Ball Jar 1

oil on panel  6" x 8"

We've got six inches of new snow and all the local schools are shut down and for the first time in thirty-two years all that means to me is it is a little tougher to walk over to the studio! A little celebration is in store with this little jar - I pushed to stay free and loose in technique while disciplined in ignoring the thing and seeing its essence. Easy to say, tough to do. 

PS it is great snow man snow - real sticky.

This painting may be purchased unframed for $125.

Please contact the artist for information. Thanks.

Leap of Faith

  oil on panel   6" x 8"

I tried to be a little looser, a little free with larger brushes - on a panel this small using larger brushes is a relative thing. I do love painting glass, I guess because it is the best example of what the process of painting requires - an absolute leap of faith - you have to suspend your preconceived knowledge of thing-nesss and allow yourself to experience the incredible complexity to be discovered in every day objects - trusting that the exploration of carefully seeing will bring your work closer to what is real. It is part physics; part chemistry; part spirit.

This painting may be purchased unframed for $125.
Please contact the artist for information.

Red Onion

Red Onion

oil on panel  6" x 8"

Still keeping to single subject, kinds re-learning my chops and shaking off the rust. Some reporter asked Rogers Hornsby once what he did during the winter. He answered, "I'll tell you what I do, I sit by the window and wait for spring."  I'm right there with him - but I'll take a day in the high 40s so I can get out and take a shot at making a painting.


This painting may be purchased unframed for $125.
Please contact the artist if interested.

Copper Pot

oil on panel  6" x 8"

Here's the first in what will officially be my painting a day exercise - the shoulder's feeling fine post surgery (the fine motor skill is a little shaky yet) - and I've finally got the studio squared away after sifting through & storing 32 years of teaching stuff - so it begins. I'll tell you that spending a couple of hours simply struggling to grab hold of space, light, and form is wonderfully rejeuvenating and maddening. Every time a relearning and toal absorbedness in the process is the challenge and the reward. Future postings will be plein air as weather permits but for now small objects found.

This painting can be purchased unframed for $125
please contact for further information.

Evening, Summer Solstice

oil on canvas   28" x 44"

This is one of three works I'll have in an exhibit at the George Washington University Loudoun Campus February 7 - March 25, 2011
at the GWU Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.

There will be an opening reception on Thursday, February 17, 

 6:00 to 8:30 pm.
I

Summer Fields

30" x 38"

oil on canvas

The thing about central Loudoun County, Virginia, is that you can still find places that seem to be in the middle of nowhere - empty and rural and quiet - and yet just a mile or two away are towns and houses and traffic and population. My task is to search out these places that seem to be beyond the times and temporal business of today. This painting was made at one of those places, somewhere near Hamilton and not far off from Leesburg, yet on a dirt road and away from everything. 

Barn at Fields' Farm

oil on panel

10" x 15"

Another view of the same barn.  I loved being able to roam around that old farm. It had been sold to the county for a new school but then the construction was held up for five years. I was always completely alone and able to choose my subjects and work in complete serenity. Unfortunately, the county managed to push through the school's construction and now the old farm is completely gone. The wise person said "nothing is gained without giving up something else."  

November Woods

44" x 50"

This big painting started out on site, bungee corded to an old, large aluminum easel with my french easel used for a balast / anchor against any breeze that might come up. After struggling with it for a couple of visits to the small creek not too far from home, the finishing work was done in my studio. Degas wrote that first year art students should draw for a year from plaster casts with the second year students moving up to actual still life subjects. Third year students would draw for another year, this time from the human figure. The study and application from the first three years should be such that the fourth year students would work only from memory of what had been seen.  I had to go back to look again and again on this one. Maybe modern man's memory just isn't as supple.

Empty Barn

oil on panel  6" x 8"

As far as I can tell, this barn sat right about where the middle of a new high school just north of Purcellville, Virginia now sits.  It was a great place to work - I could drive my truck back in among the sheds and barns and fields. No one around and interesting subjects to work from. In this one I've just tried to keep it simple and minimize brushwork, trying to catch the light pouring in around the edges.

On The Way To Middleburg

oil on canvas

28" x 50"

Early fall, brisk weather, and a runaway sky full of nimbus clouds racing overhead like a stampede. working in a brush - dropping frenzy, trying to grab hold of being alive in that moment. 

About as good as life gets!

yikes!

Blue Baking Dish, Apples, and Knife

6" x 9

oil on panel

I'm including this painting now because of the knife. a week ago this morning I had rotator cuff surgery on my good (right) shoulder. Thus the knife.  This morning at the doctor's they told me I won't be back 100% for 12 months.   I'm not sure when I'll be able to paint anything, which is distressing (to say the least) but I'm thinking about maybe getting pastels out and working small things with my arm still in the sling for now. We'll see. (I've considered non dominant hand (left) knife paintings. Seems to be too desperate.   

One thing's for certain, it won't heal any faster if I sit around and mope - so watch this space for new works. Without the set-back I'd be burying this place with good stuff by now.

better than ever awards

Hammers and Coffee Mug
oil on panel  8" x 6"

Well, so long to the class of 2010 and before they get too far down the road I'm announcing the Art Awards for this year.  Just imagine an award named after each of you, given in honor of you each being the best you we have ever seen. No one has ever been a better Sophie or Hannah or Agnes or Amelia or Jacob or Yaqub or Crysta or Meg or Alexis or anyone else in our group. Because when it comes down to it, the only award that can really matter is the one you give yourself secretly when the process of making art takes you away from the everyday and your heart, eye, and hand come into alignment for a golden moment.
So guys, get out there and learn something and keep up the life-long search for that award
that really means something.