SENTIMENTAL

UNTITLED work on collage. The heart is sparked with 23 carat gold. Just a sweet little drawing.

"GRACE"

MORE BLUE for you. Again a simple brush line drawing on a wonderfully tactile background. It's mixed with transparent acrylic gesso which feels like fine sand paper when dry.

Only a bit of color for the bird's dinner and tail; and a touch of white to continue the table-top left. This small painting (4 by 6 inches) gets a small monogram signature below the tail. SOLD/ PRIVATE COLLECTION

BIRD WITH LETTERS

OWLS live in the dense oaks across the street from a friend's house in central Florida. Sometimes they call even in the daytime from the dark shadows there. Their wingspans are surprising as they swoop low and silent at dusk.

The background is similar to Egyptian faience in color. There are some color additions in pencil and crayon and this drawing is a mixture of acrylic paint and india ink with flow agent. About 5 X 7 inches.

FLUTTER-BY

Water color and ink and acrylic......SOLD

HOME

When a dog gets adopted from a pound they go to their 'forever' home.
The title for this painting is "I ONCE WAS LOST..." from the hymn 'Amazing Grace.'
Maybe Grace is the dog's name?

ANCIENT doggies

This very-mixed-media piece is painted on dark blue acid-free board.

There are little designs of pyramids and papyrus so I assume they're running along the Nile.

SENTIMENT

I DON'T want to forget this new image. It's a painting over a collage of tissue over a dappled black and white background.

I like the look; 'like graffiti. And I still get to play with some letter forms.

SIMPLY HUNGRY...

HERE'S a neat-o technique that produces an interesting line quality.

I drew the dog using a rolling writer or other hard pen and pressed hard to indent the line into the paper surface. Then I rub oil pastel all over the paper. An application of watercolor to the line sinks into the drawing groove and away from the oily paper surface.

How to make the watercolor  lettering stay put: use water-based crayon OVER the oil crayon when you need a more accepting surface. You can also use a utility knife or razor to scratch lines in to the oil pastel. These new lines will hang on to a little watercolor; think cross-hatching techniques or very fine detail.

GOLD BIRD VI; the last

Here's the final entry in the series of Gold Bird Variations. I'm fond of the stencil I cut depicting a pomegranate.

An Expedition...

These guys wade into tall grass and new territory. But there is confidence in numbers

A tiny little acrylic/watercolor 'bout 3 by 5 inches. SOLD

SUMO KITTY

CATS love to eat...and when they're ready they let you know it.
This one has already had a nibble, and he didn't wait to use chop sticks.
Watercolor and pencil influenced by imari colors and patterns

The Fifth GOLD BIRD

THERE ARE some interesting textures on this collage. The surface is like sandpaper because of Liquitex's transparent gesso.

The watercolor leaf forms sort of bead-up on it and are nice with the dark grays behind the gold bird.

A TILE TRANSFORMED

YESTERDAY I added a comment on a blog: we were discussing 'painter's block'. I made a few suggestions adding up to: JUST PAINT!


I had to do something constructive then before my workshift a t the Gallery. So I took a sheaf of scans I had made of an old Italian tile. It's not hand painted but handprinted and in a less than

beautiful blue .  The pink one on the pile of 16 shows most of the original pattern intact.

I glazed over the papers with experimental combinations of acrylic mixed with
flow medium. I took them with me to work and last night cut and tore them into reconfigured
8 or 9 inch collage squares. You can see the gloss of some of the paint glazes in this studio shot. Now I can paint more on these interesting collage backgrounds.

GOLD BIRD VARIATION: IV

AND the series continues. This is the fourth in the series of collages. Again mixed media but primarily acrylic or other water based paints or water soluble crayon. This little birdie again in 23 carat gold on copper.

I like the vertical format and the round planetary shape that indicates the 'sky' area. Looking at this collage you can see my design sense that contributes to a painting like yesterday's "WHADDA..." That painting has crisp starts and stops of painted pattern.

Someone asked if I listened to the Goldberg Variations whilst working on these. I didn't. By coincidence, I learned yesterday that Jerome Robbins did an entire ballet based on Bach's score.

A PAINTING THAT LOOKS LIKE....

...A COLLAGE. I think this is a good, though older, painting to show in that it has the appearance of a collage. It's called 'WHADDA...'

The original is an oil monoprint line drawing on an abstract acrylic background. Acrylic, watercolor and gouache provide the details. This good dog also got treated to a halo in
23 carat gold. 2009.

GOLD BIRD VARIATION: III

Don't scroll through these birdies too quickly; the techniques are similar but each is a lesson
in composition for me.

This one has a stenciling technique creating the foliate forms. After the painting (acrylic on paper) I put a layer of Liquitex transparent gesso over the whole surface. That gives the surface a nice tooth for colored pencil details.

The gold bird went on last. 23 carat gold should never be lacquered ; that dulls its brilliance.

GOLD BIRD VARIATION: II

I like this composition and the limited palette. There's lots of visual space around the collage elements, so one concentrates on the details.

As in the other collages (click on the title above to view them on my website), the bird is on gilded copper foil. The other element is a drawing on typewriter correction film. The white is transferred onto a randomly painted dark paper. I'm always looking for new ways to make marks on paper...

NOTHING to do with art...

...and all to do with having fun. This portrait was taken at the entrance to the dinner in the dining hall at San Simeon (aka: Hearst Castle) at a holiday dinner. It was good fun to drink the bubbly and a lot of other libations with friend Carol and my beloved partner Bill. Our tuxedoes still fit well at the beginning of the dinner!

San Simeon is part of California's State Park system and there are a few details of the grounds on a December posting.

GOLD BIRD VARIATION; I

The backgrounds for these collages start with the very last contents in my acrylic tubes.

I can start these small abstracts at the gallery when it's quiet during the dinner hours. At closing time I have a sheaf of colorful paper on which to build compositions.

'SHORE BIRD'

I'VE developed a series of birdie collages on rag papers; most will fit into an 11 X 14 inch frame. I like doing small works....

As far as the detail in gold is concerned: it's like a little tile. The bird is drawn freehand on copper foil; flipped over (to reveal an embossed drawing) and gilded in 23 carat gold.
It's all assembled with double sided archival tape. Voila! A rich, small work for other near-sighted folk.

I'll put this on my studio website on the GOLD BIRD VARIATIONS page..