View from The Backseat

I started this painting after a drive to Bat Cave. (Yes there is a town near here call "Bat Cave.") It was fall, hilly and near the Blue Ridge Parkway--sort of. So this is a painting about that drive. A day trip.

I had to really commit to this "Opposing Forces" design strategy to make this painting work. Take a look at my book, Master Disaster, or, better still, hire me to teach a workshop for your group and learn how powerful these strategies are. Of course, I'm using a Contrast of Temperature, Warm v. Cool Color Strategy. (36 x 36, acrylic)

Skipper

Here is my latest. After painting the girl cannon-balling off the end of the dock in "The Optimist and the Pessimist" (which just sold!), I wanted to try my hand at one more motion painting. Is this one girl skipping or four? It doesn't matter. What matter is that she/they bounce!

"Skipper, 40 x 30, acrylic

Moving Heaven and Earth

Being an artist is great. I moved both heaven and earth yesterday in this painting--and came out with a better painting. These are "The Optimist and the Pessimist." (acrylic 40 x 30) Before (bottom) and After (top). Are you an Optimist or a Pessimist?

Truth, Fiction and White Lies

I spent last week agonizing over this painting. I felt that I had set the bar too high with my last grid piece. A couple of days ago I printed out and early version of it and added black and white to the RYB piece, and bit the bullet and painted it in. What a difference.

Those of you who have studied with me know where I'm coming from when I impose a color strategy on a painting. This was a great lesson for myself. Hire me for a workshop and I'll give you the scoop--and many more, for that matter.

Milton Bradley, Eat Your Heart Out

This is the companion piece to my last entry, "everyone Else Lived on the Hill." I haven't decided on a name, but someone suggested "Milton Bradly on Acid." I love this idea, but need to tone it down a bit, if I'm going to write it on the edge of the canvas.

Push/Pull, acrylic 30 x 40

Didn't you love to swing? I preferred the huge swings at the park, but these swing sets that threatened to tip over when you went to high held a certain amount of danger that was irresistible to us kids.

Someday, when I have my museum retrospective, I will find one of these swing sets and do a big painting like this one, and hang it from the top bar--and maybe another one of a girl hanging by her knees on one of the cross bars.

Word of Mouth

An exhibition challenged me to tell a story in 80 square inches, so I came up with this little painting ("Word of Mouth"). Originally I had moved to canvas to have a BIG space for my stories, so this was particularly difficult for me. But three girls, three very different personalities and some tension told a unique story. The viewer can fill in the "words."

Adult Children

I loved the gesture in the photo that this painting materialized from. It brought home the exuberance that we had for nearly everything. We went white water rafting last weekend and that exuberance came back in full force. We will always be adult children.

Yonder II

This posting is for Ken, who wanted to see the new painting in the Andrews Art Museum exhibit. I was driving back from teaching a workshop in Idaho Falls and watched the clouds line up this way all the way back to Boise. Believe me, clouds don't do this in the East. Kathi Eagan, my Buffalo agent, sold "Yonder," one of the paintings that was accepted into the show. So I did this replacement.

Rhetorical Questions

Did you mother plague you with rhetorical questions? "Your not going to wear those are you?" While I've had this idea in my head for many years, this painting was inspired by a book Myrna gave me. Thanks Myrna.

My Studio

Fake Reality

Here is a new painting that I've been trying to get under control from quite a while. When the imagination goes wild, design is crucial. But I can't be hindered by it. Thus I needed to calm this piece down and correct it's balance with the help of Kathy.