"Waiting" - paintings and music by William Hoshal

Well, all I can say is that it's time for me to get off my you know what and start posting in here again ...to that end.....

"Waiting" 

(plein air landscape studies and music)

Last Days of Summer cont...

"Last Days of Summer #2: Towards Brin's Mesa"; 8x10; oil on linen
click here to bid on this painting

The second daily study for the end of the summer....

This is looking back towards Brin's Mesa in Sedona; 6am - 8am

"Last Days of Summer #2: Towards Brin's Mesa"; 8x10; oil on linen

Mixed Messages

"MIXED MESSAGES" 12"x16"
acrylic on panel
currently at Gallery 527
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Listen up kiddies, I've got two new lessons for you.

First up: Karma is a bitch.

Less than twenty four hours after using this very forum to elucidate about some recent close-calls with unobservant drivers near our studio and home, I wound up in an accident on a snowy road at the Grand Canyon that has shaken not only my confidence in the four-wheel drive capability of my previously mentioned truck, but left me questioning what the universe is trying to tell me from time to time.

Which brings me to lesson two: The universe has a perverse sense of humor.

As I was driving up to said canyon grandness, I was bemoaning the fact that there wasn't any snow on the ground. This is because my wife and I, both being artists have been waiting two months for weather -- any kind of weather -- to arrive here in Northern Arizona. You see (as other artists will attest), bad weather makes for great paintings and photographs.

I was worried that once again, the National Weather Service had promised us snow, and all that I was seeing was rain. Granted, rain is better than nothing, but snow is better.

About ten miles south of the canyon, the snow hit. And it was clear that all of my concerns were unfounded. At this point, just for kicks, the universe had someone pull out in front of me at a snails pace as if to remind me of the previous evening's rant. Not to be deterred from my winter wonderland mindset and with visions of Moran Point covered in snow and hoar-frost, I slowed even further, shifted into four-wheel drive, and settled back to enjoy a slightly longer drive to the spot where Kim and I were meeting up.

So here I was, in one of the world's wonders draped in new snowfall, with my lovely wife and happy puppy, nestled safely and warmly in a large four-wheel drive vehicle. None of which matters when a snow-covered ice patch decides to send you into opposing lanes.

Mixed messages indeed.

Martini time...

Sometimes it's just about the painting... My mind was strangely quiet this weekend. Perhaps being in awe of the slew of great painters I've been studying. So many brilliant painters, so much paint to place Pear Martini: 8x10 oil on canvas panel

Age and energy

The topic of age was in the air the other night. Listening to NPR, the programs "All Things Considered" and "Fresh Air" were discussing artists and age. A question posed was this: does an artist create more lasting and meaningful works of art because they are advanced in age?

One person mentioned was Monet, who arguably created his best work during his advanced years in his garden at Giverny. Also J.S. Bach, who completed singular works including the B Minor Mass at a point in his late fifties -- advanced age for the 18th century.

While the list of aging geniuses is long, so too is the list of highly accomplished youngsters creating their seminal works before the age of forty.

Does then, the maturity and experience of age surpass the energy and risk-taking of youth when it comes to art? Ironically, the question may be itself a victim of infancy. Consider that only in the last 80 or so years has the average life expectancy increased beyond fifty. A relatively short amount of time in the history of human artistic endeavors. In short, we maybe haven't been living long enough yet to arrive at an accurate evaluation.....and does it even matter.....

I suppose I found this interesting because it hits so close to home for me. Here I sit in front of an easel, embarking on a new artistic life at the age of 46. I sincerely hope my best work is in front of me.

"Watermelon and plums" 9x12, oil on canvas panel

New year, new directions

(So...a first post....intimidating as hell....)

A few weeks ago, I admitted for the first time to myself and a few friends that I thought a phase of my life that had dominated for nearly 25 years was over and that something new was on the horizon. After being a professional musician and composer for nearly half of my life, it was becoming apparent to me that things were changing...music, though still a primary force, was no longer the element of my creative life that was foremost.

...to be honest, I had been feeling this for quite some time -- I just wasn't ready to admit it out loud. Of course, my wife, ever more aware than myself, knew it before I said it -- one of these days I'll learn to go to her first rather than stew about things until I drive everyone else nuts.

The short version (the long version will most certainly be discussed here in the future) is that painting, and all of the things that go with it, has become much more than the therapeutic diversion it had started as a little over one year ago. It has become an obsession....and I feel much better every time I admit. So, dear blog reader, there it is...

Welcome to my first year as a full-time visual artist. I have no idea where this new direction will lead, but as a teacher once told me...we are not in control of the art, we are in service to it...