"Winter Display"

Always amazes me how many colors are still on display in nature during the winter....

"Winter Display"

8x10; oil on panel

"Winter Grouping"

The other day, my wife and I were out chasing snowballs with our Welsh Corgi, Lucas, in the greenway behind the house....well, Lucas was chasing snowballs, I was trying to make them as quickly as possible even though Lucas was running in circles around me, informing me that I wasn't doing it fast enough...or correctly...or aesthetically proper -- Corgis are quite bossy about these things -- and Kim was trying to film the whole process....

Anyway, after losing the feeling in my hands for about forty-five minutes, I noticed a group of willows that is usually unremarkable during the warmer months (I think....now, we'll have to see....). You can guess what happened....

"Winter Grouping"

 8x10; oil on panel

Flirting with winter.....

"Early Snow"; 6x6; oil on board

Felt a bit more like winter today....

Playing with Alizarin some more....

painting tally: 29...28 days

"Highway Meadow"; 6x6; oil on board

Today, I debated for awhile on what to write about....it was a toss-up between a conversation I had with my wife concerning "common-sense" and an incident I observed while standing in line at Starbucks for what will likely be my last Gingerbread Latte of the year (I have a problem and need to police myself).

In the end, the two actually went together in a weird way....but I chose the latte....er, latter.

First off, you should know that I don't generally spend an inordinate amount of time "checking out" members of the opposite sex. For one thing, I'm happily married to my beautiful wife Kim for 17 years and secondly, I tend to be somewhat absorbed in my own little world as I move around the planet with most of my energies being focused on not being a nudge to everyone else. This is just as true in art as it was in music....

Anyway, back to the story here....I was standing at the barista counter waiting for my latte to be completed and happened to glance over at the order counter. In a rare moment of awareness, I noticed what was undeniably a very attractive young woman ordering -- what else -- a soy latte, sans Ginger-anything. Taller than average, very shapely, and wearing the tightest of skin-tight tights. Ironically, this Venus only held my attention for minute -- it was the yutz behind her, thoroughly engrossed in the text message he was reading/writing that demanded my notice. So immersed was he that this post-pubescent hormone factory didn't even notice the scantily clad girl eighteen inches in front of him.

REALLY?!? Even I saw her.The female barista saw her. Half a dozen guys walking through the store saw her. The soccer mom behind the yutz saw her -- and stared daggers into her back.

But not this guy. Why? Because he was texting...TEXTING.....

Is it possible that the combined cabal of Apple, Verizon, and Facebook/Twitter has figured out how to undo half a million years of reproductive instinct with the wave of an emoticon?

Or is it just the death of common sense?

painting count: 15

...only in my dreams....

"If Only In My Dreams"; 6x12; oil on board

Okay....so I really feel like I missed the mark yesterday. Trying to redeem myself somewhat today.

-- painting count: still 11

The Alizarin Chronicles...

"Winter In The High Desert"; 6x6; oil on board

As I mentioned before, a friend recently got me thinking about substituting Alizarin Crimson for Cad Red on my palette....something I do occasionally....but haven't for awhile...

Anyhoo....

Painting count: 10

50x50

"Checking The Fences"; 8x6; oil on panel

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming....

A recent acquaintance asked me about a particular color I had used in the background of one of my still-lifes. I had to apologize for telling her that I had no real idea what the color was or even how I got to the color in the course of mixing it. Using a three color palette, it's pretty common (even desirable) that you're going to arrive at similar colors differently each time you mix. Even having done extensive color charts, often you're still winging it...especially in the heat of the moment.

Regarding that specific painting, all I could really ell her was that instead of Cadmium Red, I had probably used Alizarin Crimson.

Which of course, got me thinking........

painting count: 9

Fifty by Fifty.....

"The Other Side of the Parkway"; 8x6; oil on panel

So...as you might have suspected from the previous post, the plan is to complete fifty small paintings in fifty days....each painting taking no longer than fifty minutes. Of course, the trick is to try and have the paintings not look like they were done in fifty minutes each.

Most of the paintings will be available on DailyPaintworks

-- painting count: 8

Fifty paintings.....

"Don't Fall In"; 6x8; oil on panel

Another quick winter sketch.....

Fall

"Mountain Storms"; 10x12; oil on panel
click here to bid on this painting

It seems like I was just wishing for fall to start. Now the leaves have all but turned and fallen and we've even had a short-lived snow. Everything happened very quickly this year.....of course a few weeks recuperation tends to make one feel like they missed some things.

At any rate, I'm determined to get a few more fall paintings done in the actual outdoors before everything is gone and I have to resort to photos for a month or two....