this morning i’m stretching a 72x28” primed linen canvas so that i can start work on a new taiko drummer painting.
cafe drawing / paintings on my north studio wall /
11:41 PM: i’m writing this from the coffee shop/restaurant in crestone. we’re here this morning because our internet is down due to a worn out/broken modem, which they can’t come out from alamosa and replace till tuesday. so we’re on the cafe internet; interesting to be without internet!
i may get to the studio later today and get some work done, although i was able to make a drawing here at the cafe, of a guy sitting at our table.
BELOW: paintings on my studio north wall: upper left: study of gorky painting. then there are 5 recent collages on paper and finally, on the right, a study of a vermeer portrait in oil on linen, painted about 15 years ago, along with other similar studies.
taiko drummer painting hanging in our house /
this 72x28” painting of a taiko drummer hangs in our living room and is omne of our favorites.
exposed flight & celebration 6 whited over /
2:19 PM: 3 whited over canvases i’ll be working into during the coming week.
celebration 6, 16x16” partially whited over today
exposed flight and celebration 6 on my studio floor, after being whited over
12:56 PM: i’m in an odd place right now with my work. i do something, like what i did yesterday, then the next morning i think it’s gross. so i proceeded to do one of my favorite things: the whiteover. never an opaque layer of white; thin enough to allow some underlying pieces of the composition to appear, faintly.
i won’t work back into them until they’re about 70 percent dry tomorrow morning, when, we hope, we’ll know the outcome of todays all important election.
day 3, "exposed flight" / REVISITING celebration 6 / yesterdays sky /
12:53 PM: exposed flight has once more become a vertical, as it was on day 1. i made a drawing of tree trunks using a warm brown color, adding deep blue water and a warm pink between the branches. this was, of course all inspired by a couple of print outs of my many creek photos. what peeks through is some of what i did yesterday, with the head of one of the two drummers, inspired by the photo i shot on the tv screen, of fred armisen. earlier, i had drawn lines in black compressed graphite, dividing the entire canvas into cubes, some of which can still be seen.
at the end of my painting day, i modified celebration VI, 16x18” which was last worked on march 25. below is the earlier version (left) and todays
day 2, "exposed flight" /
exposed flight, 12x56” as she looked at the end of my painting day today
3:21 PM: exposed flight is now a horizontal, with two drummers dominating. one, a female taiko drummer, was inspired by photos i shot during a taiko celebratory event here in crestone.
after applying numerous collaged pieces of paper earlier, i flipped the canvas 90 degrees, which is when the drummers began to appear. my process may seem convoluted, but this is who i am. as i’ve said before, 6 decades of painting have lead me to this point, and all my lessons along the way lie beneath what i did today.
to be continued tomorrow. right now, the predicted snow is about to arrive, and i’m headed back to the house before it begins.
12:52 PM: i began collaging exposed flight this morning, enjoying the extra hour we gained this morning!
i flipped it 360 and am learning from the new perspective.
"exposed flight", 56x12" /
3:26 PM: yesterday i strated a new 56x12” painting: exposed flight. this is a very early stage, the two figures on the lower portion have appeared in earlier paintings and were inspired by two paddlers i saw from a bridge over the river in alamosa, colorado. i’ll pick up where i left off tomorrow morning.
exposed flight, 56x12” as she looked moments ago
stretching a new canvas / fayum study /
12:39 PM: today i’m stretching a 12x56” canvas in preparation for a new painting.
12:11 PM: this is a fayum study in oil on canvas, that i made a few decades ago in the british museum. it hangs now in our home.
sunset yesterday, looking West from our house
sunset in stages / creekscape, 2022 /
BELOW: top to bottom, left to right: 5:40, 5:47, 5:52, 5:54, 6:01, 6:08, 6:22 pm
creekscape with red letters, 12x40” oil & collage on canvas, 2022
1:58 PM: last week, rummaging around in my studio storage space, i came across this creekscape, painted in 2022, during a period when i was regularly going to make small gouaches & watercolors at one of our creeks. the collaged element on the left is critical to this composition, the rest of which is painted in the earth tones that characterize much of my work; especially the paintings i made in greece, from 1963-1978.
further work on "windfall light" / yesterdays sunset /
windfall light, 16x29” as she looked following todays session
2:40 PM: one of the paintings i worked on yesterday, windfall light, 16x29”, was interesting but i was not satisfied with it this morning upon entering the studio. so i went back into it, with some strong colors on the left. it remains to be seen what more i may do to it tomorrow.
BELOW: windfall light as she looked yesterday and today
BELOW: 3:17pm, yesterdays sunset at 5:51 pm. later that night the wind picked up and is still gusting to 40mph, with cloudy, threatening skies & some rain a few hours ago.