Within Bubbles

Within Bubbles

The sketch responds to images that surfaced in an early morning dream, in between sleeping and waking up. There were squirrels in the dream. I was looking out a second story window at them on the ground below. I began seeing bubbles floating above the squirrels. Within the bubbles women began to form. And once formed they slowly floated up into the canopy of trees. The bubbles popped, just outside my window. The women disappeared. I remember being a little disappointed.

I didn’t keep track of the squirrels after that. I wonder if they felt relief, unburdened from whatever connection they had with these women?  

I did the sketch without the squirrels first (below); thinking the bubbles holding women was enough of the dream to show. I even added a crowd as witnesses to whatever was going on. But of course, the sketch lacked reality. 

I eventually gave in and did the sketch again, with the squirrels. And as you can see, what is happening, is so much easier to understand.

Graphite on waxy paper

Happy New Year

Green Bottle

Green Bottle

The original request

To be included in a still life

Was denied

The excuse

The wine remained inside

Bleeding as yet

Had not occurred

Of course there was despair

After all

The bottle was dead

As was the blood

Perfect

For a still life

With some sole searching

A role was found

Not in a still life

But the experience

Would serve well

For future roles

Posing on a table

Women

In conversation

Long into the night

Perfect for

The bleeding to occur

The painting has been leaning against a wall in my studio, waiting to be finished. I decided it is done enough for now. I may play with it some more when the bottle makes it into a still life, part of a history for the bottles career.

16”x 20” Acrylic on canvas panel

Park with Guys

Park with Guys

The painting is based on photos taken last summer in London. These guys are in a corner of Hyde Park near Marble Arch. I painted this yesterday while working on another painting of women on a beach. There was this foolish sense of accomplishment, working with a figurative composition, where women weren’t included. Almost. I think the guy in the middle is pointing out otherwise.

15”x 11” Watercolor on 140# cold press

Off the Grid

Off the Grid

I used to escape far away north

This week before the New Year

A cold place with blazing fires

And candlelight at night

Blinded by the snow and wind

During the day

A cottage on an abandoned shore

Neighbors spending the season

Some place warm

Off the grid for a week

Before another year

Some escape far away to islands

In the Caribbean

Blazing torches and beating drums

With candles and crystal glasses

Colored liquids being served

On linen covered table tops at night

Sun warmed sand and breezes

During the day

Free together

On an abandoned shore

Planning ways

To staying off the grid forever

I finally sat down and painted today, a couple of days before the New Year. The references for the bathers, are from my volumes of sketches from life drawing sessions in the past year.

18”x 12” Watercolor on 140# cold press 

After

After

The painting is loosely based on thumbnail sketches I did last Thursday, posted as “Before and After”. This is my watercolor version of “After”. The place is imagined.

This was intended to be of the same shore as “Before” but in the future, when the wilderness as forest, is replaced by another kind of wilderness. See the previous post for “Before” .

My lifetime on a similar shore started after “Before”, and hopefully will be over before the “After” here, ever occurs.

15”x 11” Watercolor on 14# cold press

Before

Before

The painting is loosely based on thumbnail sketches I did last Thursday, posted as “Before and After”. This is my watercolor version of “Before”. The place is imagined. I never walked this shore. But I have wondered while walking similar shores along Lake Huron, about what might have came before, when such shores were first discovered, before, and I guess during the time when the original wilderness forests were being lumbered out.

I painted this painting and another titled “After” imagining what this same shore might look like in the future, if another form of wilderness took over. I will post “After” after I’ve posted this.

15”x 11” Watercolor on 140# cold press

Scott Monument

Scott Monument

A painting I did today based on a photo taken in Edinburgh. The monument ended up in a number of the photos I took while visiting this past summer.

11”X 15” Watercolor on 140# cold press

Breathing Room

Breathing Room

A pastel sketch based on a crowd photo, taken this summer in Edinburgh.

