1:51 PM: i sent my prayer to st. anthony to find at least .75” of precipitation by the end of the day today, which will get us out of extreme drought and almost back up to normal for this time of year. it will likely come in bursts, and one has just started as i write this.
today i broke through the gap in my ability to make new paintings and started 6-19-22 tokyo drummer, 78x32.” it’s being painted on a piece of a roll of primed linen i had gone over with a deep grey oil color many years ago. i have no idea what i ahd in mind when i did that, but i obviously was thinking of making a series of paintings with that dark grey ground underneath. well, at least a decade later, i’m doing exactly that! i can’t count the number of times i climbed the stairs to my studio loft, found this roll of canvas and did nothing with it. i simply wasn’t ready.
with the new 6-19-22 tokyo drummer earlier today
browsing through my newly gifted matisse book this morning, which gave me back my painting groove
10:11 AM: last week my dear friend dan gifted me a new matisse book: matisse; the early years in nice, 1916-1930. i was browsing through it this morning over coffee, when the spirit may have returned, followoing my dry spell, which always happens after the close of an exhibition. we’ll see where it leads today.
3:14 PM: as i browsed my wonderful new matisse book at the end of my painting day, i glanced towards the north side of my studio, at a vignette i found sweetly characteristic of my energy. on the left, a study i made years ago of 2 matisse drawings i love; below that, a couple of figures i have floating around the studio, which i placed in an intimate pose; to the right of them, a fayum post card, behind which is a ceramic piece made by my friend dan, behind which is a cracked ceramic vase and to the right a photo of myself painting plein air by the creek, shot about 10 years ago.
a corner of my studio