges of the colors with my palette knife, tomorrow I will carve out some more defined color decisions with the brushes.
I received a call last night from my old friend Jay who made the drive to my opening last weekend from Havre de Grace with his wife and their neighbor. We were discussing the whereabouts of one of our art school teachers, Peter Collier (who I have mentioned on several occasions in this journal). I had always thought that in my steadfast approach and purity of intent toward my painting that I was sharing company with another artist who was so vital in my own development as an artist. I was surprised to hear that the last times he was seen was not as a painter, but once as a radio DJ for a jazz station and then another time as an employee in a record store. I was floored. All this time I thought I was following in his footsteps as an artist and earnestly applying his wit and wisdom to my work. I imagined that I was achieving a certain personal vindication in following his teachings. I've always told people I paint the way I was taught, and my teachers (he in particular) would be proud to look over my shoulder at what I have done with my education. At this point, I feel that I am alone in this pursuit, even more alone than before. I realize that his job was to help me discover my own direction, regardless of where his own path might lead. In this, he has succeeded. I will always put great value on that aspect of my education, although at this point I really do feel as though I am ascending a long and difficult path, with very little to guide me.
I guess this is as it should be.
Thursday, April 6, 2000I finally started on an arrangement of pieces of fruit, but only after playing with various setups of flowers and vases. I was only able to rough up a canvas and mix some colors before a blast of wind knocked out the electricity and telephone lines. I continued mixing paint in preparation for what should be a productive day tomorrow.
Wednesday, April 5, 2000I spent the bulk of the day playing with different still-life objects. I feel that I've over painted the little blue glass vase, although I am hard pressed to find an acceptable replacement. Needless to say, I was unable to get any painting done today.
On a side note, I find myself looking back more than I should. This morning I was notified that one of the two landscapes I executed while in France has been sold to somebody in San Francisco. I remember that day in the sunny field outside of Arles, in the tiny town of Raphael. While I was painting Jodie would walk through the little village exploring, I could see her on the long lane leading back to the guesthouse from a great distance away. The image is so real, being so far away from everything but her, and seeing her tiny figure from far away walking toward me. The two of us were all alone together, so many miles from home. We really were partners in that adventure of travel and exploration. We were both so comfortable and relaxed in the brilliant sun, we were not even aware of how short our happiness together would be. It was not even a year ago, but already it feels like a dust-covered memory, hazy and faded from the passing of time. I still feel like the same person, I can still feel that thrill of seeing her, of seeing her so happy to see me. Knowing I will package this painting and send it away feels as though I'm sending somebody I don't even know one of my most valuable cues to remember that day, to remember her, to remember who I was. It is only a simple painting of a lonely tree in the middle of a vast empty field.
At this point, it feels more like a self portrait.
Saturday, April 1, 2000The opening reception was a great success. Many people, including some that I hadn't seen in a long time came out for the show. I feel that I was able to compile a strong body of work and I believe that it was well received. The milestone of the exhibition is always a powerful inspiration to the importance of what I am doing.
Thursday, March 30, 2000I finally had an opportunity to get back to work in the studio. I wasted no time in immediately slamming this painting into a strong and lively finish. This is finished just in time to be framed and displayed in my upcoming show in two days. I'm sure it will not yet be dry, but it should add nicely to the atmosphere of the exhibition to be able to still smell the wet paint and linseed oil. It should also help round out the show of what is predominantly flower arrangements with very little fruit and vegetable still-lifes.
Sunday, March 26, 2000I started a painting of a pear, an apple and a brilliant red tomato. Hopefully I will be able to continue working on this painting tomorrow, although my day job may supersede my ability to take time to paint.
Saturday, March 25, 2000Apparently I did learn something from my last painting, and I was able to sufficiently complete what I had started yesterday. My eyes are drawn to several areas that seem as though they could still be brought to a higher level of resolution, but I also feel that I would start finding all of the intermediate grays that sap the excitement out of an otherwise bright and lively painting. I did manage to discover a translucent quality to the leaves, finding some interesting colors where they seemed to glow from the sunlight. The papery petals of the tulips also seemed to yield some brilliant colors as a result of glowing with light from within. The more I develop my abilities to see and translate what I see, the more precisely I will hit the mark each time with fewer strokes.
Click on the image to see the finished painting.
Friday, March 24, 2000I went downtown to Central Market this morning and picked up a bouquet of yellow tulips. I kicked off the spring season with what feels like a fairly small painting. I'm hoping this will serve as a preliminary study for a series of much larger pieces, as I feel that the only way I can truly embrace the energy of spring is to work bigger, bolder and with more color. If I learned anything from my last painting, this piece should be resolved tomorrow without any problem.
If you find yourself hungering for yet more dramatization of the angst of a painter, see Winter 2000 for the previous season's struggles.
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