12”x 18” Pastel on 80# gray tint paper

Home

Home

I’ve been playing with pastels. I found the reference photo for this sketch in an old magazine.

12”x 18” Pastel on 80# gray tint paper

  

Embedded

Embedded

Summer escapes

Away to a bay

A great distance

From the craziness

Walking through forests

Along wind swept shores

Laying on a dock

Over smooth black water

In the dark

Except for stars

Sometimes a glowing moon

A perfect sunset

Sailing away from all

Potential perfect storms

If only I could have stayed

If only there was a wall

Between the two worlds

If only I could spend

The rest of life

Living in a place

Embedded in

My memories

Images like I painted here are embedded. They float up to the surface when I want/need to escape the latest news, sensationalizing again what’s bad in the world.

This is a smaller painting of a composition I have painted before. It’s for an upcoming show where what I show has to all fit within a limited space.

9”x 7” Watercolor on 140# cold press

Waiting for a Beautiful Woman

Waiting for a Beautiful Woman

There are these images. They reoccur from time to time. Today while another painting I was working on, dried, a little, I started sketching with paint left on the brush. I was soon back in London in the rain, standing under the roof overhang of a small restaurant in Russell Square, watching the crowd move through, from one end to the other.

I remember I was waiting for a beautiful woman, to join me for lunch.

15”x 5.5” Watercolor on 140# cold press

Through Branches

Through Branches

Imagine I’m not here

I don’t exist

Please don’t notice me

Not now

There was a time

But now

I know you too well

I imagined climbing down

Many times

Wanting to exist

In your eyes

Before

There was a time

Before

Much can be learned

Through branches

I did a few paintings today including looking through these branches from above. The reference photo was taken looking down across the Flushing River, a couple of years ago, while visiting the town where I attended high school. I was experimenting with wax again, which accounts for the foaming white areas pretending to be branches.

18”x 6.5” Watercolor on 140# cold press

Secret and Silence

Secret and Silence

I don’t know how they knew

What did I tell them

What could have been leaked

With my silence

I know how

What was discovered

Spread

Once they knew

It was a secret

I was doodling a while ago. I was in the waiting room of the car dealership while oil was being changed. I must have been waiting for someone to tell me something I hadn’t heard.

Using a black brush pen reduced all the usual doodle nonsense to solid black over white.

Both: 3.5”x 6” Ink brush on card stock

Wilderness 2

Wilderness 2

I painted and posted the first version of “Wilderness” on December 12^th. I experimented with wax in the first version, and was not happy with the overall result. The painting here is an attempt to improve the composition, and to have a wax-less version of “Wilderness”.

I will probably end up doing a version 3.

18”x 12” Watercolor on 140# cold press

After and Before

After and Before

I spent much of the day drawing thumbnail sketches, thinking up compositions for future paintings, and maybe ideas that lead to potential words.

I did quite a few. Hopefully I will carry through and do paintings of most.

Above are two compositions that intentionally go together. I’m looking forward to doing the paintings, and playing with some words.

Both: 14”x 9” Graphite on the unused side of discarded life drawings. 

Tuesday

Tuesday

On Tuesday in the evening I did the sketch above, based on a stranger in a crowd photographed long ago. I thought I’d figure out her story as I drew, something to put into words. But nothing came. I gave up and went to bed. And today I had moved on. I was sketching compositions for future paintings.

I decided to leave her alone and let her be just another face in the crowd,  I got around to drawing on a Tuesday.

11”x 14” Sanguine and colored pencil on Bristol, tinted a little. 

Wilderness

Wilderness

Above is imaginary. I did a few sketches prior to starting the painting. In the sketches the wilderness beyond was a forest of trees. By the time I started painting I was thinking of a man made wilderness.

20”x 15” Watercolor on 140#

Wall of Wax

Wall of Wax

I was experimenting with wax to establish predetermined permanent locations to leave the paper white. As you can see, I miscalculated a bit. The composition was out of my head, although, I know I’ve been at a place like this in the past.

20”x 15” Watercolor on 140# cold press

Castle and On a Stage

Castle and On a Stage

I was on the phone a couple of times today talking with some of my family. I find I doodle while talking, mostly listening. Above is what I drew. A few words were captured too, when I cropped.

4.5”x 10” red ink on graph paper

Model “S” Waking Up

Model “S” Waking Up

“S” posed this morning at the drop in life drawing session I attend most Saturdays. She did many shorter poses and then posed for the drawing above, the last pose of the day. To me she looks like she is just waking up, with an early morning stretch. “S” put a nice twist into the pose.

18”x 24” Sanguine and colored pencil on 80# paper

Model “S” Waiting

Waiting

A case of waiting

A bag of old dreams

Plopped on top

Closed within a room

Hidden in the dark

Till she lets him in

A case of waiting

Old dreams laid out

The case

Opened a little

Just in case

Enough to

Light up the room

A case of waiting

An empty bag

Plopped on top

In the corner

The open door

Waiting

Still a little light

In case he comes back

Above are a couple of my drawings of short poses “S” modeled for this morning at a drop in life drawing session I attend most Saturdays.

Both: 18”x 24” Sanguine on 80# paper

Model “C” Red Glow

Model “C” Red Glow

Today I spent much of the day drawing “C” using pastels. She was in the same pose as last week, when I painted her with acrylics. The lighting for the pose was filtered with tinted red theatre film, making “C” glow where the light was strongest.

The painting I did of “C” last week was from a different vantage point in the studio. I didn’t post it. I’m much happier with the pastel drawing than last weeks painting. I wasn’t able to get the painting too glow, and I think “C” looks better from the view I captured her in today.

Below is the painting of “C” I did last week from the different vantage point in the studio.

Above: 24”x 20” Pastel on grey colored paper

Below 24”x 20” Acrylic on stretched canvas. 

Stand

Stand

Somewhere in the middle

Of trying to live a happy life

When trying didn’t seem to be enough

Somewhere in the middle

Of struggling to move forward

When the advancement stopped

Replaced with survival

Life began to suck

For most

Somewhere in the middle

As they always expected

When dreams were realized

Life improved

Became easier

For a few

Somewhere in the middle

Of enjoying the good life

When crowds start to form

Life now includes fear

And anger

For everyone

Another doodle today while waiting for a model to show up at the studio. She was late.

3.5”x 6” Ink on card stock

Model “D” Placing Her

Model “D” Placing Her

Today in the morning “D” posed as shown in the drawing, for most of the session. I added a background that wasn’t in the studio to place her somewhere other than the stage. I started the drawing using conte, but ended up using pastels. “D” didn’t care.

24”X 18” Pastel on gray colored paper

Dead Fish

Dead Fish

Today in the afternoon, a couple of dead fish were brought in to pose, along with the usual crowd. They fit quite well with the others in the setting, for an hour or two under the hot stage light. It was during the third hour, when their smell became very noticeable and spread throughout the studio.

18”x 14” Acrylic on canvas board. 

Pool

Pool

A warm up sketch based on a photo. It never did warm up. I’d be there if I could.

11”x15” Watercolor on 140# cold press

Acting

Acting

I’ve decided they’re just acting, making something up.

11”x14” Watercolor and ink on Bristol. 

Redhead

Redhead

She had unnaturally red hair, enough so to stand out on the crowd, and end up in one of the many photos taken in Edinburgh this past summer. She ended up in a couple of sketches today, while fooling around with colored pencils on Bristol paper.

She may show up again when I get around to paint this week.

Top: 6”x 11”

Bottom: 8”x 13”

Model “S” A few Poses

Model “S” A few Poses

This morning at the drop in life drawing session “S” was the model. Above are my drawings from a few of his long poses.

Looking at the drawings now, not in the studio, out of context, maybe, has me thinking of a man in irons with a problem, not knowing what to do.

“S” played the part well. He isn’t like this at all.

18”x 24” Graphite on 80# paper