Tryptyc Triumph

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If you follow my blog you may have realized by now that I do not think or create in a linear fashion. By that I mean that I don’t start one project and work it all the way through till it’s finished. I continually have multiple projects going and often create new ones while I still have several left to finish. I eventually finish most of them. Today I can say I finally finished the Wading Bird Triptych I started in January of 2014. It is 3 block prints of linocuts I created of a Black-necked Stilt, a Blue Heron and a Wood Stork. I often see these birds near my studio, so I spent some pleasant time photographing them. I then created pencil sketches from the photos and transferred them to the lino blocks. After carving I hand pulled several block prints of each one. I picked the prints I liked best and framed them together. Here is the finished result.

  • Bird Tryptych
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Doodling, Drawing, and Painting

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Even when I’m not actively working on a painting, I sometimes doodle, sketch, or just play around with my paints. More often than not it doesn’t develop any further. Other times the initial sketch will become the idea for a painting, finished drawing, or linocut.  Here are a few examples.

Even when I’m not actively working on a painting, I sometimes doodle, sketch, or just play around with my paints. More often than not it doesn’t develop any further. Other times the initial sketch will become the idea for a painting, finished drawing, or linocut.  Here are a few examples.

This first sketch I call “Blue Girl” is a quick Color pencil sketch i did just to try out some new colored pencils.

Blue Girl

This next one is a quick pencil sketch I did to pass the time when I was waiting on something. It is a cup my wife made me in a pottery class she took long ago.

Cup sketch

 This is a A quick pencil sketch of a Greek Fisherman . It was an idea for a painting I never did.

Greek Fisherman 

The next pencil sketchis also a quick study for a painting that was not done.

Jesus carrying a woman

This colored pencil sketch is a study of textures and found objects.

Outdoors sketch

 I did this next sketch way back in 1975 just for the fun of it. Someone saw me doing it and liked it so much that I gave it to them the second it was finished. I never saw it again.

Leopard sketch 

The next sketch is a study for what later became the oil painting “Osprey Breakfast”. I gave the painting away and it has since been lost.

Osprey Breakfast study

 The sketch below is ans unfinished sketch of the Peanut Island Coast Guard station I did in the early 1990′ while I was in the Navy Reserve. I was on the Island one day and did this at lunch, but never had time to finish it.

Peanut Island Coast Guard Station

 The watercolor sketch below is a study of a large pine tree in a park where I used to sometimes eat lunch. I did it to try out some new water color paints.

Pine Tree

 The charcoal sketch below was a quick study of a dead pine tree in a nature preserve.

dead tree

 The following pencil sketch is of  a retired Teddy bear that was sitting in our living room one night.

Boo Boo

The acrylic koi and Kanji on the feeders below inspired me to later do some colored marker pieces of koi and ultimately an acrylic painting called “Wabi Koi” which now belongs to my oldest son.

Koi Feeder

Block broken, New Work Begun

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Well, I as if I didn’t have enough unfinished pieces sitting around my studio, I have started another new work.  It’s seldom that I have only one work in progress. When I’m working in oils I have to wait for things to dry.  With acrylics drying isn’t a problem but I sometimes come to a point in a work where I will stop to rest, or the piece isn’t going the way I want, or I just loose interest or get tired of working on it.  I might leave the piece untouched for hours or days or weeks.  And there are times when I seem to be blocked. Nothing appeals to me and I just can’t get the spirit back to paint. If I try to paint when I am like that nothing works, it is frustrating and unproductive. So I have learned to walk away and wait. Then suddenly, like today the inspiration strikes. Something re-ignites that spark and I MUST paint. Normally when that happens I most often have an overwhelming desire to create a new work no matter how many I already have in progress. So I go with it. I know the passion to create new work will not only take me through it, but will also keep me going and allow me to complete other works and start even more new ones. The way I approach my art is not science, it’s not technical, it’s something creative within me driven to be expressed. When I do express it, I am most fulfilled. When I create a piece I truly love it brings me something I struggle to express. It’s like a part of me was missing and now is whole.  Anyway, I  have given you another peek inside my mind and now here is the peek inside my studio at my latest work in progress “Eagle Eyes“. 

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Studio Throwback

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I was going through some things the other day and found some interesting old photos. I have not always had a dedicated space to use just for my painting, but I have always tried to take pictures of my works in progress, and just finished. Looking back at these reminded me of all the different places I have made my art, and the reasons I made it. These are not great quality photos. They were taken with cheap film cameras usually using a flash. Before I knew much about photography and before the days of digital cameras. I thought you might enjoy getting a peek into how my art evolved.

  I painted this first piece on my breakfast table on a tiny folding easel for my son Matt.

This piece was back when I painted in my garage. I’d open the door when the weather was nice to get the natural light. I built the floor easel from scrap lumber I had. This was taken sometime in 1991. This piece is lost, so if you stumble across you have found an original.

This piece was done in 1997 on a tabletop easel. The flash really washed this one out.

The Loggerhead canvas is show on the second floor easel I built. By this time I had moved to a spare bedroom as my studio. It had one nice window for natural light and an overhead light for artificial lighting. This photo was taken sometime in 2000.

This is another work done in my spare bedroom studio in 2001